Mystery Shopping Thread 20 **PLEASE DO NOT MENTION CLIENT NAMES OR FEES ON HERE**

Monkeynut

poor_student138 wrote: »

I keep seeing people mentioning ESA. Are they worth me signing up to?

They are all worth signing up with really. Nothing to lose from being with more companies, just means you will have more available to choose from.

ESA fees have gone down quite a lot lately, like most though really, and they can be a pain when they have jobs that need doing as they phone lots, and a lot of their staff do sound like they have only just crash landed on this planet, or were indeed only born yesterday.
But you might as well sign up and have a look for yourself. Their reports do tend to be pretty quick though to be fair, as they are mostly tick box type questions.

dazza.mk

Monkeynut wrote: »

They are all worth signing up with really. Nothing to lose from being with more companies, just means you will have more available to choose from.

ESA fees have gone down quite a lot lately, like most though really, and they can be a pain when they have jobs that need doing as they phone lots, and a lot of their staff do sound like they have only just crash landed on this planet, or were indeed only born yesterday.
But you might as well sign up and have a look for yourself. Their reports do tend to be pretty quick though to be fair, as they are mostly tick box type questions.

Although make sure you check out the photo requirements for their trophy clients stores before you accept a job for the given fee.

poor_student138

Thanks I'll sign up to them as well then. That's a good point, the more I sign up to, the more chance I'll have of getting assignments. It's just a case of remembering to check them all!

MysteryMe

Morning all, just joined the forum though have been laughing with tears in my eyes at reading several of the posts. Can definitely relate to floor shows and feeling like a right numpty asking stupid questions in supermarkets!

I've not been MS long, about 6 months and signed up with most on the front page. My favs are the GFK banks and the quick TNS supermarkets. I don't do dining shops or ten pin bowling on my own!

*manzy*

Several phone calls from ESA yesterday, mostly the usual - jobs too far away for a generous extra 25p type thing!! But the second phone call was a local clothes store that I was actually planning on going to this afternoon anyway to get a present for my mother in law. So even though ESA annoy the crap outta me, I thought I may as well do this one, and get paid a bit to go somewhere I'd have been anyway, and the reimbursement almost covers the cardigan I was planning on buying. So all good.

But I've just looked at the brief and it's ridiculous. Asking the same question in about 6 different departments - that's not going to look at all suspicious is it! It's only a fairly small branch, so the departments are just the left side, the right side, and the back wall, all visible to each other.

Can't decide whether to just drop it, or to stick it out anyway and get the MiL's present paid for.

Wait until you see the report..you'll be losing the will to live:D

nanaw

Hi there,
I am sure that some else asked this question before but I cannot find an aswer.
If you work full time is it easy and straigh forward to work as a self employed as well? Do I need to pay extra tax? What can I claim as a self employed?
Many thanks

yonk

There is a tax section on the first page of this thread.

You basically pay PAYE in your job and then complete a tax return to cover your MS earnings and it should all work out ok. You have to register with HMRC too. It's not too onerous and you can set off expenses against profit.

ChickenGirl

Has anyone ever had any problems with cheques from Catalyst?

System

debsjc, you need to empty your PM inbox so you can receive a message from me. Its full.

System

poor_student138 wrote: »

I keep seeing people mentioning ESA. Are they worth me signing up to?

The worst company by far.