Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:02/08/2025

  Type:Order Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  This company scams people into doing tasks and rejects their Observa while profiting off this. Thousands of reviews all having the same outcome. Con artists!!

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/14/2024

  Type:Sales and Advertising Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  This company is running the biggest scam exploiting people to perform "observations"/tasks. No matter how closely you follow the directions it will always be rejected and you will not receive your compensation. They know what theyre doing and they are making a profit off our free labor. These people need to be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/28/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  False advertisement and rude responses with no results. They need to hire people that actually review uploads opposed to quickly rejecting yet still using the provided photos to get paid by their clients. They need to provide me my money back

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/25/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I am BEYOND DISGUSTED and stressed by how terribly and unfairly this company has treated me even after finishing hundreds of assignments for them.They have over 4 dozen $8 payments that are outstanding and overdue to me. They have taken receipt of a ton of data where I expended my own time and energy to complete and have not paid me causing further extremely undue pain and suffering. After they wrongly rejected a few assignments I sent them I emailed an appeal outlining their abuse and they then retaliated by putting a block on my account so that I could no longer execute any more reservations and blocked my account.This is indicative of a rug pull where they are trying to use any excuse or reason to not pay me hundreds of dollars that is legally and rightfully owed to me to my further detriment and suffering.They changed the email descriptions in their false rejections email so that it has no specifics and then will wrongly say that I've already been paid when I have received nothing from these people! Their tactics may confuse some, but not me because I keep very detailed notes, especially about outstanding payments.This kind of mistreatment is what in some instances cause extreme outcomes, but I tend to be more resilient than most. These people have really tested my patience and have caused a lot of issues for me!

  Customer Answer

  Date: 08/26/2023

  These people are truly terrible and cruel. I have a lot of documents and emails.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:05/12/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  On 5/4/23 the Observa app had a $35 job available. It was an old job that nobody would complete originally listed for $20 that they changed to $35 and added a sign up which they had to approve before the job could be completed. I signed up and they reached out to me immediately approving me for the job. I sent a support ticket before I completed the job asking if I would be paid $35 like it's listed on the app and they immediately wrote back saying yes they will pay me $35. I completed the job and it was validated and paid within 10 minutes but they did not pay me $35. They paid me $20. I reached out to support again and they said sorry they will fix this and send the additional payment. They never have paid me for the job I completed. They have sent me 7 emails promising the additional payment would be paid in a couple days but they won't pay me. They have cut my email off from being received and they got very crappy with me saying they want me to stop asking for the money and then added that still they will pay me. But now they won't respond at all and have blocked my email. This is outrageous, they were the ones that listed that job for that price! Now they refuse to pay that price and just stop talking. That is not okay. They owe me $15 and I want the money I worked for and that they promised me. It's the principal of it.. they posted the job, I had to be approved todo the job now they refuse to pay me what they said they would.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:03/03/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Observa has denied me payment on 3 separate jobs I performed at 3 different ********* on March 3, 2023 each job paid $7. I performed the job to the best of my intentions which was to photograph, straighten, and fill the Haribo candy section. I performed the job, took multiple photos, made sure the area was zoned and holes were filled to the best of my ability, in each section ********* had Haribo Candy. The reasons for the rejections all decided by the same Observa employee ***** were things like I didn't get the very bottom shelf in a photo, when there wasn't any Haribo products there. Another store was I didn't get a photo of the 280z bag of gummy bears when not one store had that product, and only one store even had a spot for it with a shelf tag which I did take a picture of. I spent extra time verifying everything I did was correct and made sure the Haribo Candy and other candy brands in close proximity were zoned and merchandize. I don't know the reason for the third store being rejected probably cause I told ***** what I thought of her and to keep it pg on here, I think she's arrogant, self absorbed, and conceited. They are paying $7 a job, I could see if I did nothing or didn't even try, but I not only did the jobs, I actually did the best I could at each job

• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/26/2022

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  They have an app on ****** Play. It has you complete tasks and at the end once they review it they pay you. I went through eight tasks of which they only paid me for two because they said that the photos were cut off. However, they asked for a photo of the entire beer section at Kroger supermarket. There's no way to fit the entire beer section into one photo So I had to break the The beer section up into different photos and that was the only way I could fit the entire beer section. Because it's impossible. Especially some stores have wraparounds or more than one aisle. It's impossible to get it into one picture. And yet they don't want to pay me. So if they're basically having people do a whole bunch of work for them for free and then they're finding ways to not pay them by saying that pictures were cut off.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:07/06/2022

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Noted below are multiple WRONGLY/ERRANTLY DENIED mission audits where the reviewer for whatever arbitrary reason denied them even though the pictures and data provided MATCH EXACTLY to the instructions and the example pictures used in the instructions showing the exact products, etc that should be included in the pictures! Even worse, I have successfully completed dozens of prior audit missions taking pictures of the exact section with the exact pictures and they were properly and correctly accepted. Either an ingrained reviewer is doing this or there is some inappropriate arbitrary reason behind selective rejections of certain audits from certain store.In the final analysis, I spent the ************* completing these and I deserve the promised fees!Details:Rejected Observations (8) $700 Egglife Foods Merchandising Audit ***************** ****** Address: ******************************************** Submission Time: 2022-07-02 2:01:44 pm HST Comments: Please ensure you are providing the correct section photos for the health market section.__Egglife Foods Merchandising Audit ***************** ****** Address: ***************************************************** Submission Time: 2022-07-01 11:42:57 pm HST Comments: Section Photo: REFRIGERATED HEALTH MARKET/SET: Please ensure you are observing the correct section to avoid rejections.__Egglife Foods Merchandising Audit ***************** ****** Address: 848 *********** - ********,** Submission Time: 2022-05-01 8:04:44 pm HST Comments: For the health market section, please provide a photo of the refrigerated vegan and vegetarian meat alternatives to verify Egglife is not there. Your observation was replaced by a newer observation.__Egglife Foods Merchandising Audit ***************** ****** Address: ********************************************************** Submission Time: 2022-05-01 3:01:47 pm HST Comments: Section Photo: REFRIGERATED HEALTH MARKET/SET: Please ensure you are observing the correct section in question. Your observation was replaced by a newer observation.

  Business Response

  Date: 07/28/2022

  Hello, Keidron.  First of all, I would like to thank you for being an Observer.  I see that you have completed 149 observations since February and your work is truly appreciated.

  It is important to provide some background on Observa's business model.  We receive strict requirements from each brand we represent and that is why the language describing the requirements for each observation is so detailed and specific.  We do not accept and pass on observations in our reporting to the brands if they are not complete. Instead, we reject incomplete observations with instructions on what was missed,enabling the submitting observer to improve and resubmit that observation.  Otherwise, the opportunity goes back into the queue to be completed by the next Observer that chooses it.  As you are aware, it is purely the Observers choice as to which opportunities they choose to do as well as the other variables such as timing.  All we require, is completeness in meeting the requirements from our customers.

  You provided the observation submission time and reason for rejection for four rejected observations, all for the same brand, listed below.  The reason for rejection was the same for all of these, which is that you did not submit a photo of the Refrigerated Health Market/Set.  For these opportunities, our customer requires photos of three sections or product sets in the grocery store where their items can be located, specifically Shredded Cheese, Refrigerated Dairy/Eggs, and Refrigerated Health Market/Set. The opportunity displays example photos of what these sections look like as a visual reference where you can see the products circled that are expected to be found in one or more of these sections. The example photo also shows the other products in the section, so even if you do not find the circled items you need to make sure the photo is of the correct section containing many of the items in the example photo.  The photos you submitted for each of these four observations was not of this section and contained none of that sections products.  For these four observations,you submitted a photo of the butter/margarine set instead.  There are also instructions in the opportunity on speaking with and requesting assistance from store management should you have trouble locating these sections and the brands products.

  I hope this brings clarity as to why we could not use these observations and the need for them to be rejected. Thanks again for being an observer and we hope you continue to enjoy working with us.

  1. 2022-05-01 3:01:47 pm HST:  As your note shows, there was feedback on the rejection to " Section Photo: REFRIGERATED HEALTH MARKET/SET: Please ensure you are observing the correct section in question. Your observation was replaced by a newer observation.
  ***************:04:44 pm HST:  As your note shows, there was feedback on the rejection to " For the health market section, please provide a photo of the refrigerated vegan and vegetarian meat alternatives to verify Egglife is not there. Your observation was replaced by a newer observation.
  3. 2022-07-01 11:42:57 pm HST:  As your note shows, there was feedback on the rejection to Section Photo: REFRIGERATED HEALTH MARKET/SET: Please ensure you are observing the correct section to avoid rejections.
  4. 2022-07-02 2:01:44 pm HST:  As your note shows, there was feedback on the rejection to "Please ensure you are providing the correct section photos for the health market section."

  Customer Answer

  Date: 07/29/2022

   
  Complaint: 17530354
  
  I am adamantly rejecting this response because:The photo section requested and the photos provided match exactly to the example pictures used as the source of scrutiny for those photos. Moreover, over a hundred assignments just like these four for the same client and the same pictures of the exact same section were accepted, which in and of itself proves that Observa is not correct in the instance of rejection fir these four assignments. I searched around each store and I was already very familiar with each store AND THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO OTHER PRODUCTS OR PRODUCT SECTIONS AVAILABLE that match other than what was provided and other than what has been approved multiple times in the past.All I want is the money I was promised. These were done correctly and should not have been rejected. I am not a number. This is a human being who just simply wanted fair approval and these arbitrary rejections were not.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  Keidron Flakes

• Initial Complaint

  Date:06/08/2022

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I am writing to express my disappointment with Observa's new business practices. In the past three years, I have done nearly 70 observations for well-known brands, and I used to enjoy the quick pay and various assignments. Sadly, they are now becoming inflexible and shady. Less than 10 percent of my observations were rejected until recently. I performed an observation less than a mile from my home. The store manager initially permitted me to perform the observation and took me around the store; I took two photos; in the middle of the audit, the manager rescinded permission to complete the audit and prevented me from taking other images. I showed him the letter of authorization as instructed, and he said, "All vendors must have permission from Stop and Shop to do audits in light of recent events." He was referring to the Buffalo shooting. I did as Observa said; I included storefront photos in the different sections as I was no longer allowed to take pictures. Despite following instructions, I have yet to be compensated for my time, which is unjust. I am on the fence about whether I will continue doing observations for this company. These brands are paying BIG BUCKS to have people like myself do "grunt work for pennies on the dollar"; therefore, more flexibility is needed to accept observations. If I have to fight and claw for a few bucks over common sense missteps, then I'll find another company to work.