The Mystery Shopping thread - VII

aplaceinthesun

nads wrote: »

Some are quite nice... one place made the perfect pizza it was orgasmic!

Actually I tell a lie , the pizza itself was yummy (although not quite orgasmic...! ) , its just it wasnt very hot. At long last the questionnaire is completed .

82much

Very little work in my area too at present. Suppose as the credit crunch deepens more people will be looking at earning a bit on the side and will turn to MS - jobs will become even more difficult to get hold of!:mad:

angel13

laughing_cow wrote: »

I've done the BARE flights - for the current airline and the previous one. I have friends to stay with in some of the locations, otherwise I've used airmiles for hotels or got myself a cheap deal. I've travelled a lot on my own so it doesn't bother me (it's lovely to have chance to be selfish and do just what I want to do!), but I understand your concerns.

When I've been to destinations where I don't have friends, they have usually been cities, where there's plenty to see and you can be anonymous and not feel uncomfortable eg eating in a restaurant on your own. I did once take one of these flights to the Caribbean thinking I'd have a quiet, relaxing break in the sun, but as it's more of a couples destination, I got a lot of attention from the local men - amusing at first, but tiresome after you've heard "hello beautiful lady...." for the 23rd time :rolleyes: I probably wouldn't go there again on my own.

I've also taken my partner on one of the flights to North America - as we went in low season it wasn't too expensive for his ticket. Maybe you could try that first rather than go for the longest haul destination?

Good luck

thank you im thinking the same. i am most interested in the sydney one as i was hoping to look for work the same time as i cant find work here but i know i have skills other countries need. im just not sure i can face leaving my son. hes 15 and would be with my partner but i was a single parent till partner moved in so i feel like i am supposed to always be on call if there was an emergency. would be different if my family were here to help partner if there was a problem but they are 200miles away. i will wait and see if i can find some more approrpiate flights. i am doing mystery shopping to save for treats - ie holidays - so next time i find a good flight to test i should have some money in the kitty for a cheap get away.

MikeLB

nads wrote: »

Probably as simple as charging their clients a lot less and offering the a lot more. They also offer mystery shoppers a lot more work for a lot less money for free.

No its more how the hell they are covering some of these locations - One Electrical retailer that TNS used to have moved to RE, when it was with TNS I used to do the same locations every other month as the locations were remote - now RE have it I am lucky if I have been once in a year.

I did also hear on grape vine that RE are in running for main Stamp Shop contract from Gap ..... I was asked to provide costings for remote visits which migh be coming up ....

jdan9

princess_leia wrote: »

Don't think you can for the pizza jobs, as you can only order what they say! If I am wrong someone will correct me!

I have just accepted my first family bowling visit woo hoo really looking forward to that as the kids love bowling and its usually so expensive!

The only time I did a delivery pizza job the woman on the phone told me it'd cost *less* if I ordered another item, so I did so, because I thought surely it'd look suspicious if I didn't. I explained this to GAP in my report and they didn't object.

aplaceinthesun

jdan9 wrote: »

The only time I did a delivery pizza job the woman on the phone told me it'd cost *less* if I ordered another item, so I did so, because I thought surely it'd look suspicious if I didn't. I explained this to GAP in my report and they didn't object.

The person who took my order did wonder why I didnt want a side dish, in effect for nothing ... but I tried to explain that I already had made my own ... :rotfl:

purt

To those of you who aren't getting much work at the moment; you have my sympathies. I've been MSing for years and for most of those the only clients I really got any work from were GAP, TNS and RE. With the rules about only being able to shop one location every x months, the number of assignments I got was always few and far between.

I must be one of the lucky ones at the moment who is getting lots of assignments. I've loads coming up; from burgers, chicken, pizzas, stamps, opticians, phone surveys, camping, jewellery and bookies. Then again, I now have a much greater choice of companies to work for that I did in recent years.

Hope things pick up for you guys

gallygirl

MikeLB wrote: »

I did also hear on grape vine that RE are in running for main Stamp Shop contract from Gap ..... I was asked to provide costings for remote visits which migh be coming up ....

Oh well, at least all those of us who've been sacked from stamp jobs could do them again .

I was wondering if maybe there were more mystery shoppers about than before which is why there is less work to go round. However, you guys are all on the ball at picking jobs up quickly so I suppose there are less. Recession I presume, here's hoping it starts to lift soon.

softpad

anyone else having trouble getting into GAP please?

ukmonkey

GAP was fine for me about 10 mins ago