Am I the only one that hates applying for shops? It drives me nuts to apply for them then have to wait to see if I get them. Sometimes, the deadline is the day before the shops are assigned and well, I like to plan ahead. Montreal's a big city and I like to plan routes so that my days are as productive as can be.

2 nights ago, I applied for 12 shops. Some were downtown, others in the North end of the city and others on the South Shore. I selected them because I could make 3 routes out of them. Wouldn't ya know it, the scheduler assigned me 1 lousy shop in each of the areas! Grrrr!

After X number of shops, why can't we be allowed to self-assign? I understand having to prove ourselves as not being flakes or illiterate before having shops assigned but after 25+ shops all rated 9 or 10, you'd think that would be proof enough, no?

Please,let us self-assign! It would make all of our ~ and yours, Mr & Mrs Scheduler ~ lives easier if we could just assign the shops we want.

I canceled the shops. Let some other sucker run all over town and across the bridges for less than $50. Unfortunately, there's not much work in my area this month so this really stings

I've always felt the same way. Proven shoppers should be permitted to self-assign. If shopper redundancy is an issue, enforce rotation.

MtlShopper, is there much competition in your neck of the woods? I assume the US based companies also have shops in Canada, as I know the reverse to be true. I know Coyle sometimes has bar and/or hotel shops in Montreal. There are always shops that go begging in New York and Boston, sometimes heavily bonused as the end of the month approaches. Maybe a road trip is in order.

I agree with you somewhat, but only somewhat. As an experienced shopper, I know I am more likely to be assigned work even if I was a little late to the party getting in my request. I know that in my area there are enough other shoppers who have completed X number of shops, so self assigning is allowed. Applications mean that if I am out for the day doing shops and come home to find things posted in my absence, they weren't necessarily grabbed by someone sitting in their day job who does 5 shops a month or shoppers who can't yet get enough work to get them out of the house. I know that may sound snotty, but it is a reality. And yes, I feel that companies should assign shops to new shoppers on a regular basis and allow at least some shops to be self-assigned. The shopper turnover in this business requires it in order to have at least a somewhat experienced workforce. But application means I am on a level playing field for selection with folks with the same level of experience with a particular company, whether I was out doing shops, working a 9-5 job, had computer problems or just was getting on with life when the job posted.

On the other hand I am annoyed when jobs are held open too long. There are companies who I suspect leave jobs "pending" just in case their assigned shopper cancels. Whenever I request a job I block it into my spreadsheet for the date and time and highlight it so I know it was not assigned. If something else comes along for that time frame or that would send me in another direction, I have no qualms about going in and cancelling my request. If the due date is approaching quickly and I have heard nothing and the job is still 'pending' on the website, I cancel the thing. Thus no nasty surprises of getting home at 3PM to discover suddenly I have been assigned a job I COULD have done while I was in the area but that was assigned to me after I left the house. I find it interesting because when I do cancel jobs after a couple of days in 'pending' status, the response is frequently a whole lot faster in the future when I put in applications.

If you have instances where you want to do an all or none, contact the scheduler! It may seem kind of crazy, but it really does make things happen. Immediately after you apply for the group of shops, contact the scheduler and explain that you would love to help him or her out, but explain that it's not really worth your time if you just do a few shops.

I had an instance just last week where there were two shops that a scheduler really wanted done, but they were really far away from anything, so therefore they had bonuses. For the distance I would have to drive, the bonus would have only covered gas, so I emailed the scheduler and told her that I would be happy to do both the shops for her, but only if the bonus on each was increased by $20 and explained the reason why. Of course she wasn't able to authorize that kind of money, but she contacted the client, and sure enough, not only did I get the extra bonus, but they were extremely grateful that I volunteered.

This story may not seem relevant to your situation, but the point I'm trying to make is that if you ask, there's a greater chance of it happening than if you don't!

As someone who used to schedule shops that have a lot of editorial, I can you a few reasons why it takes a while to schedule them:

1. The scheduler is often trying to balance the workload to the editorial team over the month and wants to place the 'hard-to-schedule' shops first, then fill in the blanks.

2. As Flash alluded to, you want to give the favored shoppers an opportunity to get their requests in.

3. Sometimes changes are being made to the instructions or shop form and it can't be assigned until it's finalized.

I don't know how the companies that offer 100% self scheduling deal with it, but if I had allowed that, my editors would have sat on their hands one week and been asked to work 80 hours another week. If you keep your editorial staff on as employees or are a small company, that just won't fly.

In this particular instance, these shops were being scheduled by a scheduling company. These shops are on cycle 2, meaning they started being shopped last month. I shopped 16 of them last month and don't know if/how anyone else did as many. All my shops were graded 10. Yet, when it came time for the assignments to be doled out, I could see them coming in my email - 1 accepted, 6 given to someone else, 1 accepted, 3 given to someone else, etc... How does one become a "favored" shopper? I believe I fulfilled the requirements yet there are others given preference over me. The due dates for all these shops is tomorrow so I doubt it's a question of keeping the schedulers' work balanced.

Same thing happened for gas shops a few weeks ago. I applied to 6 gas shops that I could have done in 1 route. Instead, I'm assigned 1 shop as far from my home as could be.

I think the schedulers don't know the city and they give out assignments without thought or care as to where the shops are located in relation to the shopper. They don't care that I have to drive 25 km back and forth for 1 shop with very low pay.

Competition is fierce in Montreal. There are a few of us who do this full-time. I have a feeling that there are more and more part-timers getting in on the action as well.

Don't mind applying for shops but I DO mind companies that notify you VERY close to the date that you got/didn't get the shop, or simply don't bother to notify at all. If it gets too close to the date and I have something else to do, I delete the application.

Steve, thanks for providing some insight from the perspective of a former scheduler.

I've found the self scheulers also have better shops and better software.
Except the CFA (MFI PURPLE) who have worse than SASSIE software!

MtlShopper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In this particular instance, these shops were
> being scheduled by a scheduling company. These
> shops are on cycle 2, meaning they started being
> shopped last month. I shopped 16 of them last
> month and don't know if/how anyone else did as
> many. All my shops were graded 10. Yet, when it
> came time for the assignments to be doled out, I
> could see them coming in my email - 1 accepted, 6
> given to someone else, 1 accepted, 3 given to
> someone else, etc... How does one become a
> "favored" shopper? I believe I fulfilled the
> requirements yet there are others given preference
> over me. The due dates for all these shops is
> tomorrow so I doubt it's a question of keeping the
> schedulers' work balanced.

Being a 'favored' shopper does not guarantee every shop is assigned to them. Every work force has attrition and must continually bring in and use new blood. The point is that application gives everyone a chance to express interest.
>
> Same thing happened for gas shops a few weeks ago.
> I applied to 6 gas shops that I could have done
> in 1 route. Instead, I'm assigned 1 shop as far
> from my home as could be.
>
> I think the schedulers don't know the city and
> they give out assignments without thought or care
> as to where the shops are located in relation to
> the shopper. They don't care that I have to drive
> 25 km back and forth for 1 shop with very low
> pay.

Obviously, schedulers can't be expected to know every city and which shopper lives one block away or ten miles away from the location. Nor, are they mind readers. If I apply for ten shops over three days because I can work them into a route, I have to ask the scheduler for route assistance. But then, other shoppers may have a different combination of what works into their schedule or route. I imagine it's a balancing act for schedulers, as it is for shoppers.

Mert, I think you may have missed my point. Perhaps you're correct and the schedulers should not be expected to know the cities they service. However, they always know exactly how many miles I must travel to reach a shop because that's how they calculate if/when a gas bonus is offered. So, they may not actually know the city but they sure can use Google Maps like the rest of us. Or, like Trendsource, they may even have a map with little flags of all their available shops and *could* assign shops close together to the same shopper. But, I understand that this may be too much work and take valuable time.

In this case, shops were not applied to over 3 days as the example you state in your post. I applied for the all the shops over a 5 minute period, seconds after receiving the email that the shops were available. I now know that I could have written a note to the scheduler when I applied, asking for the shops to be given to me together. I did not know I could do that before reading this thread. Again, you guys are a goldmine of information!

Anyhow, I applied for 8 more this morning and made sure I took them in my area in case I only get 1 or 2.

I still don't like having to wait to see if I got the shops. Thanks to you guys, at least I have a bit more insight on why it's done. Doesn't mean I have to like it

I never mind applying on my own, except for Shoppers Critique who takes a lifetime to schedule. There are a few companies that send me jobs within my 30 mile zip...I appreciate that, then the others that send emails for airports, etc., all over the county, they need to get their act together. For the most part it takes a couple days to get assigned. Being a 10 shopper helps the process, I bet a dinner on that

I hate waiting for days to know. I also hate applying for several in the same general area and only being assigned one of those.

Carol

I abhorrence coming up for days to know. I also detestation apply for several in the same wide-ranging area and only organism assigned one of those.

Pasty, you truly have a colorful vocabulary.

Um, in reading the forum this morning, methinks Pasty has too much time on his/her hands!

I apply as well as self assign. I much prefer to self assign. If I apply for a "block" of shops, I always write to the scheduler to let them know I must have the block in that area or none at all. I either get them all or none, and that's just fine. At least I didn't set myself to drive for one shop and make no money that day. I also will go and cancel my applications if not responded to in a timely enough manner. If I can pin down a block, especially during a "slow time" and then add gas and dinner, I have my most productive days.