I've become very frustrated as I have tried to broaden my Mystery Shopping companies. I'm actually kind of going crazy to find a company that does shops for my car make, because I've seen so many service jobs for other types of cars, but not mine. Anyhoo, this led me to two new companies which sounded promising.

I signed up for a shop at a new company that was perfect. Huge bonus and food carry-out. Perfect.

FIrst, when I got the instructions, half were for carry-out, and half were for delivery. The submission form was entirely delivery questions. The video and instructions were for carry-out, "You MUST call and order to pick up."

I didn't know what to do. I emailed the scheduler about 10 times and no answer. The next day she returns my email and says, "This was a delivery shop. Did you do it?"

NO I did not do it, because I didn't want to spend $35 on pizza that wouldn't be comped. And it would be incredibly easy for the scheduler to say, "Well, you didn't follow directions. You should have called right away."

I was so ticked off at this. Do people not proofread? Who is working at these mystery shop places? I'm guessing they make no money either because the laziness in the submission form and apathy in returning emails is astonishing.

I wrote this company off. Too much hassle. How are you supposed to do a shop by a deadline when the instructions are all over the place and contridict one another?

WORST situation happened last week. I'm in DC. It's choatic as anything here. I had a shop that involved walking for 2 hours and noting the service of the "ambassadors" in this mapped area. I spent about 2 hours studying this map. I went to the area and walked. And walked. And walked. I visited ALL the 15 stars on the map. I took pictures. I never saw a single ambassadress. I asked people. No one had ever heard of these ambassadress.

Finally I go home because the shop time is ending and the scheduler was not answering her phone. The minute I go home (it takes about an hour to drive at 6PM through DC), the scheduler calls. She yells at me for not calling when I was in the area. I said I did and no one answered, so I left messages. She then asked if I took pictures at each of the starred areas. I said that wasn't the instructions. She was like, "Let me check." She pulled up the instructions for the shop and then says, "Well, whatever, you still needed to call me when you were still there."

I'm not trying to get paid or argue that I should. BUT she was acting like I was trying to scam her and I was lying or that I completely failed. I was extremely insulted and upset. I spent so much time preparing for this shop, walked around DC for two hours in pretty hot weather, and searched the entire time for these ambassaders, and I called. I am so upset by the horrible attitude she gave me that I definitely realized I NEVER wanted to do anything for these people. There are some pretty horrible shady places out there that use threats and intimidation to get shop info. It wouldn't surprise me if these types of companies are the ones that don't care if stuff is faked as long as their client accepts it. Just like shoppers can be shady, so can shopping companies.

I'm sorry that you are off to such a rocky start. I would suspect that if you read discussions about those companies on the forum there are likely to be complaints and frustrations similar to yours. We can learn from each other or we can learn from the School of Hard Knocks. I have learned from both and there are indeed companies and schedulers that just are not worth the hassle.

@rothers27 wrote:

I was so ticked off at this. Do people not proofread? Who is working at these mystery shop places? I'm guessing they make no money either because the laziness in the submission form and apathy in returning emails is astonishing.

I wrote this company off. Too much hassle. How are you supposed to do a shop by a deadline when the instructions are all over the place and contridict one another?

I empathize with you! Poorly written, ambiguous, and contradictory instructions and surveys are probably my biggest pet peeve in this business. (And, no, many people don't proofread. And apparently nobody at the MSCs reviews these shop materials with an unbiased eye so that they can spot these issues ahead of time.) What's more, oftentimes when you e-mail a scheduler to ask for clarification, they don't understand that the instructions are confusing. Or, they give you the wrong answers!

It's difficult to complete a shop when you can't get the proper information....

I will say that there are many companies I shop for that have clear, well-written materials. OTH, some are hopeless! There's one company I stopped shopping for because there was only one shop I ever did for them that didn't have glaring contradictions in the instructions vs. the surveys.

This right here----> "The submission form was entirely delivery questions." There was your answer. Despite the screw up, your shop was Delivery.

None of this is your fault. But let me give you an example:

I had a certain type of shop and it said to go inside and see about getting a job. I knew there was no job service center inside that store. I performed the shop as a donation shop. Why? Because it was in error. I performed it the way I believed they wanted. My scheduler said that was perfect and she apologized for giving me the job site paperwork instead of the donation paperwork.

If you can weave through the mess, sometimes the answer will come to you.

rothers, did the confirmation e-mail state whether it was delivery or carry-out? Or, if this is a Sassie company, was the information on the shop-log page?

There's one shop I do that rolls call-ahead and order-at-restaurant take-out shops into one set of instructions, But there's information in other places that specifies which you've been assigned.

Since you're not new to mystery shopping, just to that company, it sounds as if you would know where to look to find the information, if it was there. Even if the survey was all delivery questions, I can understand why you would want clarification. Sometimes you just don't know what to do.... Fie on the scheduler who didn't get back to you!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/02/2016 06:26PM by BirdyC.

These were the instructions:

SHOP CATEGORY: Fast food pizza shop
SHOP TYPE: ONLINE ORDER FOR DELIVERY
SHOPPABLE DAYS: Any day of the week
SHOPPABLE TIMES: Anytime during location hours
LIST PAY HERE: You will be reimbursed for large pizza with 1 or 2 approved toppings. You will also be reimbursed the tax, delivery charge and a 2.00 tip!
BONUS: You will receive a 29.00 BONUS for this shop!!

Shop Overview:

For this shop, you will order your pizza over the phone and then pick it up at your assigned DELETED location. You must call the location to place your order, and will evaluate the service you receive over the phone as well as when picking up your pizza.

And another extremely irritating one. How are you supposed to know if it is within your delivery area if they don't disclose the address? What's the point of providing a delivery map???? WHO WRITES THESE????

Overview
Restaurant Shop for Chicago Style Pizza Restaurant

This shop is a DELIVERY shop. You must call your assigned location to place your delivery order. You must live within a few miles of the location to perform this assignment. Visit the website [DELETED.com] to view the delivery zone. This shop requires you to take pictures of the items ordered (see shop instructions for further details). This requires you to own a smart phone or digital camera.
Ordering Requirements:

1. One Full Pizza of any size;

2. The following are optional: Salad, Pepperoni Bites or Garlic Knots. Do NOT order calzones.

Location Information

Client Name: To be disclosed in the confirmation e-mail
Address: Washington, DC 20009

That's my pet peeve, too, not providing the address of a shop. The zip code isn't specific enough. I signed up for a shop once and then found out it was in a part of town with no street parking, which meant parking in a garage. The cost of parking would have exceeded the shop fee. I canceled within minutes of accepting the shop. Had I known the address, I never would have accepted in the first place.

@rothers27 wrote:

These were the instructions:

SHOP TYPE: ONLINE ORDER FOR DELIVERY

Shop Overview:

For this shop, you will order your pizza over the phone and then pick it up at your assigned DELETED location. You must call the location to place your order, and will evaluate the service you receive over the phone as well as when picking up your pizza.

OMG! No wonder you didn't know what to do!

Not only "who wrote this," but who at the MSC reviewed the final shop materials and didn't see the contradiction!

Did the scheduler allow you to re-schedule? If not, I sure hope you didn't get a "flake" citation! Ridiculous.