The Mystery Shopping thread - part 5

Richard019

Oggyoi wrote: »

Personally speaking, if there is an allowance of £10, I'd rather spend £10.50 and claim a tenner back, than spend just £7.00 and claim the seven back.
I would never try to claim £10 for spending £7.00, as this is more likely to get their backs up.

HTH

I agree on that principal.

In this case the sandwich is coming out around £1 lower than the limit. In the brief it says that you will be reimbursed up to (actual cost +£1) which covers the cost. It goes on to say that if you want to upgrade to a bigger sandwich or a deal you can, but that you won't be reimbursed for this.

I bought my sandwich (required purchase) and a drink (my choice) which brought it above the limit.

The question is does the bit about not being reimbursed just mean that they won't go above the limit (which the two options they give would do) or does it mean we can only claim for the sandwich (which brought about the question about regional pricing)?


We'll soon find out anyway as I've submitted it for the full limit. If they raise a query I can explain the misunderstanding as above and I'll just have to take the points hit against my rating.

Little_ny

Evening all...

I'm newish to Mystery Shopping having only done about four jobs so just wanted to ask a couple of questions if that's ok?!

Firstly, I understand that gradually you get more job offers the longer you've been there and if they consider you a good mystery shopper and so on...i was just wondering if that means you have to accept the jobs that may be a bit further away or inconvenient (if there are no others available) in order to make yourself known? I'm with a few companies where I have not heard from them at all since signing up. I'm also with one company whereby, they kept e-mailing me to do various jobs and once having accepted one, I haven't heard from them in a while. I can't fault my report as I did put a lot of effort into it and it has been accepted.

Secondly, I've noticed that there are many betting jobs around but I am really nervous about doing one. Firstly because I am 21 but look around 16 so I know I will definitely get asked for ID which I suppose isn't a problem. However, I do not have a clue about betting and think I'll be so intimidated the moment I step foot through the door...any tips from the females out there?!?

Thanks in advance for your responses!

rbulph

mimi1234 wrote: »

I would love to do one of the flight ones but I am petrified of flying. Just need to pluck up enough courage to do one and then I will be fine. It's so scary though. LOL. I tend to get high scores for my other reports, and when they get desperate for high scoring people to do flights they do call you. I have had a few calls, but I've always said no. *** As for the flights, they expect you to do a short haul flight first, so they know you don't mess up the report, before they allow you to do one of the long haul ones.

I'm not petrified of flying, but I'm petrified of taking a credit exposure of potentially thousands of pounds on a company that I've found on the Internet and is based in Brussels.

Becles

Richard019 wrote: »

In this case the sandwich is coming out around £1 lower than the limit. In the brief it says that you will be reimbursed up to (actual cost +£1) which covers the cost. It goes on to say that if you want to upgrade to a bigger sandwich or a deal you can, but that you won't be reimbursed for this.

In the past, if you were offered a meal deal, you had to accept it. The higher reimbursement level is left over from that phase I think.

sinderella_2

rbulph wrote: »

I'm not petrified of flying, but I'm petrified of taking a credit exposure of potentially thousands of pounds on a company that I've found on the Internet and is based in Brussels.

Sorry, I don't really know what you mean?

rbulph

sinderella wrote: »

Sorry, I don't really know what you mean?

You pay up front for the flight. It's business class or some flexible rate, so costs lots of money. You file your report. The mystery shopping company fails to pay you on the due date without giving any reason. You chase them. Nothing happens. Then their website goes down. You phone them up and can't get through. You keep trying but without success. You instruct a lawyer wherever the mystery shopping company is based to sue them for you. He tells you sorry it seems they've gone out of business and they have no assets so there's nothing he can do. He sends you his bill and you have a good cry.

Basically mystery shopping companies needs to think through a different way to operate if they want shoppers to do such expensive jobs. I think an exposure of tens of pounds is OK, or hundreds of pounds if you have built up a good relationship with a company, but more than that? Not for me, thanks.

josie

rbulph wrote: »

You pay up front for the flight. It's business class or some flexible rate, so costs lots of money. You file your report. The mystery shopping company fails to pay you on the due date without giving any reason. You chase them. Nothing happens. Then their website goes down. You phone them up and can't get through. You keep trying but without success. You instruct a lawyer wherever the mystery shopping company is based to sue them for you. He tells you sorry it seems they've gone out of business and they have no assets so there's nothing he can do. He sends you his bill and you have a good cry.

Basically mystery shopping companies needs to think through a different way to operate if they want shoppers to do such expensive jobs. I think an exposure of tens of pounds is OK, or hundreds of pounds if you have built up a good relationship with a company, but more than that? Not for me, thanks.

I must admit I tend to agree with you on the 2nd part of this. Why can't they book the flight for you and pay for it, if you give them your details. It seems far too risky to me to do a flight for £100 or something and then find I forgot to look at what was on the left or right of the plane (:rotfl: ) or something and then they don't pay me :eek:

josie

Little_ny wrote: »

Evening all...

I'm newish to Mystery Shopping having only done about four jobs so just wanted to ask a couple of questions if that's ok?!

Secondly, I've noticed that there are many betting jobs around but I am really nervous about doing one. Firstly because I am 21 but look around 16 so I know I will definitely get asked for ID which I suppose isn't a problem. However, I do not have a clue about betting and think I'll be so intimidated the moment I step foot through the door...any tips from the females out there?!?

Thanks in advance for your responses!

Why not pop into a bookies - one of the chain you're talking about - on Gap, I assume and see what you think? If you find it too intimidating being in there on your own then it's prob not worth it for you.

However don't worry about the type of bet as you always have to bet on football in this scenario. They do pre-printed forms, called a "weekend quickslip" or "mid-week quickslip" and it's the same as doing the lottery - you put a line through your selection.

You could always pick up one of these on your recce and take it home to have a look through and then you'd know what to do when you did the job for real?

HTH

Chas

rbulph wrote: »

You pay up front for the flight. It's business class or some flexible rate, so costs lots of money. You file your report. The mystery shopping company fails to pay you on the due date without giving any reason. You chase them. Nothing happens. Then their website goes down. You phone them up and can't get through. You keep trying but without success. You instruct a lawyer wherever the mystery shopping company is based to sue them for you. He tells you sorry it seems they've gone out of business and they have no assets so there's nothing he can do. He sends you his bill and you have a good cry.

Basically mystery shopping companies needs to think through a different way to operate if they want shoppers to do such expensive jobs. I think an exposure of tens of pounds is OK, or hundreds of pounds if you have built up a good relationship with a company, but more than that? Not for me, thanks.

It is a risk accepting a job where you have to pay out hundreds of pounds & then hope that you get your money back.

It's a business risk. Just the same as my husband (a builder) orders, pays for & installs a kitchen for a customer & then hopes the customer pays up.

The reason the mystery shopping companies do it this way round is to ensure that the shopper actually does the job. If a shopper has paid out a large sum of money then they'll do everything possible to ensure they do the job. If the company paid for the flight & there was no financial risk to the shopper, then there would probably be a high percentage of jobs that didn't get done.

Many clients pay the mystery shopping company on the basis of a total batch of reports for a given period, not on a per job completed basis.

sinderella_2

Thanks Josie - you've been little miss helpful this evening!:D

I knew I couldn't have eaten it or left it on my plate and I did write it all up in the report. Just wait and see I suppose - but that company get a bad press on here so if they don't like it I'm not sure if I care...