@Pw21 wrote:

Guess I am the one they always ask
I’m more than happy to travel to dalian. still waiting to see how long it gonna take them to reverse the hotel stay payment(7 weeks now, still counting) , before I take on more

@SteveSoCal wrote:

@bgriffin I'm going to doubt that you would find them worthwhile or profitable enough. I've done a few of those particular assignments and there's a reason why they sit unclaimed.

I think they are betting more on locals with a decent command of English to complete the shops, and that's a mistake. If you want to travel deep into China for $50 with no overnight stays covered I'll be happy to forward your name.

If you haven't been in contact with them about the reversal not happening you will want to initiate that now. It has been my experience that CHG does not as a matter of course require the hotels to prove that the reversal has been made before releasing the report to them.

While some reversals happen without issue, a fair number (especially those outside of the US) seem to require follow up - and having to wait up to six months, while not common, is not out of the question. The earlier you start the process the hopefully faster it will go.

Of coz I did
I probably email them every week, and they always said it was processing. I got the same answer since the beginning of last month ????
I will just wait n see

@MickeyB wrote:

@Pw21 wrote:

Guess I am the one they always ask
I’m more than happy to travel to dalian. still waiting to see how long it gonna take them to reverse the hotel stay payment(7 weeks now, still counting) , before I take on more

@SteveSoCal wrote:

@bgriffin I'm going to doubt that you would find them worthwhile or profitable enough. I've done a few of those particular assignments and there's a reason why they sit unclaimed.

I think they are betting more on locals with a decent command of English to complete the shops, and that's a mistake. If you want to travel deep into China for $50 with no overnight stays covered I'll be happy to forward your name.

If you haven't been in contact with them about the reversal not happening you will want to initiate that now. It has been my experience that CHG does not as a matter of course require the hotels to prove that the reversal has been made before releasing the report to them.

While some reversals happen without issue, a fair number (especially those outside of the US) seem to require follow up - and having to wait up to six months, while not common, is not out of the question. The earlier you start the process the hopefully faster it will go.

@Niner wrote:

I was getting assigned many shops, scoring consistent 100's, and now I am getting ignored. I have done thirty or forty shops for them, so it's frustrating. They choose when they reply. I asked a simple question and never got a reply, which is common.

To follow up, I think because of rotation, I was not getting shops. I signed up for restaurants I had not visited in the past and am now assigned five. We'll see what happens with the hotels. They are one of my favorite companies, but it gets stressful wondering what is going on.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/04/2019 06:54PM by Niner.

The report is always sent to the client before the reversal -- that gives them an opportunity to review it and approve it before sending it to their accounting department for reversal. No client reverses/reimburses without seeing the evaluation.

Had a new one today- I applied for a shop and Coyle removed it a few weeks ago. They put it back today, they didn't assign it to me, but it's back under the applications.

@felix wrote:

The report is always sent to the client before the reversal -- that gives them an opportunity to review it and approve it before sending it to their accounting department for reversal. No client reverses/reimburses without seeing the evaluation.

That’s not at all the case for every other hotel shop I do for every other company that reverses. Or do you just mean that’s not the way it is with Coyle? In which case yes, I concur - the reversal doesn’t happen until after the report is received... if it happens at all.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/2019 12:24AM by MickeyB.

@MickeyB wrote:

@felix wrote:

The report is always sent to the client before the reversal -- that gives them an opportunity to review it and approve it before sending it to their accounting department for reversal. No client reverses/reimburses without seeing the evaluation.

That’s not at all the case for every other hotel shop I do for every other company that reverses. Or do you just mean that’s not the way it is with Coyle? In which case yes, I concur - the reversal doesn’t happen until after the report is received... if it happens at all.

And in the past, that was specifically NOT the M.O. for Coyle. Prior to the move to Shopmetrics, after editorial was complete, the client was required to show proof of reversal before the report was released.

This is actually the more ethical approach since folio reversal should not be subject to client approval of the report. The contract is between the shopper and the MSC, and I have specifically had reversal held up when end-clients did not like what was in the report, even though it was accurate.

same @Niner, including ones that had been assigned but now back in applications!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/11/2019 10:22AM by caro555.

Because the other shopper probably canceled?

@LindaM wrote:

Because the other shopper probably canceled?

That sounds reasonable. I get 100's on all of my reports and have done about 40 fine dining shops, but they will not assign me a hotel.

I don’t know why they are not assigning you a hotel. My guess would be that it has something to do with the available dates you put in your application.

Remember that no shopper can repeat any hotels... so there’s plenty to go around.

Deleted

Be careful not to name clients since Coyle was already mentioned.

They are getting to a frustrating stage now. Every single time I lose money on the exchange rate. Also the scheduler is over worked/ swamped. She agrees to my requests on email and then goes ahead and assigns it to someone else...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/2019 09:25PM by Nimi.

The exchange rate is set for the date the evaluation is performed and not the date you are reimbursed -- you do know that, right? So if you do a dinner on 8/13, you are paid the exchange rate for that day and not for 9/30 when the reimbursement is issued. You aren't 'losing money'. Also, you are competing against 10, 20, 30 or more evaluator's for assignments so you are not going to get all those you request. After you submit your request, you shouldn't be emailing the scheduler anyway, because they will see that you applied already. It's very possible that the email exchange gets lost and that is why you don't get assigned to evaluations you feel entitled to -- they are dealing with hundreds of emails a day.

I am losing money because they apply the XE rate which no bank applies. If you are American then the exchange rate issue does not concern you. You pay in dollars, you get reimbursed the same amount. Not the same when I am paying in multiple local currencies across the world.
In order to complete a series of shops in 2 or more countries I need to email the scheduler to set it up. Logistics, travel allowance, dates all come into play. Its not a simple QSR down the street we are talking about. The initial outlay is 1000s of dollars. Last minute bookings/ changes are not possible.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/2019 09:26PM by Nimi.

Previous post is in reply to yours

@felix wrote:

The exchange rate is set for the date the evaluation is performed and not the date you are reimbursed -- you do know that, right? So if you do a dinner on 8/13, you are paid the exchange rate for that day and not for 9/30 when the reimbursement is issued. You aren't 'losing money'. Also, you are competing against 10, 20, 30 or more evaluator's for assignments so you are not going to get all those you request. After you submit your request, you shouldn't be emailing the scheduler anyway, because they will see that you applied already. It's very possible that the email exchange gets lost and that is why you don't get assigned to evaluations you feel entitled to -- they are dealing with hundreds of emails a day.

@Nimi wrote:

I am losing money because they apply the XE rate which no bank applies. If you are American then the exchange rate issue does not concern you. You pay in dollars, you get reimbursed the same amount. Not the same when I am paying in multiple local currencies across the world.

I understand your concerns. However, I have a feeling they aren’t flexible on these policies. I guess if you asked them to apply the rate favorable to you they might not play ball. They will probably say they’ll get someone else to do the assignment.

Anyone know different?

@Book wrote:

I have a feeling they aren’t flexible on these policies. I guess if you asked them to apply the rate favorable to you they might not play ball. They will probably say they’ll get someone else to do the assignment.

Anyone know different?

That's basically the scenario.. It's an inflexible policy and you have to accept the loss that @Nimi mentions above if you want to perform assignments. I have submitted an exchange receipt in an attempt to have that effective rate applied and had that declined.

@felix wrote:

If you do a dinner on 8/13, you are paid the exchange rate for that day and not for 9/30 when the reimbursement is issued. You aren't 'losing money'.

I don't think you are fully understanding the process of how exchange rates work with banks or credit card companies vs. XE rates, or the likelihood of all transactions occurring on the very same day, but it's rare to not lose money on any Coyle assignment that involves currency exchange. The only possibility for that to happen is when the rate for the country in question suddenly plummets the day after your assignment, or the day after you exchange currently, but before you perform the assignment.

If I arrive in a foreign country I'm generally going to exchange money on arrival, and not necessarily that day of the evaluation....and there's no way to exchange cash at the same rates that XE lists, even if you did manage a same-day exchange. And most of the dining assignments have a cash requirement.

My credit card company will usually apply whatever exchange rate they deem appropriate a few days after the actual transaction, and it's not the XE rate.

Why is it not acceptable to submit an exchange receipt and credit card charge statement for reimbursement?

@felix wrote:

After you submit your request, you shouldn't be emailing the scheduler anyway, because they will see that you applied already.

While that should work in theory, that's unfortunately not how the scheduling operates. As you mentioned, they are getting hundreds of emails, so if I just apply and wait patiently....all of the assignments usually get assigned to someone else who's emailing them. The only assignments I get by application-only are the undesirable ones.

It's similar to the above currency situation. Since the scheduling staff are not engaging in these assignments, they don't really understand all of the complications involved with foreign travel, booking affordable travel, getting a hard-to-find reservation and keeping a particular date open on the schedule for you and your guest for weeks, while waiting for an assignment to be scheduled....or not.

I often have to book dinner reservations in advance of getting something assigned to me, since there will not be any tables left by the time it gets assigned.

I just got my first dining shop, they assigned it almost immediately and I haven't worked for them in ages (literally), Excited and nervous, doing it next week......they were very nice, and yes, I'm honing my skills.....

They have a chef driven restaurant group that has one of the most ridiculous list of demands. In one of the earlier shops I did for them back a couple of years ago, all I had to do was ask about private dining. Now they have a list of musts, including asking about hours of operation, mailing lists, complaining about food, mention a special occasion, and then introduce self as a global event planner and leave an email.

My goodness.

@LindaM wrote:

They have a chef driven restaurant group that has one of the most ridiculous list of demands. In one of the earlier shops I did for them back a couple of years ago, all I had to do was ask about private dining. Now they have a list of musts, including asking about hours of operation, mailing lists, complaining about food, mention a special occasion, and then introduce self as a global event planner and leave an email.

My goodness.

Agree!!!!
They should disclose this before they assign it. Especially the last part, where if you don't have business cards that support this scenario on some level, it seems like you are destined to run into some awkwardness. Luckily I did - but had I known about this list of demands ahead of time, no way would I have requested it. I'm one and done on this one.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/11/2019 07:23AM by MickeyB.

I think shop awareness is a big part of making Coyle work for you with the current setup. It used to be a similar input/output across the board for assignments, but no longer. Assignment details, travel incentives and reimbursement a so varied these days that I pick & choose the assignments I take carefully.

There's another chef-driven restaurant that has an amazingly generous reimbursement and the easiest form ever. I actually thought is was a mistake when I saw the form since there's not even a place to report the reservation!...and in their defense, I just got back from 4 nights in NYC where I made a profit factoring in all food & travel for the entire trip...and the assignments were completed before my flight landed back home (partly due to have to deplane at JFK for 90 minutes due to a maintenance issue).

It’s hard to pick and choose when we don’t have all the details ahead of time. They should have the assignment sheet posted in the description before we apply. Honestly I never would have picked this shop knowing what is required.

@LindaM wrote:

It’s hard to pick and choose when we don’t have all the details ahead of time. They should have the assignment sheet posted in the description before we apply. Honestly I never would have picked this shop knowing what is required.

Agreed, and that's why threads like this are important. They are never going to disclose all of the details...simply because they don't have enough time to keep up with basic scheduling, so more time-intensive tasks like that will never get done.

Sometimes you gotta take one for the team!

@SteveSoCal wrote:

@LindaM wrote:

It’s hard to pick and choose when we don’t have all the details ahead of time. They should have the assignment sheet posted in the description before we apply. Honestly I never would have picked this shop knowing what is required.

Agreed, and that's why threads like this are important. They are never going to disclose all of the details...simply because they don't have enough time to keep up with basic scheduling, so more time-intensive tasks like that will never get done.

Sometimes you gotta take one for the team!

To play devils advocate - Since the assignment sheets/client objectives are already done and given to you once assigned, it wouldn't take any more time to post it on the description that is visible before you apply.

Though perhaps there is some concern about confidentiality or the legalities of disclosing specific objectives before you and they enter into the formal ICA of sharing information, I don't think that is the motive to not disclosing ahead of time.

My guess is that it has more to do with the risk of client objectives changing and then the shopper not reading the updated guidelines - thus increasing error and failed shops. On the other hand, seems like ensuring people know what they are getting into BEFORE applying can help them in instances as well - similar to the large hotel chain where the guidelines are posted to see before you take the shop.

@MickeyB wrote:

To play devils advocate - Since the assignment sheets/client objectives are already done and given to you once assigned, it wouldn't take any more time to post it on the description that is visible before you apply.

Ah, but those who create the objectives and upload them may not be the same as those who post the assignments...and I've had a restaurant sitting for weeks. One that I've spoken tot he scheduler about, am well qualified for, is due next week, and is the only restaurant in my area that I have not been to.

It's like the workload too overwhelming for them to simply take the time to click the button that assigns me the shop.

@SteveSoCal wrote:

@MickeyB wrote:

To play devils advocate - Since the assignment sheets/client objectives are already done and given to you once assigned, it wouldn't take any more time to post it on the description that is visible before you apply.

Ah, but those who create the objectives and upload them may not be the same as those who post the assignments...and I've had a restaurant sitting for weeks. One that I've spoken tot he scheduler about, am well qualified for, is due next week, and is the only restaurant in my area that I have not been to.

It's like the workload too overwhelming for them to simply take the time to click the button that assigns me the shop.

I have that attitude too. Drop everything and take care of me.

I too am having trouble cracking the Coyle nut. I just have..... oh I don't know....30 years of secret shopping experience, lots of writing samples, references. Yet, I ask for a simple lunch shop that they have four of on the board and it turns into an email circus with the scheduler. I applied for a job in the future month, a simple lunch. I gave three possible dates to do it, when I applied. Scheduler writes me quickly, with good news. She has one sooner ....can I do that? No details. So I say sure! What dates? Seems reasonable. I even give a couple days sooner in this month that I can do lunch. She replies, It's not lunch...it's dinner. I reply, Ok I can do dinner, here are some dates I can do dinner. Then she replies, Oh no, it's not dinner, that one is gone, it's Happy Hour. Can I do happy hour? Finally I say No, I don't want to do happy hour, on a weekday, with kids to get ready for school the next day! Can I just do the lunch I applied for, the one next month. She replies, let me check, what dates could you do. Sigh. We are right where we started. I just emailed her the three dates in my original application.

"While some reversals happen without issue, a fair number (especially those outside of the US) seem to require follow up - and having to wait up to six months, while not common, is not out of the question. The earlier you start the process the hopefully faster it will go"

6 months? Thanks for the warning. I would not do hotels outside the US. We are expected to front thousands of dollars, then wait half a year to get reimbursed? In the meantime, I bet the editors and accounting dept kept asking for minute details of the dining shop and hotel room. Once you think you responded to a pageful of it, you are done and can breath a sigh of relief, back comes another one with much more demands for detail, with threats of non-payment if you do not respond Urgently, forgetting the fact they took 9 days after submission to contact you. Then wham, bang, respond within 12 hours or else. It's like we don't have another job or life?