The Mystery Shopping thread - VII

pebblespop

ukmonkey wrote: »

no probs. I hate all this political correctness stuff.

If the sales assistant was black, we should be allowed to say "she was black", same for "she was mixed race", "she was of Asian appearance" etc etc.

It drives me insane, it really does.

BTW, I can't wait for RE to query what IC3 means when/if I ever use it in a report. I'll laugh and laugh and laugh.

why do you need to guess what race someone is. just describe height, hair colour/length, sex, glasses/not.

princess_leia_3

Some of them do ask race (gfk I think)

RE is down for longer than 5 minutes I see!!! They really shouldn't over promise and under perform, it is such bad customer service :rotfl::rotfl:

jdan9

ukmonkey wrote: »

no probs. I hate all this political correctness stuff.

If the sales assistant was black, we should be allowed to say "she was black", same for "she was mixed race", "she was of Asian appearance" etc etc.

It drives me insane, it really does.

BTW, I can't wait for RE to query what IC3 means when/if I ever use it in a report. I'll laugh and laugh and laugh.

I don't understand why we can't use such things in descriptions. Perhaps I'm very naïve, but I wouldn't find being described as 'white' offensive, and I don't see why a black person should find being described as 'black' offensive. Surely it's just a statement of a verifiable fact? I think if it helps the company work out who the member of staff was who served me, then why not let us say it?

IlonaRN

jdan9 wrote: »

That is how I look at it. I think the problem is a lot of people here expect to always make a profit from MSing, and don't really take into account the food they're getting too.

Also, whoever said buy £2 pizza from the supermarket - it's not the same thing at all! The supermarket pizza doesn't taste anywhere near as nice, and you don't get the service and the atmosphere you get eating out.

You need to get the "create your own" pizzas from ASDA... they're YUM :drool:

But I agree, I don't mind doing the GAP pizzas. If I go on my own I have something that costs less, and make a profit. If I take a guest, we get most of the meal paid for. And food that you have to eat there does count as deductible expenses.

I'm not so pleased with the RE ones with no fee, particularly the retail ones.

TractorGirl327

pebblespop wrote: »

why do you need to guess what race someone is. just describe height, hair colour/length, sex, glasses/not.

OK I'm not wanting to start a debate on racism but surely, saying what race they are is a really big part of their description?

For example, a company could have 2 employees as follows:

Employee (a) Male, 5'8", short dark hair, glasses - and is IC1
Employee (b) Male, 5'8", short dark hair, glasses - and is IC3

I speak to employee (a). How are the company going to know which of the 2 it was that I spoke to (if I didn't get the name) unless I mention his ethnicity?

ukmonkey

pebblespop wrote: »

why do you need to guess what race someone is. just describe height, hair colour/length, sex, glasses/not.

EH?! Surely if you can see them then you're not guessing their ethnicity? IC codes are used as your perceived view, not the individual's view.

I'd rather "guess" at someone ethnicity than try to guess their height. You see, I'm very very tall, so cannot really accuratley guess one's height. I can however, accuratley "guess" one's ethnicity.

The glasses or not thing is a good one that I used, and I do try and look at their hair length/colour too.

Guessing age is another thing I find a little difficult, partidularly with the women, most of whom (in my small amount of MS experience) have loads of makeup on so as to try and hide their true age (IMO).


I'd rather put: white female, wearing glasses with shoulder length dark hair.

than: female, early 50s, wearing glasses, approx 5'5", with shoulder-length dark hair.



It should be down to individual choice. Some MS companies say not to put their age as it might be offensive. Could it be classed as offensive to record whether someone is wearing glasses or not? What's the difference? Nothing in my book. In fact I'd feel more upset if someone remembered the main thing about me wearing glasses than me being "early 50s" (for example).

Basically, this country wraps people up in cotton wool too much.

woohoo_postingid

You are perfectly entitled to describe someone as "Black", "White" or any other colour that they appear to you to be.
I was once told this by a police officer when I was describing a shoplifter. Nothing racist in it at all.

It's exactly the same as calling someone "Male" - that's not sexist.

IlonaRN

mharzuk wrote: »

Also with eat in jobs all the expenses are tax deductable as well as anything over the re-imbursement amount so this has its benefits in bring down taxable income, not that I am anywhere near needing to worry about being taxed for MSing, but we can all dream......

I didn't realise the excess spend was tax deductible too... that's good to know

johnny_c-l

I agree describing ethinicity is an important part of a persons description. However, since so many companies do not want this mentioned in the report the my rule is not to provide any information on race/accent/build unless specifically asked.

Personally I think we should be allowed to put it in then the client can remove it if they are worried about any offence being caused.

There has been occasions when I've been in shops and there are a few members of staff all, say, 5'9", short black hair and no glasses, but one is black, one is Polish and the other has a heavy build. It's sods law that the company doesn't want any further information to distinguish them, which pretty much renders the description useless.

mharzuk

IlonaRN wrote: »

I didn't realise the excess spend was tax deductible too... that's good to know

I think the genral rule of thumb is would you have needed to spend this money if you were not on the job (sorry for the poor terminology, but I am sure some people will relate to it).
If the answer is no then its a tax deductable expense but obviously like all lost leaders we all have from time to time it would be a bit dodgy to put down an excessive amount.