@walesmaven wrote:

Time to ignore the guy crouched under the bridge.

So far you haven't.

Guys, john knows the rules. He's been told in great detail many times and he understands, he just doesn't like it.
He is being deliberately dumb to stir things up. He thinks his sarcasm is very witty and that he's making good points to show that the rules are silly. He is making himself look more and more foolish instead.. I think it's time to either put this conversation on ice or post recipes.

@Irene_L.A. wrote:

@Shop-et-al wrote:

@maggiemay028 wrote:

I didn't realize we considered each other as competitors! Maybe more of co-workers?

Lesson learned.

For some people, mystery shopping is serious business. Some shoppers have built up actual businesses with significant revenues.

I am not one of them. I appreciate them and the amount of work that has contributed to their business successes. They worked and learned and earned.

I welcome shoppers to my area, but the area itself is nothing like well-known and popular parts of California. But you are welcome to shop here.

As for co-workers, occasionally shoppers team up for designated projects. Each shopper is responsible for their own portion of work. The rest of the time, we are independent contractors who operate separately from others.

Only in a broad sense are we co-working. We are part of a large industry and may perform similar tasks. We do what our contracts state we will do.

Being your so glad to share your shops, let's hear some names as the OP asked for...by the way, she also asked a year ago and was told, not her first pony race.

Here's what I think: We are being tested. Are we patient with newbies, have we changed our posting styles since the last inquiry, and/or can we collectively keep a thread on track and not dissolve into recipes? In MF Johnston's words, are we "posting with care"?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/2019 08:58PM by Shop-et-al.

SEA....I post with truth, and to me, that's caring. I have a gift of seeing through those that use us....comes with experience.

Let's define "newbie." maggiemae has been a member of the forum for 18 months and her first post indicated that she was already mystery shopping when she joined us. I think it might be a little insulting to consider her a newbie. john has been a forum member for more than 4 years, about the time you joined. With that level of experience, IMHO, repeated explanations about the rules should not be necessary.

Well! Now there are two of them under this bridge. So nice that neither will be lonely when we all go down the road reciting recipes.
I do not have a recipe at the moment. However, I have discovered that my microwave does a magic trick. I placed a plastic envelope of frozen carrots in light sauce on a paper plate. As directed, I made a slight slit in the plastic to vent it. Started the microwave for the correct time. Just before it shut off I heard that soft "poof!" sound that signals that something has exploded in the microwave. Fearing puree of carrots slathered over the oven interior, I opened the door. Instead, all of the cooked carrots lay tidily on the paper plate. The empty plastic envelope, clean as a whistle, was as far from the plate as it could be. And, it was all there; no part of the plastic was on or under the food. What a handy way to avoid steam burns when opening a cooked, nuked veggie pack to decant it into a dish.

Perhaps the elevator just doesn't go to the top floor with John and Maggiemae, my knowing these two are not new shoppers was of concern to me, pretending to be newbies is what set me off...of course they know the rules, we are being played (big time). The joke just may be on you shop-et-al. #talking to the wall.

I was willing to mention Marketforce and Intellishop but I see someone else did so. I would tell a newbie or an oldie wanting to expand to start with those and then start reading this forum regularly. I have picked up so much info from this forum..not on specific clients but maybe something like " I did a bank shop for xxx company......" If bank shops are something you enjoy that is a hint to sign up with that company. And some of the posters actually list their locations under their posts or the location is in their name such as the post just above for Irene_L.A. so you can assume she might work somewhere near Louisiana, Lower Alabama or Los Angeles. Or perhaps she just loves to Laugh Aloud. But in any case that is a hint to check companies she talks about. Or my posts as I often mention in them where I live.

@Irene_L.A. wrote:

Perhaps the elevator just doesn't go to the top floor with John and Maggiemae, my knowing these two are not new shoppers was of concern to me, pretending to be newbies is what set me off...of course they know the rules, we are being played (big time). The joke just may be on you shop-et-al. #talking to the wall.

Thank you, Irene. I will not delve deeply into an apparent personal insult but will go directly to the point. Did your posts pass the respectfulness threshold? Did mine? Did either of us demonstrate patience? Did either of us show that we can provide information, re-direction, and explanation as needed and in keeping with the posted forum rules and guidelines? That is the "test". Did you pass it? Did I?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/2019 11:31PM by Shop-et-al.

@Irene_L.A. wrote:

Perhaps the elevator just doesn't go to the top floor with John and Maggiemae, my knowing these two are not new shoppers was of concern to me, pretending to be newbies is what set me off...of course they know the rules, we are being played (big time). The joke just may be on you shop-et-al. #talking to the wall.

When you have nothing more to add to a discussion, always make personal attacks. LOL You and others have misinterpreted the laws and the rules. Many MSC ask you what other MSC have you worked for. Are they breaking the laws? I don't think so.

@johnb974 wrote:

When you have nothing more to add to a discussion, always make personal attacks. LOL You and others have misinterpreted the laws and the rules. Many MSC ask you what other MSC have you worked for. Are they breaking the laws? I don't think so.

OK, one more time, john, maybe it will sink in this time. When mystery shoppers register with a company, we are usually required to sign an Independent Contractor Agreement (ICA). The confidentiality clause in most ICAs prohibits the signer from revealing the names of the company's clients. If we sign the ICA, we agree to the terms and conditions and it is a legally-enforceable contract. If someone asks who shops a particular client, he isn't breaking any contract by asking the question (since he probably hasn't signed that company's contract; otherwise he would know who shopped the client, right?) He is, however, encouraging others to break their contractual agreements and requesting that others disregard one of our forum's few rules: "Do not reveal the clients of mystery shopping companies." We try to educate new shoppers that asking ICA-violating questions, and those that break our forum's rules, encourages violations and looks unprofessional. If anyone answers him, that mystery shopper is violating our forum's rules and the ICA they signed. Similarly, when companies ask for information about other MSCs, they have no contract and are not bound by having made any agreement with the other companies. The companies can ask whatever they want. It is the shopper who is bound by the agreement he has signed, and the shopper must determine if and how he is meeting his contractual agreements to the companies for whom he shops.



edited because I still can't spell and spell checker hates me.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/08/2019 01:38AM by roflwofl.

Yet this is done all the time on here. People talk about companies and shops they do. We even talk about pay.

@walesmaven wrote:

Nonsense. I post about the kind of shop I do or about a shop for am un-named client if I name the MSC, or about an un-named MSC if I name the client. PLEASE read the forum rules! Naming which MSC shops which client company is a violation. Saying that MSC x has bank shops, with not client bank named, is NOT I really doubt that you even know what an ICA is. If you think you are being funny, you are not.

Truly sorry you wasted your time here trying to be helpful.

@johnb974 wrote:

@Irene_L.A. wrote:

....When you have nothing more to add to a discussion, always make personal attacks. LOL You and others have misinterpreted the laws and the rules. Many MSC ask you what other MSC have you worked for. Are they breaking the laws? I don't think so.

Technically, we do not work for MSCs. Their employees work for them. But why quibble. I want to know about something else. Was there a feature on this forum where posters could clickon something to indicate that they worked for given MSCs? Did this pop up in discussions about specific MSCs?

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. - Lao-Tzu

@johnb974
Acceptable statements on this forum (when taken alone - not together) according to our ICA's.
* I love working for MFJohnston's Shopping Service. It's the bestest ever.
* I totally scored on a shop this week! I shopped Walesmaven's Roadkill Roadhouse for a HUGE $3 fee!!
* Yes, Roflwofl's Mystery Shopping Service offers shops for some grease-burger chains.

Statements that are totally not acceptable:
* If you want to shop Irene's Glamour Boutique, you should sign up for Jasflalmt's Sneaky Shoppers!
* I shopped Brgriffin's Gassy Gasser-Upper on HoneyBrown Drive in Johnstown, West Carolina yesterday and the clerk (MFJ) missed every-single possible point. It was so bad that I had to write a short paragraph after each answer - because they were all "No." He even missed the question, "Did the clerk refrain from picking his nose before grabbing your food?"

LOfreakinL

Holy Moly MFJ, you outdid yourself...what are you drinking, inquiring minds want to know.

@Irene_L.A. wrote:

Holy Moly MFJ, you outdid yourself...what are you drinking, inquiring minds want to know.

LOL

Decaf

@Irene_L.A. wrote:

Holy Moly MFJ, you outdid yourself...what are you drinking, inquiring minds want to know.

I always wondered what Wales put into her crockpot. Now I know.

Maybe she will share her recipe sometime on a devolving thread.

OMG that post was really funny MFJ!!!