Well aggiejim - there is an old adage about that kind of statement.

As soon as you claim to be "holier than thou" you will get your comeuppance and forget a shop. You can bank on it (and maybe it will be a bank shop ... oooh, getting a premonition here ...).

I kill trees. When I get an email assigning a job, I print the email and all the paperwork. Then I write it on my pocket calendar which is always at my side. On top of the paperwork pile in black marker I write the day and date and time restrictions. Everything goes in my bag which goes with me where ever I am. I can always pull out my calendar and bag and look through it. I cannot depend on my computer since I don't have a laptop and mobile internet access so I do it the old fashioned way. LOL

aggiejim72 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> LisaSTL Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > While I haven't forgotten who I'm shopping for,
> it
> > was just this past week that I totally forgot
> > about a shop. As if it's not bad enough that I
> had
> > it on my MS spreadsheet calendar, my Outlook
> > calendar and my phone, I also spoke to the
> > scheduler about the darn job on Friday. I get
> up
> > on Saturday and take care of all my jobs so
> it's
> > nothing but relaxation for the rest of the
> evening
> > and all day Sunday. At least until I jumped out
> of
> > bed early Sunday morning saying oh ...., you
> get
> > the picture. Thank goodness it was CoRI and a
> > scheduler I've worked with a lot. Upon hearing
> > about it Monday morning all she did was laugh
> and
> > reschedule it for me. Whew! The moral of the
> > story, it happens to all of us at some point.
>
> No, it doesn't happen to all of us. Speak for
> yourself, forgetting that you have a shop
> scheduled is as bad as it can get (almost). The
> scheduler's don't laugh about it, either. Nor the
> client. Forgetting that you are scheduled for a
> shop is unprofessional. Never happened to me. Or
> anyone else I know who shops.


All this proves, newbie, is that your "some point" hasn't arrived yet. Let's see if you'll come here looking for advice and sympathy when you blow your first shop. And then we'll see if you actually find any when your day comes.


Arrogant bunch of random keyboard characters......

aggiejim72 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> No, it doesn't happen to all of us. Speak for
> yourself, forgetting that you have a shop
> scheduled is as bad as it can get (almost). The
> scheduler's don't laugh about it, either. Nor the
> client. Forgetting that you are scheduled for a
> shop is unprofessional. Never happened to me. Or
> anyone else I know who shops.

What kind of psychological issue compels you to seek out a 3-year-old thread to use to attack Lisa?

Unfortunately, not all companies send reminder notices or "shop awarded notices." This bugs me too. I usually flag the emails where I applied for or was interested in the shop and then move shop assignments to my "assigned folder." If I don't get a confirmation or have to make one myself, I transfer the shop notification to that folder so I won't forget. Also, I try to immediately print the instructions and put the event on my calendar.

I'm taking it that you are new, but even the best of us slip up every now and then. It does get easier with time.

After reading some of aggiejim72's posts on another thread, I have come to the conclusion that he is here just to argue. He does not want to learn anything or take advice from seasoned shoppers. Maybe he is a TIT.

{TIT - Troll In Training}

…and if you shop for long enough, you will eventually skip a shop by accident. I have what I always thought was a foolproof system, but it relies on both my electronics and my brain to be functioning on any particular day.

A few years back I had a bad night where I was not feeling well. I did not sleep much and forgot to charge my phone. I was so tired in the morning I also forgot to bring the charging cable for my car and actually didn't even realize it had died. With no reminder and me being so tired, I forgot about the shop and arrived home to see the shop reminder when I plugged the phone in. It was too late...

At that point there's nothing to do but email the scheduler with, "Mia culpa."

I have been in the same shoes of knowing where and when but not who to shop for. When I signed up with more companies a while ago and started routing my shops (I only do weekends so I will do 6 to 8 shops in one day), I realized I needed better tracking. I now have gone to an Excel spreadsheet that I put the shops into as soon as I sign up since I'm already on the computer when signing up. I have only a few columns: store, MSC, date of shop, my pay, my expense, my net, and the date that MSC pays me for the shop. It really has helped me track who is paying in a timely manner as well as shops that end up costing me money in the end.

"Mia Culpa" ??

Boutique Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "Mia Culpa" ??


stupid auto-correct….

Mea Cupla; an acknowledgment of one's fault or error.

He's a troll in training who thinks he can teach others what he hasn't yet learned himself.

Actually he is an old troll returning under another forum name. Beep, Beep, the Magical Mystery Shopper Bus is leaving the station.

You could also check your Spam and SENT mail.

im doing so many shops between now and sunday
I won't remember my own name by the time im
done. Shoppers are asleep at the wheel in FL
this month! I'm covering from the gulf coast to the east coast,
north to the GA border and south to Melbourne and everywhere
in between. All of course have bonuses.

Thanks shoppers!

Better watch out techman, if you say too much longhornjim will come steal all of your shops from you!

I think "it happens to all of us" is a figure of speech and is meant to show sympathy with another's predicament.

If you have an iPhone, your best tool is in your hand! Here's what you do:


1) Download an app called Calendars (forget the one that came on your iPhone--it won't work for what we're doing), produced by a company called Readdle. It's free.

2) Calendars by Readdle can be synced to your Google Calendar, so anything you put on one will show up on the other. Go sync those badboys. Calendars will give you directions on how to do it. If you don't have a Google Calendar, WHY DON'T YOU IT'S AN AMAZING PROGRAM AND IT'S FREE. Go sign up. And surprise! If you have a Gmail account, you already have a Google Calendar you may simply have never used. While you're in there, create a specific Mystery Shop calendar (you'll do this from the Google end), and select a bright, obnoxious color you can't miss when you open your app to be the color for that calendar. (Basically, that means that when you look at your calendar, stuff will be color-coded--your daily life might be blue, but shops might be bright yellow, for example.)

3) Every time you get a shop--AS SOON AS THAT CONFIRMATION EMAIL POPS UP--enter the shop in Calendars (or Google Calendar) in this format:

Mystery Shop @ Goodburger 123 Anystreet
Audit @ Tinseltown Theatres 42 Wallaby Way

You'll have to select a time--this should always be the time the shop should be completed and, for all-day shops, the opening/closing hour (whichever is closer to the point in time you'll be doing the shop). It's a little more complicated on Google Calendar than on Calendars, but both are pretty user-friendly programs. If you have so many companies that you can't remember who does which shop (I haven't yet encountered that problem), you can just slap the company name on the end.

Both programs will give you the option of adding further details. I don't personally use these because I put everything I need in the actual subject line (Mystery Shop @ TGI Friday's 221 Baker St LOA <-- to remember paperwork that must be brought with me and presented, for example), but you can absolutely use the Details option to add things like LOA, questions you must ask, etc.

4) Get in this habit: EVERY NIGHT, look at your calendar for the next two days on Google. Take note of what's upcoming and what you're doing tomorrow. If you have shops tomorrow, review your paperwork (you did do that when you first got the shop, I hope). EVERY MORNING, check the calendar on your phone for a refresher, get up, and go.


I've yet to miss a shop by using this method. I have other tricks like saving all my paperwork straight to my computer, but without my Calendar, I'd be lost.

I have forgotten a shop before.

Should we use the word "stalker" to describe this poster's persuit of Lisa's post?

techman01 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> im doing so many shops between now and sunday
> I won't remember my own name by the time im
> done. Shoppers are asleep at the wheel in FL
> this month! I'm covering from the gulf coast to
> the east coast,
> north to the GA border and south to Melbourne and
> everywhere
> in between. All of course have bonuses.


FL shoppers are either on vacation or they have died. If they fall asleep behind the wheel, they end up driving into a canal. I am too busy myself and I have been turning down jobs. I did break down and accept a 1-day route of all bonused shops. Damn, I said that I was not going to accept anything else for the month of July.

bgriffin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Better watch out techman, if you say too much
> longhornjim will come steal all of your shops from
> you!


I like my name better.

Actually I had forgotten all about this and having the thread resurrected reminded me of Joann at CORI who I miss terribly. For the record, she really did laugh about it. None of us is infallible and from the new posts it appears I am in good company

Shop2LiveinFL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> FL shoppers are either on vacation or they have
> died. If they fall asleep behind the wheel, they
> end up driving into a canal. I am too busy myself
> and I have been turning down jobs. I did break
> down and accept a 1-day route of all bonused
> shops. Damn, I said that I was not going to
> accept anything else for the month of July.


I'm under pressure to head down to your area
but so far I've resisted but I may soon. I want
to try out that new bimini cruise so if I do I will
just do all the shops while down there. I'm waiting
for them to finish the dock so we dont have to tender.

Come on down! Si habla Espanol, cierto?

Shop2LiveinFL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Come on down! Si habla Espanol, cierto?


to come down there I need a police escort to
navigate around all the nut jobs driving down
there. I'd rather drive in NYC any day of the
week then over by you

By S2L speed limits and lines on the road are just suggestions.

"Roads ... where we're going, we don't need roads." - Back to the Future

LisaSTL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> By S2L speed limits and lines on the road are just
> suggestions.


And that includes both minimum and maximum speeds.

LisaSTL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> By S2L speed limits and lines on the road are just
> suggestions.


that is the truth. In NY everyone just goes fast and
20 to 30 over the speed limit. Down by her, people
in the left lane doing 40, people in the right doing 90
center lane one guy 60 guy behind him wants to do 80
then another guy behind him wants to do 90 and they
all are weaving and the guy doing 40 in the left is clueless
as to what is going on around him

That is sooo true! I'm the one in the red car weaving in and out of traffic. The cops love me.