hi everyone....has anybody had any dealings w this company? I am new at this business, so I signed on for an Apartment shop, and received a a request for more information.. I had completed 90 percent on their scoring progress. Then I uploaded what i thought they needed,, and now my progress percent dropped to 56%!!! i have emailed asking "what".....no response....shop overdue now.....comments? not sure its worth trouble for the fee

Ellis is a good, reliable company. Their pay quickly (by industry standards) and like clockwork.
When you reached out to them, did you send an actual email or did you use their envelope icon next to your shop on your home page? They greatly prefer the use of the envelope icon. They also often do not work on weekends, so do not expect a response until Monday.

I am a little unclear as to what happened. I've done hundreds of shops for Ellis and am very familiar with their page, but something is not clear. The "percent complete" will change every time you finalize a portion of the shop (i.e. "Read Contract Specs," "Make Phone Call," "Make Onsite Visit,' etc. As a shopper, we do not have the ability to "un-finalize" any of these categories once we have finalized them. If something was sent back for "more information," the editor will "un-finalize" it and your percent complete will drop. Once you have submitted what is required, you just need to finalize it again... 90% is about right for a shop that is totally complete, aside from tracking follow-up, which you cannot do until the fourth day after your visit.

You will find that Ellis reports are long and very narrative-heavy, so they are not for everybody. I type well and do not mind writing, so they are a good fit for me.

MFJ has given you good advice. He shops for them a lot.

I shop for them as well. It looks like you have to learn what they want. After that, you will be fine.

I love Ellis. I work with them every month and aside from shops being discontinued at times they have been good to me. I haven’t heard or experienced a percentage drop. I would say just make sure that everything is filled in completely, as long as you mark everything as completed you should be fine. You have nothing to worry about someone will respond to you. Ellis is very reputable. Trust me, I’ve dealt with companies that I simply cannot say the same for. I wish I could do 50 apartment shops every month, that’s how much I love them! but they only let you do 4 at a time.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/2019 05:19AM by nfrancisco6.

If you contact a scheduler, they can assign you to additional shops. I’ve had eight or nine assigned at once.

@nfrancisco6 wrote:

I love Ellis. I work with them every month and aside from shops being discontinued at times they have been good to me. I haven’t heard or experienced a percentage drop. I would say just make sure that everything is filled in completely, as long as you mark everything as completed you should be fine. You have nothing to worry about someone will respond to you. Ellis is very reputable. Trust me, I’ve dealt with companies that I simply cannot say the same for. I wish I could do 50 apartment shops every month, that’s how much I love them! but they only let you do 4 at a time.

I looked at their shops and will not do them They require you to keep calling a target agent, until that agent answers the phone. They want you to keep hanging up, if you don't get the target agent.

I've cut back on shopping for them simply because I don't understand why their clients cannot remove us from the system once they know that we were a shopper. No, I am not making multiple new e-mails or asking friends/family if I can use their phone number.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2019 04:20PM by AnonymousGirl.

I find their forms to be very time-consuming and narrative-heavy, and getting the target sometimes requires many embarrassing hang-ups and subsequent redials. The fee is low relative to the total amount of time you have to spend on the pre-call, the actual shop, and the data entry.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/2019 04:35AM by gabbyg.

I have probably done over 35 Shops for them over the last year. I have never been asked to clarify anything the reports are redundant but I typically do them as I am watching television. I hear the others say that they "do hang-ups" but that is actually against the rules in the guidelines. Who would call a reputable business and hang up. They actually tell you to make an excuse to get off the phone such as I have a call or delivery. That is what I typically do. My pre-call's last less than 10 minutes. For me I love the upscale properties that I visit and that is my area of focus.

I have done more shops for Ellis than I can count. Overall, they are a great MSC. I thrive on the shops with "difficult" targets as I get them with substantial bonuses - sometimes tripling the initial fee. I'll get myself assigned a slew of shops and, periodically stop what I am doing and make a handful of phone calls scheduling visits as I reach targets. If I don't reach a target, I contact my scheduler and ask for extensions. I've never been denied when the target simply is hard to reach. They do expect significant narratives and their shops are not for everybody. That's fine: More for me.

Note: They do specifically state that you should not just hang up when you don't reach a target. You need to have a reason prepared. Also, "embarrassing call backs" are generally not an issue as most of their calls are through a recorded line. When you are not making recorded calls, you are expected to use "*67."

actually, I believe EPMS says not to keep hanging up. there are multitudes of excuses to call: do you rent houses...can I have 3 dogs...are you open on Sundays...Still having a problem getting target, then contact your scheduler and they will help.

I think it becomes embarrassing once your voice is recognized.

I've completed well over 200 shops for them and they were my bread and butter but I too have slowed down from them. I only did three in March and none for April. Their reports should be condensed. I always let them know during the surveys.

I used to do a ton of shops for them but have soured on it. At one point, I would typically have 8 shops in my queue and would often finish 12 or more in a week. Unfortunately, the reports are long and redundant, going for length over substance, and some people on the followup and editing teams are rude and subpar in communication and writing skills.

Ultimately I dropped them after finding it impossible to reach a live person there while on the road and encountering issues with a heavily bonused shop on a deadline. There is literally not one person there who answers their phone except a very overworked and powerless admin who sometimes takes vacation.

The main problem is that they expect the shopper to carry all of the risk, and, if in the end, your targeted shop doesn't work out, you will get a fat five bucks for all your phone calls and followups. Also, if you add up the mileage and the hours writing and editing, most of their shops do not pay sufficiently well, even when you are a top dollar, highly bonused earner with them as I was. It speaks volumes that this company is considered one of the best in the business. I would agree. No more mystery shopping for me. This gig economy is not a square deal for the actual hours, expenses and wear on your car.

I'll probably give them another try, but this thing with the names does annoy me, too. Last time I did one I did not show my license because my fake name was not similar enough to the name on my license. The result was I did not get paid.

@alannajm
Giving your licence to the leasing professional is required, in most states, by law. It is in place to for the protection of the leasing professionals. When you choose a fake name, you are expected to choose something that you can pull off with whatever name is on your I.D. Women can easily use different surnames by just claiming to be recently divorced/married. Guys can't pull that off as well, so I use my real last name and some sort of bastardization of either my first or middle name.

@Shoshi99
I prefer any shops where I have to call ahead and make an appointment on out-of-town routes. This puts the route (and my pay!) at risk over something I cannot control. A target who is not available on the day *I* plan to be in the area can trash a carefully crafted route. Of course, If I am planning to stay in one centralized location and make day trips from my hotel, I can better accommodate such shops.The reports are long enough that I am very cautious about taking many of these shops on a single route.

I have had only one instance where I thought an EPMS scheduler was rude - when (as mentioned in the other thread) a response to a bonus request was included the scheduler's message to the project manager. They tend not to work weekends, but they otherwise respond within 24 hours if you reach out to them through the envelope icon on their website.... I have also not experienced any issues with editors, other than two or three times when recordings have gone missing, in which case they professionally ask me to re-submit them.

I'm sorry this "gig economy" is not working out well for you. I have greatly benefited from it. On an hour-by-hour basis, I make about 80% what I do with my full time work - as a high school math teacher.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/2019 02:12PM by MFJohnston.

I just completed my first shop with them. Meaning, my part of the report is done except for follow up. About how long does it typically take for the editing? I don't mind the narrative heavy report but it sure is. I'm not sure if I overdid it but it took me about 4 hours altogether. I don't see how anyone could very many at a time. I think I made somewhere around $8-10 an hour in the end. That's not a complaint, I was careful and tried to do my best work since it was my first shop for them. Hopefully future shops will go a little faster.

You will see the shop marked with a common highlighted in "green" as it is approved - which typically takes a day or two for non-recorded shops and a little longer for recorded shops.

My first report with EPMS took over two hours. They do get faster as you get acclimated. I've done seven in a day.

@CoffeeQueen wrote:

I just completed my first shop with them. Meaning, my part of the report is done except for follow up. About how long does it typically take for the editing? I don't mind the narrative heavy report but it sure is. I'm not sure if I overdid it but it took me about 4 hours altogether. I don't see how anyone could very many at a time. I think I made somewhere around $8-10 an hour in the end. That's not a complaint, I was careful and tried to do my best work since it was my first shop for them. Hopefully future shops will go a little faster.

Thanks, @MFJohnston!

Wow! The most I've completed in one day is four, and I I don't know if I would do that again.

@MFJohnston wrote:

They do get faster as you get acclimated. I've done seven in a day

Another question, is there any type of scoring? My shop is highlighted in green but I never heard a word from an editor or anyone else. Typically no news is good news, is that the case here?

@CoffeeQueen
Green is good. No news is good news. There are one or two editors who will write you a "thank you" when you've done a nice job. However, that is, by no means, the norm. Don't forget to do the follow-up and, other than that, you are set to be paid by 5/22.

Scoring, if any, is not made known to the shopper.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/2019 01:12PM by MFJohnston.

Okay one last question. My first shop went without a hitch. I'd like to self assign a couple more but I can't do the due date on them. Who would I email to see if they can push it back a couple of days? Or should I not do that?

Use the envelope icon and select extend due date

You should, at this point, be receiving daily email from your scheduler. Email him/her back and offer to do the shop, but explain that you will need an extended due date. Unless somebody is ready to do them immediately, you should not have an issue. (I don't like self-assigning a shop when I know I can't make the listed due date.)

@CoffeeQueen wrote:

Okay one last question. My first shop went without a hitch. I'd like to self assign a couple more but I can't do the due date on them. Who would I email to see if they can push it back a couple of days? Or should I not do that?

Before she can use the icon, she'd have to self-assign the shop. Personally, I don't like to take a shop if I know that I can't make the due date.

@eyelove2shop wrote:

Use the envelope icon and select extend due date

No I won't self assign something if I already know I can't do it. I looked for a scheduler to email on the little pop ups but didn't see one so I'll just reply to an email. And yes I get lots LOL. Thank you.

@MFJohnston wrote:

Before she can use the icon, she'd have to self-assign the shop. Personally, I don't like to take a shop if I know that I can't make the due date.

@eyelove2shop wrote:

Use the envelope icon and select extend due date

Did you finish it? I hear people bragging about how good they are but seriously they sent one back to me I did 4.5 weeks ago. I have decided to quit. They have a few nice people who answered but some of the people who are in charge of the shops are rude.
They don't train you to do the shops. They don't offer examples. They complain too much for me. It takes forever to finish paperwork and repeating the same things over and over for them to ask for more.

Ask questions. Ask what they need you to complete. Also get a recording device and for your own sake record all shops even if you don't need to. Because for those who worked there for years they don't seem to have issues nor problems but for us who just started those people don't seem at all. They can be very cold and rude. They don't explain which shops they pay for. I can't stand not knowing. I don't like Gig economy. They pay too slow also.

For us new people they are dropping the percentages. They answer rudely when you ask questions. They do pay on 22nd but something is wrong with their system. The paperwork is retorical and tedious.

Yes the hang ups and call back in 30mins are terrible. But it's a part of the job. What I do nit find fair is there is no compensation for calling aka trying.

I don't understand that either. Also they act like you can use fake name. That's old school. These people on location ask for identification that is state issued. Okay why can't they remove our information or companies should not use such services.i understand they want to know everything but why not use per property opposed to global or national system database where all leasing agents can see when and where you visited aka shopped. That's unfair for pro shoppers.