The Mystery Shopping thread - part 5

sinderella_2

welcome steelercaz13

princess leia and cranezoe, I asked gap this question a few weeks ago. It's a shame I can't post it up, but I've just checked through my mail and can't find the reply- I must have deleted it cos it wasn't particularly helpful, but I seem to recall it said that if you had shopped x in April you would need to wait til June to reshop. The whole 'regardless of shop month' thing didn't really seem to make sense to me after that...

I would encourage you to send an email to get this clarified and maybe post it up for everyone cos their guidelines are confusing and the response didn't seem to fit with them!

princess_leia_3

Ok, I will do that, let you know when they reply.

RoxyK

Re the Gap confusing 'you can't shop twice regardless of month' statement I asked this a while back and basically it means you can't do the job twice in row, irrespective of the month (ie the month doesn't matter). So if the job is done weekly, you can do week 1, can't do week 2, but can do week 3. Hope that makes it a little clearer.

And it will only let you accept the job if you satisfy those rules so feel free to put them in your baskets

I did the same job one week and again two weeks later at the same place and queried it to Gap who said if the system allows it then its fine.

Taggie

princess_leia wrote: »

Does anyone know what GAP actually mean when they put this as a rule:

1. You can not shop the same site twice in a row regardless of the shop month.

Does this mean if you do the shop in your town in march that you can't do it again til may? I can't see how this rule works seeing how so many people seem to get repeat jobs in the same shops?
Also if you apply for the job, does the GAP system not allow you to do it if you will be breaking their rules??
Hope someone can help as this has been bugging me for ages but thought I should find out before the SEpt jobs come up
Thanks

Not all shops are done once a month, some could be done twice a month and some could be done every other month. So basically they are saying that you cannot shop the same site twice in a row.

For example
Shop A on 1 High Street is shopped in Jan, March, May, July
You could shop it Jan, May, but not March or July, if you had done it Jan & May

Shop B 2 High Street is shopped Jan, Feb, March, April, May
You could shop it Jan, March, May

Shop C 3 High Street is shopped 1st Jan, 15th Jan, 1st Feb, 15th Feb, 1st March, 15th March
You could shop it on 1st Jan, 1st Feb, 1st March etc

HTH

blindman

Just got back from a couples visit of a "Single letter" hotel vist (with RE).

Pros:

Hotel was a good moden standard "business\conference" place with a decent Gym and small pool\sauna etc.

Flat screen TV + comfy beds.

Could not reach the high total limit for the overnight B+B, Dinner, bar and room service, so no worries about sticking to the budget. (My bill was £170.00)

Decent food and service.

The check out "reveal" was dead easy, no fuss made by the staff and the bill was reversed in an instant without even checking I'd not incurred any unadmissable expenses.

Questionaire fairly simple to fill out, not too much typing, though lengthy,

Cons
No fee.
No travel expenses
RE questions 140 :eek: though mostly Yes\No answers with little typing.


The chain apparently get MS'd every quarter so if you are interested then:-

1) Look up all the locations on their web-site and research to see which one would suit-Remember no travel or fee.
Not all the locations were on this last 'wave' so pick a few "favourites"

2) Look out for them October\November on RE.

3) If they appear then be quick!

My verdict for my visit.
Enjoyable overnight visit with free food and wine and a pleasant drive in the country.

josie

RoxyK wrote: »

Had to go back home for a cuppa then before venturing to the bookies.

Does anyone give their card over if they don't ask?

Yes, have had 3 bookies this week who didn't ask - so asked them afterwards, saying oh, I've got this can you put the points on? All 3 of them did (with a bit of difficulty!)

I've now got enough points for something, but not quite sure what a 5% win bonus or something - thought I might actually get a free bet - no such luck!

josie

ruthiejane wrote: »

I can't see the September jobs yet, but would expect them to appear this evening - or Monday morning in Australia.

I know Gap are based in Oz, but in my experience the jobs tend to go on mid to late afternoon, on a weekday - the exception being fuel jobs which sometimes go on, on a weekend. I've not seen any go on late at night or in the morning - I'd say more likely 3/4 pm-ish tomorrow (if I were a betting person!) Ooh! I forgot, I am now that I "shop" at the bookies!!

steelercaz13

josie wrote: »

I know Gap are based in Oz, but in my experience the jobs tend to go on mid to late afternoon, on a weekday - the exception being fuel jobs which sometimes go on, on a weekend. I've not seen any go on late at night or in the morning - I'd say more likely 3/4 pm-ish tomorrow (if I were a betting person!) Ooh! I forgot, I am now that I "shop" at the bookies!!

In my extensive experience (2 weeks!! :rotfl: ) I too noticed that on GAP assignments seemed to appear late afternoon - quite often I would search before leaving the office, around 6, and there would be none, but when I checked again at home at 6.30/7pm some would have appeared.

Do any of the other MS companies have any sort of 'habits' like this - i.e. new jobs appearing at certain times of the day / week / month, etc?

sinderella_2

blindman wrote: »

My verdict for my visit.
Enjoyable overnight visit with free food and wine and a pleasant drive in the country.

great recommendation - I would love to do this in Oct/Nov as it will be my birthday AND I will no longer be breastfeeding so might be able to leave kiddies with parents for a night! I'll look out for it for sure.

Does the nature of the reveal mean you couldn't go to ms any other hotel in the chain in future waves, Blindman, or just that one?

blindman

sinderella wrote: »

Does the nature of the reveal mean you couldn't go to ms any other hotel in the chain in future waves, Blindman, or just that one?

Good question.

This is the first visit I have done for this chain so can't comment how this works (maybe others can?)

Usually one gets "banned" from visiting the same hotel for 12 months but not others in the chain.
Depends on RE and their client rules I suppose.

Nothing stopping your partner\Friend etc signing up to RE and getting the same hotel the next quarter