I signed up to do a Mystery Shop on 08/28/2012. It has been my experience that I am told within 1-2 days whether I go the assignment or not. I don't always get informed if someone else is selected.

In my application, I indicated that I could do the assignment on 09/09/2012. I received notice on 09/08/2012 in the afternoon that I am being assigned to do the shop on 09/09/2012. I am no longer available to do so and emailed the scheduler.

The scheduler quickly responded with, "You applied specifically for the 9th. You will be deactivated if you flake. I can't have shoppers provide a specific date and then flake. Let me know what you choose." So she is threatening to deactivate me if I don't do the assignment.

Yes, on 08/28/2012, I said that I could do the shop on 09/09/2012. After 10 days, I am no longer available. 10 days later she expects me to still be available??? I am supposed to stay in limbo with the "chance" I may get the assignment? Do it or be deactivated? I feel it is unfair for her to have the power to ruin my fantastic track record.

I feel she assigned the shop to someone else and they backed out last minute. NOW she assigns to me and I am receiving the backlash. Also, it has been my experience when a shop is still available "last minute" there's usually a bonus involved. Being assigned a shop the day before it is due seems last minute to me...hence why I feel the person she originally assigned, backed out last minute.

Do I have any recourse? How can I contact the company to complain about this scheduler?

First, do the shop because you did not withdraw your application.

Then call and ask to speak to the account manager for that particular client about your issue with the scheduler. If you flake, you will not be in a very good bargaining position.

I am sorry OP I kinda agree with the scheduler. You asked for the job on the 9th. I know sometimes it is extremely frustrating they don't assign you the job right away. In those cases I withdraw the application because something else came up or my route took me a different way. Even if she did assign the shop to someone else and they flaked, you still said you would do it on the 9th and that is what they gave you.

Do the job, you don't want to flake that will take away anything you have for bargaining. Not sure calling the company will help, but all the best of luck to ya.

The scheduler did nothing wrong except possibily for the tone she used. I do not know what tone you used with her, and whether that had anything to do with the tone she used with you.

You offered to do the shop on 9/9 and did not limit your offer in any way, such as saying the offer was good only if the shop was assigned to you by a certain date. You also did not withdraw your offer.

It is irrelevant how other MSCs and schedulers operate. It is also irrelevant whether another shopper flaked on the shop.

You offered to do the shop at $X on 9/9. She accepted your offer. If you backed out and did not do the shop yesterday, you reneged on your promise.

It is now 9/10. Did you do the shop?

If you did not do the shop, I don't think you'll find a sympathetic ear at the MSC. If you honored your promise and did your shop, you have two choices. You may discuss this incident with the MSC. Alternately, you may consider this a lesson learned, and keep quiet.

Sorry myown. I feel for ya. It's happened to me before.

Actually, it has probably happened at least once to every active shopper!

This is a point of frustration for me, as well. You will learn that once your are no longer available to do a shop, you need to delete the application. On the flipside, if you have not heard back from the scheduler in a reasonable amount of time, e-mail them prior to the shop and ask if you can have it assigned to you. I often find that after one of those e-mails, I will sometimes get assigned immediately. I have never been a scheduler, but I can assume they have 100's or 1000's of shops to assign with countless applications for each one. Live and learn.

I wish I had a dollar for every time this has happened to me. You would think I would have learned by now, but as of this afternoon, clearly, I have not. I commented on this in another thread and received great advice that may be worthwhile to you. Whenever you apply for a shop, pencil it in your spreadsheet/calendar or whatever you use to make your schedule. Make it stand out somehow (different color ink, highlight, etc.) so that as your calendar comes together with scheduled shops, you can go back to the MSC and delete your application. It sounds like tedious work, but if you do it, it will save you lots of stress and time juggling. After all that, I cannot tell you why I don't follow this advice 100% of the time. Well, I know.....usually it is because I look at a blank week on Sunday not realizing that by Monday afternoon it will be full. It is typically then that I will have a random shop I applied for a week or more ago suddenly become assigned and screw up an entire day. Sometimes, you just have to accept that you may be cut off from a company, but if you are like most of us, you never want to burn bridges. Not wanting to burn bridges, tomorrow, I will be driving to New york City via Omaha. Not really, but you get the drift. If I would have heeded that great advice given to me, I would not be in such a pickle.

One more note to my previous post, I have initiated the policy of putting a big sticky note on my weekly calendar that says, "DON'T ACCEPT OR APPLY FOR ANY MORE SHOPS THIS WEEK!!!!!" once I have reached my goal and mental exhaustion capacity.

Although what happened is frustrating, the statement below is absolutely true. Unfortunately, it's not unique to one scheduler or MSC, it happens frequently. When I apply for a shop, I put it on my list (which I keep in chronological order), but highlight the text in red. If it gets close to the date and I can no longer do the shop, I'll sign in and if the application is still there, I'll delete it. There are times you won't even see it -- some MSCs don't notify when you're not assigned.

beatlesfan1964 Wrote:
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> This is a point of frustration for me, as well.
> You will learn that once your are no longer
> available to do a shop, you need to delete the
> application.

Unfortunately some MSCs don't have a system that allows you to delete applications, which is really frustrating. You move on with your life, and a month later, bam! You've been assigned to this shop!

OP, I'm sorry you had this happen. I agree with previous posters that when you apply for a shop, pencil it in somewhere and, if possible, stay available for it.

PLEASE let me know how this theory works out for you. I seem to have the "I can do just one more" system going for me. Not sure how to stop!!

My name is Robin, and I am an MS-a-holic. Thank God for this "support group"


amie068 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> One more note to my previous post, I have
> initiated the policy of putting a big sticky note
> on my weekly calendar that says, "DON'T ACCEPT OR
> APPLY FOR ANY MORE SHOPS THIS WEEK!!!!!" once I
> have reached my goal and mental exhaustion
> capacity.

I am an MS-aholic too!! That is why I have to put a sticky note (the big, fluorescent orange ones, no less) over my calendar so that when I see a shop I just can't resist and to see where I can squeeze it in, I go pout back to the computer and delete the email. That is not to say that sometimes I don't move that sticky note, squeeze just ONE MORE in and replace said sticky note back over my calendar.

It seems inevitable that when you are staring at an empty calendar, three days pass....and suddenly you have a sick aunt, the car battery dies, a major project is due at work, and every shop application you wanted is suddenly yours.

There are sometimes hundreds of shoppers applying for the good jobs, so when you get one, do your best to clear your schedule and fit it in (maybe the other jobs are more flexible). You will look good in the eyes of the schedulers for not going back on your word and you will have had a good learning experience. Win-win.

What a fantastic idea!

amie068 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> One more note to my previous post, I have
> initiated the policy of putting a big sticky note
> on my weekly calendar that says, "DON'T ACCEPT OR
> APPLY FOR ANY MORE SHOPS THIS WEEK!!!!!" once I
> have reached my goal and mental exhaustion
> capacity.

A similar thing happened to me with JMR. I just asked a question about the shop, and Nikki scheduled me. She had been trying to schedule this location for quite a while. After a few emails back and forth, she cancelled me and deactivated me. What nerve.

Much later, I reactivated myself, but I realized later that I don't want to and won't shop for them again.

I don't believe a scheduler has the right to deactivate you. Follow through with the company. If I apply for a shop and they don't schedule me within a few days I assume that they don't need me and will schedule somewhere else. As soon as I receive the email near the date, I email them to cancel. I have never had a problem. Sometimes I even call. Most companies do not do this.

I would do the assignment but ask for an extension and explain to the scheduler that giving you less than 24 hours notice wasn't fair, even though you applied for the shop. She should work with you and since most, not all, assignments are usually due by the end of the month, there is room to wiggle on her end. Plenty of it.

DorothyA. Wrote:
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> I don't believe a scheduler has the right to
> deactivate you. Follow through with the company.
> If I apply for a shop and they don't schedule me
> within a few days I assume that they don't need me
> and will schedule somewhere else. As soon as I
> receive the email near the date, I email them to
> cancel. I have never had a problem. Sometimes I
> even call. Most companies do not do this.


I am not sure what leads you to believe schedulers do not have the right to deactivate shoppers but when I worked as a scheduler I most certainly had that "right." It was part of my job.

Liz

DorothyA. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't believe a scheduler has the right to
> deactivate you. Follow through with the company.
> If I apply for a shop and they don't schedule me
> within a few days I assume that they don't need me
> and will schedule somewhere else. As soon as I
> receive the email near the date, I email them to
> cancel. I have never had a problem. Sometimes I
> even call. Most companies do not do this.

Many schedulers have the right to deactivate shoppers and do. Some schedulers may not have the right to deactivate shoppers. For example, an independent scheduler working for an MSC may or may not deactivate a shopper. I operate with the assumption that all schedulers may deactivate me or at least put things in motion so that I may be deactivated. In reality, deactivation is little more than an MSC choosing not to work with a shopper any more. We shoppers can do the same thing to MSCs.

Sometimes, editors may also deactivate shoppers.

I have two calendars one pending and one assigned. If a scheduler has not gotten back to me I send an e-mail to the company if the scheduler is not listed withdrawing my appliction.

I am only one person I take the first offer. Once I have a shop I do not flake even if the other shop is in walking distance and pay three times the fee.

Schedulers often have several people that have applied and can assign the shops to the next on the list.

DorothyA. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't believe a scheduler has the right to
> deactivate you.

Dorothy, most schedulers (and many editors) absolutely do have the authority to deactivate shoppers.

Hey myown,

I know this issue has long since past-- it looks like you got some good replies here-- but it seems a little strange to me that the scheduler would say "do this or we'll cancel you." It's really rare, at least in my experience, for an MSC to have so little patience. Have you ever flaked before with the company? If so, it might just be that they're losing faith in you as a trusty shopper. =( Trust and reliability are two extremely important things to MSCs.

It's funny, one of the posts in this thread said that almost every one of us have experienced this to some degree-- applying for a job and then having something come up when the MSC doesn't contact us. I think that's probably true. How about this? Just last week I applied for a new MSC. A scheduler saw that I was new, that I was in an area where they had a lot of shops they needed to have done, and scheduled me for two without even speaking to me!! =) I had so much going on last week so it was almost impossible for me to do the shops, but somehow I managed to fit them in. I just wanted to put a good foot forward with this new company. I know it's rough, but I agree with many of our counterparts-- just do the shop if it's at all possible and then speak with the scheduler about the scheduling. If it's not a good fit with the MSC, there are tons of them you can do business with.

Sending you the best,

Jen

myown Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I signed up to do a Mystery Shop on 08/28/2012.
> It has been my experience that I am told within
> 1-2 days whether I go the assignment or not. I
> don't always get informed if someone else is
> selected.
>
> In my application, I indicated that I could do the
> assignment on 09/09/2012. I received notice on
> 09/08/2012 in the afternoon that I am being
> assigned to do the shop on 09/09/2012. I am no
> longer available to do so and emailed the
> scheduler.
>
> The scheduler quickly responded with, "You applied
> specifically for the 9th. You will be deactivated
> if you flake. I can't have shoppers provide a
> specific date and then flake. Let me know what
> you choose." So she is threatening to deactivate
> me if I don't do the assignment.
>
> Yes, on 08/28/2012, I said that I could do the
> shop on 09/09/2012. After 10 days, I am no longer
> available. 10 days later she expects me to still
> be available??? I am supposed to stay in limbo
> with the "chance" I may get the assignment? Do it
> or be deactivated? I feel it is unfair for her to
> have the power to ruin my fantastic track record.
>
> I feel she assigned the shop to someone else and
> they backed out last minute. NOW she assigns to me
> and I am receiving the backlash. Also, it has
> been my experience when a shop is still available
> "last minute" there's usually a bonus involved.
> Being assigned a shop the day before it is due
> seems last minute to me...hence why I feel the
> person she originally assigned, backed out last
> minute.
>
> Do I have any recourse? How can I contact the
> company to complain about this scheduler?

I don't like the ultimatum part of the problem. Complaining to the company will likely result in a stong defense. The end result is that you have gained nothing. Why would you want to work for a company that gives ultimatums? How long before it happens again? I would ask to be dropped from their rolls. There are just too many great companies out there who will treat you as an equal and with respect.

They do not have a job board, everything is done by email with scheduler. My problem is the other side of the coin.
I have gotton four "please help" emails, and took three jobs via email, waited days to be told job has been taken,
putting off other jobs, now have nothing. I like this company, but feel they are a bit lax in this department.
I also do not think one should be de-activated over one cancellation, they manage to get jobs filled when they need too.
This scheduler was way off in my opinion. I do work with a nice scheduler, so no complaint there. I'm a little pushed with them over getting "please help" email four times in a week and wanting to do three of the four jobs, then being cut off.