Sinclair is still 6 hours, which is ridiculous especially when they want receipts and photos.

@marg704 wrote:

Sinclair is still 6 hours, which is ridiculous especially when they want receipts and photos.

They called me today for a shop tomorrow and the report has to be done by 2 on Friday.

As we have heard from a few, sometimes the report time can be negotiated.

If you really want the shop, ask the company if you can have an extension.

Or accept the shop, get home, start to enter it, save it, and then email the scheduler to let them know you did the shop (proof is already uploaded in the shop report), and you need an extension. I think most companies would be ok as long as the report is in within 24 hours.

The one exception might be STN. I don't know if they are still take down their website every night for "maintenance." But they use to, often before midnight EST. If you were in the middle of a report, you lost the report. No report, no pay. It's been years since I have shopped with them, so it's very possible that their website maintenance has changed.

I'm a scheduler for Sinclair. The 6 hour thing has been misunderstood. Most shops require the data to be entered the following day by 2pm. Sometimes schedulers will personally ask that shops be entered sooner due to impending deadlines, but the shop will not be considered "late" until the day following at 2pm CST.

The 6 hour thing is referring to bonus points you receive on your shopper rating. If you submit the data within 6 hours of the shop, you will receive bonus points when the system scores your shop. Several factors go into the scoring including the grammar/spelling in the narrative, contradictions within the data, a shop accidentally cancelling because of late data entry, rescheduling a shop multiple times, etc. The bonus points for entering the shop within 6 hours are negligible. While we of course want the data as soon as possible, we do not require it to be entered within 6 hours of the shop.

I hope that clarifies things for you. We understand that completing all the parts of a shop (shopping, entering, uploading) take time and we appreciate the time our shoppers spend doing all those things. I really hope our shoppers don't feel that our deadlines are too restrictive.

Thanks!
Lauren, Sinclair scheduler

Hi Lauren,

Thank you VERY much for sharing this information! It does appear that a few of us (myself included) misunderstood about the 6 hour turnaround time.

Email the photo to yourself. That way you can log into your email from your computer and save the image to your desktop.

Hope that helps!

I have actually seen shops that had to be reported in three or four hours. I do not like this trend at all. These companies are assuming that we are all wired twenty-four seven, and I have yet to see any of these companies offer to pay for these expensive electronic devices. And, of course, we know that's never going to happen!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/2015 08:52PM by alannajm.

That was something (well, one of many) annoying things about Maritz. Shop ending time was at
9pm with a 12 hr turnaround. At 11pm SHARP, the emails would start. "Your report is late."
"Your report is overdue." After sending frustrating emails back pointing out it's not late until
9am the following day, just started deleting them.

I am doing one now which has a 3-hour reporting deadline. This is actually reasonable since it is a phone shop with a recording (yes, they have the client's permission to record in a two-party consent state) and really needs to be done with me at my computer.

There are many others which I do which require input by Midnight, and that can be difficult to do if I have evening assignments as I often do. One is an evening bar integrity shop (I know, a different thread deals with this, no need to open the can of worms here) and must be done between 7 and 10 PM, and reported by midnight, and requires that I drink two alcoholic mixed drinks. Actually, I guess I technically only need to somehow dispose of drink #1 so that they ask me if I want another.

I was able to add an IPad to my wifi plan for only $10 a month. It really helps having the ability to check requirements just prior to doing a shop. It works great for my merchandising because I can submit my before and after photos and do the reports in store. It fits in my purse and has apps for everything I need.

That being said, I don't use it for text heavy reports like with fine dining. Those I like to do on my home computer with a glass of wine beside me.

Whenever I am shopping a route for a MSC I always ask for 24 hours. I always get the 24. I do contact the scheduler and tell them that I have shopped and will get the report in the next morning. I have done this with route shops only. The schedulers know that I am reliable. I have never flaked in 5 years. I have rescheduled for snow this year. More snow in my area Sunday into Monday. New England.

I agree. They must be cutting their office workforce and we are supposed to pick up the slack.
Just like they keep lowering the prices they will pay for shops. Hey, guys, the economy is going
up, not down!

@ijdk wrote:

>>>I stopped working for one company because it was a rush-rush to get reports in and then the reports sat there for up to three weeks before being reviewed. (The same company had editors that deleted vital bits of information from my reports. I learned this when the office person [possibly scheduler] informed me that I was not getting paid for my work because I did the shop wrong. When I showed her the report I turned in, along with the instructions that proved I had not done the shop wrong, she emailed me back what had been turned into her. The report she had and the report I submitted were VERY different. She chose to stand her ground. I chose to end the relationship.)

<<<
I just recently saw this happen with one of my shops. I had to do something to the report so they sent it back for missing photos. {All uploaded as the report was the first time} company glitch or PC glitch (shrug). Anyway the report had been altered severely. It stated no restrooms available yet two beautiful top of the line restrooms were present and photographed by me. It kind of makes me wonder about the others. I have now started keeping some of the higher paying shops as proof what I said.

I do my best to keep a copy of the final shop submitted. They don't always save nicely. And I write my notes and my narratives in word and save them.

I also have a list of companies that I have learned lower standards than I do. The example you presented is a good example. The one I mentioned earlier is another example. Another example - A company refused to turn in anything negative to the client. This was a bank shop and there were cameras EVERYWHERE. I begged the company to have the video reviewed to confirm that I waited 20-some minutes before I was acknowledged. The company refused. They said that couldn't have happened, therefore, my report was void. I found out later that the report was altered and submitted to the client. Amazing what people leave lying around on their desks... I no longer work for that company.

On the flip side, I have been absolutely amazed by some companies who do turn in the real report to the client, no matter how bad it is! I was once contacted by the client corporate office, with an apology, for what I had experienced and reported to the client. (WOW.) Not pleased that the company gave up my personal information, but it truly illustrated that the truth went to the client and the client cared.

If it wasn't such a negative thing, I would suggest someone start a post to list companies that we have had personal experiences with that won't submit the real report to the client. Or ones that severely alter our reports and we found out about it. (I guess that is kinda like the first, not telling the client the truth, huh?)