There seem to be some editors that feel a need to find something wrong, no matter how well everything was done. Is this the exception?
I've done about 40 shops now and have run into this a couple of times.
Clearly written narratives and marking, yet some editors want to call you on something they don't like.
I try to use the "Napoleon's Corporal" approach to a narrative. If somebody who was not there can read it and tell me accurately what happened based on the narrative as written then I expect an editor should be able to get the same understanding.
Just like a shop can have everything go right and gets high marks across the board, there can be times where nothing happens and you can summarize that in a sentence or two. To ask for a long descriptive narrative of an event where nothing happened is a waste of my time and the MSC's.
Has this happened a lot to others?

Sometimes when an editor is new it seems that they try to make a name for themselves. I just had a shop reviewed and got a 7 on the shop because the editor said that I didn't describe the food. An example of the question was 'why did you give the food the rating that you did?' My answer, " I gave the food an excellent rating because it tasted delicious and was presented in an attractive, appetizing manner. Editor said that I should have described the food. I'm giving the company a break.

Schedulers, for the most part, communicate with me either over the phone or by email. Some of them have actually been shoppers. I have never had communication with an editor other than attempting to correct whatever mistake they found. They don't have names, just initials.

@pammie8223 wrote:

An example of the question was 'why did you give the food the rating that you did?' My answer, " I gave the food an excellent rating because it tasted delicious and was presented in an attractive, appetizing manner. Editor said that I should have described the food. I'm giving the company a break.

Actually I agree with the editor. Your "food" description is pretty generic. Reading it, the editor has no idea what type of food it was. Yes, I realize that it is probably somewhere else in the report but it still needs to be in the commentaries.

If it was a steak, how was it prepared? Was it cooked to the proper temperature; rare, medium, well done? Was it juicy? Did it melt if your mouth or was it a bit chewy? You said it was presented in an attractive manner. What made it attractive? What accompanied the steak? Steamed broccoli and a baked potato with sour cream and chives? Candied carrots and garlic mashed potato? You get the idea. These are the types of descriptions that many editors/MSCs/clients are looking for.

I disagree Sybil2 and it may be a matter of different companies we work with. If the question is 'why did you give the food the rating you did?' that is not asking for a description of the food but rather why your response was the way it was. Description of the food--what ordered, how it was plated, what was the temperature, how did it taste--is the invitation to describe item by item everything you were served. That is where your comments about flavors and preparations would go. But I RATED the food based on my impressions--if I gave a 5 out of 5 it was because the food was excellent and no deficiencies were noted. Or if I gave it a 4 out of 5 it was because the fish was overcooked and dry. Or if I gave it a 3 out of 5, what all was wrong.

@pammie8223 wrote:

" I gave the food an excellent rating because it tasted delicious and was presented in an attractive, appetizing manner. "

If I was the customer, I could do nothing to improve operations with such a generic observation. They want details about each item on the plate. Here is what a low end steakhouse brought me not that long ago.

"The food runner needed to auction off the two dinners and did not ask if we needed anything after dropping the plates on the table and leaving immediately. I ordered the ribeye steak medium and when I cut into it, there was a solid raw red center and blood pooled on the plate. The baked potato was completely soggy and dark yellow in color. Even thought the potato was well past its holding time, the butter I placed on top of it did not melt as it was cold as well. The Broccoli was freshly steamed and a dark green color and had a great texture and was served hot. The waitress did not do a check back to the table for 7 minutes and 34 seconds after the steak was served."

Now, that is something a manager reading the report can address. If I said, "The steak dinner was terrible and the service was slow." there would be nothing in the report to improve that problem.

Yes, I sent that plate back and the manager had the order recooked and changed my potato for something else. Then I cut into the steak while he hovered at the table and there was not even a hint of pink. I didn't even have to say what was wrong with it. I just showed it to him and he picked the plate back up for the second time and carried it back to the kitchen.

I won't say what restaurant this is, but I have never returned for a shop there. If it was not a well established chain of over 30 years and located in the heart of tourist hell, they would have shuttered the doors.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/04/2015 04:46AM by scanman1.

One of my little pet peeves is when they 'get' you for things which the employees actually said. One of my recent reports was marked down for 'use of contractions'. The problem with this was....

*drumroll*

They asked me for an exact quote from the employee, and I gave it. I did not use any contractions when I was writing the rest of my narrative. I rather strongly suspect they also mark us down for correctly recording grammar mistakes made by the people we're shopping. I'm not going to correct that. If somebody tells me that they ain't got no something and the form asks for an exact quote, I'm going to tell the company that they said, "We ain't got no [something]."

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/04/2015 04:55AM by OceanGirl.

I did a Western Union shop about a year ago, and although the shop was supposed to be conducted in English, the clerk spoke a mixture of English and Spanish. I reported it as required, with quotes, and was marked down for spelling errors. I know that every word in English was spelled correctly, and every word in Spanish was spelled correctly. And I lot another point for poor English grammar. Duh - Spanish is not English. I didn't even bother to contest this with the editor. I would have must lost another point because they would have had to contact me again. I got paid. I was happy.

In the case of what the current OP wrote, I tend to agree with Scanman and Sybil, but there is such inconsistency, that Flash could be right - but not at the same time as Scanman and Sybil. Different MSCs, different clients. Lack of consistency in expectations is always a problem.

I agree that it's not really worth bothering the editor. I still got a 10/10 on the assignment, so I'm content with that. They know that I write well. I know that I write well. Meh! Kvetch over!

scanman1, you obviously had plenty to be unhappy about, but 'why did you give the food the rating you did?' has nothing to do with the runner auctioning plates. 'Rating' is an opinion, not a fact. It is a judgment or conclusion you arrived at based on a variety of factors. 'The fish was dry.' is a fact and belongs in the food description. 'My steak ordered rare was served with no pink,' Is a fact. 'The fries had no seasoning,' is a fact. 'The rice was undercooked and crunchy,' is a fact. 'I rated my food as ___________,' is an opinion. 'Why did you rate your food as _________,' is the factors that led you to that conclusion. It really is not an invitation to reproduce all facts previously stated but rather to state what formed your opinion. In pammie8223's case the opinion was formed because the food was delicious and attractively presented. In your case a lower rating would probably be given and more commentary would be needed on what formed your opinion about the food itself.

I am frequently asked on ACL shops something along the lines of if it were my restaurant, what would I do differently. Quite frankly there have been meals excellent enough in all aspects that I wouldn't change a thing. If that is the case I am not afraid to say so. On the other hand, if the ceiling fan is driving me crazy with its squeak, I will mention that I would deal with the squeaky ceiling fan. If the 'rare' steak was served 'done' I would comment about instant read thermometers or retraining, etc.

When I'm asked to enter the name on a receipt, I enter it EXACTLY as it appears on the receipt. Often, it's ALL CAPS. One editor told me not to use all caps when entering names. I ignored her and continue to ignore that advice because I don't always know which letters should and should not be capitalized in some unusual names. I figure if it's good enough for the receipt, it's good enough for my report. I only heard that criticism once and haven't heard it again. I figured it was an editor that was being nit-picky at the time, and the more time that goes by, the more I'm convinced that I was correct.

I read this thread with interest because I'm a freelance writer who's been published in a couple of national specialty magazines, and my editors say I'm the least amount of trouble to edit of anyone on their freelancer list. Many of my articles are critical in nature (book reviews, for example) so writing mystery shop evaluations is just a sliver of experience away from what I already do.

In just the month I've been back at this, I've been gigged a time or two for procedural errors (e.g., commenting on pictures I took), but not so far on composition. I'll have to wait and see if I ever run into an editor looking to make a name,...

It will eventually happen, Documentarian. Some 22-year old fresh out of college with a 2.01 GPA will decide to "reword your report for better flow" or rubber-stamp "Moderate grammatical errors" where there are none. Just smile at the dinged report and say, "Bless your heart." When the scheduler asks why you won't take the bear of a shop without a huge bonus, THAT's the time to talk about it. There's nothing but frustration meeting it head-on with his sort of editor.

@Sybil2 wrote:

Actually I agree with the editor. Your "food" description is pretty generic. Reading it, the editor has no idea what type of food it was. Yes, I realize that it is probably somewhere else in the report but it still needs to be in the commentaries.

Excellent summary, Sybil2. I'm not a food writer, but that's exactly the sort of descriptions that are needed. I got a real life workout on this sort of thing yesterday when my wife and I went out to a restaurant we were shopping, and her meal was great, but mine was a disaster. How it panned out in my description was more or less like this:

"The dip was excellent, smooth and creamy with an extra layer of cheese melted on top. But the chips that came with it were almost stale, and many pieces were broken up too small to be used for dipping."

"The shrimp were fresh and hot, with the breading fried to just the right level of crispness. The accompanying rice pilaf and side salad were delicious. The steak, however, was barely warm enough to eat. It was also a bit on the small side. The loaded baked potato was perfect, with just the right amount of seasoning, but there was a noticeable gap on the plate where they forgot to put the cole slaw."

Flash hit it well, too. They want an objective description of the food for elements which are mostly objective, which usually means temperature, freshness, moisture, or "doneness" for example. The subjective elements like taste and seasoning, they certainly want to hear about too, but given that they are subjective, those elements can get less description or emphasis.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/05/2015 12:47AM by Documentarian.

@MrEToomey wrote:

It will eventually happen, Documentarian. Some 22-year old fresh out of college with a 2.01 GPA will decide to "reword your report for better flow" or rubber-stamp "Moderate grammatical errors" where there are none. Just smile at the dinged report and say, "Bless your heart." When the scheduler asks why you won't take the bear of a shop without a huge bonus, THAT's the time to talk about it. There's nothing but frustration meeting it head-on with his sort of editor.

Heh heh, I'm sure it will. These days, what's that 22 year old likely to have had that college degree in, that qualified them for the position? Modern dance, maybe?

What that 22 year old has is a contract to edit shopper reports, and no one to hold them responsible. And no one but the shoppers care if they get a 9 or an 8 because the editor had to contact them for something which was already in the report. And if you manage to entice them to answer a response, then they have contacted you twice and your score drops another point or two. And still no one at the MSC (particularly contracxt schedulers) will really care, because they are not being paid to edit or to intervene. Some suspect that some MSCs reward their editors for finding mistakes and lowering scores.

pammie stick to your guns, That editor (probably 20 just on the job and never finished English in college) wants you to answer the question as she misinterpreted it not the one asked. You answered it correctly. Reading their minds is difficult sometimes. After a few conflicts like this, where you know you are right, they might learn from you.

Watch out for all those contractions you've used.
I don't understand why it's not ok to use contractions if it is used properly. I'm, I've, I'll, it's don't ... It's a common part of the English language.

I have a BA in English, my grammar is probably not perfect but definitely above average I think. I have never had a college professor correct me on grammar on my papers. I'm not 22 or a recent college grad maybe standards have changed. Recently I did three of the same shops, two of them I got a 9 and one I got a 7 for grammatical errors. For the score of 7 : "Please do not use contractions." I guess I have to watch myself when I write the reports for this particular company. My overall avg is still a 9 with this MSC. I remind myself with one of the advice I read on this forum, you get paid even with a 7 so I'm not going to let it bother me too much. I was a little bit annoyed at first.

@Documentarian wrote:

I read this thread with interest because I'm a freelance writer who's been published in a couple of national specialty magazines, and my editors say I'm the least amount of trouble to edit of anyone on their freelancer list. Many of my articles are critical in nature (book reviews, for example) so writing mystery shop evaluations is just a sliver of experience away from what I already do.

In just the month I've been back at this, I've been gigged a time or two for procedural errors (e.g., commenting on pictures I took), but not so far on composition. I'll have to wait and see if I ever run into an editor looking to make a name,...

Indeed contractions are frowned upon by most companies and editors. I do not know why and I do not really care. I am certainly capable of writing without them.

On the other hand your 2 '9's and 1 '7' reminds me of a series of shops I did that were virtually identical. The only difference was the location as I was duly ignored at all sites. This was back when a certain company did not offer bonuses except that if a shop got their equivalent of a 10 you got I think it was a $5 bonus, a 9 was a $2 bonus and an 8 was no bonus at all. (It has been long enough ago I'm not positive about the bonus money amounts.) Anyway, 2 shops were graded as 10 by one editor and a second editor decided one was worth a 9 and the other one worth an 8. Since the shops were only marginally profitable with the bonuses I never bothered shopping for them further because I had no control over who would edit my work.

I always get high marks on my shops and rarely have grammar and spelling errors. I did a phone shop for an online school and got a grade of 4. I've never been given such a low grade and the email said I had a lot of bad grammar, etc. in my narrative. Bully to that. I know how to write. I think that editor had a very bad day.

I have done that same school shop and that company loves to give low grads on the shops. I can get 10's from every other place but that school shop is something else. Then they wonder why they are begging and adding bonuses for other shoppers to help out. Sorry.... here is sit for some time. By the way, they say after 3 months you can call again because they system is cleaned out. So, I did after 2.5 years and guess what, my number was in the system. I said I just got the number so it must have been from someone that had it before. Thankfully, I had given a different address.

Someone early on talked about the original post not giving enough description. I went to a place to eat and described very well what the plate looked like, described the food as if they were seeing it through my writing. I even described the food temp, texture, etc. I wanted the editor to know not only the delicious food but the cool decorations around the place. Very unusual and cool! It is not a chain either. So, after all the time I spent writing it and I so proud of myself I got an email back from the editor. Thank you for the beautifully written and descriptive report it was not what we need. The editor said this is what we want: At 8:03 the waiter took our order. 8:05 brought water, 8:15.arrived with all the food and refreshed the drinks. etc. Nothing exciting. However, I was told that the editors loved reading my report since it was refreshing to read with what thy normally get. Oh well. I just give the facts! I go down the list of questions and write my report from that unless something occurred from out of the ordinary or no's on the report also. I am getting many more 10's now. I say they all want what they want, depending on how they feel, too!

Keeping editors happy seems to be a key to being successful so humor them along. You will get more assignments.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/05/2015 05:06AM by w1rc.

I rarely use contractions, but today all bets were off. Had I written my narratives without contractions, the narratives would have been stiff.

Then again there is another company that gives grief when I don't use contractions.

I had a professor that tried to give me a D because I didn't use contractions.

I really think it's a perception when they are reading the narrative, My concept of a correctly structured sentence is if I can remember the difference between to and too. If I'm lucky; I might remember that commas shouldn't be over used.

Yeah I subscribe to Grammarly. Ain't helping!

@scanman1 wrote:

@pammie8223 wrote:

" I gave the food an excellent rating because it tasted delicious and was presented in an attractive, appetizing manner. "

If I was the customer, I could do nothing to improve operations with such a generic observation. They want details about each item on the plate. Here is what a low end steakhouse brought me not that long ago.

"The food runner needed to auction off the two dinners and did not ask if we needed anything after dropping the plates on the table and leaving immediately. I ordered the ribeye steak medium and when I cut into it, there was a solid raw red center and blood pooled on the plate. The baked potato was completely soggy and dark yellow in color. Even thought the potato was well past its holding time, the butter I placed on top of it did not melt as it was cold as well. The Broccoli was freshly steamed and a dark green color and had a great texture and was served hot. The waitress did not do a check back to the table for 7 minutes and 34 seconds after the steak was served."

Now, that is something a manager reading the report can address. If I said, "The steak dinner was terrible and the service was slow." there would be nothing in the report to improve that problem.

Yes, I sent that plate back and the manager had the order recooked and changed my potato for something else. Then I cut into the steak while he hovered at the table and there was not even a hint of pink. I didn't even have to say what was wrong with it. I just showed it to him and he picked the plate back up for the second time and carried it back to the kitchen.

I won't say what restaurant this is, but I have never returned for a shop there. If it was not a well established chain of over 30 years and located in the heart of tourist hell, they would have shuttered the doors.

In my opinion this is just too much detail. Someone could actually sicken at having to read about blood of any kind. You are not in an ER. "The steak was grossly undercooked" is an effective example. Then "later the steak was grossly overcooked" and then the steak was just right. (Nod to Goldilocks). It would be a nit-picky editor indeed who wants to read about the mess of drama happening on your plate.

That said, whenever I explain a rating I do bring specifics if it seems salient. The food was delicious, for example, entails a particularly unique challenge of describing something subjective. What makes it delicious is a thing I could write such as "the bun was soft and warm, the burger was juicy, and the lettuce was crisp." Yum.

@scanman1 wrote:

@pammie8223 wrote:

" I gave the food an excellent rating because it tasted delicious and was presented in an attractive, appetizing manner. "

If I was the customer, I could do nothing to improve operations with such a generic observation. They want details about each item on the plate. Here is what a low end steakhouse brought me not that long ago.

"The food runner needed to auction off the two dinners and did not ask if we needed anything after dropping the plates on the table and leaving immediately. I ordered the ribeye steak medium and when I cut into it, there was a solid raw red center and blood pooled on the plate. The baked potato was completely soggy and dark yellow in color. Even thought the potato was well past its holding time, the butter I placed on top of it did not melt as it was cold as well. The Broccoli was freshly steamed and a dark green color and had a great texture and was served hot. The waitress did not do a check back to the table for 7 minutes and 34 seconds after the steak was served."

Now, that is something a manager reading the report can address. If I said, "The steak dinner was terrible and the service was slow." there would be nothing in the report to improve that problem.

Yes, I sent that plate back and the manager had the order recooked and changed my potato for something else. Then I cut into the steak while he hovered at the table and there was not even a hint of pink. I didn't even have to say what was wrong with it. I just showed it to him and he picked the plate back up for the second time and carried it back to the kitchen.

I won't say what restaurant this is, but I have never returned for a shop there. If it was not a well established chain of over 30 years and located in the heart of tourist hell, they would have shuttered the doors.

In my opinion this is just too much detail. Someone could actually sicken at having to read about blood of any kind. You are not in an ER. "The steak was grossly undercooked" is an effective example. Then "later the steak was grossly overcooked" and then the steak was just right. (Nod to Goldilocks). It would be a nit-picky editor indeed who wants to read about the mess of drama happening on your plate.

That said, whenever I explain a rating I do bring specifics if it seems salient. The food was delicious, for example, entails a particularly unique challenge of describing something subjective. What makes it delicious is a thing I could write such as "the bun was soft and warm, the burger was juicy, and the lettuce was crisp." Yum.

@incognito wrote:

Thank you for the beautifully written and descriptive report it was not what we need. The editor said this is what we want: At 8:03 the waiter took our order. 8:05 brought water, 8:15.arrived with all the food and refreshed the drinks. etc. Nothing exciting. However, I was told that the editors loved reading my report since it was refreshing to read with what thy normally get.

The dining reports I do want detailed descriptions & accurate timings. Double whammy.

Contractions are considered informal English, not formal. They are a level above LOL and OMG, but still not formal, standard English. We do so little formal writing these days that most of us don't even notice when we hear or use minor transgressions like contractions.

To the poster above who said a professor threatened a low grade for not using contractions, I cannot even imagine what the thought process was!

(I am not criticizing use of contractions -- don't get me wrong. Just clarifying why we are often told not to use them.)

@aayaey wrote:

Watch out for all those contractions you've used.
I don't understand why it's not ok to use contractions if it is used properly. I'm, I've, I'll, it's don't ... It's a common part of the English language.

I think I have it. Our reports are being edited by Commander Data from Star Trek.

A particular issue I have is when I am told to quote an employee exactly, and I do so including contractions and slang. Later (particularly by one company which allegedly pays its editors to find problems) my report is rated an 8 because I used contractions and had mis-spelled words when quoting employees! Commander Data? Not in my opinion, but sometimes I think my reports are edited by Bizarro, the mirror image of Superman.