The $5 shop of my dreams…or not?

I totally understand, but remember, msing costs you upfront, I think Steve said $19,000 for his trip, and waiting to be reimbursed, for those
that have it, great way to travel, being a late bloomer,
not in the cards for me, good luck to you, and yes, with an Iphone, things are so much easier.

jersey07032 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I started travelling when I would accompany my
> (now ex) hubby on his business trips. No way was I
> going to seat around a hotel and wait for him, so I
> went touring with a folded map and not much else
> to guide me. Today we have GPS, Google maps,
> translator apps, and so much more. The only thing
> I am missing is $$. I am now inspired to shop my
> way to my favorite travel destinations.

Live consciously....

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oh believe me, I am starting off slow. I don't have much to put upfront.

I do have a question about airport shops. Since I am flying to LA soon, I thought I would try one. But...my flight leaves in the early evening est and doesn't get into LA until late (and I will be jet lagging, as well as catching up with my son). When am I supposed to do my report. I haven't looked into anything yet, so this is a very broad brush, general statement: most MSCs expect a report by the next day; some want one within 12 hours; some want one before midnight on the day of the shop. Do MSCs make allowances for travel schedules?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/2011 01:11AM by jersey07032.
The thing with LAX is that none of the secured areas of the terminals connect, so you have to know where you are going to land, and when. If flights are late, or routed to another terminal when the airport is busy, you can miss your target, or it can be closed.

I only do the airport shops at take off, or long layovers in airports I know well, for that reason. Many planes have wi-fi now, so if you travel with a portable scanner like I do, you can have that report in before the flight lands, and use the shop fee to pay for internet access on your flight!
thanks...I was thinking, if I did anything at all, it would be at take off (Dulles Int'l, outside of DC) not when I land. I don't have a portable scanner and don't think I could carry one, even if I bought one for this trip. So...maybe this type of shop just ain't for me. :-( I don't know how I would get around the time constraints, etc.

SteveSoCal Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The thing with LAX is that none of the secured
> areas of the terminals connect, so you have to
> know where you are going to land, and when. If
> flights are late, or routed to another terminal
> when the airport is busy, you can miss your
> target, or it can be closed.
>
> I only do the airport shops at take off, or long
> layovers in airports I know well, for that reason.
> Many planes have wi-fi now, so if you travel with
> a portable scanner like I do, you can have that
> report in before the flight lands, and use the
> shop fee to pay for internet access on your
> flight!
With many airport shops they let you take a digital picture of the receipt and upload that instead of scanning. That said, I personally rarely take airport shops - not worth the hassle for me personally, as in my experience they expect a lot for the fee paid. There are a few though that pay for parking - which is a whole new ballgame as I can always use aiport parking to be reimbursed.
I have not scanned a receipt in a very long time. I always just take a pic with my digital camera. Have never had a receipt questioned with the camera, but have with the scanner. It is much quicker to snap a pic than to scan.
so, you take a pic of the receipt with your smart phone or camera and email it to the MSC?

WML, the shop would be at the farthest end of the airport from my flight. I get so hinky at airports, anyway. I think maybe I should leave this one for someone else.

Shelly Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have not scanned a receipt in a very long time.
> I always just take a pic with my digital camera.
> Have never had a receipt questioned with the
> camera, but have with the scanner. It is much
> quicker to snap a pic than to scan.
The scanner/photo issue is another one that may differ between men and women for this reason;

When I take a receipt, I fold it, then fold it in half again so that it goes into my billfold. It resembles and accordion when removed and a huge amount of effort has to go into re-flattening the receipt to make it photo worthy. With the scanner, voila....receipt is flat! I also picked up a scanner a few years back that is the exact profile of my macbook, so it fits nicely in the case with my computer.

If I had a purse with a long wallet that I could neatly tuck receipts into, the scanning app on the iPhone would work just fine.
I almost exclusively photograph receipts. BTW Steve, depending on the shop I don't carry a pursegrinning smiley When it's one of those ridiculously long receipts why don't you just put it in the bag with the merchandise. On personal shopping I don't like to do that, but for a mystery shop that's my choice then it gets photographed the minute I get in my car before being put in my console. If I forget to grab it when cleaning out the car, or worse somehow lose the receipt, it's no great shakes since the photo is at least on the phone. When my iCloud photo stream is working it's also on both my PC and laptop.

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.
you folks are speaking a different language. I will have to get my son to translate.

How large is the scanner. Sounds like it can fit in a purse or a laptop case. If so, that's not bad. How heavy is one of these things. And do they let you take it on the plane with you? Any idea how much one costs? Might "treat" myself to one tomorrow- Black Monday. I am always misplacing receipts. This might really help. LisaSTL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I almost exclusively photograph receipts. BTW
> Steve, depending on the shop I don't carry a
> pursegrinning smiley When it's one of those ridiculously long
> receipts why don't you just put it in the bag with
> the merchandise. On personal shopping I don't like
> to do that, but for a mystery shop that's my
> choice then it gets photographed the minute I get
> in my car before being put in my console. If I
> forget to grab it when cleaning out the car, or
> worse somehow lose the receipt, it's no great
> shakes since the photo is at least on the phone.
> When my iCloud photo stream is working it's also
> on both my PC and laptop.
There is a long portable scanner for travel sold at Best Buy, Offic Max for $99.99, maybe less this time of year. I have wanted one, but so far like LisaSTL just use my camera for uploading.

Live consciously....
I've seen at least one portable scanner at the office supply stores. It's called Neat Receipts and is really small. It is pricey, but can fit into a laptop bag easily. I don't recall if it is wireless and can operate on a battery now.

If the different language is reference to iCloud and Photo Stream those are new features available for iPhones, iPads, etc. Basically photos, calendars, bookmarks and a few other things are stored in the cloud and changes on one device sync automatically with other devices. Both my PC and laptop use Windows and all I had to do was install iCloud on both. It's not working perfectly for me yet and it was disappointing that bookmarks only sync with IE. Windows has something like it, but I'm not familiar with how it works.

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.
I have a Cannon Lide-30 that I got on an office supply shop many years back. It weighs a few pound and travels well with the laptop. I just carried around the word on my shoulder, so it's not too heavy.

I think is was around $79 at the time, marked down to $59 with a rebate. With an in-store coupon and the fee/reimbursement for the shop, I think I paid under $30 for it. I've been through 3 laptops since then and the scanner still works like a charm, so I'm very happy with that purchase.

Am I the only one with accordion-receipt problems? Most of my shops are restaurant, hotel, bar & airport shops, so there's no bag involved (you can't take to-go bags for most dining shops). The hotel staff are also supposed to put the final bill in an envelope for you, so they come to me accordion style if people do their job right.

I'm also particularly scared of photographing the hotel folios, since I did that once on a shop where the charges were reversed, but the hotel could not read the number on my folio and it took weeks to get my $$ back. I ended up having to scan it when I got home, so now I just travel with the scanner.
....and Lisa, don't feel bad. I have a mac and the iCloud doesn't sync my notes or calendar for some reason. They are still working out the bugs, it seems.
There's the big differences. In 7 or more years I've only done a couple of bar and/or restaurant shops. My photos of hotel receipts have always been when travel is being reimbursed and since I always have my portable office with me they slide easily into a file. I still photograph them, but the folio is not as likely to get misplaced as a small receipt for a retail or gas purchase. My trips are also in the 6 to 10 day range. If there are issues with receipts that usually allows time to get home and scan any that are particularly troublesome. I've considered the scanner, but when travelling already carry both my laptop and netbook as back up, digital camera and video camera. If another piece of equipment was added I probably would not be able to lift the bag, LOL!

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.
Until I upgrade Outlook my calendar and notes still have to be synced manually which is usually done every morning.

At least when Photo Stream works like it should it saves having to hook up the phone or my camera in the evening to transfer. And, best of all, it gives me the option of using my laptop or PC to report and not having to transfer photos back and forth or create back up copiesgrinning smiley

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.
is iCloud like Dropbox? I have that.I am still confused. Sorry. It takes a while for all this to sink in. Usually I learn by doing not reading. Apparently I am not too quick on the uptake. I am working on a shop for BI and have to take a screen shot. The instructions given by the MSC were for a pc and I had to get a neighbor to show me how to do it for a mac. I got that, but now BI wants the screen shot saved as a JPEG in paintbox or in word and I don't have a clue. All this is practice so I'll be able to do what I need to for the shop. I really appreciate what the sped kids I tutor have to go through.
I just have a Panasonic Luminix camera that I bought because it was fairly small for MSing purposes. I got it on a deal from Woot for $70. takes great pics and the receipts are perfectly clear. I can read every letter on the hotel folio and the receipts I just looked at.

This camera does it automatically and on my old one I had to push a button that looked like a flower to get the close up shots. I love the convenience of not having to carry another thing with me and the camera is totally portable.
For the accordian receipt problem, I always travel with tape and so I tape the receipts to paper and voila. Flatness!

There is of course one company that absolutely forbids taking photos - they must be scanned, I am sure you know who that is Steve (I actually once did turn in photos and then mailed the receipts and my whole reimbursement got held up because the photos were not sufficient to process the payment the way a scan would have - so had to wait for the mail to show up) - so for that company, I always wait until I get home (or if I had to, I guess I would go to a Kinkos).
jersey07032 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The instructions given by the MSC were for a
> pc and I had to get a neighbor to show me how to
> do it for a mac. I got that, but now BI wants the
> screen shot saved as a JPEG in paintbox or in word
> and I don't have a clue.

Assuming you see the .png file that gets placed on your desktop with shift-command 3 (or 4), double clicking that will open it up in Preview, and you can "Save As" in JPEG format.

You can also just drag & drop the .png screenshot into a word doc and send that, it sounds like.

Both are pretty easy to do.
Restaurant receipts are a toss up, some are neatly put into my purse, some I fold up and stuff into my bag (depends on the drinks).....never had em not readable since I got my new Nikon, they used to come out too light, but not anymore. Wrinkles disappear with a shot of restylane. I will look for the scanner, however, since I'm not doing hotels,(unless these MSCs start paying something suitable) nor have long hotel bills, not really needed for receipts. I'm not a techie, but I manage.

Live consciously....


Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2011 04:19PM by Irene_L.A..
Irene: What is restilyne? SP??? Thanks.

Irene_L.A. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Restaurant receipts are a toss up, some are neatly
> put into my purse, some I fold up and stuff into
> my bag (depends on the drinks).....never had em
> not readable since I got my new Nikon, they used
> to come out too light, but not anymore. Wrinkles
> disappear with a shot of restilyne. I will look
> for the scanner, however, since I'm not doing
> hotels,(unless these MSC start paying something
> suitable) nor have long hotel bills, not really
> needed for receipts. I'm not a techie, but I
> manage.
LOL - you must be too young (I think it's spelled Restylane ... and it's like Botox)

jersey07032 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Irene: What is restilyne? SP??? Thanks.
>
> Irene_L.A. Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Restaurant receipts are a toss up, some are
> neatly
> > put into my purse, some I fold up and stuff
> into
> > my bag (depends on the drinks).....never had em
> > not readable since I got my new Nikon, they
> used
> > to come out too light, but not anymore.
> Wrinkles
> > disappear with a shot of restilyne. I will
> look
> > for the scanner, however, since I'm not doing
> > hotels,(unless these MSC start paying something
> > suitable) nor have long hotel bills, not really
> > needed for receipts. I'm not a techie, but I
> > manage.
Pizza...your right, I left the a out (do know better)...that was a joke, for the seniors in this group. Restylane is a miracle shot removing wrinkles (in the face). Sorry, needed to lighten up, this tech stuff is heavy. My motto is, whatever works.....

Live consciously....
Steve SoCal...thanks. I did get it figured out. I wish MSCs would recognize there are a lot of MAC users out there and give directions accordingly. (I also wish I had millions of dollars. LOL)

PizzaPizza... thanks (you made my day!)
I just flew in/out of LAX and I did one on the way out, and had another scheduled on the way home. The first one was ok, minus the 15 people in front of me. However, when we landed, we ended up at a different terminal somewhat last minute (probably the construction, it's nasty). So I missed that shop and there was nothing I could do.

I've done just two airport shops now, for two different companies. Not any different than non-airport, but I think they stressed me out a little due to uncertainty beyond my control.



jersey07032 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> oh believe me, I am starting off slow. I don't
> have much to put upfront.
>
> I do have a question about airport shops. Since I
> am flying to LA soon, I thought I would try one.
> But...my flight leaves in the early evening est
> and doesn't get into LA until late (and I will be
> jet lagging, as well as catching up with my son).
> When am I supposed to do my report. I haven't
> looked into anything yet, so this is a very broad
> brush, general statement: most MSCs expect a
> report by the next day; some want one within 12
> hours; some want one before midnight on the day of
> the shop. Do MSCs make allowances for travel
> schedules?
I think, since I get so stressed out in airports now-a-days, I am going to skip these. I'm freaking out just thinking about taking off my shoes and not losing my ID. And now....construction. At LAX? Oh boy. I don't leave for almost 3 weeks and I am already thinking about taking some Valium or something. LOL (but seriously)

dkk5685 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I just flew in/out of LAX and I did one on the way
> out, and had another scheduled on the way home.
> The first one was ok, minus the 15 people in front
> of me. However, when we landed, we ended up at a
> different terminal somewhat last minute (probably
> the construction, it's nasty). So I missed that
> shop and there was nothing I could do.
>
> I've done just two airport shops now, for two
> different companies. Not any different than
> non-airport, but I think they stressed me out a
> little due to uncertainty beyond my control.
>
>
>
> jersey07032 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > oh believe me, I am starting off slow. I don't
> > have much to put upfront.
> >
> > I do have a question about airport shops. Since
> I
> > am flying to LA soon, I thought I would try one.
>
> > But...my flight leaves in the early evening est
> > and doesn't get into LA until late (and I will
> be
> > jet lagging, as well as catching up with my
> son).
> > When am I supposed to do my report. I haven't
> > looked into anything yet, so this is a very
> broad
> > brush, general statement: most MSCs expect a
> > report by the next day; some want one within 12
> > hours; some want one before midnight on the day
> of
> > the shop. Do MSCs make allowances for travel
> > schedules?
I was contemplating taking a route of 12-14 shops in my airport but was just starting out and not confident enough to do it. I'd do it now if I was available and frankly the only way I'd do it is if it was a route and the MSP provided access, traveling can be too hit or miss to want the added stress of missing a shop.
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