Here is my predicament for the day that I anxiously await your advice on....I am sure just like many of you, I apply for many shops that I am never granted. While somewhat annoying to be in limbo, it has only presented a problem a handful of times in over 300 shops, so it has not been that big of a deal. As usual, I applied for several shops on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning. Several were self-assigned, a couple were back-ups, and a few were the "apply and hope" shops. Several of the "apply and hope" shops were phone call shops that were to be done today between 10am-7pm. When I went to bed last night and saw no acceptance e-mails, I decided today would be a rather light day of shops, decided to volunteer at my son's school, and made plans to have dinner with friends. I arrive home to find 2 e-mails sent at NOON showing acceptance of 2 phone shops to be conducted today between 10am - 7pm and I had to reach a target employee. Phone shops don't offer the greatest pay, but considering you never have to leave the house, I do try to pepper in a few of those every week. I will continue to add more as school winds down and my kids will be home during the days.
Here is the dilemma for you all savvy shoppers and, if any schedulers read these boards, I would appreciate hearing from you as well.
Why/How would a shop be scheduled 2 hours after the start time on the actual date of the shop? I get that a lot of mystery shopping is short notice and on the fly, but this is pushing it a little if a great shop & report is to be expected.
What do you do if you end up receiving several acceptance e-mails after you have already made a full shop schedule for the week for those you could self-assign or the company gets back with a yes or no the same day of application?

Most frequently it would appear the shop was assigned to someone else who either cancelled or flaked. You were not informed that the shop had been awarded to someone else because it was not in the scheduler's best interest to let you off the hook. Rather than needing to award a bonus or go find someone else to do the work, they left you in limbo until they needed to throw the shop at you. Since you requested it, you are not in a good position to now tell them it doesn't work for you.

Avoid this dilemma. Keep a list of what you have asked for. When you have taken other shops for that day or made other plans, go back in and cancel your request.

There can, of course, be other legitimate reasons for last minute notifications, such as the shop was being revised or whatever, but my firm policy is that I will cancel out of a shop request that has not been awarded (to me or someone else) in a reasonable period of time.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/2012 06:49PM by Flash.

GREAT tip! I have always thought I could keep those applied for shops in the back of my mind, but clearly, that plan is not working so well. Do you ever ask for a bonus or "hero" citation (whatever that is, I have never seen any benefit from it) for a late notice/last minute shop assignment? I don't want to get on the naughty list with a company, but I also don't want to set a pattern that I will be the constant go-to person 2 hours after the last minute. I am guessing your suggestion of cancelling out shop requests would solve this, but in case that slips through my iron clad memory to do (HA!), I don't want to get behind the 8-ball again. I take a lot of pride in producing good reports, being dependable, reliable, etc. Even though it is a lower-paying phone shop, I still take it serious and don't want to disappoint.

We don't even have a discussion about a bonus or 'hero' citation (which IMHO is worthless) because I have cancelled my request for the shop. And rather than get into it, unless it is a scheduler I really like working with, if they call and indicate 'you had asked for ___, are you still willing to do it?' I simply mentioned I cancelled the request because it no longer worked in my schedule. If they try to schedule it to another date/time, that is when the bonus discussion can occur.

(This drove me nuts) On Sunday night, I applied for 2 shops for Monday...I kept an eagle eye out for acceptance letters as the shop would BE for Monday...I heard nothing Monday and went into the account.... I saw no assignments posted there. I waited and finally it was not until 5 in the evening on Monday that I could rest assured that they would not send them to me....ugh....

I usually don't take "next day or same day" assignments unless they are instant assigns or I have talked to a schduler, because you wonder the day they are due, if you are going to get an email out of nowhere....

I've been having issues lately. I can only do one shop after work on my way home. I try to do one shop a night. My problem is that some of these shops take several days for someone to decide if I'm going to get the shop or not. So then I'm stuck not wanting to overbook myself, but not wanting to miss out on other opportunities. What drives me nuts is that so many times they get posted with a date range, but when you apply for them you have to say the specific date you want to do the shop. I like the range so I can work it around other shops and not miss out on stuff.

Sometimes the scheduler will work with you on a new date if the shop was awarded while you were "absent". It would be nicer if they would just call. Some do, some don't.

Flash Wrote:
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> Most frequently it would appear the shop was
> assigned to someone else who either cancelled or
> flaked. You were not informed that the shop had
> been awarded to someone else because it was not in
> the scheduler's best interest to let you off the
> hook. Rather than needing to award a bonus or go
> find someone else to do the work, they left you in
> limbo until they needed to throw the shop at you.
> Since you requested it, you are not in a good
> position to now tell them it doesn't work for
> you.

It's likely that someone flaked on the shop. However, I would have asked the scheduler for an extension. No scheduler can reasonbly expect someone to complete a shop with a few hour's notice. Any time this has happened, I have gotten the extension. Or I would've declined. It's possible the short timeframe wasn't intentional. Many times the due date has to be manually updated so if the scheduler's juggling a number of locations, emails, flakes, whatever, it could've been a simple oversight. No biggie. Happens. Just explain your situation and that you need a reasonable amount of time to perform the shop.

First, Flash is right on the money about cancelling shops. I only leave apps hanging if it is a light day and something can easily be included.

When a date range is offered I like to choose one of the last dates. I've found that when a shop is offered from 6/8 to 6/10 and you give them the first date it often then becomes the due date. For many companies choosing the last available date still allows me a range to work with because the "don't shop before" date does not change

jschilz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've been having issues lately. I can only do one
> shop after work on my way home. I try to do one
> shop a night. My problem is that some of these
> shops take several days for someone to decide if
> I'm going to get the shop or not. So then I'm
> stuck not wanting to overbook myself, but not
> wanting to miss out on other opportunities. What
> drives me nuts is that so many times they get
> posted with a date range, but when you apply for
> them you have to say the specific date you want to
> do the shop. I like the range so I can work it
> around other shops and not miss out on stuff.

What I do is low tech, but it's working for me. When I am waiting to hear from a scheduler about whether or not I've been assigned a shop, I put a 1"x1" Post-It on my calendar onto the date I requested. On the Post-It, I write who the MSC is, what the shop is, the date I applied, the fee, and what date I'm asking for. If I have not heard anything by the day/late afternoon before the shop, I then go back to my applications and delete that app. The Post-It being placed on the date the shop is due (on the calendar) is a good visual and I take it into consideration when "done deals" for that day come up for me. The Post-It app will stay in place until my schedule otherwise fills up.

I am still new but one thing I have really been taking notice of is which schedulers are quick to notify me, one way or the other, about shops I've applied for. That's why I write the date I applied for the shop onto the Post-It. I've also found that one Sassie company I work with does not send a "Sorry, someone else got the shop" email but rather deletes the app from your applied applications without any notice. With this company, though, when I AM assigned a shop, I hear about it quickly.

I use my calendar. When I apply for an assignment I put: Applied, Client, MSC, time and a 1-2 day reminder notice. My devices are synced.

Like Flash, when I can fill the "Applied" with an "Assigned" I do so and immediately cancel my request to the first MSC. For the one hanging in limbo, if I have not heard anything within 1-2 days of the due date, I usually cancel my request.

I have gotten calls and emails that they were aware I had applied, could I possibly do it. That usually results in everyone being happy rather than me getting slammed.

If assigned, I just delete the Applied and I'm good to go.

I've been using the "tasks" function of Google's calendar to track my applications. That way, they still show and remind me, but do not clutter the calendar until/if they are assigned. So far, it's been working okay.