What is a flake citation? I had to cancel a couple jobs due to an illness in the family. I don't want to ruin my reputation. I sent the schedulers super polite emails backing out of these. I feel so bad about breaking my commitments. :-(

Something for every newbie -- if at all possible, do NOT cancel shops. Reschedule, reschedule, and reschedule. Most schedulers understand that life happens. In the rare case you MUST cancel, do it as soon as you know -- no waiting until right up to deadline.

Yes, flake citations are NOT good for your reputation. Make sure to do absolutely perfect on the next shops you sign up for, and it never hurts to apologize and grovel. I mean that.

I almost never cancel lol by any means necessary...I once had to walk for 55 minutes to a late night shop because I ran out of money for gas (I had an emergency). I get it DONE! However with the illness cease is right reschedule ASAP as much as you can. App like FA your rating depends if you cancel. I try to keep my shop completion there at about 91% so of 240 "mini" shops I did I only canceled or had to let expire less than 10%. Sh*t happens: YOU get caught taking pictures indoors (asked to leave location), heavy traffic, accidents, illness, heavy rain, floods, moving etc to have a high reliability is very important. It is easy to "become" a shopper, very few remain due to not being able to commit or repeated cancellations or even poor grammar/failing to read the requirements. I have been guilty of all these things listed smh

It is best to fess up and be honest, also if your new I don't suggest taking on too many shops it easy to be overwhelmed. Pace yourself.

Do your best and unless you are in a coma or have no pulse do the shop ON time!

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2019 02:21AM by Mysteriousways.

What ceasesmith said, for sure, is 100% fantastic advice.

It doesn't sound to me that a flake citation should have happened here though. If you gave the schedulers ample notice, maybe they mark the cancellations, but flake citations are usually reserved for those that do not do the shop and never notify their scheduler. They hit your rating differently.

Removed

lol your a bitter pill. I have never been blacklisted as I find work most days for my favorites and primary sites and I personally know schedulers who call or email me to offer me shops and get most shops as I am a reliable shopper and have been doing this for a while as this is my primary income.

For FA, 91% is good when you have to cancel to being caught or rough traffic. If your at 100% that is commendable, but things happen so since your a better non-flaker I commend your perfection

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2019 04:02AM by Mysteriousways.

Pete, I once accepted a February shop 100 miles from home. In a different time zone. In order to be sure to be there by 8:30 AM, I had to leave home at 5 AM Made it 20 miles, crested a hill, and saw nothing but WHITE. Total white-out blizzard!

No cell coverage, no "cellular data network available". No way to contact anyone.

Drove home, immediately e-mailed scheduler, told her what happened. No way could I drive through 80 miles of blizzard and get there at 8:30! I also called the site (it was an appointment shop, too!), and explained why I couldn't make it -- and they said, no problem, their employees couldn't make it in, either, because of the blizzard.)

She gave me a flake citation, weighted 10x10.

Which gave me, to this day, a ZERO rating with that company.

I really did not think that flake citation was warranted, under the circumstances.

@Mysteriousways wrote:

For FA, 91% is good when you have to cancel to being caught or rough traffic. If your at 100% that is commendable, but things happen so since your a better non-flaker I commend your perfection

The choice is to load up ones schedule and hope for the best case scenario. Or to mitigate risks and aim to deliver what the client expects.

Field Agent is a completely different animal than traditional MSing. You generally have 2 hours from the time of acceptance to submittal. If your un into traffic or a bad wrecl, too bad for you. There is no one to email or call to reschedule. The job times out and that is the end of it. Having said that, FA does have an 'agent score' on the app but it doesn't appear to actually mean anything.

@Book wrote:

@Mysteriousways wrote:

For FA, 91% is good when you have to cancel to being caught or rough traffic. If your at 100% that is commendable, but things happen so since your a better non-flaker I commend your perfection

The choice is to load up ones schedule and hope for the best case scenario. Or to mitigate risks and aim to deliver what the client expects.

cease - sometimes it is worth taking the flake, no matter what it means. sounds like in this case, the scheduler would rather have you actually risk your life for a shop! not worth shopping for someone with that attitude. i experienced something similar. my brother in another state had a stroke and my mom called and wanted me there. i immediately headed up. i called the scheduler. her vm was full. i called her office and spoke to another scheduler. he said he'd leave a note on her desk. a day later (while still out of state), my scheduler emailed me. i was not on email. too much was going on. when i returned home, there was an email from the scheduler basically saying i had "flaked" the job and was being blackballed. i called and spoke to her, she said nothing. i remailned blackballed - that is until another scheduler replaced her. the new scheduler begged me to sign up, which i did. yes, i made some mistakes. in my defense, when it involves family or health, we don't always think logically. brother is fine and i shop for them today.

@ceasesmith wrote:

Pete, I once accepted a February shop 100 miles from home. In a different time zone. In order to be sure to be there by 8:30 AM, I had to leave home at 5 AM Made it 20 miles, crested a hill, and saw nothing but WHITE. Total white-out blizzard!

No cell coverage, no "cellular data network available". No way to contact anyone.

Drove home, immediately e-mailed scheduler, told her what happened. No way could I drive through 80 miles of blizzard and get there at 8:30! I also called the site (it was an appointment shop, too!), and explained why I couldn't make it -- and they said, no problem, their employees couldn't make it in, either, because of the blizzard.)

She gave me a flake citation, weighted 10x10.

Which gave me, to this day, a ZERO rating with that company.

I really did not think that flake citation was warranted, under the circumstances.

I'm probably going to take a beating for this, but here it is.

mysterious - in both "your" postings, you use the word "your" incorrectly. "Your" is a possessive noun. The word you should be using is "you're" which is a contraction for the words you are. The sentence should be "if you're at 100% ..." It is not surprising, because in some parts of the country (such as where I live in the south), "you're" and "your" are pronounced the same, but have entirely different meanings.

@Mysteriousways wrote:

lol your a bitter pill. I have never been blacklisted as I find work most days for my favorites and primary sites and I personally know schedulers who call or email me to offer me shops and get most shops as I am a reliable shopper and have been doing this for a while as this is my primary income.

For FA, 91% is good when you have to cancel to being caught or rough traffic. If your at 100% that is commendable, but things happen so since your a better non-flaker I commend your perfection

Someone insults him/her and the only response you come up with is to correct his/her grammar? That's not nice at all. I commend Mysteriousways for not stooping to Book's level of rudeness.

So if you knew you were going to "take a beating for this" why did you even say it then? Seriously?

@CureMS wrote:

I'm probably going to take a beating for this, but here it is.

mysterious - in both "your" postings, you use the word "your" incorrectly. "Your" is a possessive noun. The word you should be using is "you're" which is a contraction for the words you are. The sentence should be "if you're at 100% ..." It is not surprising, because in some parts of the country (such as where I live in the south), "you're" and "your" are pronounced the same, but have entirely different meanings.

@Mysteriousways wrote:

lol your a bitter pill. I have never been blacklisted as I find work most days for my favorites and primary sites and I personally know schedulers who call or email me to offer me shops and get most shops as I am a reliable shopper and have been doing this for a while as this is my primary income.

For FA, 91% is good when you have to cancel to being caught or rough traffic. If your at 100% that is commendable, but things happen so since your a better non-flaker I commend your perfection

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2019 04:58PM by kimmiemae.

Name calling is generally not tolerated here. Although I suspect you know this since judging from your first post, I think you are a past forum member with a different name.

@Book wrote:

@Mysteriousways wrote:

I try to keep my shop completion there at about 91% so of 240 "mini" shops I did I only canceled or had to let expire less than 10%.

Do you think that is an acceptable rate of flaking? You sound the Queen of the Flakers. I’m sure you have been blacklisted by various MSC whether you know about it or not.

I agree, name-calling is rude and unnecessary.

The above posts make me wonder: Is there an acceptable rate for cancellations? That might be a good topic for discussion. One poster above states she tries to limit cancellations to about 9%, keeping a 91% shop completion rate. Someone else said one flake gave her a zero rating with a company. A few months ago, a shopper deactivated by Market Force who couldn't understand why told us her cancellation rate was 26%, which is clearly not reasonable. What does everyone think is reasonable for a cancellation rate? @ KSSPete, as a scheduler, what are your thoughts?

Thanks for the english lesson I will keep it in mind. I am not above correction but sorry that is all you seem to take from this post LOL!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2019 08:29PM by Mysteriousways.

Kimmie - I brought up the grammar as a learning opportunity. We all write reports for schedulers. I am a firm believer that the better the grammar (along with other criteria), the better the opportunity to advance within this industry. Not just my words. This has come from senior ms members, schedulers, and MSC's.
As for not addressing Books posting, my thoughts are twofold. I agree with Book that a 10% Flake is too much. I would probably have steered away from asking the question re Queen.,
roflwofl - I think your question re % of flaking is a touchy but good question and should be its own thread. I would ask myself, "What is an acceptable margin of error (flake) on my bank account?" 10% would make me talk to a lawyer. 1% would have me requesting not only restitution, but compensation too. Even a 10% flake with my hair salon, nail salon, etc. would have me "blackballing" them and finding someone else dependable. So what is acceptable? I feel flaking is not a percentage. If in an extreme situation, such as cease's, 1 is acceptable. If it were to happen twice, that's a warning. Third strike and you're out. Of course there would be a time element. I can't say that over a three year period I'd blackball someone in those conditions, especially if they tried. My point is that there are so many elements to be considered, that each situation should be taken on a case by case bases.
Just my thoughts.

@CureMS raises some interesting points. I would estimate that most experienced shoppers including @roflwofl and @kimmiemae have a cancelation rate of much less than 0.5 percent.

I am at 100 percent for completing assignments. But I realize that some on here have completed 100xs as many assignments as myself. I also realize that uncontrolable events can lead to the cancelation of shops so eventually I might lose my perfect score.

I think Field Agent and other apps that have a short time clock running are different from normal MS flaking. I have never flaked on a MS shop but did have the time clock run out on my for the Survey app.

I have honestly never really thought of the cancellation rates of shoppers. Many times, if the shopper doesn't offer to reschedule the shop I will ask them if they can, and many times they do.

I would say that if I notice a shopper canceling more than one out of every ten shops, then I would start wondering about their commitment to shopping. I wouldn't deactivate them for that, but if they apply for a shop that has several applicants, it will be unlikely they get that shop over all the others.

As far as flakes, there's no reason one shop should give you a zero rating, especially if you have completed several shops in the past. That was a harsh punishment by that scheduler. I just had a thread up here about a shopper that bailed on a shop 4 hours before my deadline, and she didn't even get that hard of a hit to her rating. I just made it so she can't self-assign anymore, so that I can make sure deadline shops don't go to her.

I think my problems may be unique to rural areas. If I'm 300 miles from home, without cell coverage ("no cellular data network available", says my phone!), and have an emergency, all I can do is wait until I reach cell coverage before notifying the scheduler(s). It might take 8 hours to reach an area with cell coverage! (Not kidding.)

By then, sometimes the scheduler has already cancelled the shop.

Mostly, they reschedule for me.

Unfortunately, a cancellation is a cancellation. The records show the shop was reassigned and completed successfully, but I was recently told by a scheduler that they have to "look at the details" to determine that (i.e., look twice instead of glance once, LOL -- and they don't have time to delve into details); they just see last month, I had 4 shops, and cancelled two. Which gives me a 50% cancellation rate. They have to look at a different screen to see that both shops were, indeed, rescheduled and completed successfully.

In some companies, schedulers are punished if the shops they schedule are cancelled. Every scheduler wants 100% of the shops they schedule to be completed correctly and on time. By "punished", I mean they don't receive bonuses, or they are somehow restricted in their work. It does mean, actually, they don't fill their "quota". And quotas must be met!

I reschedule way, way too much.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/05/2019 04:34PM by ceasesmith.

to CUREMS I too am amazed at the posts here that use "your" incorrectly. Additionally, "their" and "there"/ "our" and "are" are also abused! There are several, need I go on? I wonder how the clients the reports are sent to consider this incorrect use of grammar.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/05/2019 07:40PM by lbtweety47.

My personal favorite it loose vs lose

ALWAYS reschedule, or at least ask to reschedule, you are far less likely to get cited if you give them other days that you will be available. Flake citations suck, avoid them at EVERY opportunity.

I don't think clients see that. MSCs must have proofreaders to make the reports look perfectly professional.

Yes, MSCs have editors (proofreaders). I was one a couple of times. Awful job.

So how much do you think they learned after they got insulted and then you pile on correcting their grammar on an informal forum? Judging by their response I would say nothing.

@CureMS wrote:

Kimmie - I brought up the grammar as a learning opportunity. We all write reports for schedulers. I am a firm believer that the better the grammar (along with other criteria), the better the opportunity to advance within this industry. Not just my words. This has come from senior ms members, schedulers, and MSC's.
As for not addressing Books posting, my thoughts are twofold. I agree with Book that a 10% Flake is too much. I would probably have steered away from asking the question re Queen.,
roflwofl - I think your question re % of flaking is a touchy but good question and should be its own thread. I would ask myself, "What is an acceptable margin of error (flake) on my bank account?" 10% would make me talk to a lawyer. 1% would have me requesting not only restitution, but compensation too. Even a 10% flake with my hair salon, nail salon, etc. would have me "blackballing" them and finding someone else dependable. So what is acceptable? I feel flaking is not a percentage. If in an extreme situation, such as cease's, 1 is acceptable. If it were to happen twice, that's a warning. Third strike and you're out. Of course there would be a time element. I can't say that over a three year period I'd blackball someone in those conditions, especially if they tried. My point is that there are so many elements to be considered, that each situation should be taken on a case by case bases.
Just my thoughts.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/08/2019 02:36AM by kimmiemae.

@kimmiemae wrote:

So how much do you think they learned after they got insulted and then you pile on correcting their grammar on an informal forum? Judging by their response I would say nothing.

Ouch lol

@kimmiemae wrote:

So how much do you think they learned after they got insulted and then you pile on correcting their grammar on an informal forum? Judging by their response I would say nothing.

Ouch lol