Hello, I'm still trying to learn everything about MS. I recently did two dinner shops for ACL. The first one was submitted, but I received a couple of paragraphs of suggestions and feedback. I gladly accepted the feedback and took the editors suggestion and downloaded a new app to help with timing. My second shop was returned with just one question and a missing food photo which I did not have because it would have been identical to another food item that did have a photo. I checked in with the editor and she said to make sure I took a photo of everything, but she thought it would be fine.

Now I can't self-assign anything, not even the quick picks. I emailed the scheduler yesterday asking if I had done something terrible and what I could do to fix it. She has not yet responded. I have requested assignments, but I have not received any communication about them.

Does this mean they are done with me??? I really enjoyed working with them. Do you think there is anything I can do. I'm really upset about this.

Thanks,
TL

Let your scheduler have her weekend off.

Take a deep breath and have a cuppa (tea, wine, or bourbon -- your choice!) and relax.

Really.

You'll probably hear back tomorrow, and if you don't, here's what I do: "forward" your original inquiry, and make the subject: May I Have The Courtesy Of A Reply?

I have worked for them for many years. It seems like in the beginning, there is a limit for self assigns. as well, a limit on the number of shops on your board. Maybe five? Hopefully the scheduler will let you know one way or the other. My local schedulers normally do.

When there is a request for a pic of the food, having identical pictures isn't a problem. That's probably what the client prefers to see, that everything is being made properly.

It's almost certainly fine and, as the previous poster said, you are probably at a self-assign limit that will grow over time. Keep requesting shops, doing a good job, and being responsive. You sound like you are probably going to be a very good shopper. Also sign up with other MSC's, as that will help you diversify your attention and give you some positive distractions, if nothing else.

I have many years of experience of shopping with ACL and concur with all of the supportive posts above.

Thank you all! I will let you know when I hear back from her...hopefully.

Tania

In my experience with ACL if you make one too many mistakes, they will lower your ability to self assign and see shops.

I have never been able to self assign, but have completed around 40 shops. If I apply for a shop, they will usually assign it unless I am out of rotation. Are any of you also not able to self assign?

Nevermind. This is new. The shops I want have a message that those specifically cannot be self assigned. There are other ones that are self assign that I did not notice.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/2019 01:31AM by Niner.

There just may not be any shops left near you, most of the shops tend to appear around the end of the month

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/2019 11:56PM by finsfurfowl.

Your rating got lowered.
Apply for shops and do a better job and your rating will get raised.

Not trying to smart or anything, that's just how they operate. They speak all friendly an stuff but while their emails sound like it's all ok they will still lower your rating.

Just a primer on how ACL works.

Each shop and each shopper are assigned a rating. For simplicity we'll say 1-10 (although it's like A1-Y16 or something like that). If you have a shopper rating of 2 you can only see shops that have a shopper rating of 1 or 2. If it's 5 you can see 1-5. And so on. For most shoppers your shopper rating is based on your last 3 shops. For you, since you have only done 2, it would be based on your last 2 shops. Your shopper rating also affects your ability to self assign, although that can be set by the scheduler also. For instance they won't let many people self assign cupcake shops because some schedulers use them as bait for crappy pizza shops. But I digress. So let's say new shoppers are given a rating of 3. Well you bombed your first shop and still missed something on your second shop so you probably go lowered to a 1, but maybe a 2. Don't get discouraged though! You can do 3 perfect shops and your rating will be ok again and you'll have plenty of opportunities to do good shops with no fees and only reimbursement!!

bgriffin , you mentioned that schedulers use cupcake shops as bait - why is that? I noticed that, but I've never been on one. Why are they so great? Are they just super easy?

I'm new to this, only 2 months now, and I've only done 6 shops so far, 5 with ACL. I know folks don't want to give up the "secret sauce" but can anyone tell me about how many months it was until they got offered hotel shops? That's what I'm really hoping for.

Everyone, thanks for posting!

I do the cupcake shops once every year or so. There are only a few locations within a large city and many shoppers are probably competing for them. I think that is why they started to offer them only if you do a job that is harder to fill for them. The shops are not hard to do. There is narrative as with most of their shops and no fee but it is a treat to get those cupcakes once in a while and work off the lofty price for them rather than pay out of pocket.
Years ago when I first started they had hotel shops in my area then I did not see any for a long time and now I am starting to see a few again. I think they just had no clients near enough for me to drive and I never checked other states to see if they had hotels. I remember after I did a number of shops a scheduler wrote me an email and mentioned she had just noticed I had done xxx shops so she was pushing me up to the next level. You might want to ask your scheduler when you might be eligible to see hotel shops.

Same sorta thing with some stuffed animal shops. Those are supposed to be rewards shops, but no.

I’m currently annoyed as I am getting spammed with messages from two schedulers trying to fill the same set of shops. I will get five emails in a row from the one scheduled and then get five from another scheduler. It’s annoying so I deactivated myself.

@4muppets wrote:

I’m currently annoyed as I am getting spammed with messages from two schedulers trying to fill the same set of shops. I will get five emails in a row from the one scheduled and then get five from another scheduler. It’s annoying so I deactivated myself.

I too get constant lists from a scheduler who is out of my area. She seems to have one shop in my distance range and a huge list out of it.

You don't have to deactivate yourself, just send the emails to spam. Then you can just browse the spam folder occasionally and you are still active with them. By being in spam, it won't clutter your inbox and the emails in spam will drop off on their own.