@Donald Belcher wrote:
One of the main reasons that I participate in this forum is to find out information about mystery shopping companies, good and bad. Too many of our members seem reluctant to refer to the companies that they are posting about by name! What good is it to reveal information about a company, whether it is a complaint or a compliment, and then only refer to them as "MSC?" Let us know who you are posting about, so that the information will have some meaning!
It has a great deal of meaning to us. You just don't seem to understand it.
Some MSC employees openly post and/or read some of the other posts here. I think a lot of people involved with the MSCs kind of see these forums as a double-edged sword, and some ICAs even restrict shoppers from posting details in them. They MSCs know reviews of companies and personal experiences get posted here, either for better or worse. Our tip-sharing can also help our members improve, save a shop if a scheduler can't get back to a question in time, or find the companies they might work best with. Patterns among competition or from within their own company may also become suspected or identified, and sometimes shoppers are recruited from here. These forums could potentially also help identify shoppers who are too loose-lipped, especially if the make certain details public---all of these things can also benefit the companies. I don't think the schedulers would typically go around looking around for these things specifically, but if they happen to see something, they happen to see it.
Many of the ICAs restrict us from revealing certain details in certain ways, and they do have clauses about these forums. If we violate the ICAs, there can be negative consequences...anything from a citation of some kind to removal from a company we like to work with, or possibly legal action. I have personally never heard of a client or MSC pressing charges against a shopper, but that doesn't mean that it couldn't happen or hasn't happened. When we are given an assignment, we are expected to act in the best interests of the client and the MSC whenever possible. If we accept a contract, part of the pay is expected to be hush money. It is only the shopper who can decide for himself or herself whether or not posting something here or mentioning it anywhere else is worth the risk. There are some situations in which I think it might be justified, like if there's ever a horribly violent crime and it's public knowledge or SHOULD be public knowledge, but in most cases, I prefer to honor my agreements.
.At least some of the people being particularly careful are also looking out for the other members and/or our MSCs. While I don't think it's likely to happen, I personally wouldn't want myself/anybody/too many people to say too much and have an MSC try to shut down these forums. I'm sure that we shoppers would just re-organize and create similar websites, but I like the balance that we strike here, and for the most part, I think it's an excellent system.
Most of us just want someplace to kick back, enjoy our shops, improve when we want to, learn more about the MSC world, possibly get advice about how to deal with certain issues which arise, and just enjoy chatting with each other. There is plenty of 'meaning' here. If it's not useful or meaningful to you, then it's not useful or meaningful to you. That's not our problem. People here do try to help each other, though, so they might be inclined to look the other way if somebody posts something REALLY horrible that somebody from an MSC supposedly did or that supposedly happened while on a shop. It would be up to the site's operators to make a judgment call on how to deal with that kind of issue. It might be true, but it also might not. I would hope and expect that people here would be supportive and concerned, but also encourage the person to be extremely discreet unless it has also already gone through the proper channels.