I am always intrigued by this MS advertisements but I am wary of the part where it says the report takes 2 hours to complete. Is this really the case? Has anyone done them before? Is it worth it, be honest. TIA :-)

It depends on why you are doing the shop.

Do you have kids that you want to take for the experience? Some of the tickets / entrance fees add up to $200 or more.

Are you trying to make a big fee? Then, these are not for you. Generally, the fees are nominal.

The reports probably take 2 hours on most jobs for most shoppers. You need to be very organized to do these. They are not difficult, but you need to get names. If you don't get a name, find another person and repeat the interaction. It seems logical, but some shoppers don't "get it."

I have done a dozen or so over the years. At this point, my kids are in high school and are too busy to do many of these anymore.

Yes the reports can be long and there are often many, many interactions to report. But if you want to save $100-$200 on an outing with the family, it can be worth it.

I suppose you could always sell the extra tickets they give you.

I can't say I reccomend what they offer becuase it requires recoding a very large amount of data while on the assignment and that is not an easy thing to do. They also require a large number of interactions and it can be difficult to disguise your questions as legit sometimes. The reports are also very very long. If you've got the organization and stamina they can be worthwhile, I guess. Personally I have passes to all of the parks anyway. If you like the mini golf/go-kart places they have a lot of those to. Maybe those are simpiler. I did a few of their walk-arounds of city business districts and they were not fun.

A little bird told me that the reports are very, very long.. but if you love the thrill of rollercoasters and want to save money as others have said, then go for it. I think I might try one out this year

I have done a few of the bowling shops and the reports are long but I think it was worth it. I would have taken my kids bowling anyway so that was money saved. I will do them anytime I can.

I'd rather pay the money then go through all of that. Spending 8 hours at a zoo, visiting 10 different vendors and then the report takes 6 hours? All for $60 worth of tickets? Count me out!

I think that the company was great, they paid like they said they would you have plenty of support and the schedulers are really nice. BUT based on the report I would never do a shop for them again. I'm even afraid to try for a phone shop.

@weatherman2111 wrote:

I can't say I reccomend what they offer becuase it requires recoding a very large amount of data while on the assignment and that is not an easy thing to do. They also require a large number of interactions and it can be difficult to disguise your questions as legit sometimes. The reports are also very very long. If you've got the organization and stamina they can be worthwhile, I guess. Personally I have passes to all of the parks anyway. If you like the mini golf/go-kart places they have a lot of those to. Maybe those are simpiler. I did a few of their walk-arounds of city business districts and they were not fun.

Personally, I would rather NOT make the amusement park a shop. I would rather relax and have fun

@Phoebe70 wrote:

I'd rather pay the money then go through all of that. Spending 8 hours at a zoo, visiting 10 different vendors and then the report takes 6 hours? All for $60 worth of tickets? Count me out!

They don't have any reports that take 6 hours unless you type 10 wpm and you are a newbie.

They have no reports in their system that take me even close to 2 hours to report @ 25 wpm.

It takes me 2 hours to do their reports but I find them very easy to do. I don't mind spending time at the venues as I only take jobs where I enjoy the venue. That said, I cannot imagine doing one of these with young children unless you have another adult along as fulfilling the requirements is time consuming and your kids may not enjoy being dragged along on that part. In the places I have done it is important to finish the requirements by a certain time so your kids would need to cooperate and move quickly from one to the other. If your kids are old enough to take off without you while you do the requirements that would work well and when you are done with interactions you can spend the rest of the day with them. Also, my kids always liked the fact that on mystery shops where I NEED to buy some overpriced item from the gift shop, I allow them to pick it out and keep it. I have taken friends and they enjoy the movable feast where we buy one food item and split it at each required location (paid for by me) and the chance to get away from the concrete and traffic of city life. They also enjoy the excuse to eat a hot dog or dessert that they usually deny themselves for healthy reasons. That said, I have not done one for a while. You need to be in the mood for these whole day odysees.

I've done some of their reports and they can be worth it depending on why you are going. If you like the place and your party can hold to a plan to all the interactions, it can be a good way of earning money for the visit. The stated times for the narratives are not some understatement, but a reasonable estimate for a shopper used to doing longer narratives. They are an excellent company to work for.

I would agree that the reports are both lengthy and detailed, its important to check the timing with some sites, such as the zoo, and bring your guests accordingly. Its not always easy to complete the shop as desired with the conflicting desires of older childre. At least in my own case, I've found that it's easier to do some of their shops with very young children. Often the time frame to visit multiple eating areas and attractions must occur in a four hour window. If the park or zoo is large, it can be a challenge if the kids want to linger and that dimishes the value of the visit to the kids. That being said, I've enjoyed working for this company. I've found that the company is great to work for overall; they are very responsive, supportive, and also pay quickly. And although the narratives are lengthy, I've never had to do a rewrite or been called around any minor details. So yes, lengthy and detailed reports but great company, quick pay, and responsive staff and editors.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/2015 01:26AM by writewritewrite.

I've shopped some bowling alleys for them and will do more when they come open. I think these would be overwhelming to a new shopper. They require you to interact with several different employees, they want more photos than most, and the reports are narrative-heavy. Lots of "Using at least 6 sentences, describe..." Some of the photos they want are hard to get on the sly. In the end my wife and I get to have a free night out, 2 hours of bowling plus food and a drink, all reimbursed plus the shop fee.

My only complaint is, they'll offer a $$ bonus if your report is completed within 12 hours of the start of the shop, but the bowling shops are always at night. We'll get a window for 6-9PM, get home around 10, and if we want the bonus, we're going to be up past midnight doing the report. C'est la vie.

@SoCalMama wrote:

@Phoebe70 wrote:

I'd rather pay the money then go through all of that. Spending 8 hours at a zoo, visiting 10 different vendors and then the report takes 6 hours? All for $60 worth of tickets? Count me out!

They don't have any reports that take 6 hours unless you type 10 wpm and you are a newbie.

They have no reports in their system that take me even close to 2 hours to report @ 25 wpm.

Sorry! I meant 6-8 pages, not 6-8 hours. The instructions say plan on spending 2 hours on the report. Again, my time is worth more than a couple tickets to a zoo. I personally like to be able to relax and enjoy myself at these types of places, rather than chasing down 10 different food vendors.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/2015 01:45AM by Phoebe70.

Everyone has their own reason. I like the company, they paid quickly. Good communication and I was not asked for any additional information.

My husband has a good job, but we have 5 kids. 2 in Catholic school and I stay at home. These assignments are a way for my family to enjoy "extras" in life.... our budget is based on my husband's salary and I provide the "extras".
I use my kids as a cover to take LOTS of pictures and use those as my notes. I have gotten 100% on all my assignments with them.

Many of the shops require TWO questions with a dozen or more employees including the parking attendant and washroom attendant (who are usually hard enough to find, much less come up with two questions to ask of them). I did a lot of reports for this company for a while, but I just got burned out because it was way too much work for the reimbursement which, for our family of four, was insufficient to cover enough of the expenses.

@pammie8223 wrote:

I think that the company was great, they paid like they said they would you have plenty of support and the schedulers are really nice. BUT based on the report I would never do a shop for them again. I'm even afraid to try for a phone shop.

I'm signed up with them, but BARE tends to do similar shops with much less work involved. I will keep your words in mind. I don't even have that many folks I can take with me on short notice, so all the extra ducs do me no good.

I did a zoo shop recently...if I really have to find a parking lot attendant over there as a requirement for an AA gig, well...count me out.

BARE is wonderful...ish. The reports are reasonably easy, but they can be a bit cluttered. Very easy folks to work with though.

Hi, everyone!

I just wanted to address some of the questions and clear up some misconceptions.

We do not have a 12-hour window to be eligible for the early results submission bonus. All of our results (except for phone only shops) are due by 10pm system time (currently Mountain) the day after the shop. However, if you submit everything by 10am system time, you will be eligible for the bonus. Yes, that could very well be 12 hours after you complete the on-site visit IF you are doing an evening shop. However, we are not going by hours after the shop. It's simply the same submission time for all of our shops. Again, that is only if you are striving to obtain the early results bonus, since they're technically not due until the following evening. It's just a little incentive for shoppers to submit sooner if at all possible, as our clients love quick turnaround times. :-)

As for the stated amount of time to submit a report, it varies by shop and is simply an average. Some shoppers can submit quicker than the listed amount of time and others take longer. It depends on a variety of factors (some have already been mentioned by other posters) - typing/computer skills, internet connection/speed, if you've submitted a report for us before, if you've completed that specific shop before, how many details you have to report, how many interactions with employees you had, etc. I would recommend starting your report earlier than later, though, as it will usually take a bit longer than you think, especially for your first assignment with us. Our clients do expect a good deal of narrative, which is much more useful to them than just yes/no responses.

We certainly recognize that not all shoppers would be a good fit for our company and vice versa. Many of our shops are mostly reimbursement. The expenses are built directly into the pay, with perhaps a little bit left over depending on how many guests you brought and/or exactly what you purchased. We do have a few shops that have no expenses and are all profit (like the business district shops and phone shops some posters mentioned). We also have amusement park shops that only pay in tickets, but they are worth a lot of money (by the way, extra tickets may be given away to close friends or family, but they CANNOT be sold).

Because many of our shops on average are not monetarily profitable, it seems like the shoppers most interested in our assignments are those who appreciate being reimbursed or receiving tickets for a fun time with family and friends. They are the ones who are already going to places like these and appreciate having their costs offset, or they may not normally be able to afford to visit some of our clients' facilities, so receiving tickets or reimbursement enables them to do so.

I hope that helped answer some questions. Please let me know if there's anything else I can address. :-)

I did LegoLand, which is with another MSC. They gave me 48 hours. I spent the night at my friend's house an hour south of the park and headed home around noon the next day, about 2 hours away. My report was about an hour or two late. It does take quite a bit of time to do such a large assignment and you likely won't have the desire to start on it the same night.

In my opinion, as some others said, for big attractions.. I'm willign to put in a ridiculous amount of extra hours to take my child somewhere I couldn't normally afford. But I've seen small attraction shops (like bowling, golf that sort of evryday entertainment kind of stuff) that I would choose not to do because the time doesn't outweight the cost. So the answer I guess is yes and no.

I have done many shops with AA since 2007. They are very professional, ethical, easy to work with, etc. they pay quick. The reports can be long but doable. The instructions are clear. For the time spent, it is worth it. 6 tickets plus upgrade for $300 worth. I was happy

I'm just wandering in so I can earmark this thread, for future reference. I like tourist traps! One of my friend's daughters has a 9 year old. I am already "Under orders" from Dee to include her into useful stuff.

I need to become better with picture taking, first.

I did (a museum) in Houston and it was worth it.

Mod note: Edited to remove name of museum to prevent Forum rule breach and probably an ICA violation as well.

The schedulers and editors are great and appreciate a job well done.

I've been considering a bowling shop for awhile. Is it any worse than the Goodwin bowling shops? I took one of those thinking it was going to be a little easier than it was but that was pretty narrative heavy also. I was thinking if they are anything like that I could probably handle it.

Are the Goodwin bowling shops tough? They seem to have a problem scheduling the one in my area and I want a bigger bonus than they're willing to give since I'm kind of scared of it.

@bgriffin wrote:

Are the Goodwin bowling shops tough? They seem to have a problem scheduling the one in my area and I want a bigger bonus than they're willing to give since I'm kind of scared of it.

I don't trust Goodwin enough to put out more than $25-$50 on a shop for them based on past payment issues (which appear to be resolved, but....my choice). I also am not keen on their really long payment schedule. I think that it is something like 10-12 weeks? It's a good long time for sure.