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

eezyrider7

I did an audit for a pharmacy for ESA the other day and it's currently pending validation. I note that exactly the same audit job has popped up again for the exact same pharamacy - is this normal?

EZ

Catatonia

Fila wrote: »

I am new to this and in the instructions, it specifically asks to name the store employees when I call and when I visit. Wouldn't that give my cover away?
If I call and they don't tell me their name, I will have to ask "What is your name please?". The same if in store, I will have to ask their name out of the blue if they don't wear name tags.
Is there any way to go about getting their names over the phone and instore without them knowing I'm a MS?

Which company is this for? I'm fairly new too, but all the ones I've done have asked you to get a name, or a description if a name is not possible.

I would have thought a phone enquiry would be quite easy, as I always ask for people's names IRL in case I need to get back to them, or if there is a problem later on. I guess in shops it would be similar if they've helped you with something that you're not going to get today - ie if someone shows you some TVs, you could say "I'm going to think about it, but can I have your name so I know who to ask for when I come back?". Bit harder if you have just bought a coffee though!

mimi1234

Can I just ask for people's opinions on AA. I have been with them a year and have only done 2 shops, both of which had immense reports and minimum pay. Has anyone done any super paying shops for them or would I be best sending them to Room 101?

misssarahleigh

Catatonia wrote: »

I have a few tax questions, if anyone would mind giving me a bit of help.

1) I understand that if, say, you do a gap burger, the cost of the burger would not be taxed as it would count towards expenses as you have to buy it to do the job. But there is a bit of a grey area on the jobs which are reimbursement only, especially if you work for a company which does the vast majority of work in this way (eg the Mystery Dining Company). For these jobs, say it's a restaurant meal, would it be fair to do say £30 (total reimbursement for meal) - £7 (cheapest main course which was only requirement for job) = £23 taxable? Or should the whole reimbursement go down as taxable?

Edited to add: in a similar way, if the reimbursement for a gap burger is £x, and you spend 50p less than this due to local prices, would the 50p also be taxable?

2) I assume you can only count travel costs if you wouldn't be there any way - ie if you are in London for work, and you pick up a MS job there too, you can't count travel costs for this?

3) If you don't bother counting travel, printing costs against your profit in the first couple of years, as you don't expect to earn above the taxable limit as you have no other income, would it look suspicious to start counting them in subsequent years when you will be taxed? I.e. if you don't work now, and only do MS, but will be doing MS plus working full time in a couple of years time?

Thank you! I know there is no definite answers for some of this, but was interested in your thoughts.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=47293809&postcount=3814

dazza.mk

mimi1234 wrote: »

Can I just ask for people's opinions on AA. I have been with them a year and have only done 2 shops, both of which had immense reports and minimum pay. Has anyone done any super paying shops for them or would I be best sending them to Room 101?

Hopeless in my opinion, there's only one client I've seen that has been 'worthwhile', as to super paying shops, I've seen a couple of well paying emails when they're desparate, although they were along the lines of £xx if you can get it back to me by lunchtime.

Catatonia

Thanks Sarahleigh. I had found that post while doing a search, but it doesn't seem to cover exactly what I am asking though.

Fila_2

Catatonia wrote: »

Which company is this for? I'm fairly new too, but all the ones I've done have asked you to get a name, or a description if a name is not possible.

I would have thought a phone enquiry would be quite easy, as I always ask for people's names IRL in case I need to get back to them, or if there is a problem later on. I guess in shops it would be similar if they've helped you with something that you're not going to get today - ie if someone shows you some TVs, you could say "I'm going to think about it, but can I have your name so I know who to ask for when I come back?". Bit harder if you have just bought a coffee though!

Its for RE and their client especially requested the names AND description of the sales associate. I normally do not ask for the associates name when calling or visiting a store but I guess if its normal practice it shouldn't be a problem then. Cheers

Monkeynut

mimi1234 wrote: »

Can I just ask for people's opinions on AA. I have been with them a year and have only done 2 shops, both of which had immense reports and minimum pay. Has anyone done any super paying shops for them or would I be best sending them to Room 101?

I've only done one job for them, and was one where they sent me an email to offer double the fee.
It was a car repair service job, and I was in and out in about 3 minutes, and the report was dead simple too, only took 10 mins or so to fill in.

Saying that though, I haven't seen any other jobs worth taking for me. .
I know your policy is to bin 'em if you haven't had any work for a long time etc, but you might as well stay signed up in case something juicy does come up. Nothing to lose after all :cool:

misssarahleigh

Catatonia wrote: »

I have a few tax questions, if anyone would mind giving me a bit of help.

1) I understand that if, say, you do a gap burger, the cost of the burger would not be taxed as it would count towards expenses as you have to buy it to do the job. But there is a bit of a grey area on the jobs which are reimbursement only, especially if you work for a company which does the vast majority of work in this way (eg the Mystery Dining Company). For these jobs, say it's a restaurant meal, would it be fair to do say £30 (total reimbursement for meal) - £7 (cheapest main course which was only requirement for job) = £23 taxable? Or should the whole reimbursement go down as taxable?

Edited to add: in a similar way, if the reimbursement for a gap burger is £x, and you spend 50p less than this due to local prices, would the 50p also be taxable?

2) I assume you can only count travel costs if you wouldn't be there any way - ie if you are in London for work, and you pick up a MS job there too, you can't count travel costs for this?

3) If you don't bother counting travel, printing costs against your profit in the first couple of years, as you don't expect to earn above the taxable limit as you have no other income, would it look suspicious to start counting them in subsequent years when you will be taxed? I.e. if you don't work now, and only do MS, but will be doing MS plus working full time in a couple of years time?

Thank you! I know there is no definite answers for some of this, but was interested in your thoughts.

I'll try again then.

All monies working for the mystery dining company are taxable. Your doing it for the free meal and that alone. There is no wiggle room to say you took the job to get access to fee paying jobs etc as they don't have any. You do it to have a nice meal and therfor all the money they give you is required to have tax paid on it.

As for the burger. Your records should show.

Fee for job
Fee for purchase

Total

Minus cost of food
minus milage
minus parking
minus shop required spend
minus (misc)

=

Total amount of money that is taxable.

2) no, this would be tax evasion. They would view that you are trying to make a substantial loss on a job to lower your profit margin. e.g. if your records showed you spent £50 on a train ticket to go do a sandwhich shop they would see this in a very bad light. I would presume they would also rip apart everything else if they spotted something like this in your records as they would assume you had been fraudulent in other ways as well (unless you have a very very good explanation as to why you spent £50 on a train ticket to get less than a £10 fee)

3) your records should be accuarte regarless of whether you feel your going to make enough to be taxed. And I think it would look rather odd.

mimi1234

Monkeynut wrote: »

I've only done one job for them, and was one where they sent me an email to offer double the fee.
It was a car repair service job, and I was in and out in about 3 minutes, and the report was dead simple too, only took 10 mins or so to fill in.

Saying that though, I haven't seen any other jobs worth taking for me. .
I know your policy is to bin 'em if you haven't had any work for a long time etc, but you might as well stay signed up in case something juicy does come up. Nothing to lose after all :cool:

Thanks DAZZA and MONKEYNUT. I have binned them. Probably the wrong thing to do and there will be heaps of visits in Leeds next week, but it's all a bit pointless. I log on everytime there is an alert or when I get one the hundreds of emails off the woman who allocates their visits and have never seen a thing in my neck of the woods bar the jewellery shop where they pay even less than RE!

Think I am in love with GR. Have done the same supermarket every month for yonks. Perfect