Just wondered how their reports are and if they pay on time.

How is the shop for their popular hamburger chain please????

Thanks in advance everybody.

My experience has been they pay on time, and they want a lot of detail in the narratives.

I've only done one report for them for a popular American cuisine restaurant. I can't say how much narrative they wanted as I tend to write more than less anyway. But I got a thank you card from the editor, which was especially sweet. Plus, I've spoken to Dave, the owner, on the phone a couple times. Both times I'd emailed about an issue I had (or thought I had) and he was quick to call and get it straightened out for me.

Now if I can only remember to check my shopper email more often, I might be able to go back and do that shop again. They also have a massage shop I'd like to try the next time I visit family out of state. They have that chain near me but I haven't seen that client pop up on the email offers so I guess it's a regional thing.

A lot of detailed narrative from my experience. The higher paying or higher end shops may be worth it, but I did a fast casual burger shop for them with a small bonus that I'm not sure I'd be willing to do again. Maybe with a large bonus, but for the base pay it's not worth it, at least not to me.

AlwaysAngie Wrote:
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> I've only done one report for them for a popular
> American cuisine restaurant. I can't say how much
> narrative they wanted as I tend to write more than
> less anyway. But I got a thank you card from the
> editor, which was especially sweet. Plus, I've
> spoken to Dave, the owner, on the phone a couple
> times. Both times I'd emailed about an issue I had
> (or thought I had) and he was quick to call and
> get it straightened out for me.
>
---

I've done that shop four times now. I absolutely love eating there for breakfast. Three out of the four times I've done the shop, the stinking thing has come back. I think it was my first shop to ever come back. I write more than the average person. I've gotten cut off from more narrative sections than I care to count. I even got cut off on a car dealership. I just can't seem to make them happy with this American cuisine restaurant shop. I think I've done my last one too, but only because it's an hour from my house. Two hours of driving, one hour at the restaurant, an hour on the report and then however long it takes to redo whatever I didn't manage to do the first time, just isn't worth it for me. There are two locations that are closer to me and in towns that I normally visit anyway. If I want the best pancakes I have ever eaten in my life, I will probably just visit the other locations and spend the extra two hours editing to pay for breakfast.

In the entire time I've been shopping, I've had six shops come back. Three were from this report. One was because I got distracted and forgot to put the whole description of an employee, and Sassie didn't give me an oops because I had put something in the box. One was warehouse grocery store type place, and I said something like, "None of the items, that I checked, were expired." It should have been, "None of the ten items that I checked expired." The third was because I didn't get the name of the person who told me that Alex would be with me. Alex never did help me though. It was the first report I had ever done where I wasn't able to shop anyone. Apparently, BestMark is serious when they say that you have to get a name or you won't get paid. I think I need to get in touch with my inner wench sometimes. I wasn't going to chase him down and interrupt his conversation with his customer to ask his name before I left, and he wasn't wearing a name tag. My other option was to find another employee and ask them for the guy's name. To have done that though, I would have needed to find an employee and drag them into the TV department, which didn't seem like a very good option. I did get paid though. Alex had come into the department to grab something. I was able to use his name and description to get the report through.

I've done a good number of spa shops for Sentry and I find the report easy. All they are looking for is play for play narrative. However, I am used to writing FD and hotel shops, so I consider this easy. They pay timely except once. I sent a "ticket" and I was paid within a week after that.

My opinion has not changed. I put them in the same category as green bean casserole.

I've only done one location for them a couple times but I found that the report was a lot of work. I enjoyed the actual shop but they send the report back to you multiple times to get the smallest details. It can get frustrating.
And I still haven't been paid for a shop I did over two months ago.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/2012 12:44AM by GraceR.

Jschilz, my restaurant has a gas station theme to it. I don't believe they serve breakfast but man, the food is so yummy! We've gone there a bunch of times, not for MSing.

AlwaysAngie Wrote:
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> Jschilz, my restaurant has a gas station theme to
> it. I don't believe they serve breakfast but man,
> the food is so yummy! We've gone there a bunch of
> times, not for MSing.


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Apparently they have multiple popular American cuisine restaurants. This is a rustic themed place that serves home cooked style food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast is to die for! We did lunch twice, and it just wasn't worth the drive. The pancakes in this place though are to absolutely die for! Now I want to drive into town and pay for the dang things!