Reading the guidelines for a shop I was considering and came across this line, "[Sadly, the few shoppers who have reported tips but then shown by location video to have not tipped, have been prosecuted for misdemeanor theft by deception, and banned from mystery shopping for life.]". First of all, I would never steal, but yeah. Ok. Yes, I FULLY EXPECT the Police, DA and the courts to concern themselves over a miss-statement on a $2 tip during a mystery shop. /end sarcasm. LOL!!! I had already decided not to work with this company when I came across THIS line which I felt was truly unprofessional, "This is done so that the doorman won't try to steal the cash parking fee (they can't steal a credit card transaction.)".

Let's see... I used to do about 25 parking shops a month. I've been doing shops for about 8 years. That could add up to THOUSANDS over time. Unprofessional? Lying on a report and stealing money is unprofessional. Coming here to complain that a company expects you to be HONEST is unprofessional.
When I worked on the MSC/ client end of things I saw more than a few shoppers that flat out lied/ stole and this behavior could cause a MSC to lose a contract. So yeah, they are going to do what they think they have to in order to protect against that.

Oh and some of these parking shops are used as a way to find theft within the company & terminate/ prosecute the thief. If the shopper lies in the report, even if it's a small detail like a tip the company can't use the report to go after the employee. So the report is trash to them.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/29/2022 01:36PM by luckygirl0100.

Good grief!!! Take a deep breath. This is not good for your blood pressure. The OP also said he chose not to take the shop.

Most of our MSCs, if not all, have phrases in the ICAs about honesty in reporting and the consequences. I think OP is mainly objecting to the tone in which these statements are put forth. The MSC in question must have had some really dishonest shoppers. But I don't think one particular company can ban a shopper from mystery shopping for life. How would they know which other companies we're registered with?

@crayon wrote:

Reading the guidelines for a shop I was considering and came across this line, "[Sadly, the few shoppers who have reported tips but then shown by location video to have not tipped, have been prosecuted for misdemeanor theft by deception, and banned from mystery shopping for life.]". First of all, I would never steal, but yeah. Ok. Yes, I FULLY EXPECT the Police, DA and the courts to concern themselves over a miss-statement on a $2 tip during a mystery shop. /end sarcasm. LOL!!! I had already decided not to work with this company when I came across THIS line which I felt was truly unprofessional, "This is done so that the doorman won't try to steal the cash parking fee (they can't steal a credit card transaction.)".

I also find it very offputting to be threated in a job description. It feels very extreme.

Like Luckygirl, I do a TON of cash integrity shops. Unfortunately, shopper integrity is also sometimes severely tested and found wanting in such situations. The clients that need to test cash integrity of their employees would be foolish if they did not sometimes check out the shopper's report of cash handling issues. And those clients do NOT calm down if an issue is discovered.

1. My blood pressure is just fine
2. Shopper decides to just not take a shop? Cool! Shopper decides to BASH said MSC? Yeah, NOT cool

Totally NOT sorry for a fricking zero tolerance on shoppers who think lying is acceptable in this field. Go take a looooooooooooong walk off a short pier. After the many posts here lately why WOULDN'T a MSC be concerned about shopper integrity?

@LindaM wrote:

Good grief!!! Take a deep breath. This is not good for your blood pressure. The OP also said he chose not to take the shop.

just like you like to jump down ppls throat. the op can do the same to the msc (although i do find the op post quite harmless compare to your holier than thou post).

Lying on your report is never good, and doing so in order to pocket the money is just asking for trouble. But there's also a lack of decorum on the MSC's part to imply this is so prevalent it needs to be called out in the guidelines.

I don't 100% remember which shop it was so I won't call anyone out. But there was a guideline sheet that said over and over "Don't misrepresent", "If this doesn't happen, don't say it did," and "Your photo must be your own." All legit instructions, but done to excess. And yet was very skimpy on the details of what to do if the shop goes correctly. I just thought they've either had some terrible shoppers lately or their explanation skills are lacking.

(I suspect it was the latter because those guidelines also used colors and bold text less for logical clarity and more like a first grader with a box of 64 crayons. But that's another topic.)

I don't think the OP was suggesting that they had any intent to defraud the MSC. I believe they were just suggesting that the MSC's threat to prosecute was deliberately inflammatory. Yes, the MSC most likely had problems with shoppers saying they gave cash and lying about it. I get that. Shopper should be banned from the MSC if they are found to be providing verifiably fraudulent information. However, I would be insulted by the language that would presume that I needed to be threatened before I would do a job properly. I, like the OP, would decline to work with that MSC, and it would be their loss.

I fully understand the need for integrity in mystery shopping. I do indeed care about my integrity, and I work hard to maintain it. I fully understand why shoppers who lack it really are an issue. That doesn't mean that everybody in the business needs to be treated like caca. Weed the bad seeds out, keep moving and don't look back. I have also had my fill of MSCs that randomly threaten and spew random venom at shoppers. As the saying goes, "I don't need that kind of negativity in my life," and I have walked away from dealing with a couple MSCs that are routinely vituperative toward shoppers. Weeding can surely be done from both ends, and sometimes it needs to be.

You know me?!?

@LindaM wrote:

just like you like to jump down ppls throat. the op can do the same to the msc (although i do find the op post quite harmless compare to your holier than thou post).

Agreed, but I seriously don't think you understand how prevalent shopper fraud is. And how quickly a company can lose a client over it.
Personally, I've weeded out several companies and it is 100% your right to do the same! For whatever reason you choose! But bashing a MSC for actually doing something about the bad seeds, and putting out a warning they intend to do so? Come on now.

@GinnyLynn wrote:

I fully understand the need for integrity in mystery shopping. I do indeed care about my integrity, and I work hard to maintain it. I fully understand why shoppers who lack it really are an issue. That doesn't mean that everybody in the business needs to be treated like caca. Weed the bad seeds out, keep moving and don't look back. I have also had my fill of MSCs that randomly threaten and spew random venom at shoppers. As the saying goes, "I don't need that kind of negativity in my life," and I have walked away from dealing with a couple MSCs that are routinely vituperative toward shoppers. Weeding can surely be done from both ends, and sometimes it needs to be.

I hear you luckygirl0100, but I do not choose to live a life that includes routinely opening random emails that spew bile toward me and other shoppers because some shopper burned them along the way. Every business on this planet has to deal with bad seeds in some way or another. That is why we do interviews, get applications filled out and make an attempt to know who we are dealing with before we do business with them, in whatever kind of way. If somebody is not doing them right, they need to fire them, get somebody else and move on.

That said, as far as I am concerned, they can spew their bile somewhere else. If you saw it all as a good thing, that is your right. However, I do not want that in my life on a random everyday basis, and that is my right. There are a lot of companies out there that do indeed conduct themselves with a modicum of professional courtesy toward the people they work with, which in this case happens to be mystery shoppers, and I choose to do business with them.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2022 02:33PM by GinnyLynn.

I've re-read the MSC's statements posted by the OP and see nothing threatening or unprofessional about them. They seem to be just fact and not personally threatening to, or implying that, the shopper is going to cheat. And the sentence about the doorman--what's unprofessional about it if it's the truth? It's one of the things we're supposed to be checking!

So, what is the MSC to do? Just leave that information out of the guidelines? How should it be re-worded? (I'm a professional writer and other than changing a couple of words, I can't see how this could be written to be any less "threatening."

These statements aren't anywhere near as negative as a few shops and/or MSCs whose instructions are filled with threatening language and/or negative presumptions that shoppers are going to cheat. There's one MSC that I haven't shopped for in several years exactly because the owner's language is loaded with threats and implications about shoppers not doing shops committed to or meeting deadlines. And I know that people are also put off by a particular scheduler who generally comes off as threatening. What the OP cites is a far cry from those situations.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2022 01:44PM by BirdyC.

Can someone please explain to me what is apparently so over the top in the MSC's statements? I'm honestly not understanding the comments. They're not threatening shoppers personally; it sounds like more of an alert rather than, "OK, we think you're going to cheat, so you'd better not."

The explanation about the doorman seems to be so that shoppers understand why the payment is to be made via CC and not cash. How is that unprofessional? Is it the way it's worded? Is "steal" offensive? Would it be more palatable as: "This is done so that the doorman won't fail to report a cash parking fee (they can't do so on a credit card transaction.)"? Lotta words there. Would "pocket" instead of "steal" sound better?

I'm really not trying to be difficult here. I truly don't "get" the problem with these statements. As long as they're not assuming you're going to cheat and hitting you over the head with it in every paragraph and/or making it all in caps so they're yelling at you.... I might understand it if someone can explain why these are offensive and unprofessional.

ETA: These statements sound more like they're just giving information and advising that they will indeed prosecute shoppers who lie on reports. I, personally, see nothing accusatory toward individual shoppers in them.

(I'm not hesitant to call out MSCs for poor language usage or for treating shoppers badly or like children, so I'm not somebody who thinks MSCs are always right!)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2022 08:02PM by BirdyC.

If you consider this 'spewing bile' you must live a very sheltered life, not reading very many emails from MSC's at all....




quote=GinnyLynn]
I hear you luckygirl0100, but I do not choose to live a life that includes routinely opening random emails that spew bile toward me and other shoppers because some shopper burned them along the way. Every business on this planet has to deal with bad seeds in some way or another. That is why we do interviews, get applications filled out and make an attempt to know who we are dealing with before we do business with them, in whatever kind of way. If somebody is not doing them right, they need to fire them, get somebody else and move on.

That said, as far as I am concerned, they can spew their bile somewhere else. If you saw it all as a good thing, that is your right. However, I do not want that in my life on a random everyday basis, and that is my right. There are a lot of companies out there that do indeed conduct themselves with a modicum of professional courtesy toward the people they work with, which in this case happens to be mystery shoppers, and I choose to do business with them.[/quote]

I don't feel like any of you read this correctly. The poster is clearly saying that if you the shopper misreport that you tipped in cash, but don't you will be deactivated and banned. As you should be. Theft. I wouldn't allow this in my day to day job, and I wouldn't allow it here.
There are plenty of shady in person people, and if you don't think there are thousands of people who see mystery shopping as an easy way to make cash by lying and cheating and stealing you are sorely mistaken and haven't joined the real world.

@nolimitem wrote:

I don't feel like any of you read this correctly. The poster is clearly saying that if you the shopper misreport that you tipped in cash, but don't you will be deactivated and banned.

And the OP apparently thinks that the MSC stating this is offensive in some way, and some other shoppers agree. It sounds like some have issues with the tone? Which I think is just informative and not accusing. So I'm not understanding that. SMH.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2022 09:23PM by BirdyC.

I would expect to lose my job if I lied on an expense report, whether as a shopper, or my full-time career, so I don't need to be reminded to tell the truth as many others have stated.

It sounds like the OP handled it correctly...if the description bothers/offends....JUST SAY NO AND MOVE ON (to another shop and/or another MSC).

@jgardn02 wrote:

I would expect to lose my job if I lied on an expense report, whether as a shopper, or my full-time career, so I don't need to be reminded to tell the truth as many others have stated.

If your company had had a history of employees reporting false expenses on their expense reports, wouldn't you think they'd be justified in writing a clause, and wouldn't you expect one, stating that employees found to have falsified expenses will be terminated? Would you be upset and take it personally? Would you quit over it?

I assume that the vast majority of shoppers are honest and don't need individually to be reminded to be truthful. But from what other shoppers experienced in this type of shop have said here, shopper fraud does exist, and maybe this particular MSC has seen a lot of it. Doesn't mean they don't trust all of their shoppers or that they think everybody needs to be "reminded" to tell the truth. They're just putting dishonest shoppers on notice that they could be found out and prosecuted. It's information, not accusation.

If y'all think this language is threatening or is treating you like a child, you haven't seen guidelines that really are!

But, yes, if some shoppers feel they're being threatened through information or that the MSC is unprofessional in explaining why they want payment a certain way to prevent employee theft, then they shouldn't take those jobs.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/31/2022 03:09PM by BirdyC.

The original post was about the threat of criminal prosecution. That's all.

@mystery2me wrote:

The original post was about the threat of criminal prosecution. That's all.

I'd call the cops if my plumber stole any thing of value while working in my home. Wouldn't you?

@sestrahelena wrote:

But I don't think one particular company can ban a shopper from mystery shopping for life. How would they know which other companies we're registered with?

I took that more as meaning that the shopper would be banned from shopping for them forever. I agree with you; how could one MSC know what other ones we work for? Maybe there's a secret blacklist we don't know about!

Count on it; there is a blacklist.

@walesmaven wrote:

Count on it; there is a blacklist.

Thanks for confirming that. I kinda figured.... Since many schedulers work for more than one MSC, it stands to reason that they share information amongst themselves and maybe to the powers that be as well.

Sometimes I'll get an email from a scheduler and MSC that I've never worked with asking if I'm interested in doing shops. It appears that the schedulers have gotten a referral from another scheduler. So if there's a referral list of some sort, why not a blacklist?

@luckygirl0100 wrote:

@mystery2me wrote:

The original post was about the threat of criminal prosecution. That's all.

I'd call the cops if my plumber stole any thing of value while working in my home. Wouldn't you?

No, not for any thing. $5 missing, I would not involve the police, just not use them any more.

I'm not sure $5 is "of value"!

But "value" to one person or company is pretty subjective. I have things that have been given to me, so no monetary value. But lots of sentimental value, and I'd be on the phone to the cops in a heartbeat if one of those items were stolen.

Also, if this theoretical plumber gets away with stealing $5 from somebody without consequences, then he/she will probably keep stealing from other customers. In reality, though, I think it would be hard to prove that a specific person took a few dollars or a single item from one's house.

Ok, but since this could very well be the case. That plumber did 20 jobs (shops) for you. 20 X 5 has now become $100. This can easily add up over time.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/31/2022 06:04PM by nolimitem.