Gapbuster

tattybonce

nikkiuk wrote: »

I did my first job for Gapbuster last night. It was for a well known pizza chain-home delivery.
I read and re-read the instructions carefully and did everything I was asked to. I had to order a pizza or pasta as well as a side order. The reimbursement was £ with a £ fee. I had a good look through the menu and due to cost constraints ended up ordering a small pizza and some chicken wings. The paperwork said that I could order ANY pizza from the menu, except margeritta and anything with pineapple on it. In a box above was a chart that listed medium and large pizzas but no where did it say I wasn't allowed to order a small.
I've now had a phone call saying that they can't pay me the assignment because I had a small pizza but as they are in a sticky situation and need another job doing-if I ordered a medium pizza and a side order from the same company they would as a 1 off pay me £ which would cover both jobs.
The issue I have is
A) I don't want pizza twice in a row
I spent £13.49 last night, the cheapest medium pizza/side if I ordered tonight would cost £14 and would be for things I don't eat. It is impossible to get a medium pizza and side for the £ they are offering as reimbusement and I haven't got a spare £14 to pay out again, especially when I can be sure they will not reimburse.
I've told them no anyway and said I want to speak to a supervisor on Monday. They did say the rest of my paperwork was perfect.
Has anyone got any experience of them refusing to pay out and did you manage to get them to change their mind?
I'm really angry as I have now lost £13.50 that I couldn't really afford to lose on an overpriced small pizza!!!

Yes, Gapbuster did this to me on various occasions and not just with the pizza job either. Twice with the fried chicken place and once at an Italian Family Restaurant. They now watch you on the cctv footage and if it is not EXACTLY right, they use any excuse not to pay you. It did seem funny to me though they did not tell you they would not pay you until AFTER they had got your report back. I made a huge loss and I had been working for them for years but felt as though they were stalling payment to me for anything they could think of and it got to the point where I did not trust them. I resigned last year and have now moved on to another four mystery shopping companies where I am extremely happy, plus the food for GAP was making me fat!!! I now longer have any doubts when I do a job as to whether or not I will get paid. You should not have this sort of relationship with your employer btw! Good luck!

tattybonce

jen_br wrote: »

Mackem pleae take out client names its a HUGE breach.. secondly coffee visits are invite only. you need special equipment to do them.

Uuummm - he said they had FIRED him! What's he got to lose, he can say what he wants!!!! :rotfl:
Oh, and when she says you need special equipment for coffee jobs - it's a thermometer!!! LMAO

polythenegirl

tattybonce wrote: »

Uuummm - he said they had FIRED him! What's he got to lose, he can say what he wants!!!! :rotfl:

No he can't - regardless of being fired he signed a confidentiality agreement and that doesn't stop just because his contract was terminated - the fees and client names pertain to his employment time and he is still under contract for that...

jen_br

tattybonce wrote: »

Uuummm - he said they had FIRED him! What's he got to lose, he can say what he wants!!!! :rotfl:
Oh, and when she says you need special equipment for coffee jobs - it's a thermometer!!! LMAO

actually its scales and thermometer -- ergo its special equipment i.e not just any Joe can get a cuppa joe for Gap.

polythenegirl wrote: »

No he can't - regardless of being fired he signed a confidentiality agreement and that doesn't stop just because his contract was terminated - the fees and client names pertain to his employment time and he is still under contract for that...

Exactly...

jen_br

tattybonce wrote: »

Yes, Gapbuster did this to me on various occasions and not just with the pizza job either. Twice with the fried chicken place and once at an Italian Family Restaurant. They now watch you on the cctv footage and if it is not EXACTLY right, they use any excuse not to pay you. It did seem funny to me though they did not tell you they would not pay you until AFTER they had got your report back. I made a huge loss and I had been working for them for years but felt as though they were stalling payment to me for anything they could think of and it got to the point where I did not trust them. I resigned last year and have now moved on to another four mystery shopping companies where I am extremely happy, plus the food for GAP was making me fat!!! I now longer have any doubts when I do a job as to whether or not I will get paid. You should not have this sort of relationship with your employer btw! Good luck!

Ok, but you are suppose to get it EXACTLY right thats what they pay you for no? I don't see how this is GAP's problem? The client can't query your report until you send it in.. and neither can GAP. So the only way to find out if you've done something wrong is to send in the report.

Gap isn't perfect but the OP didn't read the briefing notes.

nehpets81

jen_br wrote: »

Ok, but you are suppose to get it EXACTLY right thats what they pay you for no? I don't see how this is GAP's problem? The client can't query your report until you send it in.. and neither can GAP. So the only way to find out if you've done something wrong is to send in the report.

Gap isn't perfect but the OP didn't read the briefing notes.

While this is definitely logical, I think the inference here was that Gap would still use the report. Whether they do or not is very difficult to determine, BUT if they do still use the report I think it is a bit morally dubious to not pay the shopper for it and perhaps Gap would gain more in the long run by paying up and giving the shopper some advice as to where they went wrong and how to improve their performance in future, as I got from Tern when I first started out. It probably won't take long for people to realise that only reports that are less than perfect for the client get scrutinised in this way and this is clearly open to abuse.

I realise that Tern and Gap are polar opposite in terms of the experience they provide for shoppers and just by volume of reports, Gap can't give feedback to everyone but it does seem that Gap would rather save some money and alienate their shoppers than look at the more long term picture. This combined with their regular cull of more experienced shoppers and the rather insulting terminology in some of their reports - before completing a chicken job for example one of the questions was something like "Not obtaining the name of the server gives the impression that a. I can't be bothered b. I visited the wrong outlet c. I don't take the job seriously or d. All of the above." Talk about condisending, as a receipt is required anyway are they seriously suggesting people will go to the trouble to somehow doctor the receipt for the sake of a free fried chicken meal? I almost cancelled the job rather than click on the "right" answer, d.

Sorry, this is a bit of a rant and people are obiously fond of Gap and are going to defend their way of doing things and when you actually get into a conversation with some of the staff members they do come accross as being polite, professional and friendly but this is sometwhat at odds with the way the company conducts itself. They are one of the first agencies that most new shoppers join and I think it gives a terrible first impression of the industry as a whole.

OK, rant over!

jen_br

nehpets81 wrote: »

While this is definitely logical, I think the inference here was that Gap would still use the report. Whether they do or not is very difficult to determine, BUT if they do still use the report I think it is a bit morally dubious to not pay the shopper for it and perhaps Gap would gain more in the long run by paying up and giving the shopper some advice as to where they went wrong and how to improve their performance in future, as I got from Tern when I first started out. It probably won't take long for people to realise that only reports that are less than perfect for the client get scrutinised in this way and this is clearly open to abuse.
!

Again it will never be proven if they submitted the report-- maybe they did and burger said we aren't paying you for it.. So gap lost money too who knows!

Your right Tern and GAP are polar opposites, but I guess with gap when your clients are "fast food" and cheap and cheerful so is the quality? they are dealing with burgers around the world, and im guessing its not an easy gig... Whereas Tern offer a more personal service, with small clients.

Sadly, the shopper will just have to "lump it" and read the briefing notes better. In the real world a boss would only tell you to do something once right?

nehpets81

jen_br wrote: »

Sadly, the shopper will just have to "lump it" and read the briefing notes better. In the real world a boss would only tell you to do something once right?

Not sure about that, I'm pretty sure if I did something wrong my boss would sit me down to discuss how to avoid it happening in the future. Also, his instructions would be a bit more concise than the Gap briefing notes - the chicken and pizza ones seem to have been knocked up in someone's lunch hour and certainly don't seemt to have been proofread. Still better than the Amber Arch ones tho...

Totally agree with your comments about the burger contract not being logistically easy to undertake - there must be thousands around the world to try and coordinate which must be a nightmare. I can see why a client would want standard reports around the world but I wonder, given the comments of the new head honcho at Waterstones and others recently that they are going a lot more local, that they might get more value from taylor made reports and MS companies to each individual region/market. Just a thought.

jen_br

Agree, I hope to see big contracts go to the little guys

tattybonce

Seems to me a few people on here are worshipping GAP like Gods or something. I worked for them for years but I did start to put on weight. Oh, and the reason I did not get paid for one job I did was because the BURGER PLACE gave me the wrong flavoured drink with a meal, which I queried which, according to my briefing notes, I was supposed to do. Then I submitted my report and GAP said I should NOT have queried it. You won't win with them. They seem to always take the clients side, especially when you do a negative report. I don't see the point in lying and I was being paid to do a job. At the end I was waiting almost two months to get paid and I started to query the fact if GAP were actually making any money as they were getting slower in paying its employers. Just google GAP reviews on Google as they have really gone down lately. The proof is in the pudding.