@loghomelover wrote:

I don't live in the best area, the Pocono Mountains are vast and everything is very spread out. This is why I must venture outside of my comfort zone to make good money like the day I had last last week. Good luck with the job offer, fingers crossed!!!!!

The other problem with my area, there's major freeway construction going on. I've told on scheduler I would not go to one area. I explained to her, the freeway and side roads are a mess. They are tearing many parts up. If you have a job, on the weekend, I would go. I said, that is why you're having problems getting people to take those assignments for that area.

I have to agree with much of what scanman1 said. The bottom line is to figure out how about much each shop is costing to do and determine if it is worth it. I will never accept any shop that pays less than $10. That is my bottom line. (I'll do a phone shop for $7 or $8, but not for $2!, because there is no real expense for me.) But if shoppers would stop accepting shops at the ridiculously low fees that are repeatedly offered on a handful of the shops, the MS shop companies would be forced to offer a more reasonable fee. I always think, 'that must be a new mystery shopper who accepts those. They'll learn.'

LisaSTL, if it's something you're not comfortable doing, don't do it.

@Sybil2 wrote:

Do you own video equipment?

None small enough to do hidden videos. I wonder how they get around the California laws on that?

@johnb974 wrote:

LisaSTL, if it's something you're not comfortable doing, don't do it.

What in the world are you talking about?

And if you read what we wrote about audio and video you would know the answer to the question about the legality.

I would just strap one of those big, old video cameras around my neck and wear it Flavor Flav-style.

[sp.yimg.com]

Huh? I do tons of shops and since the invention of the Smartphone I haven't spent a nickel on ink or toner cartridge. And the cost of the cellphone plan is tax deductible.

DoogieZZZ - I guess you don't do any of the audits where you have to collect signatures on a piece of paper which you have printed as part of the job and then have to scan and submit. Admittedly, that is not a large number, but definitely more than zero for me. Those jobs come from multiple MSC's and are among the higher paying assignments which I do. Even without that, I print the first page of each report when I submit it online (I also made a PDF file) as a place to attach receipts, business cards, etc. I am curious how you track all of that stuff (business cards, receipts, etc.) if you don't attach them to a piece of paper. Admittedly, they are all scanned and saved by me, but almost all MSCs state that they can request the physical receipt, signed sheet, or etc. for time periods ranging from 1 month to 1 year.

This thread has gotten so far off topic that I didn't even know it was my thread for a full page. I may have been in a bad mood when I wrote the initial post, but I still stand behind the full time-vs-cost breakdown analogy in my first post.

The expert shoppers will tell you that they have systems where they can do the mundane bookkeeping in mere seconds and knew every job so well that they don't have to factor in reading the shop instructions.

Shop instructions can change on a monthly basis for some customers, so you still need to verify that they are still the same before each shop.

I download and place the shop instructions in every folder with the job and the receipt and my notes and any photos or video I have of the shop and an HTML save of the survey right before I hit submit.

I prefer to have my shop survey saved as HTML, so I can bring it up in the browser and cut and paste from it much easier than if I convert it to a .pdf as some do if it needs further information. It also saves much faster and there is no data formatting lost when you convert HTML to .pdf.

Then there is this whole men vs women multitasking argument. I can walk and chew gum at the same time.
I thought that women made up 80% or more of the shoppers until I went to an Ardent shopping class recently and met 11 other local shoppers. They came in all shapes and sizes and the ratio of women vs men were more evenly split than I expected.

Sure the long time shoppers know when certain companies release all the jobs at once for the month and are literally making the server almost fall down trying to grab the highly desirable jobs in a matter of 10 minutes for some companies. This is the kind of information that will never be posted here as those that have those dates circles on the calendar don't want to share with the competition.

As with anything, the longer you do it, the easier it becomes. To compare being an independent contractor with a 9-5 job and comparing the cost of gas going to and from a job is completely different than needing to make your own schedule and time management to basically run your one man or women company. When you work as an employee, you don't have to think about where your next days work is going to come from. You show up and you have a manager to take care of this and you just do as your told and take your W2 form and you should be able to leave your work at work and come home and leave it all behind.

With this type of work, you are always on the clock so to speak. You are checking email and looking for jobs early in the morning as the early bird gets the work so to speak.

I bet some of you cannot resist checking the Shop Notifier app on your phone every time it updates. This is not the cost of doing a job, but it robs you of your time how many times a day? Do you set it to notify you of every new job, or do you set up the "Blackout Times" and take time off? What do you set the notification frequency at? Do you set it for "As often as possible.", or do you set it for 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or risk loosing a job by setting it for 1 hour or 4 hours?

These are the choices that every shopper needs to make, as there is no wrong answer.

Some people actually like certain aspects of the business side more than others which will make it seem less a chore. You are absolutely right that at some point your breakdown will change dramatically as you become more experienced. It's still not going to help if you hate bookkeeping enough to put it off fore two months

Sometimes the money is secondary, for Mystery Shopping. You can have a life changing event, where your world collapses. Loss of a spouse, family member, job, health reasons....you need something to get back on track. To keep you busy. Mystery Shopping, at some point may be an answer. It worked for me.

@Davy49 wrote:

I keep getting contacted by the firm I signed up with to go on 'shops'. By me working a full time job, I really don't have very much 'extra' time available..in my mindset thinking of thing's, I thought I would do this mystery shopping as a 'hobby' kind of thing. I'm thinking now..did I make a mistake, did I signup too soon ?? Why is it that I feel like I'm letting the firm I signed up with down ??

You are not letting them down. I signed up with the same company. I work a full time job and shop on the side. They call me all the time with offers for shops. I tell them no. They understand. This month i am cutting down on my shopping as I have to train for my recertification test for my job at the end of the month. I told them so when they called me today twice with shops. They understood.

Some excellent points. But between "loosing", "tract" and the improper use of "your", it wouldn't seem the OP has the makings of a quality mystery shopper. The editors for the various companies for which this person shops must shudder when yet another error-filled report arrives in their inbox.

@Synguru wrote:

Some excellent points. But between "loosing", "tract" and the improper use of "your", it wouldn't seem the OP has the makings of a quality mystery shopper. The editors for the various companies for which this person shops must shudder when yet another error-filled report arrives in their inbox.

I don't bother to proofread my posts here, as I am relaying information for free. I am not being paid for my time and do not feel that I need to take the time to edit my typo's as I used to. When I am being paid for a report, I now take the narratives into MS Word and paste it back and check it. I can write properly and can score quite nicely on graded reports.

I may read a post and see a missed character or miss a keyboard character by a letter here and there. From now on, I will ignore it unless it is a typo that changes the meaning of what I am trying to say. When I first started posting here, I edited my posts as if they were reports for fear that an editor would read it and think negatively of me.

Now, I don't care if a typo slips in here. I posted something earlier tonight and light tapped and missed a charater. The meaning came through, and that is all that should matter when your freely sharing advice and ideas.

This is not a shop report and should not be graded as such.

If someone is constantly misspelling a word, then and only then should someone PM them and let them know they have an error in their spelling. If someone is grammatically wrong and consistently misusing a word, then someone should PM them and let them know.

This is a place to share and help each other and not a place to grade each others posts.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/2015 06:13AM by scanman1.

To me, it's a hobby that doesn't cost me money but in fact net me a few perks here and there.

@scanman1 wrote:

If everyone would calculate the FULL time and expense of a shop before accepting it, you may not wish to take a job that pays $4 if all you have to do is click a button. Not speak Spanish to a funeral home. Simply clicking a button on a website and you could be loosing money. If you take a job for $5 and all you are doing is taking a single photo of the front of the store as you drive past it and it's a trip that is more than 4 miles round trip, you are loosing money.

Here is why:

THE TRUE COST OF A MYSTERY SHOP IN TIME


1. The time spent looking for the job. (Reading E-mail, checking the MSC site for new jobs, wasting time with the same MSC reading about jobs that are out of the area or not even capable to be performed due to age/other restrictions.)

2. Finally found a job that is close to you. (Time spent reading the job description to see if it is reasonable in the first place. This can be very misleading of what the report is going to be. That two page report will expand when you go to fill it in!)

3. Applying for the job. (Self assign is great and earned with many MSC's. Now your wasting time to check if your application is accepted.)

4. Keeping tract of the applied jobs that have not been assigned, and not applying for an overlapping assignment.

5. Printing the shop/audit forms. (Some low paying jobs have 20+ pages!)

6. Time driving to and from the location that is not around the corner. (Gas, and wear and tear on the vehicle.)

7. Time spent actually filling out the report. (We all love this part, so you might as well deduct the time for this from all of the above. )

8. The time spent scanning in receipts or proof of visit. (This is nothing when opening a bank account and getting that folder that they want every form/pamphlet/Business card scanned)

9. The time to add it to your spreadsheet to keep tract of the job. (Yeah, you need to do this.)

10. Calculating mileage. (You at the very least go to Google maps and ballpark it into the spreadsheet, right?)

11. Waiting for the payment. (Spending the time to update your spreadsheet and keep tract of when your paid, and if not paid, and the effort to attempt to get payment if they do not send it.)

12. The constant checking of email for several days after submitting the report. (To see if the editor has questions of your report sometimes a week after you needed to submit it within 12 hours or not get paid.)

13. If you did all the above and payment is received. (Updating your spreadsheet to reflect the payment. If you do many jobs that month for the same company, calculating the payment for each job to the payment amount received, as many companies don't itemize it for you. Yes, your doing accounting too.)

You can spend almost an hour to complete a one minute job, if there are any hiccups in the 13 step plan.

Of course, you can skip many of the steps above to make it easier. But you won't know if you don't get paid. You will be in real trouble if the IRS audits you, and you will end up flaking if a post-it note falls off your monitor.

@Synguru
Welcome to the Forum.
Beginning a sentence with a conjunction aside, that was a really crappy first impression to offer.

@elcarev68 wrote:

@Synguru
Welcome to the Forum.
Beginning a sentence with a conjunction aside, that was a really crappy first impression to offer.

The first sentence of The Guru's post was also a fragment.

@Synguru wrote:

Some excellent points. But between "loosing", "tract" and the improper use of "your", it wouldn't seem the OP has the makings of a quality mystery shopper. The editors for the various companies for which this person shops must shudder when yet another error-filled report arrives in their inbox.

@Synguru: I would say most MSC editors see far worse on a daily basis. Most are very used to correcting spelling and grammar. As an example, your first "sentence" is a sentence fragment, requiring correction.

Welcome to the forum. Please stop by our Introductions area and introduce yourself so we can welcome you properly.

I'm sorry you're having such a hard time. I've been in a rural area where Mystery Shopping is difficult. Maybe if you could manage to combine a hotel shop and go further away for a really large cluster of shops and do a marathon but do it less often. (Just trying to help). Some areas are also just really dead spots. I know the driving to multiple locations is half the work sometimes. All you can do is register with as many companies as you can and keep checking your target areas for a grouping.

Lexxycon, I do register for all the sites I can find, and I try to group the shops in areas. Doing the best I can.

@Synguru wrote:

Some excellent points. But between "loosing", "tract" and the improper use of "your", it wouldn't seem the OP has the makings of a quality mystery shopper. The editors for the various companies for which this person shops must shudder when yet another error-filled report arrives in their inbox.

I'm shocked that it took four pages for someone to mention this. :O

Glass houses. By clicking on someone's name you can see all their previous posts

And their misspellings.

There seems to be more NEGATIVE comment's in this thread than POSITIVE one's..so what if I haven't done any shop's so far, when the time is right I will. As far as the statement about "helping people"..in a roundabout way, that's what I feel mystery shopping is 'partially' about. Don't downgrade people so much..everyone is a bit different from everyone else. I'm just a older guy..working a full time job, doing my best to try and provide the best possible assistance I can, so I can hopefully make their day better. And yes..I'm aware this post will probably receive some 'dart's', but I'm kind of used to them by now.

There is something in my mystery shopping that is incalculable: the expected and unexpected pleasures to/at/from the assignments. These values are a portion of how I attempt to integrate my life values and my working life. They are unique to me and may or may not matter to other shoppers.

In my little part of the boonies, there are more jobs available than I can do because I am acquainted with so many people that I must disqualify myself as shopper/auditor for many clients. However, when I travel for this job I get the wide open spaces, wildlife, other natural pleasures, and knowledge of what is where for future potential shops and trips. Sometimes the jobs pay for me to go somewhere that I must go. Sometimes there is an unexpected slice of life that I experience or witness. Sometimes it's just good to know where the good bathrooms are.

How much money is it worth to me to get nature and knowledge? Who can calculate the dollar value of knowing where the best pit stops are?

I cannot measure it. I enjoy it.

@Davy.. You're okay. Try not to let the unconstructive or negative get to you. (This thread was like that for some reason - I actually had to bow out myself because I felt people were also just getting defensive in reaction to the ambiance of negativity - and I'm not sure I could even trace where it started, nor do I want to).

Like my mother used to say when it comes to advice: "Take what you can use and throw the rest out."
Only you will find what works for you. I wish you good luck on your Mystery Shopping venture.

I've been shopping for over ten years and I am still learning and trying to find quicker easier ways to handle it all. Being part of this forum helps a lot, especially when I read it late at night and feel like I am doing stuff no one else has to. This was a great discussion for all shoppers....thanks everyone for some really worthwhile input. Good job!

I started this thread on a negative tone, and wish to leave it on a positive note.

This thread went so far off course with people nitpicking at each other about grammatical and spelling errors and defending MS as if I was stating that it was not worth doing based on the slant I put in the first post. I was in a bad mood at the time.

I had a good day today and did two audits and MS for food between them. It all worked out to be a very positive day for me.

It was a bad day for a franchise owner as there was a large refrigerator that was far into the red zone. I alerted the owner and he had to waste product and called out a repairman pronto. This made me feel like I made a difference and could have prevented someone from becoming sick.

Scanman,

Negative start or not, it was still a really good thread. Nothing I haven't calculated myself, on both bad and good days. A lot of valuable discussion still came out of it.

I've had bad days that brought me to tears, and computer/website/report glitches that caused the frustration equivalent to the lump in the throat and headache accompanied by a very hard math problem and impending failure on an important test. I've also had days that were just a waste of time and resources that were tempting for me to just go home and take a flake (I didn't, but I sure felt like it).

But the good days make it worth it, so I'm really glad you had a good day today.