I also have nothing but good things to say about Amusement Advantage. The reports are lengthy and detailed, but I was aware of that before I applied for any of their shops because I read the job descriptions, surveys, etc. I have done a few and I've learned that some of them, for me personally, are not something I will choose to do again, but that's not because AA did anything wrong or bad.

I appreciated the pre-visit call from the scheduler as she relayed tips, tricks, and reminders about key parts of the shop. There was one shop I did for them where I was supposed to find a few specific types of employees and I could not find them to save my life. I called their 24 hour number and the associate I spoke with was very understanding and helpful. Another time, I was trying to take a picture of an employee without a nametag and people kept standing in front of him so the picture was horrible. They didn't complain.

I enjoyed the shop I did for Amusement Advantage recently. My son got to experience something he always wanted to do and I didnt have to pay for it. And the report was easy. AA was very responsive. In fact after I was finished, it had gone through QA and was approved for payment within 24 hours of my turning in yet.

I have done two jobs with your company and found everyone to be very helpful. I do not understand how anyone could find anyone with your company anything other than understanding and helpful

Hi Moonlight. Thanks for the heads up. I'm finding that most of these research companies look more for excuses not to pay the shoppers rather than look for ways to make the shops work. They are still going to use the information that you provided them with anyway and deliver it to the client which is completely unfair. I am with Amusement but haven't done any shops with them yet. I completely believe your story because it has happened to me twice already. But I complained to them and sent them a copy of their own instructions to them and they decided to pay me for the shop afterwards. Don't just let this go. Complain and they might pay you even partially. Other companies to watch for are gfk and Bestmark. Bestmark hasn't given me any payment issues but their reports take an hour to fill out if your fast for a measly $11-$17shop. You should try Informa. Been with them 3 years and no complaints. Read what I posted about them:

I have been doing shops for over 3 years now and have signed up with about 15 different companies and all I keep wishing is that I find another company like Informa. The reason they are the best to me so far is because the pay is comparable to the amount of work they expect you to do unlike most companies I've worked with. Who do these people think we are slaves? They ask for relevant details and not every single detail of every single thing of your entire day. Their questioners don't ask you to answer the same damn question 2 or sometimes even 3 damn times, wtf. Informa's shops usually take about 10-30 minutes to complete and the questioners take about the same amount of time. Unlike gfk and Bestmark who want to pay you $11-17 for at 25 minute shop and fill out a questioner that could take up to 2 hours to fill out. 2 HOURS!!! NO JOKE! For $11 bucks are you kidding me??!!? They are also very respectful and work with you to get the shops done and get you paid rather than try to come up with reasons and excuses why they can't pay you. I almost took gfk to court. I had to show them their own damn instructions before they finally got it. And, they have phone numbers to call if you need to actually speak to someone. But most of all getting paid is never an issue with them. Some companies just take forever getting the pay out to you. I don’t even worry about getting paid from Informa cause their checks always come. A couple of times they took a while but most of the time I get paid within a couple of weeks. I just wish they did direct deposit.

@B4bladez wrote:

They are still going to use the information that you provided them with anyway and deliver it to the client which is completely unfair.

This statement is incorrect. If a shop wasn't completed correctly, we cannot send the report to the client, as it would jeopardize our relationship with them. We always pay shoppers for reports that are sent to the client. We do everything we can to make a shop work and are not in the habit of rejecting reports, as it creates more work for our entire team, since we cannot invoice the client for these and must spend time finding another shopper to complete it correctly, seeing it through to completion and editing another report.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/12/2016 03:47PM by AAJen.

I appreciate the comment AAjen. I understand that doing the shops correctly is vital to us getting paid and to the MSC's to fulfill their client's requirements to their satisfaction. And it's not to say anything bad about Amusement since I haven't shopped with them yet. However I have known editors to correct small discrepancies on their own and submit them while not paying the shopper. I have only had 1 incidence like this in 3 years and proved to the company that I had followed their directions simply by emailing them a copy of them and then they decided to pay me. But it's good to know that this isn't standard practice for MSC's. Thanks

@moonlight I just did this last Sunday the exact same shop you did. I don't know why it took you so long to complete the report, it was just under 2 hours for me. This is my second shop with AA and I have had very good experiences. I agree the price stated for the attraction in the shop was incorrect by $6 as you state. But everything else I had no issues. Yes I didn't get full face shots of all the people in the interactions, it was tough but not that difficult to take the full body pictures with at least partial face shown. I documented when some of the people were nowhere in sight. And I got a 100% in the evaluation. So to me either you took pictures of people's legs or from 1 mile away. It was one of the most enjoyable shops for me.

@B4bladez I don't know how can you offer an opinion on the company when you have never done a shop for them.

Now please both stop crying and start doing a better job of reading guidelines and prepare for your shops.

My best advice if you have never done one of the AA shops is to make sure you have another adult or older child who can take the younger child somewhere more interesting when shopping with young children. The types and number of interactions that are necessary to fulfill the job would be difficult unless you have the calmest and behaved child who has patience to go with you on these interactions while they just want to go play at whatever the venue is. Expect to spend some hours covering all the required interactions before you can relax and enjoy the venue with young children.