Mystery Shopping Thread 22 *PLEASE READ THE OP FIRST**PLEASE NO CLIENT NAMES OR FEES*

sparklysaver

Lovely visit today, shopping somewhere I'd never go normally (WAY out of my price range) but my god the staff could not have been more helpful or charming. If only I'd had a couple of hundred quid hanging around I'd probably have bought the amazing outfit that the sales assistant spent an age tracking down and putting together for me. I suppose that's the service people who usually shop in these sorts of places come to expect. When I win the lottery I'll definitely be back.

Funnily enough, that visit paid more than 4 times the RA clothes shop fee, and I didn't have to make a purchase or return it either. And it would have been much quicker if I wasn't enjoying myself so much. :rotfl:

lclose62

And relax. Hectic few days round Birmingham and the Black Country! Baguettes, travel, and frozen shops for ESA (45 ish in total). Just finished the reports for the final lot of frozen today. Very good service in the freezer shops, not a bad report amongst them. I've enjoyed them actually, nice easy jobs- staff definately knew they were being shopped though IMHO, very OTT with the "is there anything else I can help you with?" !!!! Everyone had fun the past couple of days?

sparklysaver

lclose62 wrote: »

Hectic few days round Birmingham and the Black Country! Baguettes, travel, and frozen shops for ESA (45 ish in total).

Hope you more experienced types don't mind me asking; does being able to do that many shops in a short time just come with practice, or did you find it relatively easy to do lots in a day when you started? I've been doing this part-time for about 4 months now, and although I've got a lot faster at writing the reports, I'm still finding that my head's buzzing after a few visits and I'm struggling to retain all the information I need to.

I did 7 shops today - 2 biggies with the full sales experience and 5 basic in and out tick-box ones - and I'm not entirely sure I could have done much more. Is that maybe just my personal limit?

Big_Graeme

serendipity2706 wrote: »

Would someone who is a platinum on the food place we mustn't talk about let me know if any of Mimi's new alerts are showing for Scotland- I've just gone back to platinum after a cancellation which demoted me, and can't see any Latin Anthonies at all. Many thanks (Not that I want any- just want to know if I should be seeing them)

Aha, now I get that coded message, those visits show for silver and gold too now due to the number of visits they need.

Remember you can't visit within 3 months of a previous visit and now they don't show if you are inside that limit, I am able to do one in this wave and nothing is showing for Scotland as a gold shopper.

N.I.M

sparklysaver wrote: »

I did 7 shops today - 2 biggies with the full sales experience and 5 basic in and out tick-box ones - and I'm not entirely sure I could have done much more. Is that maybe just my personal limit?

You'll find it gets easier with time. I can now do in a morning what took me a day when I was 4 months in.

borders

I did 15 egg shops one day, plus a couple of other shops. By the end of it they had all merged into one. Thankfully the reports got passed ok and they didnt ask me for any more details about any of the shops. I really would have struggled to have remembered what happened where. Since then I've limited myself to how many I do, especially when it's the same scenario over and over.

HeavensDevil

Saturday morning, had a "while you were out" Royal Mail card through the door. I picked the item up yesterday (luckily I live near the depot, plus it was on my way to a frozen shop) - it was only a blooming fleece! !!!!!!?? I did that job twice when the project began, on a non-commital basis, then pulled out as they weren't sending me the briefing on time. What shall I do with it? I will be passing one of the stores next week, shall I leave it there for the person that's now doing it?

Also, can anyone tell me if/when they expect to be paid for the first two dates? I understand the company have moved to automatic payments now, but concerned I will have to persue payment, as I've had no direct contact with them whatsoever.

the_cake

lclose62 wrote: »

And relax. Hectic few days round Birmingham and the Black Country! Baguettes, travel, and frozen shops for ESA (45 ish in total). Just finished the reports for the final lot of frozen today. Very good service in the freezer shops, not a bad report amongst them. I've enjoyed them actually, nice easy jobs- staff definately knew they were being shopped though IMHO, very OTT with the "is there anything else I can help you with?" !!!! Everyone had fun the past couple of days?

Absolutely agree with you - excellent service, nice staff, no problems at all. The report is quick, sensible questions - mind you, that fee won't make us rich. And the baguettes are delicious .... thanks, ESA, nice to have a change from all those eggs!

N.I.M

Any of my competitors gotten that fleece job email?

DevilsAdvocate1

Workie_Ticket wrote: »

How much would it cost to set your self up for this? I have done some video work with MS company equipment and it was quite well paid. Is there a lot of work out there?

I don't think there is much. I bought my own equipment just over a year ago and if I knew that what I know now, I don't think I would bother.

I had the invoice out the other day when I was doing my tax return. It cost around £600. On top of this I have bought a couple of tops which I have altered to use with it. I also have bought lots of 4GB and 8GB SD cards. One company I work for has said that they prefer work being sent off on memory sticks as they are more reliable, so I've just bought 2 of those.

Another company wants you to upload directly onto their website. However, as the files are around 5GB each I was having loads of problems. I did 5 visits for them this month, so I've just sent off 5 8GB SD cards to them. I don't have any more visits booked, so luckily I don't need them.

I have applied for 4 video shops today (with Retail Maxim) and didn't get any, I rang them within 30 minutes of the email being sent. Tern, who encouraged me to buy the equipment only assigned 10 calls to me during the 12 months since I bought the equipment.

Overall, I am only averaging around 3 video visits a month. Some months (such as November and so far February) I don't get any at all.

All the companies I work for have given me good feedback and the only visits not passed for payment have been ones where my equipment has failed. Tern have scored my video visits between an 8 and a 10 for each of them. So I don't think its my work which is the problem.