It seems to be a disconnect between what we all feel is our responsibility or not our responsibility. I consider the MSCs to be my client thus placing the responsibility on me to ensure the report and any additional requests are received by my client. I also happen to agree with Birdy, we all rely on technology which most of the time works beautifully. We should not be so complacent as to assume it will always function flawlessly.

The OP stated: "So I received an email from an editor at ACL last month, perfectly reasonable concern over a shop I did. I replied, then received another notice four days later saying she really needed a response or the shop would be dropped. I responded again, thinking maybe I forgot to hit send last time (though I certainly wrote something out.)."

To me, that sounds very much as if the second request was a duplicate of the first. If that's not correct, I hope the OP will clarify, and I will stand corrected if my assumption was wrong.

@Tarantado wrote:

Basically all email servers I've ever had experience with provided some kind of rejection email or delivery issue message if there was issue with sending it or delivering it to the email receiver. Like I said, there's ways to cover this, such as Read Receipts or Delivery Confirmations, but I don't even think the free email servers like Gmail even offer that option or not.

I have five e-mail accounts. Two of them never or rarely give me an "email rejected" notice when the recipient's server bounces my sent mail, and one of them never gives a sender a notice when it can't deliver an e-mail to my inbox.

@Tarantado wrote:

"Checking someone's work" shouldn't mean for us to babysit or follow up if a 'thank you email' isn't received. Yes, I understand we're talking about ACL, but there has been shops where I did not receive a 'Thank you for submitting your report' email for at least 2-3 days after submitting my report. Should I have followed up with ACL? If my voicemail is empty, no missed calls were received and my email is empty of anything ACL-related, I'd say the ball was passed to ACL's court, at that point, and nothing else is needed from me.

That's not what I meant or said. By "checking one's work" (not checking "someone's" work), I meant that instead of relying on spell-check, sometimes we need to do good old-fashioned proofreading of our own work before we submit a report--not assume technology can accurately do it for us.

I don't expect a follow-up from an MSC every time I respond to them about something. But I do check the status of my jobs, and if some amount of time has gone by, and the shop hasn't been corrected and/or changed from "complete" to "received," then I think the burden is on me to check with them and make sure they received the information they asked for.

@Flash wrote:

Are we forgetting here that this is ACL? A company whose website I have never seen down except for scheduled maintenance in the more than a decade I have worked with them? Where typically there is a response within 24 hours to a shop submitted that it has been accepted or needs additions/changes/corrections and once these are sent the shop will be accepted or contact made within another 24 hrs? Because they do send that final 'thank you for your shop', any shop not receiving that email needs to be followed up on and the site does let you see emails that have been sent to you in your History in case your or their email failed. Editors also bend over backwards to contact you by phone if you don't respond to email and if they still can't reach you the shop gets kicked up to a supervisory level to email, phone or attempt to find some way to salvage the work. This is not just for some shoppers, this is for all of their shoppers. So I'm finding the OP's comments don't ring true with me unless the OP is using some obscure email service or has email settings that exclude almost everything. Even then, just routine follow up should have revealed there were still unaddressed issues within a time frame that could have allowed the shop to be accepted.

Great points. In addition, the shop itself stays re-opened at the top of our page when we log in until we fix an open issue. This is why I have inquired twice now as to if the OP was instructed to return to the shop or to respond by email. Either way, until the OP clarifies this then how they did or should have responded is not clear yet.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/17/2016 08:23PM by isaiah58.

I don't think ACL re-opens the shop after it is in "submitted" status. The editor phones/emails/texts, gets the point clarified and takes care of it.

It is when you have done everything you can to follow up, and there is chaos with the MSC. When you follow the software, make the changes to the report requested, resubmit to the MSC per their requirements, find your shop on the books call three times to have an employee tell you that they will need to call you back then do not. Then you watch helplessly as your shops go back on the job board and disappear. Then two days later you get a call from the LMTC first call that sorry, they are back on the board. Oh well.

Other than to live my life to call 24/7, I did wall in my power to resolve the problems only to get screwed over. My only recourse is to sue with the side effect of losing the MSC.

I've worked in customer service for an organization in which we when through a period of chaos in which people lost money due to our problems. They did not get reimbursed. They still had to deal with it, suck it up and live with it.

Have you ever had to fix an issue with ACL? Are you questioning my post stating that they re-opened shops of mine to address issues? I have no reason or motive to make a false statement

@EileenS wrote:

I don't think ACL re-opens the shop after it is in "submitted" status. The editor phones/emails/texts, gets the point clarified and takes care of it.

No need to get knickers in a twist. They handle it both ways. It has been a long time since I had a shop reopened, but it has happened. I have also communicated with an editor via email to clarify something where the shop was not re-opened.

I would send an email to info@a-closer-look.com and ask for the supervisor to call you. You could also reply with your request to an email from a scheduler whose name you recognize (they have a lot of new people). They work hard to recruit so they take excellent care of their shoppers. The supervisor should be able to get you square.

Regarding the availability of desirable assignments, check the job board for other major cities early in the month to see what work is available. If you are consistently seeing lame assignments, then there may actually be nicer assignments that you haven't qualified for due to writing sample, number of shops completed, or shopper rating (which the company is very secretive about). If an editor has to contact you for more info or ever adds constructive feedback to the thank you email, it's unlikely that they have graded you favorably enough to qualify for the prime assignments.

I shop for ACL a lot. Most hotels are what I would consider mid-range - around $100 - $150 a night in this large metropolitan area. I also get a lot of the lower-end franchise hotels - $60 - $80 a night, but I like to do them, and they are often available in places I want to visit. I've done some of the higher-end hotels (valet parking, $200-$350 a night for them. If all they have in your area are the lower-end hotels, then look a little further out and plan to drive a few miles. Enjoy the night out. I can't imagine the scenario you gave; I always get an e-mail from the editor plus a call from the editor plus a note on my events page that I need to contact the editor. I take care of it right away and maintain a good relationship. I'm sorry this happened to you, but really surprised at the same time.

And the bottom line with ACL, as with almost every other MSC, is timeliness. They are all obligated to report to the client within a given time after the shop. That is why there is such an urgency to get the work edited quickly and get responses back from the shopper quickly. Waiting for several days to follow up on a shop means that the information is already stale and possibly can no longer be presented to the client at all. I am watching like a hawk a shop that the report is already more than 24 hours old. I've checked and no email has gone out. And now ACL is gone for the weekend. Editors are likely still working, but I know I will need to respond really fast to any request from the editor so the work does not grow stale.

I think tying up the time of attorneys and the court is ridiculous for this! You said you screwed up on one shop, well you better be able to prove you have no fault on this. For example did you reply to the correct address as we all know, the emails are frequently sent from a non-monitored box and the address you are to reply to is down in the email. There has to be a better way to try and resolve this than through the courts.

I would think everyone knows we can't sue any of them! I would have walked away from that mess the first time bro! Walk away don't wait for them to respond. Don't wait around for the third time for them play you. There's a new MSC born every day! You don't need the stress. The contracts are written for the MSC not at all for us. No win situation.

While I agree that a lawsuit is probably pointless in this particular case, I don't things are necessarily weighted against shoppers or that we have no recourse if we are wronged.

Regarding communication and clarifications with ACL; All emails sent you by editors are passed through their system. If you go to the Events>History page, you will see an email icon on the right side of the page, and when you click it, you can see all correspondence sent to you from any shop you have ever done. Even if your email is not working, you can log in and check the status of your shop or see if clarifications are needed that way.

I just looked at my history and have had 2 shops returned for clarification in the past 5 years. Both were re-opened for me to add the changes directly to the report. Perhaps it's based on how far along in editorial they are, or your status with the MSC. An inexperienced shopper might mess up a partially edited report if it was re-opened.

I have had problems with the schedulers sometimes not responding to my emails also and one editor that was a problem. I always put in the subject URGENT and that gets their attention. Just turn them in to the BBB.

If you need someone to testify about the ethics and honesty of this company, please let me know. When I found the company, I originally applied for two jobs. One of these was an Editor position. I also applied to be a Shopper, and got accepted. I accepted some shops, but had to cancel because of family emergencies. During the course of all this, I mentioned the Editor position. The person I spoke with through email said that to be considered you had to perform five shops, but with me they'd consider three. Regardless, I started getting locked out of most assignments, and the majority of the ones available for me were ones that required I go to a Mexican restaurant with an Hispanic. I found this racist, and eventually my account got closed from my request.

Months passed, and I revisited their website, and applied for the other two jobs again. I have never heard back, directly, in regards to these job inquiries. Instead, I reached out to them again, and asked why they required shops to be an Editor when their website specifically advertises that you do not have to have shopping experience to be an Editor. The person I was in communication with said something along the lines as to me no longer being eligible. I asked why this was the case since I was the one the originally requested to be removed. They did not fire me. I also offered to apply again. They said this was impossible. When I asked about the Editor position, and why they said I needed shops prior to consideration even though this is not what is on their website, I was simply told that they no longer needed my services.

Quite frankly, I feel like I was being used by A Closer Look to do a free shop about A Closer Look.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/2016 04:44PM by RCrecelius.

I have been working with ACL and have not had any problems with them. I am registered with about 23 mystery shops both revealed, compliance and non reveal shops. One area I have found is that you have to have a system that will track. I use gmx mail servers. It has the ability to 'nest' another folder under the main one. I also use google voice along with google contacts. Every one I speak to I contact through google voice and contacts. Google voice also transcribes the phone call for you as the sms or message is sent. I can immediately send that transcription to either the scheduler or the reviewer. Having this system set up has been a real blessing. I'm not sure what went wrong on your end but I have not had problems. Yes, I have had a reviewer return for further review but everything was settled.

I doubt that turning them into the BBB will get any results. Years ago I did a shop for a company called Franchise Compliance that was struggling financially and not paying their shoppers (I didn't know that at the time). I did a carpet cleaning shop for them that was reimbursement only. I paid $218.33 to get my carpets cleaned and got a shop score of 10 for my report. Months later I had still not been paid, and the scheduler kept promising that I would be paid. I sent repeated emails to the owner and other employees, but none of them responded. I reported FC to the BBB of their state and it did not do a bit of good (I also tried the AG and other avenues but got nowhere). The fact is, my shop report was accepted, and if the BBB closed my complaint they won't help the OP with a shop that was not accepted.

I am really surprised with the OPs situation with ACL. I have luckily never experienced anything like that with them in the 10+ years I have been doing shops for them. If I remember correctly, all email correspondence from them is logged on their website under the "my history" tab. I guess the best thing to do would be to log into their website regularly each day after completing a shop to see if something was sent that may have landed in your spam box or gotten lost in cyberspace.

Oh, sorry Steve. Just saw you wrote the same thing about the emails from ACL...

@RCrecelius wrote:

I started getting locked out of most assignments, and the majority of the ones available for me were ones that required I go to a Mexican restaurant with an Hispanic. I found this racist, and eventually my account got closed from my request.

Are you sure the shops required you to bring a Hispanic along with you?...or just someone who was fluent in Spanish?

Yes, that's a good question. My cousin's wife in Phoenix doesn't speak Spanish except for a few words, but both of her parents (from Mexico) do.

@RCrecelius wrote:

required I go to a Mexican restaurant with an Hispanic. I found this racist, and eventually my account got closed from my request.

In what world does this qualify as racist? If a company specifies a particular demographic, it's because they want to know how that demographic is treated. It's not because they only like Hispanic people. I landed my first cruise shop because I fit the demographic. The company wanted to know about that particular demographic. It doesn't mean that the company made racist discrimination against all the other shoppers who applied. Ridiculous victim mentality.

I was just at the IMSC conference where one of the MSCs was talking about demographics just like that, PNF. Sometimes they want a middle-aged woman, sometimes they want someone from India or another country. That's why we have to fill out our profiles with our weight, hair color, ethic origin, etc. Makes sense.

I don't think it qualifies as a victim mentality. He or she simply doesn't understand the concepts of demographics in relation to mystery shopping and mistakenly identified it as racism.

Probably a little bit of not understanding the difference between employee and contractor thrown into the mix as well...

I recently had a shop "reopened" by ACL. I added a single sentence to a narrative and all was well. I have also had editor's phone me for clarification. Never had any problems.

@RCrecelius wrote:

When I found the company, I originally applied for two jobs. One of these was an Editor position. I also applied to be a Shopper, and got accepted. I accepted some shops, but had to cancel because of family emergencies. During the course of all this, I mentioned the Editor position. The person I spoke with through email said that to be considered you had to perform five shops, but with me they'd consider three. Regardless, I started getting locked out of most assignments, and the majority of the ones available for me were ones that required I go to a Mexican restaurant with an Hispanic. I found this racist, and eventually my account got closed from my request.

I don't even know where to start. There's a big difference between an employee and an independent contractor. You did not apply for two jobs, you applied for an editor position and and registered as an independent contractor, allowing you to accept shopping assignments.

You "accepted some shops and had to cancel because of emergencies?" How many? I would think canceling multiple shops with a company you never worked for before would mean deactivation. Surprise, the company did not deactivate you. But you were surprised when they didn't jump on your offer to edit for them? If I were ACL, I would have worried about emergencies and reliability. But they gave you a chance and said after you did 3 shops they would consider you.

Then you didn't understand the demographics of wanting a Hispanic to shop a Mexican restaurant and asked that your account be closed. Racist? Would it be sexist if you were asked to bring a male or a female with you? Or would it be age discrimination if you needed to bring an 18 year old? You came back months later and were unhappy that their website description of the editor position did not specifically say they wanted an editor to have performed some shops for them first. Most job listings do not list all the requirements for a specific position so this is not unusual, but you asked them why. Then they told you that you were deactivated from their system (it really doesn't matter if you chose deactivation or they chose deactivation) and you seem to believe you have been somehow treated unfairly.

Thanks for posting. You present a point of view that is totally confusing to me, so it made an interesting read. To me, the story shows how very, very nice this company is.

I'm going to take the OP's post at face value. I am going to put aside that ACL is one of my favorite MSP to work for. If you have exhausted every avenue of getting ACL to reopen your shop and reimburse you. If you have emailed, called, faxed and recorded everything. Yet through all of your efforts, they have not responded or have tried to work with you to find a resolution. Then, yes, by all means, pursue legal action. If you are willing to go through the hassle of small claims court, then you should be willing to FIRST go through the hassle of rectifying this issue with the MSP FIRST.

Hi Fastjack,

Let us just make the assumption you are 100% accurate in your statement. Once you did not get the problem cleared up with the first email it was your responsibility to call. I use email most. If I truly want a specific shop (before being assigned or once assigned needing to be approved) I will call after the first email does not clear up the problem. Would you want to sue when your method was not best practice? Another consideration is that typically you only want to sue when most to all avenues have been exhausted AND you need to recoup loss. You only have one shop to sue. With good clients you generally do not want to harm the relationship. With bad ones you definitely do not want to waste money going after them. What is to gain by suing over one shop? If it was a multitude of shops this would be necessary to recoup your loss.

Let it go. Enjoy your life. Good luck!

@isaiah58 wrote:

Have you ever had to fix an issue with ACL? Are you questioning my post stating that they re-opened shops of mine to address issues? I have no reason or motive to make a false statement

@EileenS wrote:

I don't think ACL re-opens the shop after it is in "submitted" status. The editor phones/emails/texts, gets the point clarified and takes care of it.

I have shopped for ACL for about 16 years and yes, over the years I have had to clarify or correct a few reports. I have always received an email or phone call from the editor and I don't think in the 16 years, they have ever re-opened a report and had me go in to fix it.

There is really no reason for you to be calling me out! My thought was that maybe you were mistakenly referring to ACL and perhaps you meant another MSC. Relax; life is too short!

@EileenS wrote:

@isaiah58 wrote:

Have you ever had to fix an issue with ACL? Are you questioning my post stating that they re-opened shops of mine to address issues? I have no reason or motive to make a false statement

@EileenS wrote:

I don't think ACL re-opens the shop after it is in "submitted" status. The editor phones/emails/texts, gets the point clarified and takes care of it.