To the OP..... something you may want to keep in mind is that although an email appears personal, the MSCs mailing system still may be sending out a mass mailing. Also....responding and being irritated with schedulers because of an email or shop offer, is not going to help you in the long run.

Most shoppers try to develop working relationships with schedulers....without them we would not have shops. You must also keep in mind that you are being approached as a contractor, if you want to represent your business in an unprofessional manner to the companies, you can guarantee that your responses and attitudes are being noted on the MSC end as well. MSCs deal with thousands of shoppers. If I receive an email for a shop that I am not interested in I simply delete it. And many times I know just by looking at who the MSC what shops they are needing done and simply delete the email prior to opening.

I also shop in Texas. I have traveled 3000 miles in the past 5 weeks. I appreciate my Schedulers and have a good relationship with them. Remember that it is all business related, we are not employed by any MSC, the MSC must do what is in their best interest as well as us.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/2017 08:17PM by dmp777.

Well Said

Dulces,
Perhaps mystery shopping is not your Forte! Have you ever thought about that? You have to work as a team, and remember you're not alone, there are thousands of mystery shoppers out there...

Have you ever thought about working as a scheduler yourself? It may be your calling....

Or your aha moment allowing you to get a glimpse of the life of a scheduler...

Those in Texas are not the only ones affected. I am in Florida and first off, a 15-mile radius would only allow me maybe 10 shops a year with rotation. I have to figure an average of 25-45 miles minimum for the majority of shops I do on a regular rotation.
Then secondly, GAS PRICES have jumped over $1.25 per gallon in the last 6 days, they say because of the refineries in TX being shut down. But I do not see the prices being paid to shoppers reflecting this. Making me reconsider accepting assignments without bonuses or incentives offered.

I am in North Carolina. We are out if gas here too due to Harvey. I am not offended. If I can't go, I can't go,

Someone touched on this, but I wanted to re-iterate, just because it is actually addressed to you doesn't mean that it was sent only to you. Email software has a way of inserting your name into the text from the database, so its quite possible it was still a mass mailing.

Who knows, there may be some shoppers that had to evacuate that want to do shops where they are right now?

And yes, not all of Texas is suffering. I used to live in Texas. I was concerned for my friends because whenever there was a hurricane, we'd always have a ton of rain and some damage. This time all they got was some rain.

@leaiso wrote:

Someone touched on this, but I wanted to re-iterate, just because it is actually addressed to you doesn't mean that it was sent only to you. Email software has a way of inserting your name into the text from the database, so its quite possible it was still a mass mailing.

Exactly. Some of my emails will say "Hello (first name)!" Not MY first name, the words "first name," so someone failed to program their emails correctly. And all I see and hear about where I am in TX are the horrible lines at gas pumps and where they are dry. My favorite are those saying that there is no shortage of gas. That's fine and all, unless you actually need gas and can't find any or fear running out while waiting in a 1 hour line. Thankfully my husband drove three cars between midnight and 2am to a station 30 minutes away so that he didn't have to worry about us.

The gas situation is insane right now, regardless of whether there is truly a shortage. I've driven once since then to do a dinner shop five minutes away. Will be lumping errands with another dinner shop this evening. Hopefully this panic wears down soon so we can truly see there is no shortage.

dulcew 6m NewAugust 31, 2017 12:52AM
I've set up most of my profiles to drive less than 15 miles. That means 30 miles round trip. I frequently get email that asks to drive much further than that -- I delete most of them and get on with my life, but its irritating.

I'm even more irritated now, and have even emailed a few schedulers back -- anytime we have a hurricane on the coast, a portion of our refineries get shut down. First our gas prices go up, and in a few days we will start to see gas shortages -- already many stations in the state haven't received regular deliveries.

Don't they know this?

And yes, I've even seen shops asking people to shop the affected areas, like the store is even going to be open.

Hello dulcew,
I live and shop in Texas. My maximum area to travel is 50 miles one way. We live in a state that takes two days to cross. LOL! I can not get to a shop under 15 miles one way. I get offers for shops in other states. I either consider the money worth a look or delete nothing off my nose either way. My profiles are set to 50 but no one follows that number when they want a shop done they put them on my job board anyway.
As for the Harvey, catastrophe goes not everything was damaged or affected. I did a shop yesterday that was on track and no reason to reschedule.
My favorite little company has canceled all the shops in flooded areas most around me within a twenty or so mile one way (closest ones) are not affected but the supplies they need are not available and have empty gas tanks and shelves. All shops have been diverted to the 22nd of September thru the 2nd of October. I had twenty-seven shops scheduled. Now they want them done in the small window of time.uhg! I will return to work on Tuesday as our area was severely flooded with roads washed out. All area Schools were canceled until Tuesday. So I will be back to full-time regular work.
My advice is just to delete what you don't want and take what you do. My other advice would be, add a few miles to your profile you will be amazed at what is just past your nose. Adventure is awesome and finding new places you did not know was there, is fabulous.

Like some other shoppers in TX, I lucked out with the storm and only experienced heavy to steady rain. Some gas stations are not operational in my area. So far the stations that are down, have lousy internet connections and always experience issues when it drizzles.

I normally start my multi-day routes by mid-September. Not going to happen because those shops are on the coastline. I wasn't impacted with damage from Andrew in 1992, but I did live with other issues because of it for months. Years later, the damage was still evident. I have no desire to shop in areas that don't need any extra people in their neighborhoods.

I regularly get emails for shops located 2000-3000 miles away. The emails get a laugh and deleted.

I live in an area that is considered a bedroom community and still out in the middle of no where. I have a shopping radius of 200 miles. I'm also the shopper who picks up the $6 shops, if they are on the way, I can submit from my phone or tablet and takes all of 20 minutes of my life.

I understand why other shoppers get bent with shoppers who take the low pay shops. I will admit that my actions may impact other shoppers with the low pay. But if I can make $6, while traveling to my big pay shops, I'm going to sign up.

Why should I pass up a shop that is on the way and my big pay shops are a minimum of 40 miles and essentially pay $10 an hour with shop and report time? Big whoop, I need to get up at 4am instead of 5am.

My heart is breaking for my friends and acquaintances in the areas that will live for years with the destruction, but being offended by emails asking shoppers to perform shops in areas that common sense says to avoid, is not on my aggravation list.

I do not ever have to accept a shop. I do on the other hand need to be a professional and communicate with my schedulers if I have difficulties and hopefully reschedule. Or heaven forbid take the flakes.

And my schedulers because we have a good working relationship have already told me my shops can be rescheduled if I experience problems.

Okay, let's talk about professionalism.

Begging emails or worse, texts, that ask me to help finish a project are not professional. I have worked in several different industries and those emails would get someone fired in those settings. I have learned if I get a text about a shop, there is little likelihood it is something I want to do.

When I started, I fell for a few of them and they were horrible shops. There was a good reason those projects had trouble getting finished. The forms were poorly written and none of the staff I was observing were meeting the guidelines causing lots of narratives and photos. I know better now. They go into the trash immediately.

@dulcew wrote:

The second half of this--none of us in Texas are at our best right now, so the shopped are not going to do well. The clients should know this.

For the next few weeks we should be focused on recovery.

Dulcew - I live in Dallas Tx. We're impacted with a panic gas shortage but expect things will be normal soon. I was asked when I thought I would be able to complete a shop. I also accepted some shops that are further out in September. I really want the schedulers to continue to "offer" shops to Texas shoppers. We all have individual circumstances that may or may not allow us to shop. For those already scheduled shops, I have not seen any evidence that schedulers are not willing to bend over backwards to accomodate those shoppers. Another thing to keep in mind, is that schedulers, particularly those that work of areas hit hard by Harvey, have been impacted too.

It is not a perfect world. I am sorry to hear this upsets you so much. As for me I have bigger things to concern myself with and to possibly be offended about than mass emails. Clearly no harm was intended. These emails were not sent out to be malicious or offend. We are not entitled to anything, but just need to do the best we can and look at the whole picture before reacting.

Dulcew, I understand your frustration. But you need to remember that not all schedulers worked in managerial positions and understand stuff happens. They are under pressure to get shops done. They have their part of the mystery shopping equation to complete.

I approach this business with a different attitude towards MSC's & schedulers. I consider them my boss for every shop I take on.

Ultimately , I believe we live a symbiotic relationship. I need them for shops and they need dependable and professional shoppers. The companies and schedulers who don't get it are not worth my time and I delete their emails and/or refuse their calls.

Oh, I was wrong about the gas situation in my area. There is no gas available for a solid 20 miles from my house right now. Should've gone to the gas station last night in my PJ's. My bread and butter scheduler has been informed and I wasn't the first panic call she's received.

Good luck and hope you are safe.

MaryAnn

We really have two choices, we can be reactive or proactive. When MSC emails overwhelm me and my inbox for any reason, I will turn off email notifications for those companies. When circumstances change I reverse the process. Because it is usually only a handful of companies, it takes mere minutes while saving me a lot of frustration.

This is pretty much why I stopped posting. There seems to be a pile on this forum when someone makes a comment that is not popular. 25 people jump in saying the exact same thing. The original poster just wanted to express frustration about something they have set parameters on not being acknowledged. There have been at least 5 posts in the past where others have expressed the same complaint. This issue would normally not bother the OP if it were not for the fact that the hurricane impacted them in ways it has not affected us. We are all affected by gas prices rising but Texas has cities where gas is completely out or customers are filling 80 gallon drums in the back of their trucks.

Gas aside, disruptions are affecting food & mail delivery, medications are scarce and refugees are filling towns. I believe the OP has earned the right to vent. Go ahead and pile on me if you feel the need to. I'm a big girl. I can take it.

Accusing people of piling on is unfair and inaccurate. People who post a topic should expect to hear other perspectives, If you don't want to hear someone with a different opinion, you have little choice but to talk to the mirror. Most, if not all, the responses have neither been unkind or unsympathetic. They have offered different takes and some suggestions on how to cope. If you were having a discussion with a group of people face to face would you expect them not to respond at all or to merely nod their heads?

I live in Houston and have done 25 shops in the last three days. If you are west of downtown, problems getting around are limited to a few areas - Bear Creek and Memorial basically. I had no problem shopping the Galleria area, inside the loop or around Willowbrook, and only three locations were closed. Yes, there are many who had flooded homes and are struggling with recovery. But others, like myself, are anxious to get back to work. All Chase shops were cancelled, so the more other schedulers send out, the better for those of us who made it through without damage. I get the OP's frustration, but most people have gone back to their jobs. So why shouldn't schedulers and shoppers?

I used to work a job that required me to send out mass emails. It was easy to set the system to skip a certain geographic location. To the OP, I'm kind of there with you. On the day that I waded through chest-high floodwaters filled with sewage and god knows what else to get my kids and I to safety, I received several emails from schedulers begging for help for local shops because it was the end of the month. Since I know that it's easy to turn off a particular city and suburbs (or it should e unless they're using very old platforms), and I know the hurricane made front page news on CNN, I was surprised that they hadn't bothered to take that one tiny step. It's kind of like making a first impression--there's always a chance to make it up, but it's hard to forget the impressions that are made when mistakes like that go through.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/03/2017 02:01AM by liz688.

I live in Far North Texas. We get our gas from Oklahoma and West Texas. The Hurricane has not affected life here, though the fake 'gas shortage' last Thursday caused people to act stupid and over run the gas stations for no reason. But three days later, we're back to life as usual so, no, the hurricane really did not affect my city. And really, you seem to think the world revolves around what goes on in your head. It.Does.Not.

I have noticed that a lot of people on the forums are looking to do the shops in Texas because:
1) Their normal shopping areas are closed and they need new ones to make up the income.
2) Their normal full time job may be closed so they need make up the income.
3) They may have left their area and may be traveling to other areas and looking to make money for gas, etc.

I have also noticed that a lot of people from there are requesting phone shops and shops that they can do until the area gets back to normal.

The schedulers aren't trying to be offending but they could be actually helping some people out of a bad place with some well paying shops.

Are you sure these actually are "personal" emails. There are email programs that will "auto-fill" names in the body of emails. For example, the message may start with something like "Dear Jane," but it actually is a mass mailing. Some of the schedulers may have lists of their "preferred" shoppers. I think that they send these out to a list of shoppers, hoping that you may be a able to add it to your schedule. I wouldn't take it personal if it's to far. They're just doing their job. I don't know exactly what you have experienced, but I would probably consider it a compliment that they think you are dependable and might be able to help them out in a pinch. Keep in mind that you and the schedulers are part of the same team. Their job is to find someone to take the job. I would say that I get an average of 40 emails a day. Sometimes the jobs aren't even in my state. I can normally tell from the subject line whether or not I'm interested, and if not, I just delete them without opening them.

I can sympathize completely with the schedulers for not being able to figure out what is happening in your little part of the world, big national news or not. Just spoke with my daughter. A few weeks ago downtown and mid city New Orleans was flooded up to the waist. Her area, not far away, had no standing water at all. Then Texas became the news. A friend lives in Houston. Their block was free of flooding while the next block over was flooded. And we have shoppers on this thread in Texas finding gas, others finding none. So how can schedulers figure out what your little world is like?
My heart goes out to all our shopping community who have lost anything at all due to the hurricane. I suspect the worst hit are not even able to check their emails yet for jobs so feel fortunate if you are able to participate in this thread. And give the schedulers a break if they do not know every nuance of your particular situation.

I totally get what everyone here is saying about schedulers not having to be aware of what's happening anywhere, but this hurricane was one of the largest to hit the continental United States and it was hard not to be aware of it for a couple of days there--we've seen that other times. Here in Texas we all knew when Sandy was hitting up north, even if that didn't affect us at all. I'm not saying that they should turn off emails to the city entirely, but for the couple of days when the massive storm was sitting right on top of the city and no one was going anywhere? That wouldn't have been hard to figure out and make happen with just a click or two, then turn back on a couple of days later.

If schedulers turn off emails to a specific region every time there is a natural disaster, what of all the shoppers in surrounding areas unaffected and needing those assignments?

Long before starting mystery shopping, the St. Louis metro area was one of many that experienced historic flooding. A levee near me broke leaving the entire river valley underwater for three months and shutting down one interstate and bridge to the next county. In St. Louis city and county there are five interstates and something like a dozen or more bridges. While the flooding was devastating and had a major impact to some areas, the rest of us were still going to work every day. At the time I had clients from other parts of the country. All were sweet and called to be sure I was okay. After explaining the true extent, they all said virtually the same thing, from what they could see on the national news they thought the entire city was flooded.

Needless to say, if it were now the last thing I would want is schedulers assuming the same thing and cutting off work here.

I live in Texas and our refineries do not always shut down for a hurricane unless it's a direct hit and flooding like with Hurricane Harvey. Our gas prices have gone up only because people have been hoarding gas and have caused a gas shortage. I schedule and not all Texas locations were affected by the hurricane and are being conducted as I type this. Schedulers not in Texas would not be aware of what areas are affected but the company the scheduler works for should of reached out to their client in the affected areas and get confirmation that the shops should be postponed. Mass emails are sent out daily and you can set up a filter in your email if you do not want to receive certain email shop offers. Not sure why you are offended.

This is the type of email I find offensive (and text message).

Dear Dulce:

Please help me finish my project, I am desperate -- I have a shop in your area............

------

Oh, and the definition of your area is 75 miles away. And they are way more creative in adjectives than I can be.

I actually don't mind an email like that. If the scheduler is desperate, if the shop really is in my area and if I have other shops in the area I will be happy to start negotiating for the desperate shop. If the scheduler really is desperate i will be negotiating from strength.

I'm in Florida within two miles of the Gulf. Oddly enough, a nearby business inspection customer scheduled next Monday for the visit. I advised TrendSource it might have to be rescheduled due to Hurricane Irma. As long as we keep them advised of our unique situations, I have always found schedulers to be quite understanding. I recently was at a store doing a price audit when a woman was stabbed by a purse snatcher while sitting in her car in the parking lot. I just casually mentioned it to the scheduler who was horrified when she looked it up online and wondered if she should ask the client to choose another location to audit.

They should know that the gas prices are higher everywhere. They are higher where I am, and I am in Massachusetts, but otherwise, I agree with your comments.

When you set a profile to do shops within a certain radius,the tech department should have that programmed into the system