Have you had a Trend Source (The Source Agent) reject one of your jobs?

I just had one rejected because I took too long to finish the job. It’s a shame because it was one of my best grocery checkout jobs. I went way out of my way to tell them about an incident (positive) which occurred after checkout. Here’s what they said:

“The time OUT in your report should closely match the time you checked out of the lane. “

The times were off by 30 minutes.

Is there a way to have this reviewed by a manager?

Thanks!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/15/2019 11:00PM by Mitchellmm.

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You stayed in the store 30 minutes after checking out?

Under Support on their website is a link to their support center. Scroll to the bottom and there is a further link to submit a question. I would explain in detail what happened there. They are good at responding though it may take a few days, particularly on a weekend. Can’t predict what they might say without more details.

No, they really don't want additional information unless you write it below. Your time out should be the time on the receipt and they ask you stay in store a maximum of 20 minutes, regular customers wouldn't do this, that was a giveaway.

Live consciously....

@Mitchellmm wrote:

I just had one rejected because I took too long to finish the job. It’s a shame because it was one of my best grocery checkout jobs. I went way out of my way to tell them about an incident (positive) which occurred after checkout. Here’s what they said:

“The time OUT in your report should closely match the time you checked out of the lane. “

The times were off by 30 minutes.

Is there a way to have this reviewed by a manager?

Thanks!

Just curious. The guidelines ask that the shop be a maximum of 20 minutes. Why did it take 30 minutes to leave the store after you checked out? So...... how long total were you in the store? I would think a manager reviewing the report would have the same question.

Just to clarify, it’s an estimate of 20 minutes, not the maximum. I often shop for more than 20 minutes for this client. However OP needs to clarify with TS exactly what happened.

@kenasch wrote:

Just to clarify, it’s an estimate of 20 minutes, not the maximum. I often shop for more than 20 minutes for this client. However OP needs to clarify with TS exactly what happened.

Right!!!! So many inaccuracies here.

Although, I do know that NO PART of this shop is allowed to happen after the checkout is complete.

I am just curious about the incident just after check out. Maybe OP fell and hit their head on the way out the door, thus requiring a long incident report or medical attention and the manager handled it well....

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/16/2019 03:11AM by luckygirl0100.

@luckygirl0100 wrote:

I am just curious if there was an incident just after check out. Maybe OP fell and hit their head on the way out the door, thus requiring a long incident report or medical attention??

That would hardly be a “positive” incident as reported by the OP. Unless it was the response of the employees to the issue.

Checkout is the final part of the shop. They do not want anything happening after that.

If there was another interaction after you finished checking out, I would think it would be separate from your shop, since you should have already evaluated everyone and everything you were supposed to evaluate by that point. The questions on the certification quiz now make it pretty clear that they don't want anything to be evaluated after checkout. I can understand wanting to include a positive interaction that happened on your way out the door so that the employee gets credit, but since it wasn't part of your shop, I wouldn't include it in your report (in the future).

Also, for these shops, they always stress not adding any details that are too specific that might identify you, so I would guess they wouldn't want extraneous experiences beyond the required interactions for that reason too. If it happened during your shop (before checkout), you could probably make a brief, not-too-detailed comment for the question that asks if any other positive thing happened during your shop, but again it sounds like this happened after your actual shop.

...or did you mean that the receipt time was not accurate to the time you finished checking out? I've had the register time be off by a few minutes before, and I just let them know in the TS comments section. No issue.

Happily shopping the Pacific Northwest. Shopping since 2013

Yes

@Mitchellmm wrote:

Yes

If that was a yes to me, I would reply to the rejection email and make it very clear that you finished checking out at the register at XX : XX, not YY:YY (receipt time). Maybe they misunderstood your end time since you mentioned the post-checkout incident. Not your fault that the register printed the wrong time

Happily shopping the Pacific Northwest. Shopping since 2013

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/17/2019 08:11PM by RedRose22.

I was in the store 30 min after checkout because of an incident with a handicapped man and a bagger. I didn’t realize ~30 minutes had gone by. I was assisting the bagger with a gentleman who needed help until a manager could be found. The way the bagger handled the situation was commendable and so I wrote a paragraph about it in the POSITIVE section of the report.

Anyway, I learned my lesson. It’s probably best to simply answer their questions and not add additional detail. I could have, and will, write up a positive comment about the bagger at the store for the store.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/17/2019 08:17PM by Mitchellmm.

@Mitchellmm wrote:

I was in the store 30 min after checkout because of an incident with a handicapped man and a bagger. I didn’t realize ~30 minutes had gone by. I was assisting the bagger with a gentleman who needed help until a manager could be found. The way the bagger handled the situation was commendable and so I wrote a paragraph about it in the POSITIVE section of the report.

Anyway, I learned my lesson. It’s probably best to simply answer their questions and not add additional detail. I could have, and will, write up a positive comment about the bagger at the store for the store.

Unfortunately, your out time would have still been 30 minutes after checkout.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/17/2019 10:42PM by pegleg2000.

I would still ask for a reconsideration. I mean, just because you are mystery shopping are you no longer a human that helps others in need or are you just supposed to be an ass and GTFO? There has to be a reasonable solution.

Unless it specifically asks for the time you left the door (for some reason), knowing that the time out needed to be close to the time on the receipt, I would have reported "recept-time + 2 minutes". Once I co0omplete the shop requirements, I am "off duty". Today, I did a retail shop. The shop ended 3 minutes after the receipt time due to having to ask about the credit card application. Shop completed. Time reported. I could have walked out the door at the point. The fact that I then chose to stay 5 more minutes on my own time to talk about something not related to the shop is my time and definitely not part of the shop.

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

@myst4au wrote:

Unless it specifically asks for the time you left the door (for some reason), knowing that the time out needed to be close to the time on the receipt, I would have reported "recept-time + 2 minutes". Once I co0omplete the shop requirements, I am "off duty". Today, I did a retail shop. The shop ended 3 minutes after the receipt time due to having to ask about the credit card application. Shop completed. Time reported. I could have walked out the door at the point. The fact that I then chose to stay 5 more minutes on my own time to talk about something not related to the shop is my time and definitely not part of the shop.

Exactly!! This is what I was trying to say, but you said it much better.

Happily shopping the Pacific Northwest. Shopping since 2013

No reason to not be a good neighbor and help the shopper until a manager could be found, but it seems the shop was over when you finished paying and left the checkout lane. Anything else probably didn't have to be reported. If the shop was in danger of being rejected, I'd push back though.

I find the Source always (for me) willing to go any length to save a report, asking you for clarity ,emailing immediately with an issue. I've not had a report rejected,, my feeling it has to be bad for them to reject a report.
Cancellations will be held against you and prevent you from self-assigning. My experience after working for them for 13 years without a problem., and I love self-assigning.

Live consciously....

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/18/2019 06:39PM by Irene_L.A..

I always go to the time out tab and change it to match whatever is on the receipt. Thats what i was told to do. Sometimes i will be at my next store and see that i forgot to check out. No big deal...click 'check out' and then change the time to match receipt.

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