Hoju Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Some think it's smart business. Others are
> desperate for money. The former are foolish. The
> latter, honestly, I can't blame them. But that
> doesn't make it any better.
In another thread (see GFK under company discussions), Hoju mentioned not being able to blame desperate shoppers for taking shops with low fees. With all due respect, you, Desperate Shopper, are only hurting yourself.
You are usually desperate due to your own actions. Please don't take this as a personal attack as I don't mean to be harsh. A "desperate" shopper who travels 25 miles to do a $7.50 shop is only making his situation worse. You have $13 of vehicle expenses, but you don't measure the wear and tear on your car, only the gas. In the end, the desperate shopper becomes even more desperate when the fuel pump goes out on his car and he doesn't have the money to get it fixed. It's his own fault, but he blindly fails to realize he puts himself in that position.
Similarly, not accounting for EVERY FACET OF YOUR TIME hurts you, too. I've been guilty of this. Imagine you are an employee at McDonald's. Your schedule is from 6 AM until 2 PM, but at 2 PM your manager asks you to sweep the parking lot and take out the trash. Guess what? You stay on the clock until you are done. As a shopper, sometimes I only consider the time I am out performing the shop as the basis for what I want to get paid. However, when the MSC asks me to write a report, and to create my own work schedule, and to "sweep up" a report that needs clarification, I am spending my time to do so. Before I accept a shop, I have to account for these extraneous items that add to my time commitment for a job.
I subscribe to the notion of "survival of the fittest." The desperate shopper eventually gets weeded out of the mystery shopping gene pool (sometimes only temporarily depending on how stubborn he is) when he 1) has no money to front reimbursed expenses or 2) encounters a business expense for which he has not anticipated and cannot pay.
When you say the shop only takes 20 minutes, are you including the time it took to find the job, apply for it, read the guidelines, do the work, drive time, report submission, and follow-up clarification? Have you accounted for the ink in your printer? Or the electricity your computer consumes while you work? Or the wear and tear on all your tools (car, computer, printer, etc.)?
If you operate your mystery shopping business LIKE A BUSINESS, you will succeed. You'll do great. You won't stress out as easily. You will have balance. It isn't a lucky break when a shopper finds a plum job; it's due to their own persistence and hard work.
Finally, it isn't our problem if a MSC underbid a project, so we should not feel guilty about passing on a job that does not pay enough. I won't shop a car dealership for $14 (or $17 or $20). I won't eat at Dairy Queen for $3. Maybe there are enough shoppers out there who will. If, after reading this, you're one of them, by all means, happy shopping! I'll let the desperate shoppers have those jobs since it expedites the process of eliminating them from the shopper pool. Just don't tell me the ice cream (or Big Mac, or Sonic Burger) somehow provides nourishment your body needs and should therefore be accounted for in the total fee.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/2014 02:56PM by jonk.
-------------------------------------------------------
> Some think it's smart business. Others are
> desperate for money. The former are foolish. The
> latter, honestly, I can't blame them. But that
> doesn't make it any better.
In another thread (see GFK under company discussions), Hoju mentioned not being able to blame desperate shoppers for taking shops with low fees. With all due respect, you, Desperate Shopper, are only hurting yourself.
You are usually desperate due to your own actions. Please don't take this as a personal attack as I don't mean to be harsh. A "desperate" shopper who travels 25 miles to do a $7.50 shop is only making his situation worse. You have $13 of vehicle expenses, but you don't measure the wear and tear on your car, only the gas. In the end, the desperate shopper becomes even more desperate when the fuel pump goes out on his car and he doesn't have the money to get it fixed. It's his own fault, but he blindly fails to realize he puts himself in that position.
Similarly, not accounting for EVERY FACET OF YOUR TIME hurts you, too. I've been guilty of this. Imagine you are an employee at McDonald's. Your schedule is from 6 AM until 2 PM, but at 2 PM your manager asks you to sweep the parking lot and take out the trash. Guess what? You stay on the clock until you are done. As a shopper, sometimes I only consider the time I am out performing the shop as the basis for what I want to get paid. However, when the MSC asks me to write a report, and to create my own work schedule, and to "sweep up" a report that needs clarification, I am spending my time to do so. Before I accept a shop, I have to account for these extraneous items that add to my time commitment for a job.
I subscribe to the notion of "survival of the fittest." The desperate shopper eventually gets weeded out of the mystery shopping gene pool (sometimes only temporarily depending on how stubborn he is) when he 1) has no money to front reimbursed expenses or 2) encounters a business expense for which he has not anticipated and cannot pay.
When you say the shop only takes 20 minutes, are you including the time it took to find the job, apply for it, read the guidelines, do the work, drive time, report submission, and follow-up clarification? Have you accounted for the ink in your printer? Or the electricity your computer consumes while you work? Or the wear and tear on all your tools (car, computer, printer, etc.)?
If you operate your mystery shopping business LIKE A BUSINESS, you will succeed. You'll do great. You won't stress out as easily. You will have balance. It isn't a lucky break when a shopper finds a plum job; it's due to their own persistence and hard work.
Finally, it isn't our problem if a MSC underbid a project, so we should not feel guilty about passing on a job that does not pay enough. I won't shop a car dealership for $14 (or $17 or $20). I won't eat at Dairy Queen for $3. Maybe there are enough shoppers out there who will. If, after reading this, you're one of them, by all means, happy shopping! I'll let the desperate shoppers have those jobs since it expedites the process of eliminating them from the shopper pool. Just don't tell me the ice cream (or Big Mac, or Sonic Burger) somehow provides nourishment your body needs and should therefore be accounted for in the total fee.
Shopping since 1995; full-time since 2009. Blogging about shopping on www.myfrugalmiser.com.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/2014 02:56PM by jonk.