I recently did several phone shops where I had to call restaurants to book a room for a meeting, and discuss the lunch menu, etc. The call is recorded, and you can access the recording and listen to it while you're doing your report. I did six or seven of these successfully, getting the banquet manager on my first call, while I was aat home enjoying my morning or afternoon coffee, and was paid a whole $9 per shop. Easy peasy.

Then I got one where I constantly kept getting the voicemail. The instructions said to wait at least two hours between calls, to be fair to the banquet managers in case they are in a meeting, at lunch, on break, or hiding out in the bathroom for hours on end! And the client required at least eight tries to get through. Also, the calls could not go past 5 PM as the banquet managers finish at 5 PM. Well, I only managed to make seven calls over a two-day period, and my report was rejected, since I apparently was not being fair to the poor little banquet manager who never answered either of my seven calls.

As I told my scheduler, the problem is not with my only being able to make seven calls instead of eight. The problem is with the client whose manager is falling down on the job. Even ONLY seven calls should be enough proof of that. And to actually expect a shopper to dedicate two whole days to this totally useless endeavor, which works out to about 50 cents an hour? I only kept on calling as, coincidentally, I was confined to my house for those two day due to a minor injury. Oh well, it kept me busy for a while, but I sure won't miss that $9.

To chase down someone for $9, even if it is a phone shop does not seem worth it to me. I despise targeted shops and will only contemplate them when highly bonused. Then you know going in that if it's highly bonused, you might as well be a chasing a ghost and could end up with little or no pay depending on how the shop is written. If the consolation payment of not reaching the target is too small, then it's on my 10 foot pole list.

What awful shop terms! Assuming an eight hour workday, eight calls in two days means you HAVE to try every two hours. And for $9? I can't see how the client fails to benefit to know you tried calling this person seven times and couldn't get through, either.

I love and hate phone shops for the very reason you explained. I think, I had my shopper rating go down because one company kept answering the phone but nobody knew the right answers to my questions. I could not submit the shop form and they reassigned the shop to me. So, I got an incomplete shop I think. These calls were for less than $2 a piece and I will not do those again.

Thanks for validating my own conclusion. I think the client should have been more than happy to pay me for my efforts - and then have a good long chat with the manager who LOVES voice mail.