Hi, I am doing a fairly big shop for them next week. I have only done one for this company before and I remember a lot of e-mails requesting additional information and a general "picky" type attitude. I am a little worried about encountering that again. Your thoughts, please?

I do lots of casual dining shops for them. I sometimes get a clarification email, but they pay on time and I get to eat well. They have places I can take friends and family for dinner.

I like ACL a lot. If communication is the criteria, they are one of my favorite companies to work with. Just so nice and respectful. Early on, they contacted me for additional information or clarification. They also rearranged my narratives into different boxes. After realizing what they want and where they want it, and the level of detail sought, I've become very comfortable with their reports.

Lots more discussion about them throughout the forum.

I LOVE this company. I do a lot of dining shops for them ... would do more if they had more ... and a lot of their restaurants have a long rotation - some 90 days, others as much as a year. I think their instructions are fairly brief but very clear. I haven't found them picky, I've never gotten a request for clarification so far. They do send an e-mail after reviewing the report acknowledging that your report has been reviewed and forwarded to the client and thanking you. I like that a lot.

I too love working with them. They do want quite a bit of detail and only once in all the years of working with them did I get a phone call for clarification that an item was not so good when I just mentioned that the item was not very good rather than stating what was wrong with it. If a section of a report calls for 4-5 sentences, make sure you give them 4-5 complete sentences rather than a compound or run on sentence. They are one of the companies that wants a response for each "No" answer and a description of every item served--whether it is a beverage, Lay's potato chips, table breads or the crab cakes. Definitely reports that it takes a few to get the hang of.

Generally while I am scanning receipts to upload I am already preparing my blow-by-blow narrative of everything the server did during the entire visit in word. That for me is always the longest narrative and I find it easiest to do without the prompts of questions by just thinking my way through the meal. Once the receipts are scanned I can start the report and upload them to get past the initial page of the report to the "meat" of it. I go first, then, to the server section where I use the questions as prompts to switch between windows and add to my server narrative as needed, especially additional comments for any "No" questions at an appropriate point in the narrative. The narrative can then be cut and pasted into the report and then I go back to the preliminaries--the phone call, the arrival etc.--with the knowledge that the real work is done already.

I also like this company. Any MSC with a sense of humor gets extra stars in my book. The instructions and examples are clear and IMHO, they require less narrative than many other fine-dining assignments.

My only complaint would be that the fee and reimbursements are on the low side, so I often end up pitching in a few of my own $$ when on assignment for them. It always possible to do the assignments under the reimbursement budget....but just not as enjoyable.

We rarely exceed the reimbursement and in fact usually spend only about 85-90% of what is allowed (including tip). In my market the locations we do mostly have no fee, but what a delicious dinner for two! Here most of their offerings are for casual dining and the narrative for those is more than most casual dining shops.

I do restaurants for them as well, they are 1st. class. I find there instructions clear, hard to make a mistake...they have many great places, I find their reports fine, not as rough as some. Similiar to Coyle. They have excellent clients, however, a small fee would be nice as I always have to drive a distance for them, not complaining, just saying...

I am also a huge fan... I echo everything that has been said and will add that this is one company that will go through hoops to ensure your success.

They have quite a few editors and each editor is a little different and each has their specific "hot buttons" - so while you might not get questioned for writing X or Y in one shop - you get questioned for it on another - and I can see why that might be frustrating, but don't let it bug you.

I agree with Steve that they require less detailed narrative than other fine-dining assignments. Their assignments that DO pay a fee (which are not the dining ones usually) pay a slightly higher than typical fee in my opinion (I have never performed a non-dining or hotel shop for them though, so not sure if they also require more work than is typical).

I wish they had some shops in my area, the only emails I get are for health clubs, which are not close enough to me to make it worth the trip. I have read nice things about this company.

well great,thanks for the info. It is not for dining, and the fee is generous.

Carol

My guess is that once the report is in you will find that the fee was "fair". I have not found their fees 'generous' but have found them 'fair' for what is expected.

Advised. Fair it shall be. I've already watched the 20 minute training video, will have recorded phone call, and for actual shop probably take at least an hour and a half, then write up.

Just did another restaurant shop for them for lunch. $30 reimbursement and I have a box of leftovers in the fridge for supper.

I did a dining shop for them yesterday. It was my first for them. I thought the report was easy peasy, especially compared to what some of the other companies want.

They are very straightforward. They give a good sample of what they are looking for, if I recall correctly. They give a good framework for a logical approach to the report in segments, and they are clear about minimum number of sentences and answering every "no".

Never a problem..they always are great!

I had a problem with submission. It just wouldn't go through. They were very nice and told me it was not my fault, and I wouldn't be penalized. They worked it out from their end, and were very professional. They also thanked me for shopping and apologized for the trouble I was caused.

That sounds very much like the ACL I know :-) The only time I have had submission problems with their website was when it was an EUSE (Exhausted User Stupidity Error) because we had gotten involved in other things after a restaurant shop and it was during the wee small hours I was finally reporting. My EUSE was handled with polite professionalism while a "You stupid idiot" would have been equally appropriate. I'm sure that like any other website there are times it is down for maintenance or develops a glitch, but I have never run into it.

Just looking for some feedback, I have only done one job for this company awhile back and it was a fairly high end restaurant with a $70 reimbursement. I found the report to be very time consuming with all the narrative required, but worth the great dinner. So a few days ago I requested another shop from them for a new chain diner that opened in my area for a $15 reimbursement. When I went in to look at the report it was the exact same report with the exact amount of narrative that I had to do for the $70 shop. Once I saw that I went and canceled the shop as it would not be worth my time. Do all of their restaurant shops have the same report?

There is a pretty standard format and that works both to your advantage and to your disadvantage. On the advantage side, I know when I enter the restaurant pretty precisely what is needed and after doing a stack of the reports, they become second nature and very simple to knock out. On the disadvantage side, yes they want to see the same thing regardless of how much your meal costs. I have done cheapies and I have done fine dining. Where the report asks for 3-4 sentences on a narrative section, the cheapie is likely to see 3-4 sentences while the fine dining is likely to have closer to 10-12, mostly because the quality of the location, service, items being delivered to the table and hospitality will be so different. For me the longest narratives are always the service and food items. At a cheapie location there is probably going to be very little to say about the 'server'.

Does anyone know how long it usually takes them to review a report? The last one was just a day, and one I did over the weeked is still sitting around. Normal?

Not normal. I gather they have a whole bunch of new editors. A shop I did on Saturday did get reviewed overnight last night. Normally it is next day, though I have gotten them as fast as less than an hour after I submitted.

False alarm! Just got it back and also got a note to not overtip. I gave the girl 23 percent tip, oh the horror!

They require not more than 18% on the high end restaurants I do, and 15% on the lunch places.....23% is quite high unless they shinned your shoes and got your car.

I always do 20, and the dinner martini made me round up. LOL

Tips with ACL annoy me. They indicate on the majority of shops I do that the tip is to be 15%. On a $44.80 bill a 15% tip would be $6.72. That just seems like a weird tip, yet if I tip $6.75 I will be out of pocket the 3 cents and if I tip $6.70 I will get a warning that the client may reject the shop because a 15% tip was not left. Maybe that is client specific, but it is a PITA.

See, I just couldn't do a job where I had to leave EXACTLY 15%.

I was a server for too many years; so was my mom. If my bill is... let's see, tonight it was $37.15. So 15% of that would have been $5.57, for a total bill of $42.72. Well, not for me! I have this thing about ODD number in my checking! I need to end in all 0's!

So, I rounded the tip up to $6.85 for a total bill of $44.00. Making that 5.57 tip into 5.85 seemed pathetic. The server deserved a bit more so I added an extra $1.00. (I had forgotten and calculated based on the full bill with tax, not tipping on just the food)

When the client is reimbursing you the tip and they want 15%, you don't get the luxury of deciding to spend more of their money on the tip. But it does seem reasonable to me to have a small range such as 15-18%. I have also gritted my teeth when I have had awful service and needed to leave 15% per instructions.

Yikes, a 20% tip in these parts is par for the course. Anything less would indicate poor service to the wait staff in my opinion. That sounds kind of cheap!! I know other areas of my state and the country tip less, but in the NY Metro area it's more or less expected to tip a minimum of 18-20%.