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More About Cancelling Assignments

I have two home depot shops. One at the end of the month and one in early April. Unless things improve substantially, I will be canceling both of them. My health is more important.

Can I ask, what is the average pay for these shops?

$50

When I saw how much you had to spend for the purchase part of different items that had to be returned, I decided to pass, virus or no virus.

@JASFLALMT wrote:

When I saw how much you had to spend for the purchase part of different items that had to be returned, I decided to pass, virus or no virus.

I don't see a problem with the amount of purchase. Purchase with credit card, and you credit it back to your account 10 minutes later. With such a short time between purchase and return, my account was credited the same day.

It's going to take a lot longer to do the return in some areas. My husband went to Home Depot today to get furnace filters and a few other things. Parking lot was full, store was jammed, lines were long at customer service and the registers. Not to mention that you have to visit various departments to make several purchases. Not quick and easy by any means.

My brothers and I were talking last weekend about how busy Home Depot, Lowe's, etc will be during this. Stuck at home and no sports to watch means a lot of guys (and girls!) will be doing projects around the house.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

The Home Depot in my neighborhood is limiting the number of customers who can enter and a huge line had formed to get in. Not a shop I would consider especially now.

*****************************************************************************
The more I learn about people...the more I like my dog..

Mark Twain

I cancelled one shop, but that's the only one I cancelled. I had two nicely bonused bank shops cancelled this week, a Skechers shop cancelled last week, and a Lidl grocery shop for early next week cancelled. So the only shops I've done in the past week were a dine-in shop before all the restaurants here were shut down except for take-out and delivery, a post office, and a cell-phone shop. The PO shop was the highest-paying PO shop I've ever done-bonused way up there! Just one other person in the lobby; no worries about social distancing.

I'm sure glad I have a big freelance writing/editing project right now....

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

@Insight wrote:

I have two home depot shops. One at the end of the month and one in early April. Unless things improve substantially, I will be canceling both of them. My health is more important.

I know what you mean. I have three next week. I was going to do them the same day, and I was really was looking forward to that $150. However, I decided at this juncture I would be doing exactly what I should not be doing. I called the MSC and left a message. Basically, I requested a change of date to the end of April. Otherwise, no can do. I hope to get a positive response soon.

It has now been a week since I've done a shop. And since I was having a "wait and see" moment when things came unglued I didn't actually have anything cancelled out from under me OR have to proactively cancel anything. I got very lucky on my timing.

I am still checking all the postings but just every few days. If the right thing came along I would pick it up but I'm not sure what that would look like exactly. I'm content to lay low for a while. Not sure what this will mean financially in a month or two but that's another day's trouble. Right now the pantry and the freezer are both full and we're dusting off board games.

I am willing to complete three scheduled assignments next month and to add a few others if they become available. I am fine with the possibility that the gigs will disappear or not materialize between now and then. Since I am a low-volume shopper, this has little impact. One assignment is my all-time fave, and the others are just good for me to do for various reasons.

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. - Lao-Tzu

I'm curious if merchandising gigs are going to continue to hold. Mine are in grocery stores. I am not overly pleased about doing them, as I find resets nonessential. My company and their client do not feel that way, apparently.

JAS, I've got some merch work coming up end of next week and the week after, in 4 convenience stores. It's to reset the jerky/salty snacks areas. No cancellations so far.

I'll still take shops as long as I feel I can stay distanced from other customers, the location is clean, and the bonus is good.

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

I did 7 Home Depot shops last week and had no problems with social distancing or lines. The stores were fairly empty, all had the garbage bags (but they were in the cleaning supply aisle which had 3 or 4 people on average in them). The line for a cashier was 0-2 people usually far apart from each other due to large items. I only wish I could say the same about my regular grocery shopping where there were many more people and I felt much more at risk). I have 3 shops left for this week and I'll probably try to push them back a bit to see how things settle in.

@myst4au wrote:

I asked that my bank teller shops be moved from Thursday to Tuesday. No response yet.

In my part of Pa. and into northern Maryland, all the banks are closing their lobbies and only opening their drive-up windows. I had two bank shops cancelled last week.

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

My bank closed their lobbies on March 17, one week before the official shelter in place orders effective today at 6 pm.

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.

They were indeed moved from Thursday to Tuesday. I checked o Tuesday morning and was getting ready to leave home. At 1216 PM, I got an email canceling the shops due to a request from the client. IMHO, it was the right call. I thanked the scheduler.

@BirdyC wrote:

@myst4au wrote:

I asked that my bank teller shops be moved from Thursday to Tuesday. No response yet.

In my part of Pa. and into northern Maryland, all the banks are closing their lobbies and only opening their drive-up windows. I had two bank shops cancelled last week.

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

@JASFLALMT wrote:

It's going to take a lot longer to do the return in some areas. My husband went to Home Depot today to get furnace filters and a few other things. Parking lot was full, store was jammed, lines were long at customer service and the registers. Not to mention that you have to visit various departments to make several purchases. Not quick and easy by any means.

I would never go near these shops even at the highest pay of $12 or so here in Los Angeles. The last time I returned something (not on a shop) I was in back of two guys returning about 60 different unused items from a construction site. Little sections of pipe, one box of this, other small sections of other items I did not recognize etc I waited at least 45 minutes while each little piece of a house was scanned in and I was first in line. Finally someone came back from break/lunch and I got served.
On the floor I often have to search from department to department and wait while the service rep on the floor finishes and ask for help.Then that person disappears to find someone for me and sometimes returns, sometimes not. Paint? take a number and wait 20 minutes or so.
They used to have a McDonalds inside so at least you could get a snack after waiting for help so long but that is gone now.

Ever hopeful, I just applied for an April project. If any locations are assigned to me, huzzah. If they happen, wonderful. If they don't, so be it.

Just on more thing... Now, it is time for my daily dose of 'Columbo'.

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. - Lao-Tzu

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2020 06:23PM by Shop-et-al.

I was surprised today to receive an email that a phone shop for a hardware store scheduled early April was cancelled. Although my area is now officially under a "stay at home" order, hardware stores are considered "essential businesses", so I thought they'd be open.

I am now down to 2 shops scheduled for the foreseeable future, both drive-thru shops for the same chicken restaurant. So if that client decides to cancel their shops I will have none. Nothing much available on the boards for me to try and sign up for either.

On the other hand, I do find it strange that Confero still has several of their dine-in reward-on-the-spot shops for a fast casual Italian restaurant on the board. I'm pretty sure no one can do dine in now, so I don't know why they haven't removed the shops from the board.

The ones we were discussing pay $50, but[ still not for me.

quote=sandyf]
I would never go near these shops even at the highest pay of $12 or so here in Los Angeles.[/quote]

I picked up a bonus-ed pet store one today with a good reimbursement. Now my office have finally said we can work from home, so I will most likely be staying in my house and only leaving for groceries and a walk around until they make us go back in.

Oops duplicate!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/24/2020 02:33AM by katiew27.

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