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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/26/2018 07:06PM by Joy1228ce.

i cancel those and let the scheduler know why.

Because they hope someone better comes along. I do not let shop apps stay more than 2 business days. If I'm not good enough to be given the shop immediately then my time is better spent on other things.

It's maddening! I don't shop on the weekends, so that's when I make my schedule for the following week. I schedule shops between work and home, and I perform a lot of them during my lunch hour. I have a certain dollar amount that I want to meet each week. When a scheduler emails me that a shop I applied for has been **ACCEPTED** it throws a cog in my works!

Yep my time is important also. Sometimes I forgot that I applied for a shop until I receive the acceptance and then I only have 1 or 2 days to complete. Very frustrating....

@bgriffin wrote:

I do not let shop apps stay more than 2 business days..

Amen, I applied for a shop over a week ago and received an "Urgent" email for the same shop. I immediately deleted my request.

I like to be proactive. I email or call the schedulers when I want a shop badly after applying. I often request bonuses so have to contact the scheduler anyway. The ones I take off the board are usally self assign or I get assigned within a few hours of applying. Those that have sat in applied status for more than a day or two like Bgriffin I just delete. No does one slip through occasionally that I forgot I applied for yes. I will try my best to fit it in if at all possible or try to reschedule need be. If I have not been booked that day then I will book other shops around it. Lately thou I have been traveling and shopping the back roads of rural America on routes.

Once I have my schedule fairly well planned out for the next few days, I delete any pending applications. There is one job I do, though, that if I don't get it within a couple of days, I'll e-mail the scheduler and request it. Sometimes I'll get it, sometimes not. But it's worth the e-mail. Otherwise, I don't need the uncertainty....

I make a note on my schedule to cancel xyz shop application on a certain date if it has not been accepted by that date.

One of my pet peeves. Any scheduler care to reply to this thread?

I believe they wait until the last possible minute to see if someone will bite before they have to offer that whopping 13 cent bonus.

Bottom line, we the shoppers are responsible for tracking our applications. As long as you choose to leave an application pending, you are declaring you are available to perform it on time.

One thing that has not been said in this thread is the fact that certain schedulers will assign the shop to a shopper that will agree to do it on the first day of the window and leave the other shoppers in the applied status as backup shoppers without telling them. They can then assign it at the last minute if the first shopper flakes.

If you agree to take the shop on the first date of the window, your odds of getting accepted for the job are much higher.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/2016 02:17AM by scanman1.

Interesting, thanks scanman1.

I have a calendar and I keep track of which applications I have pending for which days. If I schedule another shop that day, I will retract my application.

I applied for 3 yesterday evening for today and stated in the comments that I will be next door or passing by the shop from 10-noon. At 12:15 I deleted all of them.

That is a really good idea. I am going to keep track of my applications from now on. And, I had no idea you could retract an application. Thanks for both! JGoodwin

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/10/2016 12:18AM by KaliAri.

What really irritates me is when I apply for a job and then keep getting the emails advertising the job.

I'm not sure I agree with the comment that it is the shopper's responsibility to withdraw the request, if he/she has waited several days and has not heard whether the shop has been scheduled to them or to anyone. Why is it the shopper's job to keep track, but not the scheduler's job to assign the shops in a timely manner? For example, if all schedulers would make the assignments within two days of posting the shop, I would keep my requested shop penciled in for the two days and then know I did not get the shop after two days had passed. I am then free to not be obligated to do the shop, can plan accordingly.

I prefer shops that I can self-assign immediately. Then I don't have to worry about being given a shop at the last minute.

@EileenS wrote:

I'm not sure I agree with the comment that it is the shopper's responsibility to withdraw the request, if he/she has waited several days and has not heard whether the shop has been scheduled to them or to anyone. Why is it the shopper's job to keep track, but not the scheduler's job to assign the shops in a timely manner?

It is the shopper's job to keep track of pending applications because we are business owners and the MSCs are our clients. Just like it is our job to keep track of all shops performed, pending payments, paid shops, mileage and many other business-related items.

Come on people. How hard is it to keep track of pending applications? If you can't handle this simple task, you may want to rethink being a MS'er and a small business owner.

I am so glad I posted this question. Im still fairly new to mystery shopping and thanks to all of you I received a lot of good advice. Thank you all for awesome responses.

There are a variety of reasons why a scheduler may wait to assign an open job. I can only speak for myself and my company.

Many of our projects have several shops at the same location and we have to keep a specific number of days between shops. The dates that a shopper has requested may not fit into the schedule. The more dates a shopper requests, the easier it is to schedule them. Those who are available earlier in the month are usually given preference, though, as we like to have time to find someone else if the current shopper cancels, reschedules, flakes, never submits the report or submits a report that isn't usable.

We also factor in a shopper's grade and history. When assigning our ticketed amusement park shops, I don't schedule new shoppers to our company early on, those who haven't done a similar shop with that level of difficulty/length of report or who have lower grades. Since we send some of the admission tickets in advance, essentially partially pre-paying, it's just not smart to schedule someone we haven't yet established a relationship with. I reserve those shops for my highest graded/proven shoppers, since they've established a level of trust...trust that they're not going to run off (steal) the tickets and not submit a report. A lot of times shops sit open because I'm waiting to hear back from my experienced shoppers about alternate dates to see if I can fit them into the aforementioned schedule of other shops at that same location. If I'm having difficulty scheduling an experienced shopper, then I will reach out to lower graded and less experienced shoppers who have requested it.

Something else we also have to consider is shop rotation. We try our best to stick to the client's rotation period. As the month goes on, if we're having difficulty finding someone in rotation, we may decide that it's time to break rotation by a bit.

However, in all of these situations, if a request is more than a few days old, I will almost always reach out to that shopper to see if they're still available for the shop BEFORE just assigning it to them, as I realize that their schedule may have changed in that amount of time.

I hope this helps answer some questions. :-)

Great post, AAJen. I have worked for your company and my scheduler at the time did reach out to me for alternate date options before automatically assigning it to me.

I find it is the large third-party scheduling companies that are the worst offenders of sitting on applications and not communicating with the shoppers. But I take responsibility for my own pending applications so it has not been a major issue for me.

Well I was contacted by a MSC I had never worked with before. They were assigning me a shop, where the phone call part of the shop had to be completed the same day - this email was sent to me at 2:00 PM, and as I was out doing another shop, it was close to 5:00 when I got this message. And frankly I was pissed when I got this email. So I wrote back to her, told her to reassign the shop to another shopper, that I was not willing to work for a company or scheduler who was so disrespectful of the shopper that they thought this was acceptable, and I told her to remove me from the list of shoppers for their company. She did write back and apologize that she had not meant to be disrespectful and that she could extend the date until the following day. Then I explained to her that my tomorrow was already fully booked, and I was quite serious that she should remove me from the list of shoppers. There are so many wonderful companies and schedulers out there, this was not one of them.

Thank you for taking the time to explain that to me. I really appreciate it..

@bgriffin wrote:

Because they hope someone better comes along.

@AAJen wrote:

We also factor in a shopper's grade and history. When assigning our ticketed amusement park shops, I don't schedule new shoppers to our company early on, those who haven't done a similar shop with that level of difficulty/length of report or who have lower grades. Since we send some of the admission tickets in advance, essentially partially pre-paying, it's just not smart to schedule someone we haven't yet established a relationship with. I reserve those shops for my highest graded/proven shoppers, since they've established a level of trust...trust that they're not going to run off (steal) the tickets and not submit a report. A lot of times shops sit open because I'm waiting to hear back from my experienced shoppers about alternate dates to see if I can fit them into the aforementioned schedule of other shops at that same location. If I'm having difficulty scheduling an experienced shopper, then I will reach out to lower graded and less experienced shoppers who have requested it.

So basically exactly what I said.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/21/2016 01:13AM by bgriffin.

I don't have time (age wise),so, I self-assign 90%, stress free, you know what you got and can schedule. with ease......

Yes, but why wouldn't we want to schedule the best shoppers possible? We try hard to give our clients quality shoppers and, therefore, quality evaluations. Also, shouldn't those shoppers who put in the hard work and perhaps long years be given first choice?

@bgriffin wrote:

@bgriffin wrote:

Because they hope someone better comes along.

@AAJen wrote:

We also factor in a shopper's grade and history. When assigning our ticketed amusement park shops, I don't schedule new shoppers to our company early on, those who haven't done a similar shop with that level of difficulty/length of report or who have lower grades. Since we send some of the admission tickets in advance, essentially partially pre-paying, it's just not smart to schedule someone we haven't yet established a relationship with. I reserve those shops for my highest graded/proven shoppers, since they've established a level of trust...trust that they're not going to run off (steal) the tickets and not submit a report. A lot of times shops sit open because I'm waiting to hear back from my experienced shoppers about alternate dates to see if I can fit them into the aforementioned schedule of other shops at that same location. If I'm having difficulty scheduling an experienced shopper, then I will reach out to lower graded and less experienced shoppers who have requested it.

So basically exactly what I said.

I'm not sure he was arguing with your thought process, just suggesting shops often sit for the reason you gave.

I hope so. Someone asked a scheduler to chime in, so I did. :-)