Are reports considered late if no one is there?

I have Labor Day hangover blues. I am late w/some reports from yesterday. I know for a fact that office is closed today for holiday & editors work in office. I have not rec'd any late emails. Are reports really late if no one is there to edit them? It is a national paid holiday. The BBQ, beach & beer was awesome though & totally worth it.

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You know it depends entirely on the MSC. I've had some content to have it sitting there when they return to work on Monday morning (or in this case Tuesday) while others would throw a fit.

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Lisa is correct. It might also help cover your rear end to send off an email saying the report will be submitted by a certain time.

Happily shopping Rhode Island and nearby Massachusetts and Connecticut

I would advise always asking permission for the extension in advance if possible.

I had a hotel report technically due last night, but sent an email that it would be in by end of day today unless they needed it over the holiday (and received no response). That allows me to split the work over the long weekend and still spend some time socializing. I saved a bit too much work for today, unfortunately. It's going to cut not my BBQ time...

my favorite is the one company i shop for that wants reports in within 24 hours but never edits them for at least 8 days sometimes 12. what clients wants to wait 2 weeks for report?

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It depends. I did a bunch of shops yesterday and editors at several MSCs are definitely working, because all but one report (for a company that never grades or notifies me that they have reviewed) were approved before I went to bed last night. I can definitely say editors are working at 5 different MSCs worked yesterday and reviewed my reports so I would assume some are working today. Although the schedulers seem to be off weekending, it looks like the editors are not.

Ditto to what AustinMom said. I turned in a report to Beyond Hello for a Friday shop on Friday evening, had it bumped back to me for an omission on Sunday afternoon giving me a 5pm Monday deadline. I responded and had my report accepted and graded at 5:29 last night. That editor would definitely have noticed a late report.

We are all here on earth to help others....What on earth the others are here for I don't know.

--W. H. Auden

Reports submitted. I emailed scheduler & got 1 of those automated out of office until Tuesday messages. I am not worried about it. Moving on to organizing rest of week. No room to accept new shops. Thst is a good thing.

@techman01 wrote:

my favorite is the one company i shop for that wants reports in within 24 hours but never edits them for at least 8 days sometimes 12. what clients wants to wait 2 weeks for report?

Are you sure they're really taking two weeks just for editing? If I were a client purchasing a mystery shop, a 2 week return would not necessarily seem like a long wait to me. The shop has to be assigned, performed, written, submitted, edited, and put through a quality control process which might possibly take quite some time. This may be even more true if there is any kind of video or audio to review and/or if the MSC is also working with the client to solve some sort of problem existing within the company. If the MSC has also been hired to give an overall assessment of the shops performed and/or propose/recommend solutions, then those kinds of reports also take the MSCs time to generate, edit, and present.

Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/2015 07:34PM by OceanGirl.

He is saying they are waiting two weeks after the actual shop is performed, not from the order to delivery. Some clients want results more quickly in order to give stores a reasonable time frame to correct deficiencies before the next round of shops. Even for monthly shops two week delays by the MSC could end up with individual stores having no time to fix some things which means yet another low scoring shop/audit.

I think it's safe to assume that most or all MSCs have editors who work on holidays. A lot of them seem to get paid by amount of work completed rather than by the hour, and at least some can set their own hours as per contract, so I am not sure if holiday pay really even applies. If you know for a fact that these editors work in the office, that's one thing, but many editors work from home. Either way, I wouldn't be hugely concerned about it.

Though it's not an excuse to slack off, the MSCs try to give themselves a window for situations like this, and it's usually a day or more. Depending on the MSC, though, you might experience a payment deduction for the report being late. It depends on how forgiving they decide to be. Good luck, and I hope you get over those blues soon!

There are also the automated systems. The systems for some MSC's are automated and if you don't have them in by 10 AM you are dropped at 10:01 AM. So as everyone has said, it depends on the MSC but it is always safer to send an email.

When you learn, teach, when you get, give. Maya Angelou

How would a shopper know that no one is there? Since editors don't post shop assignments and don't usually reply to shopper inquiries, it would be hard to know that they are there. Do a lot of them work from home? I don't know about schedulers, but the editors were definitely working Sunday and Monday at Intellishop, Reality Based Group, A Closer Look, Market Force, and Service Sleuth.

I think after you work with some companies enough you know which ones have employees with regular business hours and which utilize ICs for scheduling and editing. While even employees may be working weekends at the end of the month, a holiday weekend at the beginning probably has most of them taking off. Some MSCs will even send emails stating they will be closed which will then either provide an emergency phone/email or notify shoppers any inquiries will be answered on their return.

I actually have relationships with many editors. I guess I have been doing this long enough, I know which ones work in the actual office and which ones work from home. I do have more relationships with schedulers but they can be a good resource in helping to connect with the editors.

I can attest that ACL schedulers were monitoring their emails this weekend, since I scheduler (and got confirmed) several shops and got new dates for others that had already been scheduled.

However, I cannot speak for the editors since I was not delivering reports to them this weekend.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.

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