So MSCs and schedulers complain about lack of communication with shoppers. They encourage us to communicate with the schedulers on any issue, but still, they tell us that their schedulers get several hundreds of e-mail every day, and we might not get an answer (maybe not even read?).

What is the deal with MSCs then not having enough people on board to improve productivity and overall reduce flakes?

Why do they encourage us to communicate, but simultaneously discourage us from communicating?

And seriously, while it's not the rule, some schedulers are real divas that indeed NEVER answer e-mails throughout the first 25 days of the month, still by the end, they pray to all saints that we take on a route with $2 bonus per shop.

So, why don't MSCs work on solving their obvious scheduler under staffing and allow for more shops to be self assigned? That would allow for an encouraged communication, better route and day planning, less flakes (I would assume), and overall better customer satisfaction (their customers and by "inheritance", ours as well).

Anyway, just something to ponder...

I think Market Force has it right. Everything is self-assigned, and you can even change dates yourself or cancel a shop yourself without having to have a scheduler do it. Sure, do it too often and they might dump you. But I love that I can adjust the dates (within an allowable range) or cancel a shop (without having to trouble a scheduler) in an emergency. By letting me cancel on my own, it immediately opens that shop up for another shopper without anyone having to do anything. How much more efficient can you get? I think things even bonus up automatically. I gave up a shop to another shopper when we were sharing a route and she claimed it a minute after I canceled it -- for $4 more than I had originally booked it for. Clearly no scheduler got involved to do that; there was a formula set that automatically raised those pay rates based on the approaching deadline. (I felt bad about that, BTW. It wasn't my intention to run the fee up by handing it off to my friend.)

And yet they have a great shopper advocate who has gotten involved on my behalf when a shop didn't go well through no fault of my own and was very responsive and both times got me paid for shops the client wanted to toss. I'd sure rather have the MSC staffers spend their time fighting for my pay than wasting it giving me permission to cancel or reschedule a shop.