The Mystery Shopping thread - part 6

Cherry_pie_5

Hollypear wrote: »

I agree with you CP. I am the one on here who some people disagreed with ( as they have a right to do) when I frequently used to slate RE. I ended up calling them Ridiculous Eyeballs.!!!

My main reasons remain the same.

Their fees are way under considering the time taken etc.
Lengthy far too detailed questionnaires. Often asking the same question several times.
The fact that the pharmacy visits often used to involve purchasing medical products to lie in a cupboard.
The fact they take poinst off you for stupid things like spelling when often they make spelling mistakes in the briefing notes.Deduction of points make you ineligible for the only really worthwhile jobs like the Spanish ones.

I understand the point people made who disagreed with me. I do have a job so MS'ing is a top up for me and I enjoy it. BUT by doing their jobs with low fees the people who really need the money to pay the electricity bill etc are doing all of us no favours as if we refused to do work for peanuts then they would have to up the fee or lose the contract.

I have spoken to allocators who are frustrated by them as they get undercut by them. These are companies who pay good fees without the mega questionnaires and my pet hate...standing outside a pharmacy taking a photo.I found out through another forum that RE already have stock pics of them anyway which they use to put on the report folder for the client to make it look nice.:eek:

Anyway sorry for the long post and rant over.:beer:

Absolutely! I HATE the pharmacy jobs and will not do them, it just isnt worth it for £5 and a bottle of pills that may never get used. and the photo thing is ridiculous, the last one I did had a huge panaromaic window with 4 members of staff staring out of it, how the hell was I supposed to take that shot without 'revealing myself as a mystery shopper'?... and some of the scenarios involved are beyond the pale.

MS "My husband is dying of something terrible!"

Pharmacy staff " Oh no, has he taken anything for it?"

MS: "No, we couldnt be bothered calling a Doctor or coming to a pharmacy before now, it's been 2 weeks"

Pharmacy staff: Well thats shocking, let me consult our pharmacist to get something for you!"

MS: Nah, don't worry, changed my mind now, can't be bothered getting anything for him, but i'll buy this hair dye for £4.85, ooh and a whistle lollipop for 15p too!!!".

Pharmacy staff: umm, ok, thats £5 please.

MS: Oh. while i'm here, can you tell me about the repeat prescription service? He probably won't live long now that I can't be bothered buying medicine for him but it will save me the hassle of getting dressed if you can drop the tablets off. Ta!

josie

Cherry_pie wrote: »

You, apparently. And it's math, in the technical sense, pedant.

Let's not fight - we're usually such a friendly bunch on here.

Mind you, having said that I hate the term math (it's an American import that's been picked up by the kids cos they think it sounds cool) Not sure why it'd be math in the technical sense, either, I have to say, tho, when it's plural (algebra, arithmetic etc., all go to make up mathematics)

Anyway, I digress. I can see the cutlery pubs for £25 - seems quite generous for RE - normally it's a lot less, more like £9.25 or something. Also the stamp jobs - no purchase required and none near enough for me and no wine shops. Not having much luck either - not surprising with all those newbies!

Cherry_pie_5

josie wrote: »

Let's not fight - we're usually such a friendly bunch on here.

oh, i'm not fighting, i'm more than friendly! Some people have other ideas though, discussion is healthy.

The £25 is a naughty RE ploy though, they used to pay the reimbursement in full if it was spent, this wave is different. They could say the reimbursement was £5,000 on the job listings but if the job notes state only 2 main meals and 2 drinks and nothing else, then a lot of people will fall foul of it. It's sneaky.

josie

Cherry_pie wrote: »

josie wrote: »

Let's not fight - we're usually such a friendly bunch on here.

oh, i'm not fighting, i'm more than friendly! Some people have other ideas though, discussion is healthy.

The £25 is a naughty RE ploy though, they used to pay the reimbursement in full if it was spent, this wave is different. They could say the reimbursement was £5,000 on the job listings but if the job notes state only 2 main meals and 2 drinks and nothing else, then a lot of people will fall foul of it. It's sneaky.

Oh ISWYM. I never did remember whether it was Gap or RE who paid the full amount - guess it used to be RE then and now it's neither! RE don't pay the full amount on pharmacy either if you're under the fiver.

ThinkingOfLinking

Cherry_pie wrote: »

josie wrote: »

Let's not fight - we're usually such a friendly bunch on here.

oh, i'm not fighting, i'm more than friendly! Some people have other ideas though, discussion is healthy.

The £25 is a naughty RE ploy though, they used to pay the reimbursement in full if it was spent, this wave is different. They could say the reimbursement was £5,000 on the job listings but if the job notes state only 2 main meals and 2 drinks and nothing else, then a lot of people will fall foul of it. It's sneaky.

Haha, order fillet steak. They only specify one meal. And have champagne as your other drink. I actually couldn't be bothered to do these assignments at least this time around.

blindman

Cherry_pie wrote: »

You, apparently. And it's math, in the technical sense, pedant.

I don't do this for a free meal. I'm a great cook, why would I lend money to MS companies for microwaved pub fodder when I can eat better at home?

A free night out, good atmosphere, bill covered, handy location, all for the cost of an hours hassle uploading receipts and answering the same questions over and over again is just about justifiable.

An almost average pub meal for tuppence halfpenny and 2 hours of hassle with a dodgy website is very far from it.

In that case I'd give up with most of the MS companies now.

If you think you will get a great meal inside the expense limit then you are in the wrong job.

MSing now is certainly not about getting great meals for free. It's about getting a pittance in pay and a small 'perk' if you are lucky.
Some people do it because they can only earn money this way. The 'free' meal, however dodgy the pub is a bonus.


As I was trying to point out at least you got paid for the pub meal and were not left short as is the habit with RE these days

I know only of one company that gets you great meals and good allowance and the report for that is 11,000 words.

And it's math, in the technical sense, pedant.

Well I disagree. It always been Mathematics and is shortened (In UK to Maths.

Only the lazy Americans call it Math.
However that's my opinion as is the fact that at least you were paid for the meal

Timmne

I agree with blindman - MSing is no longer a worthwhile full time job as the fees are low and sometimes non-existent; not to mention the jobs where you need to spend more than you're reimbursed.

CP I do see what you're saying although if you can cook a great meal and don't need the perk of a 'free' meal out then maybe MSing for RE's not for you? There are people out there who are doing this job because they haven't been out for a meal with their OH for years and really relish being able to afford to do it. These are now the sort of people who RE are attracting - which is where my debate starts, that this isn't really the clientele the clients need to hear from!

My wife and I eat out all the time anyway so working for a 'free' meal doesn't interest me, which is why I don't do these jobs anymore.

It's all swings and roundabouts. For some, RE is not worth bothering with; for others, it could be their only source of going out funds!

And I agree with josie too; arguing's not allowed on this thread, we dropped it last year

Hollypear

Timmne wrote: »

I agree with blindman - MSing is no longer a worthwhile full time job as the fees are low and sometimes non-existent; not to mention the jobs where you need to spend more than you're reimbursed.

CP I do see what you're saying although if you can cook a great meal and don't need the perk of a 'free' meal out then maybe MSing for RE's not for you? There are people out there who are doing this job because they haven't been out for a meal with their OH for years and really relish being able to afford to do it. These are now the sort of people who RE are attracting - which is where my debate starts, that this isn't really the clientele the clients need to hear from!

Exactly Timmne. Which is why I worry when I read people saying they need more jobs as they have bills to pay..like the electricity/council tax whatever. When I ranted a while back about RE undercutting from other higher paying companies I said we were doing everyone a disservice ( clients included). Had we the collective courage to turn down RE jobs and let them know why they wouldn't still be offering fees which wouldn't buy you 10 ciggies far less pay bills.

The last wave of crap pub meals up here from RE meant the reimbursment was only for 1 of you to have a meal. Either that or you paid for it yourself which defeated the reason for going. I did one and they asked what the 2nd meal ordered was and wanted comments..my reply was it was none of their business as they were not paying for it.

And I laughed ( kind of) at the poster who said order champagne to boost the money spent. You can't it says order 1 1/2 pint lager and 1 soft drink. Though at least you get a meal each this time.

Becles

Cherry_pie wrote: »

A free night out, good atmosphere, bill covered, handy location, all for the cost of an hours hassle uploading receipts and answering the same questions over and over again is just about justifiable.

To be fair, they are only paying for your review on 2 meals and 2 drinks (or whatever the scenario is!), and not a free night out. If they don't need you to order side orders, desserts, extra drinks, etc., I think it's only fair that they expect you to pay for the extras.

Not aimed at you - just advice for people in general. Do take care with the number of alcoholic drinks you have on these jobs. I was talking to an allocator who said they can work out who you are as you have to list the meals you've had and some ask for the table number or location of table. If you submit a report with negatives on, the pub can say something like "well what would she know? She had 4 glasses of wine and left tipsy, so how can she remember what her food was like?" They've got reasonable grounds for getting the pub reshopped if that happens, and the allocator said it was a common thing to happen.

On some company briefs it does have limits of 1 or 2 alcoholic drinks per person to prevent this.

If anyone is waiting for January pay from Storecheckers: they've had a problem with the external pay company, and hope to get it sorted within the next couple of days.

samtastic7

yes not been paid by storecheckers yet i emaled and they said i should expect it ayday now that was 2 days ago