Sometimes, too much time elapses between the application and the award process. I know that schedulers have a very hard job with many variables in awarding assignments, but when a reasonable amount of time passes and I have to move on to a "sure thing", how understanding are the schedulers when I have to be honest and state (kindly and politely) that too much time elapsed between the application and the award? I have had a couple of really "nasty" reponses and even a few citations for applying for an assignment, but not accepting it. Schedulers: I need your input.

I am with you, especially today, on this one. I got what I thought was a 9-1-1 email for an urgent shop that even asked the bonus I would need to complete said shop. I tried to see if it was part of a mass e-mail, from my untechnologial eyes, it did not seem to be, so I looked over my schedule. With the pay offered and bonus amount suggested for approval, I thought it would be worth the effort of a little juggling. This shop was going to be the cornerstone of my day tomorrow, or so I thought. I said I would accept, they said they would consider my acceptance....huh??? I thought this was a 9-1-1, first one to respond wins type of emergency??!?!? That was WAAYYYYY earlier today. Now, tick, tock, tick, tock, 10:14pm......Uhhhh.....this shop alone is not worth the travel expense so, now I need to make an impromtu route I had never planned just to accomodate this one golden egg. I have pulled yet another unintended rabbit out of you know where, making a route of shops based on this one that I thought was a shoe-in but has yet to be approved. At this point, the shop is out of consideration considering that I rearranged 2 days of my schedule to accomodate what they were offering but is so far nothing but a huge, great big bag packed full of absolutely nothing. There is no way in this world I will go back now that I have moved heaven and earth to accomodate a schedule that seems to have been ultimately dependent on the cheapest offer of acceptance. I am usually good at picking off those urgent shop mass email's that are waiting for the first bite. Today, was not one of those usual times. Oh well....another day, another lesson learned.

That is very frustrating. The longer I did this, the more I learned.

1 - What a "mass" email looks like. 99.9% of them are mass emails, even if they don't "look" it. The email that says, "Hello Matthew, This is Joe, the scheduler for Shop XYZ. I see you have done this shop in the past for us, and did a great job. I was wondering if you might be interested in doing it again, we really need this shop completed. Thanks, Joe." This is ALMOST surely still a Mass email, sent to every single person that has done this shop before, and using the BCC so you can't see anyone who the shop was directed to except you. A shop that says, "This is being sent to just you," "Please reply with a positive OR negative answer," or some shop with a specific thing about YOU is usually the only personal emails you get with a cold shop request. (This isn't always true, but a pretty good rule of thumb!)

2 - How to get that urgent shop. Send an email. If you don't hear back within an hour or two, try calling the mystery shopping company. Tell them you'd really like to do this shop, but need to move mountains to do it, and don't want to move the mountain and learn you're supposed to be on the other continent!

Well said. I accept this as a new lesson I have somehow not yet learned after shopping full time for over a year. Better to learn something new every day than to be an idiot forever!

A job offer is not a contract, nor is an application for that job. It's that simple. I really feel for schedulers who have a tough job, but it cuts both ways.

Hi,

I am not a scheduler - however, I do apply for a shop and the day before the assignment I get an "ACCEPTED" - I really got tired of it, so if I do not get the job with 2 days of applying I schedule something else. If they send an accepted note, I send back a message, "I did not believe I was going to get the assignment since it took _____ days so I took another assignment for that time. I do not know if this is right or wrong, since I am considerably new at this, however, my time is important too and the one scheduler/company now approves the shop much earlier than the day before.

Savana23
Silver Certified
Virginia

If it's a Sassie company or a ShopMetrics company (maybe others as well) if you applied through the website, you can cancel your application. I'm sure the schedulers would rather you cancel the application through the site than wait for the acceptance email to cancel. I do find it incredibly annoying when it takes days to get a shop scheduled, so I do feel your pain. I have no idea what sort of work is involved with assigning shops. I actually want to do some scheduling just to see what its like. I don't have time for it though. I barely have time for shopping these days.

I try to accept/decline within 24 hours. If it's anything more than that, I'll send you an email. The 24 hours allows everyone to check their email, sign in and apply. If a shopper apply's for 25 shops, I'll probably assign 10 after 24 hours, then send the shopper an email saying that you applied for a bunch of shops, I just want to see if anyone else applies first. I'll assign them to you within the next 24 hrs if no ones does. I've only ever had positive experiences with this.

Same thing goes with if a shopper applies then emails me "I'm literally walking out the door", I will assign it right away.

I've had no luck booking shops a couple days out when I suddenly have a need to go to the nearest big city (I live in a small town) and want to do a few shops to help cover the $35 in gas it costs me to go there and back. I wish they'd at least reject me so I know, but the shops remain open and I remain unassigned. Maybe it will get better as I actually get rated on all the shops I've done. I'm always afraid they will accept the morning I have to leave and I won't have time to review the details and print my docs and orient myself to the shop. But that hasn't been an issue -- they just ignore my requests!

I guess it's one of those "how can I get experience if nobody will hire me?" things.