Hi, been working as a temp in Silicon Valley for a company that's been begging me to stay on as full-time but that's not where I see my life. Today I made the mistake of picking up my phone and spoke to one of the most aggressive Schedulers ever, they would not take no for a answer. She said "Your the person who signed up with us, now I am calling in a favor"! To play along I asked what she was offering "We need you to go to one of the electronic stores for $6 plus a $2 bonus"! I laughed very loud, I told her "sorry currently I am working for "Tech Giant" as a engineer and can't set time aside because my schedule is very busy. She said "You signed up with us, now I am calling in a favor because I can't get anyone to do this job".


I asked her "Why don't you do it"? She replied "Well, I live three hundred miles from these shops, their in your area". I said "Did you hear what I said, did you catch the name of the company employing me"? It did not phase her one bit, personally if someone told me they were working for one of the biggest tech giants as a engineer I kind of would get the message that $8 is worthless and find another person but that's just me.


She kept ragging on me until I hung up, she tried calling twice either to yell or offer me $10. Its been four months since I've done any jobs, my stock options will get vested in December plus their matching my 401k plus giving me discounted stock(15% off Market Value). The question I wanted to as is:

Are payouts dropping further since I stopped doing Mystery Shopping in Late April or May? Why did I have to hang up on a Scheduler, logically if someone is working as a computer engineer for one of the biggest companies in the World I stop talking and move on to my next I.C. Have you noticed a huge drop in pay or is it going up?

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/14/2016 01:30AM by GuyFawkes.

Logically, under the circumstances, you might want to consider closing your accounts with the MSCs since you apparently don't intend to shop in the future. Or, you could change your accounts to "no contact". In any case, if you can be called, it's their job to call you, regardless of your present situation.

Pay has not dropped a lot in such a short time. You just got called because that MSC has not faced the market fact that there are very few shoppers who will leave home for that sort of pay. For the first time since the Great Recession, media earned income went up year to year (by 5%) and poverty rate went down. (Census Bureau, yesterday). The good old Supply/Demand curve is what was giving that scheduler a panic attack. Assuming the market functions rationally, fees at the lower end of the spectrum should begin to rise, if only slightly.

I got frustrated last month after watching the fees slowly being lowered. It was pretty subtle - a dollar here and there until I realized the same shops I had been doing 3 years ago were paying much less. Taking time off helped and I just cannot do those low paying shops anymore. It has been about 6 weeks since I did any mystery shopping but now I am getting better offers so I may start again. Fees really need to start rising again and maybe they will to meet market demand. It is disheartening to view fees from 3 years ago and realize that they have been going down. I was hoping with the better economy that MSC's would reflect that in their fees but so far no.

Perhaps you need to broaden your search to more MSCs?

I have noted that with a few exceptions, the longer a client has been with an MSC the lower the shopper fee becomes. I have no idea whether it is poor negotiation by the MSC in renewing contracts or that as more shoppers try a shop it becomes easier and easier to find folks to do them and thus the drop in price. Shoppers also justify 'well my gas is cheaper than last year, so I guess I can do the shop for less.' Whatever the cause, it does happen. I have seen $25 fee shops drop to $10 the following year, $2 phone shops go to 50 cents and of course the slow downward creep of other shops. I can count on one hand the number of shops I have seen go UP in basic fee in the past decade.

The answer is to self select shops that work for you. When they don't work for you, don't take them. If you adored going to Lily Farms for $30 and liked it at $25 but now it is $8, you may even want to visit Lily Farms as a regular customer and not have to write a report.

We all get calls to do ridiculous shops every now and again. I travel a lot for work and regularly am shopping 3-4 states a month. At the end of a month or cycle, I'll get calls in one week asking me to do a shop by Friday, in Texas, next California, next Louisiana, next Florida, etc. It's the same company calling me, sometimes same person. I asked the last one, I just completed a shop in ND today and you're asking if I can make to California by tomorrow? I still don't think she got it.

@dkk5685 wrote:

We all get calls to do ridiculous shops every now and again. I travel a lot for work and regularly am shopping 3-4 states a month. At the end of a month or cycle, I'll get calls in one week asking me to do a shop by Friday, in Texas, next California, next Louisiana, next Florida, etc. It's the same company calling me, sometimes same person. I asked the last one, I just completed a shop in ND today and you're asking if I can make to California by tomorrow? I still don't think she got it.

There's also the overzealous folks... Oh, I see you're traveling 250 miles today for a bonus shop; that's Ron doing that location. I'm sure he's fine if I bump you to tomorrow since this shop has a few days left. I need mine done by today, think you could make it there for a measly.. $5 bonus -_-

@MDavisnowell wrote:

if you can be called, it's their job to call you, regardless of your present situation.

It might be their job to call, but not to be rude. Currently I "owe" two schedulers and know I'll need to pay the piper at some future time. However, I don't owe someone simply for signing up with their company. I certainly don't owe them an hour of my time for what amounts to a latte and a scone.

I have noticed shop fees going down in the past few months but I also think $6 for a shop looks a lot different to someone with a well paying job than in might have looked to the same person before they started getting that bigger paycheck. Maybe your perspective has changed too.

Lower end shop fees look like they are going down because a couple or 3 huge MSCs are trying to squeeze the shoppers more than before. That does influence the scene becasue those few MSCs have so @#$% many jobs per month. But the shopper pool is shrinking as the unemployment rate shrinks. Why do you think there is soooo much pressure on the schedulers for those MSCs? I am not seeing mid-high end shop fees going down and I am much more likely to be able to get a bonus for video shops and even bank shops than ever!

Do you think the shopper pool is shrinking? I have experienced quite the opposite. However, the pool of GOOD shoppers will always be small. The cheapie shops are now snatched up immediately, but the three of us who know each other in the area have discussed the increase in direct contact from schedulers for the better shops.

P.S. Treading lightly to try to stay out of politics, but even MSNBC reports that the Labor Participation Rate and ratio of vacancies and unemployed mean that the reported rate is actually about half of the truly unemployed.

Are you asking about the fees or bragging about your job? your post seemed weighted on the later.

well yeah! they have gone down. The true unemployment rate is way larger that what is reported.

There are some good points here, but when I read the title of the post I thought, "Yes, I thought so too!" A grocery store shop fee for 3.00 came through my email this morning. On the other hand, my phone has started ringing again, perhaps the fees are going to those calling. In any case, I have deactivated/no contact with some of the companies. For me, doing two jobs in five years is not enough reason to receive daily emails from companies.

And for a 3.00 fee, not only is it not within my requirements for accepting an assignment, but I'm thinking I do not even want to have to spend time deleting such nonsense.

I was clear stating I only want part time work and leave the option for my favorite MSCs because if you enjoy visiting a store or dinner why not accept it? I did not imply any arrogance, my point was her attitude was not acceptable and calling me to offer a pay that was lower than the Job Board is insulting. Yes, I checked the board to see what their rate was, online they offered $12 so she was trying to skate me out of $4.00


There are shoppers here with plenty of money who enjoy shopping because they like people, roll acting and writing great reports. Why cancel all my accounts if my goals are short-term with this company, once we roll out the project I am gone. The pace of life is too fast for my liking, back in LittleVille I like the fact everyone is not in a hurry or rush.

@RobinMarie wrote:

There are some good points here, but when I read the title of the post I thought, "Yes, I thought so too!" A grocery store shop fee for 3.00 came through my email this morning. On the other hand, my phone has started ringing again, perhaps the fees are going to those calling. In any case, I have deactivated/no contact with some of the companies. For me, doing two jobs in five years is not enough reason to receive daily emails from companies.

And for a 3.00 fee, not only is it not within my requirements for accepting an assignment, but I'm thinking I do not even want to have to spend time deleting such nonsense.

Thank you Robin for understanding how insulting these low-ball payments are. Checking through the list of hundreds of emails I found some Burger Shops for $5 total compensation. I think people who accept $5 for a burger job requiring thirty questions half being narratives have no self worth. What can you get for $5, a baby hamburger plus soda $2.50 small plus the stupid scenario asking you to wait to upgrade and do it. Total time is one hour, your basically getting a $5 coupon. They must be working because each month their sending out more emails without adding a bonus. What kind of fool is accepting $5 for less than one hour of pay, the gas money eats up the cost of doing these Third World Wages.