How far in advanced are you able to plan your schedule? From what I've seen so far it seems like people want to schedule shops 1-2 days in advanced. That doesn't really work for me.

At the end of last week I was able to schedule some for this week but I'd like to get some scheduled for next month because I can only shop on certain days.

What's your experience been like?

At this point I have some shops scheduled about 3 weeks ahead. These are the "foundation" shops around which the rest of my schedule is worked out. A "foundation" shop is one that pays well or is personally interesting or which leads directly to a better shop. This weekend I realized that my schedule for the coming week is a little light, having only the "foundation" shops. I spent some time this afternoon collecting additional shops to add into the schedule. The "filler" are less interesting shops than the "foundation" shops economically, but they help make the excursion worthwhile.

Rarely is it sensible to block up your time two or three weeks ahead with "filler" shops because you may have to bypass a "foundation" shop. It is a huge source of annoyance to not be able to pick up 2 $25 shops west of you because you are committed to doing a $10 shop east and a $12 shop south. So I will make notes of "filler" that is available to revisit once my "foundation" is in place.

You should, by now, be finding "foundations" to schedule for September. Several of my mainstay companies began posting September last week, so my first two weeks of September are already sketched out with decent jobs and what is left is the "filler". I love the shops that give me 3-5 days in which to do them because that allows me to tinker with my schedule and avoid "orphan" shops.

Thanks for the tips.

Believe me I am trying. The only things I've been able to find are for this week. But I did manage to snatch one for the second week of Sept.

Maybe I need more companies, right now I am in the 30's.

Or maybe at the end of this week I'll start seeing posts for next week?

Ok, the 30 companies MOST LIKELY to have jobs are the ones I check daily. This weekend I went into the other 150-175 companies I'm signed up with looking for stuff and picked up a few September "foundations" and a few August "fills". Some companies post jobs as they are available, some post them at particular times of the months, so you just have to learn their posting practices. Some of the August "fills" I picked up are reissue of the job because the shopper who took them originally either flaked or screwed up.

Ok at this point in reading everyones great advise I have to ask ....is it normal to sign up for a shop and not have them confirm that they assigned you the shop? I have worked for this company before so maybe thats why they didn't confirm and just surprised me w/ a ups package on my door step. The last time I worked for this company they blew up my e-mail confirming every little step-this time complete opposite. I would much rather have confirmation as I had no clue until 2 days ago I was assigned this shop and now I have a very stressful day. Its a demo job for 6 hrs and I have learned they aren't that easy to reassign and I hate having to re-schedule-always afraid the scheduling company won't use me again if I request reassigning. I work a full time job on top of my MS so I need to know ahead of time so I can work these MS jobs in my schedule.
yes feeling a tad stressed lately
thanks
dee
cedar city ut

It is erratic whether you get a confirming email or not. Sometimes the email may be bounced to your spam, sometimes I suspect that through human error it never gets sent. That is why when I request a shop I enter it on my shop sheet (not necessarily in full details) and I highlight it a specific color (for me it is green). That way if there is a conflicting self-assign job, I can go to the requested job and 1) make sure it has not been assigned and 2) cancel my request so that I can comfortably take the self-assign.

This also works well to cancel the job request if I have not been assigned it by the day I intend to do it. There is little more exasperating than arriving home from a relatively remote area only to discover that the job you had hoped to include while you were there has only now been assigned to you. My gut feeling about those is that the job was assigned to somebody else and you were left with an open request to serve as their backup in case their first choice flaked. Cleaning up the mess after a flake is not my idea of my responsibility. I rarely request a job as a backup and I certainly don't want the inconvenience of turning down other jobs in order to be somebody's backup.

I don't go for the backup either, except for one company that gives me 24-hours to accept or decline, and they're bonused. I like companies that let me self-assign with a 3-day window! Normally by the last week of the month, I've got the following month pretty well scheduled with my favorites. I try to leave time in the 3rd and 4th weeks of the month for cancelled/unbooked shops - bonus time!

Of course the 'ideal universe' would be self-assign jobs with a 7 day window and little if any time frame around open hours for the business. This would allow one to schedule routes with maximum efficiency so that you knew that on Tuesdays you would be doing shops east of you, Wednesday shops south of you, etc. Since that isn't going to happen, I'm glad when I see shops with a few day window that they don't need me to tell them up front exactly which day I am going. That at least gives me some wiggle room to try to put together a route.

I always try for the "window" ones first. If I end up somewhere in my day to day activities I can just add it in, and not worry. I also like having the freedom to change if something gets in the way, and no one is the wiser as I met my commitment by completing the shop on time. :-)

Flash Wrote:
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> Of course the 'ideal universe' would be
> self-assign jobs with a 7 day window and little if
> any time frame around open hours for the business.

That would be Service Intelligence. Most shops have a 7-10-day window, and any business hours. And because my primary business hours are irregular, I appreciate that. Most often I can't schedule shops till a day or 2 before.

There are several that do that-Second to None (though you pick a date and can reschedule to any within the window on short notice), Trendsource (same), CSA (HI only) Beavaluations (HI only) MFI (certain shops, one reschedule, sometimes two if lucky but they note it and dock your file...), Mintel, Kinesis, some shops for Intellishop, GfK gas shops (pick the farthest out, you can go any time before, and they prefer you do...) Gap (can reschedule to open dates no penalty)

I haven't seen Mintel's with anything except a window with a due date and even there if you watch, as the due date approaches it gets kicked out a day at a time on unclaimed shops. I find it works well, if I am going to be in an area on the 12th but the current due date on a shop that has lingered is the 10th, to email and tell them I will be in that area on the 12th and if they can live with that, I can do the shop for them. Bingo, I'm assigned with the 12th as the due date. I am always very hesitant to reschedule a shop I have said I would do on a particular date because I know there will be times when I NEED to do so for personal or practicality reasons and I don't want a history of making changes.

dee shops Wrote:
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> There are several that do that-Second to None
> (though you pick a date and can reschedule to any
> within the window on short notice), Trendsource
> (same), CSA (HI only) Beavaluations (HI only) MFI
> (certain shops, one reschedule, sometimes two if
> lucky but they note it and dock your file...),
> Mintel, Kinesis, some shops for Intellishop, GfK
> gas shops (pick the farthest out, you can go any
> time before, and they prefer you do...) Gap (can
> reschedule to open dates no penalty)

Thanks, good list. S.I. is like GAP, doesn't ask you to schedule a date at all. You just agree to do it between 12/10 and 12/20, or whatever, and they trust you to get it done. I appreciate the wiggly-wobbly scheduling because my work life is chaotic. On the other hand, if I schedule shops more than a few days ahead, I could be stuck with a heavy work schedule that day, and doing the shop at night exhausts me.

S.I also doesn't fuss over a misplaced photo or receipt; "Just send it in tomorrow. Monday? Yeah, that's fine You lost the receipt? Don't do it again."

Flash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I haven't seen Mintel's with anything except a
> window with a due date and even there if you
> watch, as the due date approaches it gets kicked
> out a day at a time on unclaimed shops. I find it
> works well, if I am going to be in an area on the
> 12th but the current due date on a shop that has
> lingered is the 10th, to email and tell them I
> will be in that area on the 12th and if they can
> live with that, I can do the shop for them.
> Bingo, I'm assigned with the 12th as the due date.
> I am always very hesitant to reschedule a shop I
> have said I would do on a particular date because
> I know there will be times when I NEED to do so
> for personal or practicality reasons and I don't
> want a history of making changes.

I do my mintels on the last day (due to my own personal schedule, having friday off..) and I report late at night, HI time. I have never had it kicked before reporting. But I have only done about 3 shops for them. It took me a while to get accepted, but now that I am in, I hope to keep doing their shops. They pay fairly, the shops are easy, and they pay like lightning!

It is only when a shop has been unclaimed that the deadline gets kicked out. So usually when they post I will see 5 to 8 shops, all with a deadline of say the 6th. I take 3 and nobody picks up the rest. On the 4th or 5th, the remaining shops will get kicked out to the 7th, the next day to the 8th etc. My originally scheduled shops, however, will remain due the 6th.

I do like their shops because they are straightforward. I just wish they had more of them.