The Mystery Shopping thread - part 5

Taggie

Don't forget that when you are on maternity leave, you can only do a certain amount of hours of work for the whole time of leave, think it was a max of 10 hours :beer:

ellie9ellie

ChelseaGirl wrote: »

I was soo desperate to get my dd out i even tried 'THAT'. Didn't work though...
In fact i was MSing on the Wednesday morning, and had her on the Wednesday evening. How's that for dedication?
Are you still getting out and about, or are you too nervous to in case 'something' happens? Lol!

I can still get out and about - it just hurts when I do!! Can't stand staying in the house all day though. Taking DD swimming on Thursday so hopefully that won't be too strenuous.

ellie9ellie

Taggie wrote: »

Don't forget that when you are on maternity leave, you can only do a certain amount of hours of work for the whole time of leave, think it was a max of 10 hours :beer:

Nope - didn't know that. I work reduced hours - just under what is classed as full time. I know I can do 10 "return to work days" between the start of my maternity leave and when I go back in 9 months time. Does MSing affect maternity leave? I thought as you were classed as self employed and you have to earn about £4k just by doing MSing alone this shouldn't affect it.

loue79

I thought the 10 hours was for the same company. Does anyone know where I could get clarification?

Hollypear

Timmne wrote: »

I think it was HP who created it - and I think it was because they're GYPsies....

(Not sure though!)

Twas indeed moi. I am the guilty one. No harm to anyone else who enjoys working for them but I think they are rubbish.

The last run in I had with them was I had done a mobie phone shop in a famous Glasgow street. Now it cost me £2.50 on the subway and probably another £2 for petrol to get to the subway. For a £6 fee. For a £6 fee. No thanks very much. Then they have never ever ever paid me for it.:mad::eek::mad:

So the next month I am genuinely thinking about getting a new phone so I took one of them in a nice shopping mall. No fares to pay and free parking but say about £3 i petrol. Did the visit ( this was a premium one at £8) got back went to put the report on and the visit had vanished. In its place was the one in S********* street at £6 which I shouldn't have qualified for as I did it 4 weeks previously.

Emailed them. Did I get a reply. No siree.

And when they email me and say they have super restaurant jobs...go and look on our website. Aye right. They must think Hollypear came up the Clyde in a banana boat. ( Old Glasgow saying for someone taking the p)

Well if Mr Hollypear tried saying he was taking me to a restaurant and took me for a greasy horrid hamburger with a soggy roll it would be his last act on earth.

PS Can anyone advise me. I have to do a mortgage phone call today. Among the details I have to give are what I pay on my current mortgage. Since mine is paid off I haven't got a scoobie. What interest rate shall I say. If I say it is for £25,000 what would the repayments be? Oh and I have to record the call and play it back. Shucks.

Taggie

ellie9ellie wrote: »

Nope - didn't know that. I work reduced hours - just under what is classed as full time. I know I can do 10 "return to work days" between the start of my maternity leave and when I go back in 9 months time. Does MSing affect maternity leave? I thought as you were classed as self employed and you have to earn about £4k just by doing MSing alone this shouldn't affect it.

To be honest, to get official clarification, you should speak to the IR, tell them what hours you do in your normal job, whether you are on SMP, or MP - that is 10 days Keep in touch, but remember if you only do one hour of the day, that is still classed as a whole day.
Then explain about the MS side, what you expect to earn and if you can also do that whilst on Maternity Leave.
Then get the full name of the person you spoke to, so if there was any query, you have the name of the person you need. :beer:

moi

Looks like Gfk have lost all the SSP station coffee/sandwich etc places to RE. And no surprise.. the fee is going to be lower!

Timmne

I wondered that last week - was horrified to see them on RE as I knew that would be the last time I worked on those jobs!

princess_leia_3

I checked about maternity as mine started in feb and they said that self employment does not count! Hope they were right....

Hollypear

moi wrote: »

Looks like Gfk have lost all the SSP station coffee/sandwich etc places to RE. And no surprise.. the fee is going to be lower!

That is a shame because GfK are one of the good guys out there who pay a reasonable fee. But this is my opinion...if we accept these jobs from RE for a paltry fee then we can't complain about low fees.And their reports are ridiculously long for that paltry fee.

RE had a greasy burger job one day and the fee was the lowest I have ever seen for MS'ing. Next day it had gone so someone had took it. I think we demean ourselves and the good honest job we do by accepting this. It was way below the minimum wage level