I noticed today that the $4 gas station shops are down to $3, if you can believe it. But it seems to be a place for beginners who take routes. Then when they get tired of it, and don't snap up the gas stations, the shops get bonused again to a rate that is worthwhile. Now they have car washes that pay nothing, but cover the cost of the car wash. However, if you keep a careful eye on them, these get bonused. Tomorrow I am doing a car wash with my expenses paid and a $28 bonus.

I see it as a very simple and straightforward business decision. I look at the board and when the prices are too low, I move on. The longer it takes to find decent pay, the less often I will check the board. I wouldn't flip burgers for minimum wage but I might consider it for attractive pay--and it is totally up to the individual what 'attractive' is.

They have pulled the $3 shops and rescheduled for next month. Part of the ploy to suck us in...

Many January assignments are still there, and everyone of them is now being offered above the initial $4. I have done 3 nicely bonused ones in the last week, and I am watching the others closely.

The February assignments appeared in this area (Southeastern PA and Northern Delaware) at $0.00 and then moved up to $3, and there they sit.

I love CRI. I have only done 5 shops with them for Aeropostale, all of which have paid over 40 dollars, and they pay within two weeks. In my experience, they are the highest, fastest paying company. Their online reports are also the shortest and easiest I have had to fill.

jcbouchard Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I love CRI. I have only done 5 shops with them for blankety blank blank, blank,
> all of which have paid over 40
> dollars, and they pay within two weeks. In my
> experience, they are the highest, fastest paying
> company. Their online reports are also the
> shortest and easiest I have had to fill.


Oops! jc, please remove the customer's name from your post so as not to violate your IC agreement.

Edited: Removed customer. Thanks, Flash.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/19/2010 08:19PM by Mert.

Oops! Mert, please remove the customer name from your quote of jc's post :)

dee shops Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Emdisco, If you got a pizza for $30 (and more
> power to you), you got it by holding out, or
> someone flaking. They do not start jobs at those
> kind of fees. The point is not how fast CoRI
> pays-they pay extremely quickly. But they nickle
> and dime shops at the beginning of the month, and
> they nickle and dime shoppers by things like
> charging for using paypal. The point is that they
> do not need to do that; they could start shops at
> better rates. If you are happy with them, you are
> happy with them. That does not mean that everyone
> needs to, or does, feel the same as you do. Some
> of us are trying to advocate for better treatment
> and more respect for shoppers-that means paying a
> living wage from the get go. Me? I won't take
> anything that is below what I want to make. It
> doesn't mean I won't fight for them to pay more
> fairly for all shoppers acorss the board, not just
> those who live in areas they couldn't get shops
> done.


Dee,
My point is that it does not matter what they start the jobs off at; what matters is how much you get paid when you do them. If you are consistently getting jobs paying double digits and you are getting paid extremely fast; this cannot be deemed as a recipe for disaster. Now you can blame the company for whatever, but I blame them for paying me so well. Here's that they never stop!
Also, if you want things to change; educate the workers. If you really are that concerned about everyone's welfare, then educate the workers. If we as a group do not accept the low paying shops, the company has only a few choices; go out of business or offer more attractive offers from the get go. Now I claim that I am already educated and education pays handsomely. My rant has been the same since I hit this board: Be patient and get paid. If you unwilling or incapable of doing that, then I cannot starve my family to wait until you come around.

I don't disagree with your "rant." I agree. Wait and do not take the shops at the low fees. I don't, and won't. But I still disagree with what they do, and how. You like it; I don't. On that part we don't agree, and probably never will. You live in an area that the shops go up high. I live in an area where they have few shops, and the kind of money you are getting never gets paid here. I rarely shop for them, which is how I deal with them. It doesn't mean I think they are right in taking advantage of the desperate. For that is what they do. It is the plantation system transported to mystery shopping.

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. A real genius has his original ideas closer together.
~Georg C. Lichtenberg



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/20/2010 10:34AM by dee shops.

CRI is still showing about 30 gas station jobs for $3 in our area. They won't increase the bonuses much either.

Let them sit....

There are none left in my area at $3 now. They have all been bonused to $3.75 and $4.00.

lisams901 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There are none left in my area at $3 now. They
> have all been bonused to $3.75 and $4.00.


Let em sit some more! :-)

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. A real genius has his original ideas closer together.
~Georg C. Lichtenberg

Gas here is 2.85 a gallon. $1 gas purchase almost screams Secret shopper!

A Decent Company I work for does $5 gas , $1 for a coke and $11.00 for a couple of pics. This Low - Ball stuff needs to stop. If you do these shops for next to nothing, what will slow the other companies from following this lead?.....

mrcomputer101 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Gas here is 2.85 a gallon. $1 gas purchase almost
> screams Secret shopper!
>
> A Decent Company I work for does $5 gas , $1 for a
> coke and $11.00 for a couple of pics. This Low -
> Ball stuff needs to stop. If you do these shops
> for next to nothing, what will slow the other
> companies from following this lead?.....


Yes, that is part of the point that some shoppers don't seem to get. The MFI and CoRI's drive the price down across the board, not just at those firms, but at all firms...because there is a limited client pool to choose from in this economy...and the clients want to pay as little as possible. So MSC's cut rates and offer cheapo shops below minimum wage - that amounts to slave labor in some cases - and shoppers continue the practice by accepting the cheap shop.

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. A real genius has his original ideas closer together.
~Georg C. Lichtenberg

My intuition tells me that they are checking the climate to see if these can/will get done. If they are, tally ho and rah rah, we don't need to pay more.

On the flip side I see so many clients who have just completely dropped out of shops that I suspect it is difficult to persuade clients to stay on board. How do you persuade them to stay? You discount the contract on the theory that something is better than nothing. Everybody gets squeezed, but I would use a different term for what happens to the shopper.

dee shops Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> lisams901 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > There are none left in my area at $3 now. They
> > have all been bonused to $3.75 and $4.00.
>
>
> Let em sit some more! :-)

Haha, I haven't accepted anymore. I tried out the first two because I was there anyways and I wanted to see how the forms were. They have been raising them in my area almost daily so I'm holding out a while longer.

Only two left within a 30 mile radius of me. One is going for $8.44 and the other for 10.64. That's it for this area.

Wow, I wish ours would start going up that high.

dee shops Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> True, Emdisco. I don't disagree. But why should
> they have to start at slave wages? Why not put a
> fair price to begin with. Why take advantage of
> the desperation of people just trying to eat or
> pay rent?


I think this is both human nature AND the core of capitalism, simple principal of supply and demand. When we had a blackout here on the East cost and everyone was walking home for hours on a really hot day, all the small vendors raised their water bottle prices to $5. Others were selling flip flops to women at unreasonable prices. When businesses see an opportunity to make money they grab it. Is it ethical? Is it moral? Who knows...

We only have control over our actions, and if we boycot these prices and stay away from these shops, maybe the companies will learn and not offer them anymore.

Regarding CoRI in particular, I think they are the fastest to bonus their shops. Their increases are small but consistent and happen every few days. Some other companies NEVER offer bonuses. So I personally don't have any gripes with them. I stay away from them the first week of the month and then wait it out.

Emdisco - Based upon what I see in this area, you are probably looking at the remaining January assignments. Those have gone up here also. But the ones for February started at $0.00, moved up to $3.00 and have not budged even a penny yet.

The ones announced for February can't even be accepted yet (the first available dates are far more than 3 days into the future and thus outside the assignment window).

IDK, here there are only shops for February left, and only two at that ($4 blue light. How ridiculous-$4 for all that.) Everything else is gone. We don't have gas or pizza here for them.

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. A real genius has his original ideas closer together.
~Georg C. Lichtenberg

Still tons of gripes from me. The gas shops are at $3.75, and the old gas shops are pushed to February at the measily $3.00 fee. A bonus of $.75 on such a low paying shop near the end of the month is discusting. I definitely wish they would just pay a flat rate for all shops that is REASONABLE. I bet they'd all get snagged at the beginning of the month.

topaz74 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Still tons of gripes from me. The gas shops are
> at $3.75, and the old gas shops are pushed to
> February at the measily $3.00 fee. A bonus of
> $.75 on such a low paying shop near the end of the
> month is discusting. I definitely wish they would
> just pay a flat rate for all shops that is
> REASONABLE. I bet they'd all get snagged at the
> beginning of the month.


I agree.

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. A real genius has his original ideas closer together.
~Georg C. Lichtenberg

I just accepted a Pizza shop with them paying $15.00 and reimbursed for the Pizza!!

topaz74 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Still tons of gripes from me. The gas shops are
> at $3.75, and the old gas shops are pushed to
> February at the measily $3.00 fee. A bonus of
> $.75 on such a low paying shop near the end of the
> month is discusting. I definitely wish they would
> just pay a flat rate for all shops that is
> REASONABLE. I bet they'd all get snagged at the
> beginning of the month.


Now you wouldn't want to spoil my fun would you? I just snagged three of these January gas shops at $9.96, $9.98 and $24.65. The $25 shop is 63 miles from my house, but only 15 miles more than a shop I already had signed up to do for another MSC. The other two shop are onroute. I am looking at 2 others that are at $7.96 each that I will have to pass by, but I can't bring myself to do them for $8, so if they don't increase this morning before I go someone else will get the benefits. If they offerd say $6-$10 at the beginning of the month, what would I do? Time is on OUR side not the MSC's. We need to utilize it better,

Emdisco, the "time is on our side" idea would work better if other shoppers didn't grab them at lower prices. Sure, if would guarantee the shop would still be there, we could wait longer and longer for the fees to go up.

And it takes only one shopper willing to do it for $3 'because I am there anyway' to keep the competition high in the neighborhood for who will grab for the lowest possible price. That is obviously what happens in my area. The things fly off the board at slave wages and the only ones who benefit are the company and the oil company client.

I have 'played chicken' watching prices on some shops slowly rise towards the point where I would be willing to take them. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. If it is not worth it to me at $9 it certainly is not worth it to me at $3.68 or $8.74 just to have the shop. I don't let myself get sucked in to thinking that I need to grab the shop before someone else does. If they are willing to do the work for less than I would want for the work, that is their choice. Yet I know that by having folks take the shops at those prices they are shooting themselves in the foot in the long run.

Emdisco Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> topaz74 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Still tons of gripes from me. The gas shops
> are
> > at $3.75, and the old gas shops are pushed to
> > February at the measily $3.00 fee. A bonus of
> > $.75 on such a low paying shop near the end of
> the
> > month is discusting. I definitely wish they
> would
> > just pay a flat rate for all shops that is
> > REASONABLE. I bet they'd all get snagged at
> the
> > beginning of the month.
>
>
> Now you wouldn't want to spoil my fun would you? I
> just snagged three of these January gas shops at
> $9.96, $9.98 and $24.65. The $25 shop is 63 miles
> from my house, but only 15 miles more than a shop
> I already had signed up to do for another MSC. The
> other two shop are onroute. I am looking at 2
> others that are at $7.96 each that I will have to
> pass by, but I can't bring myself to do them for
> $8, so if they don't increase this morning before
> I go someone else will get the benefits. If they
> offerd say $6-$10 at the beginning of the month,
> what would I do? Time is on OUR side not the
> MSC's. We need to utilize it better,


So you are going to drive 120 miles to get $1 worth of gas? Two hours of time, reporting time, time at station...Even for $25 that is not worth it to me personally.

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. A real genius has his original ideas closer together.
~Georg C. Lichtenberg

The indication is that the $25 station is only 15 miles beyond another shop in that direction, so it is only 30 miles for a $25 station and $1 in gas. If the cards fall that way it may be worthwhile. Just make sure you get it right while you are there because it is a heck of a distance for a reshop.