Canuck, you like being accused of being a suck-up and a stooge? Well I don't play possum.

MD, maybe it's time for a compassionately offered and gently posted, "Now now."

It doesn't bother me what names I am called because I know the truth. Their opinions do not matter to me. It just shows me what kind of a person they are and how immature they are.

I don't play possum. I am aware of what's going on.

el, how about, "There, their, they're."

Hahahah! I got it, Lisa!!!!!!

Sybil
I can buzz off but why? To make you more comfortable? Here's a thought, channel your other personality. In order to get shops I do not need to kiss butt like you do! When you earn your stripes then you can tell me to buzz off. Here is the definition of stooge:

stooge: noun; plural noun: stooges 1 derogatory: a person who serves merely to support or assist others, particularly in doing unpleasant work (Credit to Google).

Yes, you, Canuck and Dixie fall into that category. Look at the facts, you three have been "read (pr. red)."

I am perfectly comfortable. Thank you for your concern. And I'm sure that I have been doing this work a lot longer than you but that does not really matter. You bore me.

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

Nicole has always treated me as a friend and has always been very helpful. I think she does a great job.

I once asked her a question about a shop and she assigned it to me.

Okay, then. Sticks and stones, hicks with bones. Pick 'em clean and hang 'em high. Now now, there there, bye bye.

Mare,
That is quite graceful, mannerly and classy of you. BTW that camoflage is quite complementary with your skin color. Hicks with bones, hang 'em high? You have proven to be another hypocrite. I understand at your age you probably do not have many friends left but you are aligning yourself with the bottom of the barrel. For those that only read the last page here is a recap of my opinion:
MDavisnowell
Success does come with risk, be it large or small. Risk is inherent in every aspect of our daily lives. I am not sure how "...deliberately increasing risk..." comes into play here. I see it that Sybil, Canuck and Dixie wanted to take advantage of the situation by sucking up to JOTEY to curry favor for themselves. That is in no way helpful to the shopper or the shopper community. It is downright self serving! If memory serves me right, Dixie attempted to be "helpful" (in another thread) to her former employer. Soon after she was shown the door and had her shopper account cancelled. I don't think Service Metrics appreciated her "help." Nor do I believe any one of the three of them made a serious attempt to help or "do the right thing."

Suck on that bone! Now here is a scary picture:
[www.linkedin.com]

Canuck Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am a Canadian, living in America. I had to
> change the spelling of many words.
>
> Behaviour is behavior here. Neighbourhood is
> neighborhood. Colour is color.
>
> I have to really be careful when I'm doing the
> reports.


Very true. Unfortunately some editors in US have not considered that difference or maybe not aware of it. When I moved from Chicago to Toronto, I had to adjust as well. As the shops are in Canada, so should the spellings be but some US editors still insist on editing as if the shops are in the USA.

That toggle switch worked like a charm. Anyone else using it?

Oh, troll reported btw.

I really just posted this to see if other people are experiencing the same problems as I was. I still want to keep shopping for ICCDS; I really enjoy doing the shops. I did not post this so that people could bicker like children over minute details.

Kudos to the editors and payroll department at ICCDS. I received payment today (12/31/14) for a shop performed on 12/19/14.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/31/2014 03:59PM by Sybil2.

ShoppingLikeABoss Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I really just posted this to see if other people
> are experiencing the same problems as I was. I
> still want to keep shopping for ICCDS; I really
> enjoy doing the shops. I did not post this so that
> people could bicker like children over minute
> details.

For real. I am as shocked as you are how this went down.
I have been shopping for ICCDS since 1999. I probably only do a half dozen shops a year for them now, but I've never had any issues.

I know! I'm not a stooge when I say this..they paid me twice this week! They are amazing.

ShoppingLikeABoss, it turned out that others are also having problems so you're not alone. Although sharing gets the issue out in the open, it doesn't solve the problem to share the misery. We have to solve it or not solve it with the MSC.

Sometimes these threads go wrong and turn vicious. When that happens, everyone involved is more vulnerable. A company may decide to sever relationships now or later because of the tone and content of the thread overall, and not because of the original complaint.

Posting about issues may go against us in the long run rather than help the solution and that's a fact, not a threat. In the end we have two choices, to continue shopping or not to continue shopping with that company. We cannot always change something because we'd like to.

But sometimes we as shoppers do bring about change. Goodwin and Associates is a great example of a company that used to be a very slow payer with some shoppers having to send "reminders" about money owed to them. Some associates from Goodwin read the forum posts and ultimately they changed and improved their payment schedule. So not everything posted is doom and gloom.

Sybil, I agree there are sometimes positive results. It may have become apparent to Goodwin that they were having more and more problems getting their experienced shoppers to take their work as some of them shared info about payment problems and backed off. I don't know, of course, I'm just guessing about that.

This thread started off calmly in the original post and then went downhill and got ugly in a hurry after some satisfied shoppers spoke up for ICCDS. There is an "us against them" element here that equates a good shopper/MSC relationship with something undesirable that's in opposition to all other shoppers. The "us against them" element appears to be dead set against the "let's work this out" element. I'm sick of hearing about what bad shoppers we are when we don't jump on every dogpile and kill the MSC. The MSC is not always right but not always wrong either.

Several shoppers on this thread made calm and logical posts about their issue(s) with ICCDS. I believe ICCDS is a reputable company and I expect that none of those posters will be penalized for speaking out and seeking counsel. I'm hoping none of them get pulled downward along with the posters of inflammatory and accusatory remarks, but it's impossible to know what will happen over the long run after a pigsty of a conversation like this one.

Yes, it's good to speak out. What's risky about it is that while we can control what we post, we can't control the tone and content of the thread overall and we become a part of that tone and content.

ShoppingBee Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> For those that
> only read the last page here is a recap of my
> opinion:
> MDavisnowell
> Success does come with risk, be it large or small.
> Risk is inherent in every aspect of our daily
> lives. I am not sure how "...deliberately
> increasing risk..." comes into play here. I see it
> that Sybil, Canuck and Dixie wanted to take
> advantage of the situation by sucking up to JOTEY
> to curry favor for themselves. That is in no way
> helpful to the shopper or the shopper community.
> It is downright self serving! If memory serves me
> right, Dixie attempted to be "helpful" (in another
> thread) to her former employer. Soon after she was
> shown the door and had her shopper account
> cancelled. I don't think Service Metrics
> appreciated her "help." Nor do I believe any one
> of the three of them made a serious attempt to
> help or "do the right thing."
>
> Suck on that bone! Now here is a scary picture:
> [www.linkedin.com]

Yeah at that point I wanted to post something so I could get fired. I was sick and tired of working with unprofessionals who caused many problems for shoppers and employees left to deal with it.. Also grew tired of how shoppers like some of the ones in this thread go around posting half truths of a situation then expect the MSC not to figure how who they are and wonder why they aren't picked for shops for example... Not enough pay to deal with that.

As I recall, the OP in that thread didn't even wait 24 hrs until she wrote that she was being ignored by SMI. I wasn't getting paid enough to care but it bothered me that she posted such nonsense. That OP never emailed or phoned when she said she did. It wasn't even about cheques until one annoying poster kept bringing up NSFs. What I couldn't say in that thread is that I wasn't even getting my pay on time and nothing about that posters past experience would change if it was true (you know cause the company didn't care to make sure their employees got paid on time). And if I say any more, they will send more mail threatening me to sue me to stop posting about my very real and truthful experience. That is bullying and is not really comparable to anything JOTEY said. In fact I wish more MSCs would take that approach.

I am actually pretty neutral too when it comes to ICCDS as I barely do shops for by choice. I just wanted to remind people to try to resolve their issues before coming to a forum and badmouthing people especially if you haven't tried all avenues to resolve it.. I don't need to kiss anyone's ass to make money and I don't care enough about people to do that. I learned with the whole SMI thing that shoppers can be ungrateful, deceiving people. As can MSCs. All you can do is communicate and if that fails, there's always this forum.

So clicking on the linkedin link, I came across some other people who work for ICCDS and one of them listed some of the clients that ICCDS has. I never thought of doing that to find out who shops who.

Posting the link with the description she provided is beyond rude and unprofessional. I was as neutral as Switzerland up to that point.

I was in no way trying to add to the current discussion by my above comment. It was meant to be a side point. I'm sorry if it was misinterpreted.

That wasn't at you. You're right that LinkedIn can be added to FB as ways shoppers can find out about clients without violating ICAs and is a good idea. I'm just appalled ShoppingBee would link to a personal photograph and describe it as scary. How would she like her photo posted here for all of us to comment?

I know I wouldn't want my photo posted. It might break the forum!

Edited to add: I am really looking forward to the Bare Minerals shop I have coming up.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/31/2014 11:59PM by kimmiemae.

Please don't post my photo on here. I already get enough fanmail pm's as it is.

Through that link, I found a picture of my favorite scheduler. Interesting.

Well, something good has come out of this thread after all! I never DREAMED of using LI and FB for MS'g. Old thinking: LI is for "real" jobs - like the ones I used to try to find; FB is for friends/family. New thinking: along with Jacob's masterfully re-done MSC list and this forum, I now have 2 more fabulous resources to continue building my business. Good thing "organization" is my top resolution - thanks, Kimmie and Lisa!

LisaSTL
With all due respect, you made two incorrect assumptions. The first being I am not a woman. The second error was assuming my motivation in posting that link. The photo was posted on a professional, business networking site yet it looks like something posted to a dating website or Facebook, extremely amateur and totally unprofessional. It is scary to deal with someone so self absorbed. Many of the self-proclaimed expert shoppers seem to be stale in that they are highly opinionated, jaded, skeptical, and not helpful. There are other great shoppers here that ask before assuming and judging. Those are the shoppers that are helpful, the others are just shills.