I did several jobs for this company until I quit a while back. If there is any kind of problem they will not let you know. You only find out when you try to search for a job and are not allowed to access them. When I tried to communicate they were generally rude and not very helpful. They are a difficult company to work with.

Joe Baker

Not my experience at all. You do have a responsibility to check and make sure that your CPI and other proof(s) of visit uploaded and a few days later that they were "verified". I have had no problems with them but generally I don't do a lot of jobs for them because the pay is low and in my market they don't get adequate bonuses often to make them interesting.

Not my experience here either. They are a great company to do shops for. I started doing shops for them a couple of years ago and had to stop for a while. I am back now doing shops for them since May and I really enjoy working with them. I know the pay isn't alot, but with me living in a small town they are easy to do, and I know I will always be paid. When there is a problem, just email them and they have always worked with me. I just schedule shops for when I am traveling to the surrounding areas and I make some money and usually I'm reimbursed for what I pay for my meal which saves while I am out all day taking care of whatever I have to do in that area.

I do a lot of shops for them, usually bonused. My scheduler and I have a friendly relationship, and pay comes like clockwork. You may just have gotten a rude person in the support dept.

This was one of the first companies that I worked for when I first got into the business. They usually have more shops than other companies in my area. I get bonus shops almost every month. They pay like clock work and I have had few problems with them or the jobs.

Joe--don't give up on a good company based on one experience. Call them and see if you can iron out the problem.

I used to work for them a lot and enjoyed it. I did not have any problems until March when I kept getting the message I was overlapping shops. I got a CPI for a station audit which had the wrong address. I called to verify the address even though I knew the highway address was not in the city the CPI said it was. I notified them and explained where the address actually was. They said thank you and they would check into it. Two weeks later an updated CPI with the same wrong address on it came out. I go past this station every couple of weeks so I know it is 50 miles west of the CPI address. They wanted me to go to the address in the town on the CPI and get a picture of no station at that address. It is that the station is not there the address is not there.

Soon after that every time I did two shops in the same area I was told I was overlapping them. Since these shops were at least 12 to 20 miles apart there could not be any overlapping. I checked my times on the report but that did not seem to do any good. I would not get the bounus on some even though they said one was offered.

One report I missed a check off and got an e-mail and corrected it and was restricted from the site. I could not get a return call and could not get a number to call.

At one time I thought I read a restriction was for six months. Do they ever lift the restrictons.?

Shop and Chek has now merged. I have worked with them for over 30 years, NEVER A SINGLE PROBLEM if you follow the rules.

Not to beat a dead horse, but I do ~10 shops per month for them and have never had a problem with them. The only 'gripe' I have is that they ask that shops be entered within 12 hours of being performed (most of the others are 24 hours). So, if I do a breakfast shop and have to mow the grass after supper, my stuff is usually few hours late (according to their guidelines). I know, I know...if I sign up for it, I agree to their terms! Doesn't mean I have to like it...

Yes, I understand the problem. I do some banks that require 5 hour reporting. It means that as soon as I come home from a round of shops I am starting their reports because otherwise I won't make deadline. But that is not a frequent problem because they pay less than in past years for the same shops and well below industry standards. I only do them when I am going right by and have a transaction to do in my account there anyway.

Deech Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
I go past this station
> every couple of weeks so I know it is 50 miles
> west of the CPI address. They wanted me to go to
> the address in the town on the CPI and get a
> picture of no station at that address. It is that
> the station is not there, the address is not there.
>
Take a picture of any empty lot, and tell them that's the address. Let them prove it's not. Sounds like your scheduler and/or editor are nerds. In general, most people have no trouble with MFI. They even accepted a shop I did on the wrong day, with just a little rap on my knuckles. I promised to be a good girl, and I got paid for the shop.

I would call and talk to a supervisor.

Maps.Google.com now has a street view. Although they have a disclaimer that the address is "approximate" I have sent along a suggestion to look at the "Street View" to a scheduler in hopes they would contact the client to get the address corrected on the cash register at the location I shop (the receipt gives the store address as the vacant field).

I found them to be fair and always paid on time.

Sorry, I can't blow sugar at them. I've been stung hard by those people and I followed the rules, did everything I was told and still got the shaft.

I have been shopping with them for a very long time, I have been locked out one and that was when I didnt do a shop but I was in the hospital and I emailed them and told them what happened and they unlocked me. I have found with them they are very good at working with you.

I like them but so much fewer jobs now than before

They still have tons of ff and cheap shops in my area. I won't even nibble at the tax return stuff. Their better clients seem to on shopper vacation these days.

I've done many shops for them. I stopped doing the FF shops after 2, but , alas, they have the only supermarket being shopped in this entire area. I've never had so much as a question from them, Cettie, but maybe that depends on the scheduler.

I did not see the call 1.75 shops anymore, anyone know why?

Phone shops get taken quickly. I managed to snag a few $3 pet store calls this month, but they went fast. For next month I snagged only one and by the time I returned to the jobs board all the rest were gone.

Deech Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I used to work for them a lot and enjoyed it. I
> did not have any problems until March when I kept
> getting the message I was overlapping shops. I got
> a CPI for a station audit which had the wrong
> address. I called to verify the address even
> though I knew the highway address was not in the
> city the CPI said it was. I notified them and
> explained where the address actually was. They
> said thank you and they would check into it. Two
> weeks later an updated CPI with the same wrong
> address on it came out. I go past this station
> every couple of weeks so I know it is 50 miles
> west of the CPI address. They wanted me to go to
> the address in the town on the CPI and get a
> picture of no station at that address. It is that
> the station is not there the address is not there.
>
>
> Soon after that every time I did two shops in the
> same area I was told I was overlapping them.
> Since these shops were at least 12 to 20 miles
> apart there could not be any overlapping. I
> checked my times on the report but that did not
> seem to do any good. I would not get the bounus
> on some even though they said one was offered.
>
> One report I missed a check off and got an e-mail
> and corrected it and was restricted from the site.
> I could not get a return call and could not get a
> number to call.
>
> At one time I thought I read a restriction was for
> six months. Do they ever lift the restrictons.?

Email Simone at the Help Desk and explain. She should help you out. One time I did a McDonalds shop and somehow the wrong amount got entered ( they were having difficulties with their server that night ).She sent me an email telling me they only dealt with honest people. I told her what happened and that I was angered that they thought I was dishonest. I got and apology email and was reactivaged.

I had a very rude encounter with a scheduler from Shop N Chek. It is not my favorite company.

I've worked for this company for about 2 years and I have to say, overall I like them. I've had some problems with them like one time I scheduled 3 of their gas station mystery shop/audits for a route I was doing. My car broke down and I didn't get the reports in even within 24 hours. Soon after that I noticed I couldn't find any jobs anywhere on their board. I emailed them to ask why and they said because I had a 'history of being late with my reports 3 times', I was not allowed to self-assign with them anymore. I wrote back and told them there was no history, it all happened on one trip and why it happened. They agreed to work with me again and I've had no problems with them ever since. I take that back. One time recently I was doing some more of their gas station shops and also 1 of the photo center at the big box store where I had to have my pictures developed to see if it would be done in an hour. Since one of the gas station was near by and those shops usually take about 30 minutes, I decided to drop off my pictures to be developed and then go do the gas station, coming back later to retrieve my pictures. It worked out pretty well for me until I got an email from them saying I was overlapping my shops and I was not suppose to do that. I wrote them back, explained the situation and they sent me a nice email, apologizing and telling me that what I had done WAS ok but their system didn't recognize it and so sent me the overlapping shops email. No more problems.

Yes, my reaction is they bark first and think later. I can deal with that as long as I can find someone who can think later. But it does represent a mindset that is all to prevalent with many of the bigger MSPs that you are a crook until you prove otherwise--and the obligation of proof is yours.

I shop for them, but I know that if I have any problems, their Help Desk will likely be no help. Someone different answers my question each time, and they don't read prior history/emails of the problem.

I have had different people ask me the same questions when I had already explained it in detail to someone previously. Arrgh.

My other peeve with them is their so-called screening quiz. I can't count how many I have taken, only to be excluded. So many of them bonused, too, because I shy away from the regular-priced ones.

I have taken screen shots of the quiz before I submitted my answers, both for my benefit and theirs. They don't care and tell me that it's not a test; it's a screening tool. Well, anyone who has taken their "screening tool" knows that there are indeed right answers and wrong answers.

Deech wrote: "...I used to work for them a lot and enjoyed it. I did not have any problems until March when I kept getting the message I was overlapping shops. I got a CPI for a station audit which had the wrong address."

What are overlapping shops?

TIA

It is when you do shops too close together in time for their liking.

The overlapped shops were 20 miles apart and I talked to a old friend for a while before I started the second one. The second time was about the same situation. The shops were in different towns and across a river. I do not miss them.

I just got a notification from them that my last ff shop was invalid. There reason was that I did not respond to Quality Control's request for clarification. HUH?? Quality Control never contacted me! Not by email or either of the two phone numbers I provided.

I just sent them back a letter as nice as pie, but stating that they had not contacted me and to be sure to CALL me so that I could assist them in submitting a quality report.

It just makes me sad/mad because I have been carefully combing the shop guidelines to make sure I do everything by the letter and I spend extra time going over my reports before I submit them because I want to make sure I'm doing the best job possible.