Anyone know the time frame for reporting shops with Goodwin Hospitality? I did a shop last night for them for a good chunk of change out of my pocket and YES, I did confirm the shop twice prior to the date. For many reasons I was unable to report when I got in so decided I would do it today. Read guidelines, questionnaire and contract and nothing was specified as to expectations on that. Before I could report it, it was cancelled and told future consideration for shops would suffer, and that I missed the deadline (but nowhere indicated what that deadline was). I emailed them with no response yet, but just curious if anyone knows for sure. I enjoy their shops but it would have been nice to know what their rule is on that.

My notes for Goodwin say "reports generally due 24 hours after shop completed" but I'm not sure where I got that information and use that as a general guideline when I'm considering taking a job, I wouldn't rely on it as an official requirement.

I've noticed the shops on iSecretShop are sometimes hard to find a deadline for. I've had to email the scheduler in the past to confirm a deadline. (I'm not sure if you booked the shop on iSecretShop or one of their (many) other sites. It can be confusing with companies that have so many platforms)

Good luck! Let us know how it turns out.

Thanks CaliGirl!! Yes, I booked it through iSecretShop and Ive done 3 other shops for them with no issues and all three reported within 24 hours. Soon after I got the cancellation, I emailed her for clarification, but someone else responded and agreed to still reimburse me for the shop, which I totally appreciated. However, I still feel some type of way that Im getting points deducted and future consideration is shaky over a scheduler with a quick trigger finger.

@CaliGirl925 wrote:

My notes for Goodwin say "reports generally due 24 hours after shop completed" but I'm not sure where I got that information and use that as a general guideline when I'm considering taking a job, I wouldn't rely on it as an official requirement.

I've noticed the shops on iSecretShop are sometimes hard to find a deadline for. I've had to email the scheduler in the past to confirm a deadline. (I'm not sure if you booked the shop on iSecretShop or one of their (many) other sites. It can be confusing with companies that have so many platforms)

Good luck! Let us know how it turns out.

With each GAH shops comes a Shoppers agreement. And the agreement says, (because we must download and read it -------->"Shopper will secretively shop clients’ establishments and accurately and honestly document his/her factual experiences and report them to Company within 24 hours of the shop.  If Shopper does not report or is not submitted to Company within 24 hours, then the report will be considered invalid and Shopper will not be compensated for that specific assignment".

YOU say you have done other shops for Goodwin, I don't know why this one timeframe seem foreign,

If you have spoken too someone from the GOODWIN and you did report the shop late and they STILL said "they were going to pay you". Then all is good. But other than that you may be treading on thin ice.

Many of the scheduling company on iSS have different reporting timeframes, so generally you have to go with the company whom submitted the Assignment. And you stated you did a shop for GOODWIN.

I am not sure if my original post was clear. My shop was completed last night (done by 9:10 PM) - this afternoon (around 3 PM) I received the cancellation notice, which was well within the 24 hour time frame. I was on the road all day doing shops so my plan was to do it when I got home at 4-5PM which was still within the timeframe. The timeframe didn't seem foreign if it was listed anywhere. I did not do the shop late. It was cancelled before I could report it and if your agreement wording is correct, I still would have been in the right. I am not treading on thin ice because I did nothing wrong unless someone can show me the time frame is other than 24 hours.

@sojo917 wrote:

With each GAH shops comes a Shoppers agreement. And the agreement says, (because we must download and read it -------->"Shopper will secretively shop clients’ establishments and accurately and honestly document his/her factual experiences and report them to Company within 24 hours of the shop.  If Shopper does not report or is not submitted to Company within 24 hours, then the report will be considered invalid and Shopper will not be compensated for that specific assignment".

YOU say you have done other shops for Goodwin, I don't know why this one timeframe seem foreign,

If you have spoken too someone from the GOODWIN and you did report the shop late and they STILL said "they were going to pay you". Then all is good. But other than that you may be treading on thin ice.

Many of the scheduling company on iSS have different reporting timeframes, so generally you have to go with the company whom submitted the Assignment. And you stated you did a shop for GOODWIN.

I am saying somewhere in your guidelines there is a reporting time frame. AND maybe someone ---->GAH or GAH may have overlook it. I have seen and experienced shorter time frames with GAH but it was in the guidelines..

Keep communicating with them, to get paid.

Oh ok and that is where my issue is. I always print out my full guideline and the questionnaire before my shops since I learned a while ago that there are always questions on the questionnaire that werent even mentioned in the guidelines. I saw nothing like that anywhere. Do you know where on the guidelines it should be??? maybe they left it off by mistake. I don't have the other shop guidelines because I trash them after Ive been paid. Now I wish I had kept the last one.

@sojo917 wrote:

I am saying somewhere in your guidelines there is a reporting time frame. AND maybe someone ---->GAH or GAH may have overlook it. I have seen and experienced shorter time frames with GAH but it was in the guidelines..

Keep communicating with them, to get paid.

ok, just after I responded to sojo, it sparked me to try an email search and low and behold I found the "shopper notes" with two of my previous shops. One of the line items sure enough says,

" 5. The shop report, receipt and any required photos are all due within 24 hours of your scheduled visit. If you cannot fill out the report within the 24 deadline, please call or email us. Otherwise, we will assume you did not go, and we will assign the visit to another shopper."

I did not receive this with this particular shop, but now I have some leverage on this issue since it was well within the 24-hour timeframe before it was cancelled. Thanks everyone!! I will let you know what happens.

If you're trying to get in touch with someone directly from Goodwin, as they're typically the contact listed on the iSS shops, they're probably gone for the weekend. If you're worried, try contacting the 3rd party scheduler, if there's one responsible for that shop. They've been extremely responsive, even during weekends.

My experience with Goodwin on their site is they are very lenient about going over the 24 hour notice if you notify them. I've notified them before doing the shop I wasn't sure I could do the 24 hours and they noted it and gave me 48. They are the first company I started working with and I wasn't as good a shopper then as I am now. So, when I'd go over the 24 hour limit with their old site a scheduler would contact me and it wasn't automatically reassigned at 24 hours...I was at least given a warning.

However, with iSecret shop and its kinks all sorts of issues are arising. The issue may be with iSecret shop and some kind of automatic timer which puts the shop back on the board at a set time limit instead of someone from Goodwin manually doing it.

For example, there's confusion now over fee and reimbursement listed with Goodwin...it says, for example $20 reimbursement but it isn't...it's $20 regardless if you order $5 or if you order $50. You get $20, but I was told due to iSecret shop they're stuck with that...and other issues.

They have one scheduler who irked me enough with Goodwin I did research and contacted the person in charge of Mysery Shopping for the entire company about her...then she started responding promptly. Hurray for that, I guess. But for her I've loved all my Goodwin schedulers...As visually bleh as it was, I preferred when Goodwin was not on iSecretshop. I loathe having to look at BMA MSC clutter when I'm scrolling down.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/19/2015 12:56PM by rasky.

Well, I got a response and Rasky you seemed to be on the money with it. Apparently they had booked another shopper to the same location, inadvertently. So, when their report came in mine was automatically cancelled. I was assured that I had not made the error and it was on their end and/or a technical issue. I feel better now. I do not like having black marks against me, especially when they weren't my fault.