I was thinking about this the other day. Say you read the instructions and you've understood what the shop requires. Complete the shop as written, but then the Editors say you didn't follow the instructions, because the instructions weren't written as clearly as possible, or maybe you just were dumb at that moment and misunderstood.

I would personally offer to re-shop for free, only if it's a company I respect and want to work for again in the future.

What would you do?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2015 01:39AM by MilessMum.

If I followed the instructions as they were given to me, the chance I would do a free re-shop is pretty slim. If it was my screw-up, and the shop would not require a long drive to get there, I would be much more likely to do the re-shop.

If I really felt like it was my screw up, of course. Like I did the walk in when I was supposed to do drive through. (yup done that)

I drove 125 km one way to take a picture. because I forgot the picture. They didn't require me to redo the shop though; just get the picture.

Now if I didn't believe it was my mistake I might not redo it, I don't live close to town.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2015 02:05AM by prince.

I would not offer to reshop for free. I don't see the point in doing the shop twice and not getting paid at all.

If I didn't get paid the first time, that's already doing it once for free. So I would re-shop, but for the same fee -- the fee I did not earn first time 'round. I have certainly done my fair share of re-shops because I screwed up the first time.

I don't consider it "re-shopping for free." If the company has rejected my report, I'm not getting paid for it. And yes, I have always offered to re-shop it. But, I've never had a shop rejected where it wasn't straight-up my mistake.

@MilessMum wrote:

I was thinking about this the other day. Say you read the instructions and you've understood what the shop requires. Complete the shop as written, but then the Editors say you didn't follow the instructions, because the instructions weren't written as clearly as possible, or maybe you just were dumb at that moment and misunderstood.

Two different occurrences here. If I followed the letter of the law, no I would not offer. If I had a dumb moment, yes, I would.

I've reshopped when it was my mistake. I'd never do that if I did it correctly and the MSC erred in their instructions.

I did a shop where they overcharged me $6 on my item. The reimbursement was $10 and the incorrect amount was $18 so it was my money at this point that I was losing. I pointed it out to the cashier and she said to go to the next register and they would fix it. I reported the situation in the report and they rejected the report. There was no comment in the instructions to cover this situation. They then said I could re-do the shop. I did the shop a second time because I did not want to get a bad rating with that company. However, I still think I got the short end of the stick, especially since it was a very narrative heavy and detailed report.

My record is more important to me so if I made a mistake, I would be willing to redo the shop for free. And I have done that and they insisted on paying me. However, if it were the other scenario and it was definitely not my mistake, don't expect me to do another shop for that MSC. Knock on wood, I hope I don't have that experience.

I would rather take a lower score than ever do a shop for free. Silly question!

I'd offer to perform the shop again, but I sure as hell wouldn't offer to do it for free.

Relationships (with schedulers, with companies) are key in this business. If I made the mistake, I will re-shop if at all possible (it's one of the reasons I pick a shop date as early in the shop window as I can--just in case I need to reschedule or something comes up).

At the same time, I won't take shops likely to require a second trip (dozens of photos -- gas stations for example) while travelling.

I have offered when it was my mistake. However I was not taken up on the offer. I have gone back to get a picture I forgot. That was my mistake and one that is fixable. It taught me to check and double check the pictures and the guidelines before leaving town. So now I generally go to McD's, get a coffee, and go over everything before I leave. This seems to work. I completed all my routes this quarter without having to return to any location.

Depends entirely on the situation. I drove several hundred miles to redo a shop I screwed up this past summer but then the scheduler is good and I did about $6k in business with this company this year. While they are not my biggest client I'm certainly happy to fix my own screw up. At the same time if it were a company that is hard to get along with, there is a strong chance I wouldn't even drive 50 miles to fix a screw up.

I remember once I did a shop for a bank. This was a targeted shop, and I was told which employee I should look for. These were booths set up at a street festival in my town. The guidelines said if you cannot locate the booth, walk 2 blocks north, and 2 blocks south. If you still can't find it, stop one of the festival organizers in the crowd (they were wearing branded t-shirts), and ask where ABC's booth is located. The guidelines then said if you find the booth, but it's closed, or not operating, take a picture.

Luckily, the booth was open and I could do the shop. But, I can see where the miscommunication could happen. If a shopper goes to the spot, and the booth is closed, she would take a pic and that would be "following the guidelines." But, the client can then reject the shop and say she didn't follow the guidelines (walk the area, check with the organizer).

I've never had shop rejected but I've reshopped a shop that another shopper screwed up on so of course I got paid for it plus extra $ & brownie points w/scheduler.

If I screwed up a shop I would re-do the shop, but not for free. I would expect to get paid the original offer.

Well yes of course you'd get paid something...but you'd be getting paid for one shop, not two.

The thread title is "Would you offer to re-shop for free if you screwed up?" That means to me that I shopped and didn't get paid because I screwed up. Now the question is will I reshop the same job for free because I screwed it up the first time. Absolutely not. I'll do it over but not for free.

I went back to do two shops for different clients.

One was not my fault. the client moved from one side the street to the other side of the street but neglected to tell me about it. The client was open on the other side of the street but the guidelines specifically said do not shop if the address is not correct. I would not be paid if I shopped at the new location. The client was happy when I offered to go back to the new location. They paid me two shop fees. One because I was there at the address and it was out business and that was not my fault and the other fee as I actually went to the new address and performed the shop.

I had a shop recently where a client added a feature. I could not make contact with the scheduler so I "winged" it and made a minor error. The editor rejected the shop. I contacted the scheduler and clarified the details and the editor approved the shop when I went back and did the shop a second time. I did the first one early and the second shop late in the window of time allowed do I did not evaluate the same team members. There is the question. Do you flake it until you know what you should be doing or do you "wing it like I did? The scheduler agreed the guidelines were ambiguous but doing it incorrectly was better than flaking it as it appeared I tried to perform the shop. I did not get paid for the first attempt. I took the expenses as a loss on my income tax.

I'd like to add that most of the time when I totally screw up, the MSC never even knows about it...because I reschedule the shop and do it correctly. That is, of course, when it's MY error (forgot to remove an item for
a "special order"; my camera wasn't taking photos when I thought it was; went the wrong time of day....done
all those!).

I have driven 50 miles for a picture ( my fault) and rescheduled when I mess up - but offer to do a shop for free? No I would not do it for free.

I had my first rejection the other day. The MSC did not offer or request I redo. They immediately reposted it. I had shopped the wrong location. I would have re-done had they asked, but for the original fee.

@ValG wrote:

I had my first rejection the other day. The MSC did not offer or request I redo. They immediately reposted it. I had shopped the wrong location. I would have re-done had they asked, but for the original fee.

Did you grab it when they reposted it?

I have done re-shops because a) I ate my homework before taking a picture - It looked so good! b) I forgot the timing window and shopped at the wrong time. But, there was one time where I shopped a Pharmacy. I was supposed to find an out of stock item and then ask for help. The store employee did not check inventory, she did not offer to order it or to call other stores. She just handed me the larger jar and walked off. The editor called me and said that, in fact, the store did have the product in stock - in a different location in the store. They wanted me to re-do the shop. It took a while to convince him that THAT is the purpose of this shop. To see how they react when I ask for an out of stock item. She should have looked it up and then, when she found that there was some the product in the store, she should have looked for it. Epic fail on her part and that should have been used to teach the employee what to do in an out of stock situation. I did no re-do the shop... And I was paid.

I am new to mystery shopping. I forgot to take a photo and e-mailed the scheduler as soon as I realized. She e-mailed me asking if I could go back to get the photo. Then I realized she also had removed the assignment from my log, and it wasn't even due yet. She also gave me a flake citation, which I don't understand because I was in communication with her. Should I have not told her about the photo and just rescheduled to told her I needed more time to complete the assignment? Doesn't flake mean you aren't reliable and isn't being reliable mean you're in contact working on the assignment?

tonyajoy, I regret you had a problem. Let's see if we can figure out why the scheduler pulled the shop. First of all, was this the first issue you had with a shop regarding this scheduler? Sometimes when there are multiple problems with a scheduler's shops they will become less and less forgiving and accommodating. Also, when she emailed and asked you to go back for the photo, did you respond immediately and tell her you would go back at such and such a time and would submit the photo she needed by XXX AM/PM? If she did not get a response perhaps that is why she pulled the shop.

From your post I cannot tell if you responded, and whether she pulled the post before the response if you made one. As far as not telling her about the photo, if the shop was scheduled for that day and had a time frame on it I would have done the same thing you did and let her know I didn't get the picture while I was there. If it didn't have a time frame on the picture I would have gone back and got the picture and submitted the report without ever getting in touch. Flake on any given shop has nothing to do with whether you are generally a reliable person. Being in touch is better than not being in touch but there is no substitute for completing the shop and submitting the report on schedule. If you take a shop and do not complete it as agreed, that is considered a flake. Sometimes you can ask for a reschedule and the scheduler will cooperate, but sometimes they do not have that flexibility.

I'm not sure what happened here from the scheduler's point of view and my comments may not be appropriate or helpful. Here's hoping some of what I've written will clear up your questions and be of use to you.

She e-mailed and simultaneously pulled the shop. This is the first time I have had an issue with this scheduler. I have never worked with her before. After posting this question, I ended up responding to the scheduler that I was wanting to work on the report but didn't see the assignment on my list and asked if there were technical difficulties. She immediately added the shop back to my list. Then I e-mailed that I could not return to the shop today, as I live 2 hours away, but that I could on another date and listed those dates. She responded to complete the report and that hopefully it would be accepted without the photo. But the flake citation is still there. Isn't that an overuse of a citation? I can see giving a flake citation if someone is a no-show and doesn't communicate. But for an error?

The flake citation itself may be an error. Since she advised you to submit the report hoping it would be accepted, it seems to me the flake citation is over the top. I'd reach out courteously one more time to the scheduler and ask if the flake may be a mistake since you did actually do the shop and the report. If I couldn't get it corrected at the scheduler level, I'd try to go up the line with this one. I'd make sure I didn't offend anyone, no sense making this worse while trying to make it better. I'm wishing you the very best of luck here. Please let us know if you're able to straighten this out.