Okay, long story short-ish, last year, I did a shop (storage facility) with a company I had done only a few shops with before. In the end, my account was deactivated and I got very little information and no opportunity (that I saw) to avoid the situation. I'm not one to bash people. So regardless of how wronged I may have felt, it's not about that. I am curious if anyone has had similar issues? And even, how maybe someone would have handled this? If there is a scheduler out there, how would you expect a shopper to handle a situation if they weren't getting notifications and they noticed their shop just sitting there for more than 3-4 days. I'm using Gmail as my email. I generally use one email address that is specifically for shopping and other independent stuff I do. It goes directly to my phone, tablet and computer. I have maybe 3 companies that go to the old Gmail email I used which I check regularly (at least once a day) too, but I have not been able to get it switched over in the MSC system for one reason or another.

More details: I submitted said shop as I had before. I logged in each day for the first 6 days only to find that the shop was sitting in the same state as it was when I submitted it: "Complete". 9 days after the shop, I logged in to see if anything had changed and I find my shop had been "excluded without payment" and noting that I did not respond. So I reach out to the scheduler both through the system "contact" link and through the email from my shop confirmation to apologize and attempting to obtain more information. I was informed I did not respond to any requests for more information and the fingerpointed at me informing that it is my responsibility to continue to check and the respond promptly. I checked my inbox, spam, deleted folder and find nothing. I do not hear back from the scheduler ever again. I ask how they reached out to me and confirmed that apparently the editor emailed and called me when they did not get a response by email. The schedule says I'll see if anything can be done and get back to you. So again, I check everywhere under the sun in my email then my phone and google voice account (which is the number I use for shops) online because surely I missed them somewhere. Still no evidence of any attempt to reach me. No voicemails, no emails, no other notes in my account. I ask which number they called from, when the emails were sent and calls were made, more information to try to figure out how and what exactly I had missed and how. Alas, I get a system generated email (yep, an actual real life email from the system) advising me that my account has been deactivated. I send another email to the scheduler stating I understand my account being deactivated and that they have a job to do, but still feel it is important for me to know. That I am trying to understand whether for future shops or just for my own experience as a shopper what exactly went on. I got nothing. I'm 3 years into shopping (to some that's pretty experienced, for others I'm still a newbie). I don't want this to happen, but at the same time, I don't want to be a nuiance on day 2 emailing every scheduler that when I see a shop hasn't been updated that it is still in complete status to avoid losing accounts. And I surely don't want to assume everything is okay when it's not.

What is ironic is that I had a similar issue with another company months later. I got a call from my scheduler saying the editor was trying to reach me because they needed clarification on something. The scheduler told me that the editor had emailed me the day before and was waiting on my response. While on the phone, I check. There was nothing noted on my account and I was unable to find any emails, even with searching by the editor's email. That was a difficult one but I was so happy that the scheduler called me. Eventually, through battling emails that I was not receiving from the editor and with the assistance of the scheduler, we got things resolved. I sent an email thanking them both and apologizing for whatever issue was going on (even though I did feel it was strange and beyond my control).

Through reading on the forum, I've generally noticed pretty good feedback about the company which my account was deactivated. Maybe a complaint here and there (but that's gonna be with just about anything I suppose). I noticed recently as I accidently logged into this site through the Jobslinger that the scheduler is no longer there (it says deleted where the name once was). I've had some great schedulers through my days of shopping. I've had some so so. I've had some non-responsive ones. I've given some thought to maybe reaching out to attempt to give it another shot with the company, but I'm not sure on that one.

I hear your frustration and I have no answers for you. I am aware that editors frequently bounce emails through the systems and because of that, may appear to the email handler is spam, but I have never had that problem with Gmail then blocking a message entirely. I can understand voice messages on an answering machine being accidentally erased or the message box being full so that a message can't be left, but we finally got it sorted out that it is OUR answering machine that picks up rather than one with our land line provider and I am the only person in the house who has figured out how to retrieve and erase messages from the answering machine.

I would have to wonder if the editor ever hit 'send' to his/her email. If they did and were sending it through the reporting platform, I would wonder if the reporting platform was having issues.

You are making me appreciate more and more the companies where an editor sends an email and is responsible for following up on it with phone calls if the email is not answered and if they still can't make contact, 'kick it upstairs' for the next level to deal with.

Question did you double check that it did not get threaded with another e-mail from the same e-mail address? I hate to say it but I fully expect that intelishop is going to deactivate me. Don't know why I have so many problems with signing up for their shops. Twice now I have missed shops, and simple stupid shops. First time I had no clue that I applied for the shop I was just trying to review the information. As I did not have anything scheduled with them I did not pay attention to the e-mails from their company, I just assumed that they were the usual we need a shop covered that is 30 miles away and does not even cover cost of gas e-mails.

Well this time last week I was trying to apply for a phone shop and I think I was clicking assign instead of apply and I got kicked a few times. Well, i finally figured out what I was doing wrong and applied for a shop. What I did not realize is that I had actually applied for three shops becuase when I got kicked they still went through. Well of course you can only do one shop, so I got declined for two and approved for one. And of course all three e-mails nested in a thread with one of the denials being on top.

So I am currently setting up Thunderbird from Mozilla because it is much more flexible than Google and you just never know where the e-mails are hiding anymore. Give me a simple e-mail inbox that shows me each and every e-mail, even the junk mail and let me decide if it is important or not.

Now I know that a couple people are going to jump on me for saying this, but for the amount being paid I am only willing to put so much time into it. When I turn in a shop I check back in on my lunch break to make sure there are not any issues for the next couple of days. If there is (and it has only has happened to me three times) I e-mail the scheduler and let them know I will handle it when I get home from work. I usually do shops over the weekend so I check Monday and Tuesday, but by Wednesday I am fried and I don't check that e-mail again until the weekend.

I do this basically for fun and food. But I am sorry when a MSC requires you to purchase a combo and their cheapest combo is just under the amount (and depending on the city taxs that can crop up it may actually be more) that they will reimburse you and they only pay five dollars on top of that amount I call it a wash. They get their report and I get a free lunch as long as I don't count gas (sorry the five bucks goes toward getting something I like to eat) for what should be at most 20 minutes of input.

I also only do shops that I enjoy doing and I don't mind the small amount being paid because it was fun and interesting. So I guess what I am saying to you is take it all with a grain of salt and don't worry about it, chances are the scheduler was behind and it was crunch time so they decided to put the blame on your side so they would not get in trouble. IF it is really bugging you send a letter, not an e-mail, to one of the execs at the company and ask them to investigate it. I guarantee they have record of every e-mail that is sent out.

I feel for you and this issue. I have had issues with my Verizon account not getting emails for months. Fortunately the times I have had to add detail to reports it has been posted on the msc site and also sent to me in an email. But it is very disconcerting, especially when the fee is very small, to have to spend an hour or more of your time in addition to the time to do the job looking every where for an email or notice of some sort from a msc.

The MSC's need to get together and start programming their software to allow for two e-mail addresses. One for the important stuff. You know, notice that you have been approved for this shop, or they have a follow up question, the stuff that truly needs you to look at it.

The second e-mail would be the one in their system that they send the we need this shop covered, or we have extended the deadline ect. Right now, unless someone knows a trick we get inundated with fifty plus e-mails a day 99.99 percent of which we will not even open. But there is that 0.01 percent that we do want to get. I have gotten shops I could not possible apply for by having them just offer to extend it and extra day so the due date falls on the weekend.

Or heck have an odd phrase that is included in any mass e-mail the company sends out so that you can direct those e-mails to a different folder easily by just setting a filter for "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"

Oh well, off to youtube to look up, yup you guessed it "Mary Poppins"

FYI, you can turn off the conversation mode in Gmail so your emails don't get threaded. It works on the windows version but doesn't help on my Android version.

That was one of the dumbest things Google ever came up with. I know some people like it but it only works when everything is "just right". Stupid feature - turn it off.

dakotagypsy's suggestion is a good one, if it doesn't work for you ~ "unthread". Another issue reported by shoppers using Gmail is mail automatically being diverted to folders. I don't use Gmail for my shopping business, but my husband does. He has experienced some challenges, and gets aggravated when the email account tries to make life easier, but does just the opposite. Recently, a few MSCs have reported difficulties with shoppers having Gmail addresses, though reasons are vague.

atxmarketer, if working with the MSC was of value to you, I think you should communicate with them. See where it will lead. It could be beneficial to you, and at this point, you have nothing to lose, right?

atxmarketer: I feel for you. I wish I knew what happened with the contact of the scheduler. Another thing to note: MSC's don't really have to tell us why we are being deactivated. It would be nice if they did but we are independent contractors and we are not given the same luxury as employees.

Thanks everyone for your feedback! I just thought I'd put it out there because I had given it some thought. Unfortunately for that company, I don't know that the few shops I see in my area of interest are worthwhile. Mystery Shopping started as a fun thing for me to do to pass time and in some capacity, it became almost my "fun" money after buying my house. I would guess I want it to stay fun not have to worry about a company shutting my account down. I've been lucky in that I've managed to do well with shops that I pay upfront and get reimbursed.

Flash - My thoughts exactly on how they could not even tell me when they tried to contact me, but oh well. Such is life.

I double checked that it was not threaded and I agree that that is by far the dumbest thing google has done to its platform. Good point SunnyDays2. I guess we aren't entitled, but it still would be nice, right? Lol.

Maiddaraya - I've seen a few companies that you can put a primary and secondary email. Wish I could remember which ones, but oh well. I think its nice, thought I still prefer my emails to go to one.

Does anyone know how to "unthread" on Hotmail (now Outlook)? Drives me CRAZY when they marry these totally unrelated e-mails; they get buried, I never even see them. Thanks for any advice.

The Gear icon up on the top right by your name --> "Options" --> Under Reading email: "Group by conversation and preload messages" --> Conversation Settings --> Show messages individually

The whole "did they or didn't they e-mail me" thing is frustrating. I recently applied for a shop and never got a confirmation back from the scheduler. After a few days, I went into the Sassie system, and saw that I was scheduled for the shop. It's a good thing I checked, or I'd have missed doing it. I have a Verizon e-mail account that I use for shopping. The vast majority of the time, I have no issues with e-mail delivery. If something's not in my inbox, it'll be in the spam folder. Very rarely does an e-mail simply vanish before it gets to me. So, I have to wonder when someone (scheduler or editor) says they e-mailed, and you can't find in anywhere.

Thanks, CaliGirl!