I'm still new at this, just shopping since June. I have done a number of their shops. The first couple I received a 10. Now, I get eights, sighting grammar and punctuation. I am a recently retired teacher. I taught grammar. Go figure.

stageangel Wrote:
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> I'm still new at this, just shopping since June. I
> have done a number of their shops. The first
> couple I received a 10. Now, I get eights,
> sighting grammar and punctuation. I am a recently
> retired teacher. I taught grammar. Go figure.


Ok not totally sure here but wouldn't it be "citing" grammar? I think sometimes we just make quick mistakes inputting forms and I don't let the eights bother me (too much).

PS I know the grammar in the above sentence is not correct.
Liz

Are they willing to show you the mistakes affecting your score?

New Editors are to blame. I worked for them over 5 years, and now notice them becoming extremely picky. Makes one wonder...you should complain if your sure
the mistake isn't yours. I can't do a family type breakfast (different MSC) because my score dropped from a 10 to a 9...when I apply, notice says, you need to be a 10 to apply for this shop, so, that tells me it matters.
I do restaurants better and more difficult than this, so, maintaining a 10
seems to be what some MSCs now want. Raising pay to accomadate these new laws
seems just.

My lowest score so far (only two months!) has been a 9. I started out with quite a few 10s though, and that first 9 hurt. :-) Problem is you get so little feedback with that score that you can't always find the errors so you don't make the same error in the future. There would be some long-term benefit for MSPs to require their editors provide specific feedback so (theoretically) their shoppers' reports improve over time but the short-term cost of the extra work would make the beancounters cringe. :-)

I find it hard to take some of the scoring seriously. I get glowing reports from some MSPs (I have had a couple tell me in emails and on the phone I am one of the best writers they have ever worked with) and then, just when my head is ready to pop from all the praise, I get an 8 with comments about my poor use of syntax. I don't change my writing, so I have to wonder. I also can't take the scoring too seriously because often the most critical MSCs are the ones who misuse gender agreement and commit other grammatical atrocities (even when admonishing us not to do the same).I am old enough to remember when saying "it's between him and I" or "the clerk gave me their undivided attention" would have gotten you in a world of trouble.

I agree with the OP. I had all these 10's with Intelli-Shop, and the last report I did the Editor gave me an "8". Reason? LONG NARRATIVE.

My thought? "Editor just didn't want to bother reading a narrative."

The narrative questions were all "In story-like format, describe your entire shopping experience." Okay, I'm in the store for 30 minutes, I had to do several things, floors, ceilings, doors, windows, host, cashiers, manager, restrooms, tables, food stations, coffee bar, advertising, and soda fountain review - so OF COURSE it's going to be a LONG NARRATIVE!

"In Story-Like Format" - requires more than, "The entrance doors were fingerprint and dirt free". HELLO! That's not a story! It's a freakin' SENTENCE! Getting an 8 irked the heck out of me. That's the lowest score I've had in all my reports.

I went back and re-read my report I had printed out, and it wasn't as long as the reports I originally did when I first started MS'ing. (those were novels!)

I have had a very similar recent experience. I've always received scores of 9-10 previously. My average score is a 9. Recently I received scores of a 7 and a 8. The comments seemed a bit overboard as well. I'm a little disappointed. I may just stick with other mystery shop companies in the future.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/2011 05:15PM by spree.

Wondering if anyone has contacted the company directly? I have dealt with Intellishop for awhile now. You can contact the company and ask about the evaluation of the report. Instead of fleeing the company, call and inquire. There may be a editor that is either being to picky or is not doing there job correctly.

pandamonkey Wrote:
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> Wondering if anyone has contacted the company
> directly? I have dealt with Intellishop for
> awhile now. You can contact the company and ask
> about the evaluation of the report. Instead of
> fleeing the company, call and inquire. There may
> be a editor that is either being to picky or is
> not doing there job correctly.

I contacted my scheduler once after completing double shops that were bonused to help her meet her EOM. I was very explicit in noting that this was why I ignored the large majority of Intelli's e-mails with these jobs. She re-read both reports and interestingly, both went from 8s to 10s. They deserved 10s. I think that the editors there and Beyond Hello must be some of the same people. They assess reports the same way.

pandamonkey Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Wondering if anyone has contacted the company
> directly? I have dealt with Intellishop for
> awhile now. You can contact the company and ask
> about the evaluation of the report. Instead of
> fleeing the company, call and inquire. There may
> be a editor that is either being to picky or is
> not doing there job correctly.


I contacted my scheduler once when an editor gave me a 5 rating, just because I wrote the wrong shop number on the scanned business card. Though I took responsibility on the error, the rest of the report was very detailed. I mentioned to my scheduler that I thought it was a bit extreme to reduce the rating to a 5, which is significant. I even asked if I could white out what I wrote on the card and re-scan the correct shop ID. She mentioned that it wasn't necessary and subsequently, changed the rating to a 10.

spree Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have had a very similar recent experience. I've
> always received scores of 9-10 previously. My
> average score is a 9. Recently I received scores
> of a 7 and a 8. The comments seemed a bit
> overboard as well. I'm a little disappointed. I
> may just stick with other mystery shop companies
> in the future.
+++

This MSC used to be good to get assignments. The editors were fair. Now, I rarely get a "10" and all I can say is I did my best.
My problem are yes and no questions. One time I needed 100 characters minimum for an explanation.
The question was something like this "Was the entry door pained brown?" I answered "No, the door waspaineted blue." Obviously trying to write 100 chacters was very difficult as the door was wither brown of it was not.

I ended up descibing the door (height, width, new or old door, etc.

I had a scheduler give me a 2 rating because she didn't like the contents of my report. It was a restaurant shop that I had done for them before, and gave it a glowing report because everything was perfect, service, food, atmosphere. The next time it was assigned to me, I felt invisible to the staff, and the atmosphere was changed, because the summer crowd was gone and it's a very touristy kind of restaurant. The scheduler was incensed that I didn't give the place a great rating. I should have lied and kept the 10 rating I guess. Anyway, I've done work for them since, and had no problems.

jerry1552 Wrote:
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> My problem are yes and no questions. One time I
> needed 100 characters minimum for an explanation.
>
> The question was something like this "Was the
> entry door pained brown?" I answered "No, the door
> waspaineted blue." Obviously trying to write 100
> chacters was very difficult as the door was wither
> brown of it was not.
>

This is an instance where MSC's need to be responsive to shopper feedback. Having questions like this is burdensome for everyone involved. This question requires an explicit evaluation, and could be done in two data points: a yes/no response to "Is the entry door brown" and a very small text entry if the door is not brown.

There is less time for entry involved on the shopper's end, and more easily processed data on the MSC's end.

You all are being too sensitive. You have received 8 or 9s.... OUT OF 10!!! Proofers are chosen based on their ability to fill-out a mystery shoppers' report correctly, and with good grammar, etc. If you cannot match our standards, we grade accordingly. You still get paid; you still get shops.

stageangel Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm still new at this, just shopping since June. I
> have done a number of their shops. The first
> couple I received a 10. Now, I get eights,
> sighting grammar and punctuation. I am a recently
> retired teacher. I taught grammar. Go figure.


If you take ten seconds to look at the emails from this company, man, you'll see the joke. It cracks me up. If their editors spent their wasted time trying to make sure their copy was clean, maybe... maybe I'd take their criticism to heart. Sadly, the hypocrisy of this company is a little alarming. =X

bionic Wrote:
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> You all are being too sensitive. You have
> received 8 or 9s.... OUT OF 10!!! Proofers are
> chosen based on their ability to fill-out a
> mystery shoppers' report correctly, and with good
> grammar, etc. If you cannot match our standards,
> we grade accordingly. You still get paid; you
> still get shops.

And _we're_ being sensitive. I lol'd.

I notice the 'we' and 'our' in bionic's post and wish he/she would identify himself/herself as evidently this individual works with Intellishop in some capacity other than as a shopper.

I agree. IMHO, when a representative of a company is posts for the company in response to shopper comments on a shopper forum, I think the poster should identify himself and his affiliation with the MSP.

Everytime I see this name, I have to excuse myself to vomit. Bad company, bad editors, bad schedulers. They must really work to get this good. If you cannot tell by now, I have no use for them. They are not scammers but surely their behviour borders on it.

I've had the same issues. Some companies give glowing ratings while others rate lower on essentially the same type of reports.

I'm in law enforcement and have been writing reports for 25 years. The 8 and 9 rating don't bug me as long as I get paid. I've contracted with over 70 MSP companies so if one is just blasting the reports, I go with another company.

Funny thing you need to remember is that some of these companies want their editors to find mistakes so they can justify the cost to the client. Editors can mistakes that are not there. I cut and paste so I run the grammar and spell check on two different software systems. I KNOW that the text answers are correct when I submit them, but some still cite issues. All they have to do is cite a grammar issue as a catch all excuse. Rules of grammar change all the time so they are not up to date themselves.

It's the same along the lines of assignments. There is one company that pays $10 fee plus $8 re-imbursement. The shop takes at least 30 minutes and the input is over an hour or so because of all the detail they want. Then they want a full length narrative. On the other hand, I get a $30 re-imbursement for dining out and the input takes 30 or so minutes.

It all depends on the company so make sure you sign up with enough of them so you have choices.

Not a fan of Intellishop. Yeah, it shouldn't bother me when I receive 8 or 9s, but it does, especially when they are the only company I deal with that gives those types of scores. They gave me an 8 on one report because they had to contact me. The reason they had to contact me was because of a mistake their editor made. So, even though they had to contact me because of THEIR mistake, I got deducted points. To add insult to injury, I was only doing that particular job to help them out, and it wasn't even bonused.

Nitpicky + low paying jobs = not for me!

When that happens, contact your scheduler. If the contact was due to the editor's oversight, a lot of times the scheduler can have the grade changed.

Phoebe70 Wrote:
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> Not a fan of Intellishop. Yeah, it shouldn't
> bother me when I receive 8 or 9s, but it does,
> especially when they are the only company I deal
> with that gives those types of scores. They gave
> me an 8 on one report because they had to contact
> me. The reason they had to contact me was because
> of a mistake their editor made. So, even though
> they had to contact me because of THEIR mistake, I
> got deducted points. To add insult to injury, I
> was only doing that particular job to help them
> out, and it wasn't even bonused.
>
> Nitpicky + low paying jobs = not for me!

I think that all of us need to fly up to Ohio and staged a massive "Occupy Intelli-shop" rally and demand that we won't accept 8's and 9's from editors. Rise, fellow shoppers. Rise up and be counted!!!

Yell ya what... The weather is cold and miserable up here in Ohio. You come on up to protest, and my hubby and I will head down south to your place and housesit.

Well TechSavvy, it appears that there have been some good things leaving Florida for Ohio these days, such as Urban Meyer?

Not so good for that other school to the north though!

I thought I was the only one who felt that way. The first time I deactivated my account, I told them I really question the qualification of some reviewers. Now on my last report, I got an 8 for a two paragraph summary which have been spell checked and proof-read, making me feel as if I did not pass kindergarten. I usually get 10s but this company is intent in demeaning the shoppers by docking points for anything. So now, I have deactivated it again. I don't mind if I am docked because I did not follow the instructions because the guidelines were some of the difficult things to follow. But my punctuation and grammar! Holy Moses!

Their scoring has been BS for the past few months. I got all nines on my last 5 - and it just stated "thanks for a great report". OH well. I like doing their shops that are on my way to others for different MS companies.

lordy people. you're still getting paid. I now laugh when I get an 8. usually it is from Bare, and the criticism usually points to a "problem with syntax." I once asked someone to explain and she couldn't. I read and re-read their directions and half the time they are grammatically incorrect. LOL But Bare continues to give me shops--lots of them--and they pay what and when they say they will. Since I don't change anything and get a 10 the next time, I don't let the rating bother me. I am less interested in getting a gold star than in getting my money. All these stories about calling someone and getting a rating changed tells me one thing: the ratings don't mean that much anyway. I actually did ask a scheduler about a rating. She told me she would be happy to change it because it didn't really matter. This was from a scheduler! I KNOW there are exceptions: I believe some companies allow shoppers with higher ratings to auto-assign some shops. I guess I would focus on my ratings with those companies because they do have a slight impact. For the most part, let's keep it in perspective, folks. We shop for money--not for ratings. If anyone disagrees, please send me your shopper fees. I will send you a 9 or a 10 depending on how much it is and how quickly you send it. I take payment in the form of checks, direct deposit, Paypal, cash, and gold. LOL

jersey07032 Wrote:
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> lordy people. you're still getting paid. I now
> laugh when I get an 8. usually it is from Bare,
> and the criticism usually points to a "problem
> with syntax." I once asked someone to explain and
> she couldn't. I read and re-read their directions
> and half the time they are grammatically
> incorrect. LOL But Bare continues to give me
> shops--lots of them--and they pay what and when
> they say they will. Since I don't change anything
> and get a 10 the next time, I don't let the rating
> bother me. I am less interested in getting a gold
> star than in getting my money. All these stories
> about calling someone and getting a rating changed
> tells me one thing: the ratings don't mean that
> much anyway. I actually did ask a scheduler about
> a rating. She told me she would be happy to change
> it because it didn't really matter. This was from
> a scheduler! I KNOW there are exceptions: I
> believe some companies allow shoppers with higher
> ratings to auto-assign some shops. I guess I would
> focus on my ratings with those companies because
> they do have a slight impact. For the most part,
> let's keep it in perspective, folks. We shop for
> money--not for ratings. If anyone disagrees,
> please send me your shopper fees. I will send you
> a 9 or a 10 depending on how much it is and how
> quickly you send it. I take payment in the form of
> checks, direct deposit, Paypal, cash, and gold.
> LOL


If getting paid is the only thing that matters, then what is the rating for? I got paid for everything I did, but because they focused on ratings when it concerns certain shops, I do pay attention to ratings. When I get an 8 because they said they had to contact me when staring them on their faces was the info on the report, just missed by them, I do mind. You cannot tell me what a great job I have done and give me 8 esp if you are the only one doing it.

Jeesh, sanctimonious statements in this board is something I did not expect too often. Yes, I disagree and condescending and insulting attitudes do not wash with me.