Schedulers: Do your due diligence!

I realize that schedulers must be very busy people. In fact, I can't imagine being a scheduler, but I do feel that schedulers need to do their due diligence as is required of the shoppers. Please check store hours before assigning a shop. If the store is closed on Mondays, please do not say in the instructions or under the shop requirements that the shop can be completed Monday through Friday. I know that shoppers are told to check the store hours before attempting to do the shop. I feel the schedulers have some responsibility to check the store hours before assigning the shop as well.

"Evolve thyself and lose all hate...." Orphaned Land

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Many years ago, I accepted a lunch shop at Quaker Steak & Lube. The guidelines stated I could visit any day except Sat., Sun. Mon. Tues. Weds. or Thurs. For hours, I could not enter before noon nor after 01:00 PM. It would have been so easy to merely state the work was to be completed on Friday and I was to enter after noon, but before 01:00 PM

If a shop posting involves multiple stores, each store may have different hours. Furthermore, due to Covid, hours may change suddenly.

I would disagree. With much of what we do we are dealing with franchisees who may or may not have hours dictated by the franchiser. I'm thinking of one particular line here where stores are generally open from 10-7 every day except Sunday when it is 10-6. But a store near me is open 7-10 daily and 10-1 on Sunday. Around here many restaurants are closed on Monday to give workers a break and some are actually doing Monday and Thursday closed because of worker shortage. It is and always has been the shopper's obligation to find out if the store is open before they go.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/2021 09:00PM by Flash.

I know schedulers can't know everything, but last month I saw bigger and bigger bonuses added to a location that was smack dab in the middle of a huge wildfire. I felt bad for the scheduler and sent a link to an article about the fire. He was really nice and thanked me for the info, stating that he had never had trouble filling that location before and wondered what was up.

I, too, have to disagree. Although I do agree, in a perfect world, it would be super. It's just not possible.

I do, however, wish they would listen to shoppers when we tell them a certain location is closed or no longer exists.

A few years ago I had a major argument with a scheduler based in California who simply refused to believe that many cell phones store franchises in Southeast Pennsylvania were closed on Sunday (largely due to Pennsylvania Dutch influences) and that an entire county in New Jersey (Bergen County) still enforces Sunday Blue Laws (no retail stores of any kind are open). She did all but call me a liar until I sent her links to the Bergen County rules and she eventually had to pay me as I took photos of closed cellphone stores in Chester County, PA (she insisted that the shops only be done on Sunday for some reason). Her explanation was simply "all of the stores are open on Sunday in California." Through the 1960s, all but one of the twenty-one counties in NJ (Ocean County was the exception) enforced Sunday Blue Laws. That slowly changed until only Bergen County (far Northeast Corner of NJ across the Hudson from northern NYC) is left.

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

Agree about closed locations. When I happen across these, and I know they’re on an MSC’s board, I snap a couple of pictures. I then let the MSC know the location is closed and let them know I’ve got proof, if they need it. I’ve found that more often than not, I’ll get a reply, requesting my proof and offering a closed location fee. Some pay full fee, others pay partial.

@ceasesmith wrote:

I, too, have to disagree. Although I do agree, in a perfect world, it would be super. It's just not possible.

I do, however, wish they would listen to shoppers when we tell them a certain location is closed or no longer exists.

I prefer to confirm the hours of operation on my own because then I will know that I have the correct and CURRENT information. The frustrating part is trying to reach a live person at the place of business these days. Websites are far from reliable in the age of COVID.

A scheduler may be hundreds of miles away from the locations they recruit shoppers for and they may not know local conditions. It's always up to the shopper to determine the days and hours for the stores we are going to shop.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

This blew my mind. Never heard of this before and thought it was a combination of a restaurant and an oil change/lube business. Enjoy a great steak while your car gets an oil change!

That's one way to get me to be more diligent in getting oil changes.

@shopperbob wrote:

Many years ago, I accepted a lunch shop at Quaker Steak & Lube

I have encountered cellular stores that are only open four days a week.

@myst4au wrote:

A few years ago I had a major argument with a scheduler based in California who simply refused to believe that many cell phones store franchises in Southeast Pennsylvania were closed on Sunday (largely due to Pennsylvania Dutch influences) and that an entire county in New Jersey (Bergen County) still enforces Sunday Blue Laws (no retail stores of any kind are open). She did all but call me a liar until I sent her links to the Bergen County rules and she eventually had to pay me as I took photos of closed cellphone stores in Chester County, PA (she insisted that the shops only be done on Sunday for some reason). Her explanation was simply "all of the stores are open on Sunday in California." Through the 1960s, all but one of the twenty-one counties in NJ (Ocean County was the exception) enforced Sunday Blue Laws. That slowly changed until only Bergen County (far Northeast Corner of NJ across the Hudson from northern NYC) is left.

It isn't what you think. They only serve food. The first location was in an old gas station, and they adopted a gas station motif which continues today. [en.wikipedia.org]

@BusyBeeBuzzBuzzBuzz wrote:

This blew my mind. Never heard of this before and thought it was a combination of a restaurant and an oil change/lube business. Enjoy a great steak while your car gets an oil change!

That's one way to get me to be more diligent in getting oil changes.

@shopperbob wrote:

Many years ago, I accepted a lunch shop at Quaker Steak & Lube

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

Small town denizen here. People at the locations are just human and life might happen to them. One person here essentially closed their office for a few days when they went to a relative's funeral. For part of that time, they had a worker who could perform basic tasks and keep the office open for a few hours, but there was no one available for specialized work that we needed. Typically, they would have been open and available during the hours posted on their website. This did not involve a mystery shop. It was just a sad example of how it is reasonable that schedulers might not know everything, the internet might not show everything, and why it might be a good idea to have a supply of sympathy cards to send online or via snail mail because you just never know.....

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

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2021 03:46AM by Shop-et-al.

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Schedulers: Do your due diligence!

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