I am findng companies providing incomplete or poor instructions resulting in heed to contact scheduler for guidance.
Case in point recorded shop…directions say if you get voice mail twice contact scheduler for guidance. Well if you get voice mail are you to leave message or simply hang up or say you will call again as directions say do not leave number unless you can record the call, . I do not have recording device but think if I keep calling and saying I will call tomorrow will be red flag. Email to scheduler has yet to be answered, leave message like oh I will call tomorrow or simply hang up? Nothing in directions. Very annoying!

Another shop…directions say call location.,.let phone ring 7 times before hanging up. No one picked up no message provided, wrote scheduler to advise she asked why I failed to leave message? Well there was no message or place to leave message.

Called again in 2 hours this time as per directions let it ring 12 times finally message says you cannot leave message we are closed today…then gave daily hours for rest of week.
I made required 2 calls never was able to speak to anyone..wrote scheduler as to how to report as shop required 2 calls which I made
No reply yet. I feel I should be paid as I did the required 2 calls…not my fault if poor business at location beung closed and not having recording message after a few rings,

Getting tired of this for $10 shops.

I called and the recording said the office was closed. The shop form asks, if you got a recording that the office was closed, yes or no. I checked yes and wrote the office was closed per the recording.

The editor rejected my shop with a 1 rating because I only called the location once and the guidelines said I had to call three times if I did not reach a live person.

I e-mailed the scheduler stating there was nothing in the guidelines about closed office scenarios. I also stated if the office was closed, calling them two more times wasn't going to cause the office to be open. No reply.

Same thing happened today. I called three times at least 10 minutes apart and got the same office is closed recording each time. I wonder if this will be rejected too. I've already e-mailed the scheduler.

Here are the guidelines:

"8. If you’re not reaching a live person, remember you need to make three attempts. You need to
wait a minimum of 10 minutes between each attempt. This is from when you hang up to when
you dial again. If you wait on hold for 10 minutes you would hang up and wait 10 minutes before
dialing again, not immediately dial."

Anybody who has shopped any amount of time has run into such. Sometimes it is a one off, and sometimes not. I've tended to back away from companies who routinely work like this with shoppers. Scenarios like you mention can have you working a drawn-out assignment for as little as a $1.00 an hour before you are through, not to mention the ones that get rejected on a technicality after you are down to $1.00 an hour. Yep, it happens. Such as that has a high rejection rate, all while they are eating up time that you could be spending making money. In my experience, most of the MSCs are pretty decent in how they treat shoppers, but some few really are not. I don't bail at the first glitch; anybody can have a bad day when they really don't do as good a job as they should. However, most shoppers who have been around a while have fired a few MSCs and schedulers both for repeatedly pulling that kind of mess. I generally spend some time applying to other companies when I feel the need to ditch one.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/2023 02:19AM by GinnyLynn.

@wrosie wrote:

Here are the guidelines:

"8. If you’re not reaching a live person, remember you need to make three attempts. You need to
wait a minimum of 10 minutes between each attempt. This is from when you hang up to when
you dial again. If you wait on hold for 10 minutes you would hang up and wait 10 minutes before
dialing again, not immediately dial."

10 minutes in between calls if no answer.. WOW.. When I do phone shops, the guidelines usually say wait two to three hours in between calls if no answer. Also if you are put on hold must wait five minutes.

I have never seen a phone shop where you can wait 10 minutes in between calls or wait 10 minutes if you put on hold.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/2023 01:44AM by Isaiah4031a.

I only wish companies had standards in terms of instructions as high as they hold shoppers to. I fund many of the companies to be very unprofessional. I would love to be hired to evaluate their directions and shop forms from a shoppers perspective. I would make sure directions covered any possibility to avoid bad experiences.

I think sometimes instead of writing new guidelines, the MSC will try to adopt a "similar" (in the mind of someone who has probably never done an actual shop) shop's guidelines to a new client or shop type.

Then instead of really reading and tweaking it to the new shop, just slap it on the shop and say, there you are.

I just did one where I had to wait 24 hours between calls. And after the third call, I had to contact the scheduler, who told me how to submit the report.

@wrosie wrote:

I think sometimes instead of writing new guidelines, the MSC will try to adopt a "similar" (in the mind of someone who has probably never done an actual shop) shop's guidelines to a new client or shop type.

Then instead of really reading and tweaking it to the new shop, just slap it on the shop and say, there you are.

This is so true! I recently had a sushi restaurant shop. The instructions say do not eat at the bar - clearly taken from a restaurant/bar shop where the intention is for you to eat in the restaurant. I freaked out because for my shop the whole place was only a sushi bar! I ended up eating at a table outside so I did not eat at the "bar."

@OldmanJames wrote:

I only wish companies had standards in terms of instructions as high as they hold shoppers to. I fund many of the companies to be very unprofessional. I would love to be hired to evaluate their directions and shop forms from a shoppers perspective. I would make sure directions covered any possibility to avoid bad experiences.

I am in complete agreement. I have had two shops rejected and both had to do with confusing or conflicting instructions. Thank goodness they were both fast food at places I would have been happy to eat at otherwise but I would not have been happy with a shop that had a bigger expense associated with it.

The conspiracy theorist in me thinks they do this so there is some wiggle room if they want to reject your shop. In reality, I think they either reuse guidelines that don't really apply or edit them multiple times to the point that they no longer make sense. It really would be nice if they held themselves to the same standards that they hold us.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/2023 05:01PM by olympia tennenbaum.

I have one like this! I need to do a pre-visit recorded call. If I get the call center's recorded greeting, I'm not to proceed with the call and have to try again, up to three more times. If a live person doesn't answer on calls two and three, on the fourth try, I can proceed with the call. The calls have to be made at least four hours apart. I'm doing the shop today. I called twice yesterday (couldn't fit three calls into one day given their hours--they don't open until 9:30 and close at 5 p.m.) and am due to call again in a few minutes. If I don't get the live person on the phone, I have to wait another four hours to call. I suspect that this is a totally automated system, based on what I heard of the recording before I hung up. I think I'll probably have to walk through the entire thing without speaking to a person. The instructions don't address this possibility and don't say if you're supposed to leave a message for a return call, which might be the only way to speak to a live person. The survey doesn't allow for a response that you couldn't reach a live representative. I'm hoping that there will be a way to transfer to a person in the location's office, and that if there is, someone will actually pick up the phone.

It's amazing how service-based businesses don't want to talk to customers or potential customers....

I avoid a lot of phone shops for this reason - if I have to keep calling, it winds up being way more time consuming than it is worth.

Totally disgusted trying to reach target at a facility. Have made 4 calls- always goes to voice mail- now the scheduler wants to have the place call me with a fake number- I have shops that will take me out of the house tomorrow and Friday- I cannot wait home for a $10 shop when I have shops that pay $42 and $30 and $15- about to tell them to cancel the shop as I am not sitting home waiting for a flaky target to call me back. Facility has poor customer service- and I am the victim of making many calls and having to play phone tag.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/2023 03:25PM by Funny oldgal.

Funny oldgal,

When a target is involved, I always add from $10 to $20 to my fee. If the job offer does not state that requirement, I accept the shop and then learn there is a target, I contact the scheduler for an adjustment. If none is forthcoming, I cancel the work. If my action is unacceptable, it is the MSC's prerogative to deactivate my account.

It is my opinion, that on the majority of occasions where important information is missing, it was intentional. In addition, if a scheduler evades directly addressing money by way of an E-confirmation, I skip the job.

Well, I got through on the fourth call to the live representative in the location's office. But so frustrating! The automated system is clearly an attempt to make you NOT ask to speak to a rep. You pretty much have to guess at what to say to get transferred, and even then the auto-system wants to know why you need a representative and wants to keep trying to get you to go online and take care of your needs there.

I still would like to know what would happen if on the fourth call, you get transferred to the office and nobody there picks up, and you get a message asking you to leave a voice mail. This is certainly a possibility. Do you hang up again? Leave your contact info to see if they call back? What? The MSC doesn't seem to have recognized that the shopper may never reach a live person before having to do the shop!

It sounds like the client is trying to fine tune their AI, Artificial Intelligence chat bot or website.

I recently did about 10 really high-end car phone shops. 9 of them were answered promptly by a live human being. The one that was left went to voicemail on three successive days. The instructions said to notify the scheduler, which I did. I could have been told to try again. Instead, I was told to submit the shop. Frankly, I doubt that anyone with enough money to buy this car (not even MI6 on behalf of James Bond) would put up with getting voicemail even once. I don't think that the brand will be pleased with that dealer.

I've found that many of these systems don't have an option to be transferred to a rep, and you have to guess at how to get through. I usually get so frustrated, I scream "representative" into the phone. Even after you do that, you sometimes get the run around. I don't know how some of these businesses keep their customers. I get annoyed that they don't want to talk to you or even communicate through email. Trying to find a phone number or direct email address (instead of the "contact us" form) on a business website these days is almost impossible! Sometimes you can handle an issue through automated chat or phone system, but sometimes you really need to talk to a person.