Just curious-has anyone applied for several shops and while waiting, over the course of several days, watch the shops disappear from the board. I requested 3 of the same type shop. Later that day I got a "sorry the shop was assigned to another shopper" e-mail, which left my other two applications active. Two days later, I got another e-mail with the same response about one of the two remaining shops" Tonight I deleted the last application. It seems to me that the scheduler is holding my apps as a last resort. I have never been late with a report, or had any negative comments on prior jobs. I have completed this particular type of job 11 times for the company in question. I am trying to set up a route for while I am out of town, and cannot afford to have the shop dropped in my lap last minute (unless a bonus is involved). Am I being paranoid about the scheduling process? Why would they take this long to respond , yet the shop is still available with a deadline coming up.

Did you request a bonus at all? Did you request over the phone , direct email to a scheduler or just a website request?

Nope, just a basic request for 3 shops, done at the exact same time. (Simple and under $20.00 each) The denials came from the same scheduler, so it is not locations assigned to different schedulers. I have noticed this before with this company and a few others, but thought I was misjudging them. This time, I was watching closely due to my trip planning. I am being vague because I do not want to point fingers. I deleted the last request since it was no longer beneficial without the other shops. When this happened before, I just waited it out and accepted whatever I was given.

When I was a newbie, I got 4 declines on the chocolate candy shop. So disappointed! But eventually, I was selected

Sometimes, I felt they were picking shoppers with more "experience" and I had to pay my dues early on....

Are you new to the company?

I agree......when you apply for shops and wait, with many companies the shops are not assigned immediately so they are definitely not "first come." While it irritates me to wait to be assigned (I prefer self-assign), I've noticed the longer I work for a company the more assignments I get. The sheduler IS probably waiting, not necessarily for a better offer but for more offers - and she will then make her choice from the applications she gets. While as a shopper I would like the choice to be me every time, this is business. We as Independent Contractors select the jobs we want - no way will I do all their jobs......I pick and choose the ones I want. The scheduler picks and chooses among shoppers. And yes, some do wait several days after throwing the fishing one out and I'm sure they are picking the shopper they want.

That happened to me with Mystery Shopping Canada - I understand that companies have the right to do this but I think it's absolutely unfair. They have 700 shops available for my city alone and obviously not everyone is doing them. How does anyone new make any money yet gain experience with companies if they make you wait a month or longer before assigning you a shop? I don't like companies that play games.. first come first serve or nothing at all.

There is no reason for them to work on a first come, first served basis. They are hiring contractors to do a job and it makes sense to give priority to someone with a proven track record. That is not playing games, it is good business. If you are interested in working with a company then contact them and ask what it would take to get your first assignment.

I have shopped this particular shop 11 times for this company in the last year (In my home state-at all different retailers). They have not had to request any additional information or clarification on any of them. I like the shops, but I do not care for games. I have shopped on and off for 15 years. Since I retired last year, I have time to devote, and have increased my shopping. I need to decide if this is worth contacting the company about, or if I am just being too sensitive. I feel like my good work should speak for itself and I should not have to suck up to an MSC to get the jobs I request. Perhaps I was mistaken that job requests were "first come, first served" to all SOLID shoppers. I could understand this if I had ever "flaked" or even if they had to e-mail for missing documentation or corrections. Perhaps a scheduler could enlighten me on how the choices are made. I could be missing a major point. This is the purpose of the post. I don't want to raise a stink about something I only "think" I know. They could be looking at the distance from my home, BUT all 3 were close together, and warranted an e-mail or phone call if they were concerned that I requested by accident.

My response was to the post directly above my own because she used the terms first come, first served and said she has not completed shops with the new company.

Without knowing which company you are talking about, it wouldn't be possible to do anything but guess at the reasons they are not assigning the shops. Does the scheduler have any way to know you are attempting to include the shops as a group for a route? If a Sassie company has a place for a message on the application, I will include a note that states I am applying for X number of shops to create a route and include the other locations along with saying it is an all or nothing deal because individually they would not justify the trip.

I think it is playing games when the assignment sits there for weeks and as soon as you ask for it, it becomes "no longer available". It's like that for the majority of jobs up there. And I have already wrote to them last month thanks and received no response. I'm a critical thinker and figured I should do that after I applied for a little over 100 jobs with them and had them removed and added as a backup shopper. Is that good business? I don't think so and you probably wouldn't like it if you spent time doing numerous certifications for the company, applied to the amount of jobs I have and got listed as back up shopper constantly. Not to mention the constant emails that jobs are available..... (yes I know I can turn that off)

I really am not TOO annoyed because I have made over $800 this month going through American companies.. I would just rather complete jobs for a Canadian company so I could get paid faster not to mention the jobs listed are plentiful in comparison to the companies who have given me a chance, where opportunities in Canada seem rare. I don't really see a sense in having a section where people can apply for contract position if you are only giving jobs to "experienced" shoppers. Maybe in the US there are no laws about equality when it comes to employment opportunities but there are here.. Personally after this experience, I think I'll just stick to other companies because I feel that I and anyone else going through similar issues deserve to be treated better.

You may disagree with me Lisa but the company could assign 1 job out of 700 as a test.. that is fair and good business. Close the "Apply to Be a Mystery Shopper" section if you are no longer assigning to "newbies". Don't waste people's time

Of course there are laws in the US regarding employment. They don't govern independent contractors, only employees.

We work slightly differently here.. you could be a freelancer aka IC and still have rights. I won't get into politics cause that could be pages long.. but I made a point in saying that because companies that do that for other reasons (since they ask for race, hair colour, age and sex) could be possibly discriminating which is why I don't agree with this way of conducting business.

I look at all this as 'business'

I need to have my roof replaced. I will shop around. I will look at what the cost would be, the time it'll take to start and finish, etc and the history of that contractor and references before putting any money out. Then, I'll decide...

That's how I see this business. If you don't like how the company conducts it's business, then it's time to move on.

I had an experience a few months ago where I didn't care for a particular company and I requested deactivation. That's the end of that and I moved on.

Thanks for the input. I did not name the company, because I don't want them to get poked in the eye if I am incorrect in my thinking. I am smoothing my ruffled feathers for now, and will try to contact them to see if it is the distance issue. Thanks for the "cooler heads" thinking. Sometimes we just need an outside perspective to get a grip on the situation. I still think they might be cherry picking, but there may be a valid reason from their business perspective. Despite the sound of the post, the company pays on time, and the shops they do are straightforward, so I will give them the benefit of the doubt for now

dixiewhiskey Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You may disagree with me Lisa but the company
> could assign 1 job out of 700 as a test.. that is
> fair and good business. Close the "Apply to Be a
> Mystery Shopper" section if you are no longer
> assigning to "newbies". Don't waste people's time


It does seem like they could assign one job out of 700 as a test.

On the other hand while self assigning works best for me to schedule my day, I realize that MSC's have no obligation to work that way. I've had a request into SQM for more than a week. The job is still on the job board and my request is still in request status. In this case I'm the most recent person to have done the job, so my guess is they'd prefer someone else.
But they always have the choice to assign whoever they prefer.

Regarding Mystery Shopping Canada, they sometimes have good bonuses on out of the way shops that they have trouble filling. If one of those was not too far from you, applying for it might get you in the door.

If you can make 800.00 per month without them, then move on. Where I live, I have to take what I can get from every company. My best month is probably 300.00 per month.

I'm in very rural Alberta; what province are you in?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/16/2013 02:16PM by prince.

jroby1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for the input. I did not name the company,
> because I don't want them to get poked in the eye
> if I am incorrect in my thinking. I am smoothing
> my ruffled feathers for now, and will try to
> contact them to see if it is the distance issue.
> Thanks for the "cooler heads" thinking. Sometimes
> we just need an outside perspective to get a grip
> on the situation. I still think they might be
> cherry picking, but there may be a valid reason
> from their business perspective. Despite the sound
> of the post, the company pays on time, and the
> shops they do are straightforward, so I will give
> them the benefit of the doubt for now


I agree, they are probably cherry picking and believe that's their right.
I want to cherry pick which assignments I take.

Edited to make it clear. I believe it's their right to cherry pick which shoppers they assign to each job.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/16/2013 02:51PM by prince.

Another thing to consider is sometimes a company posts 500 locations but the contract is for 300 to be completed and they need to be completed across a broad area. So...the scheduler is waiting to see what shops are being requested and waiting for some to come in before she continues to assign. Say 200 of the 500 are in a large metro area where you might be and you (collectively) are thinking wow I could do all of those but in reality she really might only want a handful done from that area. As the program comes closer to an end then sometimes the parameters of what the scheduler can assign may change.

Liz

Don't feel bad. The same company, I suspect, has frequently rejected me, too, but they have awarded me a few shops. I think they have very popular shops and a huge stable of shoppers. They want to be fair, so they spread them around.

Robinv

Traveliz, that is interesting information.

Dixie, I understand your frustration and I am confused why this is happening to you. I am new myself, I just started 15 months ago.

The experience I had was different. When I submitted a request it was either accepted, denied, or put on hold for later. It was put on hold as a backup, I just moved on to other business.

If you have a good record with your performance, I see no reason to be concerned. Let it go and don't make a scene. Calm yourself by taking a big breath and sitting back for at least 30 minutes. If you're still upset, repeat the process until you are successful.

Everything is fine and you will be successful. Let it go.

There was one company that I was initially rejected for every shop I applied, but I kept it up and kept applying. I now get every shop I apply for.

prince Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> dixiewhiskey Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > You may disagree with me Lisa but the company
> > could assign 1 job out of 700 as a test.. that
> is
> > fair and good business. Close the "Apply to Be
> a
> > Mystery Shopper" section if you are no longer
> > assigning to "newbies". Don't waste people's
> time
>
>
> It does seem like they could assign one job out of
> 700 as a test.
>
> On the other hand while self assigning works best
> for me to schedule my day, I realize that MSC's
> have no obligation to work that way. I've had a
> request into SQM for more than a week. The job is
> still on the job board and my request is still in
> request status. In this case I'm the most recent
> person to have done the job, so my guess is they'd
> prefer someone else.
> But they always have the choice to assign whoever
> they prefer.
>
> Regarding Mystery Shopping Canada, they sometimes
> have good bonuses on out of the way shops that
> they have trouble filling. If one of those was
> not too far from you, applying for it might get
> you in the door.
>
> If you can make 800.00 per month without them,
> then move on. Where I live, I have to take what I
> can get from every company. My best month is
> probably 300.00 per month.
>
> I'm in very rural Alberta; what province are you
> in?

That's what I was thinking. It's really a hit or miss with MSC I noticed.. every business does things differently. I do know for sure that companies prefer certain people because they do repeat contracts for them on time and are always reliable. I am from Southern Ontario and am very close to multiple cities (thus the mention of 700 jobs). I just wanted the bank jobs cause I bank with a few different places and for the fee they charge to just go in and do my daily bis seemed reasonable. I think like I said earlier, I'll just keep doing jobs for companies that I've proven myself reliable to. I just got asked to do another car shop because someone couldn't do it (wooo $100 more to that $800) so I think that's plenty than what Mystery Shopping Canada could give me at the moment.

I love self-assigning but not everyone works that way and that's OK with me. As long as they offer opportunities in an equal and fair fashion, that floats my boat. If I don't like the way something is run, I just find something else that works. If I were OP, I would do the same thing because OP sounds like they have done jobs for the company before and that's kind of a slap in the face.

I guess that was my point, since we are not employees there is no obligation on the part of a MSC to "offer opportunities in an equal and fair fashion." Those are words that belong in an employer/employee situation because MSCs have no obligation to offer any shopper an assignment and we are under no obligation to take what is offered. Unlike employers who cannot discriminate based on any number of factors, they can also be quite specific about the demographics for their shops.