Money towards your restaurant bill (Retail Eyes)

Member Name: i_am_joy

Product:	Retail Eyes
Date:	17/07/09 (207 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Plenty of assignments at certain times, reasonable rates of pay, good payment schedule

Disadvantages: Assignments can be few and far between at times, not the best payment rates

I eat out several times a month as as we have gotten older my sister, brothers and I all make a point of keeping in touch and meeting up. When I mentioned this to a lady I 'met' on here she suggested I sign up for Retail Eyes, a mystery shopping company that tends to focus on pleasurable meals and pub visits rather than retail purchases. I joined another mystery shopping company some time ago but found the assignments were rather too long winded and much too much effort for someone who is not particularly keen on shopping in the first place!

To sign up visit www.retaileyes.co.uk and click 'Become a shopper' which is located on the bottom right hand side of the page. Once you've done this you'll be invited to fill in a short registration page, the site has a double registration process so you will receive an email after joining and you'll need to click on the activation link to validate your registration.

It's all very straight forward, upon validating there are a series of profiling questions for you to answer. This is really to ensure that you are not going to be invited to perform any mystery shopping jobs that you aren't suitable for or wouldn't want to do yourself. You can choose to eliminate certain categories by simply not ticking the box, for example I wouldn't want to visit a casino so have opted out of that particular category. Other questions in the profiles include your spending habits, electrical appliances owned and where you do your household shopping - this is presumably to pigeon hole you into certain criteria known only by Retail Eyes but it seems to work as I have been offered assignments surrounding my main bank, chosen Pharmacy and a further one which required me to purchase cat food for my moggies!

The final step is to set how far from your home you are willing to travel. You set the distance by postcode and it is possible to set more than one address in order to maximise the amount of assignments you will be offered. I have personally set distances up from my bungalow, my sister's house and my daughter's house as I visit these areas regularly; you can choose to narrow the process down by selecting a distance you are prepared to travel in any direction from your set postcode. For example there are very few establishments I would want to visit surrounding my sister's postcode so I have set the distance as 3 miles, whereas I would be happy to travel within a 15 mile radius of my own address.

Now you're ready to see what assignments Retail Eyes have for you. At this point don't be alarmed by the 'beta' in the web address as you change pages within the site, Retail Eyes has apparently been in beta stage for some years and are completely reliable and professional in every manner.

Finding assignments is easy. You do have to log into the site itself to look at what's available as Retail Eyes do not email members with details, I have found you have to be rather quick too and tend to log in once in the morning and again in the evening to see if anything has been added. They are added in batches and several times I've checked once and there is nothing available, but refreshing the page after ten minutes will bring up dozens of assignments for my areas. This is where you need to be quick, if you see an assignment you want to complete then the quicker you can pass the accreditation questions the better as it really is a case of fastest finger first as all the Retail Eyes members scramble for the available assignments.

The assignments are always very straight forward and pleasant to complete. As I mentioned earlier, the majority of assignments available are for meals and/or drinks in pub restaurants. Recently there have been absolutely loads for Wetherspoons venues, this isn't a bar I'm fond of although I have completed a couple of late when it has coincided with trips to Town and days out. Assignments will usually require you to purchase a particular item or order from a particular part of the menu, you will be reimbursed up to a set amount and will usually be required to upload a receipt for your purchases. This is obviously not convenient when you are just purchasing drinks, but on these occasions you will be asked in detail to describe the surroundings of the venue to ensure you have actually visited it.

One thing I like about Retail Eyes is the fact that I am not given a long list of things to remember while I am visiting a location. It's all very condensed and as long as you have a good look through the questionnaire and assignment notes before you go on the visit you'll be fine. Really, as long as you keep your eyes open you'll find filling in the questionnaire simple and basically common sense when you get home. There will obviously always be particular things you will need to look out for and make observations on but these will be clearly marked on the assignment notes and most jobs are really just a case of being observant in your surroundings.

After visiting the location you have 24 hours in which to fill in your questionnaire about the visit. This I have found is ample time, a standard questionnaire will take you anywhere between 25 and 45 minutes but the questions are so straight forward and well phrased that they are enjoyable to complete. I never feel I am being rushed into answering questions or coerced into answering a certain way, mystery shoppers are encouraged to give their own opinion and questions are asked in an unbiased manner.

Your questionnaires will be proof read before you are paid for your visit, Retail Eyes will refuse to accept those that have been sloppily completed or any containing spelling mistakes. Basically you, as the mystery shopper, are representing Retail Eyes as your reports are sent to the companies you have visited for analysis so if you speak or act in an unprofessional manner then you really cannot be expected to be paid for it. I submitted a report recently and was too vague when describing the gentleman who served me, I received a phone call the same day from Retail Eyes to clarify a few points and then my money was credited to my account immediately afterwards.

I didn't feel as though I were being called a liar here as the lady who phoned me was courteous and pleasant throughout our conversation, she empathised with how difficult it is to remember everything as she herself had been a shopper for many years. I had cause to call Retail Eyes recently when I was unable to complete an assignment I had previously accepted, I released it through the website and phoned them because it wouldn't delete itself from my active assignments list. My query was dealt with quickly and easily with no fuss whatsoever.

Payment is made via BACS transfer twice a month, it is supposed to be around the 15th and last day of each month but I find my payments will usually arrive a couple of days earlier than expected. I have never had a problem with being paid from Retail Eyes and there is a summary page on the site where you can check how much money you are owed, and also money that has been paid to you in previous payment schedules. Please note here that Retail Eyes do not stop any tax or National Insurance contributions so if necessary you will need to inform the relevant people of any additional earnings.

How much you make is up to what is available, and the time you have to dedicate to completing assignments. Assignments aren't as consistent as other mystery shopping sites I've looked at, sometimes weeks will go by without me catching anything new added but then suddenly there will be plenty to choose from. For example, I logged in last week and I remember there were 112 assignments available then nothing was added until today when a further 48 went on.

Retail Eyes is a relatively low paying site, on average you will receive a fee of £5 for completing a job and reimbursement for a simple meal or purchase will also be around £5. This means that in reality you are probably going to make a loss on most jobs and for this reason I look at Retail Eyes as helping to subsidise my meals out rather than actually paying me to do a job. As I mentioned earlier I do eat out regularly so when jobs are plentiful I will earn around £50 in a month for something I would be doing anyway - with the added bonus of being able to visit lots of different establishments that ordinarily I probably wouldn't have considered eating in.

I completely recommend Retail Eyes as a way of earning a little cash. The website itself is very simple to navigate and there are various aids on there which will enable you to keep on top of assignments, I find the calendar in particular very useful as I can see at every page on the site what jobs I have booked on what days. There is an odd pointing system which seems to mean very little to me! I have ascertained that you get points when you complete an assignment to a satisfactory level and points are deducted for not visiting locations you have accepted assignments for. Presumably if you get below a certain level of points you will not be eligible for assignments, but I am very careful about what I accept so (touch wood) I haven't had any points deducted yet!

Summary: A nice gentle mystery shopping site to suit the occasional shopper - or regular eater!