OK, i am trying to figure these guys out. I have done shops with them for a few months and recently have been getting great feedback from them. However, I am still on limited view with them. I can only view a shop if it is emailed out and they are trying to fill it. I can never go in like my other companies and see their full list.

Does anyone have any pointers on how to earn ranks with them? Do you need to get certified?

I don't remember that ever being a problem, though I have worked with them for a number of years and things do change over time. They are just beginning to post shops for April so it is likely that at this moment you can only see 'leftovers' from March. Do watch their site over the next few days for April shops to post in your area.

Like with any company, you become a valued shopper when you are doing acceptable shops on a regular basis with little need for the editors to contact you for further information. At first you are likely to be able to do only 1 shop per client per month on a self assign basis, but then that expands to 2. They obviously have an internal ranking system that we are not allowed to see, but well written reports as per their guidelines should get you moved up in that pecking order rather quickly. Some clients have certifications to be done once you accept the shop. As for any certification from anywhere else, that is not necessary as the work you are doing for them will speak volumes. "Great feedback" from them is good. If there are ANY suggestions for future shops make 100%+ sure that you follow those suggestions for subsequent shops.

There are not any March shops here. They do have a message saying April shops will be posted between today and Friday.

They don't have much up here either, so it must be that.

Not much from them around here either.

April shops may begin posting tomorrow. But it usually take 7-10 days for them all to post. AND, they go FAST. So check twice a day.

In my neck of the woods (there is at least one tree per block where I live) there are multitudes of March shops. This company used to have great shops with some work involved but now in my area the shops are mostly pizza places where you cannot have a really full meal with only reimbursement and for that you need to do pics and narratives, granted they are shorter than the high end restaurant narratives but still longer than some of the other msc doing pizza places. All these shops seem to have trouble finding a shopper. One of them allows you to only order one rather smallish pizza. For my family that would mean a single shopper or having to order a second one on a different tab. And take pics and do narratives. I have not yet done one but they are going begging it seems. The one nice restaurant they still seem to have has an age limit of 50 so I cannot do them.
Mystery shopping gurl, change your zip to a los angeles zip and see if you see any shops. If you do then you will be able to see the ones in your zip when they are released. Or just click on state of California and see if you can see anything there. Our April shops are not there yet...perhaps tonight.

Still nothing posted yet in my neck of the woods.

Nothing here but some March shops. There is an interesting restaurant / bar 2 miles away from here but...

1. It's a late night
2. It requires me to take a guest

So I have to pass.

All the shops I see is reimbursement only.what about gas and parking cash?

I think they have some sort of rating system that may only show the high-end shops to their favorite shoppers. I did a few casual low-end dining shops for them and later I started seeing high-end dining and some hotel shops on their list that I wasn't seeing before. I did a couple of those successfully too. Lately I've seen a little of both on there but right now only the leftover pizza ones. I did one of those before and ordered the max per guidelines and the total was only $12. I spent 4 hours on that one so it wasn't worth the money, although the pizza was very good... I knew this one would be doomed when I got there and there was a line out the door and down the street and I had to count the people in line in front of me. Ugh. They didn't cover parking on that one either and it was in a busy downtown metered area.

I have always had a problem with their site from day one. They told me not to use Firefox and to use IE instead. But, then when I had email shops they showed right up even in Firefox rather than IE. Go figure. I have always been confused by that MSC's website.

I have had no issues with their website seeing, accepting or reporting shops using either Firefox or IE under Win 7 or under XP. I do have issues on Win 7 using Firefox when it comes to downloading a pdf of instructions or a copy of a finished report, but that is true of any pdf I try to download with Firefox because obviously my Adobe Reader is messed up and I have been unsuccessful getting it to behave itself. But that is not an A Closer Look issue.

When I started with them, I saw only a few shops, and no hotels. As I recall, I introduced myself to one or more of their staff who had a table at an early IMSC conference, asking about hotels. I explained that I had a lot of hotel experience with other MSCs and was disappointed not to have access to their shops. One of the people gave me her business card and asked me to email her with a reminder. Within a week I was seeing hotel shops. I now do as many a year as rotations and distance allow.

A couple of years later, my sister bewgan MSing, and signed up with them. She mentioned not seeing any nicer dining shops, so I told her to email the scheduling dept with an MS resume and ask to get a chance at more "advanced" shops. She did so and almost immdeiately was offered a sort of "test" shop. She now treats herself and husband to several nice meals per month.

Lesson: be proactive in asking to be considered for more kinds of shops, substantiating the reasons that you consider yourself to be ready for them. We all need to market ourselves to our MSC client.

I have a friend who have been shopping for them for about 6 months, and she is only able to see the "low" end shops. I, on the other hand, see the higher end shops including the fine dining establishments.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/21/2014 06:35PM by AnneShirley.

walesmaven--Outstanding information and yes, "thinking outside the box" is the way to go, period.

My favorite motto: "For every lock, there is a key"

When I am ready for video shopping, please assist if possible with your valued insight.

I have completed a few assignments, and I always like working with them. I think that in the beginning, I only had partial assignment view, too. I am Gold certified, so it does not seem like that helped at the start, although I do not recall for sure.

When I completed my other assignments, it was always in "completed" status within a day or two. My most recent assignment is still showing in "submitted" status four days later. Has anyone ever had this happen? If it is still there in the morning, I think I will send an email; however, I thought I'd see if anyone has any insight before then.

Thanks ~

Generally they go from "submitted" to "completed" status in under 24 hrs because they need to get the information on to the client. Double check your email and messages that they haven't tried to contact you and then yes, contact them.

Right now they have a regional "crash" audit project going that is sending 37 reports, each with 15-20 pix, thru their system between Tuesday and Friday. Their editors may just may be a tad busy this week.


Gotta give someone there big credit; the report form worked like a charm right out of the box! I took out the lead visit on Monday and was a really happy camper. Communication with scheduler Ruthann, and thru her to the project manager, has been superb.

Here is a success story with ACL. I am typing this from the my room in my first higher end hotel shop for ACL, and the experience has overall been great. I am loving that there is not a multitude of photos required on this shop and I am also loving how safe this neighborhood feels - as opposed to the first lodging shop I did for ACL - or any MSC at all - last June, which was in a very dicey part of Phoenix.

I really like ACL - my experience with them has been that if you have any issues/problems/comments/concerns, drop your scheduler an email and they will respond and work with you. I wish more MSCs had such great communications skills, I really do. I will do my best on then some on this report and I'm hoping to score more higher end hotel shops with them.....I'm loving the reward points I will be getting for this stay and hope to accumulate enough over time to stay somewhere nice I'd like to stay - like maybe Tucson in the off season. We'll see.

At any rate, I'm getting tired and rambling but I do think that one of the keys of my getting the higher end hotel shop with ACL was my willingness to do that dicey shop and my willingness to give that report my all. As an example, that report required a minimum of nine photos and I ended out submitting 26 - the place was such a mess that I wanted to submit a lot of photos to back up my comments. Hope this helps!