This train of events is so unlikely, you might not believe it. I know the schedulers involved don't believe it!

I accepted a route of 3 big box stores for an MSC, plus one "competitor" shop with the same MSC but different store.

I was on my way Thursday to do the first big box store, and the competitor shop. They're 100 miles from home.

Halfway there, I got stopped for road construction. As other route shoppers well know, you don't waste time on routes -- so I whipped out my phone and checked my e-mail.

There's an e-mail from a scheduler -- to the tune of "I made a mistake and scheduled you for these shops, and the client insists only one shop per shopper" type of thing. Continued that I could go ahead and do the competitor shop.

Well, no, I can't. I'm not driving 200 miles for one shop! So I hung a u-turn and went back home.

Now, the e-mail mentioned the big box store by name, and the competitor's store by name, too. So I immediately reached the conclusion that the e-mail was from a scheduler I just didn't know; the e-mail said he'd just been assigned to help on the project, so I figured he was new-to-me.

So I get home, and internet is out. Well, the shops were cancelled, right? So no urgency.
Nothing I can do when the internet's out.

So this morning, internet's back up OK. Check my e-mail. Wait a minute -- why am I getting a slew of e-mails that my big box shops are late? Weren't they cancelled, because a shopper can only do one, and I did it last month, so I can't do any more?

Holy Cow. Here's the confluence of coincidence that is basically unbelievable:

The scheduler who mentioned the big box store by name, and the competitor by name, was working for an entirely different MSC! My big box store shops are ALL already past due. The fact that he mentioned scheduling me for 3 -- another unbelievable coincidence.

I would have to compute the chances of this happening are somewhat less than....a snowball lasting long in Hades? Somewhere between "zil" and "none"?

Since it's a twelve hour round trip drive to do the shops on a route, there's no way I can shoehorn them into my schedule. Just can't. Booked solid.

So I've apologized to everybody, sent many e-mails, asked them to tell me how I can make it good -- but it's the weekend, and I don't expect replies.

My name is MUDD!!!!

Don't know how I'll ever get this mess straightened out.

Ah, the life of a mystery shopper!!!

Could I interest you in the purchase af an acid red mountain bike ?

Ummmm....er....

I think it's fine. You were caught in a tough spot and had to make a judgement call. Better than going all that way, doing the shops, and finding out they wouldn't be reimbursed!

Why did the scheduler for MSC 2 contact you at all? Is it possibile they had subcontracted MSC 1, and indeed have the authority to cancel them, but are unable to access MSC 1's website to take them off your list?

O.M.G. Talk about a perfect storm.... I'm sure it will be OK; you're too good a shopper for the MSC to give you a citation or however they slap people's hands. But I'm wondering, too, why scheduler #2 would have contacted you. If I'm understanding this correctly (and I might not be), all 4 shops were for the same MSC. So of course you'd assume that it was these shops he was e-mailing you about.

I think your original assumption was probably right and that there's been some kind of snafu on the part of the MSC. Maybe this new-to-you scheduler didn't have his facts straight before e-mailing you while you were on the road. But what a bizarre situation! I'd have done exactly the same thing you did....

I love your handle -- this entire thing is, indeed, a mystery to me, too!

I had applied for shops with the other MSC -- but no names were mentioned, just "retail". The jobs were still on the job board, I hadn't been assigned them, hadn't accepted them, hadn't confirmed them; they were, in fact, assigned to me after they were already due!. So the scheduler was writing about them.

Just an amazing confluence of coincidence that the big box stores for MSC #2 are the same stores I knew I had shops for with MSC #1. Another thing was him mentioning the other store by name. And that he said "3 shops", as MSC #1 had given me 3 shops!

I just don't know how I'll make it right with MSC #1. All my shops are way past due now, and no one has answered e-mails or calls. I know they won't until Monday.

Oy vay.

I am responsible for my decision to turn around and go home. Seemed extremely reasonable at the time!

I screwed up June big time -- my car broke down, took 3 weeks to get it back. I rescheduled and rescheduled and rescheduled, but after I got my car back and hit the road, got caught up in the horrid storms and only got 11 of 17 shops done. Then, when I started on my reports, the storms knocked out internet for 36 hours, and the shops were taken from me. I mean the entire TOWN had no internet -- you couldn't get gas, use a charge card, mail anything, or use the computers at the library.

I have so many black marks against me now that schedulers with some MSCs won't call me back.

I just don't know if this string of me screwing up is....well, don't know if I'll recover from it or not.

I'm hopeful that all will be okay for you, cease. Crossing my fingers that you come through this "bad spell" just fine and sending good wishes your way.

Thanks so much! It is, indeed, a perfect storm!

Like the one howling through the trees outside my windows right this minute!

It sure was the "perfect storm." Unbelievable, but it happened. I, too, hope that this proves a minor blip on the big radar screen. Any reasonable person could see how this, as crazy and coincidental as it was, would have messed up your entire schedule.

I, too, am hoping all will turn out OK for you, Cease. Hoping you will have understanding schedulers!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/29/2018 01:50AM by guysmom.

Oops.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/29/2018 02:07PM by STex.

smh....wow. I feel for ya!

Sorry to hear about your shops! I would think, since you are a great plus to these MSC's the schedules or MSC will speak with you and fix anything that needs to be done on your behalf. I would think you would go above the schedulers.

It sounds to me like the universe is trying to tell you something. A long year of coincidental events and heart breaking interactions once hit me and sent me flying in a new direction that turned out to be the best 5 years of my life to date. Stop a moment and take a breath. Listen to your heart. Move forward.

UPDATE: MSC#1 pushed the due date of my shops to late this week.

Awesome scheduler!

I will be able to complete all the shops that I knew were assigned to me.

MSC#2 removed all the shops they had assigned me, without penalty to me.

YAY, Cease!! Good to hear that everything turned out OK, and without any sort of penalties by any MSC!! Thanks for updating!!

Great news! Good to see that some MSCs recognize and appreciate a good shopper and are willing to accommodate.

Good luck with the shops (and don't check your e-mail on the way to do them -- LOL!)