@catgrannyof5 wrote:

In my experience, liddlekiddle, perhaps you should have texted or email your cancellation. That way, you have written proof of your cancellation. You only asked to cancel your app verbally. I found that some MSC are really anal about the communications regarding anything about their shops so it would be best to have some form of written statements to back up your end of communication.

From reading it, it sounds like the communication was via email:

@liddlekiddle wrote:

Concurrent to this I applied for a smart phone coupon shop for the same day. The scheduler emailed me and said she wanted to package the easy, fast coupon shop with a valet shop in a downtown location with a $40. outlay. I declined and said cancel my app on the coupon shop.

@catgrannyof5 wrote:

In my experience, liddlekiddle, perhaps you should have texted or email your cancellation. That way, you have written proof of your cancellation. You only asked to cancel your app verbally. I found that some MSC are really anal about the communications regarding anything about their shops so it would be best to have some form of written statements to back up your end of communication.

The lack of cancelling is not really the issue here. Yes, the OP could have cancelled. He was still hoping the shop might be assigned. He just didn't expect it would be assigned at 7:45PM on a Friday night with the report due 4 hours later at midnight. He thought it might be assigned with at least a full day to complete.

I leave the house one time a day to do multiple shops. I would never make a special trip for one $7 shop. That would be crazy. A shop should never be assigned later than early morning of the day it is due. Even early morning would be very short notice. If I received e-mail confirmation of an assignment at 7:45 PM on a Friday night, I likely would not even see it until the next morning, which is what apparently happened to the OP. If I DID see the e-mail confirmation at 7:45PM on a Friday night, I would not cancel all my plans that night to go do a $7 shop so I could meet the midnight deadline for a scheduler who disrespected me and dumped a last-minute assignment. Is there anybody here crazy enough to do that?

Why would a scheduler:

1) Refuse a shopper's application to do a shop, stating unless he did another, hard-to-schedule shop for her he could not have the shop?
2) Assign a shop on a Friday night at 7:45PM and expect it to be done and reported by midnight?
3) Issue a citation to the shopper because he did not check his e-mail between 7:45PM and midnight and did not realize it had been assigned at the last minute?

And even if the shopper HAD SEEN the assignment at 7:45PM, why would a scheduler expect the shopper to cancel plans, immediately complete and report the shop by midnight? And issue a citation if he did not?

I really would like to know the answers to the above questions. I hope Tracy stops by to respond. I hope someone else from RBG also stops by to respond. I hope the citation is removed.

This is not the treatment I've come to know with RBG. They usually treat their shoppers with respect.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/2016 02:18AM by Jay C.

@Tarantado wrote:

@jay225 wrote:

100% sounds vindictive to me, but you messed up by not cancelling the app yourself.

I disagree. The note to cancel was sent to the scheduler: "I declined and said cancel my app on the coupon shop." liddlekiddle should not have been given a citation for the scheduler slipping up and assigning the shop mistakenly, if that's how it all went down...

I think Jay's point was that by notifying the scheduler directly to cancel the application instead of manually logging in and cancelling it the OP was putting the cancellation in someone else's hands instead of their own.

Ah, the voice of "reason" at 2 in the morning! Thank you.

Always leave a paper trail. Always. I still have some from 8 years ago.

Something similar happened to me and I emailed the scheduler after receiving an email that if I did not confirm the acceptance, I would get '1.'

"I will not confirm this because you sent it too late. According to the email, it was accepted at 2:39 PM , Feb 23 for a shop after 3PM the same day. I waited for the acceptance in the wee hours the day before. The next day, the whole condo had no electricity and water. I received your email at 9:39 PM.

If this means I get a '1' for something I don't deserve, I would really be disappointed and would ask to be deactivated because I don't want my mystery shopping record to be affected. Thank you."

Here is the response from the scheduler:

"This is just a misunderstanding. I assigned the shop to you at 9:39 am. You will not be receiving a "1" because you have done nothing wrong, and I will not be deactivating you unless you ask to be.

I hope you understand that I wouldn't have been so careless to assign a shop so close to when it would be due; that wouldn't be fair to you or any other shoppers and that's simply not how I operate.

If you would like, we can reschedule this for next Tuesday. If you want this shop gone altogether, I will remove it without penalty."

All is well that ends well. Like the OP, I came to the board to air out. This could be a misunderstanding, OP. I hope you try and clear it out. You do not deserve a citation.

it's for the shopper to cancel the shop in my opinion, not the scheduler. the scheduler has a lot of shoppers to deal with, plus they're already most likely annoyed by seeing you wanting to cancel, so it'd be easy for them to pretend they never saw it.

I have to disagree. These are schedulers. Assigning and removing shops is their job. Working with shoppers and building good relationships with shoppers to get assignments completed is the best way to go about their job.

If the scheduler changed the parameters of the assignment by including another shop, and the new parameters were declined by the shopper, then they should be understanding and remove the request.

@jay225 wrote:

it's for the shopper to cancel the shop in my opinion, not the scheduler. the scheduler has a lot of shoppers to deal with, plus they're already most likely annoyed by seeing you wanting to cancel, so it'd be easy for them to pretend they never saw it.

I totally agree with you. No question that the shopper should have cancelled the shop herself.

In this particular situation, though, the shop was assigned to her at 7:45 p.m. on a Friday night and completing the report by midnight that same night was mandatory. When she e-mailed Tracy the next morning to apologize for not seeing the e-mail, Tracy gave her a citation. Is that reasonable?

I'm looking for personal shopper input and opinions here.

How often do you check your business/MS e-mail?

How far in advance do you expect to be notified of a shop?

Do you routinely check your MS e-mail looking for shops after 7 p.m. at night?

If you opened your e-mail Friday some time after 7:45 p.m. and saw that a scheduler had assigned you a shop that was due at midnight, what would you do?

If you did not open your e-mail after 5 p.m. on Friday because you had social plans, and you discovered the next morning that a shop had been assigned and was now late, what would you do?

@liddlekiddle wrote:

Concurrent to this I applied for a smart phone coupon shop for the same day. The scheduler emailed me and said she wanted to package the easy, fast coupon shop with a valet shop in a downtown location with a $40. outlay. I declined and said cancel my app on the coupon shop.

I've read the thread a couple times and realize you mean well, but it just occurred to me: May there have been misinterpretation here? May Tracy have simply been thinking you were declining the package deal, as a package? A later response you post of hers leads me more to this impression, and I can see that on her end why it would be strange that someone who was going to do one shop, would decline to do that shop, just because they didn't want to do the other shop. Then, you never cancelled the application, yourself. I am confident you will work it out with her if everyone remains professional, but that is the key.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/2016 04:25PM by tcurione.

@SteveSoCal wrote:

I have to disagree. These are schedulers. Assigning and removing shops is their job. Working with shoppers and building good relationships with shoppers to get assignments completed is the best way to go about their job.

If the scheduler changed the parameters of the assignment by including another shop, and the new parameters were declined by the shopper, then they should be understanding and remove the request.

I completely agree with you, but I also agree that the only way to ensure the application was deleted was to do it yourself.

@roflwofl wrote:

@jay225 wrote:

I'm looking for personal shopper input and opinions here. (rolfwolf)
risinghorizon:
First, I fully agree with SteveSoCal. The scheduler was told by OP and she should have cancelled it. She could not be including another shop at will. Because she did not cancel it, the onus was on her to let the buck stop with her. She was the one who changed the shop parameters.
The shopper has every right to not accept her new job offer.

How often do you check your business/MS e-mail? reply --------------- Every day, if possible but usually in the wee hours.

How far in advance do you expect to be notified of a shop? reply----- At least a day or so, depending on the type of shop.

Do you routinely check your MS e-mail looking for shops after 7 p.m. at night? reply ------ No. Only when I have free days ahead.

If you opened your e-mail Friday some time after 7:45 p.m. and saw that a scheduler had assigned you a shop that was due at midnight, what would you do? reply-------------------------------------------------------------- I would definitely email the scheduler and express what I felt per what I said in my previous post. No way would I go running around completing a shop near midnight.

If you did not open your e-mail after 5 p.m. on Friday because you had social plans, and you discovered the next morning that a shop had been assigned and was now late, what would you do?

reply----------- I would contact the scheduler by all means, email, help desk, shop input, telephone, whatever. If I get a citation, I would go higher. I used to just deactivate, but I believe most schedulers are fair and not mean-spirited.
But it is time-consuming and would really taxed my patience. I would be wary of dealing with that scheduler again.
Edited for clarification. Replies are by risinghorizon

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/2016 05:43PM by risinghorizon.

While the OP certainly could have removed the application for the assignment, the flake citation is unquestionably not deserved in this instance. I think there's a reasonable expectation for some advance notice on assignments.

I check my mail regularly on my phone and would have responded to the email at some point late in the evening if I had been given such an assignment, but it seems that responding late on Friday or early Saturday would have had just about the same effect. It's all outside of regular business hours, and putting a replacement evaluator in that late would probably not have been an option.

Lastly, I have to add that based on communication I have had with this scheduler in the past...though it was professional, I always received the impression that she wanted things to go as smoothly as possible on her end with the least amount of shopper contact required. She didn't seem to understand the concept of communicating with shoppers to build a positive work relationship.

I really believe it was a misunderstanding. "The scheduler emailed me and said she wanted to package the easy, fast coupon shop with a valet shop in a downtown location with a $40. outlay. I declined and said cancel my app on the coupon shop."

OP's email response to cancel the previous app because she did not agree with the new package offered by the scheduler was a written proof of cancellation. I suggest the OP send her email reply to the higher up. Mystery shoppers have a life too. Since the shoppers and schedulers are in this together, each has her own duty. The scheduler reneged on her duty and should not penalize the shopper for her own (scheduler's)incompetence. It is so easy to point the finger at OP but reread SteveSoCal's and JayC's posts. Issuing a Citation was vindictive. What exactly is the duty of a scheduler? A judge has the power to issue anyone 'contempt of court' and sometimes at his whim. Is this the case?

I have performed over 50 shops for RBG and have always been treated fair and paid for the assignments. I have a solid consistent 10 with them. I hope you don't give up. Just like with any profession you can have a bad scheduler but thankfully I have not encountered one with this company. I sure miss their shops with the cinnamon butter on the rolls!

@SunnyDays2 wrote:

I have performed over 50 shops for RBG and have always been treated fair and paid for the assignments. I have a solid consistent 10 with them. I hope you don't give up. Just like with any profession you can have a bad scheduler but thankfully I have not encountered one with this company. I sure miss their shops with the cinnamon butter on the rolls!

Oh no! You mean they are gone? I used to do them because my son like them a lot. And the shop was too easy to do.

@risinghorizon wrote:

@SunnyDays2 wrote:

I have performed over 50 shops for RBG and have always been treated fair and paid for the assignments. I have a solid consistent 10 with them. I hope you don't give up. Just like with any profession you can have a bad scheduler but thankfully I have not encountered one with this company. I sure miss their shops with the cinnamon butter on the rolls!

Oh no! You mean they are gone? I used to do them because my son like them a lot. And the shop was too easy to do.

I have not seen these delicious to die for shops in over a year! sigh...

@roflwofl wrote:

@jay225 wrote:

it's for the shopper to cancel the shop in my opinion, not the scheduler. the scheduler has a lot of shoppers to deal with, plus they're already most likely annoyed by seeing you wanting to cancel, so it'd be easy for them to pretend they never saw it.

I totally agree with you. No question that the shopper should have cancelled the shop herself.

In this particular situation, though, the shop was assigned to her at 7:45 p.m. on a Friday night and completing the report by midnight that same night was mandatory. When she e-mailed Tracy the next morning to apologize for not seeing the e-mail, Tracy gave her a citation. Is that reasonable?

I'm looking for personal shopper input and opinions here.

How often do you check your business/MS e-mail?

How far in advance do you expect to be notified of a shop?

Do you routinely check your MS e-mail looking for shops after 7 p.m. at night?

If you opened your e-mail Friday some time after 7:45 p.m. and saw that a scheduler had assigned you a shop that was due at midnight, what would you do?

If you did not open your e-mail after 5 p.m. on Friday because you had social plans, and you discovered the next morning that a shop had been assigned and was now late, what would you do?

oh wow, I actually didn't read this thread close enough then. that is a total bs move by the scheduler.

They still have them. Perhaps not in your area? The last email I got about them the shops were due 3/19/16. I usually delete the email after drooling over it because there are no stores in my immediate area.

@SunnyDays2 wrote:

@risinghorizon wrote:

@SunnyDays2 wrote:

I have performed over 50 shops for RBG and have always been treated fair and paid for the assignments. I have a solid consistent 10 with them. I hope you don't give up. Just like with any profession you can have a bad scheduler but thankfully I have not encountered one with this company. I sure miss their shops with the cinnamon butter on the rolls!

Oh no! You mean they are gone? I used to do them because my son like them a lot. And the shop was too easy to do.

I have not seen these delicious to die for shops in over a year! sigh...

@roflwofl wrote:

How often do you check your business/MS e-mail?
How far in advance do you expect to be notified of a shop?
Do you routinely check your MS e-mail looking for shops after 7 p.m. at night?
If you opened your e-mail Friday some time after 7:45 p.m. and saw that a scheduler had assigned you a shop that was due at midnight, what would you do?
If you did not open your e-mail after 5 p.m. on Friday because you had social plans, and you discovered the next morning that a shop had been assigned and was now late, what would you do?

* Several times a day between 9-7. Rarely after 7 pm unless I'm entering a long narrative and need a break.
* It depends on the scheduler, the rate of pay, and the ease of a shop. For some I like/owe,
$50 for a quick shop in the area with little to no narrative, I might pop out of the game for a few minutes. Anything more than that, and her lack of preparation is not my emergency.
* I'd probably have been as upset as the OP, and charged any future shops scheduled by this scheduler a whopping bonus.

Same here. I haven't seen them this month, but they were definitely around last month.

@kimmiemae wrote:

They still have them. Perhaps not in your area? The last email I got about them the shops were due 3/19/16. I usually delete the email after drooling over it because there are no stores in my immediate area.

@SunnyDays2 wrote:

@risinghorizon wrote:

@SunnyDays2 wrote:

I have performed over 50 shops for RBG and have always been treated fair and paid for the assignments. I have a solid consistent 10 with them. I hope you don't give up. Just like with any profession you can have a bad scheduler but thankfully I have not encountered one with this company. I sure miss their shops with the cinnamon butter on the rolls!

Oh no! You mean they are gone? I used to do them because my son like them a lot. And the shop was too easy to do.

I have not seen these delicious to die for shops in over a year! sigh...

My input to the questions asked:

How often do you check your business/MS e-mail?

My full-time j,ob pays the bills so mystery shopping takes back seat to my daytime career. I check my MS e-mail early in the morning. Anything that hasn't been assigned before I leave the house in the morning is not going to get done that day. I check my MS e-mail about noon just in case there might be an editing question, and I check again when I get home from work.

How far in advance do you expect to be notified of a shop?

I like at least 24 hours notice, although if a shop is scheduled to me early in the morning, before I leave the house, I will complete it.

Do you routinely check your MS e-mail looking for shops after 7 p.m. at night? No, I do not.

If you opened your e-mail Friday some time after 7:45 p.m. and saw that a scheduler had assigned you a shop that was due at midnight, what would you do?

It is unlikely that I would open my MS e-mail on a Friday night after 7:45PM, but if I did and if I saw I was assigned a shop requiring completion and reporting by midnight, I would send a cancellation e-mail to the scheduler.

If you did not open your e-mail after 5 p.m. on Friday because you had social plans, and you discovered the next morning that a shop had been assigned and was now late, what would you do?

If I opened my e-mail on Saturday morning to see that I had been assigned a shop on Friday night with a 4-hour completion requirement, I would send an e-mail to the scheduler explaining that I did not see the e-mail between 7:45 and midnight and offer to do it on Saturday or Sunday.

I think people are missing the point here. The big issue is the scheduling the shop at 7:45 p.m. on a Friday night with theshop due by midnight the same day. That and the citation for failure to complete the shopon that short notice are the unreasonable parts of the schedulers actions. No scheduler should expect to schedule a shop that late in the day and have it completed the same day.

I don't have any experience with RBG so I can't offer any insights onto how they treat shoppers - but I can say that my experience with Summit Scheduling? Not very positive. Not very positive at all. I guess that's one good thing about being an IC and not an employee - I don't need to suck it up and I can move on from an MSC and/or scheduling company that does not work for me for whatever reason at will. Just like the MasterCard commercial says - Priceless.

@Danza wrote:

I think people are missing the point here. The big issue is the scheduling the shop at 7:45 p.m. on a Friday night with theshop due by midnight the same day. That and the citation for failure to complete the shopon that short notice are the unreasonable parts of the schedulers actions. No scheduler should expect to schedule a shop that late in the day and have it completed the same day.

Regardless, the shopper had already sent an email to the scheduler declining the shop altogether all before the shop was even scheduled by the scheduler....

@SteveSoCal wrote:

I would suggest first contact Tracy to politely explain why you think the citation is unfair, then escalate it to the MSC if needed. There may be shops with RBG that you want in the future and so it's best to protect your rating.

How do you exactly escalate this stuff to the MSC itself? I seem to be unawares on this. I'd rather just deal with the scheduler, but I know of one scheduler I might have to use this technique with since she isn't seeming to listen to reason. It's unfortunate since it's a new company I'm contracting with.

Anyhow, there does seem to be some vindictive people in the MSC business, and I'm not sure why they seem so venomous. Maybe it's the low pay all around?

One last note. It does seem that RBG is trying to package their coupon app shops with other harder-to-assign shops. There is no way I am going to do the shop in my area they want to assign just for the coupon shop. I am not going to take 20 million pictures for a pittance....

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/2016 05:52AM by Evalu8this.

Wow, I cant believe it! I had the same problem with a certain Scheduler just this week!

I am going to say up front that I did not read through all of the prior posts (just a disclaimer!). I have experience with the scheduler in question, and have generally found her to be on point, fair, and responding in a reasonable amount of time. There have been some instances of me missing out due to a delay, but she is fair, and I do not believe she is vindictive. She has a job to do, just like we do, and none of us are perfect. I have been personally rescued from the fire by some schedulers when I have messed up. I am sure they have days where they have an "oops" moment as well. It is easy for me to make these comments when I am on the outside of the issue, and not the inside-I get that. Make a few e-mails explaining the point when you have both calmed down. I am sure it can be resolved. The company is a good one, and the scheduler may have misunderstood something. Lastly, it is possible that the e-mail was "hung up" and sent many hours before it arrived in your box. Just some thoughts from one shopper who is not always perfect!

@jroby1 wrote:

I am going to say up front that I did not read through all of the prior posts (just a disclaimer!). I have experience with the scheduler in question, and have generally found her to be on point, fair, and responding in a reasonable amount of time.

Given your comment, you should really go ahead and grab a cup of coffee and read the thread. It pays to be informed and to know what you are commenting on.

Nobody wants to crucify Tracy here because neither schedulers nor shoppers are perfect. And the OP did not bash Tracy with his post. In fact, he did not even identify Tracy until another poster asked. This citation sounds like an appalling mistake and it should be corrected. Yes, there could be lots of reasons why Tracy made the mistake, but the problem is that she not only did not correct the mistake, she compounded it. If Tracy does not decide to do the right thing on her own, then I hope RBG removes the citation and censures her.

I've also had no difficulty working with Tracy, but since posting on this thread I am hearing from many shoppers who have had problems with her and say they are afraid to post in open forum.

I hope the OP will come back and let us know what happens, if anything.

I have over 350 shops with RBG. I royally messed up on one, because I wrote my narratives the wrong way. I was in big trouble. My scheduler, the editors and a big wig with RBG were Johnny on the spot to find out why I did it. Saved myself, but only because RBG was proactive.

I have worked with Tracy multiple times. She's always been professional as are all the other scheduler's who work in house or the independent scheduler's for RBG.

If you can't do a shop...it is up to you to cancel it, verbally, through email and on the application log.

MaryAnn