The Mystery Shopping thread - part 6

nads

If I was in your position I would go. Looks like it could open up a few doors to get better jobs.

Hollypear

Becles wrote: »

As it happens, I do believe him.

Takes all sorts. I am not so gullible I fall for this...that you can get £160 for a telephone survey. Why are you doing MS'ing then if you work for this company paying you this dosh. And do tell us why you believe him. In MS'ing terms you have to give reasons for everything. Soon we will be getting "are you sure it wasn't sunny"...that a nuclear bomb dropped in your lawn...that as you entered the pub to do your MS it was struck ny an earthquake.

jdan9

Hi, I have a few questions about registering as self-employed with HMRC - I want to get everything legit regarding my mystery shopping!

1. I am a student - will registering as self-employed, even though I will be earning a nominal amount, affect my eligibility for student grants/loans?

2. The CWF1 form states that, if you delay informing HMRC of your self-employed status by more than three months, you may be charged a £100 fine. I believed, until I read this thread today, that you only needed to get in touch with HMRC if your income went above the tax-paying threshold (which my MS doesn't, I have no job besides MS). Will they likely accept this as a reason for not notifying them? I have been mystery shopping for around three and a half months now.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me!

johnny_c-l

jdan9 wrote: »

Hi, I have a few questions about registering as self-employed with HMRC - I want to get everything legit regarding my mystery shopping!

1. I am a student - will registering as self-employed, even though I will be earning a nominal amount, affect my eligibility for student grants/loans?

2. The CWF1 form states that, if you delay informing HMRC of your self-employed status by more than three months, you may be charged a £100 fine. I believed, until I read this thread today, that you only needed to get in touch with HMRC if your income went above the tax-paying threshold (which my MS doesn't, I have no job besides MS). Will they likely accept this as a reason for not notifying them? I have been mystery shopping for around three and a half months now.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me!

1. Would only affect some grants if you go over the tax threshold AFAIK. (So, unlikely it will cause probs if you don't earn much).

2. I reckon they'd be kind but that's a gut feeling answer I can't substantiate!

ellie9ellie

nads wrote: »

Welcome to the world of Gap. Vast majority of times you won't get a full reimbursement from them and tendency is, if you do, the fee will be virtually non-existent.

My pizza jobs usually cost about £2.00 more which I don't mind as have fed family for that!! I hadn't actually noticed though that I'm 30p out of pocket on the burger jobs. I hadn't even bothered to look as I don't do much of them anymore - they create havoc on the diet. I did do the american resaurant for RE though and even after DH and I having three courses and a coffee and DD having a whole children's meal we were still nearly £4 within budget - and it was a great meal. Did look at a sandwich job on RE yesterday but the reimbursement was £3.00 and you had to buy a sandwich, drink and a yoghurt - reimbursement wouldn't go near covering it. If your in the area though and wanted a discount on your luch not too bad though but not for me.

Becles

Hollypear wrote: »

Takes all sorts. I am not so gullible I fall for this...that you can get £160 for a telephone survey. Why are you doing MS'ing then if you work for this company paying you this dosh. And do tell us why you believe him. In MS'ing terms you have to give reasons for everything. Soon we will be getting "are you sure it wasn't sunny"...that a nuclear bomb dropped in your lawn...that as you entered the pub to do your MS it was struck ny an earthquake.

There's no need to take that attitude

Obviously I can't post exact details of the work due to T&C's. To keep it vague, there is a person spec detailing lots of facts about a situation I'm supposed to be in, and I have to have detailed conversations with people in a professional occupation about these facts. There is more than one call as it involves calling competitors.

It's not a simple ring up and make an enquiry type job, hence the fee is higher than easy jobs like buying a burger. It's not a job for someone looking to make a quick buck due to the time it takes and the complexity of the scenario.

I'm doing it as my sole income comes from field work, and I like more challenging assignments better than the simple ones.

nads

The fee itself is feasible, but of course depends on the work. I think many people would be willing to earn that much from many hours of hard graft. field researching.

Given the op to earn that in one go from home and the other to do ooo say 25 complicated and very specific Ms visits, I know which I would pick.

From my side of things, I just wasn't happy by the way the "info" was posted.

whitelabel

nads wrote: »

All I know is GfK are looking for video mystery shoppers. If you haven't told them, send me a PM and email you the persons email.

Thanks Id already had that email too and have let them know.

think im gonna pitch out at a fixed fee of £25-30 per vist + mileage

that sound reasonable ?

Ive seen a company offering to pay £15 per hour when they supply the equipment so if im doing my own may be that is about right

suzannesuzanne

Hello! If anyone did a gym job for RE that ended in Feb you may want to double check your payments! They said to join for 2 months and all the reimbursements were listed correctly when the job was 'pending' but now they have accepted the assignment and reduced the reimbursement to only cover 1 month. Very dodgy!

xxvickixx

I have been reimbursed:
Joining Fee + January (part month) + February but the amount is £2 less than it all comes too.
I am also missing the cafe reimbursement.
I am also not showing the fee which was a good amount.

Have you complained SS?

I went for the monthly contract where you can cancel anytime so it would be less risky and I cancelled the 3rd Feb.

Bit cross now as I worked really hard on the assignment.

Have just done a bit of checking... The £2 discrepancy is where I paid £5 to add my baby son to my membership which they did not reimburse, and they did reimburse the £3 cafe.

The fee is showing as paid at the start of Jan which is odd as it has shown as pending up until yesterday. Very strange. I do find RE payments very hard to track so will have to sit down with a highlighter and check everything carefully.