The Mystery Shopping thread - VII

josie

princess_leia wrote: »

As far as I know, you can only claim the amount being reimbursed unless it states what you have to buy and that goes over the reimbursement amount (like a GAP pizza sometimes)
Edit - sorry think I misunderstood your post a bit! If I have £10 to spend in a shop and I spend £11 then I will claim £10, but if it states you must buy a bottle and a choc then I think you can only claim for those things.....I am sure someone with a clearer brain will be able to explain easier than me

I do think there's a bit of leeway in this, if you need to spend a min of £5 or £10 for instance and you spend £5.75 or £11.25 or something on a few items, then to me that's perfectly reasonable to put down as expenses - you can't always get it to add up exactly to the right amount.

josie

Loolabell wrote: »

Hi, i recently called my bank about this and they dont charge, i think it depends on the bank you are with and the amount that is being deposited??? you will possibly be charged a small conversion fee though as it has to change from Euros to Stirling....

Hope this helps!!

Lloyds TSB don't charge either if that helps. Other than the 2.5% or whatever it is normal foreign currency charge. Not sure if we ever discovered which bank it is that charges? With the exchange rate the way it is at the mo with euros, it works in our favour - one of the few things that does!

josie

domesticgoddess wrote: »

Hi guys, haven't posted for a long time. I am still MS but have cut down on the work I do, I will only work for certain companies now.

Has RE got any better I stooped working for them as the questionaires took too long to complete.

Some are still a nightmare (pubs in particular from my experience) off licences, chemists and "ready to eat" cafes ok and not too long winded.

purt

I've conducted fast food jobs for several MS companies over the years. I can't recall a visit where the service was really bad or the food poor when I've actually been conducting a mystery shop. It would always be the case that I'd have a crap experience in one of these places when I wasn't MS-ing it.

Thankfully, today I was conducting an MS visit and the service was crap, the waiting times horrendous and various other aspects appalling. A detailed report has gone in to that effect. Satisfaction at last!

(Sorry - just had to share that with you all)

gallygirl

Just did a chicken job. Questionnaire confused me - asked for op's name twice, once under maintenance section???????

Ate too much chicken. Feel sick now :rolleyes:

whitelabel

Stephanie_Rose wrote: »

Hi I am new to this site...so hope I am posting this right.

I have applied with BARE and have my first MS booked for tomorrow. It says that they pay in Euros, so does anyone know how they convert the money into my bank account?

Thanks

Hi just check you have actually been booked on - it isnt listed as pending in your account. Did they call you or email to confirm the job - unlike others companies just because it is on the site and you apply - it does not meet it is automatically assigned to you.

nads

Funny thing happened today... went to do an open audit and as I was working to the reception I saw some interesting information about mystery shopping, and lo and behold, the mystery shop I did at that location was on the wall :rotfl: Couldn't help but have a smirk on my face as I walked to reception :rotfl:

Becles

What a crappy day!

A company I work for always gets stuck with 4 shops. I've done them a few times now, and got various begging emails last week, until I cracked and said I wasn't keen doing them again but if they really couldn't find anyone else I would do them. Ended up rejuggling other jobs and doing them this morning. They are small stores with a small number of staff and it's a pop in and enquire about something but no purchase.

Did shop 1 and it went ok, although I did recognise the lady as she's had me before. Went to shop 2 and again the lady has served me before only this time she looked absolutely terrified and got flustered so I wondered if she'd realised who I am. Shop 3 was excellent as I only gave basic details but the lady gave detailed information without me really having to prompt her. Ditto shop 4.

Got home and the MS company phoned me to say that shop 1 had recognised me and then had phoned the other stores with a description of me and the scenario so they knew I was on my way - hence the nervous girl, and the super efficient responses in 3 and 4.

However what has really upset me is that shop 4 have put in a complaint about me. They said I was very unprofessional and I'm bad at my job and I was trying to trick them

Thankfully I've known the company for a long time and they know I'm not like that. They looked back and I gave shop 4 a bad report last time as the staff were eating burgers at the counter and they ignored me as they were fooling around, then made a half hearted attempt when I asked for help. They think the shop probably made the complaint out of sheer spite which I think is disgusting.

Obviously I can't do these shops ever again, but I'm still on good terms with the company and I'm getting paid for the work. However, it has made me wonder if this had happened with a company where I'm on less personal terms, what would the outcome have been for me.

nads

Wow that a bit of a shocker Becles. Really bad of them to put in a complaint.

I would think that if you did a handful of jobs with any company and they were a mixed bag of good and bad there would be no problem but if you'd rated everything bad then maybe your expectations wouldn't meet the needs of the companies.

I've never had this happen to me and I've no reason to believe I've been caught out either but I do wonder if some companies do need to rotate staff around even if it means offering the more cash as clearly it's not acceptable for the same person to keep going to the same location as eventually the shop will twig.

purt

That's a hideous situation to be in Becles. Regardless of whether they know or suspect that you are the mystery shopper, I can't see how they can make a complaint against you for being unprofessional or whatever else.

The whole point of mystery shopping is that you are just another customer and should be treated as such. They are there to serve you, not the other way around. You are there to serve their employer, not them.

Equally, how they can claim you are being unprofessional or whatever else is baffling. Against what benchmarks can they make such statements? Information provided by other stores which you've shopped? Which, in turn, is based on assumption rather than fact. What's to say the scenario you were to use for shops 3 and 4 wasn't different to shops 1 and 2? Did they have sight of the brief you were given? I suspect they can't have had a final version of your report in such a short timescale. To me, an unprofessional mystery shopper would be someone who didn't follow their brief to the letter. How can the shop possibly accuse you of being unprofessional if they've not had sight of the exact details of your brief? Again, having not had sight of that, to them you are just another shopper. How do you define an unprofessional ordinary shopper?!!

If I were the MS company I'd be discarding the results of your visits today. Naturally you should be reimbursed but the shops shouldn't receive reports which aren't an accurate reflection of the day-to-day service.