HS Brands??

Anyone familiar with this one?
I signed up for a KSS job (a familiar chicken wing place) and they directed me to first sign up with HS Brands but the link just took me to their promo page aimed at their clients. There was NO signup page at any of the links related to Mystery Shopping.
The rep who sent me their also had a nonsense link in his email that took me to some Dutch online selling page for machine parts!!
Total weirdness.

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.

More Discussions About HS Brands (All Companies)

This should do it for you:

[www.sassieshop.com]

If you are talking about the 3 letter acronym restaurant/sports bar chain....then have fun with that. I saw the report one time and was like hell no. I know some people will do them, but I don't need the headache. There are other things I can do that involve less time/detail.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/2022 05:19PM by hbbigdaddy.

I found HS Brands easy to work for compared to Coyle. I did apply for a casino overnight that DID NOT get booked and I did not get chosen. I even bothered with national certifications in gaming, dining, writing, etc. Oh well!

I'm not comparing them to COYLE. I'm just saying this particular shop for HS Brands (chicken wing sportsbar) is not worth it to me. Neither is their pizza mall shop. Too much detail and too little pay for the effort.

@Tanischri87 wrote:

I found HS Brands easy to work for compared to Coyle. I did apply for a casino overnight that DID NOT get booked and I did not get chosen. I even bothered with national certifications in gaming, dining, writing, etc. Oh well!

I don't mind the HS Brands chicken wings sports bar shops at all.

There's another MSC that has a bar integrity shop where you and a guest have to buy two alcoholic drinks apiece, all with cash and in separate transactions, then you get one appetizer to split and each get a non-alcoholic beverage. Because who doesn't want to have two drinks on an empty stomach and then have to drive home and write a long report? (insert eyeroll)

If I recall correctly, they also want you to report the details of up to five transactions made by other customers.

The HS Brands shop is a cakewalk by comparison.

@hbbigdaddy I think the original poster is talking about going to Mass. That one seems like a pain too. If you do the drive thru they want a bathroom pic and dining room pic. Seems suspicious and unnecessary if you are going thru the drive thru. Why would you go inside if you are in the drive thru? The fee is not worth it.

There are several adages that apply to this work:

1-Whatever floats one's boat.
2-What's good for the goose, may not be for the gander.
3-One person's meat might be another's poison.

I'll stop at three. For me, it is all about the work:pay ratio. My last such shop paid $30+$25; that was acceptable. They are currently listed for a fee of $10+$25; I have zero interest.

@Boutique wrote:

Anyone familiar with this one?
I signed up for a KSS job (a familiar chicken wing place) and they directed me to first sign up with HS Brands but the link just took me to their promo page aimed at their clients. There was NO signup page at any of the links related to Mystery Shopping.
The rep who sent me their also had a nonsense link in his email that took me to some Dutch online selling page for machine parts!!
Total weirdness.

Haven't done this one. I have worked with KSS and HS Brands and have had good experiences.

I'm with bob. I would not do these for less than a $20 bonus. The other issue is that when I went, I had one drink and one of the cheapest meals on the menu. With tax and tip, it still went over reimbursement. Don't expect to get anything really good to eat or drink if you are planning on staying under the reimbursement. You also have to stay for an hour. You have to stay for an hour with a reimbursement that won't even cover a second drink. The report requires a lot of observations, and there is a lot of narrative. If you want to do that for $10 and a reimbursement that won't even cover a nice meal, then go ahead. People make bad decisions everyday. Don't say we didn't warn you!

Well, I did do it because it fell on a day when I was going to be within a few miles of the location on an errand coming back from other tasks (this was not local to me) AND hubby was working late (he is the cook so there was no dinner awaiting me) AND I happen to like the food.
That said I did order that second beer (a mistake as it is an hour drive home) and it did push me over the reimbursement + fee ... sigh (but I have another full dinner's worth of wings that I took home).
I really just wanted to see what these involved and I don't think it was all that bad (I have not had my shop scored or paid yet either so there is that ...).
I pretty much just made text message notes to myself while eating, drinking and scrolling Facebook (I mean I was sitting alone at a bar so I didn't really want to interact with those around me).
I did not find it difficult in the least - though of course I would only do these if and when they fit my specific purpose at the time - I would not be interested in this as a regular, cash crop shop.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/10/2022 03:10PM by Boutique.

Hey Bou..edit your post. You can't have the name in there.

When I completed my first shop at the eatery that is the subject of this thread, I was 64 and had only been shopping 2 1/2 yrs. The pleasure of dining on another's dime AND sometimes actually receiving money existed for me; in addition, I very much enjoyed the food. I am now 80 and my priorities have changed; therefore, a greater incentive is required. That could be one, some and/or all of the following: A wider shopping window, a greater reimbursement, a larger fee, eliminating the requirement to purchase alcohol. The simplest of the aforementioned is a larger fee. If all locations are taken by those requiring less money, so be it. After all is said and done, this is STILL business!

A quick addendum to the above comment. I do not have the slightest problem with the report, the veteran's discount is appreciated and the food is still quite delicious.

I believe HS brands has a portal for every country/region. If you Google hsbrands shopper portal it will normally get you to the right spot. Kss is a scheduling service so they don't actually have the shops or handle payment on most projects.

Thanks!. That wasn't enough of a nickname I realize.

I am wondering if I am going to have an issue now though. The receipt I was given did not say "cash" on it anywhere (but then it wasn't a CC version so I wouldn't expect it) AND because it was all cash the tip was given after the receipt was issued (the survey notes it should be a "final" receipt that includes the tip),
How could you get a receipt with the tip showing without being obvious and asking for a second, amended receipt which would pretty much out you on the spot?
This better not invalidate the shop or that will be the last one.

I do this one pretty often maybe every other month or so -- just for the food. I am a single mom with BIG teeage boys who LOVE to eat out. I do it often enough at different locations around me, so the narratives are pretty easy for me, so that is not an issue. They do not have to be extremely long and I like working with the HS schedulers. I live in a smaller city and surrounded by other smaller cities, which I frequent for errands and shopping. When they hit a bonus of $25 or so, I will usually pick them up. I am able to go watch some sports, and have a drink. More of an issue of when I will be in the area and would probably be open to dropping in for a drink anyway. Definitely a matter of preference, but after 15 years of shopping, I am in a different location, where the GOOD shops are fewer and further between. I don't shop nearly as much as I used to, but I pretty much take what I can get.

Boutique,

Predicated upon my experience, you probably will not have a problem with the tip, BUT, you might with cash not appearing on the receipt. I have never encountered that situation.

Just wondering if she didn't give me the right receipt (how would I know without studying it)?
I handed her the tab in the glass along with cash (that needed change back) and she handed me a receipt with the change.
Should it have been a 3rd ticket? I noted that the receipt said "reprint #2" so I am guessing that was what was generated after the 2nd beer. Since I didn't order anything additional that would pretty much be the final receipt - but I it looks like she just handed me back the tab version.

Maybe this is where the problem lies, maybe she didn't in fact enter the cash payment and that is why I didn't get a "final" receipt, but I don't know how she would have accounted for the order/s that was placed and entered in the POS. Hmmm...

You should be fine. I've never had a problem with the receipts I have been given. Just state in the report that you only got "x" receipt.

I just write the tip amount in on the receipt and the new total.

Reimbursements wise it may not make any difference as sounds like you had already gone over with the food & bev.

Check your receipt before you leave and if any requirement on how much you need to tip.

You write it on the receipt? Just for your own reference or for the MS company?

I write it in on the receipt for both.

The MSC can see what I did tip and the actual total with the tip added. Can be important when it is a reimbursement shop up to $XX (vs. flat fee regardless of how much is spent) or some shops require you to tip XX%.

I do it for me so I'm keeping track of what I spent vs. paid. If I did everything to stay within the guidelines but the reimbursement + fee (if any) does not cover, I want to write any negative difference off on my taxes.

Same is true on a shop paid with a credit or debit card. You don't get another receipt after you write in the tip and final total on the merchants copy. Just pen it in and total on the customer receipt too and submit to MSC.

Sometimes the receipt doesn't give a detailed view of what was ordered and most MSC"s want to see that.
Lay that receipt next to the customer copy of the charge receipt (with written in tip and grand total), take as 1 picture, and submit to the MSC as the receipt.

@Boutique wrote:

You write it on the receipt? Just for your own reference or for the MS company?

I think their tag "let us pay for your lunch or dinner"is ridiculous as the reimbursement covers ONE SLICE and that is not not enough food for me for the small fee.

I asked to have the shop canceled because the reimbursement did not cover the purchase. I wouldn't mind coming out of pocket if the pizza was good, but it was not.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

@HonnyBrown wrote:

I asked to have the shop canceled because the reimbursement did not cover the purchase. I wouldn't mind coming out of pocket if the pizza was good, but it was not.

Hunh? Was it one of the non-combo locations? I know there are a few of those and that's always annoying.

I have found the report to be quite challenging. The reviewer has sent it back 3x now and some of the reasons I understood, as I was a bit confused by the wording so I fixed those but when they also want narrative covering questions that were never asked.
I should have just taken their "sample" narrative and filled in my own info.
Sheesh

I think HS Brands is using new editors or a new editing company. This was discussed a while back in regards to their valet parking shops.

I just did another shop this past week. They wanted me to comment on the branding. The only branding is on the uniforms the valets wear. But I needed to revise it to say the signs directing me to the valet weren't branded.

I also had to explain why I didn't have to give my ticket to a valet until my car pulled up and why they didn't run to get my car.

You scan your ticket at this location and they don't run to get your car, they just show up in your car. But they use the same report for locations where you give your ticket to a valet and they run for your car after giving you back part of your ticket.

I never had issues like this until recently. Perhaps that's why you've gotten your report back several times on your shop.

Overall, I haven't minded shopping for HS Brands for the last 10 years or so.

Unfortunately HS Brands has joined the race to the bottom. They are now outsourcing their scheduling and editing, and they are low-bidding on crap-pay projects. They still have many of the same high-end sshops, but their lower end stuff has become just as crappy as the other bottom-feeder MSC's.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/2022 12:54AM by thunderdeacon.

Just an FYI, the 'typical" bar integrity report involves two separate cash purchases of drinks (2 people maximum) an an appetizer to share....The standard "used" to be two hours,....now it is shorter, perhaps one hour.....just sayin'...

Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.

Click here to login

HS Brands??

Create an Account or Log In

Official List of Mystery Shopping Companies

Mystery Shopper Magazine