sanybella
That is nearly the identical thing they did to me. Was that on the senior living facilities? I did the call, set the appointment, went there, evaluated the tour, submitted collateral and report. Waited the exact time for the follow up, evaluated follow up. Submitted report, waited to see if they would contact me. Then they had clarifications (even though the answer was already in the myriads of paragraphs for each section narrative, after narrative and I did those too. It has been said that IntelliShop outsources to foreigners who do not comprehend English very well. I still did the clarifications and rearranged the words, not much to add, reiterated then regurgitated it.
The weekend goes by and on Monday morning the proofreader says it was fine, but the Scheduler sends me an email that it is rejected because of the time frame. But we have emails along the way for progress and extensions granted due to appointment setting times and such. I wonder if they will be using our reports?
I have decided after years of service for them that this Scheduler will be off my active list. I got the same terrible rating as you got. That is simply uncalled for, especially on a project that has lots of phases to it. The request for clarifications if I am not mistaken was days later and I will have to check, but it was on the weekend. I have been reading on these forums that IntelliShop associates are not even working on the weekends! Intelli-Shop, Intellishop, Intelli-shop unreasonable and disrespectful, that is putting it mildly!
I am about ready to leave them completely. I will email my other Schedulers for this firm and let them know that this Scheduler gave me a 1 and give them a heads up. I will do this because they count on me to get their regular rotation of shops successfully completed every month. So that probably kills my self-assigning ability. There are less than a handful of Shoppers in my region and so I do several routes. I expect that these shops will now have to be bonused which will at least be good for someone.....until they get burned as well. After reading how many Shoppers have had similar experiences, I guess I knew it was a matter of time before they would screw me over. I have successfully completed at least 3 dozen of these types of shops and ones even more complex, so it is not the narratives. And to mark me completely as a flake is just downright rude and I will be taking this to the next level.
It is also about their Editors/Proofreaders who nearly always delay because they have questions, even though the answer is right in front of their nose most of the time. In 99% of the time IntelliShop asks for clarification, whereas tens of dozens of other MSCs ask me to clarify only 5% of the time. But meanwhile, other Mystery Shopping Companies do not dump the whole report or penalize for time when they are asking for the clarifications. I am just sick of being treated this way and have been concerned many times after reading about this type of treatment by IntelliShop towards my colleagues. But I thought that since I was still on good terms that I will still keep at it. I could beat myself up and say that I did not listen to my instincts about entrusting Intellishop with projects that have this level of complexity, as the report and guideline seemed okay, and did not come off as needing verbatim. But the clarification requests attempt to get every last detail (even though the Associate who gave the tour is vague).
I do not know why it was not good enough the first time around even though I explained every, no and yes answer and other areas. I gave 3-4 paragraphs IN EACH SECTION of details. Yet the reason I got a flake citation was because they said the deadline had past! Well then, Scheduler, I suggest you oversee your Editor/Proofreaders and when they want more clarifications that if you are that close to the deadline, you take responsibility. You look at the report and decide if you really need it sent back for more revisions. Sounds like you guys have a time management and comprehension problem with your Proofreaders!
In the future, I suggest to my colleagues to think hard and long about taking anything that has narratives from IntelliShop. I suggest you put this on your list of never to do projects and completely avoid them. But it is not because you as a Shopper do not know how to do a plethora of narratives, but because you will most likely have to answer multiple clarifications that have already been answered. Then you will need to reword it and be frustrated. But far worse than that, is they they will find a way to eliminate you. Then add insult to injury, give you an unfair rating (with very little if any communication). Is it really worth it, especially if their muck trickles down onto any other affiliate websites like JSP or MSPA ratings? I have heard that the vehicle test drive/sales shops have also been a nightmare. It will not be long before they lose their Clients because of the unreasonable way they treat Shoppers.
I hope that whoever is going to the next Shopper Conferences whether it be MSPA or the others that you will bring up these type of issues with the powers-that-be. I heard that there are other forums and even a large job board that has a way to rate Schedulers/Project Managers for their flakiness! I read that IntelliShop does not have a very useful phone number (busy or they never pickup or return calls) or Support system. Here on this forum at least has one where can give kudos to the Scheduler of the Year. Maybe one of these days someone will build a site that roasts Schedulers or firms. They can win awards for being the most unfair, the most archaic, the most annoying, the sneakiest ("fun" shops come to mind), the ones suspected of making excuses to steal the report without paying for it...etc.
Oh, BTW I will beat the smarmy colleagues to the punchline and say, yes it was my choice and that is why I am an Independent Contractor. So I can choose not to work for them and leave the bonused shops to them. (Ha HA HA, until you get screwed too!)