Maximising income - Mystery Shopping? Surveys? (Part Three)

Careful_with_that_Axe

bylromarha wrote: »

Are any of you changing mobile phone POS stands in a high street store this week? Allocated through a MS company, which I found bizarre, but hey-ho...it's money.

Just had my delivery of the materials and it's rather big. Anyone have any practical ideas on how to transport the materials from the car park to the store? About 50% of the stores I'm doing have their nearest parking a 5 minute walk away and I'm wondering how I'm going to carry all the things I need to take with me!

Yes, I did this one last week. If you open the bigger package, the materials inside are actually much smaller. Be careful of the covers on the sticky bit of velcro on the back as some of mine had come adrift anf one of them damaged one of the other POS signage.
Take a large handbag (assuming you're female!) and the dummy handsets and associated cards should fit in there. Do you have one of the larger carrier bags from M&S or somewhere? The insides of the bigger parcel should fit in that. Otherwise, they are wrapped in bubble wrap (pop, pop, pop ) and you can sellotape the ends so things don't drop out and just carry them under your arm.

Hope your manager is helful - mine let me do the whole thing while talking to his friends.

Good luck and it's not half as complicated as it seems.

leila1

mimi1234 wrote: »

I would love to do Focus Groups, but they are all in London or for older people. Not fair!

Older? I just had an invite to one (age from 21) about cars, worth 25 Gap visits! but it is in London.

ilean

Looking for shoppers under 40 yrs of age with excel to do bar visits in the following areas:

BARNSLEY
BRADFORD
DURHAM
EXETER
GRIMSBY
MIDDLESBROUGH
NEWQUAY
SALISBURY
SWINDON

Thanks
Eflaherty1@yahoo.co.uk

Becles

leila1 wrote: »

How do you find it though when you need to get stock form the stock room and need someone to show you where things are? Sometimes the staff make me feel as a proper nuisance!

You have to develop a very thick skin and be persistant, especially if you get to deal with managers who talk down at you.

Even when they treat you as a nusiance, be smiley and say thank you for help etc. Play on the fact that you are in there to help them. If you're doing stores on a regular basis your face will get known and they are more friendly towards you if you've been polite and helpful to them.

Just wanted to comment on taking a large handbag. If you need to go in the stock room or warehouse, this might cause problems as some stores don't allow bags in for security reasons and sometimes there are no safe places to leave them. I've got an A4 document wallet with a zipped pocket on for my purse, phone and keys. I tend to use that and not take a handbag with me at all on merchandising calls.

TractorGirl327

newmoneysaver wrote: »

This has just been posted on another forum regarding an email being sent by TNS:

I am writing to inform you that from 5th April 2008, TNS is aiming to change the status of Mystery Shoppers from Casual Workers to Independent Contractors.

I haven't received mine yet, but it doesn't look good.

Yes, I've had it too. The whole email:

Mrs Forename Surname

Street
Town
County
Postcode


5th March 2008

Dear Surname

I am writing to inform you that from 5th April 2008, TNS is aiming to change the status of Mystery Shoppers from Casual Workers to Independent Contractors. The decision has been taken to move to Independent Contractor status with the aim of improving business efficiency and being consistent with how the remainder of the industry operates.

The impact of this on you is that from 5th April 2008, your remuneration will be paid gross of PAYE and no National Insurance will be charged. You will need to contact your local tax office as you will be personally responsible for declaring your income to HMR&C.

The purpose of this letter is to give you the opportunity to provide feedback and raise any issues you have regarding this change. If you would like to discuss this change any further please email the following address outlining your query:[URL="blocked::mailto:ms.independentqueries@tns-global.com"]emailaddress[/URL] . Please ensure you include your contact details and you will then be contacted as soon as possible with a response. Please provide all feedback by 1st April 2008.

You will receive new terms and conditions outlining your Independent Contractor status with effect from 6th April 2008.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Yours sincerely


Note the glaring grammatical error in the email - addressed to just my surname. Not gonna give my real name but, say, it was Jane Smith, it would say Dear Smith. Not a good start ....

I'm not actually that bothered. I'm self employed already with the other MS companies so it'll actually make it easier for me if they are all the same!

TG

TractorGirl327

iNath wrote: »

Thanks for that, just picked one up for next week (I prefer the burgers to GAP's greasy burgers )

Me too, but their fries arent as good!!!

iNath

Got mine about half an hour ago, reads as follows:

wrote:

I am writing to inform you that from 5th April 2008, TNS is aiming to change the status of Mystery Shoppers from Casual Workers to Independent Contractors. The decision has been taken to move to Independent Contractor status with the aim of improving business efficiency and being consistent with how the remainder of the industry operates.
The impact of this on you is that from 5th April 2008, your remuneration will be paid gross of PAYE and no National Insurance will be charged. You will need to contact your local tax office as you will be personally responsible for declaring your income to HMR&C.

The purpose of this letter is to give you the opportunity to provide feedback and raise any issues you have regarding this change. If you would like to discuss this change any further please email the following address outlining your query:****************. Please ensure you include your contact details and you will then be contacted as soon as possible with a response. Please provide all feedback by 1st April 2008.

You will receive new terms and conditions outlining your Independent Contractor status with effect from 6th April 2008.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Yours sincerely

That's more taxes for me to sort out... :rolleyes:

EDIT: TractorGirl beat me to it

Careful_with_that_Axe

Becles wrote: »

Just wanted to comment on taking a large handbag. If you need to go in the stock room or warehouse, this might cause problems as some stores don't allow bags in for security reasons and sometimes there are no safe places to leave them. I've got an A4 document wallet with a zipped pocket on for my purse, phone and keys. I tend to use that and not take a handbag with me at all on merchandising calls.

Understand your comment. I use the handbag just to carry materials pertinent to the MS, so it's empty of purse, phone etc.

redcar_2

Lots of supermarkets on TNS at the moment.

lv1109

Hi all,

I've done my first mystery shop now for a pub that serves food at the weekend for TNS! I was sooo nervous but I got through it!!

I have an assignment for BARE this weekend and its for a bar in a hotel. I am allowed to take a guest. I have to have 2 mixed alcoholic drinks and my guest may also have 2 mixed alcoholic drinks. The only problem is it is too far from home to not take the car. My guest will therefore drive. Do you think its ok if the guest just has soft drinks? I am assuming they say the guest is allowed the alcoholic drinks so that the drinks are paid for if they are alcohol but it doesn't say if they can just have soft drinks. It will be cheaper for them anyway! If anyone can help me on this rather than me having to contact them it would be great!

I've had my TNS e mail too about going self-employed - that must be the last PAYE one there was. Never mind- as I am due to do a BARE job I will be registering with HMRC anyway.

This forum is so addictive! Thanks in advance for your help!