The Mystery Shopping thread - VIII

lisainglasgow

angel13 wrote: »

ive just joined TNS - got two other jobs lined up for july. anyhow was able to do one yesterday so i tried to book it but system told me that i couldnt as the date had passed. I thought it was a system glitch as why woudnt you be able to book it when its still the same day! Anyhow I booked it as today instead as with this job they email you IF you have got it anyhow so not like normal and it states you may not get it etc etc etc.They emailed me after the time I could have done it so not possible for me to do job anyhow so I explained - as I am new I do not know what is normal obviously and I did not have any contact details so I thought I had done something correct by letting them know somethign was wrong with the system.
Anyhow I got a response which I took as being really rude as well because I had queried the system and thought there was a problem. Seems like thats how the system is designed and I had done something wrong by being interested in the job :mad: I was really hoping someone was just having a bad day and not meaning to be nasty to me as I am looking forward to one of the meals so dont want to have to cancel and not work for them. But now I have read your post I am not so sure :eek:

Well I have been with TNS for years - it is the 1st company I ever signed up for. I must have done in excess of 50 jobs for them on and off.
I saw one that I fancied doing, which had an end date for that Saturday, even though it had just been put on the boards, The notes said that the visit (it was a pub lunch) could only been done on a Friday or a Saturday, but not that Saturday as it was a rugby match day.
Well I emailed asking if I was able to do it on the Saturday ever though there was a match on as I couldn't do it on the Friday and the end date was the Saturday.
Cue a snotty email saying that I should read the notes properly and that the job was actually open for a lot longer than it stated. Bear in mind that my email was polite and very clear about what I was asking.
I emailed back saying that I was only trying to find out the answer, never got an apology for the rudeness! I showed the email to my partner as she agreed that the tone was very off. It's not my fault if the end date on the job was wrong! :mad:

Mumto2

In defence of TNS, I've been with them for 4 years and my AM is great. Always friendly replies, never felt that I couldn't ask anything.

I guess it's just one of those things that each AM will respond in their own way.

KaramelRose

I'm still waiting to hear on my application to TNS but am really keen on working for them. Despite talk of rude emails (knowing I'd get upset about one if I ever got one!) I'm still keeping fingers crossed for acceptance soon!

Seriously getting addicted...

lisainglasgow

Mumto2 wrote: »

In defence of TNS, I've been with them for 4 years and my AM is great. Always friendly replies, never felt that I couldn't ask anything.

I guess it's just one of those things that each AM will respond in their own way.

I've had the same AM for the whole time, and she used to be nice - it's just in the last couple of months that she is sometimes nice, sometimes not.

I also get annoyed with their food visits as all they want to know is 'was the hot food hot and the cold food cold' rather than if it is actually edible! :rotfl:

angel13

lisainglasgow wrote: »

Cue a snotty email saying that I should read the notes properly and that the job was actually open for a lot longer than it stated. Bear in mind that my email was polite and very clear about what I was asking.
I emailed back saying that I was only trying to find out the answer, never got an apology for the rudeness! I showed the email to my partner as she agreed that the tone was very off. It's not my fault if the end date on the job was wrong! :mad:

Thanks Lisa, Yesterday's response had me a bit bewildered to be honest as this also means that if I (or anyone else for that matter) wants to do a job on the actual date you see it that you are unable to. I find that bizarre as if its first thing in the morning why wouldn't you be able to book an afternoon visit for example. If I was to receive any more emails like that again I would consider not taking any more work and I haven't even done any yet :rolleyes:

lisainglasgow

angel13 wrote: »

Thanks Lisa, Yesterday's response had me a bit bewildered to be honest as this also means that if I (or anyone else for that matter) wants to do a job on the actual date you see it that you are unable to. I find that bizarre as if its first thing in the morning why wouldn't you be able to book an afternoon visit for example. If I was to receive any more emails like that again I would consider not taking any more work and I haven't even done any yet :rolleyes:

That seems very silly. I do like their 'fingers first' policy (I hate BARE for this reason, if you've seen my post about how they contact me you'll see why!) but why not allocate you a job on the day that you see it if you can? That way their client gets the results sooner. I know they email out the link to you which may delay things but there is no need to be rude about it! Perhaps we have the same AM?!

angel13

lisainglasgow wrote: »

That seems very silly. I do like their 'fingers first' policy (I hate BARE for this reason, if you've seen my post about how they contact me you'll see why!) but why not allocate you a job on the day that you see it if you can? That way their client gets the results sooner. I know they email out the link to you which may delay things but there is no need to be rude about it! Perhaps we have the same AM?!

well if you are located in glasgow and they cover areas I guess not, I am in Kent. They must have had some recent similar training in how to send rude emails I think

I am having a bad day here with jobs elsewhere - had petrol job taken off of me becuaae it supposedly needs to be done tomorrow even though it does not say that and I cannot do banks for GFK either I did email and they confirmed it would be ok but its not as they were presuming things that are not the case :rolleyes:

egeorgm

Sorry to copy and paste this on again but may have been missed by some before, I am just a worrier and could do with the advice just to reassure me if you can help please!! thankyou

I am yet to do my first tax form and it's playin on my mind a bit but I know I have a bit of time

My question is - do we submit all our receipts for the jobs? I have lost a couple of mine from when I moved and wondered what I'd do in that situation or does it not matter if I know what I spent anyway? I have pictures of most of them from submitting to the MS companies anyway.

If anyone can help that would be good, thanks

bankypanky

angel13 wrote: »

I am not posting this as an alert as I am not sure if it was just released, but I just got a local catalogue shop with ABAi which definitely was not in the list before so might be worth other people rechecking.

I had put my details onto some of the booked visits so what normally happens if you do that? As if this was a release I presume they would then offer it to me next as I had shown some interest. If that option does not work in ABAi i would love to know so I dont waste my time anymore

They email you if it is released so, although you get notified immediately, you do not get first dibs on the job. I got home from work the other day and they had emailed me about a petrol release I had reserved but by the time I logged in someone else had taken it. It's fair enough I suppose otherwise we could reserve everything and no-one would bother logging in very often.... I was still cross though!:mad:

Mumto2

egeorgm wrote: »

Sorry to copy and paste this on again but may have been missed by some before, I am just a worrier and could do with the advice just to reassure me if you can help please!! thankyou

I am yet to do my first tax form and it's playin on my mind a bit but I know I have a bit of time

My question is - do we submit all our receipts for the jobs? I have lost a couple of mine from when I moved and wondered what I'd do in that situation or does it not matter if I know what I spent anyway? I have pictures of most of them from submitting to the MS companies anyway.

If anyone can help that would be good, thanks

No need to submit any reciepts, you just record your totals for the year. You do need to keep the reciepts incase of any investigation, but a camera copy should suffice for the ones you've lost.

PS - easiest to do tax return on line if you've never done one before. Good luck!

I'm sure there was a helpful guide to tax info somewhere (maybe try the 1st page of thread)