The Mystery Shopping thread - VIII

duchy

Not sure about the advice not to ring them though........(who is "We" as in "We advise" btw?) they have a normal rate number and I've found chatting to them sometimes gets me a heads up as to when new waves are likely to be loaded.

I'd think simply warning who is "phone-call unfriendly" is a good idea however.

fabsaver

ukmonkey wrote: »

Guys, I've had an idea - for us to create an "MSE MS FAQ" (how many abbreviations?!). I thought it wise to do one for each company, so I've started with Retail Eyes, as most newbie shoppers are best starting with them (in my opinion).

Could some of the regulars please read and dissect?? Comments on the threads please.


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Retail Eyes - FAQs

Q. When do RE pay?
A. RE pay by BACS (bank transfer) twice a month; mid-month (around 10th-15th) and end of month. The money should show up in your bank account approximately 2 or 3 days after the date shown on your Retail Eyes payment history.

Q. How do I view my payment history?
A. When logged into the RE site, on the left you should see a section headed "Payment". Underneath is will say:
Due dd/mm/yy: £xx.xx
Due dd/mm/yy: £xx.xx
Pending: X payments
Clicking on either of these three links will take you into your "statement" and payment history.

Q. I have a payment pending, why is this?
A. When you have completed a visit, and filled in your report, the payment will stay as "pending" until your report has been proofread and approved. It's nothing to worry about and should move from pending after a few days.

Q. Retail Eyes have email me asking me to call them, do you know what this could be about?
A. It may be about one of your reports, they, or their client may have a question or two about it. We advise against calling them back due to their low fees. Reply by email and ask them to email you with their questions, to which you can respond.

Q. What are the points all about on the Retail Eyes site?
A. There are several theories but none proved or disproved! It is thought that some clients may ask for more experienced Mystery Shoppers, hence the points system is one (albeit, possibly flawed) way of managing this.

Q. I can't see a hotel/bookmaker/etc assignment on RE, why?
A. Certain clients demand certain Mystery Shopper demographics, so as to be "shopped" by someone who is similar to one of their typical customers. For example, a bookmaker may only make their jobs available to male shoppers, as it is typically (though not exclusively, I must add!) males who visit bookies.
Another reason can be the answers that you have given to the verious questions in your profile. If you firmly believe that you should be able to see the jobs (i.e it's not because of your sex, age or location), consider calling Retail Eyes on the number given on their site. They are, on the whole, a friendly, helpful bunch, and should be able to find what the "problem" is.

Q. I've just taken a job but lots of available jobs disappeared at the same time. How can they vanish so quickly?
A. Often, Retail Eyes and/or their clients, only allow you to do one job of that type from that "wave" of jobs. So if you see 100 pub visits, and you accept one, what should then be 99, may drop to 0 as you're not allowed to take any other the other pub jobs. This is purely an example.

In the answer to the first question you could mention the cut off dates for each payment run i.e.

If you complete any assignments between 1st to 15th of a month (inclusive), payment will be made on the last working day of that month.

If you complete any assignments between the 16th and the end of the month, payment will be made on the 15th of the next month.

It would probably be easier for people to find their questions if all of the questions were in bold and the answers in normal print.

ukmonkey

blindman wrote: »

Er.

I think that was me who suggested you use the second post of this thread (that you wisely reserved) for an FAQ.


The reason I suggested the second post is that it will be easy to refer to when people ask the FAQ's (cos they don't read anything that's not on the current page :rolleyes:)

You did indeed suggest a FAQ, which I've taken a little further and decided to split them by the different companies, as well as a "general faq" as you suggested.

But yes, thank you for the inspiration bm! :beer:

ukmonkey

duchy wrote: »

Not sure about the advice not to ring them though........(who is "We" as in "We advise" btw?) they have a normal rate number and I've found chatting to them sometimes gets me a heads up as to when new waves are likely to be loaded.

I'd think simply warning who is "phone-call unfriendly" is a good idea however.

"We" is the forum.

I'll change it to "most of the forum regulars"

iNath

jdan9 wrote: »

Anybody noticed the Think 21 jobs have changed into Think 25 jobs now? Does that mean I have an extra four years to be able to do them in?

'Fraid not, I spoke to my AM the other day about this and the client is still insisting on 21 and 4 months as the max

cherie_n

Hi Everyone,

I'm trying to organize my spread sheet of mystery shopping but I just have a quick question:

In the "PAY" column, do I put the fee...or the actual amount I was paid as in fee+reimbursement?

Thanks!

xxxx

Gam

owlet wrote: »

I am waiting for GFK and haven't had anything yet. Check the amount and see which company owes you that, the chances of having two identical amounts must be slim.

It matches what I was expecting from GFK but I thought they paid on the 28th. Also, there is nothing showing on their website yet regarding payment. Can't think who else it could be from.

missymugwump

Whoops

Got an email from RE proof reader
Please answer the question asked only blush blush
I put under a question about would the service put me off going again that yes and the hygiene (obviously it was more wordy than that but that was the gist)

Was told to re write that answer purely about the service nothing else

Will this damage me getting future jobs showing

DOH

Was much more careful when I just did last nights report had a great meal

Just off to do another suitable for overweight hayfever sufferers lol

(I only qualify on one point and sadly it's not because I have a runny nose)

johnny_c-l

missymugwump wrote: »

Whoops

Got an email from RE proof reader
Please answer the question asked only blush blush
I put under a question about would the service put me off going again that yes and the hygiene (obviously it was more wordy than that but that was the gist)

Was told to re write that answer purely about the service nothing else

Will this damage me getting future jobs showing

DOH

Was much more careful when I just did last nights report had a great meal

Just off to do another suitable for overweight hayfever sufferers lol

(I only qualify on one point and sadly it's not because I have a runny nose)

Shouldn't affect you getting future jobs AFAIK.

Personally I would refuse to rewrite it if I felt hygiene was relevant to that question. It is the job of the proofreader to remove it if the client is not interested in that information (or equally if RE just do not want to pass it on).

Scaredy_Cat_3

johnny_c-l wrote: »

Shouldn't affect you getting future jobs AFAIK.

Personally I would refuse to rewrite it if I felt hygiene was relevant to that question. It is the job of the proofreader to remove it if the client is not interested in that information (or equally if RE just do not want to pass it on).

I'm often amazed at things like this. I mean, yes I can accept that maybe for this particular client the sole purpose of mystery shopping is to establish if staff are conforming etc., but surely all that is irrelevant if customers stay away because of hygiene. You'd think they would want to know if somethng like this was causing problems - especially something that could be so easily rectified.