I would have LOVED to watch the company read your writing sample Cease - mouths dropping open, etc.! Did they send you an email stating that you were NOT accepted?

haha - that would have been great to be a fly on the wall!

LOL you all would have a field day with my writing. I have no punctuation or grammar skills at all!!!!!!!!!

Yes, they did.

Mind you, there's no telling why they turned me down. I might not fit their demographic requirements. I might not be as computer literate as they need, or have the proper equipment. There's just no telling. I might even just be too old. And I did provide the narrative they requested; granted, they might not have read far enough to find it!

Maybe someone could start a "grammar" thread; one of the poster's mentioned that others have
cut & pasted errors here before for the general amusement of the community. I'm a little uncomfortable about that; what if other posters recognize the company, or the company recognizes
itself, and says I (or someone else) breached the confidentiality clause, and it causes a shopper
to be terminated by an MSC? But I wouldn't have a problem with "pet peeves" of grammar issues.



cease

Kathee70 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> LOL you all would have a field day with my
> writing. I have no punctuation or grammar skills
> at all!!!!!!!!!


I have made a point out of NOT correcting things on the forum! You're SAFE!

I'm not the grammar police!

LOL!!!

cease

New Zealand is my home country.

jpgilham Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> New Zealand is my home country.

AWESOME! You can tell me what NOT to miss when I go!

I'll be staying with friends in Upper Riccarton, Christchurch.

cease

My daughter lived in New Zealand for a year and loved it. She has traveled everywhere and it is one of her favorite places. So have a great time while you are their - haha- that was on purpose or as the MSC's would say "on porpoise."

ceasesmith, I like you!

I had a semi-snarky moment when filling out an application recently when it asked me to list all the zip codes where I was willing to shop. I think I actually wrote, "You must be kidding" because the zip codes in Phoenix alone would have filled the box if I wanted to bother looking them all up. It would be easier to list the Arizona zip codes where I don't shop. Pretty much anything is fair game for a price.

I don't even care if they approve me because if they're asking that question, I suspect their job board won't have a search by radius option, which will mean I won't waste my time with it anyway.

I've had to bite my cyber-tongue a few times to keep from rubbing an MSC's poor grammar, spelling, etc, in their face. I guess I can understand Cease doing it -- after making the decision not to work for them anyway.

Usually I value the $$ more than the satisfaction of pointing out their flaws.

Yes, I know some of them can't spell, but isn't it interesting we work for them instead of the other way around?

Cease~

I have a question for you Was the brief satisfaction you had in deciding to correct all the errors as your writing assignment worth missing out on the opportunities that could have come from this company ? I have no idea if that was why they did not accept your application, but if it was, it seems like you may have won the battle, but lost the war..

I receive many emails weekly that are obviously written with a voice to text app. One changed the word calling to kissing several times. I guess it is a good thing I do not decide who is a good shopper based on email etiquette. LOL

ceasesmith- you the boss,
looks as though you have just fired yourself.

KristynScheduler Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Cease~
>
> I have a question for you Was the brief
> satisfaction you had in deciding to correct all
> the errors as your writing assignment worth
> missing out on the opportunities that could have
> come from this company ? I have no idea if that
> was why they did not accept your application, but
> if it was, it seems like you may have won the
> battle, but lost the war..
>
> I receive many emails weekly that are obviously
> written with a voice to text app. One changed the
> word calling to kissing several times. I guess
> it is a good thing I do not decide who is a good
> shopper based on email etiquette. LOL

It wasn't a brief satisfaction at all. It was an honest
effort to help them. I did also provide the narrative
they requested. It also occurred (where is spellcheck
when you REALLY need it?) to me that it might be
a test to see if the prospective shopper spotted the
errors. Um, I'm now guessing it wasn't!

And I have a full plate; I won't miss that one company.

Can't miss something I never had.

But you're right about the "auto-correct" feature; there
are entire blogs devoted to absolutely HILARIOUS
auto-correct errors.

I was a little embarrassed today to hand out rewards
that stated "You're excellent customer service
has paid off!"

Ick.



ceas

>I was a little embarrassed today to hand out rewards
>that stated "You're excellent customer service
>has paid off!"

Definitely embarrassing!

I once hired a contractor who had their own business. They thought the were their own boss.

We'll be there at 8.

Where are you?

Oh, something came up. I'll be there at 2. Oh, this room isn't finished because...

This room should have 2 coats of paint by now.

Well, we... because because, because... We'll be there by 11 at the earliest tomorrow.

You will be there at 8am. I will be there waiting for you. If that room is not completed by tomorrow night we will part ways.
You may be think you are your own boss, however, this week I am writing your pay check. If you don't want to be there at 8am then you can find work elsewhere.

Well what do you know. They were there and the room was finished. Huh.

It really comes down to whether it's a buyers' market or a sellers' market as to who really is the boss.

If that contractor was the only one in town, he's the boss. If there are seven other unemployed contractors desperately seeking a paycheck, then the homeowner is the boss.

works the same with mystery shopping. In a market with few shoppers, the shoppers have a little more power. When there are 10 shoppers trying to get one job, the MSC has all the power.

What's important is for each side to recognize who holds the power in each market.

A shopper who has more work than they can handle can afford to blow off an MSC they don't want to work for. The ones who are desperate to pay bills have to pucker up a bit.

Sallyctcss Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I once hired a contractor who had their own
> business. They thought the were their own boss.
>
> We'll be there at 8.
>
> Where are you?
>
> Oh, something came up. I'll be there at 2. Oh,
> this room isn't finished because...
>
> This room should have 2 coats of paint by now.
>
> Well, we... because because, because... We'll be
> there by 11 at the earliest tomorrow.
>
> You will be there at 8am. I will be there waiting
> for you. If that room is not completed by tomorrow
> night we will part ways.
> You may be think you are your own boss, however,
> this week I am writing your pay check. If you
> don't want to be there at 8am then you can find
> work elsewhere.
>
> Well what do you know. They were there and the
> room was finished. Huh.


Oh, there's an old, worn-out, well-known joke amongst us
self-employed: "I went into business for myself because I
don't like working for a boss, only to discover that every
customer is my boss!"

And, while it is true to a great degree, it is also true that
if you get a total you-know-what for a customer (as the
former event coordinator mentioned), you can tell them
so long, hope it works out for you with your new contractor!

The Customer is King. Very true. The Customer is Always Right.
Also very true, in the sense that one must BEHAVE as though the
customer is right, even when you 100% KNOW he's wrong.

Confusing as h-e-double hockey sticks, ain't it?

I do live in a part of the country where the other nearest shopper
is 90 miles away, and the 2nd nearest shopper is 150 miles away
in the other direction. The shops I get are considered "difficult",
and are nicely bonused. If I refuse a shop, the MSC might (might,
mind you) have to pay one of those two shoppers $200 to cover
it.

Of course, it could very well be that there are other shoppers and
they just don't shop for the same companies I do. Maybe the company
that declined my application has oodles of competent, proven shoppers in this area.
We'll just never know!



cease

I send the occasional email with a screen shot to report errors with grammar/punctuation/broken links. I usually assume the company or organization will appreciate the opportunity to correct the problem. I may be wrong.

I won't do it when it's work related, though, unless I've been asked to. I constantly cringe and bite my tongue while I'm at my day job, but I don't want to be known as a negative know-it-all. I just try to make sure that all of my communications are grammatically correct. Even then, some errors will slip through.

I dislike the term "grammar police". As a person whose grammar and spelling is probably 97% correct, I wouldn't mind having someone correct the rest of it. When I read posts from people who were upset that someone corrected them, it baffles me. Most people want to be "smarter" than they are, I don't know why someone would not want better grammar and spelling. I suppose it is embarrassing happening in a public place such as the forum. It is also unsolicited. In my private life, I have been asked for help about being "smarter". I use the quotation marks because that's just how most of us word it. If I ever correct the grammar or spelling of anyone on this forum, I apologize in advance. You may correct my knowledge of science any time you like.

Maybe someone could start a thread on common errors...like "should of" instead of "should have"..."then" when they mean "than".

There's a few million more. Or maybe that's supposed to be "there're".



I don't tend to correct posters' usage because I just can't find a way to do it politely. I sure wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. How do you gently tell someone "I saw the man whom was standing on the corner" that misusing "whom" does not make them sound....educated? That "The man was standing on the corner", or even "I saw the man standing on the corner" is cleaner and
less awkward?

On the other hand, a corporation is a faceless entity. I can (and will) correct them without a qualm to my "politeness" conscience!

And sometimes it's on purpose, like when I say "dagnabbit, I jest ain't a gonna do it!" Sure wouldn't want to call somebody out for misuse when they intended it for the sake of humor.



cease

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/2014 08:54PM by ceasesmith.

Two cents worth from a proud anal retentive:
I completely understand the need to have your mark reviewed on your SAT, Cease. I once received the score back from a test with a 70% pass mark. I recieved a 97% and was upset as I couldn't understand why I had lost the 3%. I believed my answer was correct and addressed the instructor about it. The fellow seated beside me got around a 76% and happy to have passed. He absolutely could not understand why I was complaining about a 97%.
To me it was a matter of principle and pride. If I'd earned a 100% well then I darn well wanted the credit for it, whether it would make any difference down the road or not. Oh, I did get it in the end but it took a lot of 'discussion'.
I will also spend a lot of time over something that may only be worth a few cents. I consider it recreational time rather than wasted time. One of my favourite pet peeves is when I am overcharged, particularly on the sales tax. I am more than willing to take it as far as I need to to get satisfaction. I'm sure the people having to deal with me think I'm nuts to take an issue all the way to the Minister of Consumer Affairs because I was overcharged 12 cents tax. I don't really care if they do or not.
By the way, the reason I was overcharged the tax was because the restaurant's cash register was not programmed in such a way as to be able to sell non-taxable items without adding taxes. The restaurant manager was unwilling to reprogram the cash register so off I went on my high horse.
Kudos, Cease.

ceasesmith Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How to
> you gently tell someone "I saw the man whom was
> standing on the corner" that misusing "whom" does
> not make them sound....educated?

The Grammar Police are in the house. And what is wrong with this sentence? Should I take a point off?

Shop2LiveinFL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ceasesmith Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > How to
> > you gently tell someone "I saw the man whom was
> > standing on the corner" that misusing "whom"
> does
> > not make them sound....educated?
>
> The Grammar Police are in the house. And what is
> wrong with this sentence? Should I take a point
> off?

Are you joking?

If you said "The man to whom I gave the money is standing on the corner", that would be a correct usage of "whom". The man is the man who is standing on the corner. He's not a whom, just standing on the corner, he's just a who.



cease

Bena, you are so right. Those who don't understand you will never understand you. Those who don't understand ME are in the vast majority.

I recently purchased 2 rugs. When I got home and unpacked them and checked the receipt, I found one of the rugs was not on the receipt. Next time I went to that store, I took the rug in, with the receipt, and paid for the second rug. They thought I was crazy. They'd never had a customer come in with such a strange request before. Like, I accidentally stole this rug, now I want to pay for it, LOL!!!
No, I did NOT steal it. Somehow it just didn't get rung up. It was bagged by the cashier with my
other purchases, it just didn't get scanned. They called a manager over. I told him, look, if you made a mistake in YOUR favor, I'd be back here telling me you overcharged me, and asking for a refund.

Well, if I'm gonna ask for a refund if you overcharge me, shouldn't I also come in and pay you if you undercharge me? They handled this very strange request so cheerfully, so politely, and so professionally that I wonder if they decided I was that month's "secret shopper" -- and I wished I was, so that I could give them a stellar customer-service write-up! (And yes, the store DOES get
shopped, and no, I have never accepted a shop there.)

Frankly, it rather enhanced my local reputation as an eccentric.

Oops, I forgot -- that's rich people. I'm poor, so I'm just flakey.



cease

Good for you. I like to own up to mistakes, too, whether they are mine or not. I have a guilty conscience and figure someone, somewhere will get in trouble when the discrepancy is discovered.

Case in point, we have new cash handling procedures at my library. We use a counterfeit pen for bills over $20 (I took a counterfeit $20 my first week on the job) and everyone knows the procedure for giving cash change when you overcharge on a debit transaction (I mistakenly overcharged a patron $463.) I owned up to both mistakes right away and now our clueless finance specialist (who sits in an office and never deals with the public) can fix mistakes when she balances the register in the morning.

I kind of sound like the clueless one when it comes to money, right?

cease, this is probably my first time to correct grammar on the forum but I can't help myself.

First of all, when we use the initials MSC, I believe we read that as M - S - C, not as "mystery shopping company". So, I think your comment of "top 10 things to NOT do if you're looking for a MSC" should read "top 10 things NOT to do if you're looking for an MSC" (not a MSC). NOT to do and an instead of a. Just my opinion, which is a lot of what grammar is. The language changes all the time.




ceasesmith Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'd like to add, for those of you who grasp the
> humor of this, good on you; file it under "top 10
> things to NOT do if you're looking for a MSC" and
> have a good belly laugh.
>

ceasesmith Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Bena, you are so right. Those who don't
> understand you will never understand you. Those
> who don't understand ME are in the vast majority.
>
>
> I recently purchased 2 rugs. When I got home and
> unpacked them and checked the receipt, I found one
> of the rugs was not on the receipt. Next time I
> went to that store, I took the rug in, with the
> receipt, and paid for the second rug. They
> thought I was crazy. They'd never had a customer
> come in with such a strange request before. Like,
> I accidentally stole this rug, now I want to pay
> for it, LOL!!!
> No, I did NOT steal it. Somehow it just didn't
> get rung up. It was bagged by the cashier with
> my
> other purchases, it just didn't get scanned. They
> called a manager over. I told him, look, if you
> made a mistake in YOUR favor, I'd be back here
> telling me you overcharged me, and asking for a
> refund.
>
> Well, if I'm gonna ask for a refund if you
> overcharge me, shouldn't I also come in and pay
> you if you undercharge me? They handled this very
> strange request so cheerfully, so politely, and so
> professionally that I wonder if they decided I was
> that month's "secret shopper" -- and I wished I
> was, so that I could give them a stellar
> customer-service write-up! (And yes, the store
> DOES get
> shopped, and no, I have never accepted a shop
> there.)
>
> Frankly, it rather enhanced my local reputation as
> an eccentric.
>
> Oops, I forgot -- that's rich people. I'm poor,
> so I'm just flakey.
>
>
>
> cease

Bena and Cease I have new found respect for your point of view since both of you seem to totally live the way I do in terms of righting wrongs in payments. My biggest story is when my daughter was born and both my husband's and my insurance paid us for our part of the insurance bill. I ended up with an extra $6,000. When I called his insurance (secondary) company it took at least a half hour before they could even grasp the concept that I was trying to return the extra money to them. They finally just figuratively scratched their heads about my phone call and told me to enjoy the money. The only way I could right that in my own head and not feel bad like I was cheating them was to think as if they purchased my crib, strollers and assorted other baby stuff for me.

Shop2LiveinFL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ceasesmith Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > How to
> > you gently tell someone "I saw the man whom was
> > standing on the corner" that misusing "whom"
> does
> > not make them sound....educated?
>
> The Grammar Police are in the house. And what is
> wrong with this sentence? Should I take a point
> off?


I don't think anyone else has figured this one out yet, lol.

Yes, I saw that but it's just a typo. However, a 100% SAT score editor could probably catch it on second look.



ceasesmith Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How to
> you gently tell someone "I saw the man whom was
> standing on the corner" that misusing "whom" does
> not make them sound....educated? That "The man
> was standing on the corner", or even "I saw the
> man standing on the corner" is cleaner and
> less awkward?
>

MDavisnowell Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> cease, this is probably my first time to correct
> grammar on the forum but I can't help myself.
>
> First of all, when we use the initials MSC, I
> believe we read that as M - S - C, not as "mystery
> shopping company". So, I think your comment of
> "top 10 things to NOT do if you're looking for a
> MSC" should read "top 10 things NOT to do if
> you're looking for an MSC" (not a MSC). NOT to do
> and an instead of a. Just my opinion, which is a
> lot of what grammar is. The language changes all
> the time.
>
>

Quite right.

May I beg the point by using the excuse that it's a typo?

We ALL have the occasional typo!!!!!



cease
>
>
> ceasesmith Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I'd like to add, for those of you who grasp the
> > humor of this, good on you; file it under "top
> 10
> > things to NOT do if you're looking for a MSC"
> and
> > have a good belly laugh.
> >