The Mystery Shopping thread - part 6

josie

Hollypear wrote: »

Ahhh so now I know who caused the mayhem at this game. It was you - hoo. Made a Rangers- Celtic gane look like a teddy bears picnic.

Soz, mate - not guilty - this was Sunderland v. Newcastle - so absolutely no chance of me being there! :eek:

Noctu

Quick question about the "fast" pizza shops on TNS - it says in the brief we will be reimbursed up to "a maximum of £23 towards the meal", then further on in the brief it says "If you took other people on the visit with you or spent more than £23, their meal costs will not be reimbursed by TNS".

I don't get it - I thought as long as I kept under £23 and bought the things I needed to buy I would be ok taking someone along? Or would they flat out refuse to pay for someone else, even if the total bill came to under £23??

Flyingbanana_3

Hollypear wrote: »

Sorry just read the notes for RE pharmacy it isn't anti dairrhoea tabs. Got confused cos last week the question for the pharmacist was about diarrhoea. This time you have to buy Day or Night Nurse tabs. Sod that for a lark. As a trained nurse I can tell you the best thing is paracetemol BP tabs which cost next to nothing and if you have a sore throat with a cold take a spoonful of honey. Honey is good for chesty colds and is a natural healing agent too. My friend is a pharmacist and says these expensive cold remedies are a con. She says instead of Night Nurse take whisky with honey lemon and hot water. (Tastes much better too)

I'm with you on this. All this posh remedies are a pile of kak. I never go to the doc's (touch wood) and if i feel a cold coming on, extra vitamin C & couple of paracetamol. If the cold bites then hot rum and blackcurrent with more paracetamol & vit C & to bed !!

ps i did 3 pharm jobs like week. Hard work filling out those reports but thankfully no probs.

Flyingbanana_3

yummymummy888888 wrote: »

I have my 1st two jobs in a couple of weeks and although I have a stopwatch on my mobile, do you recomend I buy something specific? Got a drive through which will be ok if I mount the mobile on the dash and an envelope shop.

Whats the easiest guys?

Mobile should do but be careful with the multiple timing points. I tried using the girlfriends samsung mobile for timing but damed thing is touch screen & i accidently killed the timing !!! so i d/loaded some free stopwatch s/w for me blackberry. works a treat !!. Multiple lap timing etc :T

teedy23

Usually when you buy the things you need to buy it comes very near or even over what they will reimburse. You can spend the whole £23.00 anything over is from your own pocket. Hope this helps.

Scaredy_Cat_3

Any advice on doing assignments which require a credit check? I know if you have a lot done in a short space of time it can have an impact on your credit rating. On one hand I think this is ok because I don't anticipate applying for anything else for the next 4 months. On the other hand, I don't know if it's worth the risk. Would appreciate any advice or comments please.

Just realised, I need to shop around for car insurance this week, and I switched my home insurance just a few weeks ago. Will these activities have involved a credit check? In which case, I think maybe one more is not a good thing. I will need to apply for a new mortgage in about 4 months, so want the record to look as good as possible.

kellyd22

Hi all, i'm new to mystery shopping (been doing it for just over a month) and i'm a bit confused about the tax thing. I've read through everything already but i'm a bit dumb when it comes to things like this, can someone please tell me exactly what I need to do next? I've got a part time job which I pay tax and NI on already so i'm not sure what forms I need to fill in.
Sorry for being a pain, theres just so much different information and forms I just don't know which one(s) apply to me??????????

Timmne

Floxxie wrote: »

Have just copied that from the first page - could somebody help please? I have spoken to HMRC on allowable expenses and have been told that as my place of work is at home I cannot claim mileage for a job unless I had completed a job and I could then claim the mileage for travelling to the next job. Any accountants out there who could clarify?
The woman also laughed at me over broadband costs and said I would only be able to claim paper if I kept a note of how many pages I had used etc!!
Please help as I need to get my accounts in order - I deleted my spreadsheet containing info on mileage etc after speaking with her.

Thank you!

Floxxie

Hi Floxxie,

The problem with tax and tax legislation is that it's so misunderstood, even the people at the 'help'line get it wrong.

Some things are a matter of educated guessing. The golden rule is, only claim what's reasonable and you won't go wrong.

Can't remember (and don't have time to check) what I put on the OP but I thought I put a link to the broadband legislation and a couple of other bits. If not, I could have a look tonight and do some digging as shock horror, I'm not actually busy tonight which is a change! :eek:

The mileage thing's rubbish too. If you have to travel to do the job then you can claim. Saying you can't's just ridiculous as you work from home, effectively.

Sounds like you got the work experience girl!

Timmne

(hello all btw!)

Timmne

kellyd22 wrote: »

Hi all, i'm new to mystery shopping (been doing it for just over a month) and i'm a bit confused about the tax thing. I've read through everything already but i'm a bit dumb when it comes to things like this, can someone please tell me exactly what I need to do next? I've got a part time job which I pay tax and NI on already so i'm not sure what forms I need to fill in.
Sorry for being a pain, theres just so much different information and forms I just don't know which one(s) apply to me??????????

Hi Kelly,

Did you read the OP?

Any further questions, do ask, although I think these will be answered if you check the OP.

Timmne

Scaredy_Cat wrote: »

Any advice on doing assignments which require a credit check? I know if you have a lot done in a short space of time it can have an impact on your credit rating. On one hand I think this is ok because I don't anticipate applying for anything else for the next 4 months. On the other hand, I don't know if it's worth the risk. Would appreciate any advice or comments please.

Just realised, I need to shop around for car insurance this week, and I switched my home insurance just a few weeks ago. Will these activities have involved a credit check? In which case, I think maybe one more is not a good thing. I will need to apply for a new mortgage in about 4 months, so want the record to look as good as possible.

Hi SC - it's my policy (and I know a load of others on this thread do to) to not do any credit check jobs unless they're seriously good payers. The problem is us normo's have no idea what damage a check does and it's better to be safe than sorry. When I was applying for my mortgage a few years ago, Halifax did about 8 checks on me within a few days and it must have crippled my rating!

Your insurance won't usually be credit checked btw.

Timmne