The last 5 days have been anything but pleasant in the life of amie068. Last Thursday, my grandfather was rushed to the hospital after having a heart attack and the weekend was very intense. Needless to say, everything else in life had to take a back seat. He is doing better now, but my boat was really rocked. It is pretty clear I abandoned life for the last 5 days given the condition of my house and piles of dirty laundry. I had several shops to do that could have been done anytime between last Friday and today. I should have contacted my schedulers, but my stubborness made me think I could handle the load. That idea was nothing short of TOTALLY STUPID. Of the 4 shops I had to do, I have successfully botched all but one of them. To add insult to injury, these were nicely paid shops, easy to do, and the reports were going to be pretty painless. I suppose my distraction took over what I would have normally done on auto-pilot while completing the shops. Now what do I do? I don't want to be on the naughty shopper list with these companies (3 in total, 1 of which I have not worked with in a long time). Do you all have any recommendations on how I can correct the mess? I have called and/or emailed the scheduler's but have not heard back from them. I should probably call off the dogs on doing more shops this week or at least until I can get my head back in the game and focus like I normally would.

So far you have done all you can do. Right now time might still be on your side since it just the middle of the month. Can the shops be redone or was this a once and done type scenario? If you can reschedule them, be realistic for completion. Meaning if you have to, just do one a day until your head is back on straight.

I'm so sorry to hear about your grandfather I pray he is on the road to recovery. I agree with LisaSTL you still have time, if the shops could be redone. I also agree maybe only one shop a day until you can focus. Your the only one that knows if you could focus for the one shop it might be better to take a few days to to get your head back in the game.

Are you sure you botched all three to the point they are not useful to the client?

I know how you feel. I, too, attempted to shop through chaos and didn't handle either the shops or the chaos effectively. I have finally managed to stop reading the shopping emails until I get the chaos under control.... and to add to the chaos I already had, I woke up Saturday with dizzy spells that I still have, then my mother was taken to the hospital yesterday after falling. They sent her home, but as I type this she is being admitted again. Waiting to hear from my sister. Trying to resist the urge to find a few shops I could do down in that area (100 miles away) when I run down there probably tomorrow or Wednesday (or maybe even today), depending on what happens (if they check her in or send her home again). It's hard to think of actually having to pay the $35 round trip gas bill on my own dime, but I MUST NOT SHOP THIS WEEK. I cannot add to the chaos that I still have to deal with.

So I know what you went through and I'm struggling not to make the same mistake. I have NO shops on my list at the moment and I must keep it that way. Do yourself a favor and beg off from the ones you have not yet done, try to reschedule or get forgiveness for the ones you think you blew, and come back to it when your head is clear and your time is your own again.

And I'll try to do likewise!

Two cannot be saved as one was a video recorded shop and the other was a recorded phone shop. The remaining shop can be saved if I wish to redo it. The only problem is that without adding more shops to it, it would not make $$ sense for me to drive 80 miles round trip for this one shop. I have only one more shop on the books for this week and probably should not add any more to the list until I can get my mind and life settled down just a notch.

Oh....didn't mention that on top of all I have dealt with, a MOUSE went on a suicide mission in the fan at the bottom of our refrigerator. The smell alone, not to mention the removal and clean up process, made me want to go on a similar mission.

I understand what you are saying about it not making sense financially. IMHO, you may want to do the job regardless. In January I committed to two video shops and each was several hours away. It was not a problem to create a route for one. For the second I could not find any other jobs despite having good luck with this area in the past. While that job was not a financial loss, the little bit of money made compared to the time spent made it a wasted day financially. OTOH, it was far from a waste from a business standpoint as the company is one of my best.

I agree with Lisa, you should go ahead and re-do that shop anyway to keep good standing with the company. Consider it an investment in your reputation.

You were in a state of shock and did not know the magnitude of your impending work-week.

Case in point: My mom died and I was walking around like a Zombie. I thought I would try to cook something for the kids and I turned on the pot on the stove, put some oil in the pot, and walked away, and forgot about the pot.

The house filled with smoke and I almost burned down my home. I told my husband I will not be going back in the kitchen until I can FOCUS on what I am doing.

You were in shock and you tried to complete your shops. You were not in the wrong and your dedication made you do what many of us would do: "Neither rain, sleet, hail or flood will keep the Shopper from their appointed rounds."

Relax and maybe understand you need some time to grieve. You don't need to worry about name tags, full descriptions, greetings or salutations.

You need to worry about you. Your schedulers need to understand. Period.

I would call your scheduler and tell them you were dedicated to finishing your shops, but the shock of your loss, had not quite worn off enough, to do them at the time.

I can relate to trying to balance emotional chaos while trying to manage my mystery shopping. My last few weeks have been hell while dealing with a serious and scary family emergency. Trust me, I've botched up more than a few assignments in stupid ways too embarrassing to share.

I haven't gone public with my schedulers and editors, but I went ahead and redid the snafu'd assignments on my on time and dime. I rearranged my schedule to give myself some breathing room. Tried easing up my workload, and was a lot more selective about which assignments I was willing to take on.

Of course, real life marches on, regardless of what one has going on. As some of you are aware, it's been one Twilight Zone experience after another for me lately. I've only posted a few of the more maddening instances. All the weirdness in mystery shopping land hasn't made things easier.

We can only do what we can do. When we can do better, we will.