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@PasswordNotFound wrote:
ETA: Wish I had the time before summer to head to Kenya. That one would be nice enough to split travel costs with them.
@dattoliumbc.edu wrote:
$10k in a month? wow. but what would happen on the off chance the MSC rejects or does not like a report? would reimbursement still occur, or how would that be handled? just curious... 10k of frivolous expense could cripple a typical household.
@_shopper wrote:
So for you, would you still do it if it for a fine dining evaluation even if you will be out pocket?
@PasswordNotFound wrote:
_shopper, I would not pay $150 out of pocket for a meal, especially when needing to write a novel...er, shop report on top of it. I might drop $200 of my money for dinner with the right guest, but not if there's reporting on top of it.
@SoCalMama wrote:
I've only done a half dozen dining shops for Coyle (in Las Vegas), but I've found that the bar and wine will put you over the reimbursement amount if you are not careful. Quite honestly, I eat out so darn much that I don't feel the need to go crazy ordering. You can have too much of a good thing.
I have a small company that I work for with "no limit" reimbursements. Well, they do have "limits" but they are ridiculous. $200 for lunch, etc. It's almost impossible to do. A good portion of the time, I can't even spend half. I like those, as they keep my stress down. Plus, a $75 fee, can't pass that up, ever. They have 1/20 of the work that Coyle has though. I've got nothing bad to add about Coyle.
Thank You for your detaled experience with Coyle. It's experiences such as yours that really turn me off higher end MSC's. The closest I have come to this myself is an unpleasant brush with an editor at ACL re a restaurant shop. The editor simply could not comprehend that I would not make multiple special requests even though the shop did not require me to do so. I was paid and reimbursed but I notice that I can no longer see hotels with ACL on their job board. I'm glad you were paid and I'm grateful for your warning about Coyle. Good shops to you!@ngbmediashop wrote:
I recently finished my first shop for Coyle, and I quite possibly will never attempt another. I am quite detailed with my reports, and knew going in that they wanted a decent amount of detail, so that wasn't the issue. The issue is that I opted to start with a very basic hotel bar/dinner shop at a local 3 star hotel to test them out -- literally this place had one bartender, and that was it. The one guy behind the bar also cooked the food, and was the only staff member I interacted with the entire visit, as this place was more like a cafe than a restaurant -- yet the evaluation form was set up for an entire hotel restaurant, including multiple servers, a manager visit, kitchen area, etc.
Needless to say, there were a LOT of N/A's here, although I did walk them through the narrative step by step similar to their examples. Well, over a week passes and I get an e-mail from one of the schedulers basically saying the entire report was useless because I left out all of this information (not all client obligations met, not all items with specific remarks etc.) and they wanted it re-written by 9AM the next morning. I replied explaining in full detail that there was only one staff member -- the bartender -- who also was the cook and the server -- that was staffing the entire establishment that night, but if they had any specific items they needed clarification on aside from those points, I would be happy to provide it. I didn't hear anything back for two days until I received a text message on my cell phone from another scheduler saying the shop was at risk for cancellation unless I re-submitted it by noon the next day. By this point I was frustrated with them, so I replied that I had previously explained the situation of why there were a number of N/A's on the shop, that I would happily provide any additional information they required, but if they insisted on having the entire report re-written, to go ahead and cancel it and I would consider it an inexpensive night out and a lesson learned about working with them.
Finally I get an e-mail from the original scheduler the next day -- she says she was aware I had spoken with her colleague, and only needed two questions clarified. I responded immediately with the requested information.
The result? The shop is OK for pay, but supposedly did not meet the client's goals, and received a 53%. This for a one-bartender hotel bar/cafe that I wrote what I considered one hell of a report for since I was trying to impress them considering it was my first shop and all. I am someone who generally always gets 10's with other MSPs, rarely have to provide clarification, plus just completed a stay at a 5 star hotel for another MSP (SecretShopper) which gave me a 10, and actually said my report was *too* detailed, and suggested that next time I condense some of the interactions to include the "most important points".
So at least for now, I'm going to say it's not worth it -- plus their ShopMetrics system *sucks*... I don't know why they can't use Sassie or at least Prophet like the rest of the universe.