The scheduler for my project is not careful with shoppers' money or Mintel's money. Examples:

1. By not responding to emails, or saying she will create surveys forthwith but then not actually doing so, or otherwise not creating surveys for WEEKS, shoppers don't get the authorization to check some boxes for a whole month and lose out on the $20/box fee. Mintel has paid for those boxes but gets no data for a month.

2. I have made honest mistakes on more than one invoice. She never noticed the mistakes. Each time, I contacted her as soon as I realized my mistake and deducted the excessive payments from later invoices.

3. Even though she apparently does not review the accuracy of invoices or is careless in reviewing the invoices, she still repeatedly fails to approve them on time and shoppers don't get paid promptly as a result. Box renewal fees are often around $100/box in my area. I sometimes am owed several hundred dollars in reimbursements and have to wait two extra weeks because of her. We are talking out-of-pocket expenses, not fees!

4. I did a lot of extra work and waited for weeks for her to create web enrollment surveys. I did not ask for extra pay but she told me to charge $10 extra per survey. (Web enrollment surveys don't let you add expenses to their invoices and I actually had to add the extra pay to another invoice.) She is making Mintel pay for her inefficiency.

Her being the only coordinator for this project is not a valid excuse. Neither is her taking PTO. I don't think she is missing out on her paychecks.

Well I couldn't have said that better myself. Thanks

You're right--that's pretty irresponsible of them.

@luckymoose1 wrote:

I have direct deposit. but thanks for the info.

Busybeebuzzbuzzbuzz wrote:

"I was one of the shoppers who was not paid in the middle of the month because she did not approve my invoices. She approved those invoices only after I emailed her and told me I had to wait until the end of the month. The end-of-the-month payday is Monday. She has not approved any of my invoices submitted after she approved the aforementioned invoices."

Lady Marius replied:

"I hope she has approved all your invoices by now. She approved all of mine when I let her know my 1 P. O. Box Renewal was past due. I am hoping she does not pull this in November, I have 3 P. O. Box renewals in November. (P. O. Box renewals are about $156 CAD for 6 months.)"

"She is more then frustrating to work with. I used to send the previous Scheduler an email every month with a list of my Invoices for the month. He appreciated it; she never once responded to one, so I stopped. She once reinbursed me for a P. O. Box she had me close the month before. I informed her, several times, and like everyone else she did not correct. I had to adjust my later invoices to pay Mintel back for her error."



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/31/2022 02:42PM by Lady Marius.

Seems everything is back on track. Let's hope it stays that way.

I sent her an email this weekend about the invoices. I later forwarded my email to Josh and cc'd her. I figured Josh would most likely check email on Monday before she would.

I got an email at 7:11 this morning from her, saying all payments have been approved. She responded to the email to Josh.

I am not confident she would have approved those invoices in time had I not emailed Josh.

Everything was so wonderful when Josh ran the show. You'd think with all the complaints he would do something about this or at least put her in a position she is qualified for because she is not qualified for the multi tasking of her position now.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/31/2022 08:04PM by luckymoose1.

When Josh was running the US project, Jon was running the Canadian project. The two projects are a little different, but very similar. (BusyBeeBuzzBuzzBuzz and I have compared the two). It ran so much smoother when Jon was running the Canadian Project.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/31/2022 08:48PM by Lady Marius.

Ah, but how many shoppers actually complain to Josh?

I had a lot more sympathy for her in the beginning but am much less patient now because, in my opinion, a lot of her mistakes are totally unnecessary and preventable. She is getting worse. Also, quite frankly, the more she shows she has little concern for my financial well-being and the more she makes me waste time and effort doing my job, the less sympathetic I get.

@luckymoose1 wrote:

Everything was so wonderful when Josh ran the show. You'd think with all the complaints he would do something about this or at least put her in a position she is qualified for because she is not qualified for the multi tasking of her position now.

I've done a very limited amount of work for Mintel, but of the work I have done for them, I have never had an issue being paid in a timely fashion except when it was my own damn fault (not submitting on time).

Hello, We did have to work with you in order to make sure we were sending payment to the correct email address. Only after you were able to provide the correct email were we able to pay you. This did take a long time but there was a lot of back and forth to get the actual correct email to send payment. Additional we only pay via PayPal not Venmo. I'm sorry that you had a bad experience but we always make sure to pay for any work completed.

I never and I mean never had a payroll problem with Josh..

Neither have I. I have worked with Josh and other schedulers on this and other Mintel projects and never had a payroll or other serious problems with them, either. Before this one scheduler took over this one project, I could always count on getting paid like clockwork. I could also always count on professional and courteous conduct, such as timely response to emails and timely creation of surveys. I can't with this scheduler.

Today is the first of the month. Is she going to create the monthly collection surveys, the box-closing list, and the text-forwarding survey? Or, is it again going to take multiple reminders and waiting for days or even weeks?

When she drags her feet creating the closing list, I have to hold off on renewing any of my boxes due for renewal that month. I also may have to return to a post office where I already checked the mail to close the box and return the keys. When I told her I would rather not make two trips, she told me I could add another shopper's fee to a survey if I had to return to the post office.

Why make shoppers do more work or make Mintel pay more???

@luckymoose1 wrote:

I never and I mean never had a payroll problem with Josh..

All of Mintel's Account Managers have direct phone numbers. Has anyone used that mode of communication in lieu of email?

I have found them all very responsive.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/01/2022 07:01PM by stilllearning.

I am not opposed to calling but calling won't solve many of the problems. A lot of my frustration comes from her saying she would do something "today" or right away but then just doesn't do it. It is not uncommon for her to promise to do something multiple times and I end up waiting for days, even weeks. She is also out of the office quite a bit.

@stilllearning wrote:

All of Mintel's Account Managers have direct phone numbers. Has anyone used that mode of communication in lieu of email?

I have found them all very responsive.

@BusyBeeBuzzBuzzBuzz I know you're frustrated and I also understand why you would make that assumption, however what do you have to lose by calling?.

@stilllearning I will call only if I think I have something to gain. I think I called her once before.

It's useless to call when she's out of the office. She can just as easily not respond to voicemail as to email. It's also useless to call when she and I are actually going back and forth in real-time via email. What is there to gain by calling and getting her to promise to do something that day? I have no control over what she does once she hangs up the phone. It's not like I can call her and demand that she does what she needs to do while I wait.

Some things are also too complicated to discuss over the phone. For example, I was giving her specific suggestions on how to avoid triggering Google security alerts and she was responding... until she did not. I had already waited weeks for some surveys and thought she was finally going to create them because she accepted one of my suggestions and the security problem was solved. Then, she took PTO and I had to wait some more. What would calling her have gained me?

Another example is the latest payment issues. She went on PTO without taking care of multiple shoppers' invoices first. So, some of us had to wait two extra weeks for payment. Then, after she said she understood and apologized for our frustration and said she took steps to avoid this from happening again, I still had several hundred dollars of invoices waiting to be approved on the morning of 10/31. I did not realize she had not approved the invoices on Friday. I saw the unapproved invoices only during the weekend. It would have been useless to call then.

I am sorry to hear that you have had an issue.
I would work with Mintel directly when conducting assignments, not through another site or 3rd party.
My experience with Mintel is they always pay on time and I have been with them for over 7 years.

Thanks but the scheduler in question is a Mintel coordinator and not an outside/independent scheduler. Everything is done on Mintel's site.

I started shopping for Mintel more than 15 years ago and have never had payment or other serious issues until she became the coordinator for one project. Other shoppers also have had the same types of issues with her.

She created this month's surveys and closing list promptly. I am thankful and hope she will keep this up. Because she did her job, I can do mine. I have already checked almost all my boxes. If not for the unseasonal weather this week, I would have checked all of them already. I may still be able to finish this week. If so, I expect to be paid promptly mid-month.