I would love to hear from independent schedulers (past or present) and MSC owners/representatives, please.

Thank you in advance.

This could get sticky, and is it our business...just asking.

I am asking because I am trying to decide whether or not to work with an independent scheduler. Most of the time, it is easy for me to decide. This time, it is not.

Since I have never been a scheduler or an employee of an MSC, I am asking.

Do you have a specific question? If they got your name off a message board/a shop you did for them before/found you in the phone book (do they even have those anymore)/from a referral/called your place of employment/school/etc or shared information from another scheduler it's likely ok. It's not ok if they left a major scheduling company and took the lists of shoppers with them that HAD NOT previously shopped for them or they did not recruit. Scheduling is really hard and finding shoppers is really hard.

I don't usually worry myself with how a scheduler got my name. As a scheduler I only used the lists provided me from the scheduling company and did some recruiting on my own but I was not so into it start my own lists. To be a good independent scheduler though you need to have kept good shopper records from day one.

Liz

Thanks, Liz.

While I don't worry about how a scheduler got my email address, it does matter to me. If someone got my email address illegally or unethically, I probably don't want to work with them.

I have had some independent schedulers email me in the past, out of the blue, who either wanted to add me to their own databases or recruit me to work for MSCs. In many of those cases, I had never heard of those schedulers, had not signed up with those MSCs, and had not registered with databases that the schedulers claimed they got my email from, e.g. mystshopsol, shadow shoppers, etc.

I have given my consent to participate in the MSPA's certified shopper database. I'm not even in the centralized Prophet system to receive offers from MSCs that use Prophet unless I've specifically signed up with an MSC. I do not publicize my MS email address.

In the specific case I have in mind, I received a mass email today from someone who claims to be an independent scheduler for several MSCs. The email is a Gmail address and it is an invitation to be included in her database. I do not recall ever having worked with this alleged scheduler. She mentioned another person by their first name in this email and I have no idea who that person is. There's a tinyurl link in the email that I'm supposed to click to sign up. Part of the tinyurl is the name of the scheduling service, which I also do not recognize.

I did not sign up.

However, that email makes me wonder whether it is legitimate for an independent scheduler to reach out to shoppers in the databases of MSCs she may schedule for to add to her own database, when she has not worked personally with those shoppers.

Typically it's not ok for schedulers to use the databases of MSCs she has scheduled for but there are exceptions. If you are really wondering you can post the scheduler and others will let you know what they know or don't know or you can PM me and I can tell you if I am familiar with them.

I would never even think about this being bothersome though...I am so laid back about this stuff though.

Liz

Busy-just pm'd you.

Thank you, both.

Thanks to a PM from Liz, I googled the scheduler in question and figured out where she might have obtained my email address. It's all good.