I know I have a shop due today. But I can't remember who to shop for. I know where to go and what to do. But if I don't know the company I can't get the specifics OR submit the report. I'm usually not so scatterbrained. HELP!

Don't you keep "jobs to do" in a special folder, or check and see what companies sent you jobs and instrustions....

I do but only on paper and I don't remember filling it in this time. I've recently moved my office & I think my paperwork was allowed to get lost or filed in an unknown (to me) place. I've looked at all my usual websites and have no assignments outstanding. I also usually keep confirmation emails but I can't find those either. This is a new to me company and I apparently didn't even bookmark it. I'm a 'flake' today. ugh!

Can you check your browsing history in your computer and see if anything new pops up there? good luck.

Login to each of your companies and figure it out.

Check through your emails, it may jog your memory. Many times first shops needed to be assigned to you so you may have received an email telling you that you were given the job.

Do y'all read the original posts fully before you answer? Don't be in so much of a rush to answer, that you don't take the time to understand the problem or the follow up from the OP.

Chances are very good that the confirming email was not discarded but only that the OP is in enough of a panic that they are just not seeing it. Once panic sets in, the most obvious are often not thoroughly explored.

For me, this would be a matter of looking down the list of companies I am signed up with, but I have no way of knowing if the OP has created such a list.

I could also PM a shopper buddy and ask "I'm signed up for a KMart today and I know you have done these. I can't find in my info on who I promised to do this for. Any hints as to who has that shop?"

Since she is fairly sure it's a new company she hasn't worked for the OP might also find the company's registration confirmation e-mail somewhere.

Wow, y'all are good.

"special folder": yep, I need to get/be better organized.
"browsing history": good idea. I don't usually clean that out like I do mailboxes.
"Login to each of your companies and figure it out": I spent way too long doing that. But my bookmarks for all of them are indexed by category so made it more efficient.
"Check through your emails": I finally checked the webmail site and found just what I needed. Previously, I had looked on home mail boxes where I'm prone to clean out too often and don't keep the right stuff.
"panic": yup, I did that.
"list of companies": Most are bookmarked on the browser. Yes, my method is limited. I have a folder for all my companies but I haven't kept up with it in a while. hmmmm....
"shopper buddy": the only other person I know who does this is my daughter 1,200 miles away.
"registration confirmation": I generally don't keep those. hmmmmm.....

BTW I did figure out who the company was. I emailed the scheduler and begged for forgiveness as now it was too late to complete today and asked for a reschedule. We'll see.

Sometimes I act like a flake and sometimes I am. hmmmm....

Here's what I learned today so far:
Rule #1. Get, be and stay organized.
Sometimes I keep pretty good records. Most of the time I rely on my very good memory that is showing signs of slipping. hmmmm....
As an independent contractor and growing, it's imperative I stay vigilant at Rule #1.
Rule #2: Don't take anything for granted.
I was lackadaisical and irresponsible. I didn't think about Rule #1.
Rule #3: Be active and connect.
I shop because it stimulates my personal economy and keeps me sharp on various levels. I have not explored the social aspect of mystery shopping. I'm so glad I connected with y'all.

Two tips, as long as I don't get scolded by other for a supposed lack of reading comprehension:

1. Use an online email for all of your shops and never clean it out. As long as you use strong passwords it becomes a store-house for all of your logins, former jobs, etc. etc., without you having to do anything for that to happen.

2. Use Firefox and make sure you have it save all of your passwords so that when you login the username/password fills itself in. Again, make sure you use the "master password" feature and make that password strong. You'll only have one password to remember and will only have to enter it once per session.

Hopefully the scheduler will reschedule. If it was a September shop you may not be so lucky since today ends September.

Ok I may have missed this info if it is here. Do an e-mail search by the e-mail search bar, not going back thru all. Enter the shop info or other keywords.

@raisitup: I'll try to let my online email build up without deletions. However, it's overwhelming for me to see hundreds of old emails stacked up. Although, I do see your reasoning. Firefox does save all my info and that's why it's much easier to access this info when at MY HOME COMPUTER. I try to keep the laptop current with the home access through syncing. Works better in theory more than in practice. I should use the 'master password' for this too. Thanks.
@Flash: I know. I had a week or more and waited till the last minute to perform. My bad. Way bad.
@cynb: yup. I did this on the webmail server to search thru all those old emails I hadn't cleaned out. That's how I finally found my company. As "Flash" pointed to, 'Panic' set in and I wasn't thinking as clearly as needed.
Good advice people.

Admittedly I've only been at this for a few months, but this past week was CRAZY for me ... one of those "when it rains, it pours" weeks in terms of all the mystery shopping offers I "just couldn't" turn down. I ended up with more shops/day than I could keep up with ... or, more accurately, more shop reports/day than I could keep up with. Then I screwed up and couldn't get home in time to meet a 4 pm east coast telephone shop deadline one day ... my first screw-up, and I'm sure I was more bummed about it than the MSC was.
Thanks for sharing your experience, RitaBelly -- I've read through the helpful posts in this thread and made mental notes to myself (I think I'd better write them down, though!). Oh well, the calm will soon set in ...

RB, this happens to me from time to time but I find my gmail 'searchable' feature a life saver for so many reasons.

I've done the same thing, having to rely on my e-mail history. Learn how to use your e-mail's folders (or labels in Gmail) and learn how to use filters. Having a workflow really helps keep me organized. Here's what I do with Gmail, if it helps.

Any e-mails from shop companies, schedulers or MSC services like Jobslinger or MSJobBoard are filtered into label I call @Shopper (the @ makes it appear high up in my list of folders).

I also have sub-labels:

@Shopper
- Archive
- Current
- Video

So, new shop-related mail comes in and goes right into the @Shopper folder. If I apply or self-assign a job, I leave the e-mail in that folder.

Once I receive a confirmation that a shop's assigned, I take that e-mail and move it from @Shopper to @Shopper/Current. All my currently-assigned shops' e-mails are in that label.

Once I complete an assignment, I archive the confirmation e-mail by moving it to @Shopper/Archive.

Gmail is great because all the e-mails within a "conversation" with the same subject line are kept as one line item, together. So, you have complete records of your correspondence with the schedulers.

I also have a sub-label for MS Forums and sub-sub labels for V, MSF, Linked-In, etc. I like to receive e-mail notifications for new posts to threads, but they can really pile up in the inbox if not filtered into their pigeonholes.

As organized as I am with e-mail, my house is a disaster! LOL!!

Thanks for the encouragement and advice. I will start utilizing gmail better.
R

I keep my Gmail labels simple: 'Jobs'- confirming emails that I have been assigned work; 'Payments' - the notifications money has been sent to Paypal; 'Sign Ups' - companies with whom I have registered. There are likely to be two for each company (one that my registration was received and one that accepted me as a shopper which provides password and login)

I use the "star" feature for things I need to follow up on and either delete the email or just the star once the issue is resolved.

I keep my Gmail labels simple: 'Jobs'- confirming emails that I have been assigned work; 'Payments' - the notifications money has been sent to Paypal; 'Sign Ups' - companies with whom I have registered. There are likely to be two for each company (one that my registration was received and one that accepted me as a shopper which provides password and login) There are others, but these are my 3 shop related ones.

I use the "star" feature for things I need to follow up on and either delete the email or just the star once the issue is resolved.

My system is simple. I don't like mail going to folders. Everything comes to my Inbox and stays there forever, unless I move it to a folder, or delete it. Everything is searchable, except the trash I've deleted.

This is what I do: I get the assignment, print it out, put it in a folder, label and date the folder, put it on my calender.

Each night I study each assignment for the following day.

While I haven't forgotten who I'm shopping for, it was just this past week that I totally forgot about a shop. As if it's not bad enough that I had it on my MS spreadsheet calendar, my Outlook calendar and my phone, I also spoke to the scheduler about the darn job on Friday. I get up on Saturday and take care of all my jobs so it's nothing but relaxation for the rest of the evening and all day Sunday. At least until I jumped out of bed early Sunday morning saying oh ...., you get the picture. Thank goodness it was CoRI and a scheduler I've worked with a lot. Upon hearing about it Monday morning all she did was laugh and reschedule it for me. Whew! The moral of the story, it happens to all of us at some point.

I have forgotten who I was supposed to shop for, and forgotten that I had to do a shop as well.

Irene_L.A. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Don't you keep "jobs to do" in a special folder,
> or check and see what companies sent you jobs and
> instrustions....

... or just check your email. I am sure you will find itin there.

Don, in Las Vegas

LisaSTL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> While I haven't forgotten who I'm shopping for, it
> was just this past week that I totally forgot
> about a shop. As if it's not bad enough that I had
> it on my MS spreadsheet calendar, my Outlook
> calendar and my phone, I also spoke to the
> scheduler about the darn job on Friday. I get up
> on Saturday and take care of all my jobs so it's
> nothing but relaxation for the rest of the evening
> and all day Sunday. At least until I jumped out of
> bed early Sunday morning saying oh ...., you get
> the picture. Thank goodness it was CoRI and a
> scheduler I've worked with a lot. Upon hearing
> about it Monday morning all she did was laugh and
> reschedule it for me. Whew! The moral of the
> story, it happens to all of us at some point.

No, it doesn't happen to all of us. Speak for yourself, forgetting that you have a shop scheduled is as bad as it can get (almost). The scheduler's don't laugh about it, either. Nor the client. Forgetting that you are scheduled for a shop is unprofessional. Never happened to me. Or anyone else I know who shops.

Wow, nothing like dredging up a three-year old thread and taking a nasty jab.

trollin trollin trollin

Sure hope aggiejim72 isn't a TAM aggie.

Not that it matters but I do things "the hard way" I have a big calendar and write my shops in the spacious boxes. I have folders and all are ready to go out the door. I can't "forget" a shop. But once, ooops, I actually did, I had a long shift that day and spaced it. I made it okay thought!