I have never, ever gotten a 6! Because I had grammar issues and added my personal opinion?? I don't give my personal opinion. Ever. And, I pride myself in grammar. However, the "Overall, the report was nicely written and detailed. We appreciate your time and effort on this shop!" sure was a nice ending touch. Yeah...thanks.

Let me guess--Intellishop? Yeah, they did exactly that to me after I criticized them on this forum. There was no personal opinion in mine either and I doubt there were grammar issues.

The nice thing is this probably hurts your ego worse than it will hurt your ability to get more jobs at the company.

Edited: Deleted post. Wrong MSC.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/2014 12:42AM by HeatherC.

I've only ever gotten 10s from Intellishop. In fact, no Sassie company has ever given me less than an 8.

You know, I was an ENGLISH MAJOR in College, and when I've been told grammatical errors, I ASK specifically what. (I NEVER get an answer back either)

Many co's have a really small limited character space (include spaces, commas, periods!) and if I don't run on, HTH am I to give an accurate account? A long email then, praytell?

Excuse me, but I have NEVER seen an application calling for a college degree?!

I receive 9's and 10's from Intellishop. There have been a couple of times when my reports had spelling errors. They probably did, so I did not argue the point.

I'm not sensitive if an editor decides my writing is not up to standards. If they make concrete suggestions, I'll take them to heart. Otherwise, grade me whatever but pay me and I'm all good.

I've gotten all 8-10's from Intellishop. I got a 1 once from Beyond Hello, but that was totally my fault for shopping the wrong location. Too many Tanger outlets in my area.

I got a 6 on a report because I screwed up the photo of the receipt and didn't have quite all of the information they needed. I then promptly lost the receipt. The one that I needed out of the 12 or so for that day. Have the other 11, lost that one. Totally my fault. I also got an 8 for a late report. The scheduler put the wrong due date in, that one not my fault, but not worth bothering to correct in my opinion. Wasn't that big of a deal.

Then there was the 1. Supposedly they ran the video from my shop and found discrepancies. They said my report said I was in the location 4 minutes and video showed I was in there 2. No, my report said my evaluation lasted 4 minutes, my notes says I was in the store almost 3 minutes. We also have to report on exterior questions and I count that time. Then they said that the employee that didn't greet me in the aisle didn't because I was in the restroom. No, I was 10 feet away from the restroom when they didn't greet me. Yes I was headed in the direction, and I wouldn't have greeted a customer that was obviously headed for the restroom either, but hey, the report asked the question and I answered it honestly. Then the two cashiers didn't speak to me when I entered. I was almost certain one of them was not with a customer, video showed they both were. That's fine, not a big deal, I obviously didn't see one of the customers. The real reason though, was because some idiot was cleaning the restroom, poured out the bucket of cleaner on the floor to mop, then left without closing off the restroom. I walked in on a floor with 1/8" of water on it and almost fell on my ass. They didn't want that on their record and so disputed the whole report. Again, I didn't bother with it because obviously I wasn't gonna win that battle.

I am sympathetic! The grading is the worst part of mystery shopping because it can be so random. I did 10 shops on the same day for a MSC and the reports went to different editors. Three came back with 9s because I didn't use two spaces after a period and didn't capitalize "associate." Two came back saying "Q10 didn't match your narrative and you need to use two spaces after a period." Five came back with perfect 10s, even with only one space and no capitalization. I complained and just got a "Yeah, that happens, but your overall score is still a 10" from the scheduler.

For another company, I spent 3 days at a resort doing over 40 different reports. I got a 16 out of 20 but the MSC got a personalized letter from the client saying what a superior job I did. On the second resort, I again got a 16 for things like using "didn't" instead of "did not."

I know it hurts, but you are probably a wonderful shopper.

And here I've been trying to remember not to use 2 spaces after a period. I learned to type when that was the rule, but lately it's been discouraged in many places.

Yes, and I disagree with them. Two space type is easier to read to me.

Not having two spaces after a period is just plain wrong.

This is how we tell who learned to type in the typewriter era, and who learned to type in the computer era.

One period or two periods, contractions or no contractions, narrative in 1st person or 3rd person... So many MSCs, so many writing styles required. At any rate, if the overall grading system does not (doesn't?) impact your ability to get jobs or your pay, don't worry if you get a 5 or a 10 or whatever, just do a good job under the MSC's editorial guidelines.

I received a shop grade of "0" for shopping the wrong store. Two major retail department stores in the same shopping center within walking distance of each other and the names both begin with "N"...

I made the mistake, however, they gave me a 10+ for excellent narratives and continue asking if I will come back to them and try it again. Total embarrassment....

Let's all agree to compromise on the one space two space after a period issue. Let's all use three spaces.