Mystery Shopping Thread 25 *PLEASE READ THE OP FIRST**PLEASE NO CLIENT NAMES OR FEES

HeavensDevil

amiehall wrote: »

Do people here do a lot of work for IMS? I registered with them ages ago but have never actually done a job as nothing suitable came up. Today I picked up 2 jobs with the intention of doing them on Wednesday, nothing weird. But within 2 hours of picking them up, I have received 2 rude emails expressing disappointment that the project is running behind schedule and threatening non-payment. Not exactly a great start to our relationship, I found it really offputting. Should I persevere with them?

In a word, no.

HappyMJ

amiehall wrote: »

Do people here do a lot of work for IMS? I registered with them ages ago but have never actually done a job as nothing suitable came up. Today I picked up 2 jobs with the intention of doing them on Wednesday, nothing weird. But within 2 hours of picking them up, I have received 2 rude emails expressing disappointment that the project is running behind schedule and threatening non-payment. Not exactly a great start to our relationship, I found it really offputting. Should I persevere with them?

I wouldn't do the jobs now...I'd wouldn't even bother releasing them. Of course you'll be sacked before you even started but 2 rude emails within 2 hours...forget it. bye bye...

skivenov

amiehall wrote: »

Do people here do a lot of work for IMS? I registered with them ages ago but have never actually done a job as nothing suitable came up. Today I picked up 2 jobs with the intention of doing them on Wednesday, nothing weird. But within 2 hours of picking them up, I have received 2 rude emails expressing disappointment that the project is running behind schedule and threatening non-payment. Not exactly a great start to our relationship, I found it really offputting. Should I persevere with them?

They sent that email to everyone who'd been working on the project, mainly aimed at people who were behind on the previous weeks jobs.

There's been a change of staff at IMS towers, and the two new guys really don't know how to talk to contractors. I'm thinking about sacking them off if they don't have an attitude realignment shortly. It's a bit of a shame really because I have had a lot of work of IMS in past months, courtesy of the old allocator, who was lovely. .

I had an email this morning asking if I was doing two jobs or not. I pointed out that I had emailed them last week saying that I needed equipment to do the jobs, as I had been told to dispose of the surplus equipment I had, and that I hadn't heard anything back. :mad:

Polly333

If I was you I would think twice re IMS work. They are certainly the worst organisation when it comes to information and paying what the job is worth. They offer to pay capped milage but expect you to accept this even if it will not cover the journey, they never think about the cost of downloading all the many pages that they send, Car parking tickets have to be submitted, but agreement first, and if you have a coin operated system, which does not give tickets, you have had it! They are all on a different Planet, never really know what the job entails, and it;s Hit or Miss that your instructions are correct.

Many better companies, Try Grass Roots, GFK, ESA, to name a few.

skivenov

I won't say I'm a fan of IMS at present, but, I can't agree with that post.

I have quite a large patch defined on IMS' site, because I do a lot of miles anyway, and I've personally had no experience of them expecting me to accept any job. It's contracting, you take what works for you, and if it doesn't, you don't.

I can't comment on ESA because I'm not registered with them. However, I wouldn't compare GRG or GFK to IMS for a minute. I've made about enough for a fish supper off GRG in 2 months, whereas I've made a second wage off IMS in one month. And since when did GRG or GFK pay milage or parking without being asked?

The thing with talking about IMS on here is their work is more FM/merchandising than MS, so I wouldn't expect someone walking into it with no merchandising experience to find it easy. I did a follow-up on one of someone else's calls who the store said had been in struggling for an hour to do a 20 minute assignment. I took one look at the fixture, flipped two shelves around, dropped one a notch, sited the unit, had a bit of a chat, got signed off, bought lunch, and was still in and out in 20 minutes.

The wider industry we operate in is very much horses for courses. Look at what you're expereinced in, what you're prepared to do, what skills you have, how much time and effort you're prepared to put in and how much you expect to earn.

I personally expect to earn a good 3 figure sum a month of profit (not turn over) doing this stuff on top of my day job. You can't achieve that by doing a few slappers, banks and GAPburgers.

skivenov

As for printing costs, I probably use half a ream of paper a month. I print both sides, on an £80 laserjet. For a lot of jobs (although not normally IMS), you can print 2 pages a side and still read it.

Paper's about £3 a ream from Asda or Morrisons, a recycled toner is about a tenner off ebay and does 5000 sides of print, so I'd say my monthly printing costs are about £3 for everything including replacing the printer every 2 years (although it's 3 years old and going strong). I'll let clients off that, and stick it on my tax return as an expense.

Polly333

The main thing with any job, it has to be planned, and everything should be as the job details, in answer to you 'Skiveno', you may just be lucky that the jobs they give you are well planned and organised.
I have been a merchandiser for over 10 years and work as a MS for over 14 companies ( it is true not much from some) but what I said about IMS, I still say they are the worst. if you are earning a lot from them and find the assignments don't take as long as they suggested, perhaps you are lucky....I have been sent to many Bank assignments, where I have remained for over 2 hours, when they suggested the job will only take 15 minutes!...I have had to justify everything I do, but try to speak on the phone to any of them...nigh on impossible. No, they are the worse as far as being professional.:money:

skivenov

At risk of talking merch'ing too much on a MS thread.

I did one IMS bank job, once, and made the decision in evalution not to ever touch one again. As Whitelabel said about something else the other day. Once bitten, twice shy.

I've been a merchandiser for a similar amount of time to yourself (so I can't be that lucky ), although up until this year, my work was mostly mostly SD as opposed to FM. Years of bad instructions, poor support and gaffers who've never seen a can of beans.

Do the prep, think ahead, anticipate the problems, ask the questions up front, hear the answers, decide whether there's anything useful in the answers.

Onsite, stand and stare, assess the job, the safety implications, the methods by which you could achieve the objectives, and how would be the most efficient method.

If the job isn't going to plan, don't be afraid to admit it. Stand back, reassess, if that isn't working, make the area safe and walk away from it for ten minutes.

Back in the car, ask yourself how it went, what you did right, what you did wrong, what there must be an easier way of doing. Remember it or write it down for the future.

If I'm doing a wave of visits, I normally do one on the first day, go home, write it all up, have an epiphany about what I'm doing wrong, slap myself, and do the rest the obvious easier way that I never thought of later in the week.

Oh, and if a job clearly can't be achieved in the time available. Tell em, politely, but in no uncertain terms. I've done this on crate counts (gone in, walked the shopfloor, realised not a hope in hell of doing it in the time allowed), and received mileage and a partial fee for my time.

weeg

Going back to ESA. Anyone here do TPA for them? my pay doesn't show for the 27th. Not happy.

JohnnyG

Just checked my ESA pay statement and, glad to say, it all looks in order

Purchase reimbursement figure shown includes both ticket and postage cost.