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

Workie_Ticket

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?

I found that in the freezer shops as well.

jen_br

The problem with the freezer shops is the SAME questions are being asked so they know quaterly that as soon as someone asks them where X item is they clue in!

And when you don't get asked for the bonus card you have to ask what it is... again not many people do that!

DevilsAdvocate1

jen_br wrote: »

The problem with the freezer shops is the SAME questions are being asked so they know quaterly that as soon as someone asks them where X item is they clue in!

And when you don't get asked for the bonus card you have to ask what it is... again not many people do that!

It was great that they changed the baguette shops this time. I felt that I was treated as a proper customer in that I hardly spoken to a the till!

lclose62

Boredupnorth wrote: »

Not sure why you think you get the reimbursement on top of the fee, It does not say anything about it in the brief and has always been an all inclusive fee.

I'm sure it said "we will reimburse up to £x" in the job outline (only a very small reimbursement). Ah well if not I only spent a very small amount in each one anyway so no worry. Don't know if you did any, but I wasn't expecting any extra reimbursement for the motorway service jobs ESA did at the start of January, but the email came down about that the other day that it had not been processed correctly, so they were sending the reimbursements out for those separately. I assumed the £x spend for the freezers would get reimbursed on top of the fee like these were supposed to.

TractorGirl327

jen_br wrote: »

The problem with the freezer shops is the SAME questions are being asked so they know quaterly that as soon as someone asks them where X item is they clue in!

And when you don't get asked for the bonus card you have to ask what it is... again not many people do that!

I have to admit that when I do these jobs I dont ask about the item in the briefing notes. Nor make the stupid query they ask us to make. I may as well go in and say "Hello, I', mystery shopping you, can you take me to the chocolate eclairs and tell me if I can microwave them?" :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I still ask a location question and a follow up question. There is nowhere in the report where you have to say what you asked and what the reply was, and this way you can assess the MOS accurately without them twigging that you are MSing them.

HeavensDevil

DevilsAdvocate1 wrote: »

It was great that they changed the baguette shops this time. I felt that I was treated as a proper customer in that I hardly spoken to a the till!

Very true, I was completely blanked at one place whilst the woman chatted to her colleague! I think one did her homework though, or was genuinely very nice and did what she was supposed to - I had one of the alternate bakery items and she was very quick to ask if I had a membership card, and explained it in great detail to me, despite the queue behind me :rotfl:

Did anyone else have trouble getting receipts? Three times I had to go back and ask for an itemised one, as I'd only been given a card receipt. Talk about a giveaway In one of those, someone needed to go into the office and print off a copy on a sheet of A4, with "duplicate" printed across the top - do you think ESA will have any problems with that?

I also had a nice email explaining that a fleece had been sent to me by mistake, what to please do now, and also mentioned when the first payment would be released - think someone at that company is reading this forum and knows who I am! *waves in case they're reading this* Feeling paranoid now

TractorGirl327

Just checking my outstanding payments and yet again Catalyst are late. Did a toy store right at the beginning of December for them. Has anyone received payment for December jobs for them either by Paypal or by cheque?

borders

HeavensDevil wrote: »

Did anyone else have trouble getting receipts? Three times I had to go back and ask for an itemised one, as I'd only been given a card receipt. Talk about a giveaway In one of those, someone needed to go into the office and print off a copy on a sheet of A4, with "duplicate" printed across the top - do you think ESA will have any problems with that?

Shouldn't be a problem. I've had that before and a handwritten receipt. Got paid ok both times.

spender

Tractorgirl, am still waiting for Cataylst, it is over 2 months now since I have completed the job. I used to get payment during the last week of the month but it has stretched further and further into the next month! I still will not accept pay pal because of the fees.

Trevor64_2

TractorGirl327 wrote: »

I have to admit that when I do these jobs I dont ask about the item in the briefing notes. Nor make the stupid query they ask us to make. I may as well go in and say "Hello, I', mystery shopping you, can you take me to the chocolate eclairs and tell me if I can microwave them?" :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I still ask a location question and a follow up question. There is nowhere in the report where you have to say what you asked and what the reply was, and this way you can assess the MOS accurately without them twigging that you are MSing them.

If I remember correctly then that's fine anyway. I'm pretty sure the brief 'suggests' products and questions but leaves it up to you whether you follow this or ask about something else.
Personally I think the frozen garlic baguette question is quite workable because it's a realistic question that somebody might actually ask.

ETA: Or perhaps I'm just developing a baguette fixation