I am getting so pissed off at EPMS, because they had me do a shop for a person that had the same name as another worker at leasing community. They specifically told me the last name in the shop instructions and said there are two girls with the same first name that work there, but the other girl had the same first name, and EPMS said don't ask for the targets name because it usually gives you away as a shopper. So the shop was recorded on the phone (so I'm thinking I probably got the right girl) and the girl didn't say her last name and I didn't ask for it because it would give me away as mystery shopper. So when I get to the location, I come to find out that I was shopping the wrong girl with the last name and couldn't do anything about it because she was the one that worked with me on the phone. Both girls in the office had the same name and it was like a 50/50 chance. So I did EPMS long ass @#$%& report and then they said their not gonna pay me because I didn't get the right girl with the last name they wanted. EPMS needs to stop doing shady business and inspecting people to be Inspector Gadget and James Bond when the shopper has no guarantee they can get the target under unusual circumstance. Half the time most of these leasing professionals know their being shopped when they see blocked numbers. I am freaking heated right now, I want to report them the BBB just to prove a point, because I have been so loyal always completed my shops 9 times out 10. I know if I report them they will probably retaliate on me but I am pissed because they have done the 2-3 times before and I am getting tired of it? Thoughts and Opinions?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/2015 04:31AM by Rizzily203.

I don't think you have a legit complaint. When you realized you had the wrong person, you should have contacted the MSC before going further. You could have pulled something like saying you preferred to be on last name basis as your parents always taught you to do business that way...to get the last name

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/2015 11:27PM by jmitw.

I don't trust posters who join forum just to bash a company. This is 2nd one tonight. 1st & only post made within minutes. I agree w/jmitw. You shopped wrong person so no pay for you.

Don't shop for them anymore. I can't be the ONLY shopper in the world who ALWAYS gets names! "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name. Is that Miss or Mrs.?" almost 100% always works (for women). "Who do I ask for when
I come in?" also works. I get names even when I don't need them for the report!

@Rizzily203 wrote:

I know if I report them they will probably retaliate on me but I am pissed because they have done the 2-3 times before and I am getting tired of it? Thoughts and Opinions?

They did this to you 2-3 times before and you still went through with the shop and report, knowing it was the wrong person?

I'm sure you are disappointed by having the shop disallowed, and I sympathize. I agree with the other posters who said you did the shop wrong. Despite knowing when you started the shop that two female employees had the same first name, which to me means I would have to clarify the last name, you just accepted a first name thinking "I have a 50/50 chance." You did not follow the instructions.

As to your question "Should I report Ellis Property Management to the BBB for not paying shop that followed the instructions?" NO. You did not follow the instructions. BBB is a CUSTOMER protection agency. YOU are the service provider and Ellis is the customer. You did the job incorrectly. If you reported me for nonpayment after doing the job wrong, my my BBB response would include the details of your failure.

Do yourself a favor and settle for the angry post here on the forum where you can remain anonymous. If your name, address, and phone number is published on the BBB internet site as a failed contractor who files invalid complaints and demands payment for jobs not performed correctly, it could impact your relationship with other mystery shopping clients.

I have done quite a few jobs for Ellis and I have never had a problem! I have route shopped the southeast for them for months, often doing 6 jobs a day for 3 days straight in various states. They have bonused me for traveling and I have never had an issue with payments. However, I, like some of the other people who have commented, have followed the directions and used proper grammar. It is easy to ask for names, especially from women. This is your mistake. Suck it up and act like a professional!

No.

@CJT wrote:

I have done quite a few jobs for Ellis and I have never had a problem! I have route shopped the southeast for them for months, often doing 6 jobs a day for 3 days straight in various states.

How on earth do you manage to do 18 of their reports in 3 days without losing your mind?

Rizzily, no, you should not report them. I understand the difficulty with the names but they needed a specific person shopped and you did not provide that service. It's best to let this go. A dear departed friend used to say that education is not free, and I think that applies here. My sympathy for the way it went down but I don't think Ellis is responsible. They told you up front there were two people with the same first name. Dealing with that problem was part of the shop. We all have these experiences when things don't go well for us. Dealing with that and moving on is part of what we do.

No. But I had a bad experience with trying to get my target once, and therefore won't shop targeted leasing agents again.
I had called many times to get my target on the phone. We finally made an appointment, and I showed up, but she was busy with some other customers. I begged off, saying it wasn't really a convenient time for me anyway, and rescheduled. I came in for the second appointment, only to be told that she had called in sick that day. I felt that I would have outed myself as the shopper if I'd left, so shopped the other leasing agent and submitted a report. Of course, it was rejected, although I am sure they actually used it.
I told them I am done shopping a target. They just make the whole thing too difficult for the lousy pay you get on such a detailed report.

How do shoppers handle it when they are told that there is an employee with the same first name as the target -- and are also instructed not to ask for someone by last name as it will most likely out them as a shopper?

I have never done a targeted shop. Wouldn't it be a red flag that someone called and asked for a particular person, even just using their first name -- or do the apartment ads actually list the first name of the employee to call to find out more about the apartment?

Thanks!

No, absolutely not.

BBB does take complaints like this...i looked into it when the topic came up.
if the instructions say to only ask for a 1st name, but also say 2 people have the same 1st name, you need to contact the MSC and ask to modify the instructions to allow the last name

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/2015 11:32PM by jmitw.

You knowingly submitted a report on the wrong target. I don't think you should file a complaint. I think you should have asked Ellis for instructions no how to ensure you got the right person. Also once you got there and knew you had the wrong person I would have just said I had an emergency and left the property then called the MSC for instructions on what to do next. Sorry, but you don't have a case here.

I'm really curious why you would fill out their long and repetitive report knowing you got the wrong person?!

I would have (if allowed) and warned there were two agents with the same first name, called prior and got into a conversation with agent #1. At the end of my call, I would have said, "You said you are Lisa, right? Just making sure when I will be coming down to see your apartment. How will I know "you" when I get there?" (hopefully she says something like, "I am Lisa Peters and the other is Lisa Anderson. I have red hair and she has black hair." That way when you get there, you know what you are looking for in agent #1.

In most apartment shops, if your target is not there, sometimes they tell you to continue the shop for any agent. Sometimes it is forbidden. I would find out which is true..Before I did any of this, I would have asked my scheduler to (avoid confusion) if I could make a pre-call to field out the right agent.

@rainy wrote:

How do shoppers handle it when they are told that there is an employee with the same first name as the target -- and are also instructed not to ask for someone by last name as it will most likely out them as a shopper?

I have never done a targeted shop. Wouldn't it be a red flag that someone called and asked for a particular person, even just using their first name -- or do the apartment ads actually list the first name of the employee to call to find out more about the apartment?

Thanks!

I usually say something after the initial greeting with a self-deprecating tone: "Jennifer, may I have your last name to put in my file? I'm one of those super organized people that just has to keep everything in order and I have a file for each community I'm looking into so I don't get confused later on."

And I'm not exactly lying, either. I do keep a file for each shop I do with all necessary contact information. :-)

I do not do targeted shops but reading what you said in your first post it sounds to me like they do not want you to ask for the target by name (ie when you first call do not say "I would like to speak with Jane Doe". But it seems to me that once you are talking to the person this does not preclude asking them for their name so you know who you are speaking to. That is a completely different thing.

@jmitw wrote:

if the instructions say to only ask for a 1st name, but also say 2 people have the same 1st name, you need to contact the MSC and ask to modify the instructions to allow the last name

How about getting a description of correct person prior to shop? Maybe both are named Mary but one is black & one is white. Or one is brunette & one is blonde. Or one is Mary & the other is Mari. One is 5'2" & other is 5'8". Sounds like easy solution to me.

I have been shopping them since 2010 and I love them. If you have 2 leasing people with the same first name I ask their last name but you have to be creative when doing so. So if you called and one of them answered. I would say should I ask for you when I arrive and are you the only say "Natalie" in the house. Most will answer and would not know that you are a shopper.

I had once done a shop for Ellis that I had arranged with an agent to come in that afternoon. Then I got a call that the agent had to leave because she got sick. I was told that I could do with another agent or reschedule it. It was the only tine that I could do it. I could not reschedule it. So did it with a different agent. Ellis would not p;ay me because I did not contact them first and did with the wrong agent. Lesson learned. Their thinking was that I knew ahead of time that the targeted agent would not be there vs showing up and finding the agent had left. I have not done another shop for them since. And I had done several shops for them before this happened.

I have shopped for Ellis and never had a problem with receiving payment. They sent me to some really bad areas of town though that were dangerous. For that reason alone I am no longer shopping for them. I also found it frustrating to get a specific person though. It would be so much better if they would just give you the shop and let you just get anyone.

I only attempted to shop for Ellis once. It was a targeted shop and I called 5 days, 3 different times through the day, without the target answering. I was finally given permission to request the person and they were no longer employed. The problem is, I had to allow schedule time for each of those 5 days. I was paid $3 for my time on the calls. So I now choose not to accept targeted shops. I believe it is our choice which types of shops and which companies. The guidelines are usually there and if you shop once and don't like the company, don't shop for them again.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2015 01:58PM by plainnpretty.

Yes, that one is on you, OP. When you have doubts before you shop, always contact them for ideas on how to perform, but since you were supposed to shop a certain target you should not have gone ahead with the shop (found a reason you had to leave in a hurry). I fortunately have never run into a problem like that one, although there was a time that my target had quit and they didn't know about it--I emailed EPMS when I couldn't reach my target over a week period by calling the apartment complex to find she was never in the office, and that's when they gave me permission to ask for her by name--and I discovered she no longer worked there. They assigned me a new target for the same property. Ellis is one of those companies who does pay well for a shop, but because you have to set aside a certain timespan over a few days to do a shop, it's hard to work in other jobs around the apartment shop (not knowing for certain if your target is going to be there or not). There have been times I scheduled a shop and had to cancel it because I couldn't reach the person during the days I had other shops scheduled near the apartment complex. Lately I have been noticing they are leaning more towards video shops in my area, but surprisingly they only pay $10 more than the regular apartment shops.

I started with Ellis doing 3 jobs a day and having 24 hours to complete the reports. I record all my shops. I would input them as soon as I left the job site in between the next job. I worked up to being able to do 6 jobs a day over time. My days are long, but I get the jobs done and the reports in within the time frame they give me. Once you have completed several, the reporting gets quicker and easier because you know what you are looking for.

Not everyone lives in an area where there are many apartments. I would have to travel hundreds of miles per day to do 6 apartment shops in one day.

@cjk831 wrote:

I had once done a shop for Ellis that I had arranged with an agent to come in that afternoon. Then I got a call that the agent had to leave because she got sick. I was told that I could do with another agent or reschedule it. It was the only tine that I could do it. I could not reschedule it. So did it with a different agent. Ellis would not p;ay me because I did not contact them first and did with the wrong agent. Lesson learned. Their thinking was that I knew ahead of time that the targeted agent would not be there vs showing up and finding the agent had left. I have not done another shop for them since. And I had done several shops for them before this happened.

It's a good idea to always get an email confirmation when you get clarification of something unclear or permission to do something differently...with over the phone bonuses too.

Oh so it is YOU who lives in podunk.....

@JASFLALMT wrote:

Not everyone lives in an area where there are many apartments. I would have to travel hundreds of miles per day to do 6 apartment shops in one day.

Wow, Canadamommy. Happy Holidays to you too.

your words not mine.....

@JASFLALMT wrote:

Wow, Canadamommy. Happy Holidays to you too.