I get dinged a point or two for grammar at times. I would appreciate knowing what grammar they are referring to, as I spent several years in my career editing. Give me specifics please.

muttnut Wrote:
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> I get dinged a point or two for grammar at times.
> I would appreciate knowing what grammar they are
> referring to, as I spent several years in my
> career editing. Give me specifics please.


I agree, I always strive to improve and I am open to constructive criticism, tell me where I went wrong and I won't do it again.

You hit on the spot. Its the editors that are not consistent with their scores and no one ever tells you what was wrong because they do not want you to get perfect 10 all the time. Intellishop just black balled me and it was the schedulers that were inconsistent also. This industry is a real F sometimes and it really pays in long run to have the Federal Government behind you because there are so many companies that really do not follow ethical policies and are discriminating.

Based on your post, you may ned to spell check your whole document. I do this each time I turn in my shops. Intelli-shop is quite difficult to work with.

Best wishes to you in your shopping work.

sisterstrollin Wrote:
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> it really pays in long run to have
> the Federal Government behind you because there
> are so many companies that really do not follow
> ethical policies and are discriminating.


You've got to be kidding. You think the Feds should get involved in whether you spelled something right or not? If Intelli-shop blackballed you that was their right. We are independent contractors, not employees. They can fire us and *we can fire them.* Unless they didn't pay you for a correctly executed and reported shop, they can do whatever they want and if they don't want you working for them any more, that's entirely their right. You think the Feds should force them to give you work if they don't think you're doing a good job for them or don't fit the demographic they need?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/2014 09:40PM by dspeakes.

xyz

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2014 07:36AM by Mary Smith xoxoxo.

Grammar, smrammar. That's just the Feds talking about overreaching when they should be behind you anyway and nobody gets perfect 10s everytime because thats a scam that involves the end of the world which keeps happening on a different day anyway.

I'm a retired English teacher. I don't have trouble with grammar. However, I am a very concise writer and get my information across without wasting words. Then I get a review that says that they want more sentences so I have to embellish it with a bunch of flapdoodle that is unnecessary. So they make me write poorly. I once used the word insouciance, and they didn't understand what I was talking about.

@jsteinitz,
I am by no means an outstanding writer (except in my Christmas dreams), but in your last post I noticed at least two "toads" at first glance. What grade of English did you teach??

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/2014 01:53AM by Mary Smith xoxoxo.

jsteinitz, Is starting a sentence with "So.." acceptable, good English?

RIM, I totally agree. I also get annoyed when I get a "7" after getting 9's and 10's with the same company and with other companies. And when I got 48 out of 100 with B.......w, I was flabbergasted. Do not work for this hospitality company. Their editor, Aimee Schultz, is simply dumbest and rudest in the business.

I got an email this am from a scheduler where the word "which" was spelled "witch" and struck me as so funny when we're required to be so exact. I try to be as close as possible, but nobody's perfect.

If you get a 7 or 10 and the pay is the same - who cares? Editing can be subjective and unless there are many misspelled words, incorrect grammar and obvious mistakes the "grade" makes absolutely no difference to me unless it affects my paycheck. I am consistent with my reports but the editors can vary widely. Just do not mess with my pay.

teriraia Wrote:
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> If you get a 7 or 10 and the pay is the same - who
> cares? Editing can be subjective and unless there
> are many misspelled words, incorrect grammar and
> obvious mistakes the "grade" makes absolutely no
> difference to me unless it affects my paycheck. I
> am consistent with my reports but the editors can
> vary widely. Just do not mess with my pay.


Like the old saying, "C's get degrees!"

Ha ha. And I always say, "50% of all lawyers finished in the bottom half of their class."


C's may get degrees, but they may not get jobs.

However in mystery shopping, the key seems to be keeping an average of 8 and up. That seems to be the threshold for self-assigning (i.e., getting the job) or having to say "Mother may I?" and hope the editor gives it to you.

Mine's always been:

Q: What do you call the guy who graduates at the bottom of his class in medical school?
A: Doctor.

Are we comparing mystery shopping to brain surgery?

LOL

Actually, I think the analogy is comparing shop ratings to school grades.

(heart)

Mystery shopping would better be compared to Proctology, at times.

Going back to the original comment (yes, it is a couple of pages of useless fluff back), I have to agree that a lot of the complaints about being dinged points or having shops returned or having shops rejected are because shoppers do not write clear concise reports. Very briefly years ago I tried editing . . .

Requirement - "5 sentences to tell us about the interaction"
Shopper response - "Suzy got the phone. She realy knew her stuf."

Requirement - "3 sentences to tell us about the foyer area"
Shopper response - "It was snowy and the floor was wet. The walls are ugly purple. Green would be nicer."

As an editor, I could fix spelling that the spell checker missed and fix grammar. Obviously I could not create content. In the first example the shop needed to be sent back for more detailed information. In the second, opinion needed to be omitted and that meant that the third sentence had to go and the second sentence had to be modified both to make it past tense and to remove the opinion. Unfortunately I knew who the shopper was and really held my tongue when she hit the forum to scream about her wonderful report being returned.

I did not last long as an editor because I just couldn't stomach trying to turn shopper reports into coherent English that could be useful to the client. It is a source of constant amazement to me that editors don't let loose and rant about shoppers unable/unwilling to provide useful content in a coherent manner.

Maybe because they're too busy trying to clean up sub-par reports? Both of those examples would make me crazy, but not as much as seeing the shopper screaming on the forum about her "wonderful report" being rejected and having to keep my mouth shut! Kudos to you!

(heart)

Flash, those are not really actual excerpts, are they? Please tell me you just made those up to make your point. Please?

It has been years ago and I did not write it down, but in essence those two examples appeared in the same report. The 3 sentence had one sentence past tense, one present tense and one future tense where only past tense was wanted. There was both opinion and recommendation where neither was appropriate. The 5 sentence was just woefully short and uninformative and did have spelling mistakes that even the most rudimentary spell checker would pick up.

The response of the shopper on the forum was that the editor had 'taken out what I wrote!!!!' so she copied from her saved copy and sent it right back in. When the shop was returned having degenerated to the original text (though in all honesty, I think the shopper added 2 sentences to the 5 sentence, one of which was something like 'Suzy did a good job.' and the other was something like 'I liked Suzy.', I sent it along to my supervisor. I am assuming that someone at a higher pay grade than mine either dealt with the shopper or got to write a report based on what the shopper stated. I suspect they called the shopper to get enough information to flesh out a report.

LJ, I had an email from an editor once where I mistakenly got sent part of someone else's report. She wrote IMMEDIATELY after sending it, apologizing and saying she didn't know how that happened.

What got sent to me was very much on par with the examples Flash wrote.

I agree that we get paid for both scores of 7 or 10, but I take pride in maintaining averages of 9's and 10's, with occasional 8's. Higher scores get better assignments. When B........w's flunked me to a 48 out of 100, it was uncalled for. Aimee Schultz marked me 5 out of 10 for grammar, and a 2 out of 10 for professionalism. Well....that was intentional. She made sure I am below 50 so I will be removed from their company. What does it say if I worked for the top of the business and I scored 18-20 out of 20, 9-10 out of10 but scored 48 out of 100 for them? Surely, this small company is no better than other well established ones with multitude of clients internationally. It only tells me they have a dumb editor by the name of AIMEE SCHULTZ.

DO NOT WORK FOR THIS BU......W HOSPITALITY.

BetteL, since I've never worked for Buckelew, I really don't have a dog in the hunt, but you've complained multiple times about the same incident with the same editor. Dave Buckelew, the company's president, posted a response to your complaint on another thread: [www.mysteryshopforum.com]
Apparently, he personally reviewed your report and determined that the editor was correct and upheld your deactivation.

He also promises to post more information about the situation on Facebook. If you continue to repeat your complaint over and over, I'm sure Dave will continue to tell Buckelew's side of the story.

I consider Buckalew to be of a much higher standard than Coyle, honestly.

The title of this thread is "Getting Low Scores or Rejected for 'No Reason'"

BetteL, it appears as if you are, unwittingly, presenting yourself as an example of someone who complains about getting low scores for "no reason", when "the reason" was explained in great detail by the MSC's owner, when you were bashing this same company, yesterday.

[www.mysteryshopforum.com]

At this point, I think it might be wise to cut your losses and move on and look for companies who appreciate your "grammar and professionalism". Hmm, on second thought, you might want to do some work on the latter, first.

Best of luck to you!

(heart)

BetteL, in all my years of mystery shopping there have only been a few times when I have had a shop rejected, and with one notable exception, I certainly will own the errors. Companies do not want to reject shops because they don't want to have to reschedule them and throw away what they paid an editor to review a useless shop.

More times than not, a company has gone out of their way to get the client to accept a shop I have messed up. I appreciate it enormously when a company goes beyond what they are required to do to make a goofed shop acceptable. If they can't, so be it.

The Buckalew shops I have seen have involved a significant out of pocket amount to be reimbursed. I can understand your frustration with having a shop rejected and that money gone. Your response of outrage and innocence is precisely why most companies that have decent size reimbursements as part of the value of the shop do not usually take on new shoppers who have not yet learned the importance of getting all observations completed and doing them correctly. It is why many of them have writing sample requirements to their registration forms. It is why many of them offer samples of the quality of report they expect. I have been registered with Buckalew for years but they have never had anything close enough to me to try a shop. My instincts of self preservation also want my first shop with them or any other company to have a low out of pocket expense just in case the shop disintegrates.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/2014 08:47PM by Flash.

Was the 2 out of 10 for professionalism explained?

BetteL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I agree that we get paid for both scores of 7 or
> 10, but I take pride in maintaining averages of
> 9's and 10's, with occasional 8's. Higher scores
> get better assignments. When B........w's flunked
> me to a 48 out of 100, it was uncalled for. Aimee
> Schultz marked me 5 out of 10 for grammar, and a 2
> out of 10 for professionalism. Well....that was
> intentional. She made sure I am below 50 so I
> will be removed from their company. What does it
> say if I worked for the top of the business and I
> scored 18-20 out of 20, 9-10 out of10 but scored
> 48 out of 100 for them? Surely, this small
> company is no better than other well established
> ones with multitude of clients internationally.
> It only tells me they have a dumb editor by the
> name of AIMEE SCHULTZ.
>
> DO NOT WORK FOR THIS BU......W HOSPITALITY.

I have edited for a couple of different companies, and believe me, most of the time the shopper is at fault. When the guidelines clearly state that comments are required for all answers and you just check yes or no, then the shop is going to be returned. Mystery shopping is a legitimate business and if you are not able to follow the instructions and write a complete sentence, then mystery shopping is probably not from you. Editors do not get paid unless they can somehow translate the gibberish that some shoppers use. We do not want to spend hours trying to contact you for clarification and then not get paid when you refuse to do your job as instructed. Not my opinion, just the facts.