Gold Certification

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone had passed the Gold Certification ? I bought the DVDs and received then, passed the first two modules online and completed the writing test online as well. I was informed after the writing test that within 5 days I would get the results. It's been over two weeks now, and I have no news. I tried sending an email a few days ago, still no answer. Does anyone have a similar experience?

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My similar experience has to do with MSPA being extremely slow to respond to anything at all.

I guess I should get back to watching my DVD's before I forget what I learned in them so far....

Time to build a bigger bridge.

It has been mentioned in other threads that the Silver and Gold certifications are a thing of the past. Hopefully they are still reviewing those of former paying members?

sent as a PM

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/05/2014 01:36AM by dcrector.

Aaaah, what's a PM?

"She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined. She was the type of person who would keep a parrot." Mark Twain

PM is private message

Besides the benefit of certification, is there a real benefit to the education from the DVDs?

Yes.

I've been shopping for over 2 years and learned things in the first fifteen minutes of the Gold dvd's.

Time to build a bigger bridge.

I finally got an answer from the MSPA website - they had updated my profile with the Gold Certificate, but did not send any email to inform me! Anyway - yes, I did find it useful - I'll see now if it gets me more shops!

Most MSC's will let anyone do a first shop for the lowest end client. They always have a low end shop that is hard to fill. You do good and score well and they rely on that. I don't think I have been slowed down by not getting a certification. I have seen MSC's open up more shops and allow me to self assign based on my past shops.

It can't hurt, but if you spend a few months here as I have, your way ahead of some CD with real time feedback and suggestions. When it comes to writing a report, you either have the ability to remeber the details and have the vocabulary and the ability to objectivly submit a report.

You either follow the shop instructions or not. You are dependable or a flake.

This means much more than some silly number from a simple dvd test.

Besides the fact they are phasing out this certification.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/2014 05:06AM by scanman1.

To each his own, but frankly I'm getting a little tired of people who are not certified and have no way of knowing what doors it might have opened, might have opened sooner, or might have opened for more money telling people that being certified makes no difference.

I know that almost immediately after I got Silver certified I saw higher dollar shops that I had not been seeing before.

Since we never know what shops exist that each of us do not see (how can we know they exist if we can't see them?) there is absolutely no way you can know what you're missing, until you're not missing it any more.

Maybe it makes a difference and maybe it doesn't but only the schedulers know for sure and the only feedback we've had here from schedulers have said they *do* give preference to certified shoppers.

Most of the people who got certified have indicated it helped them. The people who haven't been certified are not in a position to say if it would or would not have helped them. You may think you're doing "just fine" without it, but you have no way of knowing if you could be doing "even better" with it.

Time to build a bigger bridge.

If they really cared about allowing shoppers to be certified, they would have allowed me to pay for and attend the workshop that they had at shoperfest that was less than 30 minutes drive from me without me buying into the full confrence. As it is a seperate paid workshop, you'd think they would have allowed it.

I spoke with a MSPA sponsor at Bare about this and she assured me that this issue would be raised before the next conference and was shocked that they would turn away the local shoppers from a workshop for not staying at the hotel and buying into the "Whole Package" after I explained the cost for a local shopper to attend.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/2014 05:15AM by scanman1.

This reminded me that I never was able to log in to take the Silver certification test. Can anyone tell me if it is a different log-in?

I am able to log into MSPA and see my profile, etc, but while there is all kinds of info about why you should become certified, and the benefits thereof, there is not one word about or link to where you can actually take the course.

The only link I saw to the course itself was in the welcome email I received when I joined. But when I click on THAT link I'm taken to a different log-in screen and my password doesn't work. I tried resetting it several times, but I keep getting the same message that my log-in was unsuccessful.

I tried replying to every email they sent me but they all bounced back. I'm starting to feel like the MSPA itself is a scam, to be honest. (Not really, but it's very frustrating to not be able to get through to anyone and to have all my emails bounce back).

Am I just missing something?

There is at least one person on the forum who has taken the certification and found she and another shopper in her area still see the exact same shops. A shopper in my geographic area took the silver a year or so ago just to put it to the test (no pun intended) and didn't seem to see anything I couldn't. One benefit he received was a few invitation emails to companies he had not registered with prior to the certification so for a brand new shopper there could be some benefit. Some people suggest the base offers may be higher so for a shopper who primarily takes assignments at the base rate there is another benefit.

dspeakes Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> To each his own, but frankly I'm getting a little
> tired of people who are not certified and have no
> way of knowing what doors it might have opened,
> might have opened sooner, or might have opened for
> more money telling people that being certified
> makes no difference.

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.

I am Silver certified since 2008 and I see exactly the same shops as two NONcertified family members. Until this year, I saw absolutely no benefit from being certified. Early in 2014, my favorite retail shops, which post monthly, were suddenly limited to shoppers with Silver. So, now, although all three of us can see these shops, my two family members are no longer eligible for them. Eligibility for this one retail client in 2014 is the one benefit I have seen from Silver certification in my 7 years of shopping. Maybe Gold certification provides more benefits.

As I understand it you are no longer able to get silver certified?

Well when i sign up with a new company my silver code no longer works. MSPA just tells me it is the company screwing up. So my certification is no longer of value to new places. Places I have worked know my repututation.

Try typing the code in all small letters, that worked for me.

There was no Gold certification offered at Shopperfest. There was MSPA video certification that was offered at a nominal fee.

scanman1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If they really cared about allowing shoppers to be
> certified, they would have allowed me to pay for
> and attend the workshop that they had at
> shoperfest that was less than 30 minutes drive
> from me without me buying into the full confrence.
> As it is a seperate paid workshop, you'd think
> they would have allowed it.
>
> I spoke with a MSPA sponsor at Bare about this and
> she assured me that this issue would be raised
> before the next conference and was shocked that
> they would turn away the local shoppers from a
> workshop for not staying at the hotel and buying
> into the "Whole Package" after I explained the
> cost for a local shopper to attend.

I am a silver certified shopper.

I have years of experience in being an entrepreneur and mentoring entrepreneurs.

My fruit is on the tree. I let time prove common sense and service are the best management tools.

Business is so simple. Help enough other people get what they want without abusing them or cheating them.

Businesses that should have failed did not due to my involvement between the parties.

When I do shops I want to report what I observe, They are not paying me to give an opinion.

I am not being paid the same money so I KISS (Keep it short and simple)

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