Mystery Shopper Magazine

Company Overview: Truss Communications is based in McLeansville, NC, a small town northeast of Greensboro. Their website is not active although their 800 phone line is active and has an answering machine on it. As there have been many negative comments, which will be detailed below, I left my name and number on several occasions hoping for a reply, but none was received by the deadline for this article.

Personal Experience: I have no experience with this company.

What Others Have to Say: Truss Communications appears to be a regeneration of the old CheckUp site, which had developed a reputation to “avoid like the plague.” Shoppers report on www.mysteryshopforum.com that they were able to log into the Truss Communications site with their CheckUp ID and password and their old CheckUp data was still there. One shopper went so far as to say that the Truss site, “was nothing more or less than the old Checkup site with a new color scheme, right down to the bug of the states appearing on the dropdown menu multiple times based on the mileage of available shop from my home zip code. ALL of my Checkup information was there, including the full list of shops I’ve done in the past for Checkup.”

Another shopper did some further research and posted the following, “The Truss Communications website was first registered with GoDaddy in July 2011. There were CheckUp Marketing payment issues in May 2011, though eventually I think everybody got paid. CheckUp’s website of checkupmarketing.com is no longer functional but they stopped posting jobs about the time folks were not getting paid. The timing here could well be a re-emergence under a new name and I note that the Truss website gives no hint of who is involved or where they are located.”

Perhaps most disconcerting of all was this post, “I completed more than 100 shops for this company. Initially I was paid and in a timely manner. Most recently, I completed shops in October and November and have yet to be paid. My calls and emails remain unanswered. While the product is great, the company appears to be seedy. There were also instances where [edited for ICA violation] employees confronted me about not receiving their Reward Checks when I completed additional shops at previously assessed locations. Too many inquiries about non-payment for shops completed and the fact they are not responding to calls or emails suggest something seedy here. I wonder what recourse is available when companies behave in this manner?”

Shoppers were frustrated to the point of preparing to contact the North Carolina Attorney General, as well as federal authorities in an effort to seek restitution.

Overall: The company’s 800 number is still active and has an answering machine. I called and left several messages asking for a return call so I could give the company an opportunity to respond to the negative comments but have received no reply as of the deadline for publication. One of the mailbox options is for help with filing reports, which leads one to wonder if the company is still conducting business on a reduced scale.