I'm sure this was talked about before but I just need to share my frustrations. I applied for a shop this past Sunday and received an email on Monday that the shop was closed and assigned to another shopper. The shop could only be done on Wednesday. Yesterday, I was on the computer off and on till about 5 PM. Last night when I got home from my daughter's softball game, I went on the computer and had an email that my application was accepted and I was assigned to this shop. The shop could now be done on Wed. or Thurs. Wed. was obviously out since it was about 9:30 last night, so that leaves me with Thurs. Thanks, but no thanks! I have a regular job, plus a life other than mystery shopping. If the scheduler had the decency to call me or send me a personalized message saying that the shopper cancelled and could I do her a favor by taking this shop, but don't instantly assign a shop to me at the last minute. Also offer a bonus, even if it's small. They're not doing me a favor by giving me a $10 shop at the last minute; I would be the one doing the favor.

That is certainly one of those times to send them a polite but firm note that you had requested the shop based on your schedule at the time of the request. When you received notice on [date] that the shop was closed and it had not been assigned to you, you made other plans because your request for the shop was not as a backup shopper. You would be able to work it into your schedule [8-10 days in the future] but you are completely booked for today and did not receive their email yesterday until late in the evening when you returned from your day's work. Thank them for thinking of you, but since you have scheduled other work you are not able to do the job for them at this time.

Last minute shops need to have appropriate last minute pay. If indeed the job was awarded to someone else, it is abusive to assign it to you at the same pay as a last minute job, especially if you did not ask to be a backup shopper.

This whole project has been wrought with scheduling issues. They tried to do it all on a Sunday about 2 weeks ago, and had limited succees. Then they reworked it a little and tried to do it again, limiting it to Wednesday only.

I applied for a route of 10 shops. One was assigned to someone else, the other nine sat on the board until late Tuesday night, never being assigned.

Today,Thursday, they reopened the shops, saying they needed to be done either yesterday or today.

I finally sent a message to the scheduler, (something I try to avoid unless it is a scheduler I have worked with in the past, I know they don't like to get blind emails).

I told her which ones I could do, and when I could do them and asked her to contact me if she wanted my help.

I got notice late tonight that I have been assigned 3 of the nine shops.

I'm not sure what is going on in their scheduling department, but I get the feel it's a right hand/left hand issue.

Sadly, had they just assigned me the 10 shops I requested, I would have done them all Wednesday and they would all be done and reported by now and the scheduler would not have had to worry any more about them....

Aargh!

Sigh....and I'm sure that someone this is all YOUR fault, right? I had that happen last week too. I made sure I played the martyr card when I accepted it

Flash Wrote:
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> That is certainly one of those times to send them
> a polite but firm note that you had requested the
> shop based on your schedule at the time of the
> request. When you received notice on that the
> shop was closed and it had not been assigned to
> you, you made other plans because your request for
> the shop was not as a backup shopper. You would
> be able to work it into your schedule [8-10 days
> in the future] but you are completely booked for
> today and did not receive their email yesterday
> until late in the evening when you returned from
> your day's work. Thank them for thinking of you,
> but since you have scheduled other work you are
> not able to do the job for them at this time.
>
> Last minute shops need to have appropriate last
> minute pay. If indeed the job was awarded to
> someone else, it is abusive to assign it to you at
> the same pay as a last minute job, especially if
> you did not ask to be a backup shopper.


I so totally agree with Flash, except I would figure my out dates based on where I was going, when, and how many shops I had that week. Other than that, I would do the same thing she suggested. Ask for a bonus to get it done right now, IF you can fit it in. The worst they can say is no. Hey, you applied, they chose someone else, and the person either flaked or did poorly enough at the job that it needs to be reshopped, and not by that shopper, apparently, if the latter. Go for it!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/2009 10:47AM by dee shops.

jjage Wrote:
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> Sigh....and I'm sure that someone this is all YOUR
> fault, right? I had that happen last week too. I
> made sure I played the martyr card when I accepted
> it

The martyr card works well if you can on the spot negotiate further work or higher pay. Don't accept promises of 'next month' unless you have to.

One MSP has a 'one shop per client per month' with a client that has about 10 locations locally. I always select one very close to me that goes quickly. Mid month I get an email for a distant site and I negotiate it as gas money plus a hard to fill location that is also close to me. Thus I almost always end up with 3 shops for the client for the month with one of them bonused. But taking the second site is conditional on also being given the third site and the bonus. Works well for all of us.

JayTee,

I did one of the original shops on the Sunday. I still didn't get my shopper rating and am wondering if I will get paid for that shop. The store was not compliant with most everything. I found it very difficult to fill out the form since there were no comment sections and I would have liked to explain a few things. I emailed the scheduler because I had several questions; however, I got no response and ended up submitting the report to the best of my ability. What should have been a very quick and easy shop was not.

sandy47 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> JayTee,
>
> I did one of the original shops on the Sunday. I
> still didn't get my shopper rating and am
> wondering if I will get paid for that shop. The
> store was not compliant with most everything. I
> found it very difficult to fill out the form since
> there were no comment sections and I would have
> liked to explain a few things. I emailed the
> scheduler because I had several questions;
> however, I got no response and ended up submitting
> the report to the best of my ability. What should
> have been a very quick and easy shop was not.



One of mine today, I had the owner following me around explaining why things weren't up the way they should be.

I finally told him: "I have 20 questions that they ask me Yes,or No" They don't ask me why, they don't ask me if the sign will be up next Monday. They just want to know if it's up today."

He wasn't abuisve or anything, he was just annoying. Then he left and aon the way out, he called back over his shoulder and told the manager to give me whatever I wanted for lunch. After he left, I told the manager I appreciated that, but I couldn't accept anything. He said "I know, he does that every time, and nobody ever can take it, that's why he does it."

I was tempted to change my mind and accept the free lunch, just on general principles.....

I did one, had no issues, right by home, 10 minutes. Today I got the email with the notice that the client is so unhappy because folks canceled or no showed...Hey, why U preaching to the choir here? I did mine, and reported it on time. So I see she needs one that I could do, email, ask for a bonus and give the reason why-mileage. I have never had any problems with getting my shops done the for the firm doing the scheduling and always got the highest grades on what I did for them. I did not get a reply. Honestly, a thanks no thanks would have been nice. I already did one of these on a day notice, and getting email effectively yelling at the people you are asking to help you out of this problem is not the best way to endear yourself to shoppers.

I really hate it when I see the berating emails, especially when it has nothing to do with me. I remember a truly noxious one a couple of years ago where the client was apparently refusing to accept jobs and the company was sending all shopper work back to editing. My evaluation of the situation was that the company had not understood in the first place what the client wanted and so did not transmit those requirements adequately to shoppers. It was the company's excuse for cutting bonuses and rejecting shops that had already been accepted with full credit. Payments were seriously delayed, supposedly due to the workload of re-evaluating everything, though obviously they were scrambling because they had to pay their editors to go through and patch up what they could to satisfy the client. That company is no longer in business and I have heard nobody wishing they were still around.

Wow. I can see why they are not in business. :-)

And I think the shops in question here are the Q client. I looked at those and when I realized they were reveals at $10 with no reimbursement I walked away. The info they advertised they wanted was not my balliwick on a shop that did little if anything for me. I wondered at the time if they had a clue what they were doing and if they are berating shoppers, it is probably because once the full information was available it was no more interesting than the advertised teaser.

It was not interesting, and I think people canceled as it sounded like a sub deal, and wasn't but it was totally fast and pleasant. I would do more of them IF they were convenient to me.

dee shops Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It was not interesting, and I think people
> canceled as it sounded like a sub deal, and wasn't
> but it was totally fast and pleasant. I would do
> more of them IF they were convenient to me.



The key to this one, like so many similar shops is volume.

The first one took me about 25 minutes in store, by the time I got to the last one, I knew what to look for and where to look, so I breezed through the paperwork.

Incidentally, because I did a bunch on last minutes notice, I am going to do a bunch more today that didn't get done like they were supposed to. (with a bonus added of course)

It pays sometimes to be nice to your scheduler.

Mine was 5 min in store and 5 reporting, and 2 minutes from home. It was completed on time and done on one day's notice. I was nice to the scheduler (I have done a fair amount of work for the scheduling co. and it builds every month.)

I couldnt get enough of those....too many others in my neck o' the woods with seniority.

I got 3 of them on the Wednesday .. very close together & about 5 minutes each & 5 to report, a fast $10 for each. All 3 managers were very nice. I applied for several others (would have been on the way) but they stayed "pending" on my applications page. Then later the MSC was sending desperate e-mails to try to fill the very ones I asked for but didn't get (?!) Go figure. But even desperate, the MSC wasn't bonusing them, and I had other shops scheduled so didn't pick up any more. But I'd have done them all on Wednesday if I'd been assigned them then.....

Woo Hoo! Picked up one cancel... a little out of the way, but I'm not above a little brown nosin'!

I noticed that a whole lot of shops took on "URGENT!!" status at the end of September without bonuses. Hard to get excited about a scheduler's "URGENT"cy when the low pay on the shop was why it wasn't taken before.

I did not notice this phenomenon here; it seemed like the usual last minute stuff was not around. But, I will say, if it is "urgent" due to some one's botched shop, the client's unrealistic expectations of time frame, or the scheduler's poor planning in assigning a shop, if it doesn't pay, I don't play.

I noticed the same thing as Flash. I was waiting on some shops to be bonused that I know no one else in my area takes.. lots of pleas to have the shops done, but not a lot of monetary motivation.

Everything rolls down hill to us shoppers. Last to get paid so much of the time, first to get pay cuts, most of the time.