I currently live with someone immunocompromised, so all year I have not gone to do any in-person mystery shops due to the pandemic. I did one job for GBW early in the pandemic as a work-from-home gig, but that's it.

A few weeks ago I got a call from a restricted number that turned out to be someone from GBW begging me to do a oil change mystery shop, exhorting me to take some sort of certification test. I explained to them in no uncertain terms that not only was I not doing any in-person shops for my family's safety, but I also do not own a car so I couldn't do the shop if I wanted to. The rep on the phone (who clearly spoke English as a second language) seemed to understand.

But for some reason every day for the last two weeks I've received calls from restricted numbers on GBW begging me to do the oil change mystery shops, begging me to take the certification test, plying me with more money. I have told them repeatedly to stop calling me about this shop and they do not listen. And because they call from a "restricted" number I literally cannot block them.

This is beyond unprofessional. Not only is it impossible for me to do the shop anyway but they literally want me to put my family at risk for a measly few dollars and completely ignore my requests to not be contacted- for a shop I never agreed to do in the first place!

Some thoughts....

* I've almost completely stop shopping during the pandemic, too, as I have a strong preference not to get sick.
* For some MSC's, you can simply go into your profile and change your preferences to tell them not to call, text, whatever. This is a quiet way to stop the contacts without blocking a number and jeopardizing future earning potential. You can always change this back later.
* With oil change shops as part of its offering, GBW *should* have an "extended profile" for you to fill out, in which you could mark that you don't have a car. This *might* eliminate requests for you to do oil changes shops.
* It is very likely that there are multiple schedulers contacting you, each of which is an IC. They are likely not communicating with one-another at all. They may not even know one-another.
* If you are really, really sick of them, you can simply deactivate yourself. That should stop all contacts.

I haven't done a grocery shops for Trendsource for two or three years. Yet, I still get more emails, calls and texts from them than all other MSC's combined - and I'm signed up with close to 200. I look at it as "something I have to deal with" as a part of this business. I could cut them off, but I never know when I'll get that "very desperate call." (I've had a couple such calls in the last two years, but not one I was available to pounce on.)

Turn the ringer off. Or just don't answer calls from unknown numbers. Both is better.

@sestrahelena wrote:

Turn the ringer off. Or just don't answer calls from unknown numbers. Both is better.

I'm afraid I don't have that luxury.

Stop answering call from restricted numbers. Problem solved

@simonbanks wrote:

Stop answering call from restricted numbers. Problem solved

I'm managing the care of a sick family member and I've had important medical calls come from unidentifiable or unknown numbers (probably due to whatever formatting system the hospitals or clinics use for their outgoing calls). I can't not answer the phone.

You can get a free Google Voice number and set that as your contact #. Assuming these folks are running through the database each day, that should divert all calls from them. If they are working off of a list that's not updated, you'd still be getting calls for a while. Worth a shot.

You shouldn't have to deal with this at all. I feel for you on that.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2021 11:41AM by 1cent.

I had this ONE shop only I did not finish the shop for them because their ONLINE reporting did not work at the Oil shop. I had three weeks to prepare and they hounded me up to the time I deleted my profile the day I did not finish the shop.

@Misanthrope wrote:

I currently live with someone immunocompromised, so all year I have not gone to do any in-person mystery shops due to the pandemic. I did one job for GBW early in the pandemic as a work-from-home gig, but that's it.

A few weeks ago I got a call from a restricted number that turned out to be someone from GBW begging me to do a oil change mystery shop, exhorting me to take some sort of certification test. I explained to them in no uncertain terms that not only was I not doing any in-person shops for my family's safety, but I also do not own a car so I couldn't do the shop if I wanted to. The rep on the phone (who clearly spoke English as a second language) seemed to understand.

But for some reason every day for the last two weeks I've received calls from restricted numbers on GBW begging me to do the oil change mystery shops, begging me to take the certification test, plying me with more money. I have told them repeatedly to stop calling me about this shop and they do not listen. And because they call from a "restricted" number I literally cannot block them.

This is beyond unprofessional. Not only is it impossible for me to do the shop anyway but they literally want me to put my family at risk for a measly few dollars and completely ignore my requests to not be contacted- for a shop I never agreed to do in the first place!