The mystery shopping thread - part 4

janiusbaktus

Wow, this is weird!!!

Just now, after days of the job being stuck in my account like I described above, I can now set the date and get past that stage!

Do you think they have someone monitoring this thread...

sinderella_2

Timmne wrote: »

(I am writing this whilst sitting doing a TNS coffee job! )

ooooh get you and your iphone!;)

actually, on a serious note, all this talk of gfk and tns merging is a shock to me. Today (during my 'mammoth' ms session I managed to mess up 2 out of 5 shops. It has never happened before and could be something to do with parents getting stuck coming back from a visit and having to take 3 small kids out in the lashing rain. Stressful! One I messed up was TNS and I'm thinking: "They might say they don't want my services any more. Which felt like a bum*er then I thought: "Well I've always done great work for GfK so at least they'll still want me..."

Mm. Oh dear. They'll compare notes and think I'm 2 different people...

ellie9ellie

Can't sleep so I've given up and come downstairs. I'm going to update my spreadsheet - that should make me sleepy. Anyone having problems logging in to ABA-I. I can log in but as soon as I try to go into search, update details - anything it asks me for my user name and password again and I just can't get into anything!

ellie9ellie

Can anyone answer my query on expenses please. Say if one MS company paid a £10 fee and a £10 reimbursement - total £20.00 and my mileage worked out at £10.00 do I class that as a £10.00 profit (taking into consideration the reimbursement) or would it just be break even (fee - mileage = £0). Thanks.

Also if you had a MS job on but you were going to the same place anyway, say to shop, would you still claim the mileage?

(It's 06:15am - way too early for my brain to be working properly yet!!!)

SJW

mimi1234 wrote: »

Can someone please give me the link for ABA-I? Is this the pants one where they do clothes shops that never actually appear on their website or have I just gone bonkers now? I'm sure people say they do petrol.

www.aba-i.co.uk

bobthego

janiusbaktus wrote: »

I selected an assignment for a sandwich shop which I have to do tomorrow (Sunday). When I try to select a job date, there is just a message saying: "You must now contact *name* on *number* to enable you to proceed."

janiusbaktus - I have had this too, but when I phoned up they told me it was because there were 2 of the same company very close to each other and they just wanted to make sure that I went to the right one, I hope this helps

catwoman150

Does anyone know how long BARE take to proofread the reports that you have submitted? I submitted mine last wednesday and heard nothing yet.

amboy

catwoman150 wrote: »

Does anyone know how long BARE take to proofread the reports that you have submitted? I submitted mine last wednesday and heard nothing yet.

In my experience they can take from proofing it the day after submission or like one of mine, still waiting two weeks after completing.

They are a law to themselves and I think the editors they use have deadlines to proof various assignments.

catwoman150

amboy wrote: »

In my experience they can take from proofing it the day after submission or like one of mine, still waiting two weeks after completing.

They are a law to themselves and I think the editors they use have deadlines to proof various assignments.

Ok then not too worry. I just don't do a lot of assignments for them and I don't want to keep checking their website for the next couple of weeks thats all.

jobbingmusician

janiusbaktus wrote: »

I have another question about RE's strange assignment process:

I selected an assignment for a sandwich shop which I have to do tomorrow (Sunday). When I try to select a job date, there is just a message saying: "You must now contact *name* on *number* to enable you to proceed."

I called them on Friday during office hours, but just got a message saying that they could not take my call. I have emailed them as well, but no reply yet.

The only date available to do the job is tomorrow, so I do not realize why I have to call them in order to set the job date?! Luckily it has not been released from my account however.

Do you think that I should go ahead and do the job tomorrow anyway, and hope that it will work out if I call them again on Monday? I do have access to the questionnaire and the job notes. But, if I do not upload the report before midnight tomorrow they might release it from my account without paying me?! :mad: I just find this really weird!!

I had a row with them this week about this. When you ring them, they tell you where the shop is, to make sure you go to the right one. I told them EXACTLY what I thought of them for putting MSers to the expense and trouble of ringing them for information which they could quite easily publish in the instructions, without warning us that we would have the cost of a phone call in order to do this job. At one point the moron at RE told me that a phone call to them (to do a London sandwich shop) was a local call! :mad: I reminded her that she was sitting in an office in Milton Keynes :doh: (I have been to their offices, in the past!)