I recently signed up with Harland Clarke and have begun receiving their shop announcement emails. However, I've never received any login information from this company. Are they one of the MSC companies that don't have a shop board, but contact shoppers via email only?

That is correct. You will be reporting your shops on line but assignments are done by email only.

ETA: They will send you a link to the reporting website where you will create a login to report. Your shop instructions, guidelines, training manual, invoice format etc. will be sent to you as email attachments.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/2016 06:38PM by Flash.

Thanks Flash! Odds I won't get the shops because I requested all four that I requested or none. They promise to be worth a road trip. Are their reports heavy on narrative?

I appreciate this discussion, because I was wondering the same thing yesterday.

They are fairly heavy narrative, but they are also one of the best paying MSC's I have worked for. I have never been contacted for clarifications. Be sure you comment on each answer, and you will be fine.

When you are assigned a shop, the scheduler will send you an email containing the guidelines and the Harland Clark Handbook. The handbook has samples of the types of narratives they want.

@COMystery wrote:

Thanks Flash! Odds I won't get the shops because I requested all four that I requested or none. They promise to be worth a road trip. Are their reports heavy on narrative?

Done right, the reports are fairly substantial on narrative. They do provide samples in their manual and read them carefully both for the degree of detail you are to observe as well as the writing style. There are also guidelines you must adhere to about calling in right before you do the shop. Often they do multiple shops at the same location and the first shopper in doesn't have to worry about the teller and/or banker they visit with but the second shopper is not to use the same teller and/or banker, which can get tricky to avoid. When you see a shop late in the month that is only doing a teller or only doing a banker, it is most frequently because the second shopper shopped someone who had already been shopped that month so that section of their shop has been disallowed.

The pay on these shops is very good. The schedulers I have dealt with at Harland Clarke are truly professional and I wish they still had shops in my area. I used to do substantial road trips for them but most clients now allow no more than 2 or possibly 3 shops per day and/or enough hours between shops that it is no longer feasible to do a route of a half dozen of them out through the hinterlands.

Do not put them on an 'all or none' basis for your first few shops as you will get none. You are likely to get one shop and once your work has been found acceptable, given another one. Once they know you systematically get it right, you are more likely to receive multiples as long as they fit within the daily max for the client.

I knew it was a long shot requesting all four shops. The shopd are an hour away from me and I have nothi g else going on in that area. I obviously wasnt awarded the shops. Next time I will try for just one, to get my foot in the door.

Is it safe to assume that they also select the shopper who lives the closest to the shop, since they pay mileage? If thats the case I may never be selected. I havent seen any shops in my small town yet.

No, I don't believe they always select the closest base on mileage. I have shopped for them in New England and in Florida. Most of those shops were at least 20 miles each way and often much further. The most recent one I did was 45 each way. They paid me to go back because the manager was not there. I was paid mileage for the original trip as well.

I shopped a credit union 40 miles from me (it had a nice bonus), but I was not awarded the shop at the branch walking distance from where I live.

I agree with Flash, don't give them an all or nothing for your first shop. Give them what shops you can do (branches and zip codes). It looks like they are spreading the work throughout the country.

They are probably going by the client's demographics. I had applied for a few shops and wasn't accepted the first few times. The majority of their shops were not near me.

Try Mintel. They recently had some bank shops that paid $25 each. You could self assign as many as you wanted.

@COMystery wrote:

I knew it was a long shot requesting all four shops. The shopd are an hour away from me and I have nothi g else going on in that area. I obviously wasnt awarded the shops. Next time I will try for just one, to get my foot in the door.

Is it safe to assume that they also select the shopper who lives the closest to the shop, since they pay mileage? If thats the case I may never be selected. I havent seen any shops in my small town yet.

Well, I tried again and this time I was assigned two shops. The paperwork that comes in the attached email is overwhelming or should I say frightening. There are very limited actual guidelines. I have to portray a merchant wanting to open an account. Luckily, they provide you links to clue you into the the merchant bank lingo. I believe I write reports well, usually receiving 10s. But, they have me scared when they say they will only pay the incentive if the report matches what they expect. Has anyone ever had the extra incentive denied? The way they do things is so confusing!!

Question for you that have worked for Harland. They sent me an email stating I had been assigned, included all the paperwork. But, the email also requested that I confirm that I can still do or want the shops. I presume I'm not actually assigned until I receive an email back with the mysterious link for reporting. Is that correct?

You'll get the incentive, even if they return your report to you. Since this is your first shop with them, you'll need to read through everything, so you will know what they want. The shops are straightforward. You have to call them to review the shop, so make sure you do that.

The only time I had an issue with them was when I was the scheduler sent me the wrong guidelines for one of the two shops. I only got paid for one of the shops this week.

The same scheduler emailed me saying that the client had more questions. Really? How much of a bonus will I get?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/2017 12:31AM by HonnyBrown.

I'm doing my first two shops for HC tomorrow. I was a little clumsy getting out the gate, since they do things differently than most MSCs. But the call went well, and I'm good with their info now. These seem straightforward enough, once you get past the excess that doesn't apply to the assigned shop. If the reporting goes well tomorrow, I'll sign up for all the remaining ones in my area! Their offerings usually aren't nearby, and too far for me, so I'm actually excited about these. Fingers crossed!

Wow! I did my first "set" of shops yesterday. The call-in was great, and they are sooo nice. Reporting had one heavy narrative each, but it was easy peasy! They are very easy to work with, IMHO, once you figure out the voluminous paperwork. I may sign up for more of these in my area. Timing is an issue, but I might make the time for these shopper fees!

Ditto on what everyone else has mentioned. You don't get logon information until HC assigns you a shop(s). They don't work off of a job board like most MSCs do.

LGRM, you'll see that they increase the incentives if the shops don't get taken. They once had a $300 incentive on a $35 shop.

Also, the next time you do a shop for them, you will have to reset your password.

Thanks, Honny, I got great bonuses on the ones I was assigned. I know how to wait.

That's ridiculous about resetting the password.Seems like a waste of resources. But I can still log in with my PW to see the other shops assigned. So I'm good with it.

Yes, this round of shops, you will see with this password. For the next set of shop assignments, you will need to reset your password.

I inquired about this, and the (then) scheduler said that because they are a check company, they have to take extra security measures.