Last year a long term client of mine approached me for a permanent project, and from July until December I was working 40 hour weeks, and even so far this year I've been busy so I haven't had a chance to look at MS or new clients who do MS. Even now I am still on the project, same amount of locations, spread over the year so I am happy with them.

Late last night I received an e-mail from a company I signed up for who knows how long ago. I almost wanted to laugh at the rates they're offering. $5 USD for a 65 question survey. I mean gas is $1.25 a liter, and some of these "local" locations require a 60 minute commute. Or $6.00 to ride the subway back and forth to do the assignment, not including parking. I mean where do these companies get their offers from? Just throwing darts at a board and hoping shoppers will grab the assignment before doing a P&L assessment?

When I first started, I took several low paying assignments that ended up paying less than $3 an hour once I calculated time spent from reading the job instructions through to the finished report. I have done several of these jobs a couple of times more to see if I could speed up the process as well as prove to the MSC scheduler that I can do the job properly and am dependable.

Now, I will never do them unless they assign a bonus to make the job worth the pay. I would never allow an MSC to auto reassign the low paying jobs at the base pay. There are companies that have managed to convince people to do this and are now getting many shops completed at base pay. They are more than welcome to have those jobs.

You may need to do a few shops at a loss to learn that it is not worth your time and effort. Just chalk it up to a learning experience and use more caution when accepting additional assignments from that company. Sign up for more companies and you will find better jobs. Its the companies that have rare jobs in your area that will have the best paying assignments.

Hey Scan,
I've been around MS for years. I know my base pay/base distance for my beloved friend Mr. Profit!

I just can't believe companies think they can get quality work for $5.00.

I have signed up and closed profiles with companies just to see if things/figures have changed.

@BillBryaninCarthage wrote:

I think that mystery shopping companies are looking for part-time shoppers--students, retirees, housewives who rely on their husband's income-- to perform these jobs.

Most mystery shoppers who are making a good living are:
1. Actually performing gas station audits, or other audits, that combine a mystery shop with a revealed audit.
2. Video-shoppers who perform routes, and perform mystery shops as they happen to find them.

Nobody is making a good income as a pure mystery shopper. Pure mystery shoppers therefore pursue shopping part-time, or to supplement income in a 2-income household, or are subsidized by parents (students), or received government or retirement checks (retirees).

That's probably true in MOST cases.

If I don't, at least, double my expenses I hit the delete button.

Yep, Intellishop had one that used to pay $5, and reimbursed for a cup of coffee. They have now changed that to $4.50 pay and reimbursement. Not for me. I'll make my own coffee.

Mystery shopping helped pay the rent, utilities, food, gas, insurance and car payments this month.. But not from those rates! I definitely think some companies and clients are looking for the inexperienced to take advantage of. We all have to start somewhere to know what is and is not worth our time but yeah... Our time and effort is worth more than $5.

The MSCs are in this business to make the most money possible. They can charge their clients more, reduce internal expenses, or try to pay us less. Easiest solution... pay us less. If half of the shops get filled at the crazy-low base prices, good for them. I'll wait until the last few days of the cycle and get the 1-2% left on the boards at five to ten times that amount. Good for me. As long as they're paying out less overall by starting out low and holding off on major bonuses until the end, and can be satisfied with the job performance of those who take the jobs early and low, then there's no reason for them to change.

With one hand time puts a penny in the urn of poverty, and with the other takes a dollar out. Time is a shadow that passes away.

Mystery Shopping provides the better MSCs with good annual incomes. Apparently several shoppers claim to make 40k a year doing this.

I'm in sales and work during lunch and dinner most days. Unfortunately that means I eat/order out a lot to get something fast, sometimes even healthy. The past few weeks I covered 5 meals a week plus fees. That's around $40 reimbursement plus $40 in fees, $80 net per week. I did two supermarket shops, $30 in fees to offset my purchases of items I'd normally purchase. I'm finding time to mix in some simple audits or other tasks each month that take 30 minutes or less and pay from $10 to $20 each.

All last year I was lucky to do half of that in a month.

I'm also scheduling better restaurants that cover a great meal with the wife plus pay a fee of up to $20. It all adds up and works for me. I even scheduled a $5 fee (plus reimbursement) for lunch at a new restaurant I wanted to check out with the wife.
I'll keep adding MSCs and figure out what I can handle.

This depends on how you look at things. For me, some of these $5 shops are OK with me when it includes $5-10 in reimbursement costs for food or drinks. Even when I'm most efficient, the best I've ever done to cut down my meals was around $10 a day. The doesn't even include the time I have to dedicate to prepping, cooking, cleaning, etc.

I typically take on many restaurant at base fees, depending on the location and the drive. For this reason, that $10/day or ~$300/month minimum on food reduces to nearly nothing. Again, $10/day for food expenses is a conservative rate and if I plan to eat chicken breasts, veggies, eggs, rice and ham for every single meal.

The mystery shop company has no idea how close you will be to the locations. Perhaps you have an appt the day of the advertised shop and it is right next door. If all you do is walk a few feet to do the job far from your home you too might find it reasonable enough.
They send those job announcements to anyone within several zip codes/counties of the job...they are not targeting those who are a 60 minute drive from the job but they also never know when a particular job you never take will make sense this month due to your schedule. So do not take it personally and think the msc thinks you at 60 minutes away are going to snap up their low paying job just because you were on a long list with other people who are closer.
So to all the threads where shoppers are asking why a mystery shop company thinks they would want a job without getting mileage or a bonus...I am pretty sure they do not expect those far away to take it when they send it out. They want whoever is willing and able to do it at that rate. Then if no one, they will offer you more.

If your looking at $5 jobs than you are approaching mystery shopping wrong.
I made in excess of 50K last year.
Its 100% absolutely possible to make a good living mystery shopping
You have to know what you are doing and how to manage your time properly.

Follow-up to my post regarding Intellishop's previous $5 coffee show and just offered recently for $4.50. This morning the same shop showed up except that now they are offering $8 pay. Guess they discovered that we shoppers are not willing to do the $4.50 shop. It will be interesting to see if next month they try the $4.50 again.

My simple rule: accept no shop paying less than $15.

DoogieZZZ - Wow! You must live in a region of the country with very high rates. I have done 295 shops this year (or already scheduled for this month), and 62 of them pay $15 or more. I was actually surprised that it was that high. That is about 20%. I am curious about the experience of others.

The majority of my shops are $15.00 or higher. But I have been doing this for a long time. Sometimes newbies have to start out with those $5.00 shops to get their foot in the door.

I think it really depends upon the part of the country and the amount of competition. I have been doinbg this for 9 yeras. I get the bonsued shops which I apply for, but there just aren't that many of them, and the ones which exist have rotation requirement and maxium shops per day / week / month restrictions. I create my own routes, but only for day travel routes, so I am probably missing out on higher paid shops in more remote areas.

From reading here, it seems there are two classes of shoppers. Just like there is fist class and coach in an airplane.

If you live in an area that is sparsely populated and there are a limited number of shoppers, you are in the front of the plane and in first class.

You can wait till the end of the month and look at the job rate soar as the the price of the shop will be driven up dramatically with high bonuses as the MSC must shop that one location in a city with no shopper that lives within 100 or more miles. Your a first class shopper and the MSC's will treat you accordingly. They need you more than you need them.

Then there is the coach section of the plane.

This is an area where there are plenty of shoppers. In the south where I live, the competition is even worse this time of year as the snow birds come down and are retired and have plenty of time on their hands and the density of shoppers is so thick that they know that they can get almost all the shops filled at the base pay. The only time they need to add more than $1-$2 to the shop is if it's in a bad neighborhood or in the tourist area where the shopper is most likely going to face bad service and need to write a longer report with more no answers. This is due to the burnout of the tourists that abuse the retail workers and the lifespan of an employee is that of a fruit fly.

The only time the bonus gets good is when there is a flake and they need it shopped that day or the next day and you get a phone call. Even then, if your too greedy and ask for more than an additional $10-$12, they will possibly reject your counter offer and go down the list and may not call you back. They have more shoppers than they need and know they can get the jobs done cheaply.

The same company may treat the first class shoppers completely different than they treat the shoppers in coach areas of the country. If your in first class, they can't afford to loose you. If your in coach, your as disposable as the luggage.

I totally disagree with that analogy. I am currently in a very populated area with lots of shopper competition. I do not do boonies. But I have a very good rapport with my regular schedulers and a good track record with the MSCs over the years. I get the phone calls and the larger bonuses because they know they can count on me to get the job done correctly and on time. In February, I earned one $20.00 bonus and two $30.00 bonuses on last-minute or flaked on pizza shops. I have negotiated more money on routes. I will also work in bad weather.

So I definitely consider myself a first class shopper. And I am not disposable.

I don't consider 2.8 million in a metro area to be sparsely populated.

I was referring to the low paying shops from the large MSC's when I stated the above analogy.

Naturally, if you are a proven experienced shopper working with a quality MSC, and have schedulers that know your value and your doing shops that are not beginner shops with long narratives then this changes the situation completely.

I was generalizing, and as always there will be someone offended by being called a coach shopper by location alone.

@myst4au wrote:

DoogieZZZ - Wow! You must live in a region of the country with very high rates. I have done 295 shops this year (or already scheduled for this month), and 62 of them pay $15 or more. I was actually surprised that it was that high. That is about 20%. I am curious about the experience of others.

My percentage of shops that pay $15 or more is just under 10%.

I can understand what scanman is implying. Location is very important. I live in a very rural area . It doesn't seem as if there are alot of shoppers. As of now I can typically name a price when I receive a call from a scheduler. If I don't like the offer I usually can wait and if the location does not get shopped I will receive a call back. Gas station audits are where I can make really good money. Being in the middle of nowhere does have its perks.

I think it is interesting that it seems that a lot of shoppers don't realize the MSC doesn't set the pay the shoppers receive on shops. The MSC has to go by the guidelines the clients set for them. Same with bonuses. The MSC is told by the client they have to stay under a certain amount set for the shops. If they do not then it is a possibility their contract will not be renewed.

@Marlene wrote:

I think it is interesting that it seems that a lot of shoppers don't realize the MSC doesn't set the pay the shoppers receive on shops. The MSC has to go by the guidelines the clients set for them. Same with bonuses. The MSC is told by the client they have to stay under a certain amount set for the shops. If they do not then it is a possibility their contract will not be renewed.

I think this is a matter of the contract between the customer and the MSC. Some contracts require that every location be shopped. If the MSC cannot deliver, they stand to loose the contract and/or a sizable amount of money for each location that they could not get shopped. I'd be willing to bet there is a bonus for 100% completion or more likely a huge deduction in the contract if they cannot complete the full list of shops.

As we cannot see those contracts, I can only make this assumption based on the fact that those people in the middle of nowhere are paid huge bonuses to get some jobs done in places that are far off the beaten path.

I'd like to hear from a scheduler that knows of its the carrot or the stick. Either way, the MSC's will let the cash flow "At any cost." on the last day of the month to shop some far outlying location.

They would not do this unless they stood to loose much more than they were willing to pay the shopper.

@scanman1 wrote:

Naturally, if you are a proven experienced shopper working with a quality MSC, and have schedulers that know your value and your doing shops that are not beginner shops with long narratives then this changes the situation completely.

Permitting the metaphor, that would seem to be the key to success for both "coach" area shoppers and "first class" area shoppers. The saturated "coach" area shopper needs an excellent reputation and rapport with MSCs to overcome hundreds of competitor shoppers in getting the few very good paying jobs nearby. The isolated "first class" area shopper needs an excellent reputation and rapport with MSCs to overcome hundreds of miles by getting enough of the amazingly great paying jobs way out there.

The MSC absolutely sets the pay. The client pays them a fee. How much of that fee ends up going to the shopper is not a concern of theirs. Sometimes MSCs have to pay more than what the client pays them to get a shop done.

Also I have done 273 shops so far this year and all but 19 had more than a $15 fee. Of those 19 7 had a gas reimbursement also, 1 was a hotel shop, and 2 were nice restaurant shops. Also there were 3 pretzels and a cinnamon roll that I take almost always at the base rate because I am trying to get fatter. :/

Why would someone think the client sets fees for shopper? Shopper fees are just one of the costs of a mystery shop and it makes no sense a client would dictate how much the MSC pays the shopper, the scheduler, the editor and themselves. My lawn service charges me specific rates for grass cutting, but I don't tell them how much to pay the guy behind the lawn mower or the one with the weedeater. My only concerns are the total cost and the quality of the work.