I was supposed to do a visit today for Goodwin that required a recorded phone call first. I attempted several times to call via the 888 number they have set up. Each time the system told me it was connecting me to the store, but I would get disconnected instead. I called the scheduler, as well as another person at Goodwin, with no luck and left messages for both. I also emailed the scheduler. It was late in the day, so I am not too surprised that I haven't heard back from anyone yet.

Unfortunately, recent experience with Goodwin has eroded my confidence that I will be contacted at all. A couple of weeks ago I made multiple attempts to contact a different scheduler on a different project. The documentation stated that, if I needed more time to wait for an estimate from a company, to let the scheduler know. Guess what, after multiple attempts, I never heard back and their automated system kept threatening to cancel the project. I finalized the best I could and left it for them to figure out.

So here is my question: I am happy to reschedule the shop, even though it was their system that kept me from completing it. However, the online portal will not allow me to reschedule, only cancel. Should I just cancel tonight and get dinged in their system for flaking, or wait until the morning and hope they call me to sort things out. I think I would rather cancel than get the automated axe, but I am still willing to just complete the assignment another day.

I don't do a lot of work with Goodwin, but these two experiences this month are leaving me a little gun shy for doing more. Their rates aren't very good, but they are always looking for shoppers in my area to complete assignments. I used to get bonuses when they posted projects in Prophet, but it seems like since they switched to iSecretShop, the bonus system went out the window.

My experience is that iSecret does not always cancel a late shop. But the way it is set up, if you cancel you get dinged. Let it ride and try to make contact with Goodwin tomorrow. Send an email TODAY if at all possible.

@myst4au wrote:

My experience is that iSecret does not always cancel a late shop. But the way it is set up, if you cancel you get dinged. Let it ride and try to make contact with Goodwin tomorrow. Send an email TODAY if at all possible.

Thanks for the info. Yes, I sent an email, and two people got voicemails, before the end of the day, while I was having issues with the telephone recording service, but I haven't heard back. On that previous assignment, the system hadn't automatically cancelled the late shop, but I was getting some pretty ominous emails, so I at least had some warning.

They were good about cancellations, I never have had any trouble getting a lower rating with them when life happens. I find most companies are very fair if their given enough notice, again Goodwin has been very fair when I asked for extensions or cancellations.

Was this before or after they moved to iSecretShop? In general, I find iSecretShop to be inflexible, and several schedulers (for various MSCs) have told me that they can't change a due date, they have to cancel the shop. If you personally cancel an iSecretShop mission, the mission control automatic software takes over and dings you. Your iSecretShop rating is the same for all MSCs who use the platform (as far as I can tell), so iSecretShop mission control seems to rule. (I figure that "special agents" and "executive officers" and al the other titles must be managed by a mission control that uses a "ranking system [that] uses complex measurement algorithms to evaluate and report on each shopper.")

The pre-iSecretShop Goodwin was relatively easy to deal with once. There was a time when it took continual reminders to get paid, but that was so long ago that this is probably the first mention of that era on this forum in several years.

@GuyFawkes wrote:

They were good about cancellations, I never have had any trouble getting a lower rating with them when life happens. I find most companies are very fair if their given enough notice, again Goodwin has been very fair when I asked for extensions or cancellations.

I've done 8 or so shops this year on ISS for various MSCs. I think I have had schedulers change the date on a majority of them.

Well my faith may yet be renewed. I am happy to report that the scheduler for this shop emailed me early this morning and said they fixed a technical issue. They also asked if I could reschedule, and I replied that I was happy to do so. The due date of yesterday is still showing up on the portal, so I will give it a little more time before bugging the scheduler again.

@myst4au wrote:

Was this before or after they moved to iSecretShop? In general, I find iSecretShop to be inflexible, and several schedulers (for various MSCs) have told me that they can't change a due date, they have to cancel the shop. If you personally cancel an iSecretShop mission, the mission control automatic software takes over and dings you. Your iSecretShop rating is the same for all MSCs who use the platform (as far as I can tell), so iSecretShop mission control seems to rule. (I figure that "special agents" and "executive officers" and al the other titles must be managed by a mission control that uses a "ranking system [that] uses complex measurement algorithms to evaluate and report on each shopper.")

The pre-iSecretShop Goodwin was relatively easy to deal with once. There was a time when it took continual reminders to get paid, but that was so long ago that this is probably the first mention of that era on this forum in several years.

@GuyFawkes wrote:

They were good about cancellations, I never have had any trouble getting a lower rating with them when life happens. I find most companies are very fair if their given enough notice, again Goodwin has been very fair when I asked for extensions or cancellations.

I emailed the Scheduler directly bypassing the ISS menu, they were nice plus the checks came when they said they would. ISS has problems with Yahoo and Gmail converting them to Spam without our input. ISS troubleshooters helped me get back on line pretty quick after stupid Gmail messed up all my accounts. Watch your emails if your using Yahoo or Gmail because they could be the reason your not getting a response. ISS technical treated me well, helped me get rid of all the mislabeled email blocking.

Happy to report that the scheduler got back to me later in the day of first contact and told me she was able to reschedule. It was nice to have a back and forth interaction with them instead of the 'conversation with a brick wall' type I had earlier with a different scheduler. I guess I won't add them to my ten foot pole list just yet.