Actually looking to become a scheduler & doing alot more shops. I am in the process of setting up a separate office in our finished basement so I can work full time from home. I am my 85 year old mom's primary support and she lives with me now, so I have to step away from traditional employment to help her.

tonya49...Who did you shop with and how many shops...hard to believe you didn't get paid anything...Where your reports accepted?

The survey / audit fee is too less to effectively perform . It is requested to all concerned to increase the fee . The fee should not be less than Rs. 1000 for shopping . The audits where audit period is minimum 30 minutes , the fee should not be less than Rs 2000/ .
It has been noticed by me that a guide gave me an assignment where a competitor name was referred but the shop was not dealing in referred branded products. on reporting facts the guide has excluded my report without payment without justification without any fault of mine.
There is no forum where we can discuss such issues . we must try to build a plat form for Mystery shoppers .
It appears that fee for five / seven star hotels is attractive if it is $ 50 or above.
please guide me how to get such audits in India.

I have to say after some shops in 2016 when I eat at a restaurant, I know I get reimbursed but will be more selective.. Nothing worse than having bad food and having to do a report on it also just to get my money back. Some have to many rules like no sharing. This one in particular is an expensive place to eat, the food, if it was my money I wouldn't eat there. So I will not take those any more, after awhile it is hard to be impartial. Some are giving really great service instead of working on menus and food prep to stay up with the times.

more $$...

There have been some mystery shops for "Painting With a Twist" where they drink wine, paint, and have fun. This "Painting With a Twist" was on the television show "Undercover Boss" a couple of weeks ago. I am not sure if the mystery shopping company pays for all the supplies or not. The mystery shop pays a small fee to cover the class.
LSUFan

I have decided on doing more hotel shops, however I wonder if there are many out there except for Coyle, who are into hotel shops.

This will be my second year shopping. I learned a lot this year from actually doing shops and reading this forum. It has been a wonderful, funny, frustrating and sometimes intimidating year. I must say that it has never been boring!
My goals this year include asking for bonus money when schedulers reach out to me, accepting only higher paying gigs and fully funding my Roth IRA.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/2017 12:46PM by EHorn007.

@sureshsurveys wrote:

I have decided on doing more hotel shops, however I wonder if there are many out there except for Coyle, who are into hotel shops.

A Closer Look does hotels. (I haven't done the shops, so I can't tell you anything about them, but I can say I've seen them offered).

I have 12 more payments on my car loan, so any mystery shopping money is going towards getting this paid off.

I am new at this and my money is super tight so I don't do reimbursement shops (except for today! I needed this service and was gonna pay for it anyway!) I don't do the grocery and fastfood shops because it does not seem really worth much for my time and effort. I have signed up with lots of companies to see which ones have viable opportunities in my area. I found two companies I like and pay and assignments were decent. But now they have nothing in my area this week..
So my goals are to be able to earn around 500-800 a month. Find a company that has steady work in my area for decent pay.

Good Luck. I want to get a little more experience under my belt then I want to do scheduling as well. It seems more consistent.

I think your idea of wanting to do omething new for nthe people who would good to youe 2016 is a great idea. Bit I am not sure about Girl Scout Cookies , my problem with them is they would be to temping for me to say no to . The problem with that is I am daibetic so be careful with the cookies.

SIDEHUSTLE17 I also try ot get my rebusment shops down the one place I did not mind having to spend money is on food store shop because I have to buy the food anyway. So it like getting paid for something I would have to spend money on any way kind of like geting my food for free.

My mystery shopping goal is to always make more money. Last year I used all my MS profits to buy a new car. This year, I hope to pay off all of my student loans and be in the clear. I want to venture into video shopping soon as well, but haven't had the time to get into it yet because I've been swamped with work. I hope to crack the $40,000 mark this year.

I want to find enough work that I can be even more selective, and choose when I want to work. Right now, I am at the mercy of when assignments are available to me, which means I have a slow month sometimes.

I would like to branch out to video shopping (I'm in Canada, we observe one-party laws), and maybe airports. However, I have yet to find a company that can provide equipment or badging, so I will need to figure it out for myself.

All this boils down to, I need to sign up for many more companies.

No dumb mistakes on my part

I shop in England and my plan is to only do video mystery shopping (unless the assignment is a high value one of at least £20) and also to work further from home when it's worth it!

This year I would like to not make less than $200 for a day's work of shopping and traveling.

I would like to keep up my mystery shopping spreadsheet so I can get an idea how much income I'm making week to week, and month to month.

MSing full time paid my bills and then some in 2016. Now that I am back to working full time, I have to MS less. I will do shops that have some benefit for me: oil changes, gas, dinner shops with leftovers for lunch, etc. For a fee, of course!

I want to feel that I am doing a good job. I am new to this and I have been making mistakes... So far nothing that has kept me from getting paid, but I like perfection and like to deliver it. A score of 76 just about broke my heart. Goal... Awesome work and awesome money. I would like to get certified this year too.

Diversify.
Pretty much last year, I shopped the same places for the same companies over and over and even when schedulers from other companies contacted me, I didn't always jump at the opportunities.. My goal this year is to try at least one new shop and/or company a month.

I plan on being better organized this year. Doing this for extra income, I use the funds to help my elderly parents with expenses such as painting the house.

I need to work on time management for work and home. I'd love to figure out a balance between the work that needs to be done at my home and my mystery shopping day trips.

@MA Smith wrote:

I need to work on time management for work and home. I'd love to figure out a balance between the work that needs to be done at my home and my mystery shopping day trips.

Yes. This was the great revelation in my world recently. After doing all of whatever needs to be done, how much time is left for mystery shopping? I calculated and concluded that jobs are neither fruit nor good or bad. Rather, they fit into available time or they do not.

My goal is to serve clients that offers a MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL assignments. I should not have to take money out of my pocket for expenses that the client should pay for without being reimbursed. I should not have to ask questions or act contrary to how a normal shopper might act.that will make an employee suspect that I am the mystery shopper.

I have been shopping for 16 months. My goal is to stop stressing out and spending some all-nighters filling out reports.

Part of the problem is over scheduling and part of the problem is taking on too much variety. It is much saner to concentrate on the same shop form and get really good at it and to limit the number of companies.

My goal is to let my shopping "pay" my grocery bills and my transportation costs.

As for grocery income, I use Trend Source grocery shops. After the first dozen, they became very easy and I could easily do two a day. You don't make much money at all, but you get a nice supply of weekly groceries.

Now, pulling in a monthly $400 to cover my personal and business transportation expenses, well, that requires some discernnent. The shops that pay $25-45 seem to fall into five groups:
1. apartment shops (I hate it because you have to call and call and call to reach a target);
2. Some bar shops (I hate because alcohol isn't good for me at all);
3. Car dealership shops;
4. New Home Sales shops
5. Restaurant shops, but with reservation -- they don't pay well and the reports can be extremely time consuming.

I have reached the point where I can make $700-900 per month, but it is too hard on me physically. Unless I can get better paying assignments, I plan to ratchet back to a $600-700 a month goal.

I am open to ideas. . . .

Don't limit yourself to high paying shops. I figure shops on a $/hr basis and many times midrange shops are a better deal.

I am trying to get the nerves to start up again, it's been awhile since my last shop! 2008. I am 65 now and don't want the long uploads and other stuff. Maybe, two shops a week.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/2017 03:52PM by lrj115.

The result of taking so many fast food and dining shops is that I gained weight, so much I had to buy a new set of pants because I'm up a size and barely squeezing into those. I wear the same cargo pants everyday because I'm not a purse person since mine was taken by a young, new, fellow merchandiser long ago and I had to replace everything. If I can just eat the outside of the entree, a bit of the side and order a diet coke I can get 'myself' back. This will help me gain control in many areas. I've been stubborn with the bank shops because I used to get so much more money for far less, and more meaningful, work. I need to adjust my mind to what the reality is now and take advantage of those shops. I have completed nearly all of the apartment and hotel shops in my area and, since there is no real staff turn-over, I would like to set up a week or two of shops in a nearby city or state instead of a few days of shops like I have been doing so I can include a day or two of swimming, hiking and fishing. I am absolutely a water person and I pass so many lakes, rivers, streams and oceans and do no include stopping time. That will, hopefully, change this year!

eta: I would like to lower the level of frustration (pissed-offedness) that I get when having to answer so many 'No' questions on compliance over and over and over again by the same Associates!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/2017 05:39PM by spicy1.