Respectfully requesting the opinions of shoppers. How to proceed? I performed a shop at a local dive bar that advertises as Upscale Cocktail Lounge.

Background..the establishment was a topless bar for 40 years. They had a bix that served as platform where a toothless stripper would dance. Upstairs was an apartment for "extras". The place is tiny, dark and dirty.

They recently were bought. The new owners, aware of the community outrage over the previous establishment, marketed themselves as an Upscale Cocktail Lounge. It's a hole in the wall place sans the bodily fluids staining the floors.

I do a shop. Debit card/ cash. It's a typical local dive bar scenario. I ask for a menu. The bartender chuckles and adks what I eant to drink. I order. The bartender explains the food license didn't go through due to neighborhood outrage. They reapplied and are expecting it shortly. No food available. No drink menu available.

I get my receipts, photos and leave.

Shop rejected because "This is an upscale Cocktail Lounge. They have food menus. You ate not to complete a shop without menu or listed pricing you photograph."

It's not the money that makes me angry. It's the attack on my integrity. I appeal. This place is a few blocks away. I explain the history, I tell them which office to call to verify they do not have a food menu.

No response. I'm heading over to video record the bartender explaining the lack of food license and menu.

In addition, my community has been looking for ways to @#$%& this place down. I think the reviewer just gave it to them.

I asked repeatedly for a more thorough explanation from the reviewer. I know she just googled the place. Or they ate actually breaking the law and another shopper reported a menu being available.

I'm pissed off. I put my all into providing quality, honest reports. It's not the money. It's the principle.

Am I wrong??

Thank you for your time and consideration of my post. I appreciate you all.

I apologize for my typos!!!!!

Hi Annparker,

Here is my take on the situation you are facing. Firstly, it depends how long you have been a mystery shopper. Usually, dining, bar and restaurant shops are only given to mystery shoppers who are experienced and familiar with the dining out, photo and extensive report documentation process. I have been a mystery shopper for over four years and in the beginning I only received phone and web search mystery shops. Once I was accepting and providing prompt reports, I started getting restaurant/bar shops ( almost three years after my first shop).

Every mystery shop has a preview or guideline to follow, Now, with any dining, bar or anyplace that serves food and beverages, your scheduler/manager would firstly state in bold letters "CASH ONLY" on your guidelines.
You are to follow the guidelines, be prepared to have cash in your wallet and most of all be prepared for your report to be rejected if the guidelines aren't followed.

The term upscale refers to luxury or high-end service - they include - ambience, lighting, furnishings, food and drinks menus and ultimately service at your fingertips. I am not sure where you are based presumably you are in the US. If for whatever reason you cannot provide photos, menus etc as stated in your guidelines- your scheduler needs to be informed with as much information as possible. You are a contractor, you have to follow such guideline otherwise there is no question of your report being rejected on the spot.

I agree with you that it is about your principles and you are fair enough to say so but the scheduler has hundreds of maybe thousands of shopper emails they need to deal with. The less problems you give them, the more reliable you seem and more tasks would be allocated especially ones you have been trying to score.
Do not be disheartened, if it makes it any easier for you undertake smaller tasks like phone and web site calls - get familiar with the process and move forward...

Also, try and find a handful of other mystery shopper companies to work for so you can get familiar with the process and be more confident in your shopping skills.

Hope this helps you out, all the best with future shops

Ant seems to believe there is some kind of communication between editing and scheduling, and that isn't the case. With most MSCs you can apply or self-assign shops, any shops, based on your shopper rating.

In the Sassie platform that many MSC's use you need to have a shopper rating of 5 or more to get shops, and in most of the MSC's a rating of 7 or more to self-assign, there are exceptions, but this is a really good rule of thumb. ISS and Presto are not MSC's, they provide a platform where you can find shops from multiple MSC's, and in Presto you can do Insta-shops (blue, red, purple, and pink pins) from various MSC's without being signed up to that specific company. And you can see the shops available at other MSC's that use the Sassie platform (orange pins), but you have to be signed up with the company to apply or self-assign, and you will do those shops on the MSC's Sassie platform, not Presto.

The schedulers, and the editors are Independent Contractors, just like we are. They get paid piece work for the jobs that they do, just like we do. And they have very little contact with each other, just like us. No one discusses the quality of your work, the editors will edit and grade your jobs which will give you a shopper rating, and if your shops are good, your shopper rating will go up. No MSC will withhold restaurant shops until you've been a shopper for a while, there is no amount of time, or experience that will qualify you to do restaurant shops rather than any other type of shop.

I'll give you a really good example. My son signed up with a mystery shopping company just last month. The first 3 jobs he has done for them are restaurant shops. He self-assigned all of them, and the first two he got 10/10 scores because he did the jobs correctly and he knows how to use a word processor to make sure he is typing in complete sentences and using punctuation correctly. He reads and follows the guidelines for every shop he does, BEFORE he does it.

Ann, the shop you did at the dive bar. The Visa Debit card shops only want to know if you were charged an additional fee for using your credit card, or given a discount for using cash. What you purchase in your shop is not the issue. You just have to purchase 2 of the exact same thing, show the price on a menu or get a picture showing that there is no menu or posted prices. And, have separate receipts for each purchase. Whether they sell food at that establishment, or not, is not the issue, and not why your shop was rejected.

my suggestions: stay away from such shops. Too many constrains.

Read the numerous threads about the debit card shops for how-tos, tips, tricks, and bad experiences by other shoppers.

These are not dining shops like you are describing. These are $14 jobs on Presto where the only goal is to evaluate if they charge you the same for a Debit Card and cash purchase. They aren't limited to dining establishments, but a huge range of small businesses. The guidelines specifically say to "just explain" if you can't take a photo of the price or there is no price tag. They even put a cheery exclamation point at the end of the sentence, like its no big deal! These shops have been widely panned for the lack of common sense "editors" who review them as their behavior often doesn't align with the guidelines.

@AntSky wrote:

Hi Annparker,

Here is my take on the situation you are facing. Firstly, it depends how long you have been a mystery shopper. Usually, dining, bar and restaurant shops are only given to mystery shoppers who are experienced and familiar with the dining out, photo and extensive report documentation process. I have been a mystery shopper for over four years and in the beginning I only received phone and web search mystery shops. Once I was accepting and providing prompt reports, I started getting restaurant/bar shops ( almost three years after my first shop).

Every mystery shop has a preview or guideline to follow, Now, with any dining, bar or anyplace that serves food and beverages, your scheduler/manager would firstly state in bold letters "CASH ONLY" on your guidelines.
You are to follow the guidelines, be prepared to have cash in your wallet and most of all be prepared for your report to be rejected if the guidelines aren't followed.

The term upscale refers to luxury or high-end service - they include - ambience, lighting, furnishings, food and drinks menus and ultimately service at your fingertips. I am not sure where you are based presumably you are in the US. If for whatever reason you cannot provide photos, menus etc as stated in your guidelines- your scheduler needs to be informed with as much information as possible. You are a contractor, you have to follow such guideline otherwise there is no question of your report being rejected on the spot.

I agree with you that it is about your principles and you are fair enough to say so but the scheduler has hundreds of maybe thousands of shopper emails they need to deal with. The less problems you give them, the more reliable you seem and more tasks would be allocated especially ones you have been trying to score.
Do not be disheartened, if it makes it any easier for you undertake smaller tasks like phone and web site calls - get familiar with the process and move forward...

Also, try and find a handful of other mystery shopper companies to work for so you can get familiar with the process and be more confident in your shopping skills.

Hope this helps you out, all the best with future shops

You have to appeal and go above the editor. Can't recall who I emailed last time but this has happened to all of us with those presto shops. Editors are rude and snarky and there is no need. They should have simply asked for clarification and not made such a comment. Quote those guide lines in your appeal. I would be agitated as well.

OP, I feel your pain and have experienced the same type of issue with this MSC.

The most important things to know about this MSC is that they are ALWAYS right, even when they're dead wrong. And your integrity will ALWAYS be attacked when issues arise. And they will ALWAYS win.

Example: With a different shop type, I followed the instructions exactly. Shop rejected. Turns out that the instructions were worded incorrectly but shoppers are supposed to know that their words mean the opposite of what they say. Still rejected.

This is how they do business. They are not shopper-friendly, no matter how many cartoons, cutesy videos and motivational ads they put out.

The choice is yours to take your chances on every shop and possibly not get paid or suck it up and keep trying.

I'm sorry to tell you. That's just the way they are.

Helena summed up the situation quite concisely. It is your decision to either accept the situation or terminate the relationship.

I would just like to inform everyone on this forum that as an Aussie Shopper, our scheduler tells us that directly by email that regardless of who you have been doing MSC's if you are a newbie to the company, you need to start with phone and web jobs. The schedulers here will make us do phone and web jobs for at least two years before they decide they can say yes to that "restaurant or fine dining mystery task". In their opinion, if you accept lower tasks with lower rates oftenly without fail - you would get dining related tasks after some time and in most cases it is the Two year wait period. Yes, I do have written proof of this by two schedulers from two different MSC brands.

That's bananapants. Has it always been that way with them over there?

@AntSky wrote:

Hi Annparker,

Here is my take on the situation you are facing. Firstly, it depends how long you have been a mystery shopper. Usually, dining, bar and restaurant shops are only given to mystery shoppers who are experienced and familiar with the dining out, photo and extensive report documentation process. I have been a mystery shopper for over four years and in the beginning I only received phone and web search mystery shops. Once I was accepting and providing prompt reports, I started getting restaurant/bar shops ( almost three years after my first shop).

Every mystery shop has a preview or guideline to follow, Now, with any dining, bar or anyplace that serves food and beverages, your scheduler/manager would firstly state in bold letters "CASH ONLY" on your guidelines.
You are to follow the guidelines, be prepared to have cash in your wallet and most of all be prepared for your report to be rejected if the guidelines aren't followed.

The term upscale refers to luxury or high-end service - they include - ambience, lighting, furnishings, food and drinks menus and ultimately service at your fingertips. I am not sure where you are based presumably you are in the US. If for whatever reason you cannot provide photos, menus etc as stated in your guidelines- your scheduler needs to be informed with as much information as possible. You are a contractor, you have to follow such guideline otherwise there is no question of your report being rejected on the spot.

I agree with you that it is about your principles and you are fair enough to say so but the scheduler has hundreds of maybe thousands of shopper emails they need to deal with. The less problems you give them, the more reliable you seem and more tasks would be allocated especially ones you have been trying to score.
Do not be disheartened, if it makes it any easier for you undertake smaller tasks like phone and web site calls - get familiar with the process and move forward...

Also, try and find a handful of other mystery shopper companies to work for so you can get familiar with the process and be more confident in your shopping skills.

Hope this helps you out, all the best with future shops

AND

@AntSky wrote:

I would just like to inform everyone on this forum that as an Aussie Shopper...In their opinion, if you accept lower tasks with lower rates oftenly without fail - you would get dining related tasks after some time and in most cases it is the Two year wait period. Yes, I do have written proof of this by two schedulers from two different MSC brands.

DOESN'T MATTER. NOT RELEVANT HERE, Missy.

@AntSky I would kindly suggest that you sit this one out since you clearly do not know what you are talking about. Over here the debit/cash shops are instas. I don't see any instas Down Under. Your post demonstrates you don't have experience with this type of shop either. That's OK.

To give you, @AntSky, some context, the shops on that platform do not require a shopper to have a certain rating or to have put in a certain amount of time as an apprentice or intern to do the shop. If you signed up for an account last week and as long as it is properly registered and even with no experience, you can do the shops the OP is discussing. You self assign the shop. The qualification for the shop is that you have a particular type of debit card and enough cash to make the purchases.

@annparker the background is not relevant. The place could've been a convent before. The important thing is what is it now and how you proceeded with the shop.

Did your two receipts match? Did you buy the same thing? Were both receipts itemized? There should've been a link to file an appeal. I wouldn't hold out much hope for winning that on its own merit. If you are positive you did the shop correctly, you need to reach out to that team and explain what happened and file an appeal.

If you do go that route, drop the background information you provided here about what it used to be. It won't help your case if this place has a website and a menu is listed. If that is the case, you need to explain that the bartender claimed there was no menu and that he did not give you one when you requested one.

You need to focus on telling them the place currently doesn't sell food due to a licensing snafu and there is no drink menu. Hopefully you took pictures that show no pricing anywhere.

By the way, you told us basically everything about the shop except for what you did buy. What did you buy on the debit and with cash?

Say, how did you know the stripper was toothless if you're not a regular at this bar?

Wow, what a shop that would be if it had been the old establishment. I would have no problem ordering 2, 3, or 4 of the same thing.

Edit to add that I'd like mine to have teeth. They can be false. LOL

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2024 05:42AM by ServiceAward.

Kathryn Johnston - Project Assistant

Email: kathryn.johnston@ipsos.com

Key Area(s): Supporting the field operations team in our general mystery shopping mailbox and can help with a multitude of questions – ask away!

Try this email and see if it can be any help

@kisekinecro wrote:

Kathryn Johnston - Project Assistant

Email: kathryn.johnston@ipsos.com

Key Area(s): Supporting the field operations team in our general mystery shopping mailbox and can help with a multitude of questions – ask away!

Try this email and see if it can be any help

Didn't help me when I emailed with a question. Nothing but the typical Ipsos crickets.

You are right, but also wrong on a few points, notably, "...No MSC will withhold restaurant shops until you've been a shopper for a while, there is no amount of time, or experience that will qualify you to do restaurant shops rather than any other type of shop...." A lot of MSC's require history and status to reach the level where you can be trusted with restaurant and bar shops....

Yes, that is true!