I am not having good luck with this MSC!! Their rules are too different from all the other ones I have done. I posted yesterday about trouble I had with a gas station audit (http://www.mysteryshopforum.com/read/6/157339)

Tonight I did a fast food place. The gas station guidelines say very specifically that you have to have the date/time stamp on. My camera doesn't have that option, but I found software that will put it on for you, using the real date/time it was taken.

I am very much hoping that the date/time thing is a shop-specific thing, not a CORI thing, because I forgot to put the timestamp on before I uploaded the fast food pics.

And now I'm processing another gas station I did for them tonight, only to find that apparently when I was charging the camera battery, it messed up the time, because it's several hours off on everything! I take a picture of the clock in my car when I start and finish a shop so it's easy for me to track my times, and danged if it isn't off by several hours. Of course my receipts are NOT going to match these.

I am also getting irritated with the 6 hour or by midnight EST rule for submitting shop reports. The fast food was a dinner shop and I didn't do it until 8 pm, so I am just now getting everything uploaded, and it's past midnight EST now already... but it's NOT 6 hours past shop time.

On a lighter note when I did the FF shop, I forgot to check for something that is on the report, and they've got me scared to death with their "We have quality control questions, if you're wrong you won't get paid and will get fired" warnings. What I had to look for was something on the menu board, and by the time I realized I had forgotten, I was 10 miles away. So I went back and they were closed, but cleaning the restaurant. The menu board is visible through the window but of course not very clearly, so I went skulking about the building peeking in the window (trying to avoid the employees cleaning from seeing me) to see what I missed. Luckily I found it, but I bet if anyone had been watching I would have been a funny sight!!! Not so much if a cop had driven by I guess...

I think I am getting scared off of CORI. I have never had trouble with any of the other MSCs I have worked with! Granted, part of this is MY error (not checking the address, forgetting to look for this thing), but I'm just getting really bad vibes about it. lol

Everyone should do what they think best, but it might be good if you reconsidered marking Corporate Research off your list. The problems you're having are with your equipment and with your execution of the shops. Marking off Cori won't help this and you'll miss a lot of bonused work.

I learned the hard way to check the time/date stamp on the camera before I start each day. You should also check it each time you change the batteries. The problem you had at the fast food shop was simple human error, and we all have to deal with that. It's going to get easier.

Each "new" job is going to require special attention the first few times you do it. I'm still especially careful with a "new to me" shop. On one of those, I'll print out the report and fill it out immediately after I leave the site. It takes a little time, but not as much as going back. Once I'm familiar with the shop, I can forego a printout of the report and instead jot down notes on the front of my shop folder. Even now, I won't take more than two "new to me" shops on the same day. One is better.

On the stations I do, I made tick sheets for each type station. They're all different and all require different pictures, so these sheets are very helpful.

You'll learn tricks as you go along that will make this easier and quicker. Please don't give up on Cori or anyone else. All of the companies represent an opportunity for income.

You should be able to adjust the time on your photos to whatever time you want to with your software program. I use what came with my camera, Camedia, and it lets me do this under Properties. Then you can use your other program to add the time to the photos.

You will get an overdue notice after midnight, but have until 12 the next day to complete shops.

I would not give up on them yet. Some of their shops are the easiest and best paying you can find...if you're patient, that is.

With that being said, I have completely stopped doing one gas station shop because most of them have become "Time & Date" required on photos and my Olympus doesn't do it. I crossed them off my list because it was too much hassle to add the time and date, get photos of each pump, etc. Maybe if the price goes up and I'm desparate, I'll reconsider. Or maybe I'll get a new camera with that capability, but for now I'm plenty busy with other shops. I'm hoping at some point that they will go back to regular mystery shops.

I would take a deep breath... and before you do anymore shops for CORI, see if you can get your time-stamp issue fixed. It creates stress to know you need that for that particular company and right now you aren't able to get it to their satisfaction..

If you know CORI requires this feature, just take some time to find what works..rectify it... and then move forward...with or without CORI.

It seems like the problems you are having with cori are your own issues.

As a shopper you clearly need to be better organized.

If you had brought a printout of the questionaire as you are suppose to, you would not of forgotten anything as once you were back in your car you could of looked it over and made any notes you needed too.

Other shoppers ask me all the time how do I sometimes complete 20-40 shops in one day, and it requires a fair amount of planning and organization to ensure it goes smoothly.

Imagine if I forgot a photo or a question on shop 15, 19, 24, 31. Now I would have to go back to these locations and in all likelihood end up losing money for the day.

I can't say it enough. Organize, Organize, Organize.

Don't be like the waitress who thinks their cool and memorizes your order without writing it down, and then brings you your order incorrectly.

and I'm being critical in my response because there are a number of things that cori could and should be doing better for their shoppers and it's no secret I am not a big fan of them because of it. However, your criticism is unfairly placed on them.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/04/2012 04:45PM by techman01.

CORI, oh yes, after reading on this forum how high their bonus go, I signed, and hated those tests to qualify, but did a few. I checked and checked waiting for their prices to rise from $3.00 to 4.00, then maybe to 7.00
before getting grabbed up. Never saw a decent bonus for the time required
to keep checking their board and taking those frickn tests. I ended up doing
two shops for them, but feel for the pay here in L.A., not worth my time.
You have different issues, and I firmly believe, if a company doesn't work for you, it just doesn't, unless the pay sets off the time spent.

MsJudi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> With that being said, I have completely stopped
> doing one gas station shop because most of them
> have become "Time & Date" required on photos and
> my Olympus doesn't do it. I crossed them off my
> list because it was too much hassle to add the
> time and date, get photos of each pump, etc. Maybe
> if the price goes up and I'm desparate, I'll
> reconsider. Or maybe I'll get a new camera with
> that capability, but for now I'm plenty busy with
> other shops. I'm hoping at some point that they
> will go back to regular mystery shops.


That was what happened to me yesterday - I didn't know that my camera didn't have the option of imprinting the time and date!!! I found a program called Exifer that will embed them as a watermark, and they accepted that. That pulls the data from the "date taken" and I had that wrong from when I charged the battery, so I spent a ridiculous amount of time finally figuring out that I can use Windows Live Photo Gallery to change the "date taken" to make it accurate and THEN to use the Exifer to embed the date taken.

I was rather frustrated when I wrote all that yesterday; sorry for venting to all of you. On the bright side, I did lose the one gas station I went to the wrong place for (but learned a lesson: MAKE SURE to check address with employees when you get there!) and all of the other CORI ones got graded at 5/5, so I guess I won't take them off my list just yet.

Thanks everyone for your input!

MDavisnowell Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Everyone should do what they think best, but it
> might be good if you reconsidered marking
> Corporate Research off your list. The problems
> you're having are with your equipment and with
> your execution of the shops. Marking off Cori
> won't help this and you'll miss a lot of bonused
> work.

You are right. I was just venting and frustrated with myself!

> I learned the hard way to check the time/date
> stamp on the camera before I start each day. You
> should also check it each time you change the
> batteries. The problem you had at the fast food
> shop was simple human error, and we all have to
> deal with that. It's going to get easier.

I also discovered that you can easily adjust the "date/time taken" on your photo properties with Windows Live Photo Gallery, which has an "adjust time" feature under Edit. You can do them all at once in a batch. In my instance I had to adjust them all by going forward 2 hours and 5 minutes. Once I figured out that little trick it was a lot easier.


> On the stations I do, I made tick sheets for each
> type station. They're all different and all
> require different pictures, so these sheets are
> very helpful.

Do yo uwant to share your tick sheets? LOL

> You'll learn tricks as you go along that will make
> this easier and quicker. Please don't give up on
> Cori or anyone else. All of the companies
> represent an opportunity for income.

You're right, again, and thanks for being a voice of reason when I had what was essentially a written temper tantrum!

techman01 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It seems like the problems you are having with
> cori are your own issues.
>
> As a shopper you clearly need to be better
> organized.
>
> If you had brought a printout of the questionaire
> as you are suppose to, you would not of forgotten
> anything as once you were back in your car you
> could of looked it over and made any notes you
> needed too.

> I can't say it enough. Organize, Organize,
> Organize.

Actually I DID have the questionnaire with me, and I DID look at it before I left, but I missed one tiny detail. I was supposed to look for a certain thing to see if it was either on the door or on the menu board. I saw it on the door and failed to look for it on the menuboard. It wasn't until later when I was doing the report online that I noticed it said "check all that apply" - I thought it was an either/or question so I didn't look further after I saw it. It wasn't the organization that was the problem, I just missed that one detail.

> Don't be like the waitress who thinks their cool
> and memorizes your order without writing it down,
> and then brings you your order incorrectly.
>
> and I'm being critical in my response because
> there are a number of things that cori could and
> should be doing better for their shoppers and it's
> no secret I am not a big fan of them because of
> it. However, your criticism is unfairly placed on
> them.

I didn't blame them - what I said was "I think I am getting scared off of CORI. I have never had trouble with any of the other MSCs I have worked with! Granted, part of this is MY error (not checking the address, forgetting to look for this thing), but I'm just getting really bad vibes about it. lol"

My other frustrations, as I said, were, "I am also getting irritated with the 6 hour or by midnight EST rule for submitting shop reports. The fast food was a dinner shop and I didn't do it until 8 pm, so I am just now getting everything uploaded, and it's past midnight EST now already... but it's NOT 6 hours past shop time."

That's not blaming the company for doing something wrong, either.

You have made assumptions about me that are incorrect. I'm a bit peeved that you're comparing me to "a waitress who thinks she's cool and brings the wrong order" when it wasn't like that at all. I quite simply missed one tiny detail on that particular thing, and I was frustrated WITH MYSELF due to the time/date stamp issues. Perhaps you could clarify what someone has done before you tell them they're disorganized or otherwise criticize them, hmm?

cgruning - Of course I'll share my tick sheets. PM me your email. Remember now, these don't come with a warranty. If they're not exactly what you need, at least you'll have a starting place. I'm glad to share these with anyone.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/2012 04:20AM by MDavisnowell.

Nobody appreciates unasked for criticism and/or advice. You were making alot of assumptions about the poster and frankly sounding like standing on the mountain and proclaiming the "truth". Talk about judging.

cynb Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Nobody appreciates unasked for criticism and/or
> advice. You were making alot of assumptions about
> the poster and frankly sounding like standing on
> the mountain and proclaiming the "truth". Talk
> about judging.

THANK YOU! I was thinking that and some other rather uncharitable things, but being new to MSing and new to the forum I decided to keep it to myself.

I'm still having trouble not editing the spelling though.

@cynb: if you post on a public forum, you are going to get criticism and/or advice. If you don't want anyone to comment, I would suggest using an online journal which is private in the future.

@cgruning: You didn't come out and say "I hate cori, it's all their fault." But you did say "part of this was my error" implying the rest of it was cori's.

Either way, if I were a new shopper looking at this post, I would not sign up for cori, based on what you wrote, thinking they are too difficult a company to work for. So while you may not have come out and said it directly, you clearly implied it; even if it wasn't intentional.

I responded accordingly, so new shoppers do not get scared away from them because they are fairly easy to start with for someone new to the scene.

Twice a year for several years now I take new shoppers for one msc on a revealed audit to show them in person the way to complete the audit for the client properly, avoid rookie mistakes etc. I've used the waiter analogy everytime. It's relatable for many people.

In making the waiter comment to you it was because you chose not to fill out the report before leaving. Anytime anyone does a new shop for an msc, it's always best to fill out the reports fully before leaving until you get into the swing of things for that client.

@ CG -

Please don't apologize for venting.

I personally believe that when a poster feels comfortable enough to "vent" - that you've got a great group of people who will listen and be objective. Empathize with you - and yes, even tell us we need to look at something in a different way (whether it's really what we want to hear or not!)

Just a Tip on Venting - Put that in your "Subject Line" (ie: BIG VENT blah, blah, blah)

Or, at the top of your post simply write in all caps:

"HUGE VENT!!!" (and after I end up writing it all out, I TRY and remember to add something, "VENT OVER!!")

Like I said at the beginning - when a poster feels comfortable enough to vent, they've got a great group of people to talk to!



cgruning Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> I was rather frustrated when I wrote all that
> yesterday; sorry for venting to all of you. On
> the bright side, I did lose the one gas station I
> went to the wrong place for (but learned a lesson:
> MAKE SURE to check address with employees when
> you get there!) and all of the other CORI ones got
> graded at 5/5, so I guess I won't take them off my
> list just yet.
>
> Thanks everyone for your input!