Hi all,

I've started mystery shopping only a few weeks ago. I will be a lifestyle enhancement shopper with hopes to make a little extra disposable income, but shopping very part time. Based on the advice of this board, I have signed up for a few MSCs and am choosing focused assignments to learn my mistakes on the smaller, more questionnaire-oriented shops and, frankly, ones I can repeat if I screw up!

With one MSC, I signed up for two shops involving ice cream. I submitted the first shop and it was marked Received. This is on the Sassie system and the Total was displayed below the shop fee for the full amount. I didn't receive any feedback and there is no shop rating shown. This was submitted late last week.

Today, my second shop (at the same business, different location) was cancelled. I received an email to this effect but with no detail other than it had been canceled. The shop was removed from my shop log, but did not appear back on the Job Board.

Do job cancellations like this happen?
Or should I take this as silent feedback that my initial shop was not up to standards?
Do all companies on the Sassie system typically give visible ratings to reports/shoppers?

I'm trying to figure out if it was related to my performance or not. Perhaps I'm paranoid and this happens or perhaps I should play a little Monday morning quarterback on that report! Submitted reports for other Sassie-based MSCs were 10 and 9 so far, but I am still very new and learning that each MSC seems to want a different level of detail, quoting style and specificity.

Thanks.

Kim

There is no way to say definitively, normally if there is an issue with a particular shop you are going to be contacted to clarify or told it was excluded if you failed to perform a vital part of the scenario. It is quite possible your other shop has not been fully processed yet and outstanding shops have been cancelled either at the request of the client or because changes are being made to the guidelines and/or forms. It happens more often than you might think. I have not performed a shop for this company, assuming it's the right one, in five years or so. At that time they were posting rating after the shop was completely processed.

I've had shops canceled on me. It may be just the Client no longer wants the current shop performed. Sometimes clients decide to tweak their program, or even cancel their program. The client may also have decided to move their program to a different MSC and canceled their contract with the one you shopped them for, in mid stream.

Not all Sassie companies give Grades. But it sounds like you are going to be paid for your shop, so standards were met on your part.

You can always contact your scheduler if you are worried about the shop cancellation. But it probably is not a reflection on you as a shopper or as a person.

Some companies Do Not Communicate Well.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/06/2015 04:14PM by Lady Marius.

I certainly would not take a cancellation personally, though I understand full well why you might. There are so many reasons that shops might be cancelled--a dispute between the client and the MSP could readily take all of the client's shops off the job board until resolved, a particular location may be closing, there may be management change at a location so they get some reorganization time before they are shopped again, the MSP may have goofed and have a duplicate posting of the job, etc.

Thank for you the quick replies. It was helpful to know that shops can sometimes just be canceled. I'm not taking personal offense to it, but definitely was trying to assess if it was report related. I'm a bit Type-A, but also quite interested in learning and building up credibility based on quality work. If I have difficulty scheduling other shops with that MSC, I will ask them specifically for the feedback. I am not yet at the point to know which MSCs are a good fit for me and which are not. As I get more confident in my skills, I will be assessing which ones I want to work with long term and then I will be less concerned about second guessing everything!

Dear Kim,

Like you, I'm fairly new to it all. I got one cancelled. It does hurt and makes you wonder.

I had a slightly different experience on another. I did a great narrative for a particular shop but goofed up in the fill in the blank part. The directions were not bad, but the questions didn't match up with the guidelines. Got my first and only 6 rating for all the back and forth emails.

Anyway 2 weeks later, I applied for the same job in a different area. I didn't get it. I was like, "Those b#st@rds!! After I put my soul into that report, they're snubbing me!" Long story, short. I got the job again at a different location. Got a 9 this time. Still didn't get my first choice when a third round was announced.

Bottom line. It probably isn't personal. The schedulers will always look for people they can rely on. If you do screw something up, let your scheduler know. They will appreciate the honesty. If you think they screwed up, be polite. Explain your side. Schedulers have hearts, albeit some need to be taken out of the freezer and microwaved for a few minutes!

Sorry about coming late to the party. But there may be one other explanation. I recently applied for 3 shops at the same location (there is only one in my town.) Two, 1st and 3rd, shops were of one type and the other was different. The MSC awarded the first one to me and the second one disappeared from my list. Then a week or so later the other one disappeared! However, if I want to travel 120 miles west or 165 miles east, I can shop that company in different cities.

Here is what I think happened. The first two were about 10 days apart. There is probably a rotation on the shop, meaning that I have to have more than X number of days between shops at the same location. The third shop was not quite 30 days after the first one. It stayed on my list for a while, then I got a message that it had been awarded to another shopper. Apparently someone who had not been to that location recently.

Another MSC I shop for will have several different types of assignments for one company / location. If I self assign one, all the others go away. But when I submit my report, most of them come back. I assume that those that don't comeback were picked up by someone else.

Delizzy



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/2015 12:27AM by Delizzy.