Hey all,

First of all, I have completed hundreds of reports for several
MS companies.I have been in the MS biz for almost 5 years and this is a first.
I have been asked to redo reports before but never such a blatant "we will not
accept your report".

This was in my email today:

We will not process your report for payment. You turned in a horrible report, and per the notes on the form itself, clearly states, The restaurant owner demands good quality reports which requires complete sentences! If you are unable to write a complete sentence, then maybe you should not be a mystery shopper.
The owner also demands details in the report which means if something needs attention, then write about it. If somebody did something great, then tell us. DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS, we need quality information.

Sounds like someone was having a bad day.I won't be doing anymore work
for these guys.And they were paying a whole $5 for the job.I don't mind the
criticism but at least give me a chance to redo or add to my report.

Did you save a copy of your report?

I would go back over it and check everything to see if I could find out specifically what they are referring to.

After than, I would send an email to the Scheduler first and ask if they would please let me know exactly where I messed up and include a copy of my report.

Of course - this would all happen after I first got really pi$$ed off!

What amazes me is when you give them details (I'm not talking about this company since I've never worked for them) and then they're not happy with the details because you didn't address something they thought you should address. I just got an e-mail from an editor asking for me to comment about an issue that didn't come up in my shop (whether the associate asked questions about my preference. The question asked about needs. The answer to both was no.). I had to tell the editor that I could not comment on something that did not happen.

I find that kind of response to be unprofessional and it surprises the heck out of me if it is coming from them. Was there perhaps an outside scheduler doing these for them? I have interacted with both Dan and Tracy there and have experienced nothing but professional behavior.

The email was from:

Tracy Marsh
Project Manager
Restaurant Cops, LLC

I was very surprised as well.Not very professional at all.Like I said I will not work for them again.I did respond to her email explaining that I had completed hundreds of reports for other MS companies with no problems.Maybe she is just having a bad day,but don't take it out on your shoppers.

Ouch!

I'm very VERY surprised. My interactions with Tracy have been pleasant and friendly. I've done a bunch of shops for them and never heard anything back on any of my reports...I just get paid later. If I had gotten such harsh criticism I would probably e-mail back and ask for specific feedback so I would know exactly what the problem was. It hurts my feelings not to get a perfect 10 ... and such a harsh NO would make me feel terrible.....not to mention being upset at having bought pizza I wouldn't be paid for.

Wait a minute, that was all over a pizza shop! I'm speechless, LOL!

Is there any chance of this being a joke or mistake? Seems like a crazy response.

SteveSoCal Wrote:
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> Is there any chance of this being a joke or
> mistake? Seems like a crazy response.


Yeah Steve that was my thought. In 6 years I have never seen anything like this. Horrible. ?? You should not be a mystery shopper?? It didn't seem to me that this was a direct quote. I certainly could be wrong.

Wow is right. I can't believe the scheduler talked to you like that. That was unprofessional, rude and unnecessary.

I recognize a portion of that text. It is copied-and-pasted from from the Restaurant Cops's introduction to new shoppers. Specifically, I remember the line "If you are unable to write a complete sentence, then maybe you should not be a mystery shopper," which I found rather amusing, and the harping on "DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS, we need quality information," which I noted was a grammatical conundrum.

I've only done one shop for them, the family-friendly pizza buffet place, and had no occasion to receive any email follow-up.

Since the feedback sent to you has been copied-and-pasted (at least in part), I believe you would be entitled to request clarification.

Ok, here's the laughable part- look at this sentence:

"DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS, we need quality information."

Not only is it an incomplete sentence (which is what she accused the OP of), but the first 3 words are in all caps. So the editor is guilty of not one, but two, big no-no's.

The tone of her email is hostile and unprofessional.

My grammar skills are lacking, but it certainly looks like there are several mistakes in this sentence. Shouldn't there be some quotation marks in there somewhere? Are there some extra and/or misplaced commas?


You turned in a horrible report, and per the notes on the form itself, clearly states, The restaurant owner demands good quality reports which requires complete sentences!

Thanks for everyone's input !

This was only my 2nd job for these folks.My first report for them was also a pizza shop and it was accepted with no problems.I don't think my report for the 2nd job was any different than my first job, so I have no idea what the MSC is talking about.I'm not going to sweat it though,I only took the job for a free lunch while doing a route of other jobs. So it's not the end of the world.I just though the email was very unprofessional and as hudge95 stated very rude and unnecessary.

I still cannot believe that this 'assessment' could come up--- "You turned in a horrible report, and per the notes on the form itself, clearly states, The restaurant owner demands good quality reports which requires complete sentences! If you are unable to write a complete sentence, then maybe you should not be a mystery shopper" from a pizza report. I completely lost respect for that scheduler or that company. Thank God I have no pending pizza shop or I'd be very weary of doing it. It's not even a money-making ms venture to invest on so much faulty words. lol.

Heavenly Angels! Stay away from them for your own good. Write them and be done with it. A very counter-productive shop.

I have always had good results with them and that doesn't sound like Dan or Tracy. Although. I have not shopped for them in years due to the fact they have no shops in my area anymore. I got an email like tht once from an Emma from BES. Didn't even schedule a shop with them. She scheduled me something that she didn't even tell me about. Then, it went to my spam folder and told me I should have checked. I do check my spam folder but didn't know she scheduled me something. Then she sends me a nasty email worse then the one above saying they had problems with my reports in the past. I said this was news to me since I always got 9's and no one ever said anything to me. If someone makes a mistake we are all human and there is no need for any scheduler to be nasty and unprofessional. I then emailed this scheduler and told her I was glad to see she was hardly perfect since I never scheduled this shop and told her to have a great day. She deactivated me. Fine with me. Had not shopped for them in years either. Found there reports to be lacking information doing a shop and then questioning how to do like they wanted due to lack of instructions and contradictions from schedulers. Glad to see these people think so highly of themselves and are so perfect and NEVER make mistakes. Would like to meet these perfect people some day.

I'd be interested to see what your report looked like, to get that kind of response....hmmmm....not very professional.

Phoebe70 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Ok, here's the laughable part- look at this
> sentence:
>
> "DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS, we need quality
> information."
>
> Not only is it an incomplete sentence (which is
> what she accused the OP of), but the first 3 words
> are in all caps. So the editor is guilty of not
> one, but two, big no-no's.
>
> The tone of her email is hostile and
> unprofessional.

You are forgetting the "golden rule" He who has the gold makes the rules. Sounds like a parent scolding his or her child. "Do as I say, not as I do."
And then you wonder why some children grow up like this editor...confused and childish.

I totally feel that if you're paying me less than $10 a shop, you have no right to reem me like that. You want DETAILS DETAILS DETAILS then PAY ME PAY ME PAY ME!!!

tx, I'm wondering if you asked for more info from Tracy? The "Details, Details, Details" and "The restaurant owner demands good quality reports which requires complete sentences! If you are unable to write a complete sentence, then maybe you should not be a mystery shopper" does come straight off the RC report form. But adding "You turned in a horrible report" is extremely unprofessional. There are many ways to request a re-write or more information. I guess, though, they did not want a re-write. Even that surprises me. RC reports are not that demanding, certainly not as demanding as some other MSC reports that I know you have worked with. I'm just still reeling from hearing this - my interactions with Tracy have been so completely professional up to now.

avitoots Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I just got an
> e-mail from an editor asking for me to comment
> about an issue that didn't come up in my shop
> (whether the associate asked questions about my
> preference. The question asked about needs. The
> answer to both was no.). I had to tell the editor
> that I could not comment on something that did not
> happen.


Actually, you can. You can comment about how those things were not done. It's standard in the industry to comment on the no answers. This is to ensure the answer was supposed to be no (since those are the most challenged answers) and to explain what happened instead. If the associate wasn't wearing a name tag, stating such is about all you can do. But if you stated no, the associate didn't offer a friendly greeting, then you would need to write down what was said instead.

txguitar Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hey all,
>
> First of all, I have completed hundreds of reports
> for several
> MS companies.I have been in the MS biz for almost
> 5 years and this is a first.
> I have been asked to redo reports before but never
> such a blatant "we will not
> accept your report".
>
> This was in my email today:
>
> We will not process your report for payment. You
> turned in a horrible report, and per the notes on
> the form itself, clearly states, The restaurant
> owner demands good quality reports which requires
> complete sentences! If you are unable to write a
> complete sentence, then maybe you should not be a
> mystery shopper.
> The owner also demands details in the report which
> means if something needs attention, then write
> about it. If somebody did something great, then
> tell us. DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS, we need
> quality information.
>
> Sounds like someone was having a bad day.I won't
> be doing anymore work
> for these guys.And they were paying a whole $5 for
> the job.I don't mind the
> criticism but at least give me a chance to redo or
> add to my report.


No offense to you because I don't know what your report was like, but that would have to have been an awful report for me to WANT to write something like that. I wouldn't though. I'd water it down with a list of things the reasons the report was rejected and apologize that we couldn't use it. But that would only be after you were given the chance to correct it first.

AlwaysAngie -- The question was whether a question was asked. The question wasn't asked in any way, shape or form. Don't know what I can say about a question not being asked other than it wasn't asked which is what I said. So, I did provide an answer. And how do you explain how something was not done? You can explain how something was done, but I don't understand how you explain something that was not done. There are times when something they expect to happen doesn't but somethng else I think is notable and worth giving credit for does happen. At those times, I'll say this didn't happen but this other thing did. Unfortunately, in this instance, the associate did not do anything noteworthy to compensate for not asking the question. Like I said before, I can't report what did not happen.

avitoots, what AlwaysAngie is referring to (I think) is that, for example, on a recent restaurant shop the server was supposed to ask if this was our first visit. He did not. The specific report question was marked 'no' and in the narrative I included the statement, "Joe introduced himself and offered to bring us beverages. He did not ask if this was our first visit and he did not mention or suggest any specific beverages." (The beverage question of whether he had offered supecific suggestions for beverages had been the next question on the survey and also got a 'no' so the one sentence handled both issues.)

How was the food and the service?

Flash absolutely has it. If you don't understand what I mean, avitoots, you wouldn't be the first. However, with ANY MS company I've ever worked for, they all expect every no answer to be fully explained.

For example:

Q. 1: Did the phone associate state the business name, the location, their name, and offer assistance?

Q. 2: Did the associate offer a "smile" to their voice when they answered the phone.

For a yes answer, you might write:

The assocate said, "Hello. Thank you for calling Walmart, Perdido Key. This is Tasha. How can I help you?" Tasha's tone was cheerful and she acted eager to assist me.

For a no answer, you might write:

The associate said, "Walmart. What do you need?" The associate spoke in a hurried tone and her tone sounded as if she was irritated. She did not offer her name or the location of the business.

For other things like a name tag or whether the phone was answered in three rings, you can only say the associate wasn't wearing one and the phone was answered in five rings. Not really anywhere to expand on them.

If you did the above and were still told to explain your no answers, it could be that the answer wasn't in the same section as the question or the editor missed it.

Flash and AlwaysAngie -- I will reiterate. I said the associate did not ask the question and that did not seem to be sufficient for the editor.

Flash -- I do exactly what you suggested when there is an opportunity to say that. As I explained above, if an associate does not ask the question but says something else, I will report it. However, if they don't I can't make it up. For example, they also asked if the associate described or explained a feature. The answer was no and I said the associate did not explain the feature. The associate also did not say anything else in relation to the feature other than the fact that the product had the feature. I don't know what more one can say other than the fact that the associate said the product had the feature and the associate did not explain the feature which is which what I reported and which the editor felt was insufficient. I will say again, you can't write what didn't happen and, if you did, you'd be guilty of submitting a false report.

Flash -- I will even reiterate the answer in the appropriate section if I mention it in another section to make sure the report isn't kicked back because I didn't properly answer a question.

Bottom line, I do everthing both of you mentioned which is why I usually get high ratings on my reports (probably 5% or less get below the max). I just felt that the editor didn't believe me when I said certain things didn't occur.

Apologies, avitoots. When you said 'you can't write what didn't happen' I misunderstood that to mean that if it didn't happen there was nothing to be said at all. If you are mentioning in words beyond 'no' that it did not happen in addition to marking 'no' there should have been no issue.

I know which shop avitoots is talking about. I have always been contacted for additional information for this client. In general, I do not hear back regarding any other reports for the MSC. The last time I was communicating with an editor I even mentioned that the form makes it difficult to report anything out of the norm and it's one of the few that leave me wishing there was actually more opportunity for narrative. The editor agreed and told me virtually every report for the client requires additional clarification. She also assured me the request does not impact a shopper's rating or standing with the company. Had this been my only shop for the MSC I would be hesitant to ever complete another. Knowing it is client specific just makes me hesitant to ever shop for that client again, LOL!