Recently I signed up for a shop with Sinclair Metrics, a video shop. The shop is to take place on June 7. I have my own equipment and the company has a copy of my driver's license. Gina sent me an email requesting a copy of my driver's license and to complete an additional training module that was unrelated to the shop I was conducting. I would gladly complete the module and send information required, however, my wife was in the hospital in labor from Thursday at 4:30 PM till finally giving birth on Friday at 7:30 PM. Stronger person than me! Obviously, checking emails or anything like this is not on our minds, especially with this being our first child after a miscarriage. I logged and began checking my emails and shopper accounts. I did not receive an email indicating the shop had been cancelled but noticed it was on SInclair's site. I sent Ms. Henrandez an email and she responded with the following:

"Mr ????,

because of the date you scheduled and the time it takes for me to arrange a camera to get to you and the additional training and need for your DL to be sent to me so I can inform our accounting department to waive the deposit fee, time was of the essence to receive a response from you. This had nothing to do with being family friendly or the fact your wife just had a baby. This had to do with the shopper understanding that there was additional training needed; this was in the ????? briefing and it was your responsibility to make sure you completed the requirements prior to scheduling the shop.

I will close your account as of today unless you inform me otherwise and you are more then welcome to shop our other clients, however based on this I do not feel you are a good fit for the video shops we have.

All others shoppers I contacted for this client who were missing training or needed to get their DL to me replied the day of or the following day I sent the email and have completed the requirements. You had the option to complete the training, submit your DL and reschedule but you are choosing to take this route and I respect your decision.




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Thank You,

Gina Hernandez

I responded with I have no use for a company like this. Maybe overreacting but a company or scheduler that does not have sensitivity to shopper's personal lives needs to go. I will be sending kudos to all the wonderful schedulers and companies out there. I also may post the positive emails sent congratulating me and indicating understanding, something Ms. Hernandez lacks. Make up your own minds. I just wanted to let others be aware so informed decisions can be made. I did complain to the company by calling them and I was asked to send her emails to them for review. My account was deactivated by Ms. Hernandez. Funny complain and get deactivated despite having shopped for them for a while with one scheduler contacting me regularly because of the good work I have done. What are your thoughts?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/02/2016 03:23PM by cpr16.

Mod note: The exact same thread you started in the Kudos section has been combined with this one to keep replies in one place. No need to start two threads on the same subject

Recently I signed up for a shop with Sinclair Metrics, a video shop. The shop is to take place on June 7. I have my own equipment and the company has a copy of my driver's license. Gina sent me an email requesting a copy of my driver's license and to complete an additional training module that was unrelated to the shop I was conducting. I would gladly complete the module and send information required, however, my wife was in the hospital in labor from Thursday at 4:30 PM till finally giving birth on Friday at 7:30 PM. Stronger person than me! Obviously, checking emails or anything like this is not on our minds, especially with this being our first child after a miscarriage. I logged and began checking my emails and shopper accounts. I did not receive an email indicating the shop had been cancelled but noticed it was on SInclair's site. I sent Ms. Henrandez an email and she responded with the following:

"Mr ????,

because of the date you scheduled and the time it takes for me to arrange a camera to get to you and the additional training and need for your DL to be sent to me so I can inform our accounting department to waive the deposit fee, time was of the essence to receive a response from you. This had nothing to do with being family friendly or the fact your wife just had a baby. This had to do with the shopper understanding that there was additional training needed; this was in the ????? briefing and it was your responsibility to make sure you completed the requirements prior to scheduling the shop.

I will close your account as of today unless you inform me otherwise and you are more then welcome to shop our other clients, however based on this I do not feel you are a good fit for the video shops we have.

All others shoppers I contacted for this client who were missing training or needed to get their DL to me replied the day of or the following day I sent the email and have completed the requirements. You had the option to complete the training, submit your DL and reschedule but you are choosing to take this route and I respect your decision.




--
Thank You,

Gina Hernandez

I responded with I have no use for a company like this. Maybe overreacting but a company or scheduler that does not have sensitivity to shopper's personal lives needs to go. I will be sending kudos to all the wonderful schedulers and companies out there. I also may post the positive emails sent congratulating me and indicating understanding, something Ms. Hernandez lacks. Make up your own minds. I just wanted to let others be aware so informed decisions can be made. I did complain to the company by calling them and I was asked to send her emails to them for review. My account was deactivated by Ms. Hernandez. Funny complain and get deactivated despite having shopped for them for a while with one scheduler contacting me regularly because of the good work I have done. What are your thoughts?

When your annoyance had you respond that you had no use for a company 'like this' you were overreacting and invited her to deactivate you.

You obviously have had a good working relationship with at least some schedulers there, so I think my first response would have been to take a deep breath and call Gina, explain what had happened and see what could be worked out. Calling and sending emails for review I would have gotten to if nothing could be worked out with Gina. Hopefully cooler heads can get this straightened out.

I understood the OP responded that he had no use for a company like this to Gina's deactivation email.

Gina sometimes posts on here. I would be interested in seeing if she has something to add. This seems to be a bit out of character but the facts as posted here I have to agree with the OP.

Deja vu anyone?

That client is very demanding. She has to be tough.

This client only has 7 dealerships total. It is not a large client. I am very familiar with them and they are based in my area.

Wow! Gina is great. I am beyond shocked. She has always written me nice letters. It sounds like you touched on her last nerve.

@audrialyn30 wrote:

That client is very demanding. She has to be tough.

Congratulations on your new baby, did your wife have a boy or girl? Your better off letting go because I feel like Sinclair is not a major player in most markets on the West Coast. I like Gina, I do not like Sinclair because of a lack of feedback leaving shoppers wondering how they performed. Sinclair has always paid me on time but never explained what kind of rating my reports received. I hope you focus on welcoming your new child to the World and forget about Sinclair, there are so many other MSCs on the Web to join!

Second, be nice to Gina because she is a good person, you might have caught her after several shoppers pulled a flake on her.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/03/2016 05:17AM by GuyFawkes.

I’ve had nothing but fantastic results in dealing with Gina. Earlier this year I was doing a route of shops in Florida that included 10 shops for her. She was very flexible in working with me, as on a route, sometimes the schedule changes if shops run long, or short.

I don’t mean to sound unsympathetic, but a pregnancy is not an unexpected event. You knew your wife would be delivering in the approximate time frame the event happened. I certainly would not have been scheduling any shops for probably 2 weeks either side of the due date, especially given the fact that your wife had miscarried and it was obviously important to you that you be with her.

Keep in mind also that there are many schedulers who read this forum. Your reply that, “I have no use for a company like this,” was over reacting and might end up hurting your ability to get shops in the long run.

Good luck with your new family.

@GMooneyhan MBSC wrote:

I don’t mean to sound unsympathetic, but a pregnancy is not an unexpected event. You knew your wife would be delivering in the approximate time frame the event happened. I certainly would not have been scheduling any shops for probably 2 weeks either side of the due date, especially given the fact that your wife had miscarried and it was obviously important to you that you be with her.

How could you possibly know what the due date was? Perhaps the baby was born quite early.

BTW many pregnancies are unexpected event.

@Flash wrote:

When your annoyance had you respond that you had no use for a company 'like this' you were overreacting and invited her to deactivate you.

You obviously have had a good working relationship with at least some schedulers there, so I think my first response would have been to take a deep breath and call Gina, explain what had happened and see what could be worked out. Calling and sending emails for review I would have gotten to if nothing could be worked out with Gina. Hopefully cooler heads can get this straightened out.

I agree. Definitely an overreaction. I would have called Gina to discuss.

It doesn't really matter. It sounds like you have plenty of MSCs to work for without Sinclair, and Sinclair probably has plenty of shoppers without you.

@TeriW wrote:

BTW many pregnancies are unexpected event.

Getting pregnant may be an unexpected event but after 8 months, I would call it an expected event.

@TeriW wrote:

@GMooneyhan MBSC wrote:

I don’t mean to sound unsympathetic, but a pregnancy is not an unexpected event. You knew your wife would be delivering in the approximate time frame the event happened. I certainly would not have been scheduling any shops for probably 2 weeks either side of the due date, especially given the fact that your wife had miscarried and it was obviously important to you that you be with her.

How could you possibly know what the due date was? Perhaps the baby was born quite early.

BTW many pregnancies are unexpected event.

I have no idea how any woman is able plan her complications associated around past miscarriages so they do not inconvenience her husband's Mystery Shopping Company. Deliveries are not planned unless its one of those extreme situations or you have a 1980s-1990s Bat-Sh&^ crazy doctor who was performing C-sections for his schedule plus all the extra insurance payments.

Usually with "At Risk" babies doctors are very cautious and warn their patient its possible delivery can happen quickly or unexpectedly. The OP is better off building up new relationships because its best not to drag good schedulers like Gina through the internet boards. Thank God your baby is well, focus all that energy on your child and wife!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/03/2016 06:25PM by GuyFawkes.

Please take the time and read the thread. I clearly indicated the shop was scheduled in the future. Comprehension is everything.

@cpr16 wrote:

Please take the time and read the thread. I clearly indicated the shop was scheduled in the future. Comprehension is everything.

If you go back you will read of MSCs freaking out on their Schedulers and Shoppers inside the hospital. If my mind does not fail me, was there a story about the MSC who asked to speak to his shopper's cardio-thoracic surgeon, asking if his patient could still make their video shop that night? Doctor said "No, but how about tomorrow after he slept off his bypass surgery"? MSC said "No, we are going to deactivate his account"!

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/03/2016 07:01PM by GuyFawkes.

@cpr16 wrote:

This client only has 7 dealerships total. It is not a large client. I am very familiar with them and they are based in my area.

Regardless, they are still demanding. It is high revenue account.

Hi All, first, I had no ideal his wife was pregnant and having any type of complications. I learned this after he emailed me the first time and after 3 days of me emailing him asking if he had his own camera and no reply. In my email I mentioned the additional training which had to do with the shop he scheduled on 6/7 so it was in fact relevant to the shop he self assigned. I offered to keep his account active so he could continue to shop our other clients but based on his email to me and letting me know we were not family friendly and had no use to work for a company like ours, I did in fact close his account per his request. If you read his posted email from me it clearly states this and all he had to let me know if he wanted to remain active. His other emails continued with a rant of telling everyone BBB, Attorney General and all the forum boards about how unreasonable I was. I informed him I had to remove the shop because he was not yet certified for the shop but he could have completed the training and I could reschedule him but he did not want this. Instead he wanted to be upset and claim how family unfriendly we were and if that is the attitude you come at me with I don't know what else I could do but grant your request for removal. He also stated IC's don't have to jump through hoops and though I can be flexile you have to remember you market your services to the MS company and we have requirements and deadlines to meet and if you cannot meet those requirements and deadlines then I personally cannot use you for the clients I schedule for. My responsibility is the the client first and foremost so they will continue to offer the mystery shops to our certified shoppers. My video shops are some of the highest paying out there and require an IC that understands the requirements to shop them and we did have the information of the additional training in the client's briefing that you verified you read through and understood. I cannot make everyone happy but I try my best to work with those who want the shops and will be professional and not argumentative if something doesn't go as planned. If you in fact want to do the shop and would like to call me and discuss reactivation I will be more then willing to do so. Most I have worked with will tell you I am more then willing to understand when something important comes up and take precedence and will work with you but you have to be willing to understand I have my own set of rules and guidelines I have to follow and if you cannot understand that I cannot work with you. Just an FYI, we do not have your DL on file with us. Thank you and best to all.

By the way we now have more video shops in FL, NC & SC want info email or call me. Also offering service shops in FL, NC & SC for Kia, Nissan & Toyota (audio recorded shop) Have an awesome weekend.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/03/2016 09:10PM by Gina.

I have done video shops for Gina for years. I findd her reasonable and likable. If I email her during business hours, she responds immediately to an hour at the latest.

Thank you for taking the time to reply, Gina.

I have never had one problem working with you, or Sinclair.

First you did not email me for three days. Your video shops are some of the lowest paying out there actually. I posted this to allow new people, legitimate mystery shoppers, to make an informed decision. I actually had shop scheduled with other companies during this time and got back to them in the same time frame as I did with you. I got congratulations and understanding. That reflects poorly upon you and your company. I received 4 replies from four other schedulers/companies that congratulated me and was understanding. This did not come from you or Sinclair. Best wishes on getting your shops done in this area.

Mod note: To cpr16/jdp27 - Please only sign up once and do not use multiple forum names.

I have been mystery shopping for over 16 years. First time I have joined a forum. I have looked at the various post on this forum to get an idea what it is about. Some post are helpful in exchanging ideals and others are basically fodder. Some are obviously mystery shopping company staffers. Others are new people look for answers and they often get beat down by some.

Mystery shoppers need a legitimate forum to rate schedulers, editors and companies. We need the free exchange of ideas. This really does not exist in the mystery shopping realm, as standards are low. Some associations exist but none truly represent the mystery shopper. Mystery shopping companies are out to make a dollar anyway they can and they take advantage of the fact that people need money desperately. This is why they offer pathetic fees and provide horrible service to mystery shoppers and are quite disrespectful. There are a few good companies to work with. Those of us that have been around a while can agree fees have declined as more shoppers have entered the arena and financial desperation has increased. Who represents the mystery shopper? We do. We represent each other and ourselves. It is good to share experiences and not attempt to rip each other apart.

As for this situation, it is appalling. Some of the comments in this situation are absolutely ridiculous, callous, and lack basic humanity. People rarely schedule the delivery of a child unless it is necessary. For this scheduler and her company, they do not deserve to be in business or have the privilege of having descent shoppers shop for them. This situation and the schedulers comments go to show just how little respect they have for mystery shoppers and they do not care. They just want what they want when they want it and at the lowest price. The old saying "what goes around comes around" will play out in this situation. Karma has a way of leveling the field and kicking you in the gut. I hope this scheduler does not have a situation that arises that requires understanding because she will be shown what her heart has shown when the time comes.

I'm going with Gina on this one.
Did anyone read and understand her reply?

I've worked for Sinclair since 1999. As a matter of fact, my husband did a grocery shop for them right around the birth of our child. He shopped the wrong store. His not a great shopper. The world did not end.

That is the problem. Her reply is full of holes, inconsistent, lacks clarity, and is completely selfish and dishonest. How much do you expect to profit from championing her lack of humanity?

@jdp27 if U R so disgruntled w/msing then Y R U still doing it after 16 years?

I am sorry we cannot work something out. You made your choice and the only thing I can do is honor it. I wish you the best.

"As for this situation, it is appalling. Some of the comments in this situation are absolutely ridiculous, callous, and lack basic humanity. People rarely schedule the delivery of a child unless it is necessary. For this scheduler and her company, they do not deserve to be in business or have the privilege of having descent shoppers shop for them. This situation and the schedulers comments go to show just how little respect they have for mystery shoppers and they do not care. They just want what they want when they want it and at the lowest price. The old saying "what goes around comes around" will play out in this situation. Karma has a way of leveling the field and kicking you in the gut. I hope this scheduler does not have a situation that arises that requires understanding because she will be shown what her heart has shown when the time comes."

What part of my reply was ridiculous, callous and lacks basic humanity? If a Shopper notifies me that they are weeks, or a few days away from having a child I can work something out. However if I am NOT aware of a pending birth, what exactly is it that I am supposed to do when the person has not replied to me about the required training that has not been completed? Mystery Shopping is a business and of course it's for revenue. We have deadlines that we are required to meet and therefore the IC that schedules has to understand they have a deadline to meet, otherwise there can be no compensation. Had this person gone out and conducted the shop incorrectly they would be upset that I had not informed them there was additional training even though the client's briefing clearly outlined that there was more training involved but the IC had not completed it. It's easy to make assumptions when you do not know the entire situation.

Wow. I can't say anything about the OP, but the only thing I can say is that I accepted my first shops from Gina this week. I screwed up simple training and she had to e-mail me at least three times for additional information. I uploaded the video but sent the link to an incorrect e-mail address and couldn't understand WHY she was saying they hadn't received the link. She has answered the phone EVERY time I called. she has been nothing but professional, when I would have reached through the phone and strangled me. Obviously I have issues and need to do a better job, but the fault is mine alone. Gina has been great. I'm usually better than this, but when it rains, it pours!

Mod note: To cpr16/jdp27 - Please only sign up once and do not use multiple forum names.

No assumptions being made here but thank you for making my points. It is not the responsibility of an independent contractor to inform you in advance about anything concerning there life. Mystery shoppers are not employees. This shop was for a future date that had not happened and was not happening for quite sometime. A point you and some of your cohorts appeared to gloss over. Make all the excuses you want. You were wrong and handled this wrong and exposed your company for what it is. This person deserves better and is better off without your company and dealing with someone of your caliber.

jdp27, its time to let this go away because your not getting paid and people have made up their minds long before Gina posted. Gina is a good person, put yourself in her shoes a scheduler's life is not peaches and cream. Clients have no problems walking away from long relationships with MSCs for various reasons. I know a firm that told their MSC "Jesus has told us to take another direction, we will be taking our dealerships to another agency along with a block of pizza take-out companies. Schedulers too have been in the hospital getting yelled at for being sick, they are not the enemy.

You provided your situation for everyone to see, with all the other companies available to shop I wish I could impart some personal knowledge about getting upset when there is no emotional value to gain from rehashing a subject best left to fade away. I hope all is well with your family, please let this topic disappear because anger is highly over-rated. I paraphrased the verse in St Paul's writing because the topic has nothing to do with fraud and more about anger over miscommunication. Paul wrote something like:

My paraphrased version "Already, indeed, then, there is altogether a fault among you, that you have judgments with one another; why do you not allow yourself to suffer injustice instead of taking others to the court of public opinion? Can't you allow yourself to be wronged and move on with life"?

(1 Corth 6:7)