Mystery Shopping Thread 21 *PLEASE READ THE OP FIRST**PLEASE NO CLIENT NAMES OR FEES*

MysteryMe

mimi1234 wrote: »

I have not really had any major problems with RM. The allocators are friendly and helpful bar one of them who is a bit of a moo! (Has anyone noticed they ALWAYS say Good Afternoon even when you call them even at 9am?). They have always paid me on time. The only problem I have with them is they expect us to do VERY URGENT jobs at the drop of a hat for no increase in fee/mileage. I've seen their fees drop gradually which is a bummer but I guess it seems to be happening everywhere. The mens shirt shop dropped a £1 and then another 50p over the last 2 years! Boohoo.

What are your thoughts on PIP and UKIMS? I'm getting increasingly frustrated with both as I never get any work from them (I'm not going to the cheap clothes shop for PIP, it's sooooooo not me, and the posh chocolates get pinched as soon as they go on!) and I am beginning to think about deactivating my accounts with both. Discuss.....

But we have a post on this thread that says that Retail Maxim do offer mileage and printing costs etc for urgent jobs so why do they treat some of their shoppers with little regard? Happy for those that do well out of them, happy that the rest of their shoppers are now in a better position to judge whether they are a MSC they would bother going out of their way to accomodate.

Don't know about UKIM.

I find PiP hit and miss. Some jobs are really asking a lot for the fee, others are not so bad.

They once offered a home insurance quote job which turned out outragous for the fee and the kitchen one also seems like hell. I've not done the cheap clothing as it seems not worth it if you are not wanting anything from the store.

I've done posh shoes, chocs and new cars and they are straightforward enough. DIY depends on the scenario but they can be useful fillers. They do a posh ish clothes store but I'm too fat to do it

jen_br

UKIMS is more merchandising.

mimi1234

MysteryMe wrote: »

But we have a post on this thread that says that Retail Maxim do offer mileage and printing costs etc for urgent jobs so why do they treat some of their shoppers with little regard?

They do a posh ish clothes store but I'm too fat to do it

Oh do they now. How rude. I never get offered mileage or anything for VERY URGENT ones. They do sometimes pay mileage on normal visits, but they are not dumb. For example, visiting a concession for them normally gives £12, but they only offer mileage when they put 3 concessions together and reduce the fee for each one to £8, so you only get £24 for doing 3 and then the travel which is capped at about £8 (£24 + £8 is still less than 3 x £12), so technically you are not really getting any mileage at all. (Figures I have used are just numbers, RM pay a lot lot less than these, and sorry for going all Carol Vorderman on you again, my bad!). I can remember back in the day when RM did the cookies, and they gave you mileage on top of a very full figured reimbursement and fee. *swoon*

I think I am sending PIP to Room 101. I'm not really going to do any visits for them in the near future.

Izi21

I quite like RM, I get a decent number of visits from them in the month. They have offered me mileage on top for urgent jobs in the past. I really like the reports - they are straightforward and easy to do. I try to combine the visits with others on the same day and when I do a React visit on the same day I get my travel reimbursed so can keep all the fee.

I think I've finished for the year now. Did a couple of historical palaces today and have got an indoor play centre visit at the end of December. I don't fancy going out to the shops in the xmas rush now.

proshopper

ljshopper wrote: »

Hi Proshopper,

Was that the po job ?

If it was could you send me the pdf. I want to do it half an hour ago and I will probably get a response on monday.

I can sort out the code with them later.

lj

Sorry, Sir, for the delay! I have sent pdf to you on FB.

Trevor64_2

mimi1234 wrote: »

Oh do they now. How rude. I never get offered mileage or anything for VERY URGENT ones. They do sometimes pay mileage on normal visits, but they are not dumb. For example, visiting a concession for them normally gives £12, but they only offer mileage when they put 3 concessions together and reduce the fee for each one to £8, so you only get £24 for doing 3 and then the travel which is capped at about £8 (£24 + £8 is still less than 3 x £12), so technically you are not really getting any mileage at all. (Figures I have used are just numbers, RM pay a lot lot less than these, and sorry for going all Carol Vorderman on you again, my bad!). I can remember back in the day when RM did the cookies, and they gave you mileage on top of a very full figured reimbursement and fee. *swoon*

I think I am sending PIP to Room 101. I'm not really going to do any visits for them in the near future.

Oddly enough I was thinking the same thing about PiP but have just done my first job for them today. It was a DIY place on the way to my other jobs and I needed hacksaw blades anyway.
I had a couple of last minute jobs for REACT today too so travel covered :T

Just checking my email I notice PiP are whacking a shedload of bonus onto their car jobs which turns it into a decent fee. None near me though :mad:

So I may hang onto them for a bit. I've deactivated Bare this week since I never get any work from them and they don't seem like the most reliable of payers judging by recent posts on here.

As for RM; I still love em coz they just keep throwing money at me.

Flygirl767

I have worked for RM for about 6 years and have never once been offered extra mileage so Trevor you are definitely in the minority..do you live somewhere very remote with no other shoppers?! I never help them with last minute jobs unless I was going there anyway for this very reason. The only thing they ever offer me is other jobs in the area to make it worth my while going to wherever.

mimi1234

Trevor64 wrote: »

So I may hang onto them for a bit. I've deactivated Bare this week since I never get any work from them and they don't seem like the most reliable of payers judging by recent posts on here

Well I know PIP used to do a posh restaurant and hotel, but looks like they lost that one as I have not seen it in ages. I have deactivated with them now so what the hell.

BARE always seem to pay me on time (2 months after visit) and I get quite well with Lady Gustafsson, so I have no complaints. I normally get what I want from them.

I was mostly surprised with how many people don't like RM. Like I said, I have no major problems with them, but I thought they were one of the better companies.

Many thanks to whoever dropped a GR visit. I can fit it nicely into my lunch hour on Monday. Woooooh!

sparklysaver

I've not done enough with any of them to judge which I like best, really, but I've finally got myself registered with GfK and was surprised at the jobs which showed up for me to select from; one is about 5 minutes walk from my house and, even though it's Saturday morning the week before Christmas, it's a reasonable fee and no worries about carparking so I'm doing it.

The others were all a MINIMUM of 40 miles away! Some were over 50 miles away, and the fees were not large, so I've obviously declined them. Is this normal for them? There's no way I'd travel those sorts of distances for a small standard fee and no mileage, surely no-one would? :shocked:

MysteryMe

Some shoppers travel around in the course of the day job or visiting friends family etc and some shoppers do this full time so make a circuit of shops to make it worth while. It may be that your more local jobs have already been taken so hopefully when the next wave comes up you will see more that are local to you.