Julia2026 & szymanc,
Approximately 2 months ago, I had literally the same experience with a $100 Coyle dining shop, here on the West Coast. The restaurant was upscale, but the food was lousy at best, and I would not ever go back. I spent over 8 hours on their report, and painstakingly followed their sample report, which was from 2011, to include every detail, both good and bad. Needless to say, the editor came back, wanting all the time stamps, none of which were mentioned in the sample, nor on the guidelines. (Obviously, Coyle needs to spend their time and money to update their guidelines and their sample reports.) Thankfully, I had the time stamps, but it took me yet another hour to write an additional narrative that included the time stamps. After that, I de-activated my account with Coyle, and I won’t shop for them again. If I were to divide the number of hours I spent at the restaurant plus the hours doing the report, by the reimbursement amount plus the fee, it ends up being far less then minimum wage!!! Although I never expected Mystery Shopping to be lucrative, I did expect some level of fairness. In my experience, Coyle’s expectation of my time commitment to complete their reporting requirements is simply unrealistic, and I won’t do business with them, in the future.