If the order taker doesn’t ‘suggestive sell’ (I.e. ‘would you like to add fries and a drink?’) shoppers are paid $3 - $5 plus reimbursed for the cost of two tacos.

I recently completed two of these shops because I was looking forward to a little more variety of fast food shops. But during both of my shops, the order taker only asked “would you like anything else?”. I hoped that could be stretched as a suggestive sell, and so I said yes and proceeded to added the one side and one fountain drink permitted if the order taker makes a suggestive sell.

Well, the shops were reviewed and rejected because the order taker asking whether I would like anything else was not considered to be a suggestive sell. Thats understandable. But, despite as easy as those shops may be, for me, they’re just not worth doing for $3 - $5 and two tacos.

I find that true for most fast food shops. At the same time, if I have been induced into doing one, when the cashier asks 'anything else' I look at the menu board as if I don't know what else I might want and about half the time that prompts the suggestive sell to get my order closed out and me away from the register.

@DT wrote:

If the order taker doesn’t ‘suggestive sell’ (I.e. ‘would you like to add fries and a drink?’) shoppers are paid $3 - $5 plus reimbursed for the cost of two tacos.

I recently completed two of these shops because I was looking forward to a little more variety of fast food shops. But during both of my shops, the order taker only asked “would you like anything else?”. I hoped that could be stretched as a suggestive sell, and so I said yes and proceeded to added the one side and one fountain drink permitted if the order taker makes a suggestive sell.

Well, the shops were reviewed and rejected because the order taker asking whether I would like anything else was not considered to be a suggestive sell. Thats understandable. But, despite as easy as those shops may be, for me, they’re just not worth doing for $3 - $5 and two tacos.

If you did them incorrectly, you did them for free.

I'm doing them now, probably a different MSC and different chain. We are to reward the order taker $20 in cash (our of our own pocket, and wait 7 weeks for reimbursement?! ) if they upsell. First set of guidelines had specific wording the order taker was to use. If they said those magic words ("Can I make that a medium or large for you today?" ), we were to pay them the $20.

Second set of guidelines was a game-changer. If ANY mention is made of medium or large, you are to "reward" them with $20 cash. ANY mention? So if they say, "Small, medium, or large?" that qualifies as an UPSELL? And if there's an autogreeter (recording) and IT mentions medium or large, you are to reward the $20 in cash. To a RECORDING? Does the MSC have any concept of what UPSELL means?

The guidelines stated to expect to pay out the reward 90% of the time, as employees had been "trained" to upsell. I did three; fortunately, at every single one, the server said only "What size?", without explaining small, medium, and large were available.

I'm not even going into how outrageous it is to loan the MSC out of my own pocket, $20 that I have to wait until the 20th of the following month to be reimbursed! Definitely unethical, perhaps illegal.

SoCalMoma: Your snarky, rude remarks are one of the reasons I don’t visit this site often and I post even less.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/2020 07:52PM by DT.

I’ve posted this before, but I dislike shops where we are penalized (can’t order up to full reimbursement) when the cashier doesn’t do their job properly. Also I feel the results will be skewed as shoppers will do everything possible to get a suggestive sale. Of course no one in this forum will stretch the truth but there will be a certain percentage of other shoppers that will do that.

@DT wrote:

SoCalMoma: Your snarky, rude remarks are one of the reasons I don’t visit this site often and I post even less.

Based on your posts, you have a lot of issues, rejected shops that you like to post. Perhaps, you should do more reading on how to successfully perform shops?

That’s a vast exaggeration. A look at DT’s posting history (all 20 of them) shows one prior instance where they referenced an instance of a shop not fully completed. The location didn’t have the right oil change filter and they were still paid by the MSC.

Personally, I find tales of shop rejections to be among the most helpful posts on this forum. The recent complaint about a Marketforce rejected shop likely saved me $70 as I had the same shop the next week and could have made the same mistake as the poster did.

@SoCalMama wrote:

@DT wrote:

SoCalMoma: Your snarky, rude remarks are one of the reasons I don’t visit this site often and I post even less.

Based on your posts, you have a lot of issues, rejected shops that you like to post. Perhaps, you should do more reading on how to successfully perform shops?

@DT wrote:

SoCalMoma: Your snarky, rude remarks are one of the reasons I don’t visit this site often and I post even less.

Your loss. While we don't always agree, SoCalMama is one of the most intelligent and helpful posters here.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/12/2020 11:10PM by iShop123.

Building on ceasesmith:

I have not taken these reward shops because I am terrified of making a mistake and losing my twenty bucks. I love the idea of rewarding a designated behavior. I hate the idea of losing my money. And, since a company name is mentioned for the shop, should there be a mandate to mention the names of the company's beverages that the location serves? Them: 'Would you like that (name brand beverage option) in large or extra large today?' Or, 'May I get you both a (name brand beverage) and a (other name brand beverage) because it is so hot outside today?' Me: "Yes, please! More cold drinks will make me feel better. You are so sweet to think of this!" Mind you, I practically melt in the heat and they would have a captive audience. But they would have made me happy and up-sold the brand.

I haven't taken one since the wording changed to specify that "ANY mention" of medium or large (even by the tape recorded autogreeter! ) is to receive the $20 cash reward.

You won't "lose" your $20 (well, actually, I suppose if for some reason your shop was rejected, you could lose it), but I normally do a route of 10 of these shops, which means I would have to be prepared to shell out $200 in cash.

I am unwilling (and fiscally unable) to LOAN the MSC $200.

I've done a few of these shops and had similar issues. I've seen emails from this MSC which suggests that the MSC realizes the tacos shops were poorly developed in the first place. Probably won't see these shops again until the MSC & the taco chain rethink the upselling issue (and a few others issues).

I can only wish they would pull these shops and rewrite them.

@ceasesmith wrote:

I can only wish they would pull these shops and rewrite them.

No Del Taco in your state.
(MSC was not named).

Yes, different taco shop. But the guidelines are poorly written, and the report sucks -- so they are similar in that way.



For example, I was assigned a dine-in at a facility that has no dine in. One of the requirements is a photo of the inside of the restroom. Not only do they not have a dine-in facility, they have no restroom. The report FORCES the shopper to answer insane questions like, were the tables and chairs clean. You can't answer no, because the report then opens up to a million (exaggeration, folks! ) additional questions, which you cannot answer because there aren't any tables or chairs. No place on the report to merely state "There is no dine-i n". If the restroom isn't available to the public, you are to take a photo of the door. No way to explain that it's not that the restroom isn't available, is that's there is NO restroom. You can't take a picture of something that does not exist.

Turns a 10 minute, simple report into a marathon of endurance. That specific location, the report took over 2 hours to get it to the point that the "submit" button worked; and it was returned to me the next day for corrections! For, example, not having a photo of the restroom. (I ended up writing "No restroom at this location" on a piece of paper, taking a photo of that, and inserted that into the report where the restroom photo was supposed to go. ICK! )

And that was BEFORE they added the crazy idea of paying the $20 reward in cash from our own pocket!!!

@SoCalMama wrote:

No Del Taco in your state.
(MSC was not named).

I miss Del Taco.. I wish we could get them in here AL. I wouldn't do a shop at a Del Taco though, at least not the ones in the inland empire where I used to live. I miss real quesadillas with green sauce more than anything else in CA.

@Morledzep wrote:

@SoCalMama wrote:

No Del Taco in your state.
(MSC was not named).

I miss Del Taco.. I wish we could get them in here AL. I wouldn't do a shop at a Del Taco though, at least not the ones in the inland empire where I used to live. I miss real quesadillas with green sauce more than anything else in CA.

120 degrees in the IE last week!