Shops must be pre-booked... I logged on a few times today and noticed that all of the ones showing up are already booked. Anyone else self-assigned a shop for May?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/2015 08:45PM by LindaM.

I don't see any posted yet for May here, although the website says they will start posting 4/21. I see a bunch of April shops not assigned or completed yet but no May.

I changed my search to include May, as by default it is just the current month. No May shops exist yet in my area.

Only 2 shops for May in my area.

A few months ago I did notice that a desirable hotel shopped appeared to be assigned immediately. I'm thinking the scheduler may have owed the shopper a favor.

Scheduler and editors always have first dibs. This is one of their perks for working for them. This happens every month on my search.

They probably have not been posted yet. It been my experience that they don't show up on the job board for a couple of days after they say they will be posted.

While yes, the editors and schedulers do have first dibs - I think there is something else going on. I am seeing some fairly "less desirable" shops (ones that often go with bonus or hang around all month) already booked in May... strange. Perhaps a technical issue.

Maybe a new shopper who isn't waiting for the bonuses to show up.

In my area some of the hotel shops are posted prior to the posting date for the month. I was searching through once and even though it was early in the month I clicked on the following month and selected state as the search area. Up popped several hotel shops for the following month. I assume that some of these are only taken when someone is passing through the smaller less popular towns, especially since there is no fee. I think they put them up early to make sure they have a shopper before the deadline to do the shop. Gives them some extra time to find someone to do the harder to schedule shops.

All of the Down on the Farm take out shops were available when I looked yesteday after lunch and they're still there today.

When shops are posted depends on how busy with end-of-month craziness that scheduler may be, so don't count on a reliable pattern of when shops hit the board from month to month. In addition, clients often lag in releasing the shops to the MSC, which also causes the job board to get posts at odd times. I have always been somewhat skeptical about the idea that schedulers regularly take "all the best shops." Most of their schedulers are nowhere near the shop locations that they assign, so there isn't much cherry picking of assignments by schedulers as far as I can tell. Some of their schedulers do, however, try to accomodate the most reliable shoppers when they are going to be traveling so may assign a few shops before they hit the job board. If you want to try for a shop outside of your normal area like that, it is best to offer to do it early in the month. Schedulers are well aware that routes may include shops that have to be dropped at the last minute due to weather or other concerns and the route shopper is not free to reschedule. So, early moonth shops give them a chance to reassign any route shops that end up being "bypassed." (Example: On my return from florida in February, I had to jettison two shops as I tried to outrun a blizzard that was trapping motorists for days on the highway. Unlike a local shopper, I could not just reschedule, of course.)

As for self-assigning, I had to earn that right just like every other ACL shopper does. And, it is also the case that one earns the right to see more shops after establishing a track record.

I have always been able to self-assign all of their high end shops. I am just curious why the only shops I see for May are the ones that already assigned. It's like they are already assigned the moment they appear on the site.

They DO go that fast if they are hotels!

I just checked my job board and there are NO hotel shop, although many shops are ppsted. Then I remembered that there were a ton of them in April that all got snapped up (inclucing 3 by me). I am pretty sure that most of those are shopped quarterly, since I have followed them very closely for years. So, unless a shopper flakes a hotel shop between now and the end of April, it may be that few or no new hotel shops will show up here in May or June unless a client places a new order. (Or I flake on my hotel shop tomorrow!) You sort of have to get into the rhythym of the thing, lol.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2015 08:34PM by walesmaven.

Yes, I have been having this same situation for several months now. I spent about 30 minutes on the phone with them today and was told that because you can now ask to be put on the wait list, they then contact those on the wait list first. In other words if you were on the April wait list for xyz restaurant, they will contact you first for May. I don't know the accuracy of that, because while several for a particular restaurant were instantly assigned, while I was on the phone with ACL today, a batch was released, including that same xyz restaurant (for different dates). And yes, they apparently have a policy that schedulers/editors get first dibs. I would like to email them and try to get accurate facts...or maybe someone from ACL will see this and give us some good info. I have shopped for them for about 12 or 14 years...it was never like this and it's not fun!

@LindaM wrote:

I have always been able to self-assign all of their high end shops. I am just curious why the only shops I see for May are the ones that already assigned. It's like they are already assigned the moment they appear on the site.

Those are the preassigned locations.
If a scheduler has 30 Casa Griffin hotel shops for May, and has 4 preassigned to route shoppers, those 4 get entered into the system first, sometimes days before the other 26 Casa Griffin shops get put on the job board. Since they are preassigned they show up immediately that they are assigned.

I saw some shops on the board today.

Shops that said they were assigned yesterday are now showing as available to self-assign... so again, I think it was some sort of technical issue yesterday.

Something is up with their website. Suddenly overnight all of the May Down on the Farm take out shops are assigned. I know that didn't happen. The last two days, hardly any were assigned.

Congrats to me on 500 posts!

Is that a name of a restaurant?

@LindaM wrote:

Shops must be pre-booked... I logged on a few times today and noticed that all of the ones showing up are already booked. Anyone else self-assigned a shop for May?

I self assigned one today

ICA violation,naming the client.

DRJ, please remove the name ofthe client from your post. Naming the client and the MSC in the same thread is a violation of the forum rules and of our ICAs.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2015 02:17PM by walesmaven.

Who named a client? Or did I miss something?

No one named a client.

Does Casa Griffin have a complimentary wine and cheese from 5 pm to 7 pm, free buffet breakfast in the morning, wi-fi at no charge, pool with a swim up bar, hot tub, ocean views and a free foot massage?

It has none of the above except the free Wi-Fi at no charge. However our high speed internet is not a total misnomer as most hotel's. Plus our rooms have actual available outlets in places where there is also room to setup an ironing board.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2015 02:21PM by bgriffin.

DRJ, it looks like you have named a client twice. What am I missing? No offence meant.

Down On the Farm is not the name of the client, it's a description of the gross Cracker Barrel knockoff.

DRJ, I think they are referring to your Down on the Farm reference. I just did a quick Google search and I found several references to the name of a country music album and actual farms with roosters and cows. I think DRJ might have been speaking "forum code" and not actually naming a real client. But that is purely speculation.

It was forum code. If you know the client, you might remember the phase was part of their jingle. I don't know if they still use it or not.

And actually Cracker Barrel is the knockoff. They were established in 1969. The other chain was founded in 1946 as a supplier and opened the current version of the restaurant in 1962.

That may be true but Cracker Barrel = Yumminess and Farm People = Grossness