I've been a shopper for 22 years, and have done about 5,000 shops for the client who shops BP. This round I have had the toughest time with the editors placing holds on my shops, and was wondering if others have experienced the same. The nitpickyness (yeah, I made that word up) has gotten out of hand. The guidelines say this isn't a white glove audit, so as a rule of thumb I try not to count off if there is only minor dirt on a canopy, for example. Lately, it seems like multiple editors are looking at the shops. I had one returned to me today where an infraction I did not list was added, and then the editor said I needed a unique photo of the infraction. The thing is, the average customer would not have even noticed any dirt as it was so minor. Evidently one editor re-used one of my photos to show the infraction, and then a second editor said I couldn't use duplicate photos. This is but one example: nearly every BP I have shopped (this route is 138 stores) has been returned for clarification. In nearly a quarter of the holds, it is an obvious mistake by an editor and I have to email the company to point out the error because the comments field has been disabled.
Am I taking this personally? The shop only pays $10, and I feel I am giving more than 3x that in effort. By the way, I've been doing these specific shops for 10 years, so it isn't a new client. It's the editor's making requests that are often outside the scope of the requirements that are annoying me. Most likely I won't be taking another round next year. They've taken the joy out of it for me.
Shopping since 1995; full-time since 2009. Blogging about shopping on www.myfrugalmiser.com.