When schedulers don't reply

So today in passing I mentioned to a scheduler that I would be interested in 2 shops on their board that they seem to have problems filling if they could bonus them a little. She replied and asked how much bonus I wanted and I responded with a price. Until then she had been responding within 5-10 minutes. Now 8 hours later she hasn't replied to that email. Did I insult her? Piss her off? I mean I didn't lowball it by any means but I didn't think I was outside the realm of reasonable. Or am I just expecting too much? A simple I'm sorry that's outside of our budget doesn't seem too difficult.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/24/2013 01:53AM by bgriffin.

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I totally agree that a quick "Oh, that's more than what we can do, but thanks for your interest anyway." Or something.... To simply not reply is just rude and unprofessional!

I find that it's impossible to get some schedulers to reply to even a first inquiry about a job! Do they just not read their e-mails? If they want to get these jobs scheduled, you'd think they would at least reply to a shopper--even if the specific job isn't going to work out, they'd at least have someone they knew could take a future one.

I don't get it....

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

No, it doesn't. It does seem weird (and a bit rude) to have a regular flow of conversation, and then it just cuts off. Hmmmmm.

Remain confident in the price you gave. If she asked what you wanted, and you told her, and it was reasonable for the time & distance & effort involved... well, it's on her if she's pissed off or insulted ~ not you.

I suppose you could give the benefit of the doubt... maybe something came up that she had to leave. I know here, recently, we've had a WWII vet uncle who suddenly needed to go to the hospital, after he fell & broke his hip. I've also had something come up with one of my dogs where they needed to go to the vet ~ and my dogs are like my family, too.

Or, maybe some other disaster like the toilet overflowing all over the house. Something.

Practitioner of the Nerdly Arts.

I feel pretty confident the price I asked for was ok. It's an $11 shop that has a non-reimbursed purchase that's normally $4-5. It's super easy, 20 mins for shop and report together, but they're both 20 minutes out of my way in opposite directions. So 20 minutes in each direction plus 20 minutes for the shop and report means an hour of work. Subtract out the $4 purchase and really I lowballed it at $20.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

Maybe the scheduler just waiting for approval fom her supervisor? Maybe she is still hoping that someone would do it for original price?

My bets are with Plusha's guesses. Look out for a delay in response or stalling language on the part of the scheduler ("Looks good!"

without a confirmation. That means that they are still checking/fishing. My worst experience was with an Independent Scheduler (worked for a well known "K" scheduling company and has since moved on to others ) who left me hanging for three days and then had the latitude to lower my shopper rating with the actual MS Company after I politely refused an assignment after three contacts on my part as to whether this was a "done deal". That scheduler is still doing quite well with other companies. Time for some Z.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/24/2013 07:04AM by KathyC.

I tend to think that the delay has to do with getting approval from the project manager.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.

I offered to do a few shops but needed travel money, did not get a response back and it's been a few weeks now. Those shops are sitting on the job board and slowly getting up to what I originally wanted.

They would've been over and done with but the scheduler didn't email me back or assign them. Usually she would.

Something's up I guess.....

In my experience, if the scheduler does not reply, it means you're offer was not accepted. It happens all the time.

if a scheduler doesnt respond to me and tell me yes/no
I no longer do shops for that scheduler....

= + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = +
There are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of inquisitive idiots
==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==
When you try to please everybody, you end up pleasing nobody

Can you request a different scheduler? Does the "ex-scheduler" wreak havoc about "Us" or is that too childish? Just wondering

Just be sure the shop does not appear in your assignments without bonus. What happened to me was the scheduler called me to do 5 shops, with two of them, purchase and return. I told him I considered purchase and return two shops. I also said that since they were all high-end with significant cash outlay, I would do them only with bonus. He said, "I'll see what we can give for bonus." Lo and behold, they were on my log as my assignments and without bonus! I emailed him a few times to decline but the deadline was fast approaching. I did not get any response at all, so I had to do all of them to maintain my record. To date, he has never contacted me. And when another scheduler emailed me about those shops again and again, it was my turn to ignore them. I have been ignoring them. I am not a desperate shopper. I can keep myself busy.

It sounds like you offered to do it for double pay for them? They might be waiting for someone else to either accept it at regular pay, or a lower bonus amount than yours.

They sound like they are waiting for someone else to accept it at the fee they wanted to pay. I'd find some other shops to do and not hold my breath on this one. I find the lack of communication to be unprofessional and rude - scheduler should just come out and say hey, I can't/don't want to pay your rate and go from there.

Silver Certified ~ Shopping all of Toronto and beyond

Obviously I wasn't holding my breath. The offer was good for one day and one day only as the locations I mentioned were not near me at all, but I was going to be 20 mins away from both the next day. I just found it rude that she didn't bother to reply. Also, 4 days later, both shops are still on their board.

The thing is if she had replied and said it was too much, I would have asked what they could give me and probably taken it as I had about 3 hours downtime between the shops I had scheduled there and the concert I was going to.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

I asked for a large bonus and I never heard back

Well then, they lost out. Onwards and upwards...

Silver Certified ~ Shopping all of Toronto and beyond

I have run into this twice now since I started last month but in a different manner. I have asked two separate schedulers a simple question. " Since I am fairly new would it be possible to see the entire guidelines before I accept the assignment? "
Both cases I have got no reply whatsoever followed by an email offering bonuses. They take the time to send me 5 emails in one day and add bonuses but no reply to a simple question.

Have I mentioned lately that it REALLLLLY f'ing pisses me off when schedulers don't reply?

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

I love the shops that self-assignable. Hate waiting around for those that are just "applications", as it becomes difficult to plan your shops or other activities until you know either way.

I've had a shop application pending for more than two days now, and I've had something else definite come up for the day I'd applied to do the shop on. So, if they accept my application, I'll have to ask if I can do it on a different day. I'm not giving up a sure $60 to hold that day open for $14....

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

Yeah, that's annoying to, but what I'm talking about is when you send a direct email to a scheduler in reply to a mass email about a particular shop, and they don't reply. 3rd time this has happened to me. First with Bare, then Goodwin, and now Harland Clarke. It's just annoying.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

Oh, yeah, I get that! I've had that happen more than once and have come to the conclusion that either replies to those e-mails end up in the scheduler's spam box, or schedulers get overwhelmed by e-mails and don't bother answering. Neither is acceptable, of course, but I've sometimes had better luck contacting schedulers through the shop "contact" form, if there is one. Those seem to go to the same e-mail address as the mass e-mails come from, but maybe they get flagged or something? I don't know, but twice I've gotten no replies when I've replied to mass e-mails, but have gotten them when I send the same message through the link on the shop page....

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

Ok, so help me out here. Am I expecting too much? Are scheduler's busier than I think? How quickly should a scheduler reply to an email? Or is it how I'm writing the emails?

A few weeks ago a scheduler sent out an email that some shops were being released the next day, and that they all had the same fee but a few of the harder locations they might could help out a little bit on. So I'm going to be near this same client (not sure if it's the same round of shops or not) and this morning sent a reply to the scheduler asking if this location was one that they might could bonus a little. Still no reply. Is this just what I should expect?

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

Some of the e-mails I get have directions in the small print to log onto the site to accept or decline the assignment "do not reply to this e-mail" type of thing.

Others, I know the company wants my Shopper ID in the subject line...

Just sayin'....

cease

"we do negotiate on bonus pay on those locations so give me call or e-mail message so that we can negotiate the pay & the date we can assign you to have the shop done by."

I hit reply and did exactly what she said.

All of the emails I reply to pretty much say, if you're interested reply to this email. Really I'm just wondering if expecting an email the same day during business hours is too much? Or is there something wrong with the emails I'm sending?

The email I sent today was

Dear XXXXX,

I know at times you have offered bonuses for some of the xxxxx that are in smaller towns. I was wondering if one would be available for the shop at the Xxxxx, XX location?

Thanks
bgriffin

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

I find that it depends on the scheduler. Some schedulers that I have emailed got back to me the same day or the next day at the latest while others have never replied to me.

I've had some that are terrible like this, but then a couple of others that appear to be available 24/7

Uggg. I don't know what to do. Yesterday I got an email from a scheduler (it was a bulk email, not directed at me personally) listing some shops. I replied that I would be interested in doing a group of them that are a couple hundred miles away from me but well worth the trip. I got no reply yesterday, and today I got a reply that he could only give me a certain number of them. I replied almost immediately with the particular ones that I wanted and said that I would need to leave tonight so needed an answer as quickly as possible. 5 hours later nothing. I have a dinner shop that I need to move tonight if I have to leave, I've already moved my shop this afternoon, and now I'm getting a phone call wanting me to do a $50 McD's in the morning and I don't know what to tell them.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

I feel ya. I can't STAND when they don't respond in a reasonable time frame. And yet, we all know the timeliness expected of us. It's like, do they want the damned shops done, or not?! There's a willing shopper who really wants them, and they just ignore you. *sigh*.

Like others have had happen, the shops will probably still be there next week, and they'll put a bonus on them because they're "desperate" to get 'em done. Heh.

Practitioner of the Nerdly Arts.

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