Mystery Shopping Thread 24 *PLEASE READ THE OP FIRST**PLEASE NO CLIENT NAMES OR FEES

MysteryMe

Sounds like they sent you back someone else's report?

whitelabel

Big_Graeme wrote: »

The BARE computer audits? Yup, a massive amount of data to capture in stores that were so quiet it was hard to hide.

is fee based on store size or something else, 1/2 of the ones i can see are just over a 5th of the fee of some others yet brief the same...

PeteW

whitelabel wrote: »

is fee based on store size or something else, 1/2 of the ones i can see are just over a 5th of the fee of some others yet brief the same...

They're two different assignment, one is checking all that clients computers (8 or so) the other is checking every PC in the store (100+)

Boredupnorth

Both are straightforward one just takes a lot more thinking about. The larger one I just walked the store and recorded everything on the phone. Worked a treat and ended up not taking too long. The first one I tried to type in an email, my head almost exploded!

sasha011

Hi,

I have just registered as self-employed for tax purposes but am still confused with claiming expenses. I understand you need to make a note of cost to you to carry out a job so if for example you done a restaurant shop and the brief was for two people to go and order the following:

one starter
two main meals
one dessert
one soft drink

then would I put expenses down for these items but not for any extras that were ordered (for example another drink)?

sasha011

Also, I understand you can claim 45p a mile but would this be for a round journey, so if it was 10 miles there and 10 miles to return home can you claim for 20 miles?

Lil_Me_2

sasha011 wrote: »

Also, I understand you can claim 45p a mile but would this be for a round journey, so if it was 10 miles there and 10 miles to return home can you claim for 20 miles?

Yes you can claim the full 20 miles, as long as the purpose was solely for business. So if you normally drive 16 miles to your usual work and back, but you've driven a further 4 miles round trip to a MSing job, then you can only claim the 4 miles extra.

Otherwise I'd be more than happy to pick up one MSing job in Cornwall and claim the full mileage

Lil_Me_2

sasha011 wrote: »

Hi,

I have just registered as self-employed for tax purposes but am still confused with claiming expenses. I understand you need to make a note of cost to you to carry out a job so if for example you done a restaurant shop and the brief was for two people to go and order the following:

one starter
two main meals
one dessert
one soft drink

then would I put expenses down for these items but not for any extras that were ordered (for example another drink)?

You definitely can't claim anything extra, and whether you can claim the rest will also depend on the circumstances of the job. Misssarahleigh wrote an excellent post when she questioned HMRC about it - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=47293809&postcount=3814

Siouxsie32

Aaaaargh! What an action packed 3 days :money:

Day 1: Had a trip to London for a busy day MSing which all went a bit Pete Tong when someone threw themselves under a train and I was delayed for 3 hours. Result: Managed to do a lot of my visits but had to postpone a few.

Day 2: Another busy day with 2 Gapburgers in the same timeframe. Again, going well til I dropped and smashed my phone and lost the timings! Result: a reshopped burger visit to be squeezed in the following day.

Day 3: Burger for breakfast, reshopped burger for lunch, trip to London to complete the 2 visits I missed on Day 1 plus a circuit of GFK travel visits which couldn't be started until mid afternoon and had to be completed by 8 o'clock. Result: all went beautifully (stressful, but according to plan) until I encountered a long queue and ended up missing a station by 4 minutes :mad: It was the circuit where you have to complete all the visits to get paid so I abandoned the mid-circuit and headed home.

I'm not making light of the fact that someone's day was so bad, that throwing himself under a train was the best thing he could think of doing. In hindsight, I should probably just have cancelled the visits I couldn't do on Day 1 because of this. I just didn't want to let them down, and also I thought there would be enough time to squeeze it all in today.

Has anyone done any of these GFK circuits? It's listed as 6 separate visits, but it's one job. I don't know whether to cancel the assignment on the website or contact them and explain why I've not completed it, or complete the 3 stations I managed to visit and cancel the other 3. Any ideas? I'll not get paid for any of it and it'll need a reshop so I suppose there's no point in filling any of it out. Oh, another result of the story is that I have a huge backlog of reports to do before bedtime tonight :eek::eek:

...and an expanding waistline due to 4 burgers in the space of 24 hours :eek:

whitelabel

remember... you dont have to eat all the burger and fries....