I do not want to mention the company but I want to get feedback on an issue. I did an apartment shop. It was not video or audio. After I went, I wrote my report. The target was extremely short with me. The demonstration was horrible. She did not show me any amenities. I do about 20 of these a month and it was the worst one I have been on. About a month after I turned in the report, I got a note from someone from the MSC:

We are currently reviewing your shop of xxx at xxx due to a dispute. The client is saying that you let the agent (xxx) know from the beginning that you had other appointments and were in a bit of a hurry. Do you recall this being the case? Please respond as promptly as possible so that we may resolve this dispute. Your prompt response is both appreciated and required. Thank you.

I first told them that I needed more info. I do so many that I didn't recall which assignment this was. The MSC sent me:

The visit only lasted 15 minutes. Another agent in the office claims they also overheard you tell xxx that you were in a hurry and had other appointments (or other things/errands/etc) to do. You were given a quick tour. You objected to the lack of a ceiling fan in the apartment. Hope that helps refresh your memory.

I not only didn't remember telling anyone that I was in a rush but I use that objection a lot. I asked for more info.

She sent me a few pages of the report and then I remembered the assignment. This is what I sent her:

Thank you for sending me the information. First, I looked on my calendar. I keep my calendar of appoinmtnets to help keep track of things. I only had her appointment that day. I did not have any appointments before or after. My kids don't get picked up until 2:30 so I was not rushed to get anywhere else.

I looked back at my records and I had been calling there for a week to try and reach her. I had made 10 calls. I kept getting xxx and xxxx until finally xxxx said I could ask for her directly. On my last two calls there, I asked for her directly but they told me that she was on the phone or could not come to the phone.

Finally, I reached her at 11:45 on Monday and asked if I could come over to see the property. It was rather urgent for me to get to see her at that point because it had taken me so long to reach her.

I do not remember trying to rush her or telling her that I have other appointments I needed to get to. I did not have another appointment that I was trying to get to. I remember that she did drive fast and her tour was not comprehensive. I do not think that she took me to see amenities at all. Hope this helps.

I asked the MSC to call me. I felt very uncomfortable about this dispute process. First, of all, it basically gave away my identity. This apartment is in my community and I felt like I could get contacted by her because she has my contact info. I also felt uncomfortable because they were questioning my integrity. I signed the report that this was accurate. Also, another employee could not of overheard anything because we were not talking loud and there was a lot going on in the office. It was obvious to me that the target was getting in trouble and wanted to blame me for doing a bad job or rushing her.

I was just wondering if this has happened to you or if you feel that it was appropriate for the MSC to come back to me. Shouldn't they have protected me and told the client that I signed the report that it was accurate.
Thanks!!

The apartment is located in the same community where you live?

It is in the same city but not my physical neighborhood.

15 minutes is not short for an apartment shop if its not large community..
And to your question
EVERY apartment shop tells the target Who the shopper was,.

Everything the MSC asked you was appropriate. They are just trying to make sure that they had all the facts straight. I know you turned in your report, but many times we remember more things after the fact. These other things come in handy when questions arise, as did with you.

Just as the above post states, yes, they do get your information and the MSC cannot stop them from contacting you. While that is not professional on their part, to contact you if they received a bad report, etc., it still can happen. At that point, I would let the MSC know if they do and they can let the client know how the Leasing Professional behaved.

Sounds like the agent got caught giving a bad presentation and the questions you received were a natural progression of what usually happens next. Some will stoop even lower and tell worse lies, saying you brought children and they were in the car or an elderly person, or say you were on your phone or not dressed well, it could be anything they think will help their case.

The good thing is that you have done many of these shops, so the MSC has a record of your work. I would not worry about it too much, if you were honest, expect these things to happen when you have to report negative issues.

I am not sure if this is the same MSC company I shop for. But if it is, there is a question on the report where you tell about other people you may have seen during the shop. That section can save you from someone getting a co-worker to go along with their lie, if no one was really close enough to hear your conversation, as you reported. I always report if I saw someone, even if I did not see them well. I write exactly what I observed. "A blonde female was in the private office area, at least 30 feet away. She was sitting down behind a desk and had a blue jacket on and her hair was in a bun. She was looking at her cell phone and it had a pink case." Something as simple, yet detailed as that can only help you.

Also, I use a P.O. Box address. Sometimes I use the physical address of the Post Office where I have my box at, so I can list a normal looking address if necessary, with the box number looking like an apartment number. Most states will let you use this on your identification, too.

Thank you Purpleicee. It was the first time I have ever been in this situation so it was a little scary for me. I have never been questioned like that before. So far, I have not gotten any more feedback on that assignment so I think everything is ok now.

If you are a female, give a different last name (just got a divorce!) for each shop and use a passport instead of a DL for ID. Set up a real, temporary email addy using the name that you will use for the shop (msjaneshopper@...) and use a Voicenation phone number for follow-up. That will send and FU calls to your email.

It is NOT necessary that the target get your read address, email or phone number, but seeing that you are protected in this way is a cost of doing business when you do a lot of shops where the client's require follow-up.

Every now and then any active shopper is sure to get similar questions. The more shops you do for any given MSC, the more likely most of them will be to accept your explanation.

My favorite was a time when the client told the MSC that the target knew I must be a shopper because I gave a weird occupation having to do with containing substances that might be used in germ warfare. The MSC told ne to use a "normal occupation for the area" in future. I explained that the community was located across from the main gate of a facility that everyone in the area knows has had problems with leakages of anthrax! The client told the target that it was silly to think that I was the shopper and chided him for not knowing the neighborhood he had been selling for 6 months already. I got paid.

Walesmaven - Thanks for your post. Good ideas.

I always take a discreet picture of the front door of the property as I am walking in and one of the exit as I am leaving. if you have a smartphone, the metadata gets stored and stores a time stamp of when the picture was taken. I include these pictures in my report and have always told them that it is the proof that I arrived and left when I said I did.

I recently had an experience with an apartment shop for a company I have done at least 20 for in the last four months. I did three non-targeted shops with nice bonuses for the same Property Management Company on a particular day, they weren't too far from my home and not too far from each other. I wrote my reports and submitted them the same day.

Three days later I got an email from the project manager stating that the PropertyManager had gotten word from one of the rental agents I shopped that I had discussed my teenager who I had said had problems with drug and alcohol addiction. Because I had discussed personal issues with the agent, the Property Management Company was not going to pay for any of the three shops I had done therefore I would not be paid for any of them either.

I was furious, I emailed back immediately telling her I did not have a discussion with anyone about my teenager, I don't even have a teenager, my daughter is 32 years old and happens to be an attorney in the same state the company I contracted with was located. My daughter has never done drugs and if any child of mine had a drug addiction it is a sad and tragic issue that I would certainly not be discussing with a total stranger.

She called me about five minutes later asking if it would be convenient to have her manager give me a call. I welcomed it. When the manager called I listened to what she had to say, very calmly stated my case adding that I felt I should have been contacted to discuss the issue before having received the email I did. She agreed and proceeded to tell me that because I was acting reasonably not angry and screaming like so many of the mystery shoppers do that she was going to pay me for all three shops.

I thanked her and have never done another shop for them. I haven't been paid either but they are notoriously late to pay. I might add that the manager when talking about the "type of people" that do mystery shopping, I presume she meant those that got angry and screamed when they were told they weren't being paid, casually mentioned that they had even discovered they had pedophiles doing shops for them. I was shocked she would say somethinig like that and didn't react, I think she realized that and ended the call rather abruptly. I hung up the phone completely flabbergasted that this woman would say something so unprofessional which had nothing to do with the reason for her call. The whole scenario was bizarre and after speaking to the manager I don't believe a word of it.