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:05/14/2025

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore 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.

  In the role of an independent contractor working for the Observa Merchandiser/Inventory Observa application, I performed two jobs and both were rejected through no fault of my own and arbitrarily so that Observa wouldnt have to pay.Example: Photograph (10) categories of food sold in *******. ******* only stocks (9) categories which are all meticulously documented and photographed, with notes provided indicating that they dont have a refrigerated dessert section. Instead of paying $13 for a complete mission, they reject the entire job for not including photos of a section that only exists at Super Centers. They ignore what you document in the assignment when you explain this and ignore what you advise their agent support email address. In a second example they neglect to include an authorization letter or follow the merchants product recall process so when you go to perform the product recall, the site knows nothing about it and will not show you backroom stock or allow removal if recalled product from shelf. Then Observa rejects the job and wont pay when youve done everything you could to fulfill job including photographing shelf stock, talking to management, etc. Their system appears to be a combination of ineptitude and fraud designed to cheat the independent contractor doing the work.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 05/22/2025

  I received your letter today and appreciate you following up with me.  I want to advise that after many e-mails on my part making my case, Observa finally "gave in" and issued payment for the assignments in question.

   

  It is still my belief that they have built an app and processes that encourage them to deny paying for an agent's work,  without giving the agent sufficient recourse to "state their case" and in my case to flat out prove that Observa did not have their facts straight and were unfairly rejecting my work.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:04/06/2025

  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 Saturday April 5 I accepted a job (third party independent contractor) through the Observa app to photograph ************** drinks in the Kroger located at ***********************************************************. I completed the job per the instructions listed in the application, but my time was wasted and the job was rejected due to instructions that were in no way included in the app. If you look at the screenshots, they requested 3 pictures of any endcap but in the other screenshots you can see that the job instructions in NO WAY indicate this as a requirement.This company REGULARLY wastes people's time by having them submit work they aren't paid for. They claim this work isn't used after the fact but provide no proof that's true. In the past several months they've rejected dozens of jobs for arbitrary reasons providing no proof other than their word that instructions weren't followed. They provide no ability to appeal or to correct. They are likely using these "rejected" jobs to collect on their contracts without paying the contractors. Someone needs to hold them accountable for this continuing fraud. They need to either provide PROOF of what they're claiming or they need to pay people based on the work they've done.

• 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.