I'm in a pickle! I saw Market Force had a special shop that needed to be completed on a certain day. I submitted offers for 3 of them and all three were accepted. Thinking I would do one at lunch, one at snack and one at dinner, I thought I would be set. Well, I went to look at my paperwork and all three have a dinner time period set for hours. I've emailed help desk asking what to do since I'm pretty sure I can't do all three in the dinner period and she said to just reschedule two of them if I can. Well, I can't because they all have this one day. I've called with no reply. I replied to her email but I still don't have any response. Do I just cancel two of them??

Unless today is the day, just wait to see if you hear back from her.

Did you try the reschedule button?

Yes, I tried that. I've done a similar type of shop for them at the location when they were running a special promotion on one day and wanted the locations shopped on that day. I shopped three different locations which is why I assumed I could do it tomorrow. I was careless and didn't look at the specifics close enough to see the hours set this time.

One thing this forum affords us is to recall Posters accountability.

It seems like the past 10 months, you have assigned to the same MSC for the same problem at least 4 times. At some point the MSC will be deactivating you because of negligence. You assign yourself with several different shops within the same time period, then you complain or try to reschedule with short avail or no avail. You should be satisfied if MF deactivates you.

We, as Shoppers, learn from other shoppers how not to keep repeating the same mistakes. Apparently you aren't learning. "Those who do not learn from the mistakes of the past, will keep repeating them."

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/13/2017 03:04PM by sojo917.

Wow. I clearly don't have enough time on my hands. No way I can keep track of what a poster may have written in previous months, or freaking care for that matter.

Sojo,
That sure seemed a little harsh. I couldn't remember ever encountering this specific problem before so I (as did you apparently) searched my questions for the past year.
1) About 10 months ago, I asked what to do about two shops I grabbed that were at the same location on the same day. You yourself said this kind of glitch is something you've never seen before.
2) About 7 months ago I made the mistake of assuming I could reschedule and when I went to do it, I was unable to.
3) This question is about three fast food shops needing to be completed during the same time period.

Yes, all three are in regards to MF. Yes, all three are my fault. I don't remember assigning blame to MF anywhere in my post and if it came across that way, I'm sorry. I don't shop for a lot of companies and my biggest mistake I make is getting into too much of a routine when grabbing the same shops off the board every month. When things like this happen, I tend to panic because I want to do the best job I can for the company. Yes, it is a major frustration of mine when I have a question and am unable to reach anyone at the MS company to resolve it. I guess I was under the impression that people on the forum were here to help but I guess it is more important to you to throw people's mistakes back in their faces. Going forward, please feel free to scroll past my posts. I would hate for you to have to waste your time digging up my old posts to see if I was repeating myself again.

Sincerely,
A young mom who has been up since 3am with kids and really didn't need to have mud flung on her this morning

Yea, you can't do all three dinners in one day. I would call MF. Do you have their number? I'm willing to bet they can change the dates for you, it's worth a try anyway. However, if you can't do them another day and you don't hear back from them, then the only recourse you have is to hit that cancel button so the job goes back on the board and they can possibly find someone else.

I know they can change the date, if they have other dates available even if there are no other dates showing on your dashboard. I've never had them be able to change a dinner into a lunch though but that is always a possibility. Definitely, absolutely call and don't wait for an email. You can't do all three for one time period, two will be denied and you won't get paid. I mean, sometimes I'm that hungry but.........

I really despise when someone talks to me, here on the forum, or someone else and brings up my past posts. It's very intrusive and more often than not I've learned from that "mistake". It feels like they're stalking me and who has time, or would want to (gross), go back and read all of someone's post without feeling dirty?

Thank you spicy for your advice! I called twice (and emailed twice) and still hadn't heard back from them. I really wanted to give them the opportunity to find another shopper if they needed to so I went to cancel it. It's a Tuesday night promotion they are shopping. Finally this morning there was an additional date! I rescheduled both for next Tuesday and left one for today. Hopefully sometime this week I can have a scheduler bump one to the last Tuesday of the month. Thanks again for your advice and kind words! I'm again humbled by my mistakes and resolve to be more careful in the future!

Oh, Hallelujah! (Doing the burger dance). So, yea, don't cancel the last one yet, you still might get it.

I understand why sojo said what needed to be said. I refrained from initially responding because my first thoughts were not so understanding.

We have seen similar posts here from shoppers that hurriedly snap up shops without first checking the available requirements. Personally, I consider that to be born of greed. Why should I lose out on an opportunity to perform a shop because someone selfishly snapped them up then wants advice as to how to manipulate the system. The same people advice is being asked from probably would have preferred the opportunity to perform those extra shops.

My advice is to cancel the extra shops, forcing you to more diligent and professional in your approach to this business. Everyone suffers when a few shoppers do things that cause MSCs to make things harder on us.

@isaiah58 wrote:

I understand why sojo said what needed to be said. I refrained from initially responding because my first thoughts were not so understanding.

Or some people could just get their underwear out of their ass.

1) I did not hurriedly snap up the shops. I made an offer on them so clearly they had been on the board for a long time. I have completed a nearly identical project in the past and made the wrong assumption that I would be able to complete it the same way I did in the past. I'm not sure how this is selfish.
2) I'm not trying to manipulate the system. If cancelling is what would be best for the MSC, then I was prepared to do it. I was trying to do my best and complete the job for MF.
3) Some day perhaps I will attain the perfect shopper status that you and Sojo seem to have attained where you never make a mistake. Unfortunately, I still have work to do.
4) I suppose this forum should be a place where we can brag about all of our accomplishments and not admit to our mistakes and ask for help in rectifying them. Thankfully there were others who were more gracious and less chastising.

So, the idea is to punish yourself, also known as flogging if you were a conservative (and crazy) monk in the high mountains of China by giving the shop back and ever so sweetly allowing your competitor to have the shop. All because of a flurry of happiness to pick up a few shops in which you assumed, maybe, it would be like the ones before. I'm sure "most" mystery shoppers don't make these kinds of mistakes EVER, lol.

eta: I responded before seeing the last few posts. I was responding to the response by isaiah58 I really try not to respond to sojo anymore because of the harda$$ mentality

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/13/2017 06:55PM by spicy1.

Actually it is unlikely those monks would be in the high mountains of China since self-flagellation is associated with a sect of the Catholic church



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/13/2017 06:53PM by LisaSTL.

Details!

Though I have a harda$$ mentality, my point is ---->when the same poster is complaining about the same problem, and having the same excuse each time. It is time to wonder "why do one continue to assign for the same shops and have the same problem? One does not need to stalk anyone, but how many times is the same problem by the same poster suppose to appear? I am responsible for the content of my post.

The forum is a learning curve and educational forum.

If one never learns, they will continue to repeat the mistakes they keep asking advice for. To advertise our mistakes is not humbling but a critical move. When MF deactivates us, it does so with reason, whether one cares or not, whether one knows or not.

I am not the only Shopper who also looks at previous post by posters. Whether it is their first post or their 10000th post, it is worth looking at. Some misfortunes do not need to be repeated.

BTW @spicy1-------how many posts been removed by the Mod. That's a harda$$ mentality. My twin has a softer side.

My advice to the OP--------->make a list of the shops to be assigned. Write down the times and dates, then sort though what is most convenient for shopping purpose. Take it or leave it,

A garden does come to mind.

Here is where I think you missed the boat sojo.

The OP apparently did not self-assign based on full details of the shop requirement, i.e. they were meal specific. She actually submitted an offer which means the assignments were scheduled by Market Force. Since it is also their policy not to allow multiple shops for the same meal period, it was actually a scheduler error.

If the OP had simply self-assigned knowing full well the times and restrictions, you might be justified saying she tried to game the system. I say "might" because as long as MF is fine with the result, it doesn't much matter what the rest of us think.

I make plenty of mistakes and talk about them here. I did see the initial comment about making an offer. If you read my earlier response, I was very careful to not direct it at anyone specific but otherwise address the overall general concern I had. My opinion followed with a direct suggestion to the OP.

MF schedulers do not check for redundancy. They will call and offer shops for days and meal periods I already have another shop scheduled with them. They put the responsibility on the shoppers to not break the rules, which they clearly tell us every time they get us to agree to a shop. You can self assign multiple shops for the same day and meal period. Their system has very few restrictions, relying more on the shoppers losing pay if they aren't careful.

This puts me back to where I started. There was enough information available to identify each shops constraints. Something blinded you to that while making your offers. Looks like it might work out for you.

Uh, oh. I just went to check if every shop shop (burger shop) shows the hours because I seem to remember some of them saying check your cpi for day parts and there's NO burger shops available to me. I wonder if, and I don't know if it's the same burger shop, they spotted "the shopper". I have one yet to complete though. Anywho, Liz36 you "is" a greedy burger shop gal!!! Me too though, I grab them as soon as I can, sometimes hoping there are rescheduling opportunities and I will continue to do so and I would recommend it to my family, colleagues and friends!

Three errors in 10 months seems a bit minor to warrant such a tongue lashing. Also, it should be noted that I have not scheduled a shop at the same location nor assumed that I could reschedule a shop without checking first. Therefore, I believe the argument can be made that I have learned from my past mistakes and this is one of a new nature.

Secondly, about a year ago I completed a project nearly identical to this one. When the scheduler called, I told her that I could only do two shops due to the requirements of not shopping two locations in one meal period. She assured me that there was a third meal period, a "snack" period between lunch and dinner when I could squeeze this in. With this conversation playing in my mind, I submitted offers for 3 shops. Was it MF's fault I was assigned all three? No. I've never said that. I don't think I've even hinted that any part of this was their fault. Throughout this whole thread, I've taken responsibility for my mistake. I was merely asking for guidance from other shoppers who may know more about these special projects MF does apart from their usual monthly rotation. Never could I imagine how petty people could be and how much time would be wasted digging up old mistakes and shoving my face in them. I seriously pity those who you both encounter on a daily basis and the complete lack of grace you must extend to them. Three mistakes in 10 months: selfish, unprofessional, deserve to be deactivated, greedy, someone who makes life harder for others. This is what has been thrown at me in the course of this thread. Wow. Just wow.

On a separate and completely unrelated note, is there a way to block people? Asking for a friend.

Stop being so sensitive and personalizing everything. No one attacked you. Don't ask for opinions if you can't handle constructive criticism. If you notice, I am not addressing every criticism you made nor taking it personally.

Every MF restaurant client has different meal ranges. I avoid the hedge hog because I can't stomach their food. Fortunately others love their food and snap the shops up. I made a $20 offer on one that resurfaced, must have asked for too much.

Post removed because it contained personal insults against another forum member –– Admin

Holy Moses! These two condescending posters are definitely going to be toggled. I can't believe how sanctimonious they can be, Yes, you have attacked the OP and your posts were not constructive criticisms. I wonder how my toggle did not work the first time.

OP, just toggle them. I, for one have not learned from their posts and remember fully how they come out of the woodwork to show their superiority. Toggle is a very effective tool if you want to visit/contribute in the Forum.

MF Help is usually very helpful when you encounter a problem. If they cannot help you, they will tell you in a better and civilized way.

@isaiah58 wrote:

Stop being so sensitive and personalizing everything. No one attacked you.

I would agree except for the whole calling the op greedy and insinuating they are a poor shopper.

I'm no snowflake and nobody can accuse me of mincing words whether it is calling out a troll or unethical behavior or general misinformation. Even I have found sojo to be over the top with nasty criticism for the last several months. I don't have issues with looking at previous posts, it can be quite helpful in identifying problems. It is an issue if what Liz said is true, that the situations from before are actually different, and sojo is comparing them side by side as if they are the same.

Regardless if MF takes any responsibility when scheduling assignments for a shopper, they are at least as much at fault here, more if they knew the meal times and the shopper did not. It is good lesson for everyone to know if MF will blame their own mistakes on the shopper, even if I have never found that to be the case.

As to calling any of us greedy, I don't believe in that word when it comes to running our businesses. We are not responsible for other shoppers because they may want some of those shops. This is not a corporation and we are not employees working toward a common goal. Should my lawn service give up the contracts for a few of my neighbors because the other lawn services want more business on my block?

I for one do not have the time or inclination to check what posters posted in the past but I have a good memory of posts I have read. I have a long memory of posts I liked or disliked, and definitely of posters, especially if they have PMed me. I have not tried if Toggle works on PMs.

I am still surprised when some posters proudly show their sanctimonious attitude. It is not necessary at all. Only you can judge your own success or you can write Jacob. Just because you say you are better than someone else does not make it so. Nobody needs a lecture. We are just trying to share some information, exchange ideas and maybe seek some empathy. We come to share our experiences, some of them are bad, because we feel we belong to a community. We don't need handholding. You don't have to wipe our tears or be tender but just be civilized. Unfair and drastic treatment may be a pratice for some MSCs but come on! If it gives you a feeling of superiority, we are not enablers.

Sojo,, you were so much more entertaining when you were posting tipsy. Don't much like your hangover remarks, though. Lately it's been overbearing and unkind, and more than annoying. Take some Tylenol and go to bed, then come back when you are in a better mood. Isaiah, don't know what your problem is but I'm disappointed. Get over yourself.

@LisaSTL wrote:

As to calling any of us greedy, I don't believe in that word when it comes to running our businesses. We are not responsible for other shoppers because they may want some of those shops. This is not a corporation and we are not employees working toward a common goal. Should my lawn service give up the contracts for a few of my neighbors because the other lawn services want more business on my block?

Thank you! I was wondering which shoppers are NOT out for themselves! Isn't that the purpose of ANY business? To be as successful as you can be? Do these other posters call other shoppers in the area and ask if they would like to take the shops before they book them?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/14/2017 12:23PM by Liz36.

Just a final follow up: I finally heard back from MF scheduling. They said the shops can only be completed this week and next and it was their scheduling error. She cancelled the third shop and said it would not count against me. Thank you for your kind and helpful advice!