I signed up to become a mystery shopper. When signing up with this company, the policy sounds so member friendly. They offer a no risk 30 day money back guarantee. Contact any ones that you want. So I thought, no problem.
I signed up, not knowing that many of the companies will not accept your application if you are not in a specific state of area, many more sites had been discontinued, and more where just too far away for me to go. I.E. Over 100 miles I viewed the companies, and contact those I were interested in. I never heard from any. After three weeks, I contacted the company via email (no phone number could be found), requesting a refund. This is part of the reply:
"Our 30 day guarantee policy states:
"Try our program out for 30 days. If you aren't offered any mystery shopping work by taking part in our program, simply cancel your membership and you'll get a quick and courteous refund of your full registration payment."
We honor our guarantee, however, we require that you actively participate in our program for 30 full days by contacting our market research companies for shopping assignments as per our guarantee policy before a refund can be requested. When applying for shopping work, you have to be persistent and patient.
After you have contacted the companies, it may take a little while to hear from them. But you more than likely will hear from them. Usually a shopping assignment begins with a business representative getting in touch with you and asking if you would like to shop at a certain store. The amount of mystery shopping assignments that you may go on in a given time period will vary.
Just stick with it and fill out those applications. Contact fifty of our listed market research companies and you'll get those assignments!"
Now they go from telling me I can contact as many as I want that appeal to me, to contact at least 50. There are not even 50 that I like. Am I suppose to do work that is not in my interest?
So, I contact even more companies. Still nothing. I write again asking for a refund. I received the same reply as above.
Finally, I just told them I was not satisfied, asked again for the refund, and to cancel my membership. The next day they send me a form to start the refund process. I completed it. Hen the send the form back asking me to list 50 companies I contacted, along with dates, so they can verify with each company! Are they joking. I applied to so many, I cannot remember all of them, and only a hand full sent me a confirmation email.
I am contacting my bank to dispute the charge, and will try getting my refund this way. And yes, they canceled my membership
Take it from me. Do not trust online companies, this one included.
Does anyone know if it is possible to go after a company if they do not adhere to their policy? Let me know.
Thank you for reading.
Frank
Jacksonville, Florida
U.S.A.
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