Mystery Shopping Thread 20 **PLEASE DO NOT MENTION CLIENT NAMES OR FEES ON HERE**

TractorGirl327

tas123 wrote: »

Hi All

Has anyone been paid via Paypal from Catalyst, paypal have charged me for using their system!

Not a happy bunny....

If you look back on this thread to last month, I think people had the same problem. I went into my profile and said I WOULDNT accept payment by Paypal. I'd rather wait a few days more for a cheque than lose some in fees.

Becles

I changed mine back to no Paypal to avoid fees. My nearest bank is close by and I pass it often, so it's not like I have to go out of my way to pay a cheque in.

serendipity2706

Does anyone have any idea how you get accepted for GAPS petrol audits? I've done the purchase ones before, do I need to do an additional orientation, or what?

jen_br

You have to be part of their auditing team.

serendipity2706

tas123 wrote: »

Hi All
Has anyone been paid via Paypal from Catalyst, paypal have charged me for using their system!
Not a happy bunny....

This is the paypal reply. I'm going to write to Catalyst attaching the reply. Anyone else??

Thank you for contacting PayPal regarding the payment made to you which had a charge.

As I have checked your account the £*** GBP from Catalyst Marketing Communications Ltd was sent to you as a normal commercial payment rather than a mass payment given to you by Amber Arch Ltd £XXX GBP.

To further clarify, a normal commercial payment is sent to a single
person for a payment for service or goods. This is done by selecting the 'Send Money' tab and selecting 'services' which is what is showing on your £XXX Catalyst payment.

This is why it will incur the standard receiving fee of 3.4% of the
total payment plus 20p. On the other hand, a mass payment is a type of payment made by a seller to a lot of people in the same time on a single session of submitting the payment.

With the mass payment method done, the merchant will shoulder the fee which is why you can see that the whole amount of £XXX GBP was given to you.

If you would like to get the rest of the £XXX GBP on your PayPal
balance, you can ask the merchant to send you a Personal type of payment instead of making a commercial or Purchase type of payment.

With this payment feature, they can send the whole amount to you in one go even if you are just the only person they need to pay.

In order to do this, you can ask your merchant to follow these steps:

1. Log in to your PayPal account at www.paypal.co.uk
2. Click the 'Send Money' tab.
3. Enter the email address of the recipient and the amount and currency
of the payment.
4. Select the nature of the payment under the two tabs ‘Purchase’ or
‘Personal’.
Select 'Personal'.
a. Purchases are for paying for products/services; such as
something won on eBay, or for a service, such as music downloads.
b. Personal payments are for sending gifts, splitting a lunch bill,
paying living expenses, and everyday exchanges of money between friends
and family.
5. Click 'Continue'.
6. Review your payment details including the payment method and
currency. To change any information, click the ‘change’ link in the
relevant section. Note: If you change any payment details, the payment
method will automatically return to your default method of payment.
7. Review your postage information and add a message to the recipient
(optional).
8. Click 'Send Money' to complete the payment.

The recipient will receive an email announcing the payment. If the
recipient does not have a PayPal account, they will be required to open one to receive the payment.

Now once this is done, you can refund the original payment they made to you or you can do this before receiving the Personal payment.

Here’s how to refund a payment:

1. Go to http://www.paypal.co.uk/ and log in to your account.
2. Click ‘History’ near the top of the page.
3. Click ‘Details’ next to the payment you want to refund.
4. Click ‘Issue a refund.’
5. For ‘Refund amount,’ enter the amount to you want to refund, then click ‘Continue.’
6. Review the information, then click ‘Issue Refund.’

Thank you for your time.

Yours sincerely,
Terence

pinkprincess39

serendipity2706 wrote: »

This is the paypal reply. I'm going to write to Catalyst attaching the reply. Anyone else??

Thank you for contacting PayPal regarding the payment made to you which had a charge.

As I have checked your account the £*** GBP from Catalyst Marketing Communications Ltd was sent to you as a normal commercial payment rather than a mass payment given to you by Amber Arch Ltd £XXX GBP.

To further clarify, a normal commercial payment is sent to a single
person for a payment for service or goods. This is done by selecting the 'Send Money' tab and selecting 'services' which is what is showing on your £XXX Catalyst payment.

This is why it will incur the standard receiving fee of 3.4% of the
total payment plus 20p. On the other hand, a mass payment is a type of payment made by a seller to a lot of people in the same time on a single session of submitting the payment.

With the mass payment method done, the merchant will shoulder the fee which is why you can see that the whole amount of £XXX GBP was given to you.

If you would like to get the rest of the £XXX GBP on your PayPal
balance, you can ask the merchant to send you a Personal type of payment instead of making a commercial or Purchase type of payment.

With this payment feature, they can send the whole amount to you in one go even if you are just the only person they need to pay.

In order to do this, you can ask your merchant to follow these steps:

1. Log in to your PayPal account at www.paypal.co.uk
2. Click the 'Send Money' tab.
3. Enter the email address of the recipient and the amount and currency
of the payment.
4. Select the nature of the payment under the two tabs ‘Purchase’ or
‘Personal’.
Select 'Personal'.
a. Purchases are for paying for products/services; such as
something won on eBay, or for a service, such as music downloads.
b. Personal payments are for sending gifts, splitting a lunch bill,
paying living expenses, and everyday exchanges of money between friends
and family.
5. Click 'Continue'.
6. Review your payment details including the payment method and
currency. To change any information, click the ‘change’ link in the
relevant section. Note: If you change any payment details, the payment
method will automatically return to your default method of payment.
7. Review your postage information and add a message to the recipient
(optional).
8. Click 'Send Money' to complete the payment.

The recipient will receive an email announcing the payment. If the
recipient does not have a PayPal account, they will be required to open one to receive the payment.

Now once this is done, you can refund the original payment they made to you or you can do this before receiving the Personal payment.

Here’s how to refund a payment:

1. Go to http://www.paypal.co.uk/ and log in to your account.
2. Click ‘History’ near the top of the page.
3. Click ‘Details’ next to the payment you want to refund.
4. Click ‘Issue a refund.’
5. For ‘Refund amount,’ enter the amount to you want to refund, then click ‘Continue.’
6. Review the information, then click ‘Issue Refund.’

Thank you for your time.

Yours sincerely,
Terence

I contacted catalyst about this last month. They told me that they would not change the way they paid and that the fee was justified as it meant an easier way of paying us!

mysteryshoppingninja

pinkprincess39 wrote: »

I contacted catalyst about this last month. They told me that they would not change the way they paid and that the fee was justified as it meant an easier way of paying us!

Look at it from their point of view...

It'll cost them about 65p in bank charges for a cheque and 42p for a stamp and maybe about 5p for an envelope. Plus the time it takes to write the cheque, sign it, etc.

If they pay via paypal the paypal fee will be about £1 per job roughly so if they shouldered it themselves they'd still save money over cheques but they've decided to cut their expense even further where we incur the fee and it costs them nothing to pay us aside from the automated debit fee from their bank account which is probably about 30p!

Makes commercial sense but I would imagine the majority of us will be selecting "no paypal" on our profile!

whitelabel

dazza.mk wrote: »

That's React Surveys, the job the person was referring to is with Lodge Service rather than with their React division?

Really ?!
well unless they are a security guard (the Lodge Service side of the business) i dont think thats quite right.
As far as im aware all Lodges mystery shopping is done through their react surveys company, all though ill happily be corrected if it means there are other jobs im currently missing out on.

StacFace

pinkprincess39 wrote: »

I contacted catalyst about this last month. They told me that they would not change the way they paid and that the fee was justified as it meant an easier way of paying us!

But does it say anywhere about this before you do the job? Check the briefing notes and contractor agreement. By law they would have to pay you via a method that leaves you will the full amount unless they state beforehand that you'll lose some in fees. The contract they have with you is to pay you £x for the job done, so if the job is done then you must be paid £x. It being an easier way of paying is only justifiable if you have two options of being paid, with one being free to you and you being told the other will incur fees before choosing to be paid via it. Otherwise you have the right to claim the fees from them.

Then again, getting what you're entitled to from some companies is practically impossible, so depends if you want to pursue it.

Boredupnorth

StacFace wrote: »

But does it say anywhere about this before you do the job? Check the briefing notes and contractor agreement. By law they would have to pay you via a method that leaves you will the full amount unless they state beforehand that you'll lose some in fees. The contract they have with you is to pay you £x for the job done, so if the job is done then you must be paid £x. It being an easier way of paying is only justifiable if you have two options of being paid, with one being free to you and you being told the other will incur fees before choosing to be paid via it. Otherwise you have the right to claim the fees from them.

Then again, getting what you're entitled to from some companies is practically impossible, so depends if you want to pursue it.

For what its worth….I can understand the rational of them wanting to use Paypal more and more, from what I am seeing around, Paypal are really pushing this payment method with a lot of companies and I fully expect to see more companies using Paypal in the not too distant future. After all it’s a great easy way to be paid, providing there is no impact on what is at best a marginal fee.
The company currently offer 2 payment methods one of which is free, but as stated they do fail to notify you of any charges before hand so I think this is the only point which they are failing on. I think what is really important to note is the inference on the website that at some point they will remove the option to be paid by cheque leaving Paypal as the only method of payment!
This company struggles every week to cover jobs in my area and I religiously receive an email from them every single week begging for help to do jobs. Now I personally take the jobs at the moment but won’t be doing once they only pay via Paypal.
I also think that the company needs to recognise that they are, in my opinion, one of the slowest paying companies around with anything up to 7 weeks being the norm. If they continue to go down the route they are going I think they will end up with some serious trouble as I am sensing that not many people, certainly on here, will stand the hit on the fees.
Until they do start paying by Paypal only we all have a choice to either do the work and wait forever to be paid or sacrifice some of the fee and be paid a few days earlier, I know which route I am going.