Twice I have applied for a hamburger and custard shop. The first time I only signed up for one location and I got an email about a week later saying the shop had been filled. I took advice that I read on this forum the second time around and I signed up for the first available date. I also signed up for 2 locations. A week has passed and today I got the email for each of them saying the assignment went to another shopper. So, what can I do next time to make my chances better?

If you're talking about the one I think you are, I don't know what to suggest. I've always gotten all the ones I've applied for even the first time I applied. Perhaps you have a lot of shoppers in your area that love doing this shop so you have to keep trying.

Have you tried emailing the scheduler and, I dunno, asking for the shop?

I didn't get it the first two months I saw it, either. More than likely because I do very few shops for that company and someone they were more comfortable with applied. Got one last month, and while the custard was good the rest of the food was not something I'd want to eat again even getting paid. Won't be applying again.

I didn't know you could do that.

You can do anything you want to.

@bgriffin wrote:

You can do anything you want to.

I want to leap tall buildings in a single bound.

It's the scheduler. They absolutely have their favorites. Find out what other shops the scheduler needs to schedule and sign up for those also until the scheduler starts to recognize your name as someone they can count on. You could call them. But, will they answer? I agree about the food. There's too much bread. The pickles are the best. I don't like shoestrings either. The dessert, I could take a bath in, it's so great.

@ShopGuy9 wrote:

I didn't get it the first two months I saw it, either. More than likely because I do very few shops for that company and someone they were more comfortable with applied. Got one last month, and while the custard was good the rest of the food was not something I'd want to eat again even getting paid. Won't be applying again.

It would be great if it was custard ONLY because that was the best part of the shop. Before this MSC another MSC had the client and they did drive thru so I would always give the "unique" burger and shoestring fries away and keep the custard.

@bgriffin suggests that you can "Do anything you want to"
This hits the nail on the head.

Mystery shopping is pure capitalism. You set your own goals and you go out and reach them. If you want shops, you need to go get them. I ask. I send schedulers emails, etc. As an example: I was offered a route of video shops last week in the San Francisco Bay Area. They were very nicely bonused - more than anything I've every seen from this MSC.. However, when I ran the numbers, I would be on the road for three days and two nights - and break even, if nothing went sideways. I could have rejected the route. I could have done it anyhow to curry favor. Or, I could take door #3: I contacted schedulers, made a post online, and directly emailed folks who I though might have a need in the area. I was offered far more work than I could handle. I added two more days to the trip and will go home with a tidy profit. And, better, I have made good contact with three new MSC's that offer the type of work I do.

Schedulers Favorites:
I am convinced that schedulers choose their favorites based on:
* Is the shopper pleasant?
* Is the shopper super-reliable?
* Does the shopper do good work?
* Do I have personal experience with the shopper?
* Will the shopper likely do the work that I have to offer?

Schedulers just want to make money, too. Once they know you based on the above, you will be a favorite. Yes, it can take time to establish yourself.

I know the shop you’re talking about. Out of the 20 or so times I’ve applied, I’ve been assigned maybe 4 times. I’m a seasoned shopper with 8 years of experience and work with over 100 msc. I just assume that these schedulers have favorites.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/05/2018 02:21PM by DareWright.

You can have all of the shops that you want the last time I have done the shop was several years ago and I wound up sicker than a dog because of it.

Why do they have 6 people, all of them unskilled in customer service and general life-skills etc. working there when they could have two dynamos who hit all of the marks and assist in attracting return visits? Mine were avoiding eye contact, various colors of the rainbow for hair, a ginormous nose ring, talking about some chick that 'got pregnant', showing how he was going to beat up the homeless man that bugs customers etc. The insincerity and perfunctory service is boring already. I'd like to cuss as adjectives when writing all of that DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS!!! narrative,I really would lol.

These shops fly off the board where I live. Emailing the scheduler would be futile. Shops would be long gone. My only suggestion would be to keep an eye out for the date they're posted, and be poised at your computer the next go around.

Last one I did - After I received my order, I went to get a condiment. Returned to my table, and my order was gone! Table had been bussed.

They did that to us at the Village Inn last weekend. They remade the food for us but it sure did mess up the timing. We had taken a couple of bites of our food once we took the pics and went to the restroom at the same time.

A certain msc will ok a job for me the day of. I don't work like that, so i will email back it's not enough advance warming.

It's interesting to me that I can self-assign the shops on most companies that use the sassie system. Then, when I'm rotated out, or for what ever reason, it goes to the apply status. They must have a switch, maybe it's an automatic switch included in the software. Here's hoping that scheduling company goes to that type of system. I would imagine that having a human being having to look at every single shop to grant it to someone would be cumbersome and expensive and biased. Edited to add biased. But then, that may be why that scheduling company pays a fee that wouldn't buy me a coffee and treat at Starbucks.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/06/2018 04:00AM by JerseyGirlShopper.