You can add Extended Stay American to my own list of "Never Again" shops.

Yeah,

Mortuaries.

Funeral Shops.

IKEA.

Coffee shops that require pulling the baskets to check for coffee grounds.

Did I say IKEA? lol..

75 page questionnaire shops with 6 long narratives with full responses to ALL questions (not just No's).

I don't like to drive cars that aren't mine either... and the probability of a pushy salesman, and I keep deciding to pass on the car shops even though I am curious about some of the cars.

I was worried about the patron counting and my vision, but have been going to single-showings of movies which have been out for several weeks and on slow nights: late on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday. I prefer the theater be less crowded anyway, and so far, I have't had to count more than a baker's dozen.



HeatherC Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Patron counts at movie theaters-I don't have the
> time to stay at a movie theater all day. I also
> have difficulty keeping track of people coming and
> going, especially in the dark.
...

> Test driving a Ferrari-I don't fit the profile of
> a typical Ferrari customer and driving a car
> that's not my own makes me nervous

Car shops--did a bunch when I first started shopping, got too many calls about my narrative, too many follow-up calls from desperate salesmen, not worth the pay. One MSC now pays $65, but I still won't do them!

I was going to do a Coyle restaurant shop, saw what was expected, backed out. HOW do you folks get all those times and names without being made? I think I would go crazy!

Golden Arches. So much timing for food that kills! And you have to take a test! And the pay is terrible! Why do any of you take on these shops???

Bank shops--did a couple, could not stay awake, found the form too much to handle for the piddling compensation. Again--why bother???

Robinv

Why? $$$Bonuses.

robinv Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Car shops--did a bunch when I first started
> shopping, got too many calls about my narrative,
> too many follow-up calls from desperate salesmen,
> not worth the pay. One MSC now pays $65, but I
> still won't do them!
>
> I was going to do a Coyle restaurant shop, saw
> what was expected, backed out. HOW do you folks
> get all those times and names without being made?
> I think I would go crazy!
>
> Golden Arches. So much timing for food that kills!
> And you have to take a test! And the pay is
> terrible! Why do any of you take on these
> shops???
>
> Bank shops--did a couple, could not stay awake,
> found the form too much to handle for the piddling
> compensation. Again--why bother???
>
> Robinv

Car shops - not my favorite but my husband will do when they get in the 60.00 range and don't require negotiations.

Coyle - nothing in my area and because I can't get a restaurant under my belt for them it's hard to get the others so I just don't concentrate on them.

Golden Arches - 3 timings for the drive in and three for the dine in. I don't consider that too many. And if you do a stop watch and elapsed timings you end up only inputting two numbers for each. As for the food...a bite is all that is required although I do admit to taking them to get my fountain Diet Coke. The bonuses can be awesome. I did one last night for 20 and two other shops on the street for bonuses of 30 and 15 so it was very profitable. I have done the test now for four? five? different companies and have never had a problem with it.

Banks - typically those are high paying, quick and easy.

I bother because I am doing this for the money.

Liz

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2013 07:20PM by Traveliz.

One that I really think is underpaid is Abercrombie & Fitch. I've done one bonused for $15, and 3 for $8. I take them if I have a few shops in the same mall and didn't find anything else better paying to go to instead. But, it's way too much for the pay.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/2013 04:48AM by MilessMum.

Heather

>>Pandora-their jewellery is not my style<<

Amen to that. Never did a shop for them - but I just don't "get" that whole look. It is just gaudy and hiddeous.

I guess because my other profession is in jewelry making (delicate crystal types) and that ugly stuff just makes me gag.

actually i am lazy to go out of house so mostly do online shopping

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/2013 02:43AM by CAscotch.

those HORRID pizza shops with the "famous pics".....and anything $5 or less even if I AM gonna be right there.....

I still haven't found one I won't do...but I have found on where I'll need to really think about doing it again. A payday loan shop. The first one I did I just wasn't feeling 100% with it. I'll probably try it again sometime, but I want to put some space in there.

I won't do IKEA but not from experience, just from the comments I've read on this board.

I used to do a lot of phone shops but have decided they are just not worth it so I won't do another one.

Car dealerships under $60.00. They have to pay me at least $60 to put up with those continuous annoying phone calls.

Targeted shops. I find it too stressful trying to get the right person and organize actually doing the shop on the same day since most of those shops are quite a drive from me.

Phone shops cause they usually get rejected. Or, if they are accepted, I hear back from the target for months and am addressed by my fake name too.

I get $20 to do a certain great hamburg joint plus of course the reimbursement. I get the $20 instead of $7 because they have no other shopper in the area or at least no shopper that will do it. By the way I asked for $20 and every month for a year I have been doing the shop once at least or twice. She phoned me says I have a lunch or a dinner shop and of course for you it is $20.

It the only FF I do because for now it pays and it is only 5 minutes from home.

I don't do phone shops or ANY shop that doesn't pay a fair wage.

I won't do phone shops, Ikea and have not done a car shop in a year. I still get sporadic emails and phone calls from the last one I did.

I avoid targeted shops and shops where I have to be in the store, twice to three times as long as an average customer.

I won't do targeted shops, purchase and return shops which I count as two shops for the price of one and also won't do Ikea just from all the negative things that I have read about it. Otherwise I try to be open minded, but sometimes I still lean towards not doing a shop due to all the negativity that I read about the shop, i.e. pizza shops and the crazy pictures involved.

I did one of those pizza shops and because the pizza was in edible, won't do another. Yuck!

Robinv

I won't do targeted apartment shops. I only do breafast FF (golden arches)shops.

I don't mind car shops for Monterey and Automotive Insights. The other companies not so much.

Of course, IKEA.

I dont do Alcohol compl. reveal shops anymore. Its too uncomfortable to me when they fail

Have a new NEVER do shop...PAPA JOHNS, OMG, lousey pizza and those pictures, 90% angle (help)!!!!!

You'd think instead of worrying what the pizza LOOKS like they might pay more attention to what it TASTES like. Another example of focusing on the wrong thing. Store scores 100% on the mystery shop for making a pretty pizza and loses customers because they don't ask us if the pizza tastes lousy.

They don't ask anything about taste? Granted it has been a few years, I always thought the report for one of the former MSCs had that question. Maybe it was all about service and speed. Come to think of it, I don't remember a drop down option for "pretty damn crappy."

After reading this forum, I won't do cell phone shops or funeral shops..that is for sure.

Of course, part of the issue with taste is that by the time we're done taking all the pictures the thing is pretty cold and unappetizing. I only did one but I don't remember a question about taste. Not saying there wasn't one, but if there was, it would be hard to rate it anything other than bland and mediocre. Ditto for the pizza pizza photo shops. I got to do one of those that was a customer service shop with no photos and I got to eat the pizza hot and the deep dish wasn't bad, but two weeks after I did that one they added a photo to that shop too. Their flat pizza is yucky even hot though.

Maybe they should do these shops as two-fers -- get two pizzas, eat one, take pics of the other. People might be more willing to do the shops if we could be eating a hot pizza while setting up the photo shoot. Then the cold, pretty pizza could just go straight into the dog food bowl.

In order for me to do a shop, I want it to be challenging enough but enjoyable as well. Sometimes the pay is peanuts but as a filler and if I enjoy doing it, I will. There are shops that I automatically delete from my inbox, even with bonus. I also decline outright when they call me and offer a bonus the following: I have been asked, "But how much bonus can we offer?"

Reveal shops or anything where I have to pay the award for the successful associate.

Menu shops or shops requiring me to take pictures of the washroom, the cashier or anything in the restaurant, including the meal.

Pricing audits or grocery pricing shops. I tried them once and never again! I am sorry but just not my cup even if I was paid in all those shops.

Car shops.

Banks. I used to do them but not anymore.

Loans and pawnshops.

I successfully did a hair shop, that's it.

FF shops. Did a few but golden arches, no more...

I'm still new, so there's not much I won't try at least once (except for the Swedish furniture store, based on what you all have said). I did recently do a Home Improvement shop that I won't do again. It paid $12, and I didn't see until after I signed up that it required 6-9 interactions, with names, and required me to ask about very specific products that were difficult to remember. It also included a purchase and return. I recently saw the same shop bonused up to $30, but I think I'm still traumatized from the last one!

Oh, I think I have done that one, Bedenji. I believe he Home Depot is a competitor shop for another store. Either way, it is brutal. I was actually foolish enough to do it twice. I did it once very early in my MS career. Then, many years later, I was going to be at that store anyway I did it again convincing myself that all my earlier troubles had been because I was a newbie. I was wrong, still brutal.

bedenji - I picked up two (the limit for one day) of those same Home Depot-like shops and would NOT have if I'd have seen how many departments and associates I had to have interactions with, their descriptions, the time in the departments - crazy! Oh, and don't forget to return your item on the same trip. Never again!

Car dealers - I do car shops if they are bonused to at least $35, but only feel I can do one a month because of the follow up calls from the sales depts.

Phone shops - I did around 15 of the same shop in a two-week period and got where I could do them very quickly (after the 1st couple), but won't do recorded phone shops where I still have to get a first/last name and write a report, since I think it's redundant and silly.

Golden Arches - they have to be highly bonused due to the timing and reporting, and the fact that I don't want the food.

To be honest, I haven't found anything I won't do if the pay is high enough. I will say that I'll never take the IKEA shop, but since the nearest one is 8 hours away from me, I don't feel the need to even think about it.

The shops I dislike most, and thus have to be really high-paying, are:

-Phone shops. I don't like talking on the phone, even socially, so phone shops are outside my comfort zone. The recorded ones especially make me feel uncomfortable. However, I've done a $75 mortgage phone shop, and a set of 10 realtor shops that added up to $80. I've also done insurance quotes for $20 and that was a TERRIBLE experience--the MSC was intellishop, the scheduler was lazy (refused to answer my emails and as a result one shop was rejected) and the form was godawful.

-Reveal shops, especially where you have to reveal that the employee failed. It's sooo uncomfortable to have to tell a manager that their employee failed while the employee is standing right there. Even if they pass, I always feel super nervous.

-Shops that don't involve food, LOL