The change is not that they added a new question. It's that if you answer "Yes" to a certain question they now require a comment, where they hadn't in the past and it was added to SOME of the shops completed before the change was made, but after they were already submitted. So, NO, we did not miss it.

The additional comment was not a part of what I and the MSC agreed upon when I accepted the jobs. It was also not part of the job when the report was submitted. If I were an employee their handling of this would have been fine but as an IC we had a contract and they chose to make adjustments after the job was completed. It would have been more appropriate for the MSC to send an email explaining their mistake and request the information as a courtesy. While the inconvenience appears small it is still a burden placed on the IC that was not factored into when accepting the job. For me, that inconvenience took nearly an hour of my time overall.

They are in general a very good MSC and pay on time without issue. It does, however, remind me of the pitfalls of being an IC in this field.

Could be.

Such drama. You could just deactivate yourself.

I guess I disagree. I don't think pointing out that this is a contract issue is really drama. I further don't see how deactivating would have dealt with the issue. Had the MSC asked, I would have gladly helped if possible. I value our working relationship. I'm also sure that they have been helpful when I've made a mistake in the past. I believe being mindful of the differences between IC / employees and ensuring those boundaries are maintained is important, especially in the current climate of gig economy employment laws.

You are absolutely correct @wwin. As an IC, you are bound by the agreement you accept, Any additional information after the fact should be compensated. However, you still have to consider your reputation and understand that they control your ability to get assignments. Myself, never have shopped for this company, now I don't want to. Deals should be deals.

Maybe you shoud

@SoCalMama wrote:

Such drama. You could just deactivate yourself.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/27/2018 11:38PM by PaulinMI.

I get the point of being asked for something after the fact.
However, at the same time, this did not represent something completely new to have been evaluated. The new narrative, which I was not ready for when I first saw it, either; is something that was still watched for in the shop, and should have had some form of note taken on that aspect. I had no problem writing a sentence for it when I first saw it, based on the general note I had written.
I agree, a lot of drama over something minor.

@KA047, I agree. Not being there, I can't speak with authority. But I suppose it depends on how they ask. If it was diminutive, like we screwed up can you please add this for us we love you, we will make it up to you later, please. Or if it was authoritative like you do this extra work or we won't pay you. I bet you know how I would reply to that request.

Look, it may have been something as simple as the client requesting additional clarification after the report was received on their end, so the MSC felt obligated to have their shoppers comply. The email I received just told me that there was an incomplete answer in my report and it had been returned as incomplete, with a request to please add a comment for my yes answer for that question. I wrote two sentences and the report was accepted. No big deal. There was no threat or anything of that nature. It is definitely not the only time in the past 17 years of shopping I have been asked for a clarification on a shop and probably won't be the last. I don't think adding two sentences to the report was any sort of deal breaker, LOL, and it took me less than 30 seconds to log in and add that...not sure what kind of additional compensation would be expected for 1 minute of extra work!

I have made a lot of money doing shops for this MSC. The shops and reports are simple and fast, and pay very well for the minimal amount of time involved to do them. I love this company and I really love the bonuses I get on their cell phone and electronics shops, and these mailing shops are great route fillers. I love that I can do the visit in under 5 minutes most of the time, then turn around and submit the shop in 5 minutes using the app on my phone.

@JASFLALMT wrote:

It is definitely not the only time in the past 17 years of shopping I have been asked for a clarification on a shop and probably won't be the last. I don't think adding two sentences to the report was any sort of deal breaker, LOL, and it took me less than 30 seconds to log in and add that...not sure what kind of additional compensation would be expected for 1 minute of extra work!

So, what you are saying, oh wonderful shopper, is that for you to answer a question such as, "How did the clerk greet you?" you don't feel as though you would need to start a debate regarding the ins and outs of IC versus employee contract law? Really? You are being taken advantage of.

It took me less than 30 seconds to write, "The clerk/associate/employee made eye contact and greeted me when I approached the counter." One sentence. I feel as though someone should start a class action suit for all IC's who are interested.

They can feel free to kick back every single one of my reports for clarification. I made a ton of money from them last year and this year.

LOL. Good for you, oh wonderful SoCal Mama, your high speed internet is faster than mine! Either that or your typing skills might be better

In addition to the easy work for decent pay, there is another bonus for me: a dear friend of mine from high school who has fallen upon hard times is the grateful recipient of care packages containing snacks and goodies from my convenience store shops for her kids for several years now. She once was really grumpy and irritable for a few days (not to me, to her husband) and I sent her a canister of salt for being so salty, LOL. She thought that was funny, said she had been "justifiably ass-salted."

@JASFLALMT wrote:

They actually didn't change the report after it was submitted. The question was there, they just previously had not asked for a clarification on it. They wouldn't be the first MSC to do that. And I love this MSC and would never put them on my "nopes" list, especially for something so trivial as asking for a 2-sentence comment explaining an answer to a simple question. These shops take 5 minutes to do with a 5 minute report and make excellent fillers on short or long routes.

@LGRM wrote:

So the real question is: How is it okay to change the survey report after the report is submitted? I mean, really. That's just a reflection that the MSC didn't pay attention to detail at the start. Non-starter for me. Nopes list.

The OP says they did add it after. *I* would put them on my nopes list. You wouldn't. That's fine. You love them. That's fine. You like the shops as fillers. I'm more choosy these days, and that's fine, too. We're all allowed our opinions and individual ways of doing things. And that's fine, too.

LGRM, I don't recall ever telling you should do them. And I'm sure that other shoppers in your area think that's just fine that you don't. It's a win win!

You didn't; I don't think I said you did. It's all good.

I have my first shops this quarter coming up so I guess I will find out what the brouhaha is all about. I remember questions in the past shops asking if they apologized for a wait and also if you were greeted nicely. But I also remember the comment box saying it was not for anything already addressed in your report yes and no questions. So I assume there will be a separate box under this question now that it requires a statement.
In my mind, not too much to ask for given the simplicity of this job already and the great compensation to those of us who use these shops to actually send packages we want to send. Another holiday season coming up so i hope I can get enough of these jobs to fulfill my holiday lists. It does take me a lot longer than 5 minutes to fill out the report..takes me 5 minutes just to scan the receipt! But then I guess I am old and slow! I am seriously thinking of getting faster internet.

Sandy, I do mine on the phone app (Mobi Audit) in my car after I do the shop. I pull into a nearby parking lot and I take a photo of the receipt and upload it directly into the report using the app, and answer all of the questions on the app. That's why it doesn't take me very long to submit the report. I am in my 50s.

@sandyf wrote:

I have my first shops this quarter coming up so I guess I will find out what the brouhaha is all about. I remember questions in the past shops asking if they apologized for a wait and also if you were greeted nicely. But I also remember the comment box saying it was not for anything already addressed in your report yes and no questions. So I assume there will be a separate box under this question now that it requires a statement.
In my mind, not too much to ask for given the simplicity of this job already and the great compensation to those of us who use these shops to actually send packages we want to send. Another holiday season coming up so i hope I can get enough of these jobs to fulfill my holiday lists. It does take me a lot longer than 5 minutes to fill out the report..takes me 5 minutes just to scan the receipt! But then I guess I am old and slow! I am seriously thinking of getting faster internet.

In case you missed my post above, the question is bascially, "How did the clerk greet you?"

For 90% of shops in general (not this client), you can put can out some sort of variation of:

The clerk, made eye contact, smiled and said, "Next please."

Personalize it to your situation. That's the drama. A quote isn't even needed. I swear to goodness, it is the craziest post that I can recall.

Now that the extra information is anticipated, it is not a big deal. The problem was never what they asked it was when they asked for it. Also, when the editor returned the report she specifically told me she did not want to know about the interaction with the clerk. They are now accepting those answers but not when I first submitted it. It's nice that you didn't deal with the same editor as I did SoCalMama and didn't have the same issue.

There have been several reports for other msc that I have done in the past where there was no question or narrative box as I went through but when I clicked on check for complete up comes a narrative box I never saw before. It has happened too many times for me to think I just did not notice it the first time through. But it seems your job was accepted for submission at first with no mention of an extra narrative box that was empty. That is too wrong. But in any case I am glad I am doing these shops after the warning....I always note the quote in my notes anyway. Not really a big issue but as you said, the lack of changing the instructions and form was the issue.

Sandy, you don’t need the quote! You could include it if you remember it.

The extra sentence or two was no big deal for me personally. The client and the MSC has the right to change the shop guidelines and report at any time. This change was made to begin a new fiscal year for this client.

Considering that this is one of the less onerous reports out there, one additional short narrative block isn't a hassle at all. After all, they could add a long narrative, covering the entire visit, like many other reports require, to the end of the report.

Also, isn't it fairly standard practice in this industry to require a review of shop guidelines and report before doing the shop?! I thought this standard practice was in place so the client/msc could make changes "on-the-fly" mid-project.

msimon-2000, they made the addition days AFTER the job was complete and the report was submitted. Reviewing the guidelines and report before performing the shop wouldn't have mattered (and of course I do that) because the addition was made after the job was done not before or during.

That's true, they did make the addition later. Only one of my reports was returned to make the change because I had answered "yes" to that question and did not leave a comment. In the past week before that after they had added the new question, that had been sufficient. Which makes me think the client made the request for the comment, not the MSC.

I am extremely grateful that this MSC requires no overall narrative about the visit at the end of the shop unless there was something unusual not covered in the report, which is extremely rare. Nearly every question is a simple yes or no, with a few timings, and very few comments (seriously, only like 2 or 3 questions require a comment). Many other MSCs that only pay $10-$12 for a shop require a heck of a lot more work and want a chronological story of the visit at the end. Those other MSCs require a longer onsite visit and the reports take 30 minutes or more to do because of narrative at the end. Needless to say, I don't do those shops.

wwin, I realize the sequence of events as it happened to me as well. I do a bunch of these shops every year. Like you, I was perturbed for about two seconds flat. Then I wrote the extra sentence or two and decided that it was no biggie. In the grand scheme of things, still a great shop, easy reporting, and awesome MSC.