@OldDog wrote:
I actually left Trendsource a few weeks ago, got fed up of low fees, long milage, and expecting a location by location quote instead of doing the smart thing and batching them!
When I want to batch visits, I call the MSC and speak to a scheduler. I'll offer to do more than one shop for $X amount of PAD, but only if I can do the visits on the same day. If they have to be done on different days, then I'll do Location 1 for $Y PAD and Location 2 for $Z PAD. Recently I was assigned two visits and the first appointment call went smooth as silk, but the second had a disconnected number for the contact. Because I still had my scribbled notes on my PAD offer, I was able to call shortly before my first visit when I still didn't have a working number for the second assignment. I talked to the same scheduler, who had no problem adjusting the PAD to the earlier agreed amount for a single visit during the trip.
I can never give a PAD offer without planning my own route using Google Maps. The mileage the MSC shows is a radius or "as the crow flies." Well, I'm not a crow, and I don't have a helicopter. I have to travel on the roads, and they don't generally go in a straight line from my home to the destination. Due to the Sierra Nevada mountains and the Sacramento River Delta, the roads can be winding mountain roads or can take me miles further because of waterways that don't have bridges across them. Plus, the roads with bridges in the Delta and the Bay Area often have bridge tolls. And, of course, the MSC schedulers don't know all of this. It's why this company allows you to request PAD, but they ask you to state the reason for it. If they don't get a better (lower) offer and the project really needs to get done, I've had my PAD offers accepted. If they do get a better offer, I'm the backup shopper.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2018 12:10PM by LizRich.