I am so frustrated over a $7.00 shop! The report requires you attached a picture of the gas pumps and the restroom and make a purchase inside the store. I completed four of these shops on the same day.

The editor is stating that I have submitted a picture of another location's restroom. NOT.

The picture of the gas pump has a time stamp of 10:40 AM. The picture shows my $3.53 purchase on the pump still. I have a credit card charge of $3.53 which states the gas was purchased at said location. My store receipt for the purchase is time stamped as 10:52 AM. The time stamp on the picture of the restroom is 10:46 AM. The time stamp on the restroom (10:46) falls between the time stamp on the gas pumps (10:40) and the receipt (10:52).

The editor is implying that I took the picture of the gas pumps, pumped gas into my car, and then I drove TO ANOTHER LOCATION to take a picture of their restroom, and returned to the original location to make my purchase and get the receipt.

Then the editor just flat stops responding. She/he hasn't responded OVER 24 hours. I had to contact the scheduler to see if she could get involved.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2016 02:12PM by ValG.

Wow! That is pretty ridiculous!

Time to go above the editor's head. Give them one more day in case the editor had a planned/unplanned day off.

The scheduler wrote back stating she had made the upload. I don't understand what she meant since I had already resubmitted the report. I presume she meant that she uploaded the very same pictures, but with the time stamps.

The editor still has not responded and clearly doesn't plan to. The report is sitting as "completed". Which is highly unusual for this MSC; they usually edit and close reports with days of submission.

Apparently there is NO supervision at this MSC. Someone should be monitoring the emails received my shoppers, to determine if they're being responded to.

I'm the first to admit I made a mistake and I'll do what it takes to correct the mistake. I'm taking absolutely no responsibility for this one. I work in law enforcement. I have empirical evidence that the shop was performed as specified. It may only be $7.00 plus the $2.00 reimbursement, but it's really MY integrity that's being questioned.

I'm really disheartened as I this is/was one of my favorite MSC to shop for.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/15/2016 02:44PM by ValG.

Sometimes one has to wonder if editors can actually read....

I have a Samsung S6 and I turn on location so my photos for merchandising and secret shopping have their location taken in the properties.

@spicy1 wrote:

I have a Samsung S6 and I turn on location so my photos for merchandising and secret shopping have their location taken in the properties.

I have a Samsung Galaxy and even with "location" turned on, when I download my photos and look at the properties, the location doesn't show up anywhere. Not in properties or any other photo parameters that I can look at. What could I be doing wrong, do you think?

I just copied and pasted this from online. But you have to turn location on the "camera" of your phone.

To turn GPS location tags for photos, go to the Camera app's settings menu and find the Location tags option. If holding the phone in landscape, you'll probably need to scroll down towards the bottom of options to find it.

When people talk about being able to see things like location when they take a photo with an Android cell phone, they are often talking about looking at the photo properties while it is still on the camera by viewing it from Gallery and then looking at More Information. Whether specific information shows up or not may depend upon what you have allowed specific apps to access. Once you download a photo, the "properties" may or may not show what the camera showed. The most information is contained in the metadata associated with the photo and may depend from camera to camera or phone to phone. It may be necessary to have a separate metadata viewing program. This site will probably tell you more about metadata than you ever waned to know: [fotoforensics.com]

@BirdyC wrote:

@spicy1 wrote:

I have a Samsung S6 and I turn on location so my photos for merchandising and secret shopping have their location taken in the properties.

I have a Samsung Galaxy and even with "location" turned on, when I download my photos and look at the properties, the location doesn't show up anywhere. Not in properties or any other photo parameters that I can look at. What could I be doing wrong, do you think?

I have the location turned on in both general settings and on the camera. I never view "properties" while the photos are still in the gallery, only when they've been downloaded to my computer.

I'll check the link myst4au provided (thank you) and see if I can find out how to determine if the location is viewable in the metadata. I turned down a shop a couple of weeks ago because I didn't think the MSC would be able to verify the location of the photo, which was a requirement.

On your computer go to properties, details, scroll down to gps and the lat / long is given.

I think that you have a Samsung S6, I have an S5. I can't find the latitude and longitude when I scroll down in the details tab. That could be for any of a number of reasons. My son has an S6. I am going to try to convince him to look. Convincing a 21-year old that there is a reason he should do this for me will take finesse since he is already back at college. It might have to wait until I get him an S7 in a few months and I get his hand-me-down S6. The S7 is expected to launch in March, and will bring back the microSD card that went AWOL with the S6.

@spicy1 wrote:

On your computer go to properties, details, scroll down to gps and the lat / long is given.

UPDATE:

I received an email from the editor stating that I have received a grade of 8/10 because I had to be contacted. OMG. I just spent another hour writing my letter of dispute to the supervisor, including all the supporting evidence.

The report was accepted by the editor with the EXACT same pictures I had uploaded originally.

I'm so pissed I see RED not yellow! If I don't get the result I am deserved by the supervisor I'll go straight to the top next.

This editor has no moral compass apparently.

I agree.. you were contacted under false pretenses. You uploaded the SAME photos and they accepted them this time. Should be a 10/10 and the editor disiplined

There is one MSC which is infamous for this. The editors always find unspecified spelling or grammar issues, and if they contact you even to confirm that when you wrote "incalculable" that you didn't meant it, another 1 or 2 points are deducted. This has been discussed over and over. The consensus on this forum is to just accept it as a quirk of that MSC. As the Borg say, "Resistance is futile." As long as they accept the shop and pay you, my advice is to learn to let it go.

myst4au - Learn and let go? Learn what? Learn to accept an editor implying I falsified a report? If we all turn a blind eye when mistreated by editors - who WILL hold them accountable?

I wouldn't let go in this case. Nitpicking over commas and misspellings is one thing, but that's not what's happened here. It chaps my hide that you lose points because they have to contact you over a small thing, but I would definitely fight a lower score when you did nothing wrong.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/19/2016 10:43PM by NTALAN.

I was addressing the issue of loosing points because they contacted you again. That process is endemic at one particular MSC. Many, many of us have complained about that one particular MSC. It is pointless, because no response is ever provided, and no change occurs. This has gone on for years. I and many others choose to ignore the nonsensical grades from this particular MSC because we get paid anyway. Some have decided on principle to stop shopping for them. I am sorry if I did not make my comment clear.

@ValG wrote:

myst4au - Learn and let go? Learn what? Learn to accept an editor implying I falsified a report? If we all turn a blind eye when mistreated by editors - who WILL hold them accountable?

No shopper would ever consider "letting it go" to be an appropriate course of action if you have been wrongly accused of falsifying a report. Your fee and more importantly your reputation are on the line.

It is good advice for anyone agonizing over getting an 8 instead of a 9 or 10 because they all pay the same.

My letter of dispute and documentation (empirical evidence) was sent to the supervisor yesterday afternoon.

I thought my original post had enough info that there would be no question which MSC I'm referring to. It's the one commonly referred to as the cheapest, the one everyone complains about being totally unresponsive. I'd list the editor's name, but this MSC doesn't provide the actual name of the editors. They are referred to as proofreaders and give a number.

I'm not upset with the company. I actually like the company and have enjoyed working for them and plan on continuing to do so. I highly doubt the editor in question has told her supervisory staff what he/she did to cover their own ass. The editor has still not responded to my email requesting their supervisor's contact info. That was sent on the 16th. That in itself needs to be addresses by the MSC. NO editor for any company should ever be permitted to deny that information to shoppers. Ignoring request = denial of info. I obtained the information through another employee of same MSC.

I'd feel better if all this work to preserve my integrity wasn't over a freaking $7.00 shop. I must have $100+ wrapped up in my time already. That's probably what the editor is gambling on. They figure I will just give up. I assure you, I won't give up. Like others have said, this is MY reputation on the line.

I will update as soon as the supervisor responds. I will give them until the EOD Friday, before taking my dispute further up the chain.

I'm finding the editors, in general, are inconsistent. Some of the editors like my writing and give me high scores. Some don't like my writing and give me low scores. I have a journalism degree and excellent writing. My writing tends to be clear and concise. It seems some of these reports call for "embellishing" the experience. Then one editor returned a report for additional narrative. How much can one say about the women's bathroom?! What do they want?! Would this suffice: The women's restroom sparkled and smelled like fresh roses. The toilet seats were clean and white. All of the toilets flushed. Each stall had toilet paper. All of the stall doors closed and locked. There was one trash can. The tile floor appeared to have just been mopped. A family of 5 was having a picnic.....

Final update:
All attempts to email the supervisor failed. The scheduler who had provided me the supervisor's email address didn't respond when I advised it was a bad address. I sent an email through the help desk and never received a response. So, I picked up the phone and called the office. I was pleasantly surprised by the employee that answered the phone. She was very friendly and helpful. I explained the situation to her and she advised that she would speak with someone there at the office and return my call. My call was returned about an hour later. They stated that my grade had been corrected and was now showing as 10/10. They also apologized for the incident though I'm not convinced they truly understood what the proofreader did. Nor did I get the impression the proofreader would be spoken to. I think it was more a case of I've got great scores with their company, why not shut me up and just fix it.

IMPORTANT TO KNOW - during this conversation I learned that the editors are blocked from receiving emails with this MSC. If there is an issue with a report they send out an email that states...email to this address if you have any questions. So if you've ever wondered why you don't get a response this is why. Even the gal on the phone was embarrassed that this hadn't been corrected yet (kind of like the stupid yellow sticky notes).

I'm glad you were able to get this rectified, even if the people at the MSC didn't seem to really understand the problem (I'm finding that happens a lot in this business!).

Good for you for pursuing it. It's one thing to let it go when you've had points deducted for unspecified issues. But to be accused of doing something dishonest is another matter!