Just had to rant a bit about those schedulers and editors who can't seem to understand plain English. You know, the ones who ask for an explanation of a response, for which you have already provided a lengthy discussion. Or the ones who can't seem to answer a direct question with anything but a non-sequitur. Or the ones who seem to completely miss your notes about an unusual event, then "ding" your score because they "had to contact you."

I have a regular monthly audit of a company's app. The client recently added an app feature which seemed like an obvious candidate for a new variation of the audit (there are 3 versions already). I asked my scheduler if there would be a new version for the new feature soon, and she replied that "audits are posted in the order received."

Thinking perhaps she misunderstood my intent, I replied that I was looking for a yes/no/not sure kind of response. Since we are limited to one audit per month, if a new version was about to be released I preferred to wait for it. She replied that "yes, you are limited to one audit per month for this client."

I have given up at this point, as evidently my minor in English is insufficient for everyday communication. Thankfully this wasn't an attempt to clarify contradictory instructions. Last time I had that question, her response was, "Follow the instructions."

I can sympathize. I had similiar answers fron a msc support person and i decided to take a brake from the msc for those kinds of shops. They gave a general answer like yours when i asked a specific question about the shop instructions. And some of the shop instructions were contradictory.

Sigh... This is one of my biggest pet peeves about this industry. Schedulers who don't read and respond appropriately to messages (perhaps in too much of a hurry because they're overloaded?) and editors who can't read. If you write a narrative in a way that makes logical and chronological sense but doesn't exactly follow the order of the questions on the survey, they think you haven't answered the question. Then there are those editors who don't know proper grammar and mark us down for correct usages.

Yeah, I recently explained to a scheduler how one job for a parking lot shop I signed up for was not covered in the guidelines. The description said I needed to offer a bribe to the lot attendant, but the guidelines had nothing about it...only other scenarios. It was also stated that it was a free lot, so I couldn't get a receipt, but the worksheet had all sorts of stuff about a receipt. So I email the scheduler, and he responds with cut and paste text from the guidelines and saying "did you see this part?". None of that addressed my questions. After several days of back and forth with what seemed like a toddler, I finally got my questions answered when I was referred to a supervisor. On shop day, I was running late with other shops and I was not able to make the window for the parking lot. I didn't feel bad for the way they responded to my questions. Of course the next day the shop is back up there for 4x the fee I agreed to. If they can't answer basic questions, I'm not going to give a lot of effort either.
I got an email from the scheduler scolding me for not doing it. Screw that. That's what you get. I'm only putting the same effort as the scheduler gave me.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/2018 02:16PM by quovatis.

I say the schedulers should try these shops on their own with their own instructions and see what it's like before they put it out to the rest of the world.

@7star wrote:

I say the schedulers should try these shops on their own with their own instructions and see what it's like before they put it out to the rest of the world.

Well, yes, the schedulers, so that they can answer questions. But the people who really compose the guidelines and surveys should have to do the shops. Not their own, though, because they know what they mean (I assume they do, anyway), but they should perform shops written by others in their companies. Of course, if the same person writes all the shops for one company, that wouldn't work. But if they could perform their own shops after some time away from writing them, that might help.

@7star wrote:

I say the schedulers should try these shops on their own with their own instructions and see what it's like before they put it out to the rest of the world.

HSBrands does this for some of their better shops. It's a great idea.

I once had a scheduler e-mail me that she didn't have time to answer my questions.

I e-mailed her back, OK, that's fine -- I don't have time to do your shops. Please remove them from my shop log.

I have never done another shop for her; in fact, I think I have never done another shop for that company.

I signed up to do a big box store shop, then literally walk across the street and do a "competitor" shop for the same MSC in a competing big box store. Instead of rewriting the guidelines, they just changed the company name (from ABC to XYZ Store) every place it was mentioned in the guidelines.

Virtually made the competitor shop impossible to complete. For example, it stated you had to get business cards -- XYZ doesn't provide ANY employees with business cards. The guidelines said to go to specific areas in the stores for specific actions -- and XYZ store doesn't HAVE those areas AT ALL.

And SHE didn't have time to answer my questions? LOL!!!!