I've been following this, basically without comment, and won't comment on the original complaint since it has been answered/resolved.

I will add that I have had very little success getting assigned through KSS, and once was unable to get clarification or help when I had agreed to do a shop on a Saturday (last day of the month, was begged to do it, finally agreed to do it (70 miles from home) with no bonus to help the scheduler meet his goals) and the assignment said it was due on Friday and I could not get an answer over the weekend of whether I should do it or not. I couldn't justify driving 70 miles each way to do a shop I wasn't certain I would be able to input on time since it would have been overdue before I even got there.

KSS is not the only company that does not have help on the weekend; but all of them *should* have an "urgency" number. But KSS is the only company I've dealt with that keeps stale jobs on the board. Nearly all shops I have applied to with them, I figured out three days later were not on the source MSC's job board at all. Never got a response to the application, no "sorry, this job is no longer available" and the jobs stay on the board for days after they have been assigned through the MSC's own job board.

I usually just go to the source and bypass KSS because their board is unreliable and nobody responds to the requests.

So, Lori, if you're still watching this thread, please do something about communication and responsiveness because this is a major complaint and it's costing you shoppers. I shouldn't have to go to a second job board to find out if the jobs you have listed really exist or not. If I have to do that, what's the point of using a scheduling company in the first place?

mrcomputer, why do you think that only "physical" work counts as "working your arse off"? I work my arse off every tax season without leaving my desk.

dspeakes Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> mrcomputer, why do you think that only "physical"
> work counts as "working your arse off"? I work my
> arse off every tax season without leaving my desk.

I hate when people make this assumption! My mother-in-law said the same thing and I put her in her place; and after my wife showed her how far ahead we are on our bills, she never said another bad word about what I do.

Hi All,

This will be my last post on the subject. Ryan responded to Mr.Computer guy on the initial complain that spurred this thread and all is rectified as far as we are concerned.

All of my account managers (schedulers) are employees and are paid a salary plus health/vision insurance PLUS 401K with company match. They get paid regardless of whether I get paid. The mystery shopping companies that we schedule for only pay KSS for shops that are submitted on time and correctly by our shoppers. If the shopper does the shop incorrectly, we have to reschedule (and reschedule and reschedule and reschedule sometimes) until it is done correctly, and KSS is not paid for any of the work that went into the shops that are not useable by our clients.

However, my account manager/schedulers do make significant bonuses when they get 100% on time completion. So, their pay changes dramatically if just one shopper doesn't come through at the end of the month. It is incredibly frustrating for them, yet they are still required to be polite and respectful and "smile from the wrists down" while dealing with shoppers.

All of my account managers/schedulers are required to check in on email on the weekends for at least one hour per day - unless they are ILL or on vacation. If it is a normal weekend, you will get a response from them on urgent matters on the weekends. However, if they have the flu, or strep, or some other illness, I'm sorry, but I am not going to require that they work with fever, etc. That's not the kind of company I want to run.

Unfortunately, only Ryan knows his projects. We do schedule more than 1 million (accepted!) shops a year for more than 70 different mystery shopping companies. There is no possible way to cross train every single account manager on every single project. It just isn't humanly possible. So, having other people able to cover his projects isn't feasible. However, I do know that Ryan will work with you as much as possible to fix things. He really is a great person to work with, I promise!

However, I do work nearly every weekend (unless I am ILL or on vacation), and I can usually help with most projects, so you are all more than welcome to contact me and I'll do the best I can to help you out. You can also contact my operations manager, Nola Penny. Here are both of our email addresses:

KSSLorri@kernscheduling.com
KSSNola@kernscheduling.com

Thanks for all of the feedback on this thread. I've learned a lot from and about many of you. Definitely feel free to email me offline with questions/comments and other feedback. I just feel the most professional thing right now is to step away from this thread as it has turned into an unhealthy debate that I do not want to continue to feed into.

Happy Shopping!

Lorri Kern
CEO
KSS International, Inc.

ShoppingBee Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> From my POV it seems most of the forum defenders
> of KSS, whether it is Ryan, Alan, Jeff or Lorri
> the defenders/fellow shoppers are self serving-
> just looking to lock in assignments. ...

I meant what I said about Ryan and STN. Never had a problem at all and love working with STN. If I have a prolem, complaint, or concern, then I will most certainly express it. I'm not being self serving, just stating the facts as they pertain to me and my experience with the company.

Hope you will not group me in with the other defenders you think are "self serving". Maybe they are and maybe they are not. Or just maybe...they are being honest.

Yes, the insults flying from Bee got under my skin, regretfully. As did the fact that she took PART of a comment, erased the commas, and tried to play it out like I said something completely different. My apologies to anyone else that was offended.

My point, which I'll now stick to, is that everyone at KSS works hard. Lorri does not allow them to not work hard. I think you'd all be interested to know that Lorri, as a CEO, is VERY involved in her business. She sits in the same office as her employees and oversees everything that happens during business hours. On weekends, not only can they IM her from their laptops, but they all have her personal cell to reach her if necessary. She very rarely takes a day off, even while sick or on vacation.

Lorri is paid on the number of shops that are completed, and the scheduler's bonuses are based on the account being 100% finished at the end of the month. I find it VERY hard to believe that so much has changed in the months I've been gone. Yes, it may be more difficult to reach a scheduler in minutes over the weekend. Put yourself in their shoes. They have already worked 40-50 hours (most 50) between Monday and Friday, and will put time in on the weekends, but they have lives outside of scheduling and the weekends are the only time to do something with those lives.

To me, having experience with thousands of shoppers, some people in this thread seem like the nightmare shoppers that schedulers sometimes have to deal with. By that, I mean the ones that will find any or every excuse in the book (I had a shopper that lost her dad 3 times in 6 months) to reschedule or complain about a shop. Some also seem like the type that either do not read the guidelines thoroughly, or need a scheduler to hold their hand through every step. It's not that hard. I had hundreds of shoppers I never even spoke with on the phone. They applied through the site, I assigned it, and it was done the day it was supposed to be. No help needed. I've recruited shoppers that have never done a shop in their lives. They figured it out, called me after to make sure it was done correctly, and it was. No help needed. If you need a scheduler to help you every shop you do, this isn't for you.

As far as none of mine being rejected... I'm sure the 30 or so I've done is only a "few" compared to you, but I've done extremely detailed shops for very picky clients, and not had them rejected. Want to know the secret? Follow the guidelines completely, write an interesting report, and don't have a bunch of grammatical errors that show you are rushing through it!

Yes, my 30 or so may be a few, but I have also worked with several shoppers that have done hundreds of shops, and were paid for every single one! The only time I have ever seen a shopper not get paid is if they, or the scheduler, messed up! In the cases where a KSS scheduler messes up, I have seen Lorri herself pay the shopper out of her own pocket.

As far as the person that asked how you work your ass off answering phones and sitting in front of a computer, I can guarantee you wouldn't last. There are deadlines. At the end of the month, stress is through the roof. Schedulers can do their job by finding a shopper, but a schedulers's job is based on that shopper doing their job. So as the other scheduler here pointed out, a scheduler ALWAYS, every month, is filling a good 30% of their shops multiple times due to shoppers failing to adequately do their job. You sir, try to work 60-70 hours a week, in office and at home, being yelled at by incompetent shoppers, stressing about refilling shops you already filled 4 times, getting phone calls at 3 am, doing shops for fellow schedulers that shoppers won't take, holding incompetent shopper's hands through every step of the process, battling editors to help shoppers get paid, battling clients to pay the shoppers more so they will do the shop, and everything else a scheduler does. Then tell me they don't work their ass off.

To end my novel, I did not have a bad experience as a scheduler. I actually enjoyed it for the most part. My reason for not being a scheduler anymore is for personal reasons, not because I couldn't do it or because it was a bad experience. I NEVER received any complaints from shoppers about me. Quite the contrary actually. Lorri got more than one very positive email about me, and spread them around the office to let schedulers know that if you work hard on the weekends as well as during the week, some shoppers will take the time to show gratification. Most of my experiences were great, but I am only pointing out the bad so shoppers that have never been on the other end can realize what a scheduler deals with on a daily basis.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/08/2014 05:40PM by PS1980.

"The only time I have ever seen a shopper not get paid is if they, or the scheduler, messed up!" Thank you for including schedulers since your previous post indicated the only possible problem could be the shopper. We are all human and we all make mistakes.

"To me, having experience with thousands of shoppers, some people in this thread seem like the nightmare shoppers that schedulers sometimes have to deal with. By that, I mean the ones that will find any or every excuse in the book (I had a shopper that lost her dad 3 times in 6 months) to reschedule or complain about a shop." Maybe I'm more familiar with the people who have posted to this thread. Out of 22 different shoppers there are only three which have not been posted here often and for a long time. You could not be more off base.

"Some also seem like the type that either do not read the guidelines thoroughly, or need a scheduler to hold their hand through every step. It's not that hard. I had hundreds of shoppers I never even spoke with on the phone. They applied through the site, I assigned it, and it was done the day it was supposed to be. No help needed." Only speaking for myself, but sure this applies to virtually every other person who has replied here, I have completed thousands of shops which were either self-assigned or applied for via the website, read clear and concise guidelines, completed the shop when it was due and needed no contact with a scheduler.

"I've recruited shoppers that have never done a shop in their lives. They figured it out, called me after to make sure it was done correctly, and it was. No help needed. "If you need a scheduler to help you every shop you do, this isn't for you." Again, just based on the sampling of respondents here who have been successfully earning a living at mystery shopping, we obviously don't need a scheduler to help us through every shop.

"As far as none of mine being rejected... I'm sure the 30 or so I've done is only a "few" compared to you, but I've done extremely detailed shops for very picky clients, and not had them rejected." Pointing out you had only completed a "few" shops, your words not mine, was simply to make the point you may not be familiar with that many different MSCs and may not have the experiences with contradictory guidelines or run into situations so far out of the norm it would not have been possible to cover them in standard guidelines. We've all done detailed shops for picky clients, it is not a contest.

I have never considered any job related to mystery shopping to be easy or made the assumption one of us works harder than the other. I understand how the comments made by ShoppingBee would get under your skin. Hopefully, you will understand how your sweeping generalizations about shoppers you don't know may have gotten under our skin. Hearing a scheduler have such a low opinion of shoppers is always a disappointment.

To be fair, I did say "some". There are plenty on here that do understand what a scheduler does and appreciate it.

I will admit I have not done shops for all the MSCs. I can't be sure all of them are 100% competent themselves. I can say that of the several I had experiences with, they all were.

I think you are misunderstanding me. For the most part, I had a very high opinion of the majority of shoppers I dealt with, and the ones I never had to deal with because they never needed my help. It was very rarely a burden to help those who needed it, but I'm sure you know from your experiences that some people can't be helped. They want everything done for them and put in as little effort as possible.

I'm sorry if you felt I was singling anyone here out. Just that some of the comments reminded me of the shoppers that believe everything is the scheduler's fault. I don't know any of you personally, so I can't say any of you are those shoppers for sure. It's quite possible some of you are the shoppers I assigned shops to and they got done without ever having a single issue. The negativity I have displayed toward shoppers is, as I said, rare. For the great majority of shoppers I worked with, which were over a thousand per month, everything went very smoothly and professionally. In order to make my point of what schedulers can have to deal with, I had to point out the bad shoppers.

In other words, just as you point out that it is disappointing to hear a scheduler have a low opinion of shoppers (which I promise you there are many more that they have great opinions of than bad), it is equally disappointing for me to read a shopper having such a low opinion of a scheduler. Especially when I have known that scheduler personally, and realize how hard that individual works and sets aside his own life to assist ALL shoppers as best he can.

I've nothing to contribute, fortunately. I am amazed at the number of complaint threads regarding KSS schedulers recently. I don't schedule very much through KSS, but I've never had any problems with their schedulers.

Oh.My.Gosh. How did this thread turn into this?

The initial posts made by PS1980 made his/her intentions quite clear and I believe the spirit of his/her motivation was pure. Then, as I watched members seize the opportunity to belittle PS1980, due to his/her wording, under the guise that they felt they were being belittled, I realized just how far we have yet to go to change the forum tone.

Sad.

(heart)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/08/2014 09:55PM by stilllearning.

I didn't seize any opportunity, I responded to posts as written. Under your new guidelines is that no longer allowed? Or are you the only one who can contribute a dissenting opinion?

PS1980 had and took the opportunity to respond to Shopping Bee. There was no need for he or she to take it to the next level by painting so many shoppers with the same brush. There was also no need to belittle any shopper who reaches out to a scheduler with questions, the very thing we encourage shoppers to do when they are in doubt. It was just this week a brand new shopper was in fear of contacting their scheduler. Is that the tone we are trying to achieve?

"Under your new guidelines is that no longer allowed? Or are you the only one who can contribute a dissenting opinion.

If you would like to PM me, I would be glad to discuss this further with you, Lisa.

(heart)

Personally, I have dealt with many awesome shoppers during my short time as a scheduler. There are a few who weren't so awesome of course, but I would rather focus on the ones that came through for me and did their assignments right.

There are people on this forum who choose to get into an "us vs. them" mentality as far as shoppers to schedulers. I look at it as we are all in this together.

Schedulers only get paid for shops that are assigned, successfully completed and finalized. Without great shoppers, I don't get paid. The credit goes to shoppers, I'm just there to assist the shopper as much as they need me to.

It is exactly the us vs them I don't like. The only thing you said I don't entirely agree with is all the credit going to the shoppers. A good scheduler can also make or break an assignment.

I agree with LisaSTL. I can't tell you how many times I've
dealt with schedulers who don't know the full guidelines on
a shop they are scheduling.

LisaSTL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It is exactly the us vs them I don't like. The
> only thing you said I don't entirely agree with is
> all the credit going to the shoppers. A good
> scheduler can also make or break an assignment

The shoppers play a huge role, which is field work and completing the shop. I'm not saying scheduling is easy, because, trust me, it's definitely not. It is mentally exhausting, especially when it gets close to a deadline.

Mystery Shopping Companies, schedulers, shoppers, editors, and administration are all important in this industry and we all have the same goal- successfully completing assignments and making money. There's no reason for this to be adversarial; as a matter of fact, the entire process runs a lot smoother when we are all on the same page.

As a scheduler, my role is to inform shoppers of assignments available, answer any questions a shopper may have and ensure that a shopper completes a shop and gets paid. I make myself available as much as possible to answer shoppers questions, whether it is by email, phone, text, on this forum or even on facebook.

My goal is to be the best at whatever I do in life. In my mind, there's no point in doing anything if you don't strive to be the best. I am still learning the ropes with scheduling, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to grow and better myself.

In addition, I still complete mystery shops; I always will enjoy doing assignments.

PS 1980
Take responsibility for yourself. I cut and pasted your comment with ... which denotes the paste was an excerpt of what you said. No one took away your commas. You stated there were instances while working at KSS that you did not get paid. Lorri shot that down. You have no credibility.

You complain you had to hold hands and deal with rejected shops. I have never had a rejected shop and I have never worked with KSS. I have done exponentially more than 30 shops. I choose to deal directly with the MSCs than go through scheduling companies for a reason, it's called accountability- which is a two-way street and something apparently unknown at KSS.

Here is my last post.

This is EXACTLY what I posted, copied and pasted, from page two of this thread...

Most times I didn't get paid, it was because a shopper tried to do as little as possible, or had no idea how to write a report, and got rejected. 

Here is what you posted from that...


"Most times I didn't get paid..."

To be more clear, I was referring to being paid my bonuses for having a project at 100%.

You now have no credibility. Thank you.

On to the rest of life.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/08/2014 11:48PM by PS1980.

I have nothing negative to say about KSS. I completed one shop for them last year without incident. Regardless of the company however, somebody in a position such as a scheduler should turn on the "out of office" message on their email WITHOUT FAIL. Even if you have the flu, it takes about 10 seconds. Or in a circumstance where they just can't access email, the supervisor should be able to do that. That way, people who need immediate assistance in the field will know they are not available and who to contact in their absence.

I have been in a situation where I needed immediate assistance, and if somebody didn't help, there was no possible way to complete the shop. Sh*t happens to all of us, but you can't just leave the office for several days and not let people depending on you not know you aren't there.

Thanks for bringing the point home, Bearclaw. How many unanswered emails to schedulers are too many and what is a reasonable expectation for shoppers re time spent emailing for assistance, spinning their wheels, in the dark, watching their schedule get shot full of holes, before escalating the request for assistance?

I'm in England and received an unsolicited email from a Ty ONeal of Kern Scheduling Services offering music system assignments. I had completed the same assignments recently when offered by a UK based MSC. Those assignment reports had to be entered onto a third party system not that of the UK based MSC which is how I assume Kern got my email details as I am not registered with them.

The email ended with a trite "Thanks! I look forward to working with you!" Obviously Mr ONeal was not looking forward to it that much as the email I sent indicating my availability was not afforded the courtesy of a reply. Seems to be a common theme on this thread.

PS1980 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Most times I didn't get paid, it was because a
> shopper tried to do as little as possible, or had
> no idea how to write a report, and got
> rejected. 
>


Sorry to be the grammar police here, but punctuation is the key. If PS1980 meant to say he wasn't paid most of the time, there would be a comma between "Most times" and "I didn't get paid" and a semi-colon between "didn't get paid" and "it was because."

But it would have been clearer if he had said "Most of the times when I didn't get paid" which would have made it more clear that he was talking only about the reason why he wasn't paid sometimes, not saying that he wasn't paid most of the time.

If I were a scheduler and knew I wasn't being paid if the shopper's report was rejected, I would make damn sure someone was handling shopper questions for me, at least the time-sensitive ones. If you are in the process of conducting a shop and something comes up that the guidelines require you to contact your scheduler immediately, a 4-day response time won't cut it. Of course we all get sick and miss work, but how often are you too sick to check your email from bed at home, especially if nobody else knows your projects and how to answer time-sensitive questions? If I'm THAT sick, it's because I'm in a coma, in the hospital, and the nurse won't give me my tablet.

I agree Ryan should have checked his email, no matter what, if he didn't have someone else to cover for him. And I agree that if Ryan were so sick he would be unable to check his mail, management should have put someone on it for him. That's what I think, but what I think won't change how things are. Situations like that aren't good, but it doesn't sound like Ryan did something deliberately that should get him called a piece of work. I associate "piece of work" with something mean that someone does on purpose. I don't think that's what happened, so I think calling him a piece of work is a little over the top. But, I agree with you completely he should have checked his email or reached out to someone at Kern for help.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/10/2014 02:16AM by MDavisnowell.

In a profession where the majority of communication is online,
Lori's response of "Well if they are sick I'm not going to make them
work" is unacceptable.

She should have a contigency plan in place so if someone isn't able
to answer emails for whatever reason, someone else can. I find it
mind boggling that a company that claims to schedule 1 million
shops a year, cant have any cross trained employees even though
shops are many times time sensitive. Not to mention
it's just poor business pracitice to leave potentially hundreds of
shoppers hanging because someone got the sniffles and called out.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/10/2014 12:23AM by techman01.

I have had very negative experiences with both Ryan and Lorrie. IMHO, this is a disorganized and unreliable MSP. There are lots of better ones listed on the MSPA website.

Lori stated Ryan was sick. Ryan sent me an email stating that he had left early Friday and was gone for the weekend. No mention of any sickness. This is simply a problem that needs to be addressed and resolved...

And isn't this the same Ryan offering $24 for shoes that is misleading in two shops not one? And TWO returns?

Here is what I find very funny- Everyone is giving IntelliShop crap on another thread because more then one person handles the TeamTopGun email accounts and their proofeader email accounts, saying they never work with the same person, no consistency ,ect yet when a company does have one scheduler handle their own accounts, they give KSS a hard time for it.

Bottom line is this, it is our job as a shopper and an MSO company to get what the client wants done. As a shopper, if I do not want to play by the rules of the client or the MSO, I need to be quiet and not accept the job. No shop is an entitlement to have, it is a job that we accepted and need to complete the way the person paying to have it done wants it done.

Canadamommy- No, that was a scheduler who name begins with J from ICCDS.