Say there's a shop you want, but don't want to do it at the given rate. You then ask for a bonus and get declined.

How many more times would you ask before giving up and/or before etiquette sort of requires you to give up. ??

**********EDIT**********
I don't mean ask again RIGHT AWAY! I meant if you saw the same shop offered some time later after the first time you get declined the bonus request.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/2018 03:42PM by shoptastic.

At least 17. Maybe 18. Depends on my mood

I wouldn't pursue it if they declined it. They will reach out to you if they reconsider what they are willing to pay.

"Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense." --Winston Churchill.

Admittedly I don't always have good sense and I am stubborn as a mule. I keep asking, and some years it works, some years it doesn't.

@Threemom wrote:

I wouldn't pursue it if they declined it. They will reach out to you if they reconsider what they are willing to pay.

Sorry, 3m. I might have been unclear. I didn't mean ask for the bonus again right away in case that's what you were thinking. I meant, say.....it's been a month or several months since you last saw the job posting.

Not being one who begs, if they want to bonus me, I'll ask once, then let them come back if job's not done.
Once the job is done, no need to ask...I must add.....bonused jobs here are all in an area I won't go, and if you think 3.00 a good bonus, it's yours.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/2018 04:08PM by Irene_L.A..

I don't give up if I want something. At some point, it becomes a matter of who wants it more. I pay attention to those desperate emails claiming no reasonable offer will be refused. If they're still avail the NEXT day, I'll offer to do the shop, but my unreasonable offer would be: $___ And, every shop is different. Find your magic $ number and keep trying.

Back when Intelli first got that awful pizza client, I was able to finagle $20 bonuses pretty regularly, sometimes up to $25. Then I got a new scheduler. She won't go higher than $8. I won't do them. Occasionally I get an email from her stating that I had done such and such location in the past and she was wondering if I could help out blah blah blah. I email back asking for $20, pointing out that I have never done them for less and won't. She emails back with a counter offer, sometimes $10-$13, that I won't accept. This has been going on for a couple of years, about once a month, sometimes more often. Hey, if she is addressing me by name in an email and asking me to do the shop, I am going to reply with my firm amount and not budge. I can't stand that pizza and will only do it for a reasonable profit. Screw that reimbursement only for chewy cardboard and bland sauce with not enough cheese or toppings.

I have pretty much the exact same experience. I won't eat the pizza and give it away to friends so I just don't count that for my pay. I get the emails addressed to me by name and I sometimes reply stating what I will do them for. I don't think they get read since I get the exact same email the next month.
I have to disagree with you about the cheese though. I think there is too much of that rubbery nasty stuff.

@JASFLALMT wrote:

Back when Intelli first got that awful pizza client, I was able to finagle $20 bonuses pretty regularly, sometimes up to $25. Then I got a new scheduler. She won't go higher than $8. I won't do them. Occasionally I get an email from her stating that I had done such and such location in the past and she was wondering if I could help out blah blah blah. I email back asking for $20, pointing out that I have never done them for less and won't. She emails back with a counter offer, sometimes $10-$13, that I won't accept. This has been going on for a couple of years, about once a month, sometimes more often. Hey, if she is addressing me by name in an email and asking me to do the shop, I am going to reply with my firm amount and not budge. I can't stand that pizza and will only do it for a reasonable profit. Screw that reimbursement only for chewy cardboard and bland sauce with not enough cheese or toppings.

I think it varies from location to location (I don't think, I know). There are 2 stores out of about 20 in my area that make a decent pie. I don't know why they are edible and the others are not.

Too bad the Papa John's haters don't live near me. People take them at the $5 or Reimbursement Only rate this year.

The good ole days of $25-30 bonuses are gone, gone, gone. If people only waited.

They must love them some PJ's pizza!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/2018 07:39PM by shoptastic.

@bgriffin wrote:

At least 17. Maybe 18. Depends on my mood

Really? I can no longer tell if you're serious or not. For the sake of newbies, please clarify.

@bgriffin wrote:

At least 17. Maybe 18. Depends on my mood

I see you deal with Maritz too.

I might ask once, but if it's still on the board a day later, I'll ask again. And again, and again, until the job disappears.

Hey, it might be 30 times. Or once.

@shoptastic wrote:

@bgriffin wrote:

At least 17. Maybe 18. Depends on my mood

Really? I can no longer tell if you're serious or not. For the sake of newbies, please clarify.

I just get a message (first name) asking to do a restaurant 30 miles RT, so I ask for a little pad, and get another email, they don't have it now..then, I don't have gas, it's 3.99 per gallon.

@shoptastic wrote:

@bgriffin wrote:

At least 17. Maybe 18. Depends on my mood

Really? I can no longer tell if you're serious or not. For the sake of newbies, please clarify.

Ok. I'm not trying to be mean, but you obviously have no understanding of sarcasm so I'm going to give you a few hints how to figure it out.

First of all, I do this full time, and that requires good relationships with my clients. Now think about it like this. If you were a scheduler and the same guy emailed you 17 times asking for the same bonus on the same shop, would that annoy the living bejesus out of you? Yeah, thought so. Not a very good way to create a good relationship.

Second of all, 17 is a large and specific number. Ok, not in the relative scheme of things because there's an infinite number of larger numbers and only 16 smaller ones. But you get what I mean. Perhaps if I had used 4, a number that would be much more plausible, then there may be some reason to believe I was that specific for a reason. But 17? That's a number that is both specific, and not very believable.

Third, and most importantly, I was the person that typed it. A significant portion of what I type here is sarcasm. It's really easy to spot.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/2018 10:28PM by bgriffin.

I don't think etiquette has a bearing as asking for a bonus is a negotiation between two parties, one who wants to maximize and the other who wants to minimize. Once I have determined how much is needed to complete the negotiation and get turned down I have no hesitation to re-submit my offer if the shop remains on the board and my circumstances have not changed. In fact, my offer may increase as the end of the month and/or quarter approaches. However, I must admit I have never re-submitted 17 or 18 times although I think bg was humorously saying the same thing as I just did.

Yeah, he can be annoying in the forum (and probably with his friends and family) but not on a professional level with his customers (MSCs). Now me, on the other hand, can and will be annoying with both (JK).

On a serious note, the only reason I email a reply to that scheduler at Intelli-shop every month is because she continuously emails me first, addressing me by name with specific location address(es) listed, and offering an unreasonably low fee for a shop not many people like to do. If she would stop emailing me offering $8, I would quit counter-offering with $20.

Over the course of a 2 year span, it probably wouldn't bother a scheduler much to get a total of 17 emails asking for a bonus. In the course of 2 days, yikes!

@JASFLALMT wrote:

(and probably with his friends and family)

I'm seriously not sure how they even put up with me.
My mom tells me daily someone should beat me.

It's too late. Should have had regular beatings when you were a little brat and then you might be less obnoxious. Someone must have thought you were cute (insert eye roll).

I did get regular beatings.
And I am cute.

Market force calls me 3x/week and always calls at bad times. They offer $6.00 plus reimbursement. I tell them I heard $24.00. We go back and forth until we setlle on 18.00

@bgriffin wrote:

@shoptastic wrote:

@bgriffin wrote:

At least 17. Maybe 18. Depends on my mood

Really? I can no longer tell if you're serious or not. For the sake of newbies, please clarify.

Ok. I'm not trying to be mean, but you obviously have no understanding of sarcasm so I'm going to give you a few hints how to figure it out.

First of all, I do this full time, and that requires good relationships with my clients. Now think about it like this. If you were a scheduler and the same guy emailed you 17 times asking for the same bonus on the same shop, would that annoy the living bejesus out of you? Yeah, thought so. Not a very good way to create a good relationship.

Second of all, 17 is a large and specific number. Ok, not in the relative scheme of things because there's an infinite number of larger numbers and only 16 smaller ones. But you get what I mean. Perhaps if I had used 4, a number that would be much more plausible, then there may be some reason to believe I was that specific for a reason. But 17? That's a number that is both specific, and not very believable.

Third, and most importantly, I was the person that typed it. A significant portion of what I type here is sarcasm. It's really easy to spot.

Yeah, I don't think it's unreasonable given a certain length of time.

Let's say you see a bank account opening shop once a month for $80 (I do). You want it for $100. The job sits on the board. No one seems to take it and it's the same price. I don't think it would be unreasonable to offer a scheduler $100 for the shop every two to three months and remind them that you'd like to help, but that given the gas mileage, time, and work amount, you'd need $100 to do it. Over 4 years, I can see someone using up their 17-18 tries.

As for "annoyance," I was thinking that if schedulers can send you the SAME $2 shops each month asking for "help", while denying you a bonus each time, then I don't see why we can't do the same. Why is it only acceptable one way? They want me to work for pennies and keep asking? Why can't I ask for a desirable wage over and over just as they do? ...That's all in theory.

Of course, I wouldn't email someone 10+ times a year asking for the same bonus for the same shop after it's been denied that many times. But...4x/year? I think that'd be reasonable if you worded one worded it in a friendly and tactful way. As in reminding the scheduler of the work involved, time commitment, and expenses incurred for the shop and then offering to help if an agreed upon amount can be had.

I have never seen a shop that stayed on a board for a whole year. Perhaps you are looking at different shops. The shops I generally see stay there for a month or 3 months (depending).

As for the $2 bonus emails. A those are generally automated even if they have your name on them and B if a $2 bonus is considered decent even by the MSC it's not a shop I am likely interested in to begin with so I probably ignore those emails.

I HAVE seen shops stay on a board for over a year.

I did e-mail/call every month, offering to do it for, I think $400 or $450.

Finally got it after 15 months. At what I asked for.

Enjoyed my visit in Jackson Hole, WY!

In most businesses it is acceptable for the client to annoy their vendor. If the vendor annoys the client the vendor no longer has a client.

Bgriffin answered the actual question in the subject line. You asked specifically how many times someone would ask for the same bonus. He also responded before you edited your OP to clarify you were asking about seeing the same job sitting in following months.

If I responded to a blast email with my offer and didn't hear back, I wouldn't bother making the same offer again. If they contact me directly at some later date, I will either reiterate my original offer or more often, request a higher rate. It would likely be higher because if I am responding to blast bonus email I am trying to add to an existing route.

You think if I ask for an even higher amount from that IS scheduler when she insults me by offering me an $8 fee that she might stop emailing me or will negotiate to the amount I want?

Nah...probably not.

Uh-oh. I'm part of the problem with those icky pizza shops from Intelli.

I have 3 teenagers. I do the shop the max per month (twice). I even do the carry out at the shop across town. ESPECIALLY during soccer season.

But. I rarely do it for less than an $8 fee above reimbursement. Although I do have to admit, one night last week after soccer games and exhaustion, I just did it on the spot ($5)...saw it, self assigned, and left the game for home to be there when it was delivered...just to tide the kids over til better food could be prepared.

Crock pots are my friend, too, just saying