20 Shops removed

I had 20 shops scheduled with an MSC for weekends in October, and I didn't schedule any ither shops as a result. I got an email that the client cancelled all shops. We get heavily penalized, but an MSC can cancel 20 shops with an email. Has this happened to anyone? I can't imagine if someone needed this for bills and their month then got decimated. These were all $25 shops.

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Oh, yes. Back in March, when the pandemic shut everything down overnight. I was in the middle of a multi-day route and got the e-mail the rest of my shops were all cancelled.

"Decimated" is the right word. And devastated!

While the pandemic is seeable as an excuse in Ceasesmith's case, I call BS on the MSC in Niner. I think Niner should name and shame that MSC. This is assuming it was not a mistake and once they find out what happens.

Shopping Western NY, Northeast and Central PA, and parts of Ohio and West Virginia. Have car will travel anywhere if the monies right.

Dang. @Niner, what kinda shops were these?

Deci is ten this would be double decimated

I just canceled a lot of gas shops with MF probably get disallowed again. Done one today and realized that I can only do one of these a day and then only every other day. Kind of puts a crimp in the route shops if you get to dang tired to do any shops. Or at least if a lot of walking around is involved.

These were supermarket shops.

I only scheduled one of those supermarket shops, but it was cancelled as well.

Has anyone been able to determine why the client cancelled October shops? (I do not know who the MSC and the client are.)

This risk of cancelled shops seems to be higher in the covid era than it was a few months ago.

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. - Lao-Tzu

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/07/2020 12:40AM by Shop-et-al.

What company is this?

No contractor ought ever be reliant on a single customer. With well over 100 MSCs, spread out the work. Just as an MSC should not be dependent upon one client, the shopper should not be dependent on one MSC. Do not schedule 20 shops with one unless one also has 20 shops (or 40 shops) scheduled with other MSCs.

That said, there are many reasons for such bulk cancellations:

Perhaps the client is going out of business.
Perhaps the client wishes to cut costs in order to keep from going out of business.
Perhaps the client has decided that MS is not beneficial or simply not economically justifiable.
Perhaps the client has not been paying the bills and the MSC decided to stop extending it credit.
Perhaps the client has been purchased by another firm or is simply under new management.
Perhaps the client wishes different data and is redesigning the instructions/questioner.
Perhaps the client and MSC had a fight and the client has decided to go with a different MSC.
Perhaps the MSC is about to go out of business and the client got wind of it.

It would bite even harder if you had a few small add-on jobs that you picked up since you'd be in the area. Now you might be stuck going who knows where for less than gas money.

Great post! As business owners ourselves, we need to plan for the unexpected. And we need to be flexible and learn to think outside the box. I was able to do some minimal work even after the entire country shut down. I got work within the essential workers arena hence making me an essential worker also. :-)

@Rousseau wrote:

No contractor ought ever be reliant on a single customer. With well over 100 MSCs, spread out the work. Just as an MSC should not be dependent upon one client, the shopper should not be dependent on one MSC. Do not schedule 20 shops with one unless one also has 20 shops (or 40 shops) scheduled with other MSCs.

That said, there are many reasons for such bulk cancellations:

Perhaps the client is going out of business.
Perhaps the client wishes to cut costs in order to keep from going out of business.
Perhaps the client has decided that MS is not beneficial or simply not economically justifiable.
Perhaps the client has not been paying the bills and the MSC decided to stop extending it credit.
Perhaps the client has been purchased by another firm or is simply under new management.
Perhaps the client wishes different data and is redesigning the instructions/questioner.
Perhaps the client and MSC had a fight and the client has decided to go with a different MSC.
Perhaps the MSC is about to go out of business and the client got wind of it.

As business owners ourselves, we need to plan for the unexpected. And we need to be flexible and learn to think outside the box. I was able to do some minimal work even after the entire country shut down.

Planning for the unexpected should also include a savings account or some sort of monetary fund for emergencies. This include weather disasters as well as a global pandemic.

I enjoyed the time off from travel. :-)

Rousseau's examples are good and yes, as business owners we need to be prepared. But I'm just going to empathize with Niner and agree that it sucks.

@pambam57 wrote:

Rousseau's examples are good and yes, as business owners we need to be prepared. But I'm just going to empathize with Niner and agree that it sucks.

Right, it sucks. But you can't blame the MSC.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/23/2020 08:09PM by MisterBill.

@MisterBill wrote:

@pambam57 wrote:

Rousseau's examples are good and yes, as business owners we need to be prepared. But I'm just going to empathize with Niner and agree that it sucks.
Right, it sucks. But you can't blame the MSC.

Without knowing the situation, blaming the MSC would be informed. However, there are many situations where the MSC would be at fault. Among them:

MSC acted unprofessionally towards the client and lost the business.
MSC did not have a diverse client base as a result, it is going out of business itself.
MSC attempted to increase its fees to the client, without offering added value, and the client walked.
MSC did not have a competent scheduling or editing operation and as a result the product delivered was not to the client's specifications.
MSC was under capitalized and did not have business interruption insurance.
MSC was a micro business itself and did not have a management succession plan.
MSC's scheduler was unprofessional, cancelled the shops, and re-assigned them based on favoritism, nepotism, or kickback.
Client wished the survey changed and MSC did not feel itself equipped to meet client's new specifications.
MSC did not meet contractual obligations with the client and lost the business.

My point is that things happen and that before casting or dismissing blame, one should recognize that there is always a backstory which needs to be know; and that shoppers are typically unable to know that story.

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