The fajita veggies are awesome. I got them instead of beans for my bowl.

@Dora wrote:

They have never offered fajitas to me. Lately the pan has always been almost empty.

Fajitas are tough to get out of them. I have heard that if you get the all-veggie burrito/bowl/salad/tacos it is to include guacamole, but I don't think the servers know that.

I literally have never been offered fajita mix. I get the fajita mix instead of the beans. Recently I had a shop in which the mix was actually black all over. Against my better judgement I ordered them, but when I took a bite they were mushy. Worst fajita mix ever.

This thread makes me jealous! I have Chipotle and Red Robin close to me, but I have never seen a shop for either so I just haven't come across the MSC apparently....*Now quests to find the MSC lol*

@messysoprano wrote:

This thread makes me jealous! I have Chipotle and Red Robin close to me, but I have never seen a shop for either so I just haven't come across the MSC apparently....*Now quests to find the MSC lol*

If you ever find the MSC, remember the comments by others that you may wait months to get a response. Hang in there.

The MSC for Chipotle is easy to find. Just Google it and The MSC will be on your first page of results. The MSC has no problem showing their main client but we can't reveal it.

So I am not alone at having fajitas skipped..and since I always get the Veggie salad bowl I would have thought it would be a no brainer for them to offer me the veggies. Almost always they skip the fajitas and ask me which meat I want. And it is always the same tortilla person I just ordered a Veggie Salad bowl from. They must have shorter memories than I do. And they are so young to lose their memory.

I have one here in my area. I was suppose to attend the training last year but it got cancel due to bad weather

I received a e-mail saying that it was posted on a job board and I went to check it out. So I e-mail the scheduler and let know that I would like to try and do it this year. It is a different scheduler than last year.

I am register for the company but I don't remember my password. I clicked on the forget password link but I never got my pass word. I even checked my spam folder. Do I need to register with the company or wait till I hear from the scheduler?

I love Chipotle.. Hopefully I can attend the training

@Isaiah4031a wrote:

I am register for the company but I don't remember my password. I clicked on the forget password link but I never got my pass word. I even checked my spam folder.

You get a password after you complete the training. You will also have to provide banking details for payment (auto-deposit, not PayPal.) Until you do the training, you cannot access the website. All communication is done via email until that point.

@PuaM wrote:

@Isaiah4031a wrote:

I am register for the company but I don't remember my password. I clicked on the forget password link but I never got my pass word. I even checked my spam folder.

You get a password after you complete the training. You will also have to provide banking details for payment (auto-deposit, not PayPal.) Until you do the training, you cannot access the website. All communication is done via email until that point.

Hopefully they will e-mail me back with the details

Thanks

@Isaiah4031a wrote:

@PuaM wrote:

@Isaiah4031a wrote:

I am register for the company but I don't remember my password. I clicked on the forget password link but I never got my pass word. I even checked my spam folder.

You get a password after you complete the training. You will also have to provide banking details for payment (auto-deposit, not PayPal.) Until you do the training, you cannot access the website. All communication is done via email until that point.

Hopefully they will e-mail me back with the details

Thanks

Hang in there. If you like the restaurant, it is worth it. The pay is decent and once you have done a few of the reports, the writing goes together pretty fast. BTW, rightly or wrongly I use the same password for all my MSC. That way, I can't forget it.

Thanks. I am hanging in there. I have been there a few times

Just because everyone is deeply in love with the MSC behind Chipotle, I will share my following with you. I've mystery shopped for them since April 2014. I did at least 1 shop a month until Dec. 2015 at my 2 local Chipotles that were far away from a major metro area and thus only had me and maybe one other shopper. Come last Dec., I declined the shop due to time constraints and the 1.5 hour shop + report times. The MSC then turned a very cold shoulder to me, not offering me any shops unless I inquired. I did this every other month and did any orphans I could find as travels permitted. Finally they threw me a bone for Dec. 2016 shop (I strongly think others declined as well). As with any MSC, they are extremely picky when it comes to rules, especially when it comes to their 'special questions' of the month. Well semantics tripped me up and it was noted as a trip point on the question info for the month. So well known issue I'd say. After 'failing' the shop, the scheduler obviously informs me of my mistake and that I would need to reshop or drop my report.

After spending close to an hour on the visit and report, I was livid. I wrote back a note about how confusing the question was and that it was a waste of time to put such a minute detailed question at the end of 40 other items that need attention and then ask such a dumb question that largely has to do with semantics of how someone asks a question.

Apparently this MSC dropped me like a rock. They canceled my report. Banned me access to their website. Banned me access from their facebook group. Didn't respond to one email requesting a response to the banning without any response. Very unprofessional and petty. I voiced my displeasure with their policy in polite, professional terms, but evidently they are perfect, bristling with anger at the slightest hint that a shopper could question them.

What a giant waste of time this MSC is. If they want to treat someone that they sent to training, spent 2 years working with professionally to freeze out at the drop of a hat, obviously they don't care about anything other than getting the job done. Don't dare challenge this perfect MSC. They only want you for your report and don't give a darn about what they put you through to get it.

Why are you posting the exact same thing you wrote in another post that you started about this MSC? It's copied and pasted word-for-word. If you could have just asked the KQ for the month verbatim (per the instructions) as well as you are able to post word-for-word in the forum, then you wouldn't have gotten yourself so worked up about something that you did to yourself.

For more exposure! For someone that worked 2+ years for a company and to get shutout seems alarming to me and hopefully others.

@lochquel wrote:

For more exposure! For someone that worked 2+ years for a company and to get shutout seems alarming to me and hopefully others.

Thanks for sharing your experience. Based on my experience working with them over the past four years, your story doesn't alarm me at all. I am convinced there is much more to your story than what you posted. Because the company invests a lot in training their contractors, they don't frequently drop them like rocks.

Happy Holidays, and wishing your better luck with other companies.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/23/2016 07:25PM by AustinMom.

I don't know enough about the specifics of the shop that caused the IC to be dropped to comment. However, I can make a general comment on the KQ each month. The shopper has to pay attention to what it says and think about why. This month's question wants a response that is not a simple yes-no. That's why the wording is emphasized.

These shops aren't for everyone. If there are too many rules and it takes too much time report then any of us shopping Chipotle has the ability to go into the "Shops I Will Accept" link and unaccept all shops. If it were me, I would also write to my regular scheduler and briefly state that I am are no longer available.

@PuaM wrote:

The shopper has to pay attention to what it says and think about why.

I really wish they actually told us shoppers "why." This is less important for chipotle than it is for their other client, a burger joint.

For at least the last half year every month's KQ has been having us pretend to have different, fake allergies (I'm terrified of running into the same employee whom I had just told I couldn't have eggs and now also telling them I can't have peanuts) and they also tell us specifically what we're allowed to order and not order. I wish they would say, for instance, "you can't have sauce on your burger this month because it contains eggs, which they're supposed to tell you to avoid" or "fries are cooked in peanut oil, so do not order fries right after telling them about your allergy."

The utra specific one word that got a lot of folks in trouble this month almost makes me wonder if it was a tip off to employees.

@Misanthrope wrote:

@PuaM wrote:

The shopper has to pay attention to what it says and think about why.

I really wish they actually told us shoppers "why." This is less important for chipotle than it is for their other client, a burger joint.

For at least the last half year every month's KQ has been having us pretend to have different, fake allergies (I'm terrified of running into the same employee whom I had just told I couldn't have eggs and now also telling them I can't have peanuts) and they also tell us specifically what we're allowed to order and not order. I wish they would say, for instance, "you can't have sauce on your burger this month because it contains eggs, which they're supposed to tell you to avoid" or "fries are cooked in peanut oil, so do not order fries right after telling them about your allergy."

This months KQ with the question of "Is it?" might get a yes or no answer only. If you ask "how" than your answer should be more specific. I have done two of these this month. From one shop the answer was "very spicy" for the other the answer was that it was the same spiciness as all the other meats except the carnitas. For a further explanation I was told it was mild....So, two different shops and answers on both ends of the spiciness spectrum. It has piqued (not peaked) my interest. The how question gives the client a lot more info.

Could you say your interest is piqued about piquancy?

@sandyf wrote:

This months KQ with the question of "Is it?" might get a yes or no answer only. If you ask "how" than your answer should be more specific. I have done two of these this month. From one shop the answer was "very spicy" for the other the answer was that it was the same spiciness as all the other meats except the carnitas. For a further explanation I was told it was mild....So, two different shops and answers on both ends of the spiciness spectrum. It has piqued (not peaked) my interest. The how question gives the client a lot more info.

I concur. I also had three of my five offer me a sample so I could decide if the level of spiciness was right for me. Personally, I think that is the correct answer. Offering a sample is the only way a diner can really answer the question for him/herself. One team member almost insisted that I try a sample.

I think the correct answer is mild, medium or hot.

@Madetoshop wrote:

I think the correct answer is mild, medium or hot.

Mild to me would be heart-burn to my dad. Maybe the MSC will give us a clue or perhaps we can buy a vowel

They offered me a sample. I agree with PuaM. Oh, and I didn't think it was spicy, it was pretty mild.

@PuaM wrote:

@sandyf wrote:

This months KQ with the question of "Is it?" might get a yes or no answer only. If you ask "how" than your answer should be more specific. I have done two of these this month. From one shop the answer was "very spicy" for the other the answer was that it was the same spiciness as all the other meats except the carnitas. For a further explanation I was told it was mild....So, two different shops and answers on both ends of the spiciness spectrum. It has piqued (not peaked) my interest. The how question gives the client a lot more info.

I concur. I also had three of my five offer me a sample so I could decide if the level of spiciness was right for me. Personally, I think that is the correct answer. Offering a sample is the only way a diner can really answer the question for him/herself. One team member almost insisted that I try a sample.

Exactly. And how spicy it is may depend on the particular crew member and on the part of the country. Some areas are accustomed to more spicy food than others. I did two of these shops. The answers I got were pretty different. One offered me a sample. I think that's the right answer.

Is it hard to get assign with this company? Yes I know I have to put in my application and tell them that I would like to attend the training.

It is hard to get in with them depending on where you live. Some areas are saturated with shoppers and other areas have shops that are hard to fill. You don't tell them you want to attend the training, they will invite you when there is availability in your area. They fly MSC reps into certain areas and have a training with several new applicants at a time when they do. It might be a tight squeeze if you live in a metro area with plenty of shoppers. See, they used to do 2 shops per month for each location but last year scaled it down to just 1 shop per month for each location, so they have lots of trained shoppers on hand who might be looking for more to do.

@Isaiah4031a wrote:

Is it hard to get assign with this company? Yes I know I have to put in my application and tell them that I would like to attend the training.

That depends on what you think is hard to get assigned. You cannot get access to their website and you cannot get assigned any shops until you have attended the training. Depending on how many locations are in your area and on how many shoppers they already have in your area, there may be a training soon or you may wait a couple of years. This is a company that spends money training their shoppers and values them. They do not train more shoppers unless they need them, preferring to assign shops to those who have been trained and proved themselves. They are loyal to their shoppers and fair.

Once you have gone to a training, they will ask for your SS# and direct deposit info and other things and you get access to their website. You choose which locations you are willing to mystery shop. Once you let them know your preferred list of locations, the scheduler will auto-assign you a shop(s) on the first day of each month. The scheduler sends you an email with your assignment, telling you the time of day and the knowledge question. You choose to accept or decline. If you accept, the shop is yours. If you decline, the shop goes back and the scheduler reassigns it.

It's a good system because the assignments are made on the 1st like clockwork. You don't get to choose the specific location each month, but it will be one of the ones you have selected. And they decide what time of day the shop will be. There is always a very specific Knowledge Question you must ask or observation you must make and report the result. If you don't like anything about the assignment for the month, declining works fine. I have declined a few because a specific time of day didn't work for me or because I didn't like the Knowledge Question. I never felt punished for declining and it did not affect my future shops in any way that I could see. I like working with this company and I like the Chipotle shops.

I am not sure the metro areas are harder to get. When I first signed up with them I was invited very quickly to a training. Right now with half the number of shops as in the past they do have twice as many shoppers as they used to need. For a very long time I was given the same locations month after month. I assume it was because there was only one other shopper in my area as I would think they would like some sort of rotation. Now with one shop per month per location instead of two I do not get each of them every month. They actually assigned me a location I never said I would do a couple of months ago. I did it as it was fairly close to my home.