Have others experienced this? I have received email requests with help to do a shop for a specific time frame. I have responded with an affirmative, only to never have a return message regarding the shop. I have to assume that the scheduler has filled the shop, but I find it rude to not let me know that. Paticularly since I have taken the time to respond to her/his request. I live in a relatively small geographical area so I do not belive that there are hundreds of people she/he would have to send a reply out to. I have also had phone messages to fill a shop, and when I return the call, I go into voice mail. After I leave a message saying that I can take the shop I never get a return call. I find it very rude, and of course, it does not make me want to help that scheduler again.

Yes, yes and yes. Evidently some schedulers perceive themselves to be so busy that they cannot take the time to properly screen recipients of their emails by geography or any other qualification. Some, even when you immediately respond to an email, never get back to you one way or the other. And some, once you accept a job, never get back with you in response to questions. I must admit that once I have a round or two of such experiences with a scheduler, I no longer will open or respond to their emails and I am likely not to work further with the company until there is a new scheduler for my area. This is not to say that all schedulers are that way, but you and they know who they are. Some would pretend that they send you job opportunities for 3,000 miles away thinking you might be planning to travel or might know someone in the target area who would like to shop. When this is routine and you need to scan down to the bottom of the email to realize that the shops available are 3,000 miles away, they have just wasted YOUR time. Their quota of time wasters is limited with me for sure!

I don't mind the more global emails when there actually are shops in my general area. I do appreciate the email indicating that the job is filled. And my hat is off to the scheduler who responds to a question within one business day. In my narrow world view, this constitutes the basic respect of colleagues and I like to think that we are colleagues rather than cogs in a wheel.

I have had this consistently happen with one particular company. I have divorced myself from them.

I haven't finalized the divorce but certainly have turned off the emails. I'll turn them on in 6 months and see if they have learned how to use the tools they have been given so they don't waste my time. If they are still being abusive of my time and their email privileges then who needs them?

Martiz comes to mind....they email with these emergency shops, I accept, and don't hear from them. I call and can't get through, and never get a call back. They are worse than before.......who can work for them, just curious, and WHY on earth can't there schedulers email. Makes no sense.

Irene: This is not a perfect world. WHY is not an acceptable question. Just realize that in every MSC there are pure unadulterated A......a, But there are some good ones. When you find one of the former, run. I was once told that my @#$%& will not cure anything..I just do not agree. If we all tell each other who the shmucks are, they will get hurt by shoppers not wanting to interact with them.

Irene, Maritz e-mails? I wish I could get them to e-mail. I get phone calls on top of phone calls from them - at work, home, cell, and they are VERY pushy about trying to get me to take shops that are far away for no extra money. I think they would be far more successful if they e-mailed more and called less. I actually removed my work number from my Maritz profile because the number of phone calls at work got to be too much for me. The other thing that REALLY irritates me is that when I have a shop scheduled, they put a message on my home page telling me "you have a shop due in 5 days. We would appreciate a call telling us that you will be able to complete it." Give me a break! I self-assigned the shop. It isn't due for 5 days. If they have shoppers who don't complete shops after self-assigning them, they should deal with that problem rather than asking all shoppers to call them to affirm verbally they will carry out their commitment. Aughhhhh. except for that, I like Maritz. Now that I've ranted, I fell better.

Maybe if they called less their expenses would be lower and shopper fees would not need to be cut?

I haven't gotten a message to call to tell them I will do a shop that I self assigned. Maybe it depends on the scheduler?

dee shops Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I haven't gotten a message to call to tell them I
> will do a shop that I self assigned. Maybe it
> depends on the scheduler?

I get them all the time. It's very annoying, and I stopped responding. No negative feedback from that, so I just ignore the messages. I use them as reminders to make sure the job is on my calendar, that is all.

Dr. Lloyd...of course it's not a perfect world, and, the emails I get (I think) are sent out on auto). They missed me doing five (emergency) jobs in the last two months, in my area. I self assign and no one contacts me, I would say a complete overhaul (schedulers) are in order. I don't lose sleep, and won't bother with them...I work for many stellar companies with no problem, "Anonyomous Insights, where I have a terrific relationship with Melissa Gruber...she writes after the job has been submitted to thank me for working for them, always as nice as can be. Maritiz disgruntel's, try the above, better pay, and never a problem, just get it in on time.....I do agree that naming companies like Maritz helps the newbies and doesn't waste our time.

It IS very annoying and I ignore them. Why on earth would they let me self assign, but then when the 5 day window for the shop comes up, make me call the scheduler to tell her I'm really gonna do the shop? Makes no sense to me. But, that said, I like Maritz. As long as I ignore the odd phone requests and I can self-schedule, it is great. They pay on time. I like self-schedule. The shops are pretty reasonable. I find their website a little quirky, but their reports are pretty reasonable. LadyTexan, it must be the Texas scheduler.

I get annoyed by their emails that make me log into their site only to find a message that says to call them. I don't find the extra time and effort, even though a few minutes, necessary and I don't prefer the "personal touch" of the phone. Especially with the time difference on my end. :-)

dr.lloyd@sbcglobal.net Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Irene: This is not a perfect world. WHY is not an
> acceptable question. Just realize that in every
> MSC there are pure unadulterated A......a, But
> there are some good ones. When you find one of the
> former, run. I was once told that my @#$%& will
> not cure anything..I just do not agree. If we all
> tell each other who the shmucks are, they will get
> hurt by shoppers not wanting to interact with
> them.
I agree with the good dr. When something is wrong, let people know.

My 2 cents:
-If I don't respond to every shop request, I risk losing a shopper. My job is to FIND and RETAIN shoppers-if not for this month, then for next-so I'm not doing my job.

-Any shopper with unanswered shop questions is obviously trying to do the shop correctly and has taken the time to read the shop instructions thoroughly enough to have questions. So I'm cutting off my nose to spite my face if I don't answer immediately.

-PLEASE stop sending the following emails to your schedulers:
"Do you have any shops in MY area?" (Where the h*ll IS your area?)
"I can do the shop(s)." (Really? That's some route! I just sent you a list with 50+ shops in 10 states)






Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/2009 06:42PM by JoanG.

LOL. This would be one time the shoopers are wrong and the scheduler is right, Joan. How have you bee? Miss U.

There must be a lot of noseless schedulers out there--self inflicted

Hi guys!
I bee good, Dee. Slammed with work, but that's a good thing I guess.
Flash...I still have my nose, but my tongue gets really sore from biting it so much. lol

Just think how much you can save on tongue piercings!

Yes schedulers are dealing with hundreds of people. Usually if they do not return the call it has been given to someone else. When this happens to me, I just say "Oh well" and move on to the next job. I do not sit around waiting nor do I hold that time slot for that scheduler. Everyone is busy. So when they do not return the call, you move on. They are looking for the first bidder for the job.

I have had schedulers email me with shops all over the United States. I email back and tell them, what area I am interested in. I then get a second email with the same available shops.

I have also had questions on shops, where it is a rush, and calls are not promptly returned.


However, as far as Maritz is concerned, I find them the nicest and easiest company to work for. I have never had a scheduler not return a call. They sometimes need shops filled the last minute and calls will be made to their
regular shoppers first.

The ones that I don't like are the ones who send out an e-mail desperate to have a shop filled, then I respond, and I get the canned response, "Thank you for your interest but the shop has been assigned to another shopper." Once, I responded to the offending scheduler by asking how I could get notified of these shops before they became an urgent matter and they sent back the same canned response. It's like they don't even read their e-mail at all.

I love it when they start offering bonuses. "Can any one help us" you've already applied. Geez, am I that terrible.

5 days ago, I received an email from a scheduler I had never heard from before (I was registered with the company she was scheduling for). Anyway, she sends me and I would guess anyone else registered with that same company, this email stating they would pay very well for shoppers to do an audit for this company, the following week. It was, of course, an emergent job.

If you were interested, she said, reply back IMMEDIATELY with your info (and yes, immediately was in all caps, as was many other exclamatory words to get her point across as to how big of an emergency it was). Since the quoted pay was good, I emailed her right back - IMMEDIATELY - to which I got no response.

That is, until a full 5 days later. She wanted to know if I was ready to start the job. I wrote her back, saying 5 full days had passed, & since she had not replied to me in all that time, my assumption was that the job had been filled by others. And basically: thanks but no thanks, my schedule got filled up during those 5 days of not hearing a word from you.

She didn't respond. And, truth is, I could've used the money, and I could've worked my schedule around. But ... that kind of behavior from a scheduler is a major turn-off for me. I've often wished the companies that the lousy schedulers work for, would mystery shop their schedulers!! If they did, they may discover why they're not getting quality shoppers. Most schedulers are great, but when they're lousy, they can really, really drag down the whole industry.

Flash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yes, yes and yes. Evidently some schedulers
> perceive themselves to be so busy that they cannot
> take the time to properly screen recipients of
> their emails by geography or any other
> qualification. Some, even when you immediately
> respond to an email, never get back to you one way
> or the other. And some, once you accept a job,
> never get back with you in response to questions.
> I must admit that once I have a round or two of
> such experiences with a scheduler, I no longer
> will open or respond to their emails and I am
> likely not to work further with the company until
> there is a new scheduler for my area. This is not
> to say that all schedulers are that way, but you
> and they know who they are. Some would pretend
> that they send you job opportunities for 3,000
> miles away thinking you might be planning to
> travel or might know someone in the target area
> who would like to shop. When this is routine and
> you need to scan down to the bottom of the email
> to realize that the shops available are 3,000
> miles away, they have just wasted YOUR time.
> Their quota of time wasters is limited with me for
> sure!
>
> I don't mind the more global emails when there
> actually are shops in my general area. I do
> appreciate the email indicating that the job is
> filled. And my hat is off to the scheduler who
> responds to a question within one business day.
> In my narrow world view, this constitutes the
> basic respect of colleagues and I like to think
> that we are colleagues rather than cogs in a
> wheel.


I totally agree with your summary of all of us being colleagues, for some reason Shop&Chek who I really enjoyed working with has gotten to be a bit much. They have a lot of fast food shops in my area and this one particular scheduler begged me all day Sunday to take a late shop. Well I did and I felt as though Dante's Inferno was let loose because they ranted and raved about why wasn't the minutes, no seconds concise as far as the completion of my purchase and now I know why I don't answer those types of requests. We are all colleagues some folks make you feel as though your the culprit and truly it's not that serious!

debitoot Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 5 days ago, I received an email from a scheduler I
> had never heard from before (I was registered with
> the company she was scheduling for). Anyway, she
> sends me and I would guess anyone else registered
> with that same company, this email stating they
> would pay very well for shoppers to do an audit
> for this company, the following week. It was, of
> course, an emergent job.
>
> If you were interested, she said, reply back
> IMMEDIATELY with your info (and yes, immediately
> was in all caps, as was many other exclamatory
> words to get her point across as to how big of an
> emergency it was). Since the quoted pay was good,
> I emailed her right back - IMMEDIATELY - to which
> I got no response.
>
> That is, until a full 5 days later. She wanted to
> know if I was ready to start the job. I wrote her
> back, saying 5 full days had passed, & since she
> had not replied to me in all that time, my
> assumption was that the job had been filled by
> others. And basically: thanks but no thanks, my
> schedule got filled up during those 5 days of not
> hearing a word from you.
>
> She didn't respond. And, truth is, I could've used
> the money, and I could've worked my schedule
> around. But ... that kind of behavior from a
> scheduler is a major turn-off for me. I've often
> wished the companies that the lousy schedulers
> work for, would mystery shop their schedulers!! If
> they did, they may discover why they're not
> getting quality shoppers. Most schedulers are
> great, but when they're lousy, they can really,
> really drag down the whole industry.


That is so true and I have wanted to shop the schedulers as well maybe then they would take a look at the Art Of Courtesy!

Again, BB, all your posts here seem soooo negative. Who do you like to shop for?

If I am BB I can say that I don't intend to be negative the energy is much to strenuous , but perhaps objective would be a kinder word. I shop for a lot of Prophet's sites as well as Sassie and I know that they are software* but I read it somewhere that creativity is knowing how to hide your sources~ Okay but for real I do Shop & Chek at times Ath-Powers and also just about everything everybody else does when it's in the DC areas. I also have a sense of humor always in the face of adversity~ Great utility to have don't you think? Ps: I am not huge on doing restaurant shops so that is usually the last assignment that I will take but I like the style of this forums and I know that everyone has a designated pecking order why? but it's merely how I view it~

brendabeyt Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If I am BB I can say that I don't intend to be
> negative the energy is much to strenuous , but
> perhaps objective would be a kinder word. I shop
> for a lot of Prophet's sites as well as Sassie and
> I know that they are software* but I read it
> somewhere that creativity is knowing how to hide
> your sources~ Okay but for real I do Shop & Chek
> at times Ath-Powers and also just about everything
> everybody else does when it's in the DC areas. I
> also have a sense of humor always in the face of
> adversity~ Great utility to have don't you think?
> Ps: I am not huge on doing restaurant shops so
> that is usually the last assignment that I will
> take but I like the style of this forums and I
> know that everyone has a designated pecking order
> why? but it's merely how I view it~


It might be that I read them as more negative than you intend them to read.

Yes, I have -- and there is a solution for this. Accept as many shops as you can handle, including from these people who do not respond timely to your requests. Then when they get back to you say, "Sorry, I said I could do the shop but because I didn't hear from you I assumed you had it filled and now my schedule is maxed out!" I have been shopping part-time for thirteen years, and it only took a couple times of that happening with a couple companies for them to start getting back to me promptly -- because they know that when I say I am going to do a shop, and commit to it, it gets done! If the pattern continues with a couple companies, there is competition out there ... just write to the companies and tell them that you won't be shopping with them for the next few months, and tell them why. It does work.