I am scheduled to do 2 shops today for the same MSC/Client. The MSC is apparently a European company and the guidelines and survey were written by someone for whom English is clearly NOT their first language. I am really having a hard time deciphering what exactly I am supposed to do and I sent an email to the scheduler last night and again this morning (after I discovered even more lack of clarity) and so far I've had no response. I really don't know what to do. The instructions are so unclear that I don't think I can even do the shop until I get clarification. Here's just one example of what I mean...

"Prepare a request of 2-3 products by a short online-research. (If possible) check the availability
of the products in the different branches in your test region/ city (for more information see the
XXX example below). Choose the products of different departments/floors, so the salesperson
does not become suspicious."

Scenario: Selection of product at reduced price that currently is not available in the store

Sounds fairly straightforward until you know that:
A) The company website does not allow for checking online inventory, but the survey asks if your experience in the store "matched your research on the website."
You are supposed to ask about every single option for obtaining the item (ordering online, ordering in the store and having it shipped to your home, or to another store, or to the store you're in) and observe how the salesperson finds out the information
C) You are supposed to give ONE product that you looked for.

I'm trying to be a little cagey here and not give too much info because it may be proprietary, so please forgive me if this is unclear. This is an IT audit to see how well their IT system is working.

My bottom line question is that I don't know if I should try to do the shops even thought I don't understand the guidelines, or if I should ask to reschedule for another day and wait to get clarification. (Remembering that I am not getting any response at all.) OH! There's another guideline that says, "If, contrary to expectations, all articles researched online should be available in the store, please contact us immediately." (But there's no contact phone number. Just an email address with no replies....

Advice please?

I would send an email that I'm unable to do the shops without clarification of guidelines. I would offer to reschedule later IF I receive the needed clarification and IF I have a time slot available. Thank you very much, so sorry for the problem, hope we can do business in the future.

@MDavisnowell wrote:

I would send an email that I'm unable to do the shops without clarification of guidelines. I would offer to reschedule later IF I receive the needed clarification and IF I have a time slot available. Thank you very much, so sorry for the problem, hope we can do business in the future.

This. The last thing you want is to conduct the audit, then not get paid due to not understanding the poorly written guidelines.

Thank you! That was exactly the advice I was hoping to get. I want to do an excellent job and I really want to get paid. Both of those are unlikely under the current circumstances!

NEVER (did I remember to say NEVER?)...anyway....NEVER perform a shop about which you are unclear with regard to the parameters or your tasks. Deadlines are in virtually all cases...artificial. Sure, you want to make that deadline if at all possible...but if you perform the shop incorrectly because you GUESSED, then guess what? Now you did the work but did not get paid, and to add insult to injury, you probably can't just go back and do it again. So another shopper will likely have to be used because you already visited the location. I would rather miss a deadline (especially when it is due to a scheduler non-response), than to make a guess. But keep in mind...good shopper form means READING THOSE GUIDELINES EARLY...early enough to give that scheduler time to reply to you...not quickly consulting the guiedelines the night before you do the shop, at 11 PM, expecting an immediate reply from a scheduler, like they are water in the faucet, available on demand...unless you just signed up for that shop that same night.

Just as an update, I got a reply from the scheduler to my FIRST email, telling me part of what I needed to know, but not until the NEXT day (more than 36 hours after my first email) He also attempted to call me at 6am but my phone was off. On top of that, I had been admitted to the hospital the night before, so I couldn't do the shop that day. He also didn't ever answer the follow up questions that I had sent the morning before.

I replied that I was unable to do the shop that day and offered to do it next week if I could please get clarification regarding the remaining questions. I never heard another word. I got out of the hospital the next day and am still willing to do the shop, but who knows. I assume they don't work on the weekends and I'll hear from them tomorrow. But you can BET I'll be turning my phone off when I go to bed tonight!

Food for thought. Do not apply for an assignment if you do not understand the guidelines. Do not wait until the day of an assignment to review the guidelines.

I disagree and agree with isaiah58. Most shops do not give the shopper access to the guidelines until the shop has actually been assigned to you so not applying for the assignment is usually not an option. But not waiting until the last minute to review the guidelines is a good idea.

I was offered a $30 pizza shop last night. I asked the scheduler to email me the shop guidelines before I would accept. It turned out to be the easy version, three pictures and no mutilating the pizza. By the time I called the scheduler back, the shop was assigned to someone else. Yeah, I'm disappointed that I lost the $30, but I'm glad that I made sure it wasn't one of the "mutilate the hell out of the pizza shops" before I was willing to accept it.

Some schedulers will email you the guidelines etc. I know from experience. I asked one to do just that and when I read the guidelines, I did not apply for it.

James Bond, why on Earth are you being asked to mutilate a pizza? Or is mutilate code for devouring it?

One of the MSCs that shops the pizza place requires that you make cuts in the pizza with a box cutter. That is what I meant by mutilate. I just wanted to assure myself I wasn't dealing with that MSC.

I would guess the full guidelines were not available until after you accept the shop. When I first staretd..i would get emails offering Modell's shops form the MSC that USED TO cover that store...with NO INFO WHAT SO EVER...except do the job, get paid.....I emailed for some details...and the scheduler was like 'what do you expect from me--its just a standard shop'...she refused to even say simple like ' you inquire about a product and onserve a few general conditions in the store'

Any time the guidelines are not easy to review and forthcoming from the scheduler, usually there is a reason...like hidden work that they don't want you to know about.

I agree that it would be very convenient to be able to see the full guidelines before accepting a shop, but they were not avaiable. I will point out that I reviewed the guidelines the day before the shop, not the day OF the shop. And yes, it would have been far better to review them several days out but in this circumstance I was not able to do that.