So yesterday, I got my first flake citation. I feel bad, except the scheduler lied about part of it to make me look worse. So now I feel much less worse about it. I had a really rough week with lots of overtime at the full-time job, the time change, super bad traffic, and new medicine that made me have to quit caffeine cold turkey. Not surprised I forgot. So it came as a surprise on Monday when I got an email about my flake citation. Yes, I forgot. I am ready to own up to it, but I ended up ignoring the email because it said "shopper asked for extension and confirmed the shop, but did not shop. Do not reply to this email." No. I did not do either of those things; I never asked for an extension, and I never confirmed the shop; just forgot. And I didn't apply for the shop in the first place. I replied to an email to help the scheduler. I admit I was a total jerk for forgetting. But the scheduler (who will not be named, nor will clues be given, so don't ask) didn't have to lie to make me look even worse).

What was your first citation? Before you ask, I've been shopping for about 12 years. I've missed some shops before, but I've been able to work it out with schedulers before, or I've had them cancelled without much effect. It's going to ding my score, but I didn't really want to shop with this company anyway. Got some stories to share? Thanks!

I wouldn't necessarily consider my action a flake however, I've spent an entire Saturday on a route of maybe 12 shops and once I got home, I started reporting coupled with a glass of wine to *air quote* wind down and all I remember is waking up at 3am in the morning startled. I jumped up and looked at the time and flipped. I immediately went to my emails and there were the infamous "late reporting notice". I emailed the help desk and explained to them what really happened and without effort, they allowed me to report all shops without any hassle. Mind you, I no longer enjoy a glass of wine until after I've finished my reporting. This particular MSC gets a lot of flack however, I've had many instances where I've for lack of a better term "flaked" and I've learned that honest communication with the schedulers goes a long way as well as a great shoppers reputation and work ethic. Also remember, you can always reschedule with litter effort if you run into an emergency instead of not doing anything at all and ignoring emails. MCS really frown on that especially from a seasoned Vet.

Thanks for the reply! That's good that you were able to get your shops inputted without hassle. That must have been scary after a long day of route shopping! Open and honest communication with the scheduler is the way to go. It really does. Wish I could have had that on both ends for my shop. I'm bummed this didn't go well. I'm bummed I forgot and caused this whole situation. I would have totally done it yesterday, but I suspect it needed done on the weekend. Sigh. Does your wine taste even better when your reports are done?

My wine taste amazing once my shops are done. I put so much pressure on myself. I've found a way to enjoy my wine and report at the same time. This incident happened when I was a newbie. Has never happened since. I've learned to report after completing every 3 shops on the road and when I get home I may have only 1 or 2 shops to report which takes about 30 minutes each. Have a great day!!

Just this last week I had my first really bad experiences with this...my husband has Stage 4 COPD, he is on the lung transplant list at St Luke's in Houston, and occasionally he has an exacerbation that lands him back in the hospital, or requires a very quick trip to the pulmonologist and some meds. We were in the middle of a 4 day route, and had to come home unexpectedly, and I missed some shops.
I wasn't happy about it, since it means lost $$, but I also was really unhappy about the flake citations involved. Yes, I emailed the schedulers that I was able to reach, and some have offered to reschedule (which isn't possible, since I was taking advantage of Spring Break to do the route, and now I'm back in the classroom). The ones I don't have a long-term relationship with, however, just gave me citations for the missed shops, and I'll have to deal with it.
I'm in this for the long run, and eventually my average will work its way back up. I'll take some small shops with those MSCs, and it'll all work out.

Mousegal - Hope your husband gets better. Health IS the most important thing right now, forget about the mystery shopping !

I am surprised and appalled you would get flake citations under the circumstances.

Intelli-shop gave me a flake citation for a bank teller shop in 2013.
I took my new Surface Tablet into the Microsoft store. They somehow managed to jack up my main email. so that I did not get any emails (incoming) for 3 days. I missed that shop. Oh well. A loss of $8. hahaha

I also got a flake citation from my cranky intern at BARE during that same time period of no emails for not reporting a shop. Same situation. Loss of $25 (and 90 minutes during that tour, plus the 5 follow up phone calls). Note to self - never again, even for $100.

Getting my emails back in order was my main priority during those couple of days.

NEITHER citation has affected my ability to get work with either company. I have literally thousands of shops with both of them.

ETA: Found another one from that same week. Kate R. One of my least favorite schedulers ever. I was entering the report when she pulled it.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/21/2017 07:10PM by SoCalMama.

@LisaSTL wrote:

I am surprised and appalled you would get flake citations under the circumstances.

Agreed. That is ridiculous.

My very first flake, I was on the way to do a shop, 5 AM left home, had to be there by 8 AM. Crested a hill south of here and ran into total white-out blizzard. Turned around and went home. Called and e-mailed them. No one will drive 100+ miles in white-out conditions -- no sane person, anyway.

Got a flake, weighted twenty times.

I've since done a dozen shops with that company; got 10's on all of them. My average is still only 3!

But I just did a shop for them today, so I'm guessing they take the last dozen shops into consideration.

My only other flake, again over 100 miles away...went 60 miles, the road was closed. Hey, folks, I live in the COUNTRY. When the road is closed, you CAN'T GET THERE. There aren't alternate routes or detours.
Again, I called and e-mailed the company. That very special scheduler gave me THIRTY FLAKES for that
one! And it doesn't bother me at all -- I merely will just never, ever shop for them again.

Ok, after reading that...weighted 20 times!...I don't feel so bad Wow.
And I am not really feeling bitter about it at this point...I'll just make sure that next time I have reschedule dates available, if possible.

I can only think of 1 that impacted me significantly to the point of not being able to assign any shops and even better no one from said MSP responds to my emails.

I got a flake citation on a restaurant shop where the parking was horrendous. It was so bad that in the time I went through the parking garage to try and find a spot, I almost had an accident twice. I think the flake came when I didn't get back to the scheduler promptly. Maybe I deserved it, but I've gotten work with the same company since so I'm not sweating it.

BWW, arrived for dinner for myself only at 8pm and they can't get me the food and the bill in one hour!

Bear in mind I've never done one of these shops. What was the problem with the 8 pm shop? Based on your comment about it taking more than an hour, are you saying the assignment was to be completed by 9 and the MSC would not accept it even after you arrived an hour before the end time?

Yes, there is a time frame for these and the dinner shops end at 9pm. I received my receipt, after chasing down the waitress twice at 9:06pm.

Wow. To me allowing one hour at a place like that should be sufficient and you should not have been penalized for a crappy waitress.

I blamed the Manager for not having enough employees on duty, normally there are more employees than customers at that location. And by the time the food arrived it was pretty cold so I blamed the kitchen crew as well. Why they hire people who talk to each other more than they talk to the customers is beyond me. That's why they test the lunch hour speed program, although I haven't had luck with that either. It's usually an hour and 20 minutes. So now I know that I need to allow for an hour and a half and also really push for service.

I have 2 scores of 1. I take responsibility for both. The first one the customer service was horrible. The employees ignored me while they discussed their girls night out and who was not to be invited. I was slightly ticked. When I was finally acknowledged, the associate rolled her eyes as she was turning back to their personal discussion. I put off the report, hoping I would get a grip on my anger, but I was passive aggressive and sarcastic throughout the report. My fault and I deserved the cruddy score.

My second horrid score, I shopped the wrong area of the company. Again, my fault and I deserved the score.

I do not and will not understand schedulers that ignore compassion for medical and/or weather emergencies. Like ceasesmith, I live in the country. My routes take me through back country roads and sometimes there is no other way to get to locations when the weather hits. We have flood events where I live. 2 years ago, I couldn't get out of my driveway, didn't have electricity or internet for 4 days.

I wouldn't want to be a scheduler. They hear more excuses than Carter has pills. That said, there are great schedulers and MSC's who value dependable shoppers. Then again there are MSC's & schedulers that only seem to be interested in the 'wham bam thank you mam' approach.

I'm lucky and work with MSC's and schedulers that value their shoppers.

@spicy1 wrote:

Yes, there is a time frame for these and the dinner shops end at 9pm. I received my receipt, after chasing down the waitress twice at 9:06pm.

They should not fault you for not being able to get out of there by 9 pm in that case. If it is clearly your fault that the shop ran over the end of the window, that's another story, but I'm inclined to think that arriving at 8 pm means you did your part as a shopper.

I've been really sick with thyroid anti-immune disease and forgetful but I took a highly bonused shop 45 minutes from home and I KNOW you have to inquire about non-perishables during the shop. It says it over and over, plus I've done maybe 26 of these to date...well I asked for Eggs! Lost the shop and the bonus was my gas money for that daily route. Everything was scheduled around that ONE shop and I mess it up like that. I feel horrible. I apologized, offered my first born child, but no response. I really hope that this does not change my easy access to the good grocery stores. waah! This company does not make their scorings known to the shopper. Just says good job and thank you. You never know where you really stand. So, I am hoping for the best.

I managed to complete a shop while I was very sick. I took myself to ER then insisted to go home. I took the pain killer they gave me. I had a very bad reaction to it and I was back in the hospital, this time for 2 weeks. My son and the nurse at ICU had to contact the MSCs for the shops I could not do. One shop was even rescheduled and I managed to do it immediately after I came back from the hospital. I don't know how it affected my records but they were very nice about the 'flakes' as I am back doing more shops for them.

Oh, I remember I had a negative citation when I was new in the forum. It was a 'public citation' about having signed up under two emails. I discovered that the MSC was actually under different names and that they did ask for alternative emails. I have never signed up with anyone under two different emails and they were citing my alternative email.

I came to the Forum and of course many came out of the woodwork to accuse me of many things. I became more upset and stayed away for so long. I asked the MSC to remove me from their list but they did not and they offered me some shops which I liked. I am presently active in their list and somehow that citation did not seem to affect my record now that the company is under only one name.

I only remember one, I completed the shop on schedule but for some reason I thought the MSC allowed 24 hours to report. Nope. I woke up the next day, and grabbed coffee and went to start the report. The shop had been pulled. I emailed the scheduler, apologized and explained and she let me finish and pulled the flake citation. I always take responsibility and they always work with me. So far so good.

I got a "flake" because the shop was scheduled on a Sunday. When I arrived, the store was closed. I emailed my scheduler and let him know that The store was not open on Sundays, but somehow I was still able to schedule the shop. He asked if I would be able to do the shop in the next couple of days, to which I replied, "No, I can't. I'm sorry, I have to work during the times the store is open during the week." The next day I got a score of 1 and a "flake." sigh.

I got my one and only from Jancyn nearly a year ago. I had done about 30+ shops for them in a 6 month period leading up to it without a single problem. I missed a shop due to a busy week at work. I'm an attorney and had a trial scheduled on the day of my shop. I emailed the scheduler and asked to reschedule but was told it had to be done on the specific date. I apologized and was then barred from doing that shop type again. They also unregistered me from the other shops I had in the future. I have to admit I was surprised by the penalty since it was my first flake but I guess everyone is different. I emailed the scheduler to ask if it was because of the missed shop or if I did something wrong on a report and I received a passive aggressive response saying it was permanent bar on that client because I received multiple emails saying the deadline was fixed. They since made me eligible again but it was a bad experience so I politely turn them down.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/25/2017 10:42PM by hous.

@LeslieKay111 wrote:

I've been really sick with thyroid anti-immune disease and forgetful but I took a highly bonused shop 45 minutes from home and I KNOW you have to inquire about non-perishables during the shop. It says it over and over, plus I've done maybe 26 of these to date...well I asked for Eggs! Lost the shop and the bonus was my gas money for that daily route. Everything was scheduled around that ONE shop and I mess it up like that. I feel horrible. I apologized, offered my first born child, but no response. I really hope that this does not change my easy access to the good grocery stores. waah! This company does not make their scorings known to the shopper. Just says good job and thank you. You never know where you really stand. So, I am hoping for the best.

What?!?! They would not take your first born child? Loved that one!

We had a really bad snow storm a few weeks ago. I was scheduled to do a movie shop. I went outside and slipped on ice. I had a really nasty cut in my knee and a bruise on my leg. My ankle felt sprained but thankfully it wasn't.

I managed to get up and I went back home. Totally forgot to email the scheduler to cancel the shop. The following morning, I received an unpleasant email about the shop. I immediately responded to the scheduler and recalled the events from the night before and added I took some pain medicine that knocked me out.

The scheduler was unsympathetic and removed the shop from my shop log. I even offered to reschedule. I hadn't realized that I receive a score of 0 until I tried to self assign another assignment. I contacted the scheduler about my inability to self assign for a different shop and that's when I was informed that my previous shop received a zero, therefore I lost the ability to self assign shops due to my shopper rating.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/2017 02:32AM by eyelove2shop.

Wow, eyelove2shop, that is a true testament to how heartless this industry and certain schedulers/companies can really be. May karma be alive and well and when they need something the tables are turned.

I acknowledge that I should have contacted the scheduler and take full responsibility for not doing so.

However, I feel that particular scheduler was extremely heartless and I will never accept an assignment attached to their name. I didn't received any acknowledgment of my injury or concern for my well being. Smh