a.) What time were you ___________.
and
b.) How long did it take for __________.

I like one or the other ONLY, but I recently did one where you had to do both. I didn't want to decline the shop after getting the guidelines. On-site, I found it hard to do. You have to look at your phone/watch so much and press buttons for timing lengths.

I couldn't keep up (often, I was worried the server would know I was a shopper, given how much phone/watch stuff I was doing in front of her practically) and had to do the most annoying thing ever: rely on my audio recording.

I had to literally reconstruct the ENTIRE dinner by relistening to my audio file to get both the times and length of service times.

10-foot pole for me if I ever see these dining shops again.

eta: I mean ...if I tell you it took 10 minutes to get my entree after ordering it or it took 2 minutes for the server to greet me after seating, why do you also want to know the time (e.g. 9:04 PM) they did the action as well?

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/02/2019 11:25PM by shoptastic.

Annoying yes but part of the job on many dining shops i do. Some of the timings start from the order time, some start from the last delivery of something. I see this as a double check you are doing the timings correctly and to me is not as annoying as having to explain all no answers when the explanation is it did not happen. But they have their reasons.

This may change with the new laws in California on Independent Contractors.

I've never had a restaurant shop rejected for being 30 seconds different. I like restaurant shops that give you a time frame. "Did you get your meal in 10 to 14 minutes"

You can take a picture of the table, right after ordering and a picture of your meal when you receive it. Also take a picture of your receipt when you get it. You might lose it or the restaurant might not give you one after paying. Some restaurants do not give you an itemized receipt after paying. They give you a receipt showing you paid for the meal, but not what you ordered.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/03/2019 01:12AM by johnb974.

@johnb974 wrote:

Also take a picture of your receipt when you get it. You might lose it or the restaurant might not give you one after paying. Some restaurants do not give you an itemized receipt after paying. They give you a receipt showing you paid for the meal, but not what you ordered.

You can always get an itemized receipt. Just ask. It's not unusual.

@johnb974 wrote:

This may change with the new laws in California on Independent Contractors.

I've never had a restaurant shop rejected for being 30 seconds different. I like restaurant shops that give you a time frame. "Did you get your meal in 10 to 14 minutes"

You can take a picture of the table, right after ordering and a picture of your meal when you receive it. Also take a picture of your receipt when you get it. You might lose it or the restaurant might not give you one after paying. Some restaurants do not give you an itemized receipt after paying. They give you a receipt showing you paid for the meal, but not what you ordered.

This is one thing we have going for us in California....maybe it is a California thing. In sit down restaurants I get 4 or 5 receipts! I get to keep as many as I like but have even not sent back a receipt if there is only one when I make payment with my credit card and when I do that they never seem to have an issue with just a credit card in the receipt folder. Sometimes it is difficult to find the place on the receipt that tells me which of the 4 receipts they gave me is the one they want to keep....

John, taking pics all the time does not work for me when it is a finer dining place where the service and food delivery is in steps. Often the server hangs out at the table and chats or asks about the rest of your order. I had this issue with a beer once where it was delivered with a nice head and the server just continued to chat /take the rest of the order while the head went flat. I could not pick it up and sip it as a regular customer might do while the server stood there as I needed a pic undisturbed. I finally was able to get the pic when the server left and put the explanation in the comments.Fortunately that shop had a comments section and the msc accepted it but from what I read about really picky companies, and evidently I do not work for any of them where reports are rejected for these types of issue.

@sandyf wrote:

This is one thing we have going for us in California....maybe it is a California thing. In sit down restaurants I get 4 or 5 receipts

How many billions of receipts is that over a year in California? Carbon footprint much?

There must be some sort of law because many sit down places give multiple receipts. And we are doing away with plastic straws but there is still over consumptiion of all sorts of resources everywhere in this country...paper, plastic, cardboard...don't get me started. Amazon boxes being thrown away by the millions every day. Even if they are recycled, and I bet only a small percentage are, that is still using many resources to manufacture them and the turn them back into boxes or cardboard straws that fail before you manage to get your refill etc. Well, guess i started.

@Book wrote:

@sandyf wrote:

This is one thing we have going for us in California....maybe it is a California thing. In sit down restaurants I get 4 or 5 receipts

How many billions of receipts is that over a year in California? Carbon footprint much?

Many places are moving to a payment table and you have receipts emailed to you. Makes keeping up with receipts easy for MSC, not some much for cash back apps