MYSTERY SHOPPING THREAD 18 - please don't mention client names or fees on here!!

bylromarha

flyer wrote: »

Well I can't. Although there are three in Coventry, because I'm male I'm excluded!

Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the ESA screen and you should find a specific male job in Cov there.

I can see it right now, and I won't be MSing during half term, so it's all yours

Miss_Qwerty

Did everyone just get that mail from ESA? My faviourite bits....

"We have some really nice assignments available over the next few weeks"

Pity your not pay isn't as nice.

"Your contribution to this success is much appreciated"

and finally...

"So thanks, well done – and we hope you will continue to enjoy your shopping for us!"

:rotfl:

katiekittykat1977

Miss_Qwerty wrote: »

Did everyone just get that mail from ESA? My faviourite bits....

"We have some really nice assignments available over the next few weeks"

Pity your not pay isn't as nice.

"Your contribution to this success is much appreciated"

and finally...

"So thanks, well done – and we hope you will continue to enjoy your shopping for us!"

:rotfl:

I got it....I haven't even done any work for them yet!

Rosy_Violet

Miss_Qwerty wrote: »

Did everyone just get that mail from ESA? My faviourite bits....

"We have some really nice assignments available over the next few weeks"

Pity your not pay isn't as nice.

"Your contribution to this success is much appreciated"

and finally...

"So thanks, well done – and we hope you will continue to enjoy your shopping for us!"

:rotfl:

ROTFL:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

That ices my cake today. Cheesecake!

Just heard it's a full moon today....maybe that explains my howling!

serendipity2706

MIMI urgent pm for you

proshopper

serendipity2706 wrote: »

I haven't been doing this for long, but I have noticed some fees dropped almost by half.

As Rosy Violet has already said, this has been happening gradually for ages. Of late, the downwards spiral has become more and more alarming.

I mystery shop for a living, and have done so for many years.

In the old days, MSers were employed by agencies; it is only relatively recently that TNS and the likes have made evaluators self employed. There were benefits to being employed: travel expenses were generally paid in full or up to a capped level, at an appropriate cost per mile, and most companies even added an element of holiday pay to the their monthly cheques. Companies such as Retail Eyes put paid to that: they sold themselves on the fact that they used "real shoppers," not "professional mystery shoppers." "Oh, yes," I say to myself, "how many real shoppers can be a*sed to follow a brief, and write a report - let alone take inane snapshots?" And, of course, if a company is not using professional mystery shoppers, there is no need for the fees to be set at the market rate for professional mystery shoppers. I think that is what really started the rot.

Rosy_Violet wrote: »

Accepting low fees means you don't value your time and opinions...it sadly means that some people will do anything for a few pence...

The "RE approach" puts MSing in the category of unskilled pocket money earning!

polythenegirl wrote: »

Its Its a horrible no win situation.

I absolutely agree. These days, new shoppers have to gain experience so that they can do the higher paid work because most of the higher paid work is allocated based on reputation. A new shopper would not want to mess up on the good work, because they might never get any other work from that company.

[QUOTE=Rosy Violet;41310496]
The bottom line here is that the reason that Mystery shopping is carried out is to improve the customer experience and highlight areas of training. There is now a massive indescrepency in how the agencies are treating us shoppers...it is totally and utterly maddening that they expect a decent objective report for so little return.
[/QUOTE]

Absolutely! I have always looked on low fee work as my "filler jobs." Unfortunately, "low fee" has now been redefined!

As polythenegirl says, everyone is losing out. The newbies are damned for accepting the work. People like me are not accepting it as a matter of principle.

These days, when companies ring me asking me to pick up unallocated work, I say that I would have picked it up in the first place if it had been available at a realistic fee. These days, when I am asked by some companies to do re-shops or dropped work, I point out that unrelaible and incompetent shoppers should not have been allowed to accept the work in the first place. Allocators never seem to argue either of these rationales. It is all down to market forces, largely the "RE approach."

I would be lying if I said that I made a hefty profit from all my work: I don't. For example, I did one job today that showed a significant book loss. Why? Because a company has just offered me a regular run of work (every month for the foreseeable future) and in the coming months, I will be able to schedule these jobs in with other work, and the fee will be mostly profit.

Long term? I plan to try and weather the storm. Clients are always going to want covert eyes and ears in their outlets. Maybe not forever in the guise of mystery shopping as we know it today. Customer service evaluations are part of the bigger picture: clients have one main objective: to maximise their profits and minimise their losses. I will do whatever ......

proshopper by name prostituteshopper by nature:rotfl:

jennikitten

clippy_girl wrote: »

even if it works out £2-3 per hour, it all adds up towards paying it off!

You could earn more than that on dooyoo.co.uk in an hour, and it would be a lot less faff!

teendude

Those ESA clothes shop ones would have been perfect for me tomorrow. So annoying they require a child -_-

Also - as being quite new to this, I feel I should also mention this is my only source of income (I've been looking for a job for nearly 6months now. My uni course makes it really difficult to find hours.) but I'm finding it really useful for making me able to buy lunch each day and slowly save up for other things.

yonk

I think this has been an excellent debate on the subject of fees. At the end of the day, your own circumstances will dictate what jobs you will take. Everyone has their own motivation for ms'ing.

The one thing I would highlight is that reputation doesn't really count for much with some companies and I wouldn't worry too much about it when you are very new to this. The only exceptions would be companies that uses long-term shoppers for premium assignments but it really is a case of research about the companies and who does what. I've been doing this for two years now and I've not really got a reputation with any of the usual companies...if they need a shopper in your area, they need a shopper...

louise12113

fillyfop wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I was just looking at the alerts thread and saw an alert for the "secret eating place". I've been MSing for 7 years but for the life of me can't work out what that one is.
Could someone pm me the name or some clues as it has me stumped!!

Thank You.

Hi
If someone does not mind please can they pm me the name of this one :-) many many thanks