I just removed myself from all current and future Arches shops. I had my second shop in two weeks invalidated. This is what I said to the MSC.

I wish to not participate in the McDonalds program anymore. I've done a gazillion of them and now the new guidelines are making it a possibility that I have an invalid shop due to an error on the part of a McDonalds employee who can't take and/or fill a drink order properly. I don't have time or money to waste on that. There is no graceful way to tell them to pour out a drink at the drive thru and make it a medium when they hand you a large drink. Please just take me out of the program. I'm canceling both my outstanding McDonalds shops rather than risk my time and money again on a 17 year old's customer service skills.

As long as you order a medium drink as they ask in the guidelines, you will still get paid if you report the shop accurately.

I said the word medium three times at the drive thru and sure enough, they handed me large drink and the receipt said large. When I told them I ordered a medium and did not take the large drink when they tried handing it to me, they made a medium drink and simply said, "The price is the same, so we made it a large."

I documented this in the narrative and checked all the boxes for wrong item received and incorrect receipt.

They accepted the job without any email from the helpdesk. I checked it four times the next day expecting them to ding me.

I did the same thing and ordered a medium. It looks really stupid and screams "Shopper" to demand a medium instead of a large. What real customer would do that? It's just not worth the hassle to me anymore.

I can't get a large drink in my cup holder. I'd just tell them that.

I do these when they have a sweet bonus all the time (or in airports).

@iblessyah wrote:

I did the same thing and ordered a medium. It looks really stupid and screams "Shopper" to demand a medium instead of a large. What real customer would do that? It's just not worth the hassle to me anymore.

Still confused on why your reports were rejected....

There are four questions that ask the following:
- What did you order?
- What did you receive?
- What does your receipt show?
- If there was a conflict, why?

As long as YOU ordered 'medium,' you should be paid and it should be rejected.

Because I accepted a large drink at the window rather than telling them no, do it over and give me something of lesser value for the same price. I could tell them I have congestive heart failure and am not allowed to drink that much but it's none of their business. Their JOB is to fill the order the way I said it. I should not be penalized for their mistake. I'm out about $30 in crap called food plus my gasoline and that doesn't count my time. Sooooo....I'm done. I get to pick and choose what jobs im willing to do with my limited energy and these just fell off the end of the world. They are not bonused well here so it's not a lot of money for me to put up with "maybe they will pay me and maybe they won't!"

if this is the same MSC that I use, your shop is not invalidated due to a mistake by the worker. As long as you actually order medium.

And the guidelines had always stated to order a medium...the only discrepancy was when you ordered by meal...and it said only say medium if asked...now they tell you to make sure you order medium.

so what if it screams shopper...you have to follow the guidelines....you can just say you would never drink that much and don't want the left over sitting in your cup holder all day.

Don't be surprised if they deactivate you completely from all shops with the tone of that letter.


It's been awhile since I have done one of these...but there was something about if you receive the wrong item you had the option to correct it.....once I received 2 entres instead of one..and didn't correct it....and was paid.

Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/2015 09:31PM by jmitw.

The point is that I did order a medium and am NOT getting paid. So I've paid money to drive to and eat at the Arches which I would normally NOT do and am now NOT getting paid. Would you want to keep a job where you had to pay the boss to work there?

Bless,

You are missing the point. As long as you fill the form out properly your shop will not be rejected, as long as you ordered a medium meal.

I have "large" on my receipts consistently, I have never been rejected for an incorrect receipt. I have been rejected for an improper order, my fault.

blessyah, did you write the help desk and say, "I ordered a medium coke but they gave me a large. My receipt says large but I ordered a medium." The guidelines say if you don't get the right size drink, due to the employee error, just report it

from what I remember, you only had to correct the order if something was missing altogether......but that might only be for the entree and the way it was prepared.....but not if an item was wrong...that was optional...the phrase about not accepting a large does sound familiar...

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/2015 04:36AM by jmitw.

@isaiah58 wrote:

You are missing the point. As long as you fill the form out properly your shop will not be rejected, as long as you ordered a medium meal.

How on Earth does the MSC or client KNOW for sure that the shopper ordered a medium if the receipt says large? The whole program does not make any sense to me but then again, I don't do any FF shops.

I had an arch shop come back as invalid in early April. I asked for a reconsideration reminding the shoppers advocate, I had followed the client guidelines by ordering a Medium and the order taker upgraded me because a large drink cost $0.49 less than a medium. The advocate replied with "As outlined in the shop guidelines: YOU MUST ORDER MEDIUM SIZE DRINK AND FRIES. DON’T ORDER SMALL OR LARGE SIZES. DON’T ACCEPT A LARGER SIZE IF OFFERED. Regardless if there was a price difference or the same price, you are to decline any offer of a larger size. Unfortunately, because you didn’t complete the shop as outlined, we are not able to reconsider this report. I’m sorry this one didn’t work out for you."

Well thanks for advocating for me! And please don't yell at me! Ha Ha Ha... anyway, I completed the last two scheduled arch shops because I had already committed to them. I now decline when they call, even with the sweet bonus offers. The Martinez, CA team used to call me 2-3 times a week and I’d be happy to help them out. A bonus to me is I've lost 5 lbs. in the 6 weeks since turning down all these Arch shops... LOL!

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I don’t mind those who sell for less; for they know what theirs is worth!

I think I solved this problem by always ordering a medium cup. I don't order the drink first, I say "I want a medium-sized cup." Then the order-taker always has to ask me what kind of drink I want. Then I tell them the drink. Every time I've gotten the medium cup listed on the receipt. I agree this is a problem, since the McDonald's employees used to be allowed to do this (upsize a drink) because they all cost a dollar. If you think about it, doing so costs McDonald's money, because they are given out product that the customer didn't want (when they order a medium). That extra liquid adds up to losses for McDonalds.

"As outlined in the shop guidelines: YOU MUST ORDER MEDIUM SIZE DRINK AND FRIES. DON’T ORDER SMALL OR LARGE SIZES. DON’T ACCEPT A LARGER SIZE IF OFFERED.

Without reading the full guidelines, my 1st thought does this just refer to them offering during the order taking...or just taking it upon themselves to just give you a large without asking if you want it.

Upon thought, I would have to assume it also means offered at the pick up window without being asked also.

This is definitely something that can be made clearer in the directions.

What if the receipt said medium, but they gave a large cup? Rarely, a chain restaurant will have their sizes labeled different......i don't remember any McDonald's doing that...but I had that experience at 2 Burger Kings..

my 1st thought would be that the large cup was their medium..

there are other shops where the instructions regularly require you to make you you stand out as a mystery shopper.....you just have to do it...

one is the grocery store where you have to put an item under the basket....even if you only have 1 other item in the main basket.....

one of the other really dumb things was asking about fresh bread..when is most locations you would be standing right in front of it when asking!

with McDs having the same person do drive thru and walk in outs shoppers...i know I was at one location....i did drive thru first and a girl recognized me at the walk in...

I don't blame you iblessyah. Everyone sooner or later has problems with this huge Msp. Best of luck in getting a better shop to replace those.

Have you guys been to a movie theater lately? A small drink is the size of a large drink at other places. And the large drink is the size of a hot tub!

Other side of the same MSC keeps sending me bonused movie theater checks but I can't get my password to work. I've been asking for help for over two weeks. Would love to do some of those but they won't help me get into the website.

And like I said, I ordered a medium drink and reported correctly and still got the "sorry it didn't work out this time" message. That's why I quit! I not only did two shops for free. I paid for crappy food and gasoline to do it. Once..shame on you. Twice...shame on you. The third time would be shame on me. When you do the same thing over and over expecting different results you are insane.

I used to do those shops, then I found out that after the MS company rejected the report and didn't pay me that the report was used anyway and sent to the location. I know this for a fact because I didn't realize an acquaintance of my husband worked there and she said the newest report just came in--it had the exact time, date and meal period as my rejected shop. Would have been hard for the MS company to reject it, repost it and have it reshopped via time travel.

The same exact MS Company who insisted that I was a certain bank manager's cousin and therefore a nicely bonused shop wasn't paid either. Didn't matter that I have no family and wasn't from here anyway.

Cettie that would make me angry also. To think that they won't pay you or reimburse you for whatever reason (their perogative), but then they turn around and use your report and presumably get paid by the client for your report! To me this means that the client wants all the data gathered, even from reports that are rejected, and they pay for even the rejected reports. Then the MSC gets their money but possibly nothing is paid for the shopper. This doesn't seem fair.

@BuffaloNY101 wrote:

I don't blame you iblessyah. Everyone sooner or later has problems with this huge Msp. Best of luck in getting a better shop to replace those.

That's for sure. I referred friends and this company rejected them all--in a rude manner (no explanation). Won't refer to them again.

I actually do like the reason to refuse the large cup is the car cup holder wont hold a large. That could actually be true.

Yes, the car cup holder thing is good. Also, the drink could be for a child and the big cup is too big. But I have just gotten fed up. Now the only thing you can order for a chicken/fish meal for a special order shop is the filet of fish and you have to leave off the tartar sauce. How awful is to begin with and then to try and eat it dry is worse. There are no "regular" McChicken sandwiches available here...I'm in Phoenix area and everything here is spicy which is no longer allowed. The guidelines have just become more than I want to fuss with. I'm sure I can make the money up somewhere else.

But they state: "If your shop is rejected, you don't get paid and we don't get paid." hrmmmm...

Glad to see more, and more of us that refuse to accept these shops. To be paid $6.00-ish to comply with to-the-second requirements and then not being paid for petty errors not of our doing is beyond the pale. Stay strong and don't accept these kinds of assignments. It will only force MSC's to raise our fee structure and a side benefit...your health will improve because the food and sugary soda's are pure...crap-ola.

I know that the haters out there will say "great, don't take these shops because it just makes more shops for us to accept" well...let 'em take em and hope they're happy "earning" $6.00 for these kinds of assignments. Maybe those are the kinds of assignments that fit their level of expertise? Just sayin'.

Cettie that is because this msp is typical corporate they are greedy and want to make as much money as possible. Thats why most of the small msps are better.

Hmmm, I have been careful to ask for Medium and medium has been on my receipts so far. But the fact is I wouldn't even know if they gave me the wrong size. So, I just assume they have given me the right size.

If they mentioned upsizing for free, I have no problem saying No, I don't want that much pop, - because I really don't. If I get to fill my own I only put a few mouthfuls in the cup anyway, so even if I was not doing a mystery shop, I would never want a large pop even if it was absolutely free.

I've often wondered if a shop that was rejected could still be packaged up and sent on to the client essentially leaving the shopper out in the cold. Great way to maximize profits, especially on bonused shops.

My question is why can't half the shop be salvaged and the shopper paid as this is essentially two shops at one location? If the drive-thru shop was deemed invalid (rightly or wrongly) then still use the walk-in shop and forward on to the client. At least this way, the shopper gets to recoup half the reimbursement and half the shop fee/bonus. Makes a bad shop a little easier to swallow.