I just did. I did a shop for Business Evaluation Services that only paid $13. They rejected my report, because, among other things, I did not shop the assigned employee. Despite that I had already explained that none of the employees were wearing name tags, and there would have been no way to ask for the employee wihout being identified as a shopper.

Worse than that, I got a really condescending form rejection letter. Not something helpful saying "Please clarify this and that", as I've occasionally gotten from others, but this was downright snotty, talking about insufficient details and exact quotes. It didn't address anything specific to the report I had turned in.

So I made some changes, (about $13 worth), and resubmitted. I got sent a second copy of the rejection notice, followed almost immediately by a personal note from the scheduler saying that as a "courtesy" she was giving me fair warning that if I didn't respond to the "to"(sic) previous notices, I wouldn't be paid.

I responded that I HAD made the changes, but given her tone, I really didn't care if they paid me or not. I also corrected her use of the word "to".

Yes, basically when I decided I had had 125% too much of a company and had asked to be kicked upstairs to a supervisor, which was denied. I gave the a__hole a piece of my mind and politely requested that he terminate me so they would not contact me further.

From what I understand, many schedulers are already there.

Although the position has it's fair share of losers, it is generally a thankless position, stuck in the middle, between shoppers who expect to get every job they want, get paid a lot of money, and do as little as possible, and MSC's who expect a new fresh perspective with every single one of the McDonald stores in the country every single month, but only want to pay a few cents each time, and hope to find a technicality they can use to avoid paying but still sell the results to their client, thus maximizing their own profits.

The scheduler, more often than not, is an independent contractor themselves, just like us, working from their home, and making a few dollars between soccor games and diapers and trying to make ends meet.

But every once in a while, I come across one who feels the need to take out all the frustration they have built up from their own personal day in hell on me.

For those, I have little pity.

I had a ff shop that was terrible and got worse. Waited 30 min for a meal that I was watching being passed around. When I submitte the report I was told they could not take it bacause I said something I was not supposed to. She also said the company would dispute the shop anyway. I told her to cancell my next shop and I would call them when I was ready to do another one.

She asked when that would be and I told her I did not know just do not call me I would call her. They have not called me not matter how hard up they have gotten and I have not called them.

I had a ff shop that was terrible and got worse. Waited 30 min for a meal that I was watching being passed around. When I submitte the report I was told they could not take it bacause I said something I was not supposed to. She also said the company would dispute the shop anyway. I told her to cancell my next shop and I would call them when I was ready to do another one.

She asked when that would be and I told her I did not know just do not call me I would call her. They have not called me not matter how hard up they have gotten and I have not called them.

Mine was an employee, not an independent, so I had no qualms whatsoever about telling him what to do with the jobs in question since my polite request to be transferred to his supervisor was bluntly denied on a problem he should have been able to handle readily. This was a pre-shop concern and his 'reason' for not transferring me was "My supervisor wouldn't like my putting you through."

This woman identified herself as Company Manager/Account Manager. I have asked her to deactivate me, and she has. I don't need this kind of grief for $13.

I've wanted to, but I think that scheduler is already in hell or something because one day he dissappeared from the company and I had a new scheduler. Mostly I didn't like him because every e-mail he sent had several sentences written in huge letters and red and blue fonts like I was some sort of village idiot. If it took me longer than 12 hours to enter in a report I would get scathing e-mails. It was just the general overall tone. He would even call me occasionally and he always sounded grumpy. One day he called and begged me to do a shop the following day in a town far away, and told me "Another shopper TOTALLY dropped the ball" with discust in his tone as usual. Wanting to score brownie points with the company, I accepted it and scheduled a couple of other low-paying shops in that town to make up the cost of gas. Then after I had already scheduled the shops, the guy calls me back and says, "The shopper turned in their report, don't do the shop." So then I was stuck with two shops with miniscule pay that I had to drive to boofooland to do. I wanted to say a few choice words to him but somehow refrained. It wasn't long after that there was a new scheduler at this company handling these shops. I went through a bit of BS with this scheduler, but at least her tone was friendly and her e-mails were professional and not full of huge red letters. I have spoken with her on the phone a few times too and she always sounds nice. Good riddance to that other guy.

I had one that I wanted to, but didn't. I had done an evaluation for a bank and was waiting for a followup call to complete the report. I kept playing phone tag with the bank person and the deadline date was looming. I sent an email to the scheduler asking if they wanted me to fill in the report as it then stood or keep trying to contact the guy. No response.

In order to not miss my deadline, I completed the report as it then stood. This was on a Friday. On Tuesday, I get a snotty message on my voicemail that I should still be trying to contact the guy. OK.. I'll give it another shot. At 4:45 that afternoon I finally get through to the guy for the followup. Even though the kids were starving and wanting dinner, and the business day was ending, I called the scheduler and told her I had just talked to the guy and would input the conversation, but that I could not get into the report. She sent it back to me and I rushed to get the thing written by 5pm.

At 5:00, I called the scheduler... I had hit Submit and got a message saying that I could no longer edit the report...all the work I had just rushed to do was gone. Scheduler said that her boss had closed the report a few minutes prior! She said she would call the boss and get right back to me. Well.. she did not call that night and did not call the following day.

Wednesday late afternoon I sent her an email asking why she had not gotten back to me and that I really wanted to finish the report. I get an email back saying, "did you get to talk to the guy?"

So, I wrote her again reiterating our conversation from the previous evening. Silence.

Thursday I get a call on my voicemail. "Did you get in touch with the guy at the bank? If so, I need you to input the details." I tried to go into the report (despite the fact that this idiot is not reading my emails or paying attention to what I'm telling her). I cannot get into the report.

One last time I emailed her again, reiterating our conversation on the phone, reminding her that I HAD talked to the guy, and stating that I could NOT get into the report.

Friday.. another voicemail. "If you still have not contacted the guy from the bank, please continue to try to reach him. We would like these reports finished up."

THAT is when I said FORGET IT. I doubt that I will see any money from this company, despite the huge last-minute bonus that I was promised. I am all done with them.

solideogloria, do you think maybe she wasn't getting your e-mails. Sounds to me like that may have been an issue.

I think I have a guess what company this is, thinking back to another thread. :-) Sounds par for the course, from what I hear, if so.

No, but I came pretty close with Melissa Benson. Still waiting for my $30. I guess I'll have to call again. SIGH.

If I had been treated the way you were on that one, I think I would have. :-)

SusanMB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> No, but I came pretty close with Melissa Benson.
> Still waiting for my $30. I guess I'll have to
> call again. SIGH.


As I recall, she said much, much worse. One of you is professional.

...there is always small claims court (or the threat to take the matter there).

Judge Judy!!! Judge Judy!!! Judge Judy!!! Judge Judy!!! (pounds fists on desk and does a happy dance.)

Oh, I said it without saying it!

One thing I've learned in this business is that it pays to archive those emails. It comes in handy when that frazzled scheduler ,that doesn't know how to manage her own time but is supposed to be able to manage yours, can't remember what she said to you. I've also learned to be able to identify who holds the purse strings and usually try to CC the email to that person when there is a discrepancy with a shop. I've never worked with that MS again but at least I'm satisfied that it totally pissed her off and that her supervisor knew about the ditsy scheduler she had working for her.

I have to add that I remained professional and unemotional which was not the case with this scheduler.

Did you ever get the rest of the money yet, Susan?

There are many msc firms that hire non caring idiots who think or at least act like they think that shoppers are low lifes. I did a shop for a company in real estate today and the last question was "Can you tell us if there was anything unusual like police or accidents so that we can prove that you did the shop?" What kind of nonsense is this. I had the business card, the brochure, the floor plan and yet they are worried about my honesty. Wow!

Then you have to address the professional schedulers at certain companies such as C-I who just spend their waking hours beating up shoppers for reasons not to pay on their absurdly low fees. They do this not out of ignorance, although that may be an apt description, but out of corporate greed. And we, as shoppers, just keep taking that nonsense. No wonder they do not stop. They have you by the shorts.

If by "C-I" you mean "Customer Impact", this is one of my very favorite companies. I have never even had a question on a report, and they pay very quickly on their fine dining.

Dee: Sorry, I did not mean Customer impact. I meant Cori and now it is out. Doc.

Flash and Deech and more of you. Can you tell me what the mystery shopping companies name is? You aren't saying clients name's so could you help me to not work with these companies. My son oldest son died in 2005 and it takes so much time to be half normal again after that. Am I being to selfish to ask you the names of these bad companies? I have been reading all of your post's for a few months and kinda feel like I know a lot of you that post often. Thanks.

Hugs, LZ

Never have, but I wanted to do it for one company. They rejected a couple of my shops, one was my error and one was not. I got really upset and started to terminate, but I decided to just stop doing shops with them for a while. If a big project came up with them in the future I would maybe try them again. Three strikes are out in my ball game, so I am hoping for the best.

Emdisco: Bad msc firms do not get better. The editors that they hire will slice your throat if you burp incorrectly and then they still use the shop, get paid for it and you get beat. I am trying not to us vulgarity here although it readily comes to mind. There are firms out there like Corporate Research International Etc who will do you at every turn. Watch out for them.

dr.lloyd, I remember saying this to you when you used to visit before. If you are this negative about shopping, perhaps you need to end this as a career. I dislike having such bitterness thrown into every post. I guess I will have to stop reading yours, as one day after you started posting, I feel the same way.

Dee: Of course I am bitter. I do not like getting beat by a bad company. Do you feel that I should say nice things about these people? It must feel good to be a moralist. Can you say with any modicum of honesty that this company does a good job, takes care of shoppers and runs an ethical operation. If you can convince me otherwise, I will retract my vitriolic statements about them. Until then, they are on the bottom of my list of baddies. And I do not under value your opinion, I just disagree with it. I am not negative about shopping at all. I just do not like certain beaters in the business. Ask me about the good ones that I shop for and I will give them nothing but acolades.

The secret to success is to know thine enemy. Lloyd

dr.lloyd@sbcglobal.net Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Dee: Of course I am bitter. I do not like getting
> beat by a bad company. Do you feel that I should
> say nice things about these people? It must feel
> good to be a moralist. Can you say with any
> modicum of honesty that this company does a good
> job, takes care of shoppers and runs an ethical
> operation. If you can convince me otherwise, I
> will retract my vitriolic statements about them.
> Until then, they are on the bottom of my list of
> baddies. And I do not under value your opinion, I
> just disagree with it. I am not negative about
> shopping at all. I just do not like certain
> beaters in the business. Ask me about the good
> ones that I shop for and I will give them nothing
> but acolades.
>
> The secret to success is to know thine enemy.
> Lloyd


So be bitter at home, then. Why make every thread about a company you no longer work for, and filled with hatred. Get over it. You don't work for them any more. You made the point clear.

Another bad company is Market Force. You better hope if you're doing a FF for them that the employee doesn't do anything in an amount of time that happens to end in a 0 or a 5 or they automatically reject your shop and accuse you of rounding. I actually did do a shop before where a couple of the timings happened like this and it immediately got rejected. However I didn't see the shop pop back up on the board and I can only wonder if they accepted it anyway and just decided not to pay me. I haven't done a shop for them in at least 6 months, not because of that incident, but because the shops were making me fat and the time frame to do them was too small.

I don't love MFI as I think they are impersonal and always make the shopper wrong, never them. However, I have never had them reject a shop, always have gotten paid, and only do the FF ones that do not have drive-ins, and rarely those. If they keep going down in price on everything they way they have been though, I do not think I will be doing much more with them.

Thinking about telling a couple of schedulers to go to hell.....

I've stupidly been taking the ATH bank shops, even doing special favors for ATH doing shops that they've had a hard time filling... anyway, did some shops for them like 3 weeks ago, they got sent back to me this morning with a somewhat snotty letter stating that I have to redo the shops immediately because the teller didn't refer me to a banker and also didn't give me hardly any information. I first thought they meant that they expected me to drive all the way back to these locations to redo the shop so I told them there was no way I was going to do that. So then I get another e-mail back stating that I just need to redo the form with more details.

WTF... when no one tells you anything there are no details to report.

They are now on my list of 10 foot pole companies. I've already cut back on shops with them but this is the last straw.