This was exactly my experience. I saw 2, did those. Then saw more, did those and now I was able to see 9 more, in a slightly different area. The stores told me that someone else came in and bought them a few weeks ago. So I think we are seeing repeat visits maybe to make sure another delivery didn't come in, or that customers didn't return them to the store.

@bradkcrew wrote:

You can only see one shop (or group) at a time, correct? First I had a bundle of 5. Only once I finished that did they offer 2 more. I took one of them. So, once I finish that one, I might see more? Is that how it works? I think either my area was cleaned out long ago or there just aren't any stores around here that carried them. I live in a rural-ish area. I am just wondering how others are seeing 100 shops at a time.

I wound up doing per store. There are 9.. It will be about an hour drive initially, then it will be 5 mins store to store (roughly).
Even if I had to spend 20 mins per store, and package things to fedex, for this set, it seemed like per store was the way to go.
They've already sent me the advance (over 24 hours but less than 48 for the advance).

@CoolMusic wrote:

How many locations? If it's just a couple with that much drive time I'm thinking hourly might be best.

If you can book a full block of 15 that are in the same general area, per store seems to be the way to go.

There's definitely someone else in my area doing them.

One store said someone had been in to pick them up already, so $20 for 5 minutes for me.

I just completed a round of 15 today and when I went back into the site to book more, all but one of the ones that had been left in the region I just did were gone.

I'm knocking out another 15 tomorrow in a loop that is closer to home, and I'll book another 15 as soon as I log expenses from that one.

Today was my 4th round, and I've only received one set of shipping labels so far. Gonna have a sizable backlog of boxed product in my place over the weekend.

I haven't been upset about finding no products lol. I'm doing my next batch on Saturday so I'll see what that brings!

@CoolMusic wrote:

There's definitely someone else in my area doing them.

One store said someone had been in to pick them up already, so $20 for 5 minutes for me.

I just completed a round of 15 today and when I went back into the site to book more, all but one of the ones that had been left in the region I just did were gone.

I'm knocking out another 15 tomorrow in a loop that is closer to home, and I'll book another 15 as soon as I log expenses from that one.

Today was my 4th round, and I've only received one set of shipping labels so far. Gonna have a sizable backlog of boxed product in my place over the weekend.

@Datagirl wrote:

I'm jumping on board with these. Doesn't seem to be anyone doing them near me... yet. Starting with 2 this weekend and see how it goes. This whole thread is very helpful.

Here's a tip that just dawned on me today: I've been photographing my paper receipts, and cataloging them to coordinate with inventory as I package it, then uploading the photos with my expense requests.

Today I came back from doing a round of 15 (14 had product), and I wanted to book my next 15 ASAP.

Instead of going through 14 batches of product to dig up the receipts and take pictures of them, I went back into the app. You can review all your completed reports, and get screenshots of the receipts from them.

I was able to get an expense submission done MUCH more quickly and get that next batch assigned that much sooner.

I'm finding the app to be super solid compared to the apps deployed by MSC's. It loses the manager signature every now and then, but it's a dream being able to leave a report and resume it later on with all previously entered data still intact without having to go through a save routine.

I am more than a little jealous of CoolMusic!

@joanna81 wrote:

I haven't been upset about finding no products lol. I'm doing my next batch on Saturday so I'll see what that brings!

Zero product = the absolute best! About $240 an hour before factoring in admin!

One of my no product visits was a truck stop where I used to be the field rep for Foster Grant. It was great reconnecting with a retail manager from a few years ago.

Here's an unexpected twist, that kinda ties in with the one functionally illiterate clerk who tried to keep me from making the purchase:

A merchandiser working in one of the locations I visited today mentioned that some stores were stating they had no inventory because they thought they were being "tested" to sell restricted product like they are with booze and cigarettes.

In support of this, at another location I noticed a citation on the bulletin board in the back office, lauding an employee who had successfully denied a booze purchase attempted by a minor sent in by the local police department.

This whole thing reminds me of the Chinese proverb: may you live in interesting times...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/29/2023 01:16AM by CoolMusic.

And another little thing that has helped me get past the language/cluelessness barrier a couple of times:

I pull a piece of inventory from my first visit and set it aside to take in to show to the employee. Along with the letter it seems to get the point across and allows me into the back room.

@bradkcrew wrote:
Okay, thank you. LOL, I am traveling 30 miles to get a single store! Country life and shops aren't the best match. I'm only doing it because I have to go that way, so I will get paid for some of the driving time I had to do anyway, and some mileage to boot![/quote]

This company once called me on another retrieval job and asked me to do a handful of locations that were 100 miles away from me. As their general policy is that you should only request assignments within a 20-30 mile distance from your home, I pointed out the distance to them and let them know with traffic that it would be a two hour plus drive each way. They seemed surprised that it was so far, but wanted me to do it anyway. I ended up billing for about 5 hours of driving time and only 1 1/5 hours in store time. I am in a heavily populated area and I was surprised they didn't have someone closer but was happy to go for an hourly rate. My friend used to work for this company in rural New Mexico and they would call him to visit a location that several hours away because they didn't have anyone else.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/29/2023 05:36AM by MW.

Maybe you all already know this but I just figured this out today. Here's a (hopefully) helpful tip when entering the data to prepare for shipment...

When you open the project and click on the (Product Name) Product Return Instructions link in the Projects Documents section, it opens up the (Name) Rep Return Request page where you enter the store info and quantities. So you don't have to type each address, go back to the previous tab. Copy and paste the whole address from the Project Locations list. Go back to the form and paste the address and enter the quantity. Continue going back and forth until you've entered all of your locations and Purchase Quantity info.

I did my first two of these today. First store had 80 units, second had 60. I spent $1400 on these things. People were paying 9.99 for a chip to make themselves miserable.

I did my expenses and everything, boxed it all up, was hoping to pick up some more locations but apparently someone grabbed them all. Rude! LOL

Who am I supposed to email to get reimbursed quickly? I did not receive much email about this project because I just got approved with this company 2 weeks ago. I am looking through their help files but not finding what I need. I have a few weeks before the statement closes but I certainly don't want to pay interest on that purchase.

@Datagirl wrote:

I did my expenses and everything, boxed it all up, was hoping to pick up some more locations but apparently someone grabbed them all. Rude! LOL

Wecome to my world!

And I believe the contact info for quicker reimbursement was in the project instructions. I know I saw it somewhere.

@Datagirl wrote:

I did my first two of these today. First store had 80 units, second had 60. I spent $1400 on these things. People were paying 9.99 for a chip to make themselves miserable.

I did my expenses and everything, boxed it all up, was hoping to pick up some more locations but apparently someone grabbed them all. Rude! LOL

Who am I supposed to email to get reimbursed quickly? I did not receive much email about this project because I just got approved with this company 2 weeks ago. I am looking through their help files but not finding what I need. I have a few weeks before the statement closes but I certainly don't want to pay interest on that purchase.

Hi Datagirl,

You can send your email to retrieve@rqa-inc.com

When I sent my email requesting the quicker reimbursement, I copied and pasted the $$ amounts from my Expense Confirmation email, like this:

Total Product Purchase Expenses: $2617.38
Advances: -$200.00
Net Product Purchase Expenses: $2417.38

And I also included my rep ID # and phone # just in case they had any questions.

This is the email I got:

From: retrieve <retrieve@RQA-INC.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2023 12:53 PM
Subject: IMPORTANT NOTICE / RQA Paqui Single Chip Withdrawal

Hello, 

Thank you for selecting locations for the Paqui One Chip Withdrawal project.  As a reminder, please review the ‘Project Instructions’ prior to starting any project or performing site visits.  This information is posted in the ‘Documents’ section of the project in the RepPortal for all projects.  They are also attached to this email for your convenience along with the required Letter of Authorization. 

Regarding the project and advances, please note the following: 

The average cost per unit retails at $9.99.  We are currently sending out $20 per store, so we understand there will be occasions when large quantities of product are found, and additional funds are required. 

Advances are being sent out via ACH or FedEx.  If ACH is preferred, please follow the information as outlined on the instructions. (They need your bank name, routing # and account #, plus account type: checking or savings.)

If you purchase large quantities of product and want an advance for reimbursement, please contact RQA Monday through Friday (8am-4:30pm).  Advance requests over the weekend should be emailed to retrieve@rqa-inc.com as we do not have the ability to send funds over the weekend. 

If you visit location(s) and do not have the funds to purchase, please contact RQA with the estimated quantity of product at the location(s) so additional advances can be issued.   

We greatly appreciate your help on the project and appreciate your patience. 

Thank you, 
RQA Retrieval Group 

@Datagirl wrote:

Who am I supposed to email to get reimbursed quickly?

Call the project support line and request the expedited reimbursements.

FWIW, if there's one thing the vendor is not good about it's returning phone call and email inquiries.

I have to call in today to request 2 expedited reimbursements and a store re-visit as I have yet to receive replies to inquiries from last week.

Thank you. I had found it in one of the emails as well but this was super helpful. Will take care of this today.

I did a route of nine stores. 4 of them had product. One store had 34!! The other stores had ten or fewer.

Up until today, every store but one has had product, and most stores have had at least 30 units, with some having over 60 units. However today, I had two stores with no product at all and two more that had less than 15 units. I only spent $1500 on product today--it was a much easier day.

Cool Music inspired me and I finally signed up for a 9 shop route today (got a ton of fraud alerts today!) During my first shop, I made a mistake and accidentally selected no product found when I really purchased over 50 units!! RQA advised me to email them the receipt instead and it should all be good. Thank you for the tips shared so far.

This is the first job I have done for this company and so far I am in love with them. The instructions are clear, the app is very good, and the 24 hr reimbursement is fabulous. I hope to do a lot of work for them in the future!

I requested expedited reimbursement on Monday. It looks like they did process it. I had asked for direct deposit and provided my info. I know there is a FedEx package coming today but not sure if that is the reimbursement or the advance for the next set of stores. I guess I will see. Not too worried since everyone speaks so highly of them. Just want to pay my card back before I go out on the weekend and spend more.

Looks like my area has been emptied out but wanted to share a tip.

A few stores had a register limit of $150, so we split the transactions up and I had multiple receipts. I folded the receipts and put all 6 receipts in the same picture for the expense report so I didn't have to upload each one and they accepted it like that.

@joanna81 wrote:

A few stores had a register limit of $150...

I haven't run into that, but I did have a 7-11 with 101 units, and the POS system would not accept triple-digit quantities. Split it 51/50 on two different cards...

Check your email or the site. There are a lot more available, at least in my area (So Cal), another 250+ just posted. Plus it's a higher per location fee. You have 5 days to complete them instead of the current 7 days.

I still have just the one lonely store 40 miles away. Today it switched to "priority" and they are paying $30, but still just the $20 per hour. Eh, not worth the drive.

The last one I did was interesting. The manager said she had pulled them from their system as bad inventory and had already received credit. So she wouldn't take payment, and just gave them to me!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/05/2023 09:54PM by bradkcrew.

What do you do if one store has so much product it has to be shipped in 2 boxes? One of my locations had 174!! Im not sure how to handle the packing slip.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/08/2023 05:43AM by callinectes.

I can see about 20 of these within 15 miles of me but the whole thing makes me a little nervous.

@callinectes wrote:

What do you do if one store has so much productvit has to be shipped in 2 boxes? One of my loxations had 174!! Im not sure how to handle the packing alip.

If I had this situation, I would put the total 174 in the Purchase Quantity field when you are entering the store name, address and how many you got from that store. Nothing new there.

I would print 2 copies of the paperwork and hand write a note on each one to indicate how many are in box 1 of 2 and how many are in box 2 of 2. For example, "120 in box 1 of 2" on the applicable paperwork and "54 in box 2 of 2" on that paperwork. Then number those two boxes accordingly with a Sharpie marker. You don't need to number all of your boxes, just these 2. And of course, you'd have room for more product in the box with the 54. Hope this helps.

@ShopperGirly wrote:

I can see about 20 of these within 15 miles of me but the whole thing makes me a little nervous.

Just do one or two of these shops to get a handle on it. I'm taking a break after my route of 10 since the others are farther away. I'd like to be fully reimbursed before starting another batch.

@callinectes wrote:

What do you do if one store has so much productvit has to be shipped in 2 boxes? One of my loxations had 174!! Im not sure how to handle the packing alip.

I broke up one of my stores between two boxes. I just made it clear on the packing slip what I had done. That was one of my first batches. It has already been approved and rated satisfactory, so apparently they were fine with it.