@BuffaloNY101 wrote:

I was making a joke but since you wish to take it seriously sybil2 once the hose is dead they can't feel you beating it. nor grinding it into horse meat if you are into that. I am not.

I am fine with you beating your hose. To each his own I guess.

@BuffaloNY101 wrote:

I was making a joke but since you wish to take it seriously sybil2 once the hose is dead they can't feel you beating it. nor grinding it into horse meat if you are into that. I am not.

We got the joke. Most of us also got Sybil's, myst4au's, and SunnyDays's jokes. I like jokes. they lighten the mood.

I have a great relationship with the schedulers at Service Excellence. They were willing to work with me on the few occasions when I needed to reschedule.

I'm surprised at the manner in which you responded. As an owner, you of all people should understand there will always be someone who doesn't get it or just wants to complain. Unfortunately, this forum is full of those people. But it is also full of people go have legitimate concerns and truly do look for guidance from other shoppers.
Your response seems a little defensive. Perhaps you consider you are the owner and your employees emulate you.

Have a great day.

I forgot to add in my last response to your post, your response is no better than those who bashed your company. Your wording was also cheap and petty and I would have expected more professionalism from an alleged Owner.

Well, I am really sorry you feel that way.

So it's OK for the company to change the terms of the deal after an agreement has been made? How about if the shopper said "I know I agreed to do this shop for X but upon further review I need to up the amount by $10. Would that also be OK?

I believe it is OK as long as the shopper is given the opportunity to decline the new terms. Other companies will mass-cancel shops where the terms need to be changed and then the shoppers have to go in and reapply (if they can even find the shop again). To me, that is a much bigger PITA than receiving an email that says something like "We have to change the terms of the shop from $10 with a $5 bonus to $10 with no bonus. Would you like to keep the shop or decline?"

Wow. I just read that whole thread. There is 10 minutes I'm never going to get back....

@ces1948 wrote:

So it's OK for the company to change the terms of the deal after an agreement has been made? How about if the shopper said "I know I agreed to do this shop for X but upon further review I need to up the amount by $10. Would that also be OK?

A shopper could come back and ask for more money after accepting the shop. Several shoppers have posted here that, after accepting a shop, they asked for more money. All the company has to say is No (or yes, if they are willing to pay more). If the company changes any terms in the assignment, the shopper can just say No, or he can go ahead and perform the shop under the new terms. What is NOT okay would be for the company to allow the shopper to COMPLETE the shop and then say "Surprise! We aren't going to pay you as much money as we agreed on." That would definitely not be okay. But that's not what happened here.

@meghan9262 wrote:

I believe it is OK as long as the shopper is given the opportunity to decline the new terms."

Oh my, There is so much to discuss in this thread. So I'll start with that comment.

I find it necessary to disagree with this view. There was a contract between the parties. It would unquestionably stand up in any court from Judge Judy to the Supreme Court. I'm glad to see the OP reported that a particular MSP, or more accurately a scheduling company as we later learned, changed the contract by reducing the agreed upon fee. Those few dollars might have been the difference between a worthwhile shop and something not worth the effort. As long as some shoppers have the view it is acceptable to break contracts that denigrates the business and relationships between shoppers and MSPs and scheduling companies.

As we know the OP reacted in an over the top manner, which I don't agree with. I would have preferred that the OP posted the question without names at first to get some advice and reaction from other shoppers. The names might have been disclosed after getting input from other forum members. Threatening to take it public as some sort of vendetta I feel was an inappropriate overreaction. Squireparty, for that action I believe an apology is in order.

Turning to the response. I am glad there was a response from a recognized authority from the scheduling company to explain how this mistake occurred. It gave me and perhaps others a window into the operations that I did not have. Also, it gave me the basis to understand and perhaps excuse the mistake should it happen to me in the future. However, that does not change the fact it was a valid contract. Judith, as owner of the company you needed to own that mistake, not try to weasel out of it. If I get raw chicken at a restaurant I don't expect the manager to say it is the cook's fault and hear I should go talk to him for a refund. No, the manager apologizes and makes it right by remaking the meal properly, perhaps with some compensation on the check. Later, the manager figures out how it happened and takes corrective action without further involving the customer. Similarity, because it was the mistake of an employee acting on behalf of your company, it was best to make it right by not reducing the fee but by living up to your contract. Another way would have been to offer appropriate compensation on additional shop(s). Dealing with the mistake should be behind your closed doors. Do that by writing up the employee, asking them to compensate the company for the mistake, adding safeguards to your system by resetting the shop fees at the first of the month automatically, or some other appropriate action(s).

In conclusion, I find the forums are perhaps the only place that allow us to freely exchange information and ideas about mystery shopping. Whether posts are about MSP actions, recognizing wonderful schedulers, or anything else here, I'm glad to know there is a place to learn of all sorts of things about this business. I truly value those posts and have learned to value many of the posters on this forum. However, there are times we could do a better job with our emotions.

Since the shops no longer meet the terms for your acceptance of the shops, you did the right thing by cancelling them (you can almost always trust your gut). The comment by the scheduler was unnecessary. If she wants wants to work with you on the shops it's probably a good time to educate her on the challenges shoppers face when working with multiple MSC's while trying to develop an efficient and profitable route each week.

What is Service X ???

Service X is short for Service Excellence Group, an MSP.

Thank you.

It's very easy for people to come on here, hide behind a user name, and pass judgement. I am the only person in this thread who is standing up as who they are and telling their side of the story with full accountability and with my own identity. I have to wonder if many of the vicious posts on this board would be made if identities were known.

Dealing with the mistake would have been behind closed doors if the original shopper had not chosen to bring it here and then be untruthful about the offer of reparations that had been made to him.

Now, I believe that some of the people passing judgement on this thread are thinking of this as a $15 error. It's not. It's in the many hundreds of dollars worth of an error, and no - I am not willing to stick that to my scheduler when the shops were not even in the same calendar month and could not have possibly been completed yet. Perhaps the shoppers were inconvenienced and I hate that, but I should hope that people can understand the difference in a $15 inconvenience to them and a car payment to someone else.

I am not trying to weasel out of anything. I am owning this issue by coming here and taking this heat and not asking my scheduler to do it. Hopefully some of you guys have bosses who will stand up for you as well and not throw you under the bus.

Additionally, these things happen all the time, but the companies cancel the shops and tell the shoppers that the client canceled them. My scheduler chose to mea culpa and be honest. I am also not going to punish her for making a mistake and then being honest about it and taking appropriate steps to fix it. As far as contracts go, we could have just canceled all of the shops and have been well within contract, and then reposted them at the correct rate and let shoppers reapply if they wished. Instead, she owned up to her error, told shoppers what the shop really paid (which is not really a surprise since this shop is posted monthly), and let them CHOOSE whether to keep it or not.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/2015 12:51AM by Summit Scheduling.

This was a business decision on the part of the shopping service. It was made before the shop took place. Had it occurred after the shop you would have a legitimate gripe, however the decision was made before you expended your time and expense in getting to the shop. These things happen occasionally in the business world. Having done mystery/secret shopping off and on for over 40 years this has occurred to me only a couple of times and they were always before the shop. You obviously do not understand how businesses work. Consider this a learning experience and move forward. Do not cut off your nose to spite your face. Work with this company a couple of times and then determine if your working relationship with them is financially beneficial to you. Treat this as a business and move forward.

Agree with albrightsr. Now if this type of "business decision" became a habit of Summit then we'd have a problem, but for now I would think more about giving grace but being cautious with them in the future.

I did think it was in poor taste for Summit to post the quote of the email originally. Personal communications should remain personal if at all possible. That said, I think it was justified in posting the email once OP called them a liar.

Squireparty, your actions here are deplorable. That's my opinion of your reaction to your situation and your post here on the forum.
If I were a scheduler with any company I'd never agree to work with you.
For what it's worth to anyone else reading this thread, I've worked with Service X (and been assigned shops via Summit for them) and have never had any issues. I've found both companies to be professional and respectful of the shoppers they work with.

@N-TownShopper wrote:

Squireparty, your actions here are deplorable. That's my opinion of your reaction to your situation and your post here on the forum.If I were a scheduler with any company I'd never agree to work with you. .

more work for the rest of us.

I've never worked for this msc, but in my opinion it would have been a nice gesture for them to honor the $15. I understand that the shopper was notified prior to the assignment, but what if the shopper had set up a couple of shops in that particular area solely because of the assignment? If I'm doing a bonused McD's that is somewhat of a distance away, I'll try to schedule other shops in that area to make it worthwhile. Sometimes these "filler" shops are only $10 or so. I admit that I'd be ticked if my bonused shop was no longer bonused and now I had some low-paying filler jobs I still had to complete. Just my opinion. I'm not bashing the msc.

@DareWright wrote:

I've never worked for this msc, but in my opinion it would have been a nice gesture for them to honor the $15. I understand that the shopper was notified prior to the assignment, but what if the shopper had set up a couple of shops in that particular area solely because of the assignment?.

Dare, go back and read it again. They DID offer to honor the $15. The independent scheduler (who works for the independent scheduling company, Summit Scheduling, rather than for Service X) offered to take the money out of her own pocket to make up for her mistake. This offer appears to have been made before the OP made his angry post on the forum. Service X was actually not involved in this interaction. This involved the OP and Summit Scheduling, who were scheduling shops on behalf of Service X.

Ok. Now that a few days have passed I will agree that I behaved in a way that was over the top. Granted. I still have major issues with the bonuses being pulled after the shops were assigned but I will admit that l could have handled this better. I also never did read or hear anything to the effect that the scheduler was willing to pay the bonuses out of her pocket. For what its worth I would have declined as the scheduler is probably struggling like most people.......I put the blame on Summit Scheduling and not the scheduler. But I will go back and read the whole thread, I believe somewhere here it is posted that the scheduler did make this offer. If thats true I do feel bad about how this turned out, though I do stick with my unacceptable to pull the bonuses stance. At any rate I would think its crystal clear I won't be dealing with Summit in the future and I think for both sides this is for the best. My takeaway though? Yes I could have handled this better - but the bonuses also could not have been pulled to begin with. This tango took two sides and this story has two sides, as most do. It is what it is......though should I run across this again I will handle it differently.

vlade,
You and I do not often disagree, but I must object to your characterization of Summit's response as trying to "weasel out." Standing up for her scheduler, who admitted to a mistake and did what she could to remedy the situation at her own cost, was laudable, in my opinion. I was not alone in being astonished to see you engaged in such a bashing! Had you called a fellow shopper a weasel I assure you that several forum members would have reported it to a moderator.

In addition, I disagree with your assertion that contract law would make this case some sort of slam dunk in any court in the land.

I wouldn't mind being called a weasel. They are 2 cute.

[search.yahoo.com]

I have been mystery shopping since mystery shops existed. I would have let the scheduler know I was disappointed but I understood stuff happens. Bridge burning is never a viable option for me.

Although the scheduler offered to pay the difference everyone forgot the next concern - will the scheduler actually pay in a timely manner and without follow up??

@eastwest wrote:

Although the scheduler offered to pay the difference everyone forgot the next concern - will the scheduler actually pay in a timely manner and without follow up??

It's actually a moot question because the OP did not take the scheduler up on the deal.