The Training Factor just sent out the following bit of advice in their shop instructions. "If your shops are inaccurate or grammatical full of excessive errors, your shop will be eligible for rejection." There were other errors in the instructions. This was the most egregious example.

Will their editors really know the difference between a grammatically correct report and a report that is "grammatical full of excessive errors?" I hope the editors have better grammar skills than the schedulers.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/2014 12:17AM by MysteryMojo.

That there is alful.

Never throw stones if you live in a glass house.....and never attempt to be a company that edits reports without knowing grammar and spelling.

Funny stuff. Don't you love it.

Just an aside, Training Factor is the mystery shopping company. Shopmetrics is the reporting platform they use so they are not related in any other way.

I was just assigned a shop for this MSC. Now I'm nervous.

Thanks for the Training Factor info. I don't remember signing up with them so I was not sure of which company was grammatically challenged.

I just saw a Training Factor apartment shop for $30. How is the report? As bad as EPMS? Or is it less redundant and simpler to complete? Heavy on narrative? Any info. you can provide would be appreciated.

I've had a few assignments come through with errors in the instructions. I never know if I should respond back saying that there is a mistake--on purpose to see if we are paying attention or if they are just human like we are and goofed . I usually just chuckle and move on.

Plmccut, the reports are nothing like Ellis. It seems there was only one narrative.

OK, thx, folks! Maybe I'll give it a try then. I am in the throes of a house sale deal crumbling and while before I could shop to provide me with some fun money I now have to shop to help out pay to maintain both my new and my old place! ;-(

Yes, and since I use Word to proof and have an advanced degree in English, I get a kick out of comments that "a few grammatical errors" had to be corrected not that I would ever use a run-on sentence just to fill up enough spaces in a narrative. Here are a couple of my favorites: 1) I did a Chili's lunch shop graded on a 5 point scale. I lost a point for "here" instead of "her" etc. and wound up with a 2 (good food though); and 2) Ritter send me 3 emails because my gas station picture wasn't straight on. I told them it was in fact perpendicular, and got...well, you can guess on this one.

Did they tell you that perpendicular wasn't the right (angle)?

If wrong is anything less than right then their criticism would be acute.

I think they are really being obtuse.

Thank you for bringing light to the grammatical errors everyone! Our team is working on correcting the errors as we speak. I'm sure you can understand that we are all human here at The Training Factor, but, we have an amazing team which we all are extremely proud of here at The Training Factor. They work very hard for the company and strongly believe in its purpose. In addition, they also work very hard for our shoppers, just like yourself. Our guys are constantly customizing shopping surveys and survey instruction sets in order to better serve our client's needs, cater to their specific selling strategies, and to fulfill their shopping preferences, etc. Providing this level of customization is most often the reason for any errors sneaking past.

Did you know The Training Factor Mystery Shop Team also strives to process shops quickly so that shoppers get paid in a more timely manner? Our favorite mystery shop rule is to pay shoppers WEEKLY and not MONTHLY like many companies. Beyond showing my gratitude, I welcome you to let us know going forward of errors you may see within our instructions or surveys, etc. But, instead of the using the forum to post these imperfections, I would love to invite you to email us at shopdept@thetrainingfactor.com, or you can email me directly anytime at smoore@thetrainingfactor.com.

Thank you again everyone. Take care!

Sincerely,

Sherry Moore
VP of Client Services
The Training Factor, LLC.

The Training Factor is one of my favorite companies and they DO pay quickly! Like Sherry says, they're human. I was raised by the daughter of two English teachers and love to both read and write, but sometimes I get sloppy and miss things. All people do, whether they admit it or not. It's best to just jot a quick reply and mention the error in a polite manner, because most companies do want to represent themselves in the best possible light.