Coyle Assignment

@SteveSoCal wrote:

We both treat it like a business and we both get offended when we are not treated with respect.

And here we are back to my original point. I think they're a crap company and the reason I think they're a crap company is because they only treat shoppers they deem worthy, based on some arbitrary beliefs, with respect.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

Create an Account or Log In

Membership is free. Simply choose your username, type in your email address, and choose a password. You immediately get full access to the forum.

Already a member? Log In.

I would say download a shop app, I use "Shop It". It's easy to keep timings etc, which I feel Coyle really cares about! Their restaurants are on the higher end around where I live and I like the fact that they actually pay you for your time on top of covering the meal vs. ACL.
@caro555 wrote:

I just can't do them in 90 minutes and the hotel ones take a day......
Dinners take me 90 minutes.
I don’t do their hotels. I do other hotels with $500 fees. It’s a better deal for me.
@BSBRose21 wrote:

Thanks for info...I think. How do they compare to ACL?

Where I live the restaurants are a tad higher end, the higher end ones I have done / and see on the boards are mostly in the high end hotels... I've also done some quick casual ramen shops for Coyle. They also have some that are less intensive it says Subjective on the board. I have only done a few ACL shops but the ones I see are not as high end. I have only done one lunch shop for a large steak chain and I would say report wise it's probably similar. However, I don't like the fact that they don't pay. Even if it is only $15 for Coyle it's the principal in my mind.
@BSBRose21 wrote:

Thanks for info...I think. How do they compare to ACL?

Apples to oranges. 5 star to 3 star.
@SoCalMama wrote:

@BSBRose21 wrote:

Thanks for info...I think. How do they compare to ACL?

Apples to oranges. 5 star to 3 star.

If you complete enough assignments, you will see $150+ restaurants for ACL.
@Niner wrote:

@SoCalMama wrote:

@BSBRose21 wrote:

Thanks for info...I think. How do they compare to ACL?

Apples to oranges. 5 star to 3 star.

If you complete enough assignments, you will see $150+ restaurants for ACL.

They are rare. There's nothing that I can't see. One of my friends (over 20 years) is an editor there. She can obviously see my rating.

Most of Coyle's restaurants are over $100. Many are over $200.
Most of ACL's restaurants are under $50.

Fair assessment?
Yeah, ACL is mostly casual/quick service and their "fine dining" are not in the same range as Coyle. That's just what it is. The reports for ACL are also much simpler. If you want to work toward a detailed fine dining report, you would capture much more than ACL requires.

I did not have a problem getting started with Coyle. My writing samples emphasized high end experiences and included mundane details. I don't know if that makes a difference but they have never given me a hard time for being a full time shopper. They definitely can't get it all done with casual shoppers. Their reports are uniquely structured but not overly difficult. Kinda like DataQuest. You get used to it.

I appreciate that I can use all my foodie descriptors and pick on fine details. The details matter even in quick service. Your lowest level employee can cost a business thousands of dollars in customer annoyances and health department fines. The former is almost impossible to track. I think this is the level of seriousness that every mystery shopping company wants but it's hard to enforce when it's just whoo hoo free food.
I must be looking in the wrong place, never seen $500 fee for hotels though have stayed at hotels more than that per night...
They want comments for most questions as well as a narrative for each section. Make sure you repeat the comments from the questions in the section narrative because they want something about each question in the narrative. It takes a while to fill out their questionnaires, but they do have good shops.
@Beetky wrote:

They want comments for most questions as well as a narrative for each section. Make sure you repeat the comments from the questions in the section narrative because they want something about each question in the narrative. It takes a while to fill out their questionnaires, but they do have good shops.

If you comment for each question, they will mark yoiuoff for it, only three to five word comments, for no or n/a, and don't use a capital letter to start the comment. Comment on the questions in the narrative except for the ones you answered no, unless you have a needed explanation.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2019 04:29PM by Niner.
@caro555 wrote:

I must be looking in the wrong place, never seen $500 fee for hotels though have stayed at hotels more than that per night...
These shops are scheduled by the MSC owner directly to a small pool of shoppers. They aren’t selected off of a job board.

ETA The most expensive hotel that I have ever had so far it was over $800 a night; they gave me three nights - no report was required. They just wanted f&b shops. I was ready to wait 30 to 45 days for reimbursement, and the corporate office of the property sent a check out within 72 hours. Super crazy! Generally, I wait 30 to 45 days though.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2019 09:23PM by SoCalMama.
@1cent wrote:

I did not have a problem getting started with Coyle. My writing samples emphasized high end experiences and included mundane details. I don't know if that makes a difference but they have never given me a hard time for being a full time shopper.

I'm curious if they knew prior to assigning a shop that you were a full time shopper or not? Or if they know now?

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind


Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2019 10:45PM by bgriffin.
Read all of the samples, guides, training materials that they have available and follow their format. Pay close attention to detail and report a blow-by-blow account of each interaction. Use good grammar.

Most importantly, enjoy your delicious fine dining meal---for free winking smiley
Uh. It's not "for free" you work for it.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind
I think it's highly unlikely that the schedulers even know who is a full time shopper; even if you put it in your bio or application, they have way too many things to schedule to review the resume each time they schedule someone.

If you're not getting assignments and you're getting a lot of negative feedback, it's more likely that the reports were not a high enough quality, and not something personal.
Or there were just other shoppers available for those shops that already had experience. It could be a million things, but some type of personal vendetta seems really paranoid and something that they likely don't have time for with the volume of business they seem to have.
They do. Absolutely. I've been told that they prefer people who are not full time shoppers by someone who absolutely knows. They are aware that I am a full time shopper. I applied for shops and applied for shops and the applications just sat there. I asked about the applications and did not get a reply. I was told to start with phone shops so I applied for phone shops. My applications were deleted. So finally I emailed and asked to be removed from their system and got a reply that I had been removed about 30 minutes later.

Your insinuation that I got bad feedback or that I am not a good shopper is offensive coming from someone who has only been here a month and has no clue who I am or what my level of skill is.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind
We can agree to disagree. It seems that your hurt feelings are really clouding your judgment though, and it's pretty unfair of you to bias other people against an MSC because you "think" they don't like you because you're a professional shopper.

Again, it is VERY unlikely that they have the time, resources, or even care, to single out one particular shopper. There is a multitude of other, more logical and less personal, reasons that you didn't get chosen. I've heard they're not very good at being responsive overall.
Oh no. I'm absolutely certain they don't like me because I'm a professional shopper. I've been all but told that directly.

There is a Coyle representative on this forum. If they disagree with anything I have said they could bring it up privately or publicly. They have not. If they thought I had said anything that was blatantly untrue you would think they definitely would have responded either to me personally or publicly. If they wanted me to shut up about them they could do they same. I have invited them to do that previously.

Here's the thing, they don't care. I am actually doing them a favor and they're well aware of it. The more I talk about how they look down their noses at professional shoppers the less professional shoppers they have to deal with. They don't want them anyway and I am not going to scare off their core shoppers. Few of them are here anyway

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind
@bgriffin wrote:

I'm curious if they knew prior to assigning a shop that you were a full time shopper or not? Or if they know now?

Yes. I make it clear to schedulers that I am a full time shopper. They definitely still know. If anyone has a problem with that, it doesn't affect me. If there is any snobbery with Coyle, I guess I passed the test in other ways. Like I said, my writing sample was focused on high end experiences. I always tailor my approach.

Whenever I work for a new company, I try to give them a spot in my schedule when they're sending out emails. Favors tend to be repaid. If not, I have plenty of work to fill my time. I just don't expect to get my first choice jobs off the bat and take opportunities as they come.

With all that, luck is still a factor in getting work. I do not know my competition. I can only offer myself and I feel fortunate to be getting work as consistently as I do.
Interesting reply. I still think they're a crap company though.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind
I don't mean to trash your understanding of why they didn't assign work to you. It could very well be true. On the other hand, it could be that they do not expect most full time mystery shoppers to have an understanding of true fine dining and high end hotels. Maybe there have been real misunderstandings and they don't want anyone to risk the money. Rejected shops are bad for everyone.
Different strokes.

@bgriffin wrote:

Interesting reply. I still think they're a crap company though.
Wow! At last, I have encountered someone else who has eaten Escamol (ant egg tacos)! I had them in Mexico City. Where did you find them?
@SteveSoCal wrote:

These days, I enjoy the MSing because it pushes me into new territories I might not have gone to on my own....and I ate ant eggs last week. Yeah...ant eggs i.e. Mexican Caviar!

Show me another MSC that pays you to eat ant eggs with a wine pairing?

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008
As a scheduler for Coyle, this is entirely untrue. I have often reached out to new applicants to see if they have mystery shopping experience as I want them to be successful on an assignment and not be out of pocket for an assignment they weren't able to execute.
Ah, then perhaps you can explain what reasoning there would be to delete someone's applications for phone shops when they were specifically told to start with phone shops? There's no out of pocket on those.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind
Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.

Click here to login