Hey team,

I am looking to try my hand at Coyle's restaurant shops, specifically a brewpub and a dumpling house located in the PNW. I can't actually see the survey before I sign up (I really don't like that this is a norm in this business) and am wondering how the shop is. If anyone has any experience one way or another that they are willing to discuss. Was the meal worth the work?

Thanks!

I did a couple recently! Once they accept your application, you have the opportunity to review the details to decide if you will accept.

Worth depends on what you value. If you’re trying to make money, no. If you enjoy experiences and don’t want to pay for them, and don’t mind writing essays, then great.

One of my meals was not worth it given how much the report took (the meal was only reimbursed $60, but cost me $80 and the report took forever). However, I have already signed up for 3 more that have reimbursement value of $150+ which will be more than enough to have a great meal. also, I currently don’t mind spending the time writing the report. That may change as I get busier doing other things.

Coyle is at the TOP of my 10 foot pole list. You'll be typing for 3 hours, and they will nit-pick everything you write. I'd rather pay for dinner myself. Coyle shops just ain't worth anything.

The report is very, very long, and the editor will nit pick and ask you 30 more questions, need timing on every single thing. I agree with Maryanne, not worth the time.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/13/2021 04:33AM by ShopperFun99.

I would prefer to do 10 easy $15 shops and pay for my own meal rather than suffer through a Coyle report...but that's just me. And yes, I've done Coyle reports and scored well.

Ms. Judi-Couldn't agree more...And here I was hoping that the pandemic would effectively END Coyle as a business entity....(not that I have anything against them personally....ha!)...looks like all the profit they managed to squeeze out over the last ten years or so has allowed them to weather the restaurant downturn.....

I am seldom absolute concerning any aspect of life, but Coyle is an exception. There is not any edible food known to humans that, to me, is worth a Coyle report. I completed one 14 years ago that easily ran three hours; my reward was a $60 dinner for two. I have not accepted a second shop!

Agree with everyone else on here only worth it if you don't mind spending three plus hours on a report and timing every single interaction throughout the entire dinner.

The sample write-up does not have every timing recorded in detail: when the server approach the table, when he brought the utensils, took the drinks order, when he brought water, chips/salsa, when the app was served, checked by server. It just record the major events, the others are recorded with three minutes later, within two minutes, or immediately after that, etc. Not every second need to be accounted for. If that's what needed, why not just video record the whole dinner with a clock ?

In my opinion they seem to have a pretty high learning curve and do take quite a bit of time to complete. Kind of reminded me of being back in school. Had to figure out exactly what the teacher wants and the exact details/writing style. Once you figure it out, it goes quite a bit smoother. Still can be time consuming just due to the amount of questions and overall length.

Well, yes, those Coyle dining reports are seldom worth it - especially if you're completing a survey with a $60.00 reimbursement. And, yes, you can/will spend numerous hours writing narratives and completing the report(s). And yes, you may receive an email or three from an editor requesting clarification on some points.

That being said, completing those reports has made me a better writer. I use their writing standards when completing reports for other MSCs. Additionally, and more importantly, those Coyle dining reports could provide entree (See what I did there?) to those bucket list overwater bungalows in far-off exotic destinations at five-star luxury properties with retail/reimbursed costs of five figures.

So, for me, the meal was ultimately worth it.

Huh? Reimbursement of 5 figures??? Over water bungalows? In my dreams???

Can you tell me why the editors insisted on timing on every single thing, every single visit, of staff to the table? including what time we finish eating, what time I put the card on the check, what time it was picked up, and what time it was returned?

The sample report does not have countless ridiculous timings. In fact, it states: within two minutes, within three minutes, immediately after, etc. I did just that, copying the report, so my writing does not start with "At 9.99 PM, on every line. but no, the editor came back with 30 questions asking for timing of every little thing that took place.

@ShopperFun99 wrote:

Huh? Reimbursement of 5 figures??? Over water bungalows? In my dreams???

Can you tell me why the editors insisted on timing on every single thing, every single visit, of staff to the table? including what time we finish eating, what time I put the card on the check, what time it was picked up, and what time it was returned?

The sample report does not have countless ridiculous timings. In fact, it states: within two minutes, within three minutes, immediately after, etc. I did just that, copying the report, so my writing does not start with "At 9.99 PM, on every line. but no, the editor came back with 30 questions asking for timing of every little thing that took place.

Yup they are notorious for this so now every report I include timings for every single "touchpoint" even when it's not specifically asked in the survey or in the sample. It's stupid. Then they got mad when I used a template that said "At 9:59 PM this happened. At 10:01 that happened."

Ahhh I remember the bungalow one with less than a months' notice. I am still dreaming of that. But I have done multiple resort packages for them so yeah, you're putting up with a a lot of bull for the chance of better rewards.

There is a Coyle shop I am eyeing for around $15. I am wondering if it is just as lengthy or do their cheaper shops tend to be easier?

@dafizisblue wrote:

There is a Coyle shop I am eyeing for around $15. I am wondering if it is just as lengthy or do their cheaper shops tend to be easier?

You MAY get away with 2 solid hours of typing. I wouldn't deal with coyle on a bet. Just my opinion. They are impossible.

i find the lower reimbursed ones do require less. i've done one of their lower end concept restaurants ($50 for lunch or dinner, up to you) and it took <1hr to complete.

the "FINE dining" was the one where it took me over 3hours to complete. Unfortunately for me, I went during lunch and so the reimbursed amount was only $60 (which was not enough to cover my ultimate bill) while the work was still very much the same (minus a visit to the bar).

Therefore, if you ever see any shops that are $x for lunch / $xxx for dinner, definitely do not do the lunch one and do the dinner one. lunch will be 95% of the work for less than half the reimbursement.

edit to add: all this is predicated on you being a strong writer and observant diner. I didn't time everything down to the millisecond. Just took screencaps from my phone when things were happening and took a mental tally of how long things took. if you hate writing, this isn't the assignment for you.

for me personally, i much rather prefer doing coyle's shops vs. doing the normal stuff. besides coyle, i did one store visit and one fast food shop. while the store visit was ok, for $10 fee, it wasn't enough value for my time. the fast food one was beyond terrible and all the photos had to be taken landscape (which was like a pain in the ass when going through drive thru and trying to take a photo of the dumpster area). plus, i am not a fast food diner on the regular. again, not worth my time. $150 for a pleasant dinner which i don't count as work and then 2-3 hours of work afterwards? worth it to me--at least for now. plus, i'm hopeful my report writing will speed up. i did not experience multiple editorial re-writes. got 100 on both my assignments so far.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/16/2021 09:56PM by asleep.

I still say coyle shops suck...

I feel the same as the others. Way too much writing for the food. The reports are repetitive. I have learned to stay away from them.

No matter how well you try, you'll do poorly on the first few Coyle reports. Once one gets to know their poorly explained madness, they aren't all that bad -- more like getting a tooth drilled for a filling than having root canal.

I have completed around 30 or more Coyle shops. After not having done one in a year, I can't believe I completed even a single shop. I would rather pay for my own food and spend five hours doing something else.

Coyle would be better received if they stopped their nit-picking. Get rid of some of their editors is the first step. No reason for a shop to take hours and hours. Just need to answer their questions. Who cares how many minutes and seconds it took to get your water refilled? And on and on and on...

@Niner wrote:

I have completed around 30 or more Coyle shops. After not having done one in a year, I can't believe I completed even a single shop. I would rather pay for my own food and spend five hours doing something else.

Did anything specifically happen, Niner? Or just done with writing the long reports?
I was on the Coyle board last week and saw a couple of Michelin-star status restaurants available. Would have happily picked those up were I going to be in those cities in the next month. Worth a 3 hour report to me!

@Niner wrote:

I have completed around 30 or more Coyle shops. After not having done one in a year, I can't believe I completed even a single shop. I would rather pay for my own food and spend five hours doing something else.

Did anything specifically happen, Niner? Or just done with writing the long reports?
I was on the Coyle board last week and saw a couple of Michelin-star status restaurants available. Would have happily picked those up were I going to be in those cities in the next month. Worth a 3 hour report to me!

@asleep wrote:

@Niner wrote:

I have completed around 30 or more Coyle shops. After not having done one in a year, I can't believe I completed even a single shop. I would rather pay for my own food and spend five hours doing something else.

Did anything specifically happen, Niner? Or just done with writing the long reports?
I was on the Coyle board last week and saw a couple of Michelin-star status restaurants available. Would have happily picked those up were I going to be in those cities in the next month. Worth a 3 hour report to me!

Try five hours. And, I'm a lawyer. I am used to writing. In order for me to pay $250 for dinner, I would need to earn around $400, so Coyle initially made sense. Some people here apparently can write a Coyle report in an hour and get 100. I am not one of them.

@Niner wrote:

Try five hours. And, I'm a lawyer. I am used to writing. In order for me to pay $250 for dinner, I would need to earn around $400, so Coyle initially made sense. Some people here apparently can write a Coyle report in an hour and get 100. I am not one of them.

I see. I’ve completed 4 now. 2 fine dining took about 3hrs and 2 that were more casual dining took 1hr. Purely looking at hourly rate, definitely not worth it even when looking at pretax dollars. But I am a salaried person so it’s not like I can bill for extra hours like lawyers can.

Therefore, unless I’ve got other @#$%& to do, the coyle experiences seem fun to me! But yeah I will never do a fine dining lunch evaluation again. Those are absolutely not worth it.

I am also salaried. Anyway, if it's worth it to you, do them

I disagree with some of the perspectives. In real life, I wouldn't splurge for a $200-plus dinner for myself and my husband. But with Coyle, I've enjoyed some really fancy dinners that I wouldn't have had otherwise at awesome steakhouses (I miss these shops in COVID in my town.) The shopping fee is poor, no doubt, but I appreciate the experience and it adds to my quality of life which is worth it for me. The first time I did the report was a nightmare. The more I did it, the easier it got. The schedulers seemed nice and helpful and maybe contacted me with questions but I didn't feel too overwhelmed. Would I do a shop for a dinner under 75? Prolly not. It needs to be a fancy dinner. But I've had a good positive experience with this company.

That’s my same thought @greenwhite11!
The only caveat is some of the <$75 also have a lot less work from my (admittedly limited) experience.

But I’ll repeat my advice again; don’t do the “lunch” option of restaurants that have lunch or dinner. Long reports and low reimbursements! Worst of both worlds! Hehe

I gave up on them years ago. They think we are all professional writers, ha. Nit pick and reprimand are not what I want after spending hours filling in the report for a meal that was at best ordinary.

They also use new editors for those low reimbursement lunch and casual restaurants. The new editors are the ones that nitpick. They ask for every second of every minute what the servers did. All I do is add or subtract from the major timestamps that I paid attention to, and answer their stupid 30+ qiestions