Newbie Mistakes

Let's see....have I missed any?

In the last month I've:

* did not notice on my paperwork that the shop was a special order shop

* did a McDonald's shop that was an unexpected walk-in only location - since I had my preplaned what to order for drive-thru and walk-in I didn't remember allowable items are different for walk-in only locations

* forgot to get my receipt at a fast casual shop

* took what turned out to be a crappy pic of my food since I was frantically trying not to be noticed by the staff

* missed the 5 minute rule between drive-thru and walk-in portions of a MacDonalds shop and did it with 4 minutes in-between

* signed up for a shop were pay was so crappy I lost money...$10 lunch reimbursement for a restaurant where sandwiches were $14 - 17 range

* signed up for an upscale retail shop where reimbursement is $65...but scarves start at around $200

PLEASE tell me I'm not the only one who is learning the HARD way. ~grin~

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You are not the only one.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.

Gosh, Nineteen, how is it that you have missed shopping the wrong location?

Yes, we have all been-there-done-that to some extent, but all in one month would leave me ready to throw in the towel. I'm glad you are still grinning!

Often the problem is over scheduling. After all, a lot of the shops you mentioned don't pay a ton and it's hard to make much money otherwise. The fact that you are still grinning means you haven't let it get you down

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.

I've done well over 2 dozen McD's shops and still missed a special order one last month. MSC was nice enough to let it slide.

Don't feel bad, it happens to all of us from time to time.

Thanks for letting me know I'm not the only one.

@Flash - It is true, I've been remiss in shopping the wrong location...I'll get right on that!

Funny post. I've left the premises without a business card (turned right back around to get it), forgotten to ask a required question (also turned back around and played Columbo "Just 1 more question"

, and am forever running out of printer ink. I've been shopping since Sept and I know there are more "oops" to come. Keep on chugging.

AWWW , i've been shopping for a while, and we all make mistakes ! Ive had a shop rejected because I forgot to order a generic drink before.. Yep, lost tons of money on that one! Keep smiling- you sound super sweet!

I screwed up ordering on a couple of McD and Panera shops (forgot a special order, forgot to order TO GO) but explained and was forgiven. A couple of weeks ago I did a picture only business verification and hit the wrong address - even took a picture of the address on the building. :-) Like everywhere in life, mistakes are made, learned from and you get better.

As to the McD 5 minute rule, do the WU first, then the DU, it will essentially eliminate that potential problem.

Well, I've managed to check off another one on the Newbie Screw-Up List.

I'm not sure exactly what I did, but last night I was applying for a retail shop and after answering the qualifying questions the next screen said I answered something wrong...

Really?? Just how in the $#!? could I answer one one of those questions wrong? Did aliens take over my body for a moment and check the wrong box? Did I momentarily black out while my mouse finger kept going?

I don't know, but now I've been blocked from these particular retail shops until the next round rolls out. That's too bad, as I've done three already and really enjoyed doing them.

I'm kind of concerned though as all the FF shops have also disappeared from my list this morning.

Geez...maybe I'd better just go to the wrong FF location for the lunch shop I have scheduled today and just get that mistake over with...

@raisitup - I've done exactly that for every McD shop until the one I screwed up...I had been busy at home and was running late so needed to do the drive-thru first to complete the shop by the deadline. OK, I'll fess up about the whole tragedy now....it was a bonused $20 shop. (hanging head in shame)

LOL oh well, easy come, easy go. :-) I've also hit the wrong radio button in the past on the questionnaires, I emailed the help desk about the mistake and they reset me.

They claim they will not reset, but you are out for only one 'wave' of postings. Two things to watch for. Sometimes they switch the questions in sequence and sometimes they add a NOT in there to invert the meaning, so you really do need to read the questions even when you are sure the sequence is yyynyyy. The second thing is to move your cursor well away from the radio buttons before you go to "Submit" because the buttons are sensitive enough that dragging the cursor over one can change an answer.

We all miss something on occassion. Yes I have shopped the wrong location then banged my head against the wall after. AUGH! I now use a GPS regardless that I may feel 100% certain I know the location. It helps me find locations I'm not certain of and takes the stress out of driving. I also use a highlighter to mark the the crucial information on the reports such as time, date and anything else that is pertinent. I have learnt, though I may have worked a particular project several times there is still a necessity to read the project guidelines to ensure nothing has changed. Again highlighting as I go. As the old saying goes, "What happens when you assume something...You make an ASS out of U and ME!" If you are serious about being a Mystery Shopper, get up, wipe your knees off and carry on as we all do!

Happy shopping!!

I'm happy to see that I'm not alone. When I used to MS, I made tons of mistakes. I guess you can't really say it's a newbie thing because I made mistakes even when I was shopping for 5 or 6 years.

Get your head in the game and take a deep breath before each shop. Review your material thoroughly and try to remember what you need to ask.

Stay away from crappy jobs. When I first started, I was picking up $5 jobs and spending a lot more to do them.

Like everything else, you get better with practice.

Tony DeOliveira
Portamer Marketing
[www.portamer.com]

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/17/2011 05:15AM by Zildjyn.

I'm not even a newbie, and I made a stupid mistake this week. I was doing a shop that has only 2 scenarios. I have 5 of these shops this month. Four are one scenario, one is the second. Of course, I went on auto pilot and did the wrong scenario at the fifth location. I'm out the expense of the purchased item, plus the time and gas to drive nearly 30 miles round trip out of my way. D'oh.

I had to completely turn down the shop instead of reshopping. I would have lost too much money going back a second time. Better to cut my losses and run now.

Things happen. Relax!

~~~~~
Shopping Oakland, Berkeley, San Francisco, and surrounding cities.

My biggest mistake so far (it's only been a few weeks) was arriving for a shop that I needed my cheque book, went into my purse to get it and it wasn't there, I had left it at home (something I never do). I had to go home and get it, throwing my timings off completely, thankfully my scheduler thought it was funny and it all went smoothly after that!

Another mistake I'm currently making is overbooking myself, I have to learn to say NO when they call me and I already have 5 shops that day. I've been doing this for about 2 weeks, and havn't had a day off yet, and each day has had a minimum of 3 shops each! I'm exhausted, on top of this I homeschool my children, so my days are so completely packed now, I barely have the chance to breath!!

This week I uploaded receipts the wrong receipts for a shop - same Fast Food chain but from a different day so my report was invalidated for wrong location. They did accept the report when I emailed them the correct receipts.

@toymom - you sound like me....jump in with both feet! At first I was so darn excited every time I found a new MSC to sign up with I was accepting assignments left and right. Did 12 in 2 days and pretty much thought I would die...not from the shops, but from the reports. Geez...some of them take f o r e v e r to write!

NumberNineteen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> PLEASE tell me I'm not the only one who is
> learning the HARD way. ~grin~

a lot of these errors may simply originate from not reading the shopper guidelines thoroughly, or reading them and not remembering some of the information.

i have a little secret for my shops. i use a text reader where my computer reads the guidelines to me in a human (non-mechanical) voice. it speed reads the guidelines to me at 2x times normal speed. i read them twice this way.

the program is called Text Aloud ($30) with British Daniel voice from Nuance RealSpeak ($50). it's a great investment for what it does. i can read 3 to 4 times the amount of webpages that i would otherwise normally read. i even read posts on this forum with my text-reader. and it helps me to catch spelling/grammatical errors in my own posts.

Interesting gadget. I always joke that I must not have been read to as a child as my comprehension when being read to is nil. Some shoppers who travel extensively find books on tape help pass the time. They would probably put me to sleep since hearing someone read just makes me zone out, LOL!

@vince - sounds interesting...I'll have to check it out. Thanks

LisaSTL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Interesting gadget. I always joke that I must not
> have been read to as a child as my comprehension
> when being read to is nil. Some shoppers who
> travel extensively find books on tape help pass
> the time. They would probably put me to sleep
> since hearing someone read just makes me zone out,
> LOL!

it helps the memory if you actually hear the sound of the words when you are reading. the program also highlights each word as it's read, so one can follow along.

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