I'll share a mystery shop I did today. I'll change some things about the guidelines, rewrite them so not to violate confidentiality.

Instructions state at this location the shop is a two parter. I was supposed to let them know 24 hours in advance to add the second report.

Instructions. If you are visiting this location, a (second part shop) is REQUIRED. you will need to have the 2nd report added to your account (24 hours in advance.)

I flubbed the 24 hour rule. Sent the email 1/2 hour beforehand, figured I would eat the cost of the second shop I could not complete the second shop report. . However, after I finished the shops, I get an email stating this was a spot check and the 1st shop was only necessary. I replied that the instructions state the 2nd one was required. Reply was, the 24 hour instruction was to add the report and to tell me if the 2nd shop needed to be done.

Unfortunately for me, this was not stated in the guidelines at all, only to add the 2nd report.

Beware the Jabberwocky.

I do work for this company too, and they are not my favorite by far. I've done the shop you are referring to. I did remember to have the second part added but they didn’t do it until almost too late for me to complete the visit. Last week I agreed to do a shop at the last minute and had about 8 emails back and forth trying to get them to correctly schedule the reports so I could access them. It’s a very inefficient system and I wish these shops would go to another company because I do like obtaining this service.

I do too. There was a MSC in Indianapolis that used to do both companies until Shared Insights got both companies. I still shop with them and love doing that. I was actually interviewed via the phone to become a mystery shopper for them.

I hate any projects I have to wait for the company to send me a report or wait for them to evaluate the first part. They always wind up really time consuming and have too much room for error.

@whosear wrote:

I'll share a mystery shop I did today. I'll change some things about the guidelines, rewrite them so not to violate confidentiality.

Instructions state at this location the shop is a two parter. I was supposed to let them know 24 hours in advance to add the second report.

Instructions. If you are visiting this location, a (second part shop) is REQUIRED. you will need to have the 2nd report added to your account (24 hours in advance.)

I flubbed the 24 hour rule. Sent the email 1/2 hour beforehand, figured I would eat the cost of the second shop I could not complete the second shop report. . However, after I finished the shops, I get an email stating this was a spot check and the 1st shop was only necessary. I replied that the instructions state the 2nd one was required. Reply was, the 24 hour instruction was to add the report and to tell me if the 2nd shop needed to be done.

Unfortunately for me, this was not stated in the guidelines at all, only to add the 2nd report.

Beware the Jabberwocky.

I am confused how you got screwed when you admitted to flubbing the 24 hour rule.?

Iluv2shopUSA, are you a shopper? What shops do you most frequently do? I ask because your posts only question other posters...maybe I missed them(?), but I haven't seen any of your own shopping experiences and I am curious.

The 24 hour rule was to let them know to add the second report. Nowhere in the instructions, email and other information about the shop did it state it was a spot check only, no second part. Indeed the instructions said the second part was REQUIRED and would result in rejection of the shop if not performed. The email added in the phrase so we can let you know if we need the second part done.

I would not have an issue if it was in the instructions like that. But it was not.

@BarefootBliss wrote:

Iluv2shopUSA, are you a shopper? What shops do you most frequently do? I ask because your posts only question other posters...maybe I missed them(?), but I haven't seen any of your own shopping experiences and I am curious.

Hi I have stated my shopping experience a few months ago and stated back then I was fairly new and used to merchandise many years ago. I shop in the Louisville area and do fast food, the steak house restaurant and have done some PO shops (I didn't like them). I have done a retail clothing store and some phone shops. I didn't realize I was to have introduced myself and list my history. This March will mark 1 year that I have tried mystery shopping. And if you do follow my posts I don't always ask question but because I am fairly new I do ask some questions is that an issue for you?

@whosear wrote:

Instructions state at this location the shop is a two parter. I was supposed to let them know 24 hours in advance to add the second report.


FTR I took the above to mean that the poster was to alert the company 24 hours in advance to add the second report so if he did the shop at 9am he had to let them know at 9am prior? Maybe I am misreading that part. I have never done a shop where I have to let the company know to add a 2nd survey.

Mine was not a two-parter this time, but I have done them. It's not like the first part has to be submitted before the second is assigned. There is no reason why the ones with two parts can't just have both parts assigned when the job is accepted

I did their car wash client once. It wasn't the hardest shop ever but I wouldn't call it easy, and the base pay is, I think, insulting relative to the information they demand. I did one once as part of a route because the location was smack up against two other places I was shopping on a route and my car needed it (since I've been in the shopper world since 2019, I like to wash my car frequently).

If I'm to self-grade my report, I won't say it was my best work but it was closer to my best than my worst. Solid B or B+. Shared Insight gave me a full-on RECTAL PROBE about it, made me respond to a series of queries about it. I got so frustrated I was almost ready to tell them to stow it, but I soldiered on and eventually got approved for pay.

My closest location is somewhat "hard to fill" and there's one sitting on the board at a nice bonus, and my longtime car wash mainstay Tidal Wave has switched to another MSC that I haven't been able to identify yet. But Shared Insight has now added an audio requirement (I think the guidelines say something like "hold the phone close to the window but don't make it obvious you're recording." LULZ. Yes, I'll hold my credit card in one hand and my upstretched phone in the other and look completely natural.). Think I'll pass.

Not a company I have enjoyed working with.

Yeah, an oddity. It was to let them know to add the report. Nothing about whether or not the second part is required. Another instruction stated the second part is required. The support person added that when you contact them 24 hours in advance, the shopper would find out if it is a spot check (no second part) or the required one.

Wondering why they can't put that in the instructions.

I did screw up by not contacting them 24 hours in advance. When I saw that just before performing the shop, I realized from the instructions that I could have screwed up payment for both parts. I had an option of releasing the shop, but not rescheduling it as it was the last date available. I decided to go ahead and do both parts with the risk that if there was no second report, I might not be paid for the first one. I received the response to my email as I was finishing the second part. I can't say that I'm completely miffed by it. What bothers me is not letting a shopper know in advance that this is a spot check, not the REQUIRED two part shop.