MYSTERY SHOPPING THREAD 19 - please don't mention client names or fees on here!!

misssarahleigh

DevilsAdvocate1 wrote: »

Can you use the buttons on the phone to make it lap and stop? I have one, but you have to press the screen and pressing the screen at the right place discreetly is impossible.

Screen i'm afraid. I just look like i'm playing or something. But then again i don't do burger jobs

serendipity2706

_Persephone wrote: »

Hi all,

Wondered if this had happened to anyone before, and if I am in the wrong:

I took a pub job on RE, but it had a special notice on there advising to speak to a member of staff before commencing with the assignment, as they had important information about the job. It said in red that I would *NOT* be able to continue without having spoken to one of the team. When you click assignment notes, the message came up again.
The day before, I emailed the person mentioned in there, and she wrote back thanking me, but not giving me any further detail. I wrote back asking if it would be ok to complete the survey now I had contacted her, even going so far as to send a screen shot and nothing.

As such, I did not do the visit, as I didn't think there was any point in doing it if it was 'stuck' if you like. I also mentioned this in an email. The next day, I got one of those gentle reminder emails reminding me to submit my report, to which I replied telling the contact I did not do it as she did not get back to me. No response.

Now the job has been released, and I have been docked two points. So frustrating!

I had a job released last month when I emailed them because the assignment details were different to the job address. Never got a reply, and job got released.
Conclusion
Never email as they are useless. I always phone now

boyoboy1986

serendipity2706 wrote: »

I had a job released last month when I emailed them because the assignment details were different to the job address. Never got a reply, and job got released.
Conclusion
Never email as they are useless. I always phone now

I've always phoned them when I get them. Usually they are about locations if there are several in the same area. I know most of the posh s/w shops in Glasgow need to be phoned through first.

StacFace

MaxAben wrote: »

Its more so that staff cannot see who is mystery shopping them because then it makes it easier for them to sign up and take the assignment, or know in which date range they will come.

Do most store managers not tell staff this anyway? I work for one of the RE pub clients and we are warned that "mystery diner starts next Monday" and have signs up behind the bar facing bar staff, on the notice board and on the back of the kitchen door so we see it everytime we take something out. Then when the report comes through the manager prints it off and sticks it up on the notice board, and it quite clearly says "Retail Eyes" on it.

ButterPie_2

I used to work for a pub chain (not one that I have seen on the MS sites) and we recognised the mystery shoppers when they came in, and we would tell kitchen staff, the manager and so on.

boyoboy1986

ButterPie wrote: »

I used to work for a pub chain (not one that I have seen on the MS sites) and we recognised the mystery shoppers when they came in, and we would tell kitchen staff, the manager and so on.

I think the problem is (particularly with some pub ones) that the scenario doesn't change often enough.

For example the old TNS pubs (the ones they lost last year), most of them you had to buy 'a meal' and 'a drink'. For example you didn't have to buy one of the six 'highest GP (i.e. cheapest to produce)' products on the menu and 2 of the highest GP scoring drinks and I was never recognised once.

Factor in some of the RE pub ones and the minute you walk in and order you are recognised. This may however be something to do with the fact that you are the only one in the place that is reasonably sober. The last one I done 2 different people fell of high stools.

I've never had such a laugh since I got sozzled one Saturday afternoon in January in the Bay horse in Renfield Street listening to Robert & May Miller.

lalli_pickle

Argh, I feel like my life is a disaster zone at the moment so this is a rant/vent, feel free to ignore or offer advice as you see fit (or tell me to sort my life out if needed, I can take it).

So.... At the start of the month the clutch went on the car, fair enough, it's 5 years old and I do between 500 and 1,000 miles a week, it's a consumable item, so replacing it is expected, although perhaps not so soon in life (64,000 miles, is that reasonable for clutches?). Got that fixed and now it's started making a horrible grinding noise when I turn left, a metallic rattling noise when I pull away or the engine labours at all and a knocking tapitty noise like it has no oil in the engine although I know it has!

So that's back to the garage with it again tomorrow making it 3 weekends in a row that I've had to use a rental car!

I'm now seriously considering getting rid of the damn thing and just using a rental every weekend and getting the train into work! The rental place near me have a good deal at weekends from Fri to Mon of £12 per day so I pay £45 odd for the weekend plus petrol making £180 per month. I pay £100 per month on my current car plus £45 per month insurance plus petrol so on the face of it, renting would cost me £35 extra per month, but once I factor in the cost of endless repairs and the worry of not being able to use the damn thing, would it be worth it to just rent at the weekends and make do with public transport in the week?

OK, it would be inconvenient and I could see holidays and so on becoming difficult if I wanted to go anywhere, but then given the state of the car at the moment, if I wanted to drive to Yorkshire I'd probably rent a car anyway cos I'd be scared it would break down.

In terms of accounting, I'm pretty sure I could claim the costs back against the tax in proportion to the business mileage I did, I already keep a mileage log so I could be pretty accurate about that side of things.

The thing is, it doesn't seem right that it would cost me less to rent a car for the weekends than it would to own a car all week so I'm thinking that I must have missed something. Any ideas? Other than the £200 deposit which would be tied up from Friday to Wednesday every week.

boyoboy1986

lalli_pickle wrote: »

Argh, I feel like my life is a disaster zone at the moment so this is a rant/vent, feel free to ignore or offer advice as you see fit (or tell me to sort my life out if needed, I can take it).

So.... At the start of the month the clutch went on the car, fair enough, it's 5 years old and I do between 500 and 1,000 miles a week, it's a consumable item, so replacing it is expected, although perhaps not so soon in life (64,000 miles, is that reasonable for clutches?). Got that fixed and now it's started making a horrible grinding noise when I turn left, a metallic rattling noise when I pull away or the engine labours at all and a knocking tapitty noise like it has no oil in the engine although I know it has!

So that's back to the garage with it again tomorrow making it 3 weekends in a row that I've had to use a rental car!

I'm now seriously considering getting rid of the damn thing and just using a rental every weekend and getting the train into work! The rental place near me have a good deal at weekends from Fri to Mon of £12 per day so I pay £45 odd for the weekend plus petrol making £180 per month. I pay £100 per month on my current car plus £45 per month insurance plus petrol so on the face of it, renting would cost me £35 extra per month, but once I factor in the cost of endless repairs and the worry of not being able to use the damn thing, would it be worth it to just rent at the weekends and make do with public transport in the week?

OK, it would be inconvenient and I could see holidays and so on becoming difficult if I wanted to go anywhere, but then given the state of the car at the moment, if I wanted to drive to Yorkshire I'd probably rent a car anyway cos I'd be scared it would break down.

In terms of accounting, I'm pretty sure I could claim the costs back against the tax in proportion to the business mileage I did, I already keep a mileage log so I could be pretty accurate about that side of things.

The thing is, it doesn't seem right that it would cost me less to rent a car for the weekends than it would to own a car all week so I'm thinking that I must have missed something. Any ideas? Other than the £200 deposit which would be tied up from Friday to Wednesday every week.

I know what you are saying here. I went into a mine-shaft (pothole 8" deep - yes I measured it etc lol) and was without mine for nearly 4 weeks whilst the insurance and Glasgow City Council argued about it and I used a mixture of hire car and the City Car Club (i'm not sure where you are based so the car club may not be an option) and also felt better off. I also used the hire car at the weekend as I use the train to get to work during the week and used the hire car at the weekend. If I needed to use a car during the week I used the Car Club one and even they have quite good offers on cars at selected locations for entire weekends.

Going back to your clutch though, my car is vintage (a pretty little 9 year old Clio lol) that I bought brand new and the clutch has never needed to be replaced and it has done 96,000 miles.

If you are in a major/large city the car club is worth looking at if you only need a car for an hour or so at a time http://www.citycarclub.co.uk/

Apologies in advance if i'm not supposed to post links like this.

TractorGirl327

_Persephone wrote: »

Hi all,

Wondered if this had happened to anyone before, and if I am in the wrong:

I took a pub job on RE, but it had a special notice on there advising to speak to a member of staff before commencing with the assignment, as they had important information about the job. It said in red that I would *NOT* be able to continue without having spoken to one of the team. When you click assignment notes, the message came up again.
The day before, I emailed the person mentioned in there, and she wrote back thanking me, but not giving me any further detail. I wrote back asking if it would be ok to complete the survey now I had contacted her, even going so far as to send a screen shot and nothing.

As such, I did not do the visit, as I didn't think there was any point in doing it if it was 'stuck' if you like. I also mentioned this in an email. The next day, I got one of those gentle reminder emails reminding me to submit my report, to which I replied telling the contact I did not do it as she did not get back to me. No response.

Now the job has been released, and I have been docked two points. So frustrating!

You didn't do the job so you got docked 2 points. I'm afraid that's standard practice with RE (but don't worry the points dont mean anything!!)

The special note said to SPEAK to a member of staff. Not email them. If you'd spoken to her you could have confirmed you'd do the job. Learn by your mistake. RE rarely reply to emails. Twice they overpaid me. Must have sent about 8 emails telling them. They never replied and never asked for the money back. I phone them now.

jen_br

_Persephone wrote: »

Hi all,

Wondered if this had happened to anyone before, and if I am in the wrong:

I took a pub job on RE, but it had a special notice on there advising to speak to a member of staff before commencing !

Yeah it says call... and i would always call not email., what it is is to tell you if there are special instructions. the points mean nowt so your ok. But phone next time its easier for sure!

StacFace wrote: »

Do most store managers not tell staff this anyway? I work for one of the RE pub clients and we are warned that "mystery diner starts next Monday" and have signs up behind the bar facing bar staff, on the notice board and on the back of the kitchen door so we see it everytime we take something out. Then when the report comes through the manager prints it off and sticks it up on the notice board, and it quite clearly says "Retail Eyes" on it.

But thats the difference your staff of X pub, you can say what you like (and in fairness im sure if you read your contract you too probably aren't allowed to say it either!! as its company business nad your not able to discuss company business etc etc)

and Yeah saying MS diner starts MOnday etc I mean the managers do get told but if you work for the BIG chain how many customers come in? When I go in I generally bring someone or if i do go alone I don't stand out-- loads of people finish thier meal with a hot drink ands tart it with a bevy or soda and a main meal...

So all though the program may start on said monday it can go on for the month so thats 30 days of guessing the shopper. Not worth my time I rather just do my job right lol.