When it is obvious that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing...

I received a note on my shop log asking why I had two names on the business card. Obviously nobody read my submission. Since I did not receive an email, and the shop was already closed for edit, I clicked on Help/Contact Us and gave my explanation. Two weeks after, I received a Final Notice on the board and an email that the shop would be rejected because of lack of response from me. I immediately replied to the email. Here is the explanation from the editor. I hope I am not breaking any rules but I thought this should explain many, many misunderstandings which sometimes result in resolution or blatant rejection.

"Thanks for your reply. I understand your frustration, so I just want to take the time to try and explain how things work on our end, so that a similar situation can be avoided in the future. In fact, it is not 3 different departments who work with the shoppers but 3 separate companies: the scheduling, editing and finalizing companies. My company is the finalizing company, and we do not have access to the other companies' databases, so even though you replied to my query, because you did not reply directly to my email, I was not aware of it, so I proceeded to do what we normally do in such situations - send a final notice. I was by no means trying to threaten you,, it is standard procedure on our send 2 notices to a shopper, an initial and a final one. Understand that we deal with hundreds of shoppers a day, and things can fall between the cracks. To avoid this, in the future, please respond directly to the email address of the sender."

After explaining that I did not receive an email and I had no way of knowing who the editor was, I received this? Is anyone reading anything before they even send any Final Notice or for that matter, before they dock two points for having to contact the shopper on something already on the report?

I would respond back politely indicating that while this current email came through with no issues, a careful search of your spam folder, trash folder and inbox show no initial email. You only responded through the Help/Contact because you saw an issue on your shop log regarding the shop. I would further ask if perhaps they can dock you fewer points if it is only because of needing to contact you since indeed you never even got a first email to be ABLE to reply to it!

Thanks for the reply.

Actually I have responded to her politely and that was her response to my advising her that I did not receive her email. But I did tell her of my frustrations with receiving a Final Notice. She knows I have no record of not responding promptly to any issues.

What bothers me is that nobody seems to read anything before they reply or act. She just went on in telling me to reply to the email which was never received. I wasted my time looking for it in the spam or trash. She never sent it! She did send me one about another shop which she actually had the info already. She overlooked it. I have asked them to remove my name from their database. It seems noone is interested in getting the facts first before acting. And since I deactivated my account before because of similar issue but one of them asked me if she could reactivate it, I think this time, I will just drop it.

I hear you and am truly sorry. It seems as though more and more companies are making it more and more difficult to work with them. I don't deactivate, I just ignore them in hopes that some day they will get their sh*t together and realize we need to work TOGETHER not as finger pointing adversaries.

Hi, can I just ask what's the company that has 3 dept?

I have sent you a PM, KateH. I'm not sure if I am allowed to mention the name.

And Flash, the reason I decide to deactivate is to avoid receiving repeated requests from schedulers or whoever to call them or reply to their messages. In my experience, I have longer memory than some schedulers or editors. When they need someone, they forget how they treated you before. Anything that leaves a bad taste in my mouth, I usually discard. I may not hate them, but I prefer to stay away from them. But this is just me.

You should never voluntarily deactivate yourself because you never know who their next client might be. Just set the email notifications to off. For the same reason never fall in love with schedulers. People move and the brownie points you might have collected, you wont be able to cash them with the new scheduler.

As I have always said, to each his own. My policy is to stay away from anyone I do not wish to deal with. I don't think I will ever go begging for work from them. Let's just say I treat them like I treat my allergies. I stay away from them and wish they would stay away from me. I don't care who their next client would be. I have never formed any attachment to any client.

I had an experience with one company who kept on coming back because a scheduler kept my emails. I almost accepted a shop until I discovered. No, setting the email notification off does not necessarily work for me. At times when I let them reactivate my account and the pattern appears again, I have no qualms about deactivating my account. I doubt I will change that policy anytime soon.

Risinghorizon, you remind myself some years ago. Nowadays, I only care about the bottom line. I do not have to work at the same room with them and some schedulers that I despise because I know how duplecitous they are. I just make sure that everything is in writing. Near mortal companies do not have my cell number, or direct email account. I do live in a frequently snow covered area so the bonus can go as high as heaven. Sometimes I get calls from companies that have not had anything in my area or I chose not to work with them for years but need someone urgently. If I can negotiate something profitable, I will do it. You also never know who the next client will be. Did I know that the company that did vanilla hardware stores will do luxury beauty products (and I am talking the $80 reimbursement for certain brands, not the $15 they also have across the USA) a few years later, or that they would also have a hotel chain as well with reports that do not require a novel long writing like Coyle does? As many companies have so many subsidiaries, one never knows what they might ask their ms company to do for their subsidiary. I have been inside various entertainment venues with my tickets paid because the company had to evaluate a small food booth, or a sample being distributed for a new product launch, and without having to evaluate the venue. I even visited Universal in FL with paid tickets for 4 and just had to buy a cup of coffee. And who can forget the period that disney had launched the park hopper and the ticket sellers at all the parks had to be shopped repeatedly? I have gone to pricy music concerts with great seats reserved for us just to check the credit card offers, or to snap a picture of a display at the lobby (for a company that does car dealerships). I had to buy products in beauty counters over a certain high limit to see what magazine! offer I would be given. These were all special projects for companies that I do not regularly shop. One never knows what will show up so I try to keep all my options open.

I have also been devastated the first time I was deactivated from shopncheck. Nowadays I know I will be back and learned what the pitfalls are and try to avoid them. As a newbie I was happy that I was finally in such close relationship with a scheduler who always assigned her good shops directly to me. Until she moved on and had to start from scratch building relationships with the new scheduler who could not understand that 3 miles required a $20+ bonus if one needs 1 hour to get there at rush hour, in the middle of the month and significantly more if it is the last day of the month. My loyalty is only to myself and my family. Since I decided that at least for now I will make it a full time job (not hours worked but as my primary job) and need to make a substantial income from that, I just see everybody as clients and do not care about personal relationships. I am just cordial. They make so much money, these million dollars profits come out of fees so I am all in for myself.

Like I said, to each his own. Btw, I am not a newbie at ms but I am not doing it full time. I am doing it because I enjoy doing it and I do treat it seriously. There are some shops I would not do, no matter what kind of compensation they give me. And I care very much about mutual respect. Very much...

I did not mean that you were a newbie, when I said you reminded of myself. I meant when I was also doing it part time, in the middle of my ms journey when I knew about each ms company had to offer in respect of customer service towards me and work availability. I just have become more cynical and changed my priorities now that I place a greater weight on the monetary value. Would I do the toilet rim checking? I'll think about it for a very, very, very high fee and at a very, very clean place like Whole foods may be. They were snatched quickly for an average fee so someone found them profitable. But a quick shop near me for a good fee, why not. As you said, each one decides what they want to do. That's the beauty of the field. We know our own limitations and preferences, as well as our personal needs and can choose or decline jobs accordingly. I am just saying, do not burn bridges if it is not needed. Accounts can stay dormant and jobs picked up if needed in the future. I went, by choice, through different level of shop work load, sometimes out of need, and I was glad that I had the opportunity to pick up some extra money left and right when I suddenly needed it. The future has so many uncertainties that one needs to have their options open.

risinghorizon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> When it is obvious that the left hand does not
> know what the right hand is doing...
>
> After explaining that I did not receive an email
> and I had no way of knowing who the editor was, I
> received this? Is anyone reading anything before
> they even send any Final Notice or for that
> matter, before they dock two points for having to
> contact the shopper on something already on the
> report?

In checking my shop log to see if the payment for my numerous shops have been processed, I discovered that the Final Notice was still there for the shop mentioned in my main post. I emailed 'Contact US'
and I was told the shop has been accepted a month ago. So I asked why was the Final Notice still there. No reply. I also emailed the reviewer, also no reply.

Then I discovered that one locaton was not going to be paid. I emailed 'Contact Us' again. Again, no reply. I discovered from my inbox that the scheduler somehow switched the reports for two locations and though I was able to correct one location, I was too late to do it for the other after I received her email about what she did. She never responded when I asked that she open the other location because the report was correct and she should not have switched them around. No reply again. This is why I get frustrated with some contacts. They could ruin your good records which you try to maintain.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/2012 06:12PM by risinghorizon.

In these types of situations, I always want to know which MSC is the subject. It helps the rest of us make more informed choices with regard to whom we shop for.

risinghorizon, assuming that what you wrote is accurate, you still deserve to be paid.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/2012 01:43PM by Mantis.

That is definitely an MSC we all need to know about when they are penalizing you for an admitted mistake by the scheduler.

Yes - which MSC is the subject of the discussion sometimes makes a big difference to the answers given. I like it best when the MSC name is in the subject line. That makes it easy to find when you do a search.

I'll bet it begins with a B, because I recently had a similar experience.
The scheduler called me up as I was running out the door for another shop, explained the shop, it hadn't been taken and she was going to put another2 days on it, I agreed, actually a phone shop, and the people were difficult to return your call...which the scheduler explained. So I had no way of contacting the scheduler, and contacted "help" leaving a message with them for the scheduler should I continue? after the 2 days she had given me. No return call from the scheduler or email.

At the end of the second day I called the target company and actually got a live person on the phone and asked all the questions involved in the shop.

I go into the site to do the survey and it isn't there. Removed. Either she never got the message or was just quick on the draw. Fortunately I didn;t make the written report. And I would still like to get hold of the scheduler who called me to find out if she ever got the message. Unlikely I think .

So a few days later I see the same shop up for $5 more. I ignored it.
I agree with Risinghorizons. Who wants to deal with a company who is so disorganized that you end up with a bad reputation for not finishing a shop because they dont return calls or never get messages.

It's Services Sleuth and I gave the name at PM to one of the posters who asked about it.

My mistake was asking the scheduler to open one report as I inadvertently downloaded the wrong business card because of problem with my scanner. Second mistake was mentioning the address of what I uploaded. The scheduler did not read my message well and instead, switched the two locations. I was able to correct one report but was too late to correct the other. I told her that's not what I asked but she never replied to my request to open that one location. I just discovered that instead of being docked points, I was altogether not going to be paid.

I finally received a reply from the scheduler. When I replied to her email (on available shops) to please answer her mail, she said she discovered her emails were going to spam. Somehow, I am not too upset about anything after she replied. As a matter of fact, I suddenly lost interest in doing any more shops...

yeah.. I can understand the confusion. Kern schedules for them and wordpress edits for them. They are not affiliated.