The Shop Logs

Hey, when even CNN reporters are accepting the bathroom shops I know we will never be able to stop other shoppers (who do this for “a living") from taking the low paying shops!

Check out the story.

PeachEKeen & Rebel108, I hope their experience was better than yours! Hmmm…or maybe I don’t……

SO my husband & I actually shopped on Black Friday, but they were two entirely different experiences!
My DH left the house near midnight after Thanksgiving Dinner to go stand in the Best Buy line forming already. He stood in sub-freezing weather with his sister and they scored three of the $150 emachines by 4 AM. They then came home, went to bed, and he sent me back to Best Buy to pick them up before noon that day.
When my DH arrived home early Friday morning (4:45 AM) I had the Kohls webpage up. Last night before I went to sleep I had signed up for an account on the page and had found the location of the steam cleaner I wanted. I left the page up and after debriefing with DH I repeatedly refreshed the page until I saw all the wonderful ‘early bird deals’ online. I then added my cleaner to my basket & checked out.
The emachines cost him his time, two trips to the city, and possible frostbite; my shopping cost was $119+tax, no shipping and four minutes total!

Taken from Volition:

Retail Accessories: Credit Card purchase required ($75 to $300) with Optional Return. Can visit Anytime during open business hours between Start and Due dates; shops MUST be completed before the end of November! Return visit can be made after a minimum 30-minute wait after completing the Purchase visit OR on a different day during open business hours, BUT by the Due date. No gender requirement. Detailed store information, Guidelines and form available to selected shopper.

Shop pays $15 Shopper Fee plus BIG $85 ADDED BONUS!

BRIDGETOWN, NA 0123 (BB)
ST. JOHN’S ANTIGUA W, NA 0123 (AG)

Ummm… 1. the fee 2. oh let me pay $696 (according to Travelocity to meet the shop requirements) 3. the fee! 4. Having Homeland Security frisk me on my way back into the country, because who goes to Antigua for a $15 shop? I would assume I am smuggling something. 5. THE FEE!!

The Mileage Trap:
Of course, I am still in love with my mileage reimbursing company.
I am doing okay with the CSRs, but this month the shops are pretty far flung.
I would generally decline today’s distance, but these get automatically assigned. I did one tonight 89 miles round trip. Do you know the only problem with these shops is I feel the need to pack other shops in to my trips, you know, to get the most out of the ‘Paid’ mileage.
I get my time sucked up by the vitamin shop, where I have to casually work up to asking if the cashier is the owner, ya, smooth. Then I go to a cell phone shop where the “Have you heard about….” guy talks to me for 55 minutes, even wthout bringing another associate in to our conversation (thank God).
That sucked the joy out of the mileage…and my soul.

Um, heck no.

Due Date 11-25-05 (m-d-y)
Do NOT shop before 11-25-05

Hours 7:00 AM to 11:00 AM ONLY
Days of week Friday 11/25/05 ONLY
Shopper’s Pay $25.00

In fairness to this SASSIE company, yes, this is a decent shop.
BUT, the morning after Thanksgiving? Nothing is worth being in the mall/near a mall on THAT DAY. (unless it is purely recreational)

I receive this email: “Subject: WE NEED YOUR CONFIRMATIONS “
So I sCurry to open it; geez, did I foRget to do something for thiS shop???

Nope, turns out the yelling in this subject not only continued in the email, but was only intended for some of the receipients.
Who was it intended for? The shoppers that don’t follow directions - the same shoppers that probably didn’t even confirm after the yelled email.
Who actually got the message? The same shoppers that actually scurried to read it & care what it says that have ALREADY confirmed.
What effective communication this MSP is demonstrating…..

Well, on the upside I was nominated for the NCPMS newsletter award this year.
On the downside Cathy Stucker was credited for writing it.

I am sure she corrected it faster than I (or is it ‘me?’ - see why she would want to correct it ASAP?), but I got a kick out of the line.

I would guess the confusion came from the newsletter lead story this month about Cathy’s blog.
But that didn’t stop my jaw from hitting the desk - I would kill to be a fly on the wall when someone tried to credit Cathy with my ‘writing ‘- can you imagine?

Oh, this is a kindred spirit….
I had many thoughts on this bathroom shop, but my sister from another mother has said it better than I ever could:

“Today I received this email regarding the worst mystery shop ever, where you have to inspect a bathroom. I have highly edited this email and have made my notes in parenthesis.

Email from mystery shopping company:
Restroom audit only – You do not have to clean the restroom!!!! (You know they must have had several people do this before. I don’t like cleaning the bathroom at home. Why ever would I do this for a public restroom? Gross!)

You will be paid $15.00 for each completed audit (no thanks I will need a lot more than $15 to inspect a bathroom. Try $150 and we’ll talk.)

You must have a digital camera, step stool and a mirror for these shops. (What the hell is the step stool and the mirror for?)

You MUST take the on line training before you conduct the evaluation! (there is training involved too? What? On parts of the restroom? For $15? Are you crazy?)

You will not have to clean during this shop. (yeah, you mentioned that before. Apparently you don’t think I can read.)

Required pictures: The open air freshener in the womens and mens restroom. The flush holes in the toilet in the womens and mens restroom. (flush holes? They want me to take pictures of flush holes? )

If the flush holes are clean, but the throat and bowl of the toilet is dirty, you MUST take a picture of the throat and bowl instead. YOU MUST POSITION the mirror to see the flush holes and take a picture of the image reflected off of the mirror OR use your camera without using the mirror. (Oh this is what the mirror is for.)

You will also be provided with an out of order sign to put on the restroom door while you are conducting the audit. (Ohhhh I get to put up a sign? Count me in!!!)”

PeachEKeen you crack me up!

…or Didn’t Quote me, more apporpriately:

Actually, it’s in our December issue, which is just hitting newsstands.

I didn’t wind up quoting you, as it turns out. But I’d be happy to send you a couple issues if you’d like them. Just let me know!

Thanks,

Matt Heimer
Senior Editor
SmartMoney

I emailed Matt to find out when his story he interviewed me for, about Mystery Shopping, was coming out.
Too bad, I will have to choose more controversial topics next time. ‘Mystery Shopping in the Nude’ or ‘Make ends Meet by Mystery Shopping.’

Whew!
The article in Forbes was severe….
It was along the lines of ‘all Irish are drunks’, and in the great words of many people’s aged, yet racist, relatives - “well…you know how those people are.”
Is Forbes that interested in shutting my blog down? Gee, I feel so important now….

I had been holding out for an email response before I started my main article, but it looks like it’s a good thing I didn’t hold my breath!

I have two emails out that have not been answered…..and of course I want something from them.

The three emails I sent out about giving things away always get the replies and exclamation points!!!!
Speaking of freebies…..I gave away the three Mystery Shopping books I reviewed:

Debi Sullivan of TX won Mystery Shopping Getting Paid to Shop, by James Poynter

Stephanie Simao of CA won The Mystery Shopper’s Manual, by Cathy Stucker

Avril Matthews of CT won Mystery Shopping Made Simple, by Dr. Ilisha Newhouse

These people are apparently happy to receive my emails……

This is Broken has the best cure for a rainy day - laughter!
Can I please sign up for a mysterys hop at this place? Maybe I will get lucky and can shop both establishments.

I have noticed a slight jump in traffic to my UniversalClass.com Eclass on Mystery Shopping so I assume the Smart Money article has hit the newstand.
Anyone seen this yet?
If this traffice keeps up though I may start working on my online classes over going in to the field to mystery shop.

November Newsletter up by the weekend.
Parent Conferences this week at my school, staying Way Too Late at work right now!