If this is RBG's M.O., fine. Just warn shoppers in shop postings. I know there have been times when I declined to apply for a shop because the shop posting included such a warning and I decided the pay was not worth the risk of getting a "1." Of course, I do not apply for shops with the intention of not doing the shop, but life happens.

@MSF wrote:

Since more than one scheduler for this MSC have assigned a "1" to shoppers who cancel assignments, it seems like this is an accepted practice at the MSC. This is not a good or proper method for dealing with cancellations, and it has the potential of backfiring on the MSC.

Wow! These comments about N.A blow me away. I have worked with her for years over several MSC' and every experience has been positive and mutually respectful. We just get stuff done!

A scheduler who is always unreasonable or rude won't last long. N.A. has episodes.

I shopped for her for years without issues and then she decided to give me a citation and a "1" score. This was long before she started scheduling for RBG.

I accepted a lunch shop at a downtown location and attempted to do the shop on the same day. I spent over half an hour looking for parking. NO parking was available. All the street parking spaces were taken and ALL the nearby parking garages were full. I had no idea what was going on and wondered if there was a convention in town that day.

I looked for parking until there wasn't enough time left to do the shop because the lunch shop could only be completed during lunch hours. When I asked N.A. to unassign me and explained the reason, she wanted me to attempt the shop the next day and offered to pay for parking. I declined her offer because making another trip would not be profitable. I would rather just eat the loss of the wasted time and gas.

Well, she did not like that. Her attitude was I should do the shop the next day because I accepted the shop and she offered to pay for parking. So, she gave me a citation.

Mind you, I had worked with her for years. I had never flaked on her and consistently got high scores. She should know that I was a good, reliable shopper and I had made a good faith effort to do the shop. None of that mattered to her. She threw a hissy fit because I asked to be excused from a shop on the same day I accepted it, and only after I tried my best to complete it.

Another scheduler for that MSC reversed the citation for me.

@OCyou2 wrote:

Wow! These comments about N.A blow me away. I have worked with her for years over several MSC' and every experience has been positive and mutually respectful. We just get stuff done!

I washed my hands of N.A. a few years ago.

Here is my story: she was scheduling a series of memory care video shops in Iowa and Indiana, about 800 miles from my home.
Well… she forgot about them. Completely forgot.
I’d done good work for her, so she sent me a “Urgent!” email and offered me some nice bonus money to come out and get them done.
I ended up doing every single video for her, driving like a madwoman, so she could get them done, keep her job, keep the client. She was thankful and sent me an effusive email.
Two months later she dropped some “1s” on my account… for shops that she hadn’t even assigned!
It was CRAZY.
I don’t do crazy.
Bye-bye, N.A.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/11/2021 06:34PM by ColoKate63.

I thought that shops were reviewed and graded by editors, not by schedulers. Time wasted, lesson learned.

RBG had a banking client for a while that had a few remote locations in far Western oklahoma. There are very few shoppers in that area, and shops always end up with high bonuses. They kept emailing me and asking me if I could do them. I sent them an email saying that I was getting $100 per location to do similar banks for another company and was getting between 30 and $100 to do restaurants and gas stations in the region. I told them I would do them a favor and do the three locations for $50 each next time I was on the route. They sent me an email back saying that there was no way anybody was paying that much and that certainly couldn't be the case. They didn't say it word for word, but they were calling me a liar. I sent them my pay stubs for all of the shops I had completed in the region for other companies that illustrated that I was not lying. It certainly was the case. I told them that I did not appreciate the insinuation that I would lie to them. They asked me if I could do them for 25, and I told them that there was no way I was could drive that far for that small amount of money. Emailed me back a few weeks later and said that they could do the $50. I told them that the amount I had offered was based on going when I was already on a route. I told them, honestly, that I would have to make a trip just to do those and would need $75 each. I got an email back a couple of days later accepting my offer. However, after I got tens on all three banks, they emailed man said they did not need my services anymore. I honestly did not like the way they talked to me, and I did not like the insinuation that I was a liar. After the ridiculous process, I didn't mind being told that they didn't need my services anymore.

I also don't like the tone of their email blasts. They talk down to shoppers, and they insinuate that shoppers should be treated like children.

I can say that I don't really like RBG, especially the restaurant shops. I love the restaurant, it's one of my all time favorites, but I don't work for free. And I really liked Robin, she was a good scheduler, she was always fair and easy to deal with. Nikki, I know and talked to often on her last MSC, I thought we worked well together when I did work for them. We didn't have many personal conversations, but when we did she seemed very nice. But she could be hard when it came to rescheduling or canceling shops. Of course I don't usually try to be personal with schedulers or any people I have a business relationship with. I've had some bad experiences with supervisors taking what I've said out of context and/or using what I said to them in confidence against me, so I don't usually have those kind of conversations with anyone but my family and real friends.

There was a miscommunication and I had to ask E.R. to unassign a shop w/o issuing a citation. She did it. No citation.