Today, I did two post office assignments, about 1.5 hours away from my house.

I came home to do the reports, and discovered that - for both of them - I did the wrong scenario.

I did scenario C instead of B.

I spent ~ $25 on postage at each assignment (only one of which went to charity) and a little under $3 for the boxes. I should have spent less than $20 for both assignments.

I thought I was past my newbie errors with over 3 months experience and over 50 shops completed, and today I proved myself wrong. In fact, today's error proves that I am an utter idiot, and I am a novice.

*I hate myself, good night.*

Groan. I feel your pain. You may want to throw yourself on the mercy of the MSP and see if they can change your shops from B to C since obviously they have issues getting enough Cs performed.

There are no more Cs in my area (New York City). I e-mailed them, and they might change it, but I very much doubt it since it was my stupidity that caused the issue. *Knocks skull with fist.*

Also, remember, the company isn't making new shops up, I think since it is the last month.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/2015 05:24AM by eodermatt.

All you can do is try. Because it is the end they may have adjustments they can make to have all their requirements completed. Fingers crossed for you.

Don't feel bad. We all have messed up. If it makes you feel any better, I did a spa shop once where I was supposed to get two services done, but overlooked the requirement and only had one service done. It was over $100 in services. MSP did not accept shop and I was out of pocket. In addition, they never offered me another shop like that again.

The latest one was a local eatery where I ordered two entrees instead of an appetizer and entree. I had done the shop at least three times before and just didn't read over guidelines. Oh well. $40 later, I didn't get paid. It happens to the veterans, newbies and everyone at some point or another. I've made countless other errors on shops where I didn't get paid. I remember doing an audit and taking pictures.....I reported that the computers were not on and the pictures clearly showed they were on....the MSP rejected the shop and I missed out on $40 pay---that happened over a few weeks ago.

We all screw up sometimes, no matter how long we've been doing this. Sometimes stuff happens,

I made a mistake last month that caused the shop to be unaccepted, and three future assignments of the same shop were consequently dropped from my board. Yeah, I felt like a dumbass. It happens.

Last week, I had to do an early morning coffee shop and I also had a lottery ticket shop at the same location. Because I had to bike and I had to be back before my partner had to leave for work (so I am home with the kids), I had to get up at 4:30 and I had been up until 11 or so the night before working on reports.
I did make it there and back in time, but I forgot my receipt and my ticket and validation slip. Thankfully, the schedulers were understanding and let me reschedule.

Yikes. There is no way that I can see to turn a C into a B. I messed up last month and did a B instead of an A, and I confessed and made the case that except for the cost of the mailer, that a B is actually an A. I offered to pay for the entire cost of the mailer. It took a few days, but they accepted the shop. I would argue that a C could easily be written up as an A for partial reimbursement, but I can't see any way to argue that a C is a B.

I love this thread! Hearing about other people's mistakes make me feel better about my own. Here's mine:

A few weeks ago I went to a casual sit down restaurant for dinner after MS'ing a couple of places nearby. I read all the requirements ahead of time, and have done this type of shop before. I'm by myself, so I have no excuses for being distracted (even though you're allowed to conduct this shop either alone or with a guest). I'm taking notes like a champ about the hostess greeting times and server specials offered. My food comes, and yum! it's delicious! Only about halfway through my entree do I remember I was supposed to take pictures of the food before eating. Gah!

The worst part is that went I went back to do this shop again later, I forgot about the pictures of the food AGAIN and had taken 2 bites of my soup before I remembered. I snapped a quick picture of the soup (which was french onion, so that pretty crust on the top was mangled by my spoon), then took a picture of the entree and explained that I took the soup picture late on my report. Fortunately I got paid for the second one. But holy cow! I've done plenty of shops where you have to take a picture of the food before eating it. I'm not sure what happened, but I've decided that location is cursed and I'll never shop there again.

CaliGirl, that's one reason I rarely do restaurant shops. If I make a mistake, it's not just time and effort expended but also money I won't get back. I used to do a restaurant in the Atlanta area that I'd go to even if I wasn't mystery shopping, so if I screwed that one up I was okay with it (I didn't, though). But I haven't even attempted to take any others.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/2015 10:06PM by retrodaddy.

When I first started I did a dining shop where I had to take a guest. We had to order an appetizer, entrees, dessert. It cost me $60. I missed the part where I had to visit the bar so the the shop was rejected. There were ten pages of instructions with the shop and we both went over them. My mistake.

Oh that reminds me of those food/photo shops. Hate it. I had one that changed the requirement on the last quarter. I had been doing the shop for months without issues, when the editor asks me for photos of the food, I simply told her that I did not take photos....oh well. Wasn't paid for that either.

I thought of this thread yesterday when I checked into my hotel and almost forgot take the room photos before unpacking everything and making a mess.

We all make mistakes. Do your best to move on and forgive yourself.

I was quite proud of myself for covering 17 miles between two rural post offices in only 21 minutes, until I went to report them and the number 35 jumped out at me.

Everyone makes mistakes! I did a USPS shop yesterday and had to double check my scenario right before entering the post office just to make sure I didn't overlook it. I also had a restaurant shop where I had to take pictures before we even touched the food. I was starving and dug right into the appetizer that was shaped with a mold! Luckily it was just one bite I took from one side, and taking a picture from the other side of the plate you couldn't see my mistake and the food still looked perfect from that angle. I try not to get shops that require pictures of the food now. I'm just not used to snapping pictures beforehand.