Ishopalot is not a shopper. He reads posts by others and then makes a generic comment that slides into the conversation. Everything he writes about he learned by reading and not by shopping. Read all 60 posts straight through on his page and you'll see this is all sham with no real substance in any post. The reason he's so vague and general is that he's working off what others write about their experiences. He's ignorant of the business and he's giving harmful advice.

WOW!! I thought there was something strange going on with Ishopalot. What he said didn't make a lot of sense.

I checked his info yesterday and when I realized he had made 60 posts in 2 day and almost all in different threads I knew something wasn't right.

Why do you keep saying he when it's a she?

I don't think that matters.

Toggle time folks!

Not sure that trolls have a gender.

Sometimes trolls are just capons

Or Geldings ...

So, ishopalot has been neutralized and neutered?

Once he is officially gone, I'm sure he will be back under a different name. Once a troll--Always a troll.

I am not sure what that poster did to raise your ire...but do we really need this thread? Not exactly productive.

It could be productive if a newbee comes in and sees it. I am fairly new to shopping (just over a year) and really new to the forum but I would hate to have someone new to both come in here are read a post from him/her and take it to heart. Although everyone has a right to an opinion, after all, that is why forums like this exist (experience, ratings, reviews, helpful suggestions), the way that the posts are entered into the forum is (just my opinion) not professional. To list one's experience is different than diligently trying to steer in a certain direction.

This being said, and again it is my opinion, I think these posts are worth something. I hope that the newbees reading this will take into account the other opinions of shoppers and read the reviews on the postings. I stated before in a different post, there are those who look at Mystery Shopping as a job and those who look at it as a hobby. Both are very different approaches.

I take all the jobs that I look at and apply for seriously and I try to make the business better by looking at these forums and gathering some information (don't take a low ball job was a good one to start with), it's a lot of time to build up to a comfortable level for an individual. No one persons experience is going to be exactly like another this is why posts like "what's your favorite company?" are rarely answered in a straight forward manner.

I guess I've rambled long enough. I hope this does help some shoppers looking for it.

O.o

I'm confused...why would someone spend all his/her time posting made-up stuff? How does this person have so much time to troll? Sounds like a scary mental condition.

Kathee70,
Perhaps as a newer shopper you were unaware that some of ishopalot's advice would get a shopper into a ton of trouble if taken seriously. THAT is why folks who show up and make dozensof posts in a very short time advising shoppers how to do, or not do the job, can really be destructive if they are giving really bad advice and/or not speaking from experience. And, trolls often start by flooding the forums so that they will reach the maximum niumber of members before being challenged. ishopalot's posts made it pretty clear that she had done few, or no shops. Advocating lying to the MSCs or the clients is not "just another opinion" of how to be a mystery shopper, for instance. We have had several recent new posters who have done that and then complained that those who disagreed were really nasty folks.

I know from my experience here I believed what everyone said, until I started to notice what the more seasoned shoppers were saying which contrary...

Trolls do nothing to help new shoppers. They turn ruts into graves by their inaccuracies and stupid opinions.

Oh now my feelings are hurt - he/she actually liked one of my posts.

Don't fall for it.

teriraia Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Oh now my feelings are hurt - he/she actually
> liked one of my posts.


Don't fall for it. He/she probably liked many other posts.

She liked one of my posts. I had to reread it to make sure I didn't say something that wasn't correct.

walesmaven Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Kathee70,
> Perhaps as a newer shopper you were unaware that
> some of ishopalot's advice would get a shopper
> into a ton of trouble if taken seriously. THAT is
> why folks who show up and make dozensof posts in a
> very short time advising shoppers how to do, or
> not do the job, can really be destructive if they
> are giving really bad advice and/or not speaking
> from experience. And, trolls often start by
> flooding the forums so that they will reach the
> maximum niumber of members before being
> challenged. ishopalot's posts made it pretty clear
> that she had done few, or no shops. Advocating
> lying to the MSCs or the clients is not "just
> another opinion" of how to be a mystery shopper,
> for instance. We have had several recent new
> posters who have done that and then complained
> that those who disagreed were really nasty folks.

I completely agree and that is why I think this thread may be helpful. For the newer shoppers that have seen some of the outrageous and things that will outright get them banned from performing shops that he/she has posted. Hopefully they will come across this thread and save themselves.

O.o

There is another possibility that is being overlooked. In the past posters have built up their numbers and then added a signature line which contained a spam link. The drawback to sig lines is they become automatically attached to every single post you have made. All of the spam artists have posted to multiple threads and even attempted to make posts that sounded like they belonged on the forum. The more spam posts the harder it is for the mods to track down and delete them all.

I'd hunt them down and ban them via IP addy I swear. They are a nuisance.

It seems that ishopalot has left the room.

Probably trolling as a guest.

I received a PM from ishopalot the other day. It didn't make sense to me. I didn't understand why I got the PM actually.

A lot of what she posted did not make sense.

I don't think there's some big conspiracy theory of her being spam or trolling. I think she just thinks she knows way more about shopping than she does and came in running her mouth.

I think I agree with bgriffin on this one.

There are some people who really think they know stuff, who don't really know that much at all, and most of what they *do* know is wrong.

Most of what they said was really odd, alright. But it did seem like maybe they actually had done *some* shopping... but who knows.

But why come here and make all those posts? Especially that big huge long one that had so many things wrong in it, that was posted in two different parts of the forum? Why spend one's time doing that? Really, really weird.

Seems they're gone now, whether by their own choice or not, we probably will never know. They may well have moved on to another forum, to bug the group of people who frequent it.

Canuck, what was the nature of the PM? If you don't mind sharing, that is. I mean, what excuse did they use to PM you?

I got a pm (which I deleted the other day...sorry) that was a copy of a post she posted in the Bare thread. I didn't understand why I got it. Weird and I just deleted it. I didn't want to look at this nutcase every time I opened my inbox here. I could search the Bare thread I guess but I don't feel like it.

Coffee anyone?

Yes. Please. Can you "Irish" it ?