I have been taught that if you have nothing nice to say to keep to yourselves. Well after this week it really is difficult. I have several friends that I have brought into msing. They agree that the majority of msc's are great. They appreciate the fact that I "felt out the companies" before recommending them to my friends. However this past week I had a couple of friends get upset that I didn't warn them about Intelli-shop.
I personally can deal with an editor asking me questions that I already answered in a narrative (why didn't you get a business card/ receipt? my response was me cutting and pasting the narrative into an email).
I can handle being asked to complete a shop, then not get paid because you failed to check with each other on the fact that you released the shop to me even though I didn't meet all of the qualifications. You were desperate and the location was remote. You needed someone. I was there. You failed to talk with each other. I chalked it up as learning to make sure everyone knows what is going on. This includes the editors, the schedulers and the middle man.
What I can not understand is why you flood my mail box with offers to complete that same shop even though we fought over me getting paid for my work done. Do you think I am naive and will complete it again and be alright with me not getting paid for it - again!
What I can not stand for is you not paying me for a shop that was done at 12:20 which is 40 minutes before closing on the premise that I did not meet the scheduled time. When the scheduled time said no later than 1 pm. Also when you change guidelines after a shop is completed is really not nice.
What my friends and I really do not understand is how you can pay $17 for a shop that is 2 hours with a report that is another 2 hours plus you know the editors will come back with something so that they can save Intelli-Shop the $17. I do not work for free.

I could rant and trust me I want to however I will walk away. I feel battered and bruised and like kindergartner that went onto the high school bullies play ground. I learned my lesson. I am tucking tail, placing an ice pack on my black eye and limping away. You win and I wish you the best with all your future newbies.

Ouch, sorry.
Maybe it's time for a week of from MSing to heal the black eye and recharge the batteries.

I refuse to work for intellishop on principle. They irritate the heck out of me with their stupid emails.

I too am not a fan of Intelli-shop because of their shortcomings in communication skills. Email filters can be your friend.

It takes getting burned pretty badly ONCE...and I'm finished with a company....Intelli Shop is ONE of those companies!

intelli-shop is on my list of no shop - pay in advance required msc's.
there are several others on that list as well

I won't go near them after reading what many have posted here. No thanks. It is not worth it to me.

I am definitely in the minority. No arguments here about low starting pay for many of the shops and picky editors. OTOH, I don't take the assignments unless they will pay what I find to be a reasonable fee. Out of 41 rated shops, 25 are tens, 15 had lower scores of which most were deserved and only one shop was invalidated because I made a major boo boo with the scenario. Unlike some other companies, shortening their pay cycle from 60 to 30 days has certainly been a positive.

I'm in that minority along with Lisa. I've had the usual picky comments about my narratives but no other issues with this company. They've always paid me according to schedule. I don't accept work with unacceptable fees so no complaints here on the pay scale.

I'm not a fan of them, either. After getting a few 7s and 8s with absolutely no explanation, I de-activated. If I make so many mistakes that 3 out of 10 points are deducted, I'd like to know about them so I can avoid doing them in the future. Their "hero citations" piss me off too.

I am also in the minority....I have never had a shop invalidated, I have always been paid, they have always paid the bonuses offered, and I take accountability for accepting shops at whatever fee I accept them at. I have only had one shop come back with a request for clarification. My average rating with them is a 9.

I could care less why they take the points off, so long as I get paid, as promised and on time.

I have a couple hero citations, but they appear to be fairly meaningless, so I just ignore them. It's their system, so I don't waste my energy getting irritated by something that I don't pay attention to.

I simply burnt out on the car shops....after doing over 50 of them in one year. I haven't accepted any in the last year. I can tell you that the car shops only took me about 30-45 minutes on site, and another 30 minutes to do the report. The reports are simple if you simply tailor your narrative to match the questions....in order....with more detail than you would need yourself. I only took car shops when they reached the $25 level or above. I took several between $45-$65 at the end of their shopping cycle. No issues.

I still accept shops from them.....for oil changes. I have not paid for an oil change for my car, yet. (I had a company car for over 20 years.....big lifestyle change when I had to actually pay for my own gas, maintenance, and oil changes.

They are not my favorite company, but they are far from being the evil personified as typically represented on this forum.

Email received just a short while ago from intellishop...

Now they are being red flagged by google's system...

That's one step away from google blocking them completely
from even showing up in your inbox at all.




And for the record intelli-shop has actually improved
somewhat over the last year. Their pay schedule
now is around 30 days. However their shops dont
fit my requirements currently so I don't do them. One is that I
currently get paid more then what they offer to do less work.
The other is that I require a fast response time from staff,
something some of their schedulers fail at.

I've never known them not to pay if you follow directions.

I worked for them for years, never happy with the low pay for dealerships, however, I bit my tongue and did it.
I recently had a very unpleasant experience (I wrote about it), and since, just won't give my time to an unfair MSC.
I am now happily deactivated from Intelli of my own doing.

I also recently (off thread), had an experience where a Storage Co. was closed when it should have been open. I was told by the Scheduler to fill out report, send picture and my report was accepted and I will be paid. Look for other companies that care about their workers, believe me, they need you more than you need them.

I have done only highly-bonused shops for them. I get praise from my editor for my reports, and 10's.

I've only been shopping for them since I found this forum. I find the base "fee" to be so far below
minimum wage that it's despicable (hey, this thing doesn't have "spell check"???). Or perhaps just
insulting. Or laughable. There's no way I'll take a shop with a $5 fee, the enormous $2 bonus, and
a reimbursement that fails to cover the cost of what you're required to buy.

cease

I have a mixed view of them. I refuse to do their car ones EVER again, but I did their casino one that was local, and I didn't have to stay long, and it was great. But I do agree for the contracts they have, they are downright cheap in terms of pay.

If they were my enemy, I would NOT have warned them about intellishop

quilter Wrote:
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> I could care less why they take the points off

Perhaps it's when you say the opposite of what you mean?

I had a friend of friend, well more like I was told about this "poor person that can't find a job". Rosewell GA is about 40- 60 miles or less from everything. I was called up by my immediate friend and was given the contact info. I said this person could join me on a shop, if they played deaf and dumb (not the verbiage I used mind you). Well something came up on my end so I had to reschedule the shop to an earlier time. I have since tried to get them to meet up with me. I was finally told that there was not enough work in Rosewell. I was dumbfounded. I have had schedulers calling and emailing me to help them with shops this month. Normally when a scheduler calls it's for my "home turf" (MO) not the city I am visiting. This has been a twilight zone of an experience. There are hardly any shoppers in this town however there is work to be had. Most of the work is $10 on up however there is enough here to keep someone very happy. I am leaving for the north because I had already made plans to do so. I however may come back and raid this town again. The people are nice, there is hiking and outdoorsy stuff and ample work. What more could you ask for? I have another friend in Oregon that is smack dab in the middle of the state. They are thrilled at the prospect of having Portland 65 miles north and other major cities within a stones throw. I guess it's all about how badly you want to make money.

If that last post has something to do with Intelli-shop, I'm not seeing it.

I personally don't have any warm fuzzies about I-S but I don't hate them either. I've gotten some really lucrative bonuses from them in the past for both FF and car shops. I don't care that sometimes they give me 8's or 9's as long as they pay me. I just don't like most of their shops so I haven't worked for them in awhile.

For me it's all about the money. If the money is worth it, I don't really care if they think this former spelling champion and current book editor can't write a coherent sentence. I know otherwise, and if they pay me for the result, it can't be all that bad.

I check the board every so often but they are def not my favorite. I am lucky enough to have plenty of shops to do and don't need to take theirs very often. I always get points knocked off but the way I write I am not surprised. I am grammatically handicapped.

For those companies that require, and deserve long narratives I have mine edited by my step mom (English teacher) before I turn them in. But seriously, for comic book shops, no, I do not have my written points edited.

I usually get 9's and 10's, however, one shop I got a deduction for "not evaluating the register." UMMMMM in my explanation I attempted to evaluate the register and would have been able to freely do so, as usual, had there not been a pile of crap on it. This particular shop did not require a purchase (and was not somewhere I would have purchased anything.) You would think that the fact that I stated there was debris all over the counter and was unable to verify if the register was manual or computerized would have been of some concern.

They are not my favorite MSC but I do still do work for them sometime.... MEH, to each his own I guess.

gypsymonkey Wrote:
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> I have another friend in Oregon that is smack dab
> in the middle of the state. They are thrilled at
> the prospect of having Portland 65 miles north and
> other major cities within a stones throw. I guess
> it's all about how badly you want to make money.



You're not "smack dab in the middle" of Oregon, if Portland is 65 miles North. Not even close. Even if Portland is 65 miles to the West, you're still no where's *near* smack dab in the middle. You're somewhere in the NW quadrant of the state. In fact, the middle of the state would probably be the worst place to be, so far as MS'ing.

There's money to be made in Oregon, alright; but it's best if you have reasonably easy access to lots of the smaller outlying towns rather than Portland. Pay goes up quicker and higher in those more outlying areas, than in Portland. Portland is only 45-50 miles North of me, yet I only go there for shops three to four times a year. There's so much work in so many of the other smaller towns in the area that keep me busy.

Also, Portland is a MAJOR pain in the ass to navigate, if you're not used to it. I strongly get the idea that Portland (and the greater area) is a pain in the ass to drive in, even when you *do* know where you're going. Not such an issue in the smaller towns.

Work availability around here also seems to vary quite a bit by time of year, for some reason. Some times there's just a lot more jobs available than others, it seems. Haven't ever figured out why, or what the exact pattern is, or if there even is an exact pattern. But then I've barely spent any time trying, either.

And sometimes, like everywhere else, the jobs available never do pay enough to even cover the gas/driving costs.

Oh and on an added note related to the title of the thread...

I don't mash words, I say what I mean and mean what I say so if there is something you want to ask, go ahead but be warned...

This is not a candy store and I don't sugar coat anything....

StormCloud she is in Albany. Her husband is going to be doing the shopping. They are familiar with the state since they spent time traipsing around with me for a summer. They love to travel and to them, like me, everything is close if it is less then 2 hours away.

Isn't Albany closer to the coast?

North of Eugene. South of Salem. I checked my map and it really is central for a Oregon town. Lots of towns around to pick from.

When I first started mystery shopping I did a few car shops for I-S for $17-$20, but then I started making a lot more money doing car shops for another MSC, so unless they give high bonuses, I won't do car shops for I-S anymore. Why would I ruin my chances of getting paid a good amount from another MSC to do a car shop at the same dealer for I-S for $20 or less? Around Christmas last year they had some good bonused car shops, so they were worth doing.

I have also been very annoyed by the editors' ridiculousness, but I haven't noticed this to be the case for several months now. Maybe those editors went back to school or were told to cut the crap, or were all replaced. I get only 9s and 10s now, whereas last year I got one 7 and a few 8s, for arbitrary things. i almost let my pride get the better of me and delete my account but they often have a good amount of work in my area, so I hung in there.

I will work for I-S if the price is right but that's the only time. They've always paid me, even when locations were closed. Once I got a reduction for showing up 20 minutes after the stated time, even though the store was open for at least 2 hours more. Annoying, but not a deal breaker.

That they moved up their pay dates by a month made me like them much more.

To the OP, anyone you help get MS jobs who gets angry at you when things go wrong is a jerk.

LisaSTL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Isn't Albany closer to the coast?


No! No closer than I am. Which is about 1.5 to 2 hours.

gypsymonkey Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> StormCloud she is in Albany. Her husband is going
> to be doing the shopping. They are familiar with
> the state since they spent time traipsing around
> with me for a summer. They love to travel and to
> them, like me, everything is close if it is less
> then 2 hours away.



Yeah, Albany would be a good base to shop from alright. Maybe even a little better than here! Two hours away is a little far for me given my current circumstances... One hour out & one our back is good though. Except for a couple of times when I've made special plans for special pay/jobs!

I meant closer to the coast than smack dab in the middle of state

Albany is on the 5. The 5 connects to alot of places almost like the 95 in Florida.