Franchise Compliance Adam Valdez Mystery Shopper never reimbursed; company kept my money Park City, Utah

I performed a mystery shop for Franchise Compliance in November of 2011.  The mystery shop involved calling a Chem Dry carpet cleaning company and having them come out to clean some of my carpets.  I was to reveal myself during the shop and collect some solution from the service person's truck.  Then mail the solution in the prepaid envelope provided to me.  I filled out an online report of the service.  For my services, I was to be reimbursed up to $125.  I paid the carpet cleaning person and then Franchise Compliance was supposed to reimburse me within 60 days. 

It has been 10 months.  I have not been paid.  I have checked my address and phone number on their system and they are correct and have never changed.  I have made over 20 requests via email to inquire about when I would be paid.  I received one response from an employee who said she was on maternity leave but would forward the email to the accounting department.  I have not heard from anyone else or received anymore responses to my inquiries.

They do not list a phone number anywhere because they have done this to hundreds of other mystery shoppers.  Unfortunately, I didn't check out their reputation before I signed up. 

It seems that the owner has now opened up another mystery shopping company under a friend's name and they are scheduling these same shops via that company.  From my online research, I have found a few shoppers who were last paid by Franchise Compliance in April of this year.  Some of those shoppers performed their shops after my November 2011 shop.  It is beyond me why they were paid before me.  But I suspect that the squeaky wheel gets the grease in this case.

I now have to decide if I want to pay the small court costs to get a judgement against the company that probably won't ever be paid.  At this point, it is the principal of it all.  They received the money for my mystery shop from Chem Dry and kept it, never sending it on to me for my services.  Or at the very least they used it to pay other shoppers because they were already behind.

Beware of the many other companies that Adam Valdez and his family and friends own/hide in Utah!