I did and I didn't realize it until this morning. I thought that I was signing up for a shop that was 5 miles from me, and I looked today and the shop is 25 miles away! I guess that this is just another one of those 'lessons learned'!

Please someone, make me feel better by telling me that someone out there has done this :-)

I've never done it. Sorry, but 25 miles isn't that far. I drive that all the time for anything NEAR my home.

Canuck Wrote:
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> I've never done it. Sorry, but 25 miles isn't that
> far. I drive that all the time for anything NEAR
> my home.


Well thanks for your response Canuck, I live in a big city, everything is near my home :-)

I did and it was 75 miles away. Fortunately I caught the mistake and immediately emailed the MSC explaining the problem and asking them to remove the project from my job log. They did and did not ding me for it.

Well then, Pammie. I guess 25 miles IS a lot. Here in the boonies, I'm happy when it's only that.

So..what are you doing to do now? Let me know. I bet you're going to do it. I would and that would keep you in their good books.

Canuck Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well then, Pammie. I guess 25 miles IS a lot. Here
> in the boonies, I'm happy when it's only that.
>
> So..what are you doing to do now? Let me know. I
> bet you're going to do it. I would and that would
> keep you in their good books.


I don't have any other choice, the shop is for Monday, they are closed on the weekend and the last thing that I would ever do is flake on them. Also, after talking with you I realized that 25 miles is not really that far, it's all freeway. :-) I'm going to suck it up, soldier on and count my mileage lol!

Been there, done that.

I have done it, but luckily figured it out as soon as I received my confirm and cancelled it immediately and took another location closer to home.

Back when I was a "newbie" and trying to build my reputation, I took a job in a city near here (or so I thought) but as it turns out, it was in the next state!

I saw it was about 50 miles away (I freaked) and I was too scared to cancel, so I picked up 3 banks heading down there and did not cancel the assignment

SunnyDays2 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Back when I was a "newbie" and trying to build my
> reputation, I took a job in a city near here (or
> so I thought) but as it turns out, it was in the
> next state!
>
> I saw it was about 50 miles away (I freaked) and I
> was too scared to cancel, so I picked up 3 banks
> heading down there and did not cancel the
> assignment


Thanks you all, you have made me feel much better, my car gets good gas mileage, so I'm in good shape in that respect, if I leave early do the shop I will be back in no time to do my other shop which IS 5 miles away :-)

I have done it, in fact just recently I thought I requested a shop that was 10 miles away from me but I had accidentally accepted a shop that was 70 miles away from me. I contacted the scheduler and she cancelled the shop but she made no comment so I'm thinking she wasn't too pleased.... (and she didn't reschedule the shop I had actually originally wanted).

I haven't done that exactly, but I have shopped the wrong location and had to go back and do the correct one--and it was a dry cleaning shop so I had to pay and not get reimbursed for the first one. I have shopped on the wrong day and eaten lousy food two days in a row. I agreed to help out a scheduler and do a shop, but the scheduler had the wrong address and, instead of 5 miles, it was 15 miles away. I did that shop anyway and made $10.00 for 2 hours worth of driving plus filling out the report.

Mistakes happen. You don't feel so bad about them months later though. LOL

I haven't shopped the wrong location, but I recently did a shop during the wrong time frame. I had two of the same shops on the same day, but at different locations. I was supposed to do the second shop between 2:00 PM and 5:00 PM. Instead, I did the shop during the same time frame as the first one, which was 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM. I drove through heavy rush hour traffic on a Friday evening to get to the second shop for what? Nothing, except a headache! I emailed the scheduler and owned up to the mistake. Thankfully, she let me redo the shop and still paid me. Another lesson learned......

Yup! Unfortunately for me, it was not discovered until after the shop!!

Have you looked for any other work in the area? If it were me, I would just make a mini-route out of it.

Last month I could "swear" I clicked on the correct link to self assign a shop near me, but when it went through it was for the location listed above the one I wanted. I couldn't cancel through the system, but immediately e-mailed the scheduler, explained the situation and asked to cancel the first one and be assigned to the correct location. She was great and took care of it right away.

But I was embarrassed! I guess I "didn't" click the right link....

Yup, I've done it too. I accidentally clicked on the shop above the one I wanted. Notified the scheduler immediately and had it changed with no repercussions. You might as well bite the bullet and just do it if you can't get ahold of anyone over the weekend or early tomorrow.

I've also had a scheduler ask if I could do another shop in a town while doing one I had already scheduled. I said sure, but lo and behold, the new shop was a city with the same name in another state. It was removed promptly with no problem.

I went to the wrong location of a chain, does that count? I had just gotten them mixed up. Both were about 6 miles away, in opposite directions.

chigirl777 Wrote:
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> Have you looked for any other work in the area?
> If it were me, I would just make a mini-route out
> of it.


That's a great idea Chigirl I had never thought of that, thanks!

I've had to re-shop a restaurant 20 miles away because I goofed and walked out without my receipt!

Love reading these because I have messed up numerous times.

Today, I forgot to get a receipt on a super simple shop with a super simple report.

When I got home and realized it DH said, "How could you forget the receipt? Rookie mistake!!!" No sympathy there. LOL

I scheduled a restaurant for Plainfield, IL...only it was for Plainfield, IN. I discovered the error when I was checking the directions as we walked out the door. I would have made good on it and driving to Plainfield, IN, but we could not get there within the window necessary for the shop.

Related but not, I once had a project manager book a flight to Rochester, MN instead of Rochester, NY. And didn't know she was in the wrong city until she got off the plane and made it to the rental car counter, only to find they didn't have a reservation for her.

Amazingly enough she wouldn't tolerate the tiniest of mistakes in other people though.

bgriffin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Related but not, I once had a project manager book
> a flight to Rochester, MN instead of Rochester,
> NY. And didn't know she was in the wrong city
> until she got off the plane and made it to the
> rental car counter, only to find they didn't have
> a reservation for her.
>
> Amazingly enough she wouldn't tolerate the tiniest
> of mistakes in other people though.


And this woman was a project manager? Dear God.... I gotta ask--did the company still pay her flight? I'd have made her eat it....

(I'm from Rochester--the one in NY--and other than it being as cold as a witch's.... well, very cold, I'm sure it's not anything like Rochester, MN!)

At least when I forgot to get the receipt the Scheduler was super nice. She asked if I could go back and get it and I said I didn't think that would work as it might blow my shopper role. Then I asked if it could be rescheduled and she said yes. Thank goodness it was early in the month because it was a shop that could only be done on Wednesday.

BirdyC Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> bgriffin Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Related but not, I once had a project manager
> book
> > a flight to Rochester, MN instead of Rochester,
> > NY. And didn't know she was in the wrong city
> > until she got off the plane and made it to the
> > rental car counter, only to find they didn't
> have
> > a reservation for her.
> >
> > Amazingly enough she wouldn't tolerate the
> tiniest
> > of mistakes in other people though.
>
>
> And this woman was a project manager? Dear God....
> I gotta ask--did the company still pay her flight?
> I'd have made her eat it....
>
> (I'm from Rochester--the one in NY--and other than
> it being as cold as a witch's.... well, very cold,
> I'm sure it's not anything like Rochester, MN!)


I have no idea if they paid it or not. We booked all of our travel through American Express Travel and she probably made it out to be their fault, which it probably at least partially was but she should have noticed long before she did.

We were there August-October so I didn't have to deal with TOO much of the cold. The first trip home I was in the hotel packing and had the news turned on. It was the warmest day in like 18 years in Rochester that day at was only like 96. I almost started laughing. 96 is a good day in July here.

Well, I did the shop and it wasn't bad! The shop went great there was only a little congestion going up but it was easy peezy coming back!

Thank you all for your words of encouragement and your stories as well :-)

Yay!! Good for you

I did a bunch of highly bonused gas stations for what was then Shop N Chek when starting out. I didn't know of the term "route shopping" then but that's kind of what I did, except they weren't all that far out from me (between I think 15 and 20 miles in some cases). I would go ahead and take it, but try to find something to go with it from another company (MF or Steri are usually best for this but others might have shops needing to be filled too).

A similar situation just happened to me. I am going to my cell phone provider on Friday to pick up a replacement phone. I saw a mystery shop in the area for the same day and signed up... only to realize it was for the same location I am doing legitimate business at. Oops. At least I figured it out before I started the shop!