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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2014 05:28PM by ggeorge.

Can of worms there, ggeorge.
At midnight I can't tell you what I was doing at 1:00 p.m., unless I conducted a brain-dump into notes after a shop.
With my notes, I could tell you everything.
However I won't be able to write about it coherently because I've been at it since 5:00 a.m..
Give me till 10 a.m. the next day, 8 a.m. even, and I'll paint you a picture with words.

I can see both sides on this one. I would think a client would want to be assured reports are submitted in 12 hours verses the next day. Although I know a lot of people on this board can write a very successful report, even two days later, I would imagine the average person would loose important details as time goes on. Being mystery shops can have a direct impact on the employees evaluated, I would want to make sure I know they are being held accountable to 100% accurate feedback... I personally won't take more shops then I know I can shop and report a day. It is not fair to the MSO to complain about time frames because you did a large route... On days I have done several, I will take my laptop and then report from a Starbucks parking lot or similar to have the report fully done, off the mind,ect before committing to completing more.

Again, this is one of the worst MSC's I have ever dealt with.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2014 05:29PM by ggeorge.

seattleshop425 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I can see both sides on this one. I would think a
> client would want to be assured reports are
> submitted in 12 hours verses the next day.
> Although I know a lot of people on this board can
> write a very successful report, even two days
> later, I would imagine the average person would
> loose important details as time goes on. Being
> mystery shops can have a direct impact on the
> employees evaluated, I would want to make sure I
> know they are being held accountable to 100%
> accurate feedback... I personally won't take more
> shops then I know I can shop and report a day. It
> is not fair to the MSO to complain about time
> frames because you did a large route... On days I
> have done several, I will take my laptop and then
> report from a Starbucks parking lot or similar to
> have the report fully done, off the mind,ect
> before committing to completing more.

For me, getting a report done within 12 hours is pushing it after a long day of shopping. I only schedule so many shops that have a 12-hour report submission requirement in a day. I need time to have dinner and relax a bit before I start reporting shops. Sometimes, I take a nap! I get up at 3-4 AM every day and use the time for reporting. I can bang out a report much better at 3:00 AM than at 9:00 PM (on the day of the shop) because I have had some sleep. I need to manage my time more efficiently so that I can do reports while on the road at a Starbucks. I always make notes on the report form, but I wait until I get home to write narratives. I do a lot of senior living shops and investment shops. These reports require detailed narratives. I also do shops for an MSC that only has banking shops. Their reports require that ALL questions be supported by a narrative. They are a pain in the butt, but they pay well.

I'm confused about the whole emailing process. After I submitted a shop, I received an email asking me to add more detail in a particular section. I could not find a link on the report page to access my report to edit it. I tried to reply to the email, and it came back as undeliverable. Then I clicked on the "help" link to send an email asking how to edit my report. No response. Then I tried the main IS site and used the "contact us" link. No response. After no responses to my requests for help, the next day I received a score of 1 with no shopper pay. This is so frustrating because I take my shops and reports very seriously.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2014 05:29PM by ggeorge.

Thank you for your reply. This is the only view I have on my shopper log for this report.
RECEIVED # *******
*Guidelines
*Comments
*Help/Contact
09/17/14

Due: 09/17/14

I do appreciate you sending your email address in case of problems. I have found it very difficult to contact anyone for assistance. The Help/Contact link got me nowhere, and the Guidelines and Comments links were just standard info.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2014 05:30PM by ggeorge.

ggeorge Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Received (I think, don't quote me) means that
> there is an extra step required from either the
> schedulers or the clients in order to get the
> report finalized. I'm not sure though, as that's
> not a status that we see on our end.

When we submit a report, the status goes to Completed. It then changes to Received (I believe once the editor has touched it). Then, after it is approved, it stays Received, a score may show up, and Total appears under the Fee.

I'm fairly new and have only had to edit one report, but I believe the editor changed the status to Incomplete from Received so that I could get back into the report.

I think you're right about it needing to be changed to incomplete to allow you to edit your report. Unfortunately, the proof reader did not do that for me, and nobody replied to any of my requests for help. It frustrates me that I won't be paid or compensated for the required purchase.

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2014 05:31PM by ggeorge.

My apologies. I agree that I have no idea who is responsible for each stage of the process when a report is submitted. I only know that I was asked for additional information and was unable to get back into the report. None of my requests for help received any response. A day later I received a grade of 1 with no pay. I am not frustrated that the proof reader asked for more information. My issue is with the system that ignored my requests for help.

ggeorge Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hey guys,
>
> I just wanted to clarify some things for you guys
> since it looks like it might help. I work for IS
> as an editor.
>
> When it comes to using "seemed" or "looked" we
> would rather you just leave those comments out
> than act like they're facts. For example, if you
> say, "The dealership looked like it had been
> recently painted and seemed like a nice place to
> work." We would rather you say something like,
...

> On a side note, for most of the shops I work with,
> the shopper makes more per hour than I do, so it's
> very frustrating to get a half finished report
> with almost nothing written about what happened
> then I'm left to try to figure it all out on my
> own so that I can save YOUR score. I'm here to
> help you, not hurt you. I hope this helps.


Did anyone beside me note the grammatical errors in this reply?

IntShpProofer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> seattleshop,
>
> We get paid hourly. We don't always work on the
> same report, so if one of us sent a report back to
> the shopper for clarification there's no guarantee
> that the same proofer will receive that report.
> Also, we receive a handbook with certain score
> deductions, while not all proofers will follow the
> guidelines to the letter, it's generally what we
> base scores on. The proofers are only human and we
> do miss things and we've been trained differently
> through the years, so while we try to be
> consistent there will be a slight variance in how
> reports are handled.


And again.... errors in grammar. Hello?

It's likely that no one found it worth nitpicking his/her post.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2014 05:31PM by ggeorge.

Ms.Baker Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Did anyone beside me note the grammatical errors
> in this reply?


Every single person out there is going to make a mistake or two. I sincerely apologize for ever coming on here and trying to help. I hope you know that most of these replies I'm giving are being written at 2 and 3 a.m. on my own time. I thought I would try to be the bigger person here but it looks like you won. If you had anything valuable to do with your time at all, you wouldn't be on here saying things like that. That being said, please do note all of them. I'd love to see the problems you have with my writing.


> On a side note, for most of the shops I work with,
> the shopper makes more per hour than I do, so it's
> very frustrating to get a half finished report
> with almost nothing written about what happened
> then I'm left to try to figure it all out on my
> own so that I can save YOUR score.

If you're trying to say that maybe I should have formatted this differently, that's fair enough. It's a bit of a run on sentence; I'll admit that. I was being pretty expressive in the paragraph. I was under the impression that not all of the writing here needed to be formal. I've gotten pretty comfortable with the great shoppers that I've found on this thread. I wasn't too worried about missing one little thing. I'm not working when I'm on here, so I don't see what the big deal is. I know grammar. In fact, I know it very well. I'm probably more qualified than at least half of the other editors for the company. If you have issues with the things that I say, take issue with the things I say. Don't bring up grammar in the hopes that there will actually be a significant mistake. That's pretty petty.

I for one am thankful for you ggeorge on this forum. You are here on your own time, this is not a formal writing assignment like a shop report either. Intelli-Shop grades harder then other MSO's, that is no secret. On the other side though, I would much rather have an editor give me a score of 8 if my shop took them extra time, costing the MSO money so that I can improve in the future. If the MSO always gives me a 10 but on the other hand is frustrated with mistakes in my report, I want to know.

At the end of the day though, 100% of everything mystery shopping comes down to what the client wants. If the client wants employees called Squad Team members on every reference, that is what we do. If we type the associate said when this is the case, we are taking the time of the editor to fix this. Even if they are paid by the hour, I can promise you that if they only get one shop edited in an hour and other editor gets 3 shops for the same client done in an hour, that will reflect on the editor to some degree.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2014 05:31PM by ggeorge.

Ms.Baker Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ggeorge Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Hey guys,
> >
> > I just wanted to clarify some things for you
> guys
> > since it looks like it might help. I work for
> IS
> > as an editor.
> >
> > When it comes to using "seemed" or "looked" we
> > would rather you just leave those comments out
> > than act like they're facts. For example, if
> you
> > say, "The dealership looked like it had been
> > recently painted and seemed like a nice place
> to
> > work." We would rather you say something like,
> ...
>
> > On a side note, for most of the shops I work
> with,
> > the shopper makes more per hour than I do, so
> it's
> > very frustrating to get a half finished report
> > with almost nothing written about what happened
> > then I'm left to try to figure it all out on my
> > own so that I can save YOUR score. I'm here to
> > help you, not hurt you. I hope this helps.
>
>
> Did anyone beside me note the grammatical errors
> in this reply?


No. When someone comes here to give insight and try to help then I'm going to take that gift horse for what it is and not nitpick them to death. But to each his/her own...

Gabrielle, thank you for your time, advice, and personal contact information; it has been most helpful. Please don't let anyone run you off because they want to needle you. I assure you, the vast majority of shoppers here appreciate your insight and generosity.

I have always had the best relationship with everyone at this company. When I first started I had some rough scores and I probably deserved them. Why hasn't anyone noticed the that the the editors have been giving more feedback lately? I would probably drive to Mars if Shannon asked me to and I hadn't shopped it in the last 3 months.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/2014 03:12PM by tamalama.

tamalama Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I
> would probably drive to Mars if Shannon asked me
> to and I hadn't shopped it in the last 3 months.
>


I <3 Shannon at Intelli-shop!!

I did a shop for them that had to be done after a certain time of day which I followed instructions carefully. However, when I typed my reported I made a typo on the time and didn't see it until the shop had been submitted. So, they would not accept my shop even though I did my best to correct the time. They would not believe me that I had made a typo and thru out my report and didn't pay me.

Judy B

Judy -
Did the shop yield a receipt?

I used to edit for this company through a vendor editing company called Wordsmith Pros. They hire idiots so I quit after they kept hiring and cutting my income and making me look bad! Also Intellishop is so freaking cheap most times, I never shop for them! Sorry about your experience!

ggeorge Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Ms.Baker Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > Did anyone beside me note the grammatical
> errors
> > in this reply?
>
>
> Every single person out there is going to make a
> mistake or two. I sincerely apologize for ever
> coming on here and trying to help. I hope you know
> that most of these replies I'm giving are being
> written at 2 and 3 a.m. on my own time. I thought
> I would try to be the bigger person here but it
> looks like you won. If you had anything valuable
> to do with your time at all, you wouldn't be on
> here saying things like that. That being said,
> please do note all of them. I'd love to see the
> problems you have with my writing.
>
>
> > On a side note, for most of the shops I work
> with,
> > the shopper makes more per hour than I do, so
> it's
> > very frustrating to get a half finished report
> > with almost nothing written about what happened
>
> > then I'm left to try to figure it all out on my
>
> > own so that I can save YOUR score.
>
> If you're trying to say that maybe I should have
> formatted this differently, that's fair enough.
> It's a bit of a run on sentence; I'll admit that.
> I was being pretty expressive in the paragraph. I
> was under the impression that not all of the
> writing here needed to be formal. I've gotten
> pretty comfortable with the great shoppers that
> I've found on this thread. I wasn't too worried
> about missing one little thing. I'm not working
> when I'm on here, so I don't see what the big deal
> is. I know grammar. In fact, I know it very well.
> I'm probably more qualified than at least half of
> the other editors for the company. If you have
> issues with the things that I say, take issue with
> the things I say. Don't bring up grammar in the
> hopes that there will actually be a significant
> mistake. That's pretty petty.



I have only one question for you. Which writing style does Intellishop want shoppers to use in reports? I prefer Chicago, which is the preferred style for publishing; and, that is the style I use in reports. However, simple requests to Intellishop for guidance in grammar receive no response.

My personal pet peeve in grammar...

"it's very frustrating to get a half finished report"


Tell me. Is it a half report, a finished report, or a half-finished report? A hyphen is imperative for clarity.

[www.grammarbook.com]

Rule 1. Generally, hyphenate two or more words when they come before a noun they modify and act as a single idea. This is called a compound adjective.

Examples:
an off-campus apartment
state-of-the-art design

When a compound adjective follows a noun, a hyphen may or may not be necessary.

Example: The apartment is off campus.

However, some established compound adjectives are always hyphenated. Double-check with a dictionary or online.

Example: The design is state-of-the-art.


I am happy you were able to rant in response to my posting. I would suggest you might have an inkling of what shoppers feel when they receive a generic response such as, "The report received a 9 because it was necessary to make minor corrections in grammar and spelling."

What you are really saying is this:

"As a shopper, you are not important enough for me to specifically state what you are doing wrong. You are too ignorant to be corrected in a permanent manner, so I will continue to exercise control over your writing without providing you with specific corrective actions."


Care to vent more?