I had a similar first experience with Coyle; they sent me to a hotel "cafe" that was much more small coffee shop than any sort of sit-down establishment; the issue was that the report was set up for a 3-4 course meal with waitstaff and the whole bit. There was one guy behind the bar who happened to cook up cafe food on the side and bring it out. I did the report and got a long list of questions back because I'd marked a lot of questions as N/A because the staff members they were talking about weren't there (hostess, cook, busser etc.)... They didn't like that... so basically had to apply all the different positions they asked about to the single guy, and repeat the same story about 4 different ways even though he basically tended bar, asked if I wanted some food, cooked it up on a small grill by the bar, brought it out, and went back to the bar... Ended up they barely passed it -- but I did get paid... gave me a bad taste, however. The attitude from the editor was absolutely awful, she didn't seem to get what I said, and I really felt I had to stretch that experience out really far to make it fit in all the spots they wanted -- but they seemed to want that rather than have any N/A marks.
It did get better the second time around -- a new upscale restaurant chain opened up that I'd been wanting to try -- sure enough, Coyle popped up as having the shop. One of my schedulers that works with another MSP I love was scheduling for them too and asked me to give them another shot. It was a similar survey, but all the right positions were there -- and I got high marks. I shopped that place every two weeks until the contract ran out a year later -- my schedule gave it to me whenever it was open, and Coyle wasn't bad with the grading -- as long as you re-state everything they seem to be fine.
My only gripe is that even after shopping a restaurant that I liked 1-2 times a month for a year, they STILL won't assign me any hotel or travel shops which was the primary reason I applied to them. The scheduler I like said she could only assign certain clients, and for travel shops I had to apply from the website... it's always radio silence. The ONLY shop I ever got from them on the website was the first one that was a nightmare -- the rest came from my scheduler.
I think the sentiment about them not wanting "shoppers" is correct; they want travellers -- funny thing is, I'm a traveller and a shopper -- my shopping pads my travel fund and isn't my full time job although sometimes it feels like it -- you'd think I'd be exactly what they want lol I've done hotel shops for other MSC's (Sights on Service, B Business etc) and have always had high marks. I wonder if there's some secret format I need to use when requesting shops.
N