A mystery shopping company I work with sent me a message asking if I could do some phone shops by a certain date about 2 weeks from now. Limit is 2 calls a day. It asked how many can you take? As in the past they only gave me 5-8, which was much more doable over a 2-3 week period, I said am available and can do as many as you can assign me figuring I would get 5 or 8 max. Apparently no great takers as the list I got assigned me 17 and there were other lists with 18 or 20 calls not assigned as of yet. So, people apparently are not applying.
When I got the assignment it asked are you accepting and how many. I foolishly said "I accept all of them." I did 2 today. Limit is 2 a day. They required multiple calls to get thru to a live person in a distant area code and even with star 67 I wonder if they know I am not local as I do not have the accent they all have.
I find myself getting really stressed out over having so many to do- some days I am not feeling well and the stress of having to call sometimes several times to reach someone and report on a near daily basis has become a bit much. I found myself not sleeping last nite thinking of all the calls I had to be making trying to figure out how many calls each would take to get through.
My husband has told me this morning that he can see that I am getting too worked up over his- it has been a very bad few months in my house with my husband being in the hospital and still not well as well as some serious family problems involving my son and his family. I figured phone shops- easy- no travel- but having to call over and over to reach a live person in a different area code has been stressful. Fact is I do not need the money even if I never did a shop for this company ever again. The company loves me as I am reliable and write good reports.

Today my husband told me that he would really like me to just cancel this batch as he sees me getting all worked up over it and tossing and turning at night. I wake up at night thinking of how I will fit these all into my life. I was up at 2 AM last nite thinking about getting up early to do the 2 calls today.

To be honest I do not want to do anymore this time around.

I obviously cannot tell the scheduler I am getting stressed and not sleeping over this but that is the case.
I do not want her to be angry with me but to be honest it is taking its toll on me mentally and physically.
In talking to a friend today she told me she can tell when I am getting stressed over things and it is not good for my health. She suggested I contact the scheduler and say that a "personal family issue" came up over the weekend and that I will not be able to do this batch of shops but hope to be able to work with the company in the future. Another friend suggested that I say I have family coming for a visit next week and am unable to do the shops and apologize as the visit was not anticipated when I applied.
What do you suggest? Any other suggestions? I am not an employee not like I am flaking on a reak ob but I also do not want to get blacklisted or cancelled for not doing these shops.

I am not sure what explanation I need to give. I am not flaking- they were only assigned yesterday and I did 2 today but I do not to do the rest. I want to give them time to reassign.
Please give me any advice- I am desperate as this has me really in a tizzy!

I think you should immediately call the scheduler and tell her you thought that the calls would only be 5 to 8. You didn't realize that you would have to make repeated calls. Tell her you can't do them all and will only be able to do two more, you didn't realize how complicated this would be. You do not need to give her any excuses, apologize and hope this will not effect future calls since you have always been able to do the 5 to 8 in the past. Not worth getting sick over this.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/12/2019 08:31PM by shopper8.

Just politely tell them something came up and you're letting them know immediately so they can find another shopper.

I have PMed you.

@Fatlady wrote:

What do you suggest? Any other suggestions? I am not an employee not like I am flaking on a reak ob but I also do not want to get blacklisted or cancelled for not doing these shops.

I am not sure what explanation I need to give. I am not flaking- they were only assigned yesterday and I did 2 today but I do not to do the rest. I want to give them time to reassign.
Please give me any advice- I am desperate as this has me really in a tizzy!

Based on some of your wordage, I would guess that you are older? Here's what I suggest.

Can you do 2 a day? If so, get either a notebook or notecards. Put the information on each one. Paper clip them together so that there is a set for each day. You were looking at 18 shops. Now you have 2. What seemed like a daunting task is now, very manageable. It's like eating an elephant. You must do it one bite at a time.

If you feel as though you have still taken on too much, I would ask if you can return some and keep it at one call per day. Even if you worked outside the home 10 hours a day, one phone call can be done. That way, they have only a few to get scheduled.

Either way, take a breath and be ready to take care of it on Monday. It is quite possible that you will get dropped or blacklisted. I have no idea of the details of the project or your history. You are not the first person to take on more than they could do. Good luck.

I do not think there is any reason to make up a story...and in fact, if you were having family coming to town that is not really a good reason to flake on a job you already agreed to that is only 2 phone calls per day. It seems to me that telling the truth and saying you expected the usual 5-8 shops when you said you would take them all is your best bet. If you have two weeks that would be less than one every other day...If they cut your list down to 6 you would only need to do 4 more. That seems much more doable and may put your mind at rest and allow you to do those few and allow them a few days to locate another shopper.