Intellishop Exclusion

October 15, 2014 06:43PM

I have many telephone shops lined up for Intellishop this week. I've been a shopper for about 14 years and have conducted tons of telephone shops during this time. I just received a notice from them that they have excluded the shop I did yesterday because I led the call. The associate would not ask questions and we just sat in silence on the phone. Eventually I did ask questions because the associate would not. Should I have just ended the call?

It's not the money, but the point is that I now have a score of 1 factored into my grade. All of my shops with them are 9s or 10s with one exception being an 8. When I received the 8 they said it was because I did not answer all of the narrative (totally untrue) and that I should review my work (which I always do). When I asked for further information, they decided to ignore me, but changed another grade from a 9 to a 10.

This company does not pay well. Even when shops are bonused, it still isn't much money in my area. I'm really considering removing myself from their database of shoppers. I don't think this frustration is worth the measly $5 for the phone shops. Have any of you ended a relationship with a msc and are there any repercussions?

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October 15, 2014 06:48PM

You could simply stop taking assignments from them.

.
Mike T
Looking for shops in Western Canada

"Life is good because the alternative is forever "

October 15, 2014 06:52PM

Normally I would just stop taking work from them but I have 6 more shops scheduled with them this week. Canceling those shop would give me more grades of 1. I'm wondering if anyone can tell me if canceling can affect my work with any other company.

October 15, 2014 07:48PM

If it was me, I would complete the shops that I've committed to and then make up my mind. I understand how you feel, however deactivating yourself might be a bit shortsighted. If you do as miketfse suggested and simply stop accepting shops, you will still have options in the future--the best of both worlds.

(heart)

I intend to live forever. So far, so good.

October 15, 2014 08:40PM

miketfse Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You could simply stop taking assignments from
> them.

Yup!

Silver Certified ~ Shopping all of Toronto and beyond

October 15, 2014 10:35PM

It would be better to complete everything you have scheduled and then fade away quietly if you still feel the same. You agreed to do those additional shops. Being disgruntled or disappointed about another shop is no good reason to not do them and will affect your standing with the company. We can't know what the connections are from company to company, from scheduler to scheduler, and from editor to editor.

Mary Davis Nowell. Based close to Fort Worth. Shopping Interstate 20 east and west, Interstate 35 north and south.

October 16, 2014 12:22AM

[removed]

Editor at Intellishop

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2014 05:37PM by ggeorge.

October 16, 2014 03:45AM

Intellishop isn't one of my steadies, because of things like this.

I'll put up with it once in awhile for a greatly bonused shop. I mean... $75 to stand at a gas station for an hour taking pictures of people's bumper stickers? I'm on it, especially when I snagged 6 of them at that price within a 10 mile radius, 2 others a short distance away. Sure, I spent 8 hours doing it, but I made $600. That's almost half my monthly goal in a day.

$80 to shop a dealership in East Middle-of-Nowhere, when I had to go to East Middle-of-Nowhere anyway to buy a $600 cargo box for super-cheap off Craigslist? On it!

$65 to test-ride a motorcycle I've been wanting to ride anyway? On it!

Intellishop is NOT worth it at base pay, EVER... but for bonused shops... I suck it up.

------------------------------------------------
Plan the work. Work the plan.

October 16, 2014 04:01AM

ggeorge Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It might be a good thing to note that when you
> reply to the emails you get when your score is
> given it does NOT go to the editor. It goes to a
> generic inbox. If you have questions you need to
> email your scheduler for that specific shop.

When I tried the scheduler never called or emailed me back even though I tried multiple times to contact them. That was when I got a score of 6 for them contacting me multiple times.

October 16, 2014 09:47AM

89lula,
You sound a lot like me. The grade I get means a lot to me. I work hard to keep my grades up. I have emailed several schedulers complaining about my grade. Sounds like high school, huh? And grades on shops, similar to grades on chemistry tests, don't mean much. Yes, 9s and 10s feel good, but if you've been working for them for 14 years with mostly 9s and 10s, a 1 isn't going to hurt your score. It's the principle, right? I totally get it! You don't feel appreciated.

However -- the client wants the shop done precisely to find out how well the rep handles the call. If you led, you got the info without the rep having to do the work, so technically, the rep gave you the info but that's not what the client was looking for. Yes, you probably should have let the silence hang and then said, "OK, well, thank you," and hung up. Chalk it up to learning and move on to your next calls. $5 a call is not much, but for 20 minutes, in your pajamas, without having to gas up the car, means you are making $15 an hour on your own schedule. You'll feel better in a day or two. Don't burn any bridges while you are still hot. Just MHO.

Mystery Shopper since 1998; Author of Make Money Mystery Shopping available on Amazon in the Kindle Store.

October 16, 2014 12:21PM

It's really uncomfortable when they don't ask the required questions or make the required suggestions but you just have to let the silence happen. I wait until it becomes really uncomfortable and then just say thank you and hang up.

October 16, 2014 12:25PM

[removed]

Editor at Intellishop

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2014 05:38PM by ggeorge.

October 16, 2014 02:53PM

2 days.

I always make myself wait 2 days before doing anything major. If I suddenly decide I need to make a major purchase or tell off my boss or adopt a new dog or deactivate myself from Intelli-Shop.... 2 days. About half the time I find I change my mind.

Now, go re-read the post by Iamloved1, three posts above this one; she nailed it.

There are two types of people in this world: Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.

October 16, 2014 03:21PM

So, if the target is silent, it's best to end the call

I don't do but a "tiny miniscule" of work for Intellishop because I have never enjoyed any of their shops.

October 16, 2014 06:44PM

I had this happen on a car test drive shop once. AWKWARD. (I'm talking about the sales person not asking me any questions or really demonstrating or pointing out any of the key features on the car. I also was told not to lead. But talk about feeling stupid. I sat there in silence with the guy asking me "so how do you like the car?" ummmmmm.... how 'bout 'splaining all these nifty gadgets and stuff on the dash?

That had to be the worst test drive ever. :-D

October 17, 2014 05:31AM

Heather,
The same thing happened to me on a car shop! Really uncomfortable for someone who usually asks a lot of questions, but I played the part of a quiet shopper and waited. And waited. And waited. About the only thing the salesman said to me was how hungry he was and what color car I wanted. REALLY?? That's all we ladies care about - does it match my nail polish?? I once read where car salesmen rank customers in order of likelihood of completing a sale. Women are pretty low on the scale so maybe they don't think we're gonna buy anyway.

Mystery Shopper since 1998; Author of Make Money Mystery Shopping available on Amazon in the Kindle Store.

October 17, 2014 06:42AM

I had a car shop as well where the salesperson kept talking on his personal cell phone and refused to go on the test drive with me... it is really sad because the funny thing for him is I AM in the market for a car and that was an option on my list....

October 17, 2014 06:52AM

[removed]

Editor at Intellishop

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2014 05:37PM by ggeorge.

October 17, 2014 02:22PM

The car shops I have done, the salespeople were really good. I'm glad they're getting shopped if they're treating women like this. I don't feel bad for them one bit.

I agree, when the silence gets awkward, it's hard not to fill it. That's why silence is used by law enforcement in interrogations and hostage/crisis negotiations - people feel a NEED to fill that gap. So don't feel bad if you goofed and led the conversation. It means you're normal. Learn from it and bite your tongue next time.

There are two types of people in this world: Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.

October 17, 2014 08:23PM

I did a bunch of the funeral home shops and had to fight with the company for the lousy $5. I had done several which were all ok, but there was an issue that wasn't covered in their guidelines and instructions that became an issue on one shop.

I eventually got paid, but only after many telephone calls and emails. Certainly not worth the effort for a $5 shop, but it was the principle of it.

I haven't removed myself from their database, but no longer respond to their offers.

October 17, 2014 08:32PM

The moral of the story is "Don't do $5 phone shops."

October 17, 2014 08:53PM

I was with Intellishop for 5 years and they all of sudden deactivated my account because they said that I was not reliable. Its the male schedulers and the amount of money that I was making with them that this is. This industry is not even consistent and does discriminate. Good Luck just know your schedulers well and you should be OK.

October 17, 2014 09:29PM

I just had a shop excluded by Intellishop this week as well. Initially they had approved it with a 10/10. Now they say it is unusable because I pushed for a sale and I mentioned I am from out of town. I have gone over every letter of that report and I don't say anything about being from out of town. Also, there was no sale so not sure how I pushed for it. I've sent them a note, but so far, no response.

October 17, 2014 09:32PM

I think you should stick with them and finish your shops. I would also talk to the scheduler about what happened. They have an editor that is really awful, if they are the ones that are giving you scores. I've got to the point to ignore the score. Do your best and get paid. I would ask the editor to have someone review your recording if it's not to late. I had one shop with them, the editor was so ridiculous, almost lost me a lot of money based on her editing. I refused to let it go, had the scheduler send the shop to someone else and in the end they deleted the editor out of my shop. I got paid and a high score.

October 17, 2014 09:52PM

TDonaldson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I just had a shop excluded by Intellishop this week as well. Initially they had approved it with
> a 10/10. Now they say it is unusable because I pushed for a sale and I mentioned I am from out of town. I have gone over every letter of that report and I don't say anything about being from out of town. Also, there was no sale so not sure how I pushed for it. I've sent them a note, but so far, no response.

How long ago was your shop? If it was graded by an editor and you were contacted after that and told your shop is unusable because of information not provided in your report, the information was probably provided by the client in response to your report. I suggest you contact Intelli to discuss the reason for the exclusion. I would start with Sara Petersen,
sara.petersen@intelli-shop.com

October 17, 2014 10:20PM

I also ended my relationship with Intellishop after they claimed that I was not onsite for long enough to complete the audit, which they had marketed as just a mystery shop. I almost dropped the audit after I found out how much work they wanted for $7, but elected to suck it up. They had about 15 questions about the exterior of the facility, but refused to factor in the time spent on that portion when determining if the work was completed correctly. About six months after deactivation, a scheduler had the nerve to ask me if I wanted to do some work for them, and even persisted after being informed that I had essentially fired them. I had to literally send a message in all caps that read, "What part of do not contact me do you not understand?"

They suck.

October 17, 2014 10:51PM

HeatherB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I had this happen on a car test drive shop once.
> AWKWARD. (I'm talking about the sales person not
> asking me any questions or really demonstrating or
> pointing out any of the key features on the car.
> I also was told not to lead. But talk about
> feeling stupid. I sat there in silence with the
> guy asking me "so how do you like the car?"
> ummmmmm.... how 'bout 'splaining all these nifty
> gadgets and stuff on the dash?
>
> That had to be the worst test drive ever. :-D

Haha I'm faced with these kind of situations from time to time.

Last month, I did an eyeglasses store where I needed to be in the store "around 30 minutes minimum." And of course, I am not supposed to lead other than stating I was seeking a new pair of glasses. What happened? The sales associate pointed out where the male frames and unisex frames were and nothing else. I ended up trying at least 50 frames in dead silence before I reached my required "around 30 minutes."

Very infrequently shopping the Greater Denver Area, Colorado Springs and in-between in Colorado these days.

October 18, 2014 01:26AM

I need to know how to look up shops I guess, I never see anything in Intellishop but one particular brand of car for a new car shop!

October 18, 2014 01:57AM

Complete your shops with them, remove yourself from their email list. Don't remove yourself from the company. Just take a break from them.

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