Kern Scheduling Integrity Questioned

I recently signed up to do a shop via KSSJeff. The shop was confirmed and done on the assigned day. The reporting window was 12 hours after completion. The shop was done at noon and entered by 1:15. It was not submitted then as I wanted to relook at the shop on my laptop. My phone has the nasty habit of changing things as I scroll through. At 6 PM I logged onto the site only to discover that the shop had completely disappeared from my shop log. KSSJeff was contacted twice via email. No response. The president of Kern was contacted via email and again, no response. So now I am out my fee plus the cost of the shop. In all the years that I have shopped, this is the first time that this has happened. Yes, I have made mistakes with the shop not being accepted but at least I knew what my error was. This shop has been like a huge void with no communication at all. Next step will be phone calls but it seems to tacky to have to chase after a company.

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iagel, if the shop disappeared off your log, shouldn't you be contacting the MSC rather than the scheduling firm? This doesn't sound like a scheduling issue. Have you contacted the mystery shopping company?

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

Since Jeff is a scheduler for Kern Scheduling Service, he scheduled that shop for a mystery shopping company. The company he scheduled the shop for would be the company to contact. What company was that? What site did you log into and input the shop? Knowing the company, perhaps someone can offer some guidance.

When an independent scheduler, which is what Kern is, schedules a shop for a mystery shopping company, it is that company whose site you will use to enter your report, and that company will review and edit the report, determine acceptability, and be responsible for payment. Beyond scheduling the shops, Jeff and usually Lorrie, who is the head of Kern, are not involved.

It sounds like you are contacting the wrong company. Go to the company for whom you were scheduled to do the assignment.

Have you looked on the MSC website? Also, be sure to check under completed shops. I have in the past filled out a shop report and delayed submitting, only the have the MSC change it to completed status if they see it is ready to go.

Yes, it would be nice if Kern responded and suggested you contact the MSC but their lack of response is not an integrity issue. As a scheduler, when they schedule the shop and it is performed, their job is done. Mystery2me offered a good suggestion that the MSC may have pulled the report. Please check with the MSC and keep us posted on how this turns out. I'm hoping your report went to the MSC and today will be sunshine all the way.

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

Thanks for all the suggestions. According to the job board, I am to contact the scheduler about any issues. I have also contacted the MSC and I will wait for their reply.

@iagal wrote:

I recently signed up to do a shop via KSSJeff. The shop was confirmed and done on the assigned day. The reporting window was 12 hours after completion. The shop was done at noon and entered by 1:15. It was not submitted then as I wanted to relook at the shop on my laptop. My phone has the nasty habit of changing things as I scroll through. At 6 PM I logged onto the site only to discover that the shop had completely disappeared from my shop log. KSSJeff was contacted twice via email. No response. The president of Kern was contacted via email and again, no response. So now I am out my fee plus the cost of the shop. In all the years that I have shopped, this is the first time that this has happened. Yes, I have made mistakes with the shop not being accepted but at least I knew what my error was. This shop has been like a huge void with no communication at all. Next step will be phone calls but it seems to tacky to have to chase after a company.

I don't understand. What did your phone change? The shop you did at noon had a reporting window of 12 hours. Six hours later, it was removed from your log. Was that the same day? if so, something is amiss. Do not think it tacky to chase your payment - by whatever means necessary. KSS is not always responsive, yet with some MSCs, it is the only avenue of communication.

How did this situation turn out?

No response from anyone. Emailed the MSC and no response. Just like a dark hole somewhere in the MS world. I do not have a phone number for the MS company but I will phone Kern Scheduling later.

No response from anyone. Emailed the MSC and no response. Just like a dark hole somewhere in the MS world. I do not have a phone number for the MS company but I will phone Kern Scheduling later.
Mert, the point about the phone was just that I did not submit the shop immediately because I wanted to make sure that my phone had not changed anything. That is why I waited until later in the day to recheck the shop using my laptop. I was within the 12 hour window and the shop should not have disappeared from the log. It is my feeling that a reputable MSC will communicate and honor its shops. At least tell me if I did something wrong.

What is the MSC we are talking about?

@iagal wrote:

No response from anyone. Emailed the MSC and no response. Just like a dark hole somewhere in the MS world. I do not have a phone number for the MS company but I will phone Kern Scheduling later.
Mert, the point about the phone was just that I did not submit the shop immediately because I wanted to make sure that my phone had not changed anything. That is why I waited until later in the day to recheck the shop using my laptop. I was within the 12 hour window and the shop should not have disappeared from the log. It is my feeling that a reputable MSC will communicate and honor its shops. At least tell me if I did something wrong.

I do similar to what you do. I input shops on my tablet, and when I get home, I review and then submit. As long as I am in the time guidelines, it does not matter.

From what you have told us, I don't see that you did anything wrong. I dislike dealing with middle men (scheduling companies) for many reasons. Let us know what avenues you have pursued. If you have communicated only with KSS/KSSJeff, there is probably other recourse. I dislike chasing payments, but do not hesitate whenever necessary - - - mistakes happen, things are overlooked. communication is lacking. . .

Did you have to sign up with another MSC after agreeing with KSS? As in you go to their site, then click a link and put your report on another site? Those are the people you should connect with. KSS should respond to you, but the holdup is likely with the MSC.

Finally got it resolved.
Here is a partial response from*` KSSJeff - "...Another shopper had completed the shop, but due to some confusion between myself, the reviewer, and the other shopper, the shop was duplicated when it should not have been.".
Does that mean that the shop was assigned to two different shoppers at the same time? Did the Sassie software make a mistake and allowed two different shoppers to confirm the shop? Another big mystery that I am not going to attempt to solve.
I am getting full pay plus a 10 on my report.

Congratulations to all involved. Getting paid plus a 10 sounds like the best possible outcome.

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

Ridiculous title for your thread by the way. Way to piss off the world's largest scheduling company. LOL

@SoCalMama wrote:

Ridiculous title for your thread by the way. Way to piss off the world's largest scheduling company. LOL

Absolutely. Completely ridiculous. I kind of thought it was deliberate on the part of the OP as an emotional ploy to get more attention. People pay more attention to a lack of integrity than "I didn't get a response to my calls and e-mails." Despite noting that there does appear to be a problem getting responses from Kern, the lack of response is not an integrity issue.

AustinMon and SoCalMama, appreciate your remarks but it is definitely an integrity issue. If a company is not honest, it is lacking integrity. The shop was deleted from my job board while being within the time frame for reporting and doing. That is not honest.
And the companies that I piss off is none of your business.

You're on the internet. If you don't want people to discuss your business, don't post.

Someone was giving you good advice. It can be fun to post angry titles naming people or companies that vex you (...lordy knows I have done this...) but it can cost you money too - you'll never know the opportunities you did not get.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/2015 01:30AM by rewinn.

So true. The losses are invisible, and go on and on.

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

Glad this turned out well for you. You may want to edit the title of the thread to add "Resolved." That way, people know that you and Kern worked it out, without having to read through the entire thread.

It really doesn't sound as if Kern was being dishonest. It sounds more like there was confusion about the shop, and it was inadvertently removed from your log. Confusion isn't equivalent to dishonesty. I agree, though, that there seems to have been an inordinate lack of responsiveness. But that's not the same as lying to you....

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

@iagal wrote:

AustinMon and SoCalMama, appreciate your remarks but it is definitely an integrity issue. If a company is not honest, it is lacking integrity. The shop was deleted from my job board while being within the time frame for reporting and doing. That is not honest.
And the companies that I piss off is none of your business.

Agree to disagree. Good luck with that.

@iagal, anything posted on an internet forum is public and becomes anybody's business. If you want to keep your business private, don't broadcast it on the internet.

@iagal wrote:

AustinMon and SoCalMama, appreciate your remarks but it is definitely an integrity issue. If a company is not honest, it is lacking integrity. The shop was deleted from my job board while being within the time frame for reporting and doing. That is not honest.
And the companies that I piss off is none of your business.

Sounds like it was a computer glitch rather than an integrity issue. They made it right. I am not sure why you are still pissed off.

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/▌ ☆Happy Shopping☆
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Thank you for all the information. Yes, any child would conclude that HS brands, who contracts with the schedulers, and the Kern schedulers are behaving dishonestly. But then children have a stronger sense of right and wrong than most adults. These 2 companies are taking money and time from shoppers. They ask you to do work, agree to pay for it, then when the work is done they change their mind. The same thing just happened to me with this same scheduler. I spent $20 and did the labor of the exercise with a fitness shop and then he took it off the board after I did it. This is planned dishonesty. Do you have the contact information for HS Brands? Any information would be appreciated on how to contact the MSC or the manager of Kern, email, phone, physical mailing address, anything, would be appreciated. Emailing the scheduler alone is not productive when the scheduler doesn't know right from wrong. Is it cheaper for them to pay off one shopper than to pay all the shoppers they do this to? I have to wonder how many got treated this way and didn't bother to post. This seems to be the status quo with HS Brands, do whatever you can get away with.

It was a mistake, and you got paid for it. I still don't see how the MSC or scheduling company is dishonest with this situation. They made good.

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☻/ღ˚ * ˚ ˚˚ ˛* ღ˛° * ° ˚˚ღ
/▌ ☆Happy Shopping☆
/ \ ღ˚ * ˚ ˚˚ ˛* ღ˛° * ° ˚˚ღ
✿¸¸.•*´¯`✿ ✿´¯`*•.¸¸✿

@sillysister74 wrote:

Sounds like it was a computer glitch rather than an integrity issue. They made it right. I am not sure why you are still pissed off.

some people are pissed off just to be pissed off. some are pissed off just because they were born.

@shopwork wrote:

Thank you for all the information. Yes, any child would conclude that HS brands, who contracts with the schedulers, and the Kern schedulers are behaving dishonestly. But then children have a stronger sense of right and wrong than most adults. These 2 companies are taking money and time from shoppers. They ask you to do work, agree to pay for it, then when the work is done they change their mind. The same thing just happened to me with this same scheduler. I spent $20 and did the labor of the exercise with a fitness shop and then he took it off the board after I did it. This is planned dishonesty. Do you have the contact information for HS Brands? Any information would be appreciated on how to contact the MSC or the manager of Kern, email, phone, physical mailing address, anything, would be appreciated. Emailing the scheduler alone is not productive when the scheduler doesn't know right from wrong. Is it cheaper for them to pay off one shopper than to pay all the shoppers they do this to? I have to wonder how many got treated this way and didn't bother to post. This seems to be the status quo with HS Brands, do whatever you can get away with.

The contact info for Kern is on their web site:
[www.kernscheduling.com]

Or you could PM Lorri Kern screen name: Lorri Kern KSS), who reads and posts here. Or e-mail her at KSSLorri@kernscheduling.com

Shopwork, here's a contact provided on emails advising me of payments:
lisam@servicesleuths.com

Also, you can go to the HS Brands website, click on Help, scroll to the bottom of the page, and find a link that will let you communicate.

Saving emails in individual folders for each company has been a helpful practice for me. It takes a bit a time but in the long run has been worth it.

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

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