I've done sh...uh boatloads of mystery shops for this company. For those unfamiliar with the process, HC sends an email of available shops. You email them back letting them know the shops you're interested in. You receive an email back saying all shops have been assigned or an email with all the documents attached for performing the shop. One of those documents is called a scenario sheet. It lets you know the scenario to use as well as the locations you (aand other shoppers) are assigned. About two weeks ago they sent out an email and I replied indicating I was intertested in any two of any of four locations I listed. Days went by and I didn't hear back. Until yesterday. I received the email of the attached documents. My name was not listed anywhere on the scenario sheet. But guess what!!! One shopper in particular was assigned 7 of the 8 shops in my area. Four of the seven are in my city and the other three are in different cities but within 10-15 of my city. And mind you, the due date is April 19th. I emailed the scheduler to let her know my name wasn't listed for any locations. I was told the email was sent to me in error and asked if I'd be interested in another shop. Another shop where????? There was not a list of available shops. All shops on the scenario sheet had been assigned. Was that a peace offering? (rhetorical question). I was one unhappy camper!!! At and I let her know so. I also asked to be removed from the list of available shoppers. I received an email back saying 'you have been removed'. I'm not so desperate for their decent pay that I will agree to being treated like the red-headed stepchild! And they didn't have the decency to even email me long befor yesterday to let me know all shops were taken. I would have been none the wiser if this had been done. But they made the mistake of sending me the email. My blood boils everytime I think of this because I've not ever had any problems in the past with any of the shops I've performed or the awful reports I've completed. And this is the thanks I get! I'm done ranting now. Thanks for listening!

I hear your frustration. I have gone through several phases of feeling like the stepchild. In talking, on one such occasion, with my scheduler, whom I respect greatly, she apologized that she could not in good faith assign me the locations because although I did sort of meet the rotation requirements she had an opportunity to have the locations observed with fresher eyes. She then gave me other work for the month and offered me more distant locations that had not yet been assigned, with mileage. I will not be going on their 'removed shopper' list for a long time if I can help it.

Flash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I hear your frustration. I have gone through
> several phases of feeling like the stepchild. In
> talking, on one such occasion, with my scheduler,
> whom I respect greatly, she apologized that she
> could not in good faith assign me the locations
> because although I did sort of meet the rotation
> requirements she had an opportunity to have the
> locations observed with fresher eyes. She then
> gave me other work for the month and offered me
> more distant locations that had not yet been
> assigned, with mileage. I will not be going on
> their 'removed shopper' list for a long time if I
> can help it.


I agree with you to a point, Flash-but assigning 7 of 8 locations to a single shopper is greedy requesting on the shopper's part, plus the scheduler is going to run the risk of messed up reports if they all 7 have to be done in less than 7 days time frame. These aren't Golden Arches shops, depending on the client.

Scheduler has to know those are highly coveted because of the pay (currently $40 here on 2 rep and $20 on one rep, plus mileage-I've made $75 and $50 in the past). If she runs off the few who are willing in hard-to-fill areas, what then?


I have to say that I find the group e-mails with names attached disconcerting. I've gotten them. I don't particularly want my real name floating out there to other shoppers in my area, etc.

I have done many, many of them in the same month, both locally and at a distance. My standard is to send in a list of all local locations I feel I am likely to be qualified for by rotation and by good sense and let them decide what they feel most appropriately is assigned to me. There are locations I am no longer comfortable shopping because of the tenure and excellent memory of platform folks. So even if I am in rotation I don't request those, and my scheduler knows why. It may well be that they give those and others in my area to someone for whom it is a long trip both to make their trip worthwhile and to have an unknown-to-the-location shopper do the visit. I do stop in from time to time to do a transaction and see if the same faces are in the same offices. When they send out the 'unclaimed locations' I am going to respond indicating which ones I could do as groups with mileage. As for the group emails, I do find it interesting to note who didn't get'er dun because I am asked to take the shop later in the month. Meanwhile I have no issue with my first name and initial floating around out there. For those who get my first name and initial, I have theirs as well, and it is fascinating to see the turnover.

Flash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> As for the group emails,
> I do find it interesting to note who didn't get'er
> dun because I am asked to take the shop later in
> the month. Meanwhile I have no issue with my
> first name and initial floating around out there.
> For those who get my first name and initial, I
> have theirs as well, and it is fascinating to see
> the turnover.


I have to admit, I look at that I have never flaked a shop and I can't imagine why someone would flake 4-5 of those, but I've seen it on the followup e-mails.

3offthecharts Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Flash Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I hear your frustration. I have gone through
> > several phases of feeling like the stepchild.
> In
> > talking, on one such occasion, with my
> scheduler,
> > whom I respect greatly, she apologized that she
> > could not in good faith assign me the locations
> > because although I did sort of meet the
> rotation
> > requirements she had an opportunity to have the
> > locations observed with fresher eyes. She then
> > gave me other work for the month and offered me
> > more distant locations that had not yet been
> > assigned, with mileage. I will not be going on
> > their 'removed shopper' list for a long time if
> I
> > can help it.
>
>
> I agree with you to a point, Flash-but assigning 7
> of 8 locations to a single shopper is greedy
> requesting on the shopper's part, plus the
> scheduler is going to run the risk of messed up
> reports if they all 7 have to be done in less than
> 7 days time frame. These aren't Golden Arches
> shops, depending on the client.
>
> Scheduler has to know those are highly coveted
> because of the pay (currently $40 here on 2 rep
> and $20 on one rep, plus mileage-I've made $75 and
> $50 in the past). If she runs off the few who are
> willing in hard-to-fill areas, what then?
>
>
> I have to say that I find the group e-mails with
> names attached disconcerting. I've gotten them. I
> don't particularly want my real name floating out
> there to other shoppers in my area, etc.


I have no idea what shops you are talking about, but "greedy requesting"?? Because someone wants work and applies themself?

As far as I am concerned, I apply for any shops I am able and willing to do. If the schedulers want to dole them out to make it more "fair" or whatever, great, but the notion of leaving shops just in case someone else might want them is kind of absurd.

As for the OP, how do you know that the person assigned the 7 shops didn't request them before you and/or have an even better record than you with the MSC? Or maybe they have helped the scheduler out with some shops in the past, so they let them have them all? I don't understand the outrage. The MSC sai there was another shop, but you went ahead and quit. Maybe the scheduler made a mistake and there really wasn't another shop, but maybe there was something that came up after the list was sent.

3offthecharts Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have to admit, I look at that I have never
> flaked a shop and I can't imagine why someone
> would flake 4-5 of those, but I've seen it on the
> followup e-mails.

There are a lot of folks for whom the narrative requirements look absolutely overwhelming. And of course most shops that pay well require a lot more of the shopper than the shops that pay little. Nobody gives away money. There are others who can't deal with the notion that they are not reporting on line on a website. I know of several folks who have flatly stated that they will NEVER do a shop for them again until they can report it to a website. Go figure. We all have our own standards and modus operandi.

I signed up with that company. I get emails from every state in the United States. When it comes to where I live, I reply to the email and never hear back.

@rainy, I responded to the email within minutes of receiving it. I too have helped them out. The outrage is that one person was assigned 7 of 8 shops, including all four in my city. I'm a member of the shop (have been for many years) and seems like that could account for something. There's no telling why one person got all the shops but from where I sat, it appeared that I was not well regarded enough to have been assigned at least one of them. And when I requested two of the shops, they were for locations that I hadn't shopped in a couple months or so. HC's only mistake was accidentally including me in the assigned shops email. If HC would rather for one person to conduct 7 three part shops (faciliyy, teller and platform) with detailed narratives in one week, that is their business. But I draw the line at this incident.....I don't care how well they pay. And trust me, you work hard for the good pay.

@Flash, you are correct we all have our own standards. The WORD document to report a shop is not even an issue for me and I'm glad they at least "upgraded" from handwritten reports. And even when they first upgraded to the WORD document, it had formatting issues that the shopper had to resolve on their own....which I did so that my report was consistent with their intended format.

I did one shop for them. Traveled, twice (because she needed more information) a distance of 30 miles one way, which means 120 miles total. Did the report, never got paid, never heard from her again.

Great company to work with. Glad to know that they will assign 7 of those good paying bank shops to one person. Makes for a good paycheck. Unlucky me, only got assigned 6 in a week once.