I doubt it!!!

"Let them eat static"

I would think they do. I would. Many schedulers also are shoppers.

Yes. I have even had one respond to a positive comment I made here about the pleasure of working with her.

Yes that do read here on the forum. I had one to assist me with a problem I was having with a difficult scheduler. She has also assisted me more than once with a problem.

Yes. I had a problem that was resolved by a scheduler only after I posted here. Don't think it was just a coinkydinky.

ABSOLUTELY, WITHOUT A DOUBT!!!!

That's good. I need some more shops for the end of this month, here in eastern VA.

It would be wonderful if they looked at a map once in a while and realized just how big New York state is. Not all of us are right in New York city.

Her Serene Majesty, Cettie - Goat Queen of Zoltar, Sublime Empress of Her Caprine Domain

We have the same issue here in Florida :) But I have been laughing because recently I have been getting regular postings from one company for a restaurant in Alaska.

Well Flash, I'll gas up the station wagon and come pick you up!

Her Serene Majesty, Cettie - Goat Queen of Zoltar, Sublime Empress of Her Caprine Domain

I have no wardrobe suitable for November in Alaska :) Your wagon got a great heater?

I am getting the Alaska one, too, and Washington State. I'm pretty sure I know the MSC.

And sometimes, though I never would, I just want to tell a scheduler who sees HI and assumes I can just run write over...."Ya, sure. It's on another island. Should I get out my canoe for that one? I won't be able to get the report back to you in 24 hours, as I will still be paddling home." :-)

Yes. I have been a full-time mystery shopper for several years. I also scheduled full-time for KSS for a year too. I am here:)

www.myspace.com/ksssarah

I'm getting emails for jobs in Canada, I'm in the southeastern U.S. Mileage allowance?

Many times when schedulers send postings to a large area, it is because they are in airports and they are hoping to find people who will be traveling.

Many times that isn't the case, and I agree that it's frustrating.

It is the 'Many times that isn't the case' that is frustrating, Judith. All it takes is a quick Google maps input of the address to realize just what companies are abusive of their email notification privileges because the shops are not anywhere near the airport.

I recognize that schedulers get desperate when they can't fill jobs and hope perhaps people know someone in the area they can alert to the job. But that doesn't mean they need to email out notifications of every shop, everywhere in the country, every day until it gets filled, to everyone. Several particular schedulers and one particular company are really unprofessional in their inability or unwillingness to selectively choose an appropriate subset of their shopper base to contact.

I agree that it sounds like a training issue with that scheduler.

On the Sassie system, the scheduler gets a choice right before sending the email: Zip code, area code, state or country. Almost all of the time zip code is chosen. In almost four years of doing this, I have personally used country three times.

Sometimes I get nasty grams from shoppers because a shop is inconvenient for them. One that comes to mind was when I was scheduling shops on Shelter Island, NY. When I would send the posting out by 10 miles, some parts of CT would be included. Granted, it's across water, but it's 10 miles nonetheless. If I had a dollar for every shopper who sent me a mean email about it, I wouldn't be working today. But, my only options were to turn off ALL shop postings for them or just ask them to delete what didn't apply.

I am sure it is an unpleasant experience to get the nasty grams.

I certainly ignore a lot of stuff that is inconceivably far outside of my shopping area and I recognize that "my shopping area" extends about 10 miles north, 20 miles west, 25 miles south and 20 miles southeast. But no scheduler would know that. 30 mile radius lets me see what is available and if by some quirk there are enough shops east, northeast or northwest of me to make a profitable route, I can do that if I can get the times to work.

But the companies that send me 5 emails a day, none of which are within 100 miles of me I just discontinue the emails. I will drop by their website from time to time to see if something is available, but not often.

I just got one today from a different company stating they were sending it to shoppers within 25 miles of a certain place in Illinois. Last time I looked, Its about 5000 miles to there from here. Even counting over water. :-) And I am STILL getting the 3-4 times a day anchorage restaurant. That MSC is quite anoying.

It is awfully tempting to be snarky and send the Anchorage restaurant shop a request for airline tickets and ground accommodations.

That very large SASSIE scheduling company sends me lots of shops for FL, CO, NV, CA and other places between 1500 and 3000 miles away. I guess they use "Country." But I can't stop their email because I get so many shops from them. I've configured my program to filter out "Tanning salon" and "airport," but I can't filter one that says "NY" and "CA" together. LOL

At least SASSIE always lists the city and state. Many of the others, Prophet included, have to be researched on the site. And I get about 100 emails/day.

Judith4Jancyn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I agree that it sounds like a training issue with
> that scheduler.
>
> On the Sassie system, the scheduler gets a choice
> right before sending the email: Zip code, area
> code, state or country. Almost all of the time
> zip code is chosen. In almost four years of doing
> this, I have personally used country three times.
>
> Sometimes I get nasty grams from shoppers because
> a shop is inconvenient for them. One that comes
> to mind was when I was scheduling shops on Shelter
> Island, NY. When I would send the posting out by
> 10 miles, some parts of CT would be included.
> Granted, it's across water, but it's 10 miles
> nonetheless. If I had a dollar for every shopper
> who sent me a mean email about it, I wouldn't be
> working today. But, my only options were to turn
> off ALL shop postings for them or just ask them to
> delete what didn't apply.


Thank you, Jill, for telling us what the set options are in Sassie. I never knew how it was set up before reading this.

Flash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It is awfully tempting to be snarky and send the
> Anchorage restaurant shop a request for airline
> tickets and ground accommodations.


Yes, it is. Especially since they almost never respond to email unless it originated to you from them! But I will refrain, tempting though it is.

I did use the method either you or sneakers posted here about sending a "I would be happy to help when it is in my area" to the Illinois one, and actually got an apology email from the company about sending me something so far out of my way. I will no name the co. here, but one of their people posts here occasionally, and she was not the one who sent the apology, so they seem to be a class act. They never appear to have anything here in HI, so I am not sure. But based on the response I got and the postings here from the other employee, I would try them out, if they did have something.

:-)

Yes, that is a class act Dee. It exemplifies the concept we are searching for when we are doing shops, "Did you feel valued". If one scans through many of the threads on this or other forums a huge part of shopper discontent boils down to not feeling valued.

It would be nice to hear from schedulers, but maybe experienced shoppers can shed some light. Who sets the regular fees, the MSP or the client? How/when are bonuses/mileage determined? It seems they're discretionary. Where does the money go if bonuses don't get paid? Is this a budget process?