Huh, I did not know that! Thanks for sharing!

It's usually called out in the guidelines - some shops do require it, and others don't. Some allow exceptions, like - you have to buy an alcoholic beverage (to test for compliance procedures), but you don't have to drink it if you don't want to. If it's not explained in the guidelines, you can always ask the schedulers :)

Hi Germaine,

The phone call recording system is completely automated on iSecretShop - you don't need any apps at all. Simply dial the number listed in the guidelines, and when prompted, enter the Shop ID number. Your call will automatically be redirected to the appropriate location, it will be recorded, and as soon as you hang up it will be automatically uploaded to the report too.

Cheers!

Hi Bryan,

Having these shops removed would be counter-productive, for a few reasons:

1. As there are tens of thousands of active shops in the system at any moment, and over a million registered shoppers on iSecretShop, having the system calculate which shops are unavailable to which shopper at which exact moment due to which different scheduling rules and limitations (and recalculate that every time any shop gets scheduled), taking into account over two dozen different rotation and separation rules that MSPs build into their shops when posting them - would require unrealistic amounts of processing power, making the system incredibly slow even on a supercomputer.
2. Since, as Martin said, there can be scheduling mistakes when the MSPs are setting up their shops and those rotation/separation rules, shoppers wouldn't see those shops at all - this way, if you see a shop and can't request or self-assign it, you can always reach out to the schedulers and let them know. They can then resolve the scheduling mistakes, making the shops accessible again.
3. Similarly, schedulers have the possibility to manually override any scheduling limitations in the system - so even if you are not able to request/self-assign, you cna reach out to them and they can assign the shop to you manually, if they feel that's appropriate. This is actually quite commonly done, especially near the end of the month (or any given shop period) where they have to get the shops assigned, so they tend to be more loose with the scheduling rules.

The system already has a few built in tools to help reduce the effects of this - for example, shops which you can't do due to demographic requirements are already automatically hidden for you from the Available Shops page entirely (i.e. if the shop requires you to be 21-27 to complete it, and you're older than 27, or if a shop requires a female shopper and you're a male, etc).

Also, the calendar widget should be graying out the unavailable dates, or otherwise indicating visually which dates are available and which are not - this was added this year due to shopper feedback. If it's not working, let me know and I'll look into it :)

Cheers!

Hi Melissa, welcome aboard!

Hello,

Yes, this is still being used - the "Age & Identity Verification" tab is located on the left-side menu, between "Update Extended Profile" and "Payments". Keep in mind that it is currently only available to shoppers in the USA. If you are in Canada or another country, this feature would not be visible on your side.

Cheers!

Hi Tara,

I would almost never suggest opening a support ticket to iSecretShop over a payment delay, but in this particular case, you might want to do so.

Expectations are key here: The iSS staff can't directly resolve your issue and just "make the payment happen"- iSecretShop is the software platform and can't interfere in payment-related issues or act as an intermediary between you and another company, BUT, you may be able to get the contact information that isn't normally available (such as the email address of a top-management person in that MSP, alternative phone numbers, etc) so you could use that info to reach them.

Additionally, if yourself and a couple more shoppers happen to report similar payment delays by the same MSP, then this is definitely something that iSS management would pay attention to, and in some cases, reach out to the MSP(s) about.

I hope this helps!

I believe the MSP that posted the shop in question would be best suited to answer those. I think that the "you can not utilize the call function" simply means that you should just dial the listed number directly from your phone, as you would any other number (but please check this with the MSP, as I'm not 100% sure on that).

As for the are code requirement - my logic tells me that you would have to live in that area and dial from your home phone number in order to be able to perform the shop successfully, but again, you should check with the MSP.

Sorry I couldn't be 100% sure on these.

Does someone else have any inputs?

Hi Crystal,

You can find/update your PayPal on the Extended Profile on iSecretShop, under the filed called "PayPal email address".

I hope this helps!

You're welcome!