There are several MSCs that offer us the ability to reschedule our shops if we need to. Most offer the opportunity to reschedule without help from a scheduler one time. And these are the MSC's I want to talk about.

CX Group gives us the option of rescheduling from the available dates in each individual shop one time, and recently they've started threatening to remove us from the program for 3 months as a penalty if we need to use it more than a certain amount, but they haven't given us a number that is considered excessive. Unless folks in Amy's area have received information on this that the rest of us aren't privy to.

Ipsos decided they didn't want to use as many schedulers as they once did, so they started the ishopfirst program. You get to self assign shops, and if you need to reschedule it, you can, one time. And if the dates you need aren't available they say, "just let it drop, you can pick it back up in 24 hours." And then they tell us, if you let too many drop you will be removed from the program, or possibly deactivated.

There are other MSC's like Marketforce that will allow you to reschedule your shops up to 3 times without penalty, and without threats of deactivation. And if you need to cancel, they let you do that too, there is a drop down list of reasons why you might need to and "other" that will let you give a short explanation of why you need to cancel. And if you have a long pattern of cancelling shops they start asking questions, but mostly as long as you're not holding the shop up for 3 reschedules each time and then cancelling them at the last minute for a stupid excuse, they understand and won't penalize you.

So I think my question is this. Why do they give us the tools to reschedule if we need to or to make our shopping routes more convenient, and then threaten to penalize us if we use them?

It's not so much a threat for using them, but a threat to make sure we aren't *abusing* them. Likewise, I don't sign up for a shop unless I'm sure I can do it to begin with. Market Force has been the most flexible for sure, and I wish other MSCs were as flexible as they are.

Morled opines--........recently they've started threatening to remove us from the program for 3 months as a penalty if we need to use it more than a certain amount, but they haven't given us a number that is considered excessive.

Bob agrees--From a business standpoint, few, if any, shoppers would object to known limits. As I travel a wide area, I would merely scale back on the number of shops for which I have committed. That would especially apply to winter driving in BFE.

I think the threat of removal from CX Group is if you have already exceeded the one self-reschedule and ask them over and over again to reschedule. That causes them rework and that's why they threaten to remove the shopper from future shops. That's my take on it at least. I don't think it's an issue if you reschedule any of your shops one time.

A Closer Look is really good about rescheduling. They never give me a hard time about it.

Melli,

I have been "cautioned" about rescheduling, I have asked for help rescheduling a couple times, but I mostly only reschedule shops when I need them to fit into routes that I couldn't have made or foreseen when the grocery shops were released. There have been a few rounds when I've rescheduled more than half of my grocery shops, using only their rescheduling tools, to make my schedule easier, or to give myself a day to recover from going out in the heat and such.

And on Ipsos one of the schedulers seems to have something against me and has disqualified me from a couple programs with no notice and no explanation, even on projects that I've never rescheduled anything on. And inspite of what they tell you, if you use your one time rescheduling offer, or let a shop fall off your shop log because they won't reschedule it for you, they will use it to penalize you, even though they say they won't.

Here is what AMY from CX has to say on the subject: "When you take our shops, we expect you to perform them as scheduled, with little to no rescheduling. The amount of reschedules have been extremely excessive for the last several months. We need you to plan better and make our shops a priority. The client expects one in-store shop per week per location to be performed. Given we have blackout dates due to the client wanting the shops to be spaced, when you change a date, it literally hurts our project and hurts our relationship with the client when shoppers change shop dates repeatedly. These shops are valuable to the client and they rely on the data supplied in these surveys, but they want the data to come in throughout the entire period, not all crammed together at the end. Excessive reschedules will impact your ability to self-assign and be given shops.
i. I realize "excessive reschedules" can seem like a subjective phrase. I'll try explaining what I mean. If you perform 1-10 shops per period and 3 or more of them need reschedules, that's an issue. If you perform 30 shops and 5 or more need reschedules, that's an issue. Remember that you can reschedule each shop once per period, and when you reschedule, that's fine. When you need my help to reschedule, that's where it becomes an issue. Choose your dates wisely."

My understanding/interpretation has been that they prefer you reschedule yourself. It's only when you cancel/let them drop that you can be penalized. I had to work my way back from too many Panda drops, but have never had any issues with rescheduling them.

@Morledzep wrote:

There are several MSCs that offer us the ability to reschedule our shops if we need to. Most offer the opportunity to reschedule without help from a scheduler one time. And these are the MSC's I want to talk about.

CX Group gives us the option of rescheduling from the available dates in each individual shop one time, and recently they've started threatening to remove us from the program for 3 months as a penalty if we need to use it more than a certain amount, but they haven't given us a number that is considered excessive. Unless folks in Amy's area have received information on this that the rest of us aren't privy to.

Ipsos decided they didn't want to use as many schedulers as they once did, so they started the ishopfirst program. You get to self assign shops, and if you need to reschedule it, you can, one time. And if the dates you need aren't available they say, "just let it drop, you can pick it back up in 24 hours." And then they tell us, if you let too many drop you will be removed from the program, or possibly deactivated.

There are other MSC's like Marketforce that will allow you to reschedule your shops up to 3 times without penalty, and without threats of deactivation. And if you need to cancel, they let you do that too, there is a drop down list of reasons why you might need to and "other" that will let you give a short explanation of why you need to cancel. And if you have a long pattern of cancelling shops they start asking questions, but mostly as long as you're not holding the shop up for 3 reschedules each time and then cancelling them at the last minute for a stupid excuse, they understand and won't penalize you.

So I think my question is this. Why do they give us the tools to reschedule if we need to or to make our shopping routes more convenient, and then threaten to penalize us if we use them?

James,

I am currently on the outs for Faux Chinese food shops because I supposedly let 155 of them drop. Which is mostly impossible. I only let them drop when I couldn't reschedule them, and I picked them back up and did the shops, apparently that doesn't count. Or maybe a scheduler is just pissed because I showed her that I actually did the shops just a few days later.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/25/2025 05:34AM by Morledzep.

@Morledzep wrote:

James,

I am currently on the outs for Panda Express shops because I supposedly let 155 of them drop. Which is mostly impossible. I only let them drop when I couldn't reschedule them, and I picked them back up and did the shops, apparently that doesn't count. Or maybe a scheduler is just pissed because I showed her that I actually did the shops just a few days later.

No, as long as you let it drop, that is a drop, even if you pick up it again and submit the shop afterward, it is still a drop. You are supposed to do it the first time you have it picked up, period.

Yes Kise, You're right. I intended to do the shops, but something got in the way. NOT 155 times, but I was forced to let some drop, and then I picked them up again later and did them, in the "ishopfirst" program. They won't reschedule them for you, so you have no choice, you must let them drop, there are no exceptions.

I also know that there are folks who grab all of the shops they can when they are first released and let most or all drop off instead of completing them. But those folks don't seem to get penalized, because it keeps happening over and over. So what is the criteria? Who gets penalized and who doesn't?

My initial post was about giving us the tools, and then penalizing us for using them. Which has been threatened by more than one MSC.

With CX Group, maybe if they didn't offer the option to reschedule the shops one time, and we had to get a scheduler to do it, or not do it, and let our reputation with the company suffer if the scheduler can't or won't help. Then, maybe there would be more available later in the round for adding to routes? Or folks that can't get on their computer at the time they are released would have a chance to get some shops?

Don't say "here's some cool tools you can use to make your shop experience easier" and then threaten to penalize folks if they use it.

I am just amazed you did 155 Panda shops!!! Is that in a month? a day? even in a month that is 5 a day every day including Sunday.

No, 155 is just the number she dropped. She probably did way more than that.

@sandyf wrote:

I am just amazed you did 155 "Faux chinese food" shops!!! Is that in a month? a day? even in a month that is 5 a day every day including Sunday.

LOL Sandy, She didn't give me a timeline, or even clarify if it was just the one client or all clients. At that point they hadn't had that client for a very long time, only a couple years, and I like the food enough that I'm not likely to leave it if I have a choice. I was doing 3 - 5 Faux Chinese food shops in any given month, at the time there weren't very many stores around me. And I had stopped doing them completely for a couple months after that snafu with the plate bundles, and the retroactive rule changes to only buy the bowl or the plate and nothing else. (I fixed the forum violations that I could, you should probably edit your post)

Mystery, that was the number the scheduler used.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/25/2025 05:51AM by Morledzep.

I know, I was just messing with you, lol. Seems impossible to drop that many unless you were grabbing every one for hundreds of miles.

I don't know if they saw this thread, or if someone felt like doing something good? But I got a random reply to an email I sent to the ignore me forever at ipsos email address telling me, starting with the next round. I will be able to do the faux Chinese food shops again. Of course the email was unsigned, and from the general mailbox. So I have no idea who did it.

Well, that was nice. I want to believe someone saw and did the right thing.