California Shoppers

Just a little bit of group venting, unless of course I am alone in my sentiment.

Do any other CA shoppers feel like MSCs don't value the toll/traffic/distance involved with California shops? Reimbursements don't always cut it since prices tend to be higher. The way some schedulers react to toll expenses seems like they just expect us to deal with the high expenses and low fees.

Shopping the great state of California!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/28/2014 08:55PM by wickedlyslick.

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It's not just California, wicked. I was contacted by a scheduler asking me to do a shop that would require a drive over a tolled bridge ($11 r/t), a $28+ ferry ride not to mention it was an one hour float each way and then a 9 mile drive to the destination. The report would take 45 minutes to an hour. I was offered an $18 shop fee. No way did I accept that money loser!

Maybe it's more of a metropolitan area thing.

Shopping the great state of California!

I think it's lack of knowledge of geography. After all, on a map Sacramento looks like it's a hour from LA. Puget Sound is just a puddle and on and on.

Schedulers sitting in the Midwest or on the east coast have no idea what we deal with.

My brother Ron says all the state maps are the same size.

Mary Davis Nowell. Based close to Fort Worth. Shopping Interstate 20 east and west, Interstate 35 north and south.

Not everywhere has toll roads/bridges or is inaccessible by anything other than a ferry. With all of our rivers the ferries are still around although not used too much. Often they are closed due to ice and even more often because of flooding. With a plethora of free bridges, many people will just drive even if it is out of the way.

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.

Driving to the destination I was offered would take over four hours one way. It's simply not worth it.

They sure do here in CO!

I used to live off the 240 toll Road.. down in Aliso Viejo..

IF I ever go back, and mystery shop there, they better pay for that too!

I would not accept an assignment that did not pay tolls

I had a hard time convincing a scheduler that Bishop was not a short drive over a little hill to Visalia.

Of course, the scheduler was sitting in Iowa and gazing at a map, Rosie ...

Oh I know but even after I told her it was a 12000-foot mountain pass closed five months a year, she wanted to know if I could take the short side trip--in December no less.

Did she offer you a whopping $3 bonus for risking life and limb?

whiterosie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I had a hard time convincing a scheduler that
> Bishop was not a short drive over a little hill to
> Visalia.

That might have been understandable, in the pre-Google Maps days, but now there's no excuse for it. It takes less time to check it out, than it would take to question you.

MSC's scheduling systems take into consideration the actual straight line distance between point A and point B. I might be just a few miles (15 or 20) away from the coast (I am in the Inland Empire, CA), but to get there I have to drive through a very complicated route or go around the mountains... It could be at least 50 - 70 miles.

And yes, the California freeways are just too much in terms of traffic.

Sigh.

C

---
"When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind..." - Henry Ford

cabazan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> MSC's scheduling systems take into consideration
> the actual straight line distance between point A
> and point B. I might be just a few miles (15 or
> 20) away from the coast (I am in the Inland
> Empire, CA), but to get there I have to drive
> through a very complicated route or go around the
> mountains... It could be at least 50 - 70 miles.
>
>
> And yes, the California freeways are just too much
> in terms of traffic.
>
> Sigh.

OMG I totally got suckered into desert shops not too long ago. They were bonused generously but I can't say that I was expecting to spend three whole days driving through the dessert.

Shopping the great state of California!

Don't worry... I'm doing those desert shops... Some of them nicely bonused for me...

C

---
"When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind..." - Henry Ford

The schedulers do not have any idea of where you live in comparison to where in the state a shop is located. They just need to get the shop assigned. if it is too far away or with unreimbursed tolls, just decline the shop. It is really not the schedulers fault.

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