Not a long rant here... Just a "wow, really"?

For the record, the error was my part. I recently completed a shop where I had to take a ridiculously huge amount of photos. I took all of the pics but did not upload one (I had it but missed it for some reason during the upload). When the editor requested it, I sincerely apologized and sent it to him within 15 minutes.

He then wrote a long comment on my shopper log about how I did not follow directions and for me to read the instructions carefully the next time I do a shop. He gave me a stern warning that I needed to be more responsible.

I really do apologize, your highness!!!

Yikes! I am going to do a session at the November IMSC conference in LV about complaints that schedulers and editors get and why some of those make them crazy. May I use your experience as evidence that it is a two way street.

As my British friends would say, "Crikey! What a cranky editor!"

There is no need for that, building up his findings by tearing you down. I once took a picture of the wrong item at Best buy (off day), and the Editor emailed me, I went back, took correct picture and she thanked me. I'm not sure I'd want to continue with them unless there pay is amazing and I doubt it. Take it with a grain of salt when some make a mountain out of a molehill. I always wonder if their bosses know the way they treat shoppers.

Be my guest!!

@walesmaven wrote:

Yikes! I am going to do a session at the November IMSC conference in LV about complaints that schedulers and editors get and why some of those make them crazy. May I use your experience as evidence that it is a two way street.

As my British friends would say, "Crikey! What a cranky editor!"

Um.... You obviously DID follow the instructions; otherwise, you wouldn't have had the photo ready at hand to send in. You did what you were supposed to do and made one mistake in uploading. You have to wonder if some editors justify their existences by making a mountain out of every molehill.

Guy's a jerk.

Yes...nice way to approach that would have been, "You may have forgotten to include your photo of X."

Or, "For some reason I did not receive your picture of X." I actually prefer this approach because although the internet is much more reliable than it was even 5 years ago, there still can be glitches and a glitch can be at the sender, receiver or in between.

I was tempted to send a passive aggressive email to the editor but opted not to. Prob wont make a difference. Thought I'd just post here for a quick laugh.

Linda,
LisaStL's sig line about not trying to teach a pig to sing provides reason enough not to have sending a nastygram back at that editor.

That's ridiculous for him to send that.

What you all don't know if you haven't ever had the burden of editing shops is that (even without knowing LindaM's work personally) her report was superior to most. I can tell by the way that she writes that she is in the top 5% of all shoppers, clearly. He should be kissing her butt that she was willing to send such as awesome report in the first place.

Yeah, just move on. Sucks to be him.

Sentry is infamous about nonsense admonishment...the editor will make a fake claim about a mistake, you return the report exactly the same, pointing out the info is there correctly...the report is accept..but shopper is still admonished for the alleged mistake..

Sentry has used false claims about my errors one too many times and used them as excuses to deny me promised bonuses. I no longer shop for them for that reason.

@BirdyC wrote:

You have to wonder if some editors justify their existences by making a mountain out of every molehill.

^^This^^

The less than perfect marks in my accounts are overwhelmingly from overflow or contract editors. If I have misplaced a comma (and it's not simply a style choice), add it and move on. It doesn't need commented upon.

i had one give me an 8 and i asked her why...she says...there were some language corrections that were made...i say, can you tell me exactly what so i can not make them the next time...she says, no, i dont remember.

another wanted more details on the physical description of the employee that helped me...i already had age, sex, race, hair color, hair type and length, glasses, build in there.

another says...did employee x mention service y? im thinking...did you read the report...i picked NO out of a yes/no radio button to that very question.

I was wondering why I was lucky enough not to have never encountered such an editor. Then realized it could be because I have never done any shop for that MSC. Keeping my fingers crossed.

It's more than one MSC, rising. I think Birdy hit the nail on the head when she commented that some are trying to justify their jobs with unnecessary deductions.

I just wish I could be perfect like that editor. Must be great to never make mistakes!

I believe​ that the issue with your shop was related to not following the guidelines:

[www.mysteryshopforum.com]

@proudlyshopping wrote:

Sentry has used false claims about my errors one too many times and used them as excuses to deny me promised bonuses. I no longer shop for them for that reason.

I canceled a Shop one time for a company, and in my list by My profile, area it says "flake"

I am so glad someone else feels the same. Especially about Sentry. I've had mostly good experiences until recently. One report came back with made up things wrong with the report like spelling errors. The report hardly had any comments to fill in and my computer automatically fixes anything wrong. So made up BS. I'd also like to point out there is more than one correct way to write and punctuate things. When the editors don't give anything specific they are just making crap up so they come across as doing something.
Major problems with a specific editor at Sentry. I am considering not doing shops for them anymore. These mystery shop places need to treat shoppers better. Shops can't be done without shoppers. An editor on the other hand, can be done by a computer program.

Once I get this from some ill minded editor, I would probably not work with that company. If you really want to take it further with someone important at that MSC, then please write a professional complaint letter. Some of these editors are truly picky, lame and power hungry with shoppers. It is too bad this person had such a negative attitude. I hope you will go on to find a better company to shop for.

@jjk3995 wrote:

An editor on the other hand, can be done by a computer program.

Sorry to disagree, but that's totally not true. A good copy editor is worth his or her weight in gold, if not more. Especially since many copywriters, including professional ones, don't know proper grammar and sentence construction.

What would help would be if MSC editors were also professional editors. But, I don't think many are, out of necessity, because they have other things they're checking for, not just writing. But, in that case, MSCs need to specify their writing guidelines. Preferably per some specific style guide ("Use AP style." [or Chicago or APA, or whatever]). That would eliminate a lot of ambiguity; the problem of editors marking things wrong that are right; shoppers not knowing, for example, that they should use P.M. and A.M. instead of p.m. and a.m. (which is a matter of style) and getting dinged for it; etc.

One MSC I shop for does an excellent job of giving fairly complete instructions on style and grammar. They don't use a specific style guide, but they do give you guidance on some of the things that are usually a matter of choice or style. More MSCs should do this, I think, instead of just saying, "Use correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation."

@SoCalMama wrote:

That's ridiculous for him to send that.

What you all don't know if you haven't ever had the burden of editing shops is that (even without knowing LindaM's work personally) her report was superior to most. I can tell by the way that she writes that she is in the top 5% of all shoppers, clearly. He should be kissing her butt that she was willing to send such as awesome report in the first place.

Yeah, just move on. Sucks to be him.

I've always wondered about this, as 95% of shops I submit are 10's and usually come back with "Thanks for a great report!" or the like (have yet to work with Sentry, however). Occasionally I will get a 9, and it's usually when Sassie is crashing in Firefox and I have to use Safari, where the automatic spell checking works the exact opposite of what I'm used to (for whatever reason I can only count on the spell checker before submission to work about half the time).

I've done a few hundred shops by now, and the only MSC I've had an issue with was Coyle, but got that resolved after I realized that their 'examples' are exactly what they want. I've never had a shop rejected, nor a shop tossed back to me by any other MSP -- usually most are fairly helpful with their comments and I can figure out their individual tastes in how they want reports submitted (eg. Customer Impact doesn't like it when I break thoughts up with '--' which is just in my writing style since I was a kid since it screws with their formatting when they copy it over to client reports etc.)

Overall I feel I haven't had many issues compared to some, and it makes me wonder about the calibre of some of the shoppers that are out there. If you have a reasonable grasp of language and reporting, and was able to pass English 102, I feel that this is a easy and fun side job.

N

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/05/2016 07:49PM by ngbmediashop.

@walesmaven wrote:

Yikes! I am going to do a session at the November IMSC conference in LV about complaints that schedulers and editors get and why some of those make them crazy. May I use your experience as evidence that it is a two way street.

As my British friends would say, "Crikey! What a cranky editor!"

Here's another for your collection that it goes both ways. I did a gas station shop (not for Sentry) and was told that I needed to send in a better picture of the restroom. I called twice and emailed twice over a two-day span asking for clarification, pointing out that the picture in question had the toilet, sink, soap dispenser, towel dispenser, auto dryer, mirror, condom dispenser, and part of the door. After never receiving an answer with clarification, but receiving a notice that my report must be submitted immediately or be considered late, I submitted the exact same report with no changes and it was accepted with no comment.

On another shop with the same MSC, I was told to submit a picture of the high-rise sign. I left a voice mail asking for clarification as the instructions only asked for a picture of the MID/price sign unless there was a problem with the high-rise (which there was not) and received a call back from someone wanting to help me do the test required before I was allowed to do these shops. When I explained what I really wanted, he stated that he did not know the answer to my question, that the original editor would have to answer the question. He said he would have her return my call. After another day of not receiving an answer, I resubmitted the same report with a note in the comments section that I had a picture of the high-rise sign but did not know where to submit it. If someone could tell me where to submit it, I would be glad to do so. The report was accepted with no further comment.

Precisely, I even had an editor ding me on a report for not saying there was no line waiting for a cashier. When I actually wrote that I walked directly up to the counter. That is one time where the yes answer needs the explanation not the no. It would be great if all the editors working for a MSC were on the same page. They want unique reports based on each visit. Yet they want you to use specific wording in the reports. Don't set a pay rate at just north of $5 and then expect the contractor to write a detailed novella covering every moment of a 20 minute shop. Ever hear of the KISS principle?

Sounds like he has a canned script he uses when the shopper makes a mistake. I wouldn't take it personally.

Perhaps he should open a new can. That one has gone bad.

If I get cranky editors that leave nasty notes for no reason, by no reason I mean I responded with a correction within an hour. I don't see the need to be nasty about leaving message , like I did it on purpose I don't do much work for them. Some I have eliminated altogether.

@indianyooper wrote:

another says...did employee x mention service y? im thinking...did you read the report...i picked NO out of a yes/no radio button to that very question.

I'm going to guess that wasn't a case of not reading the report. If you picked no but did not comment the editor probably wanted to double check before making a deduction. My guess is the editor added a comment to the survey for you.

I wonder if editors edit multiple shop types and sometimes get the guidelines mixed up between shops? An editor asking for information or a picture of something that is not asked for in the guidelines or the report itself could be thinking of another shop that they edit and mix the two up....

Could be solved by having one editor edit only one shop for one MSC. They would get to know the guidelines like the back of their hand. OTOH, what fun would that be? It would be like a shopper only doing one shop for one company all the time.