Anybody else surprised about the low payment RBG ( Reality Based Group) is offering on their restaurant shops. I have just done two shops for them and will admit they are super easy as far as the forms to fill out go, but the reimbursement is ridiculous. Both restuaraunts I ate in cost me twice what my reimbursement was and I didn't eat anything expensive. In fact I ate some of the cheapest things listed on their menu. The last one I did was a Taco place and I took my daughter ,our bill was 2 1/2 times the reimbursement and we both drank water, although I had a beer as it was required you sit at the bar so it seems weird to demand that you sit at the bar for the shop if you aren't ordering a drink, particularly in our case when the bar was full and the restaurant was not full so we had to wait.

@aprilredbird wrote:

Anybody else surprised about the low payment RBG ( Reality Based Group) is offering on their restaurant shops. I have just done two shops for them and will admit they are super easy as far as the forms to fill out go, but the reimbursement is ridiculous. Both restuaraunts I ate in cost me twice what my reimbursement was and I didn't eat anything expensive. In fact I ate some of the cheapest things listed on their menu. The last one I did was a Taco place and I took my daughter ,our bill was 2 1/2 times the reimbursement and we both drank water, although I had a beer as it was required you sit at the bar so it seems weird to demand that you sit at the bar for the shop if you aren't ordering a drink, particularly in our case when the bar was full and the restaurant was not full so we had to wait.

While I would love to see a higher reimbursement, no, I am not surprised by the reimbursement. Not sure which taco place you are doing, but I do one with $5 pay and $10 reimbursement. I go by myself when I want a quick meal. I never order a drink, even when I sit at the bar. I usually order one of their specialty tacos and chips and queso and am usually within the $10. I walk away with $5 pay and a short, easy report.

I like the shop MUCH more now than with the previous MSC. When A Closer Look had the same client, the pay was $0 and with a $25 reimbursement, BUT there were a lot of ordering requirements: two drinks, 4 tacos, appetizer and dessert. I was unable to stay within the reimbursement amount just ordering the requirements and then I had a long narrative-heavy report to do. It cost me about $32 to buy required items. Big surprise that ACL could not fill the shops and lost the client. Now there are no required items and the report is a breeze.

I'm sympathetic that it cost you much more to eat than the reimbursement. If I take a shop at a place I'm not familiar with, I always google the menu to see how much it will cost to eat. Most menu prices are online now. Even when a company does not post its menu with prices, I can usually get a good idea of prices by reading online reviews.

Did ACL lose this client recently? I stopped doing these shops when ACL took over from the previous MSC because of all the ordering requirements. Since I don't eat a lot in one seating, I usually eat an appetizer as my meal but ACL wouldn't allow that.

Did the new MSC post the October shops yet or are you talking about September shops?

They lost the client in Spring 2014 if I remember right. I immediately started doing these shops again. Although I love the tacos and have always eaten here regularly on my own dime, I only took the shops for A Closer Look a couple of times. Being forced to order two beverages (they had to be DIFFERENT beverages, so one had to be tea or beer and not two sodas), appetzier, dessert, and 4 tacos was excessive. I don't care for their sodas, so I am happier with water. And I don't want their desserts. I frequently do take someone else and order 4 tacos and the queso, but it really burned me up to be forced to also order dessert and soda that I did not want and go over reimburwsement for the amount of those items that I didn't want.

I have not seen October shops yet. I just did a September breakfast shop with a bonus this morning..

Okay, I must be thinking of a different client. ACL had the client that I am thinking of in August and maybe September of 2016. And the OP mentioned ordering a beer at the bar. The client I am thinking of does sell beer but there is no bar except for the salsa bar.