I received a text message two days ago about a cell phone shop at a big box retailer. It looked easy enough so I agree to do it.

In the instructions there was a whole section on what make and model I was to tell the tech I owned, including a description of the operating system, size, and camera. It was a bit of an obscure phone so it was not something I could make up.

I followed instructions and listed that phone when asked in the report. I was just informed that my shop was rejected because I did not say I own an iPhone. Believe me, there is no way one could confuse an iPhone with this obscure phone.

I just sent a screen shot of that section of the instructions. We shall see what happens, but either way, this was my first and last shop for this company.

Thanks for the heads up!

So they responded that I wasn't supposed to go by the document labeled "training manual" that you click in under shop instructions. Does that even make sense?

@whiterosie Was there two different documents? I haven't done their smartphone shops before but for their other shops, they usually have two documents. One is a more general instruction/training manual and the other has more detailed/specific instructions that are for your specific shop that you need to follow.

I've personally have had great experiences with International Service Check. Always paid on time and they have some great shops, especially at airports.

ISC has been a great MSC to work with for the past 2 years. Responsive schedulers, consistent with work, they have been known to call shoppers and offer negotiable bonus pay. Albeit, the webplaform that they use for shop reports is a bit annoying and archaic. My advice is to write them back and ask fir further feedback. At the very least if you don’t get paid you will have shown a desire and interest to learn the guidelines for next time. On a related note, I did complete 3 of the awkward cell phone visits this past week and 2 of 3 reports have already been approved. As for the phone, I recall that this was a multiple choice question and I also selected said phone that you described. I would have to make sure I knew exactly why I got rejected. Good luck!

Agree. Never had any trouble with them and did several shops for them.

The emails they've been sending explicitly say you're pretending to own an iPhone. The minute I saw something else I'd have asked questions. But that's just me.

@whiterosie wrote:

So they responded that I wasn't supposed to go by the document labeled "training manual" that you click in under shop instructions. Does that even make sense?

Yeah that sounds weird, but that is actually true. I did a big handful of these last year and there were either two scenarios that were assigned to me. There is another link on your assigned check you have to click on and it will tell you which phone to say you have. They are super critical on that from what I remember.

**I haven't done any shops for them in a while and I actually stopped receiving emails from them on available checks after calling out a rude response in an email from one of their schedulers. I had sent an email to a scheduler on an issue regarding a check that I thought was assigned to me. That scheduler (who was one their newer ones at the time) forwarded my message to one of the veterans at ISC for clarification. She made a somewhat rude comment to him about my inquiry and contacted me via email for more information. I discovered that I was in error and humbly apologized about it to both of them.
I did politely point out the rude, comment below in the e-mail from the veteran and apologized for any confusion which resulted in the comment. The veteran scheduler contacted me back hours later apologizing and stating it had been a rough day and the comment wasn't geared towards me per se, just the wacky day. Nevertheless, she acknowledged it was unprofessional and it should not have been said.

Funny thing after that though, was the bonused checks they needed completed so badly just hours before were suddenly "unavailable". Sorry about that Relly. We do not have ANY them anymore. I also no longer get the emails with available checks. I haven't gotten them in months since the incident, going on a year actually. Their loss. I'm good regardless, but that coffee machine, luxury item, or chocolate check probably isn't without an evaluator stepping in at the last minute to help!

Good luck whiterosie.

After a lengthy email exchange, I gave up and deactivated. Not worth my time.

The training document I downloaded was very specific and detailed about the phone I was supposed to say I own. According to the scheduler, that was the 2018 training document. Okay, so why was it linked to my specific shop?

I really take issue with this. I've been a full time shopper for six years and complete around 200 shops a month. I don't have shops rejected and rarely get them back for clarification.

Oh well. Water under the bridge. Live and learn.

I got burned by this company as well. They were unprofessional and would not even respond to my emails asking for why my shop was rejected. The only way I got a response was by warning people about them on a post on a Facebook Mystery Shopping Group and one of the schedulers responded. Still did not get resolution but I would not shop for them ever again.