@hbbigdaddy wrote:

Anyone wanting to do these in SoCal, i see quite a few in the Cypress area. I kind of feel sorry for the MSC because it seems like a tough project to fill. I never read the instrx because there are none in my area, but if you have to get 1 of each container, how is the shopper supposed to know and be able to do this? How is the MSC supposed to know all the possible containers at each location.

Seems like a project that was not thoroughly thought out.

Maybe it would be easier to say order liquid hot, liquid cold, solid hot, solid cold and then see how the containers do. I think there are some still waiting for their shop to be edited/completed.

@sandyf wrote:

I am unwilling to another until I make sure I get reimbursed for the first one. Its a rule of mine generally for a msc and not for a specific client but this job is fairly complicated/vague and also high out of pocket expense so I think I am prob not alone in shoppers willing to do more once they get approved. For me now as I mentioned it has been 11 days of storing plastic and not knowing if i get my money back.

@hbbigdaddy wrote:

I heard about the packaging nightmare from a shopper who posts here on the forum. I'm sure they will post soon enough when they see this thread.

I saw the shops in the greater Los Angeles/Orange County area. I did not see them in Seattle or Phoenix areas.

Maybe Uber Eats does more business in the SoCal area that they are only focusing on that area?

I never have used 3rd party for food delivery. Heck, I can't remember the last time I had a pizza delivered from any of the places (PJ/PH/or D). Wifey got a gift card from someone at her office for some lame 3rd party delivery thing and I thought...what a waste that was. Why not get someone a Starbucks card or an Amazon gift card instead. The % of people who use uber eats, grubhub, etc is not that high.

I can go get my own food. I can make sure it's correct when i'm at the place that makes it. I can also make sure it's hot and not sitting around waiting.

I really see NO need for these 3rd party deliveries except for physically unable (some sort of physical limitation) or maybe a mother with several young kids and cannot round them all up and put them all in car seats to go get stuff. The deliveries make sense for office meetings where food is catered or ordered, but not for individuals.

Even if i had crap-tons of money, i think i would prefer to go out and get it instead of waiting for it to be brought to me and risk it being wrong or cold.

@kisekinecro wrote:

I just did one over the weekend and now waiting for MSC to check mine for my first ever review. One issue that I see from this kind of shop is that unless you have restaurant experience, or you order to-go a lot, it is very easy to miss the type of packaging that the restaurant may offer. The guidelines itself can't fully cover all the containers a restaurant may provide tbh......as for the pictures part ..I agree is crap load, but coming from someone that does yellow seashell gas station audit I am ok with it, and yes. It took me almost 2.5 hours to finish uploading everything for 35 items. I order something from a Chinese restaurant, and I even go extra Mile by asking to put certain items on the side to increase chance of getting special container (put lemon on the side for the lemon tea for the larger size sauce cup). And yes, due to the reimbursement amount I am insist of holding until I get an ok on my first report before I self assign more.

Good thing for me is that at the very least I will have enough food for next few days after this order.

@olympia tennenbaum wrote:

My only advice is to actually keep all the packaging (including straws and wrappers). Also, don't be freaked out if your job says pay hold at some point. It seems like it's taking them a long, long time to edit all these photo heavy reports.

@kisekinecro wrote:

@olympia tennenbaum wrote:

My only advice is to actually keep all the packaging (including straws and wrappers). Also, don't be freaked out if your job says pay hold at some point. It seems like it's taking them a long, long time to edit all these photo heavy reports.

Just want to do a follow up. My shop got approved this morning. 2 weeks after I submitted the report. I had to submit 35 items and my report was returned once. Overall not too tough, and the audit time maybe a bit longer than expected, but its still at acceptable range, consider some of the IPSOS audit does take around that amount of time. I would do that again, if I do come across restaurant that I am interested in in the future.

@sandyf wrote:

My first one took an awful long time to be approved but I think the editors were at first having a lot of trouble with them. Finally I got paid and this week I did two more. A lot of tedious work and it took a while to organize all of it but these seem to be well on the way to being approved unlike the first one which took over a month. My big issue to watch for if you do one of these is that the delivery company has double charged me every time for the tip. I had them reversed and am still waiting for the last one to be reversed. I was pretty dissapointed in the food from the 3 restaurants even tho they all had 4.7 or so stars on yelp. I was glad I was not paying out of pocket. My fridge is bursting with two almost back to back orders of close to $200 each.
I have been doing full service lengthy menu places. If it is your first you might want to try an easy place first with a smaller menu.
Another tip is that I looked thru the photos of food on Yelp and several people had photos of food in to go containers so you can get an idea of how that restaurant packs things ahead of time although i think there are new stricter regulations now so this job to me seems to be the govt agency making sure the restaurants are all following the newest recycling materials rules.

@sandyf wrote:

I wholeheartedly agree. I thought about ordering from one of those places that specializes so has a very limited menu. Still get the same fee but my fridge has no room left right now. Yes it helps to have a helper, also to try to do these in daylight which I have not yet managed. Taking a close photo of a stamped piece of black plastic is difficult. I was looking at a fancy bakery but they sell a whole cake for about $180. Not sure I can get myself to pay that much even if I am reimbursed so that I can see what the packaging looks like. With fees and all it will be over $200 for one cake...and its a tart so its only an inch or so tall. This does not fit my lifestyle or beliefs at all as I am not someone who likes going over the top even if I can afford it.

@olympia tennenbaum wrote:

Okay, you got me thinking. We are having someone over for dinner. For these bakery shops, do you think you order a whole cake? I looked at a couple and wondered what the expectation was. They seem to stipulate that you order the smallest version of something, like a cup of soup vs. a bowl, etc. But, they also ask that you order every kind of packaging that you think they have. I would think that a boxed cake would be packaged differently than a slice of cake but I wouldn't want to gamble $100+ on that assumption being wrong.

I saw a couple of places that seem to specialize in catering. That also made me wonder if you were to order a tray of something. There's also a deli I looked at and noticed they also sell stuff from the deli counter. I'm not sure what they would expect from that either. We're probably all just guessing but if you have any thoughts, Sandy, I'm all ears!

@kisekinecro wrote:

@olympia tennenbaum wrote:

Okay, you got me thinking. We are having someone over for dinner. For these bakery shops, do you think you order a whole cake? I looked at a couple and wondered what the expectation was. They seem to stipulate that you order the smallest version of something, like a cup of soup vs. a bowl, etc. But, they also ask that you order every kind of packaging that you think they have. I would think that a boxed cake would be packaged differently than a slice of cake but I wouldn't want to gamble $100+ on that assumption being wrong.

I saw a couple of places that seem to specialize in catering. That also made me wonder if you were to order a tray of something. There's also a deli I looked at and noticed they also sell stuff from the deli counter. I'm not sure what they would expect from that either. We're probably all just guessing but if you have any thoughts, Sandy, I'm all ears!

"When in doubt, order extras" - IPSOS guideline[/quote

Just worry about an $80 extra!

@olympia tennenbaum wrote:

@hbbigdaddy wrote:

Anyone wanting to do these in SoCal, i see quite a few in the Cypress area. I kind of feel sorry for the MSC because it seems like a tough project to fill. I never read the instrx because there are none in my area, but if you have to get 1 of each container, how is the shopper supposed to know and be able to do this? How is the MSC supposed to know all the possible containers at each location.

Seems like a project that was not thoroughly thought out.

Maybe it would be easier to say order liquid hot, liquid cold, solid hot, solid cold and then see how the containers do. I think there are some still waiting for their shop to be edited/completed.

They do have a matrix of items like that in the instructions. Hot and cold drinks, hot and cold liquid stuff (like soup and side sauces), hot and cold solid non-oily stuff, hot and cold oily stuff. Then they point out that things like pizzas and burgers will have different packaging, etc.

I had over 50 photos for my first one and the computer/internet/web page got completely bogged down trying to add it all. They want photos of the packaging as well as photos of the recycling info. They also want photos of empty containers inside and out. So, it's a bit tedious. If you didn't like the food, it would feel like a heck of a lot of work for a meal sometimes made up of weird items. Since they specify that you need to order the smallest possibly container for a particular kind of item, it can be limited. If you had in mind that you wanted to order something like curry but see that they have something like a cup of soup, you'd have to forego the curry for the soup.

Anyway, I'm sitting here waiting on three jobs to get edited and feeling a pinch antsy. They ask you to keep all packaging until your jobs are reviewed so I also have three bags of garbage/recycling just taking up space.

@kisekinecro wrote:

@olympia tennenbaum wrote:

Okay, you got me thinking. We are having someone over for dinner. For these bakery shops, do you think you order a whole cake? I looked at a couple and wondered what the expectation was. They seem to stipulate that you order the smallest version of something, like a cup of soup vs. a bowl, etc. But, they also ask that you order every kind of packaging that you think they have. I would think that a boxed cake would be packaged differently than a slice of cake but I wouldn't want to gamble $100+ on that assumption being wrong.

I saw a couple of places that seem to specialize in catering. That also made me wonder if you were to order a tray of something. There's also a deli I looked at and noticed they also sell stuff from the deli counter. I'm not sure what they would expect from that either. We're probably all just guessing but if you have any thoughts, Sandy, I'm all ears!

"When in doubt, order extras" - IPSOS guideline

@sandyf wrote:

This is how iI interpreted the rule.
..I did not get the smallest version. My reading told me they wanted the less expensive version. Again it is what you think comes in the same packaging. So a small glass of boba might be 6.95 and a bigger glass (plastic ) of lemonade might be 4.95. Order the bigger glass or plastic of lemonade as it is cheaper and prob the same manufacturer that makes their smaller and all sizes of their plastic cupware. The aim to me seems to be to get as many different brands if you like of packaging. I got three things the other day that all came in prefolded cardboard brown boxes. all three boxes looked exactly alike. One small, one med and one large but the smaller size was a different brand of box with a diff recycling symbol on it. How was I supposed to know? But that is what they want so i took photos of the small one and only one of the bigger two. Sizes and shapes. If the shape is the same and the markings are the same and the brand name on the plastic or whatever it is is the same all sizes count as one. But if you are ordering a slice of cake they are not going to put it in a big round cake box or square cake box. the ones I looked at on one place had round tortes. Those would most likely come in a wide round thin box I am thinking since a torte is short. Maybe a square. If you order only one slice I think it will come in a much smaller slice box which is either triangular but prob not also round. So the aim to me if they 7 different slices of cake and they are all the same size you should order the plainer choc or vanilla one that is 4.95 , not the one full of chiffon and all sorts of squiggles etc that is 11.99. I think if you got something a dollar more it would be ok. Anyway if i ever did that cake shop I would ask first because just one cake was $180!! although the smaller size cake was only a mere $129 so that is the one I would get.

@olympia tennenbaum wrote:

That's kind of how I read the rule and order ahead for the huge cake as well for the fact that they would definitely use different packaging for between 1 slice of cake and 1 whole cake, and I may even need to order 1 cake for 6 inch, 1 cake for 8 and 1 for 12 depending on how it goes Just because they are for "different size packaging" What make this worse is that they will make you place a 2nd order if they decided that you are missing something, which you will be out even more cos when you are placing your 2nd order, you are using UB 2nd time and you will be charged the service fee twice. Then again...The other rule you will need to consider is the "Pre-packaging"

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/2025 11:33PM by kisekinecro.

@sandyf wrote:

3 were exactly alike. The number 4 was about a quarter inch bigger but the first 3 had a tab on the lid and the big one did not so different...And the little circles of plastic on the bigger one were not absolutely in hte same place. The giveaway was the stamp number on the bottom was different. They cannot grade you down for tyring.

@sandyf wrote:

I have never been asked to order again. I doubt they know what packaging these places have. Unless you get very little in your order . I try to get a good assortment. My restaurants were up near $200 each. If I do it again i am going to get an $100 Uber eats gift card for $80 from Costco and save myself another $20.

@olympia tennenbaum wrote:

I had a new one yesterday. Drink wasn't delivered. So, I ordered another one (ended up costing about $20!). I asked for a refund for the missing one and Uber denied it. I wrote them 5 different times and each time they said the order was not eligible for a refund.

My first time ordering all of the hot food was not picked up. I just got dessert and drinks. Uber actually contacted me before I received it and then refunded that amount. For the job I ordered again. I was reading if you have too many claims of missing items they will just stop refunding you. So, if anyone really values your Uber account outside of this job, just be aware you could be hurting yourself in the long run if you have any issues.

For myself, I tend to only use Ubereats with my credit card credits and then pick up. If you do delivery often there could be issues. I'm not sure how the MSC will handle the refund being denied. Luckily it was not too expensive.

@sandyf wrote:

That is rediculous. If I were doing this on my own dime I would expect the driver to at least check to make sure it all was there.But maybe the driver drank your drink. I have seen videos of drivers eating and drinking parts of peoples meals and also seen delivered meals sit outside a house for hours where anyone can walk up and take some so maybe Uber eats does not believe they should repay everyone for missing items. I have always gotten delivery. Do they charge you less if you pick up the food yourself? Every job I have done they have doubled charged me for the tip. It is a real pain to get in touch. The first one I was able to get it handled fairly quickly but the second time they (Uber) wanted me to send my entire credit card number to an email i could not be sure of with a photo of my statement from the bank and the code on my card and date of expiration. I refused to do that and there was a back and forth for several days until I told them if they did not delete the second charge I would have to report them as fraud. It may be that the issue was that job was a weekend so it took 4 or 5 days for the pending price to settle instead of 2 days. But meanwhile my reimbursement was not going to give me back the second fraud charge. In any case beware. I told them I was ordering for myself and friends and needed to be able to get my money back from my friends and could not wait for them to dicker with the final cost a week.

@olympia tennenbaum wrote:

I had a new one yesterday. Drink wasn't delivered. So, I ordered another one (ended up costing about $20!). I asked for a refund for the missing one and Uber denied it. I wrote them 5 different times and each time they said the order was not eligible for a refund.

My first time ordering all of the hot food was not picked up. I just got dessert and drinks. Uber actually contacted me before I received it and then refunded that amount. For the job I ordered again. I was reading if you have too many claims of missing items they will just stop refunding you. So, if anyone really values your Uber account outside of this job, just be aware you could be hurting yourself in the long run if you have any issues.

For myself, I tend to only use Ubereats with my credit card credits and then pick up. If you do delivery often there could be issues. I'm not sure how the MSC will handle the refund being denied. Luckily it was not too expensive.