Hello, I got an email today stating that my shop that I had performed on 2/6/2017 had been rejected. It was a shop where I ordered a blended drink, smoothie, etc. On the report it asked to document how a problem was handled. This was not covered in the instructions. There was no problem with my drink, so I mentioned to one associate that I had experienced brain freeze.

The original feedback email I received today stated: Feedback: Your report is being rejected because the problem scenario conducted is not something that the client could control.

Of course I am not happy about rejected shop. I asked to discuss the issue and requested exception payment, because I had no clear instruction what to raise as a problem.

I received a response: You are correct that there is no guidance given in the assignment instructions. That being said, how did you expect the team member to address your concern? If you had questions about the problem scenario, why didn't you clarify before conducting the assignment?

We will pay you for the visit, however, you will not be offered future assignments.

Does this mean I am blocked from future shops because I requested payment for a shop that I performed without asking for clarification of something that was not spelled out for me? I thought if it asks for raising a problem on the report, I had to come up with something.

It sounds as though you are blocked from future shops because the company believes you require too much instruction and that you aren't able to develop a scenario without being told exactly what to say. When the guidelines said to document how a problem was handled, it meant you needed to use your imagination to devise some problem that could be solved by the associate so you could report on it. I'm guessing you knew before doing the shop that you needed to have a problem to present to the associate. If you didn't know what to do, why did you proceed without contacting the company to ask for more guidance? I also agree with the company that your "problem" was not a valid one. How could the associate address your problem? What would you expect the associate to do when you said you had "brain freeze?" If you had spilled your drink, the associate might have refilled it. If you had complained that the drink had large chunks of fruit or it was not well blended, the associate might have made another one for you. Or, if you complained that it did not taste right, the associate might have refunded your money.; What exactly would an associate do to help you with "brain freeze?"

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/14/2017 03:22AM by roflwofl.

I do not expect a solution to my brain freeze. I do not like to make a problem where there is none. I probably should not have accepted this shop but I did not notice that I needed to make up a problem until after I accepted it and there is no mention of the problem in the training material. If the company agrees to pay me, why don't they update the guidelines to clarify they expect a solvable problem to be raised rather than fire me after I have been trained?

I agree that I also do not like to make a problem when there is none, but when it is required by the shop guidelines that I find a problem, I do it. Not doing it means the shop is unsuccessful. Having learned after accepting the shop that there were guidelines you did not understand and /or were not comfortable with, I think you had 3 choices: cancel, use your imagination and think of a great problem to report, or contact the company to ask for assistance.

I think it's great that the company agreed to pay you for the shop you did. And I mean no criticism or disrespect in sharing my opinion. You asked " why don't they update the guidelines to clarify they expect a solvable problem to be raised rather than fire me after I have been trained?" My opinion is that it is because they just do not want to do that. It is their choice. And you are not being "fired." Your are an independent contractor rather than an employee, so their decision to not provide future assignments is not being fired.

@sitotw wrote:

I do not expect a solution to my brain freeze. I do not like to make a problem where there is none.

Mystery shopping is full of made up scenarios and problems. How long have you been MS'ing?

@sitotw wrote:

If the company agrees to pay me, why don't they update the guidelines to clarify they expect a solvable problem to be raised rather than fire me after I have been trained?

You are thinking like an employee which you are not. You are an IC, Independent Contractor. You can not be hired or fired. You are basically responsible for training yourself. Some nuggets of information in this forum are good for training purposes.

I worked in a frozen yogurt shop and know how to address this, so maybe the smoothie shop employees should know as well. The cure for the brain freeze is to put the bottom of your tongue on the roof of your mouth. The "brain freeze" results from the capillaries in the roof of your mouth getting too cold. The bottom of the tongue warms them and the brain freeze goes away. I bet if the associate had told you this and you reported it, there would have been no issues with your problem scenario.

I have performed many shops across many MSCs. There tends to be three important areas that each MSC expects us to read. First, the general description which typically is high level and void of key details. Next, the general guidelines. Finally, the actual report which covers the fine details. Many MSCs clearly state to download and read the guidelines and the report. They also invite us to contact them, in advance, if we have any concerns or questions.

Some shops may also have additional information, including online tests.

Sentry paid you, you focused on the wrong thing. You could have asked to reshop the client, learned from your mistake, and developed a good relationship with them.

Learn from your mistakes!!!

@sitotw wrote:

I do not expect a solution to my brain freeze. I do not like to make a problem where there is none. I probably should not have accepted this shop but I did not notice that I needed to make up a problem until after I accepted it and there is no mention of the problem in the training material. If the company agrees to pay me, why don't they update the guidelines to clarify they expect a solvable problem to be raised rather than fire me after I have been trained?

I don't like those made up problem shops, so I don't take them because I'm not comfortable lying. But if I was a better actor I would have complained about the taste of the perfectly fine smoothie and report what happened.

To the OP, would it be possible for you to call them and ask them if you could do a re-shop and just cancel the other shop? Then you could keep working with them. For many shops, especially with the Sassie shops, you can enter the shop itself and see all of the questions and answers needed and then don't save the shop.

I really like the ones that give me a little input like this one. I haven't done this one in particular though. I've done a burger joint one where it just says to ask a question and see it the cashier/order taker answers it correctly. They don't spell out the question. If they said to ask specifically, "What kind of cheese is on this sandwich?, well {yawn} it's boring and can give us away as 'the shopper'. I really wish that TS would allow us to ask our own question instead of whomever is making up the ones I have to ask now! They could just have us ask in a category: Where is this?, When does this go on sale?, How would I cook this? and we fill in the blank.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/19/2017 12:28AM by spicy1.

Yup, I hate it when the guidelines only cover part of the instructions and leave out some of the required situations or what we need to observe only to discover that it was put on the report form only. For example, one MSC did not include the questions about what stores are located on each side of the business in the guidelines. It has the question only the report. I saved myself by googling the directory of the mall and was able to answer that darn question. As a rule, I checked the report form when doing a fresh, new shop.

Well, I feel for the OP. If the MSC wanted a problem raised, they definitely should have indicated what kind of issues to raise in the instructions. If I had performed that shop, I would have just "NA" the question and just said no problem encountered.

This is actually poor planning by the MSC, and it cost them money to pay the OP and then find a different shopper to complete it again.

I had reached out to the MSC contact suggested on this forum and asked if it was his final decision to not offer me future shops. I did not get a response and I was not accepted for a shop I had requested.