I received an email that they had gone ahead and signed me up for one of their shops. I am guessing because it's close to my zip code. Now I've received another email that they are waiting for me to accept the shop.
Have they ever done this to you? I mean this is the company where I apply for a shop and sometimes don't hear back for weeks...but they can sign me up for one I never applied for lol.

I've done a lot of Coyle shops but I've never heard of them doing this. Maybe it's a new scheduler unaware of their processes? Very strange. I'd email their general scheduler email address and ask what happened.

I would definitely contact the scheduling address and ask why it was auto-assigned. If for no other reason to explain why you will be declining it (assuming you don't want the assignment).

They have one client I do that gets auto-assigned, but it's part of a program I previously signed up for with them, so I expect those each month. Even getting somehow jumped into a program like that without agreeing would be unusual.

It seems like they are bringing in a lot of outside schedulers these days and the shop assignment process is not as straightforward as it used to be. I now get passed over for shops that used to be immediately be assigned to me, and have had schedulers I don't know reach out and ask me to take shops that are not in my area, just because I have done them before.

The problem as I see it is that they have gone from a company that used to have nothing but desirable assignments, to one that has a few desirable assignments, and a whole bunch that I don't want, so the scheduling style has gone from picking the very best candidates for each assignment, to now just getting anyone they possibly can. And that creates some bad practices on the scheduling side of things.

I haven't experienced that with Coyle. The one issue I had recently was I requested a specific pay rate, but when I was assigned the shop, it was at a lower rate than I requested. This happened to me a couple of times before, and it got adjusted with no issue. So I just went ahead and completed the shop, and asked for an adjustment after. But my most recent experience, I received a reply from the scheduler that was the maximum amount they could go. If that was the case, I wish they would have just rejected the application or sent a follow-up email. If that happens to anyone, I would recommend getting the rate straightened out before performing the shop. Lesson learned there.

Unrelated, but I did have a scheduler at Intouch Insight randomly assign me three telephone shops from another state. She said she accidentally assigned it to me. (I did one shop for her before, but asked to have it unassigned or give me a "1". She didn't reply back. I had to go through someone else. I had done a good number of shops with the MSC before, but that was one was a mess.) One of the oddest things I've had happened, and would not work with this scheduler in the future.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/28/2024 05:04PM by Okie.

I agree with the decline in desirable shops. There used to be a time when I log in and try to apply for multiple shops. Over the past 6 months, I have not seen a single shop I wanted. There is a mid range mexican chain near me that is interesting but there is no way I’m investing all that efforts for a meal that costs $100. Time for them to make some serious changes.

@LindaM wrote:

Time for them to make some serious changes.

I fear these are the serious changes.

They still have some great assignment, but have potentially cashed in on their notoriety for having high end shops to attract other clients. When you look at the volume of shops from the less desirable clients, they are clearly making a lot more money from that side of things, so I don't expect it to change.

The thing is...their workload vs. pay for assignments has always been skewed in favor of people taking shops for the experience, and not for the pay. When you start to look at the history of other MSCs passing through a 'Goldilocks phase' it rarely results in them returning to their roots when things start to go south.

There are multiple MSCs that used to be great to work for, had desirable clients and then started to use those desirable clients to get shoppers to do undesirable work. I cannot think of one situation where that was sustainable over time, though. I am pretty sure the owners of the MSCs in questions turned a decent profit from the change, however.

The move to having outside schedulers who have little to no interest in getting to know shoppers and building relationships with them is most likely just part of the inevitable downfall.

Hoping @BarefootBliss updates this thread with a response from the scheduling team so we know more about what happened.

I’ve had several recent instances of bidding for a slightly higher then base fee but then having the shop assigned at base rate. I’ve written in before doing the shop and had the issue resolved (in some cases with an increased fee and in some cases with the shop being removed without any apparent penalty to me).

Twice this year ACL has randomly assigned me shops that I never applied for. Both were when I was communicating with scheduling for a date change etc so it was simply just human error and the shops were politely removed as soon as I contacted scheduling.

I have never, ever had this happen to me.