NWPLC Issue

The link I posted is for their Prophet site, which I had been signed up with for more than 10 years.

It's my understanding from the conversation with Doug that they are moving everything over to ISS platform for a variety of reasons.

Bottom line is that mistakes happen...on both ends. There was a disconnect somewhere along the way, but Doug did show up and agree to make good with the parking charge for the OP, despite him having a shop he cannot submit. Hopefully he will take steps to be sure the cash requirement is very clear for future shoppers as well.

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Thanks Steve for your link, I tried this morning but could not get in, when I signed up like 6 weeks ago all was done on isecretshop, I was going to call NWLPC later today to see if I can get access but since you clarified that they are moving to ISS that saves me a call.
And thanks so much for your help with the OP! You most certainly went above and beyond.

I can still get in, although I had forgotten my password. I selected forgot my password and had a password e-mailed to me, after which I could log in.

[shoppers.nwlpc.com]

ISS has been easy to work with. I did some NWLP shops a few years ago with Doug. I had a good experience with him.

I like ISS. It was actually my introduction to mystery shopping many years ago. I've done some shops for NWLPC without issue and have considered others. That's why this whole thing has made me nervous. The fault for what happened here would not have been mine and while Doug has agreed to pay the parking, the shop fee was lost to the shopper. I would hate to have been that shopper where something beyond my control was responsible for this mishap and resulted in non-payment. If I goof up, that's one thing, but this was something else. That does make me a bit hesitant for future shops from them.

To be clear...if the shopper had opened the PDF attachment that said "guidelines" he/she would have seen where you have to pay with cash. We take some responsibility because we did not post it in the job description. With over 500 shops done for this client this shopper was the first that I am aware of that did not pay in cash. It is important to read everything provided by a MSP before doing a shop.
With this behind us, NWLPC no longer uses Prophet. There are several reasons why that I will not post. We found ISS a great platform because you can see all the shops in your area, or outside your area, that are available from multiple companies. So, if you see a shop in area A from one company you will see all shops from all companies on the ISS platform for Area A. Plus, you can enter your shop on your IPhone or IPAD via the ISS app. When you go to www.nwlpc.com and register as a shopper you are directed to the ISS site to register. ISS is only a software company like Shop Metrics, Sassie and Prophet.

I would honestly have loved to get the PDF that said "Guidelines". I'm trying to explain since the beginning that I got only ONE file that was emailed to me by ISS, that was the exact same document that was on the ISS portal. If I had received two documents, one saying pay by cash and the other not, then I would have reached out to the company, of course, to clarify. Once again, I read EVERYTHING that was sent to me.

I don't mind the mistakes, but I do mind when a company questions my integrity and says I did not read everything that was provided to me. AGAIN, I posted the only PDF I received. I cancelled my shops with ISS and won't work through them anymore - you can't hold a shopper responsible when you don't provide him with the proper guidelines.

I am really too busy to go back and forth on this issue BUT for what is worth, we do pay shoppers if we are in error and sometimes if a shopper does not complete a shop because of certain circumstances. It is just good business. But after looking over the history of this particular shopper we declined a shop back in March 2015 sending the shopper the following: Your shop for the 1710 N (name of lot omitted in this forum). has been declined because you did not stay the minimum 2 hours and you paid by credit card. 9 Mar 15
This is for the same client, so the shopper should have been fully aware that this too was a cash shop and if he was unclear based on the March incident he could have called or emailed for clarification.

It is exactly because I had made a mistake on that previous shop that I made sure to be careful to the guidelines this time. And it's because it was for the same client that I particularly paid attention to the method of payment to make sure I get it right this time. I do not assume that it is a cash shop based on a previous shop, it is contrary to a shopper's ethic. Each shop is different, making assumptions based on a previous shop would make me a particularly unreliable shopper.

@dcrector wrote:

The guidelines for shops are in the descriptions of each shop a MSP posts. ISS has nothing to do with how a specific company on the ISS platform posts.

@dcrector wrote:

I have looked into this issue further. In this case the shop description did not say you must pay in cash BUT the PDF attachment did.

I have no experience with ISS or NWLPC so I have no previous opinion on either, but after reading this thread, particularly the above quoted assumption about the shop description that was later shown to be incorrect, I have to say it seems plausible that the PDF Doug though was sent may not have been sent as thought.

It doesn't seem that there should be much issue in sussing that out if the OP has indeed forwarded the email back to Doug where they received the PDF document.

But I agree with another poster upthread. Some things really just need a phone call. I had a recent experience where the payment did not match what I expected. I sent emails first, thinking that it would be important to have record of the dialogue. But something was always not quite understood, both on my part and that of the other parties. So we finally spoke over the phone, we were able to quickly track down the problem and resolve appropriately. (Off topic, but Sheila with Shared Insight and Jackie with KSS are both great to work with!)

@dcrector wrote:

But after looking over the history of this particular shopper we declined a shop back in March 2015 sending the shopper the following: Your shop for the 1710 N (name of lot omitted in this forum). has been declined because you did not stay the minimum 2 hours and you paid by credit card. 9 Mar 15
This is for the same client, so the shopper should have been fully aware that this too was a cash shop and if he was unclear based on the March incident he could have called or emailed for clarification.

Well that certainly changes things.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

Not really because if you go back and read the original post, the OP stated up front that they had messed up on a shop a few months ago and paid by credit card. It's because of that mistake that he freely admitted doing that he looked so closely at the PDF for this information on the shop in question. What bothers me is why Doug apparently refuses to read the guidelines the OP received to see for himself. All he has to do is look at them to see whether or not there is a mention of cash or credit or anything about payment. The OP stated he sent those guidelines to Doug so he could see for himself. For some reason, Doug doesn't seem to want to do that and that mystifies me more than anything else because it would settle the entire debate. Like I said, I've been happy with NWLPC and the jobs I have done for them, but I worry about something like this happening to others in the future. I'd feel better if Doug would take a few minutes to read that PDF file the OP downloaded from ISS. Actually, he doesn't even need to read it, just search for words like "cash" and "credit." Anyway, that's my two cents. I still feel bad for the OP in this situation.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/2015 03:04AM by Orrymain.

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