Over the past year, I have gotten some easy to difficult telephone shops, that only paid between $2 to $8. I have received a rating from 7 to 10 on them. However since I know that the Sassie Shops mscs require a minimum rating on some of their shops (before they will assign them to you), I am not sure if I want to jeopardize my higher rating & average by dealing with these low dollar telephone shops, due to fussy and picky editors and risking my rating getting lowered.

One msc I had a solid 10 rating with them, due to the non-telephone shops I had always done for them in the past. Then one day I did a $2 telephone shop with them, and they gave me a 7 rating! Which brought my “average” rating down. I did a couple more telephone shops with them (only getting an “8" rating), trying to avoid the mistakes I made in the “7" rating shop, however the editor(s) seem to always find fault with my telephone shops. So I am thinking since I get an easy rating of 10 when I do this particular msc's non-telephone shops, then I should just stop doing their telephone shops, since I can’t get a 9 or better, and just stick with their easy non-telephone shops.

With the $2 recorded telephone shops, there was no report to do, the recorded conversation was the report, and the telephone call usually took 5 minutes or less. Yet the $8 shop (which was recorded as well) took almost 30 minutes to do the telephone part of the shop, then it took about 3 hours to do the report, because the msc wanted pretty much a play-by-play narrative of what happened during the telephone call, which they already had anyway. GRRRRR!!! Yet they gave me a 7! So after spending almost 4 hours to do that shop for $8, to me it just was not worth it, since I did not find out until after the shop was assigned to me, that I had to complete such a lengthy report, so that shop equated to about $2 per hour. Yet overall, it was not worth the time, the pay, and my rating average dropping with them.

Yet I just wanted to find out your thoughts of these low paying telephone shops. Do you think they are worth it? For sure, I will never work for that one msc that offers their “easy” $8 telephone shops again, plus that msc takes about 2 ½ months before they pay.

Wilson

Phone shops come in all ilks. There are some $3 that are totally worthwhile and there are some $7.50 that are totally NOT worthwhile. Your experience with an editor would certainly keep me from helping them out on any future shops. Yes, one shop I could flub, but if 'best efforts' reasonable to the fee did not give better results with the editor on the subsequent one I would take a hike. I did a $7 one this year that expected a book as the report. Just proofreading the report took about 3X the amount of time the phone call took! Gimme a break! I just don't do phone calls that are third party recorded. It may be legal, but I am only privy to my own consent and everything else is hearsay.

On the other hand, from time to time there are some excellent phone shops that pay quite reasonably and are with companies that are trustworthy to work with that they are going to give you your head to determine how you will approach the call to get the information needed with no more than perhaps suggestions. These shops can be a real joy because you can actually engage and let the conversation flow to see just what kind of customer service you are offered.

I will try them once and see how involved the report is. I did one that paid $20.00, but I truly earned that $20.00. I do have a small recorder that I hold close to the phone during the conversation and it makes the narrative part of the report easier and also helps with the timing.. I also tend to do them when there are not many mystery shops available or I am not physically up to getting out and about. Based on the amount of pay and the amount of time they take with the reports they are most likley not worth it. On the other hand, if I am sitting on my duff and it cost me nothing but my time....a few extra dollars in my pocket is nice. I also recieved a grade of 7 on a couple. I have just been mystery shopping since September. I decided early on not to be too concerned about the grading systems.I am the type person that I will do the best job I can and that is all I can do. The ones I did make a 7 on I learned from....and know how to do a better job next time. So my answer is yes and no.....

I just did 3 a day of 5 dollar shops. When she shop went well, it seemed ok. When I called and it was obvious this same employee received the same scenario from a different shopper the day before, it made it difficult.

Typically I submit the report and I never hear anything. I think I was sent back three shops with questions out of 12 this week. This could definitely have an effect on the shopper rating. Typically, I don't care too much about the ratings.

The lowest phone shop I've done was $4.50 and it was very involved. At this point, I won't do anything for under $5.00, but if I found a $3.00 shop that really WAS as "easy" and "quick" as purported, I'd consider it. I know others feel differently, but for $2.00, I won't even pick up the phone. (Hello, Shopper's View!)

I will do phone shops occasionally, but don't really like them. I've found the reports to take as long or longer than some on-site shops and for a few bucks, not worth it. I did one last week for $8 for one of my favorite companies. It was easy and hassle-free. However, I did one for Shopper's View that was a nightmare. Ditto for Customer Service Experts college or medical phone shops from a few years ago. The pizza phone calls from a few years back were easy as pie, but only paid $2 or so. Haven't seen them in a long time.

I don't understand why if the call is recorded some companies make you fill out a tedious recap report of the entire call. Those are definitely not worth it.

Oh, I will DEFINITELY not touch CSE's phone shops with a 10 foot pole! The form for the one I did was very long and seriously redundant! And, since CSE requires you to hit every single question in the narrative, it was a challenge to say the same thing again!

There should be a time formula for phone shops vs. the form. In CSE's case, I think it took me five times longer than the actual call to fill out the form, maybe longer!

Everybody, thank you for the interesting and great feedback. I sincerely appreciate all that you have shared. It has been very enlightening and educational all at the same time.

Based on what you all have shared thus far, I think I am going to leave the telephone shops alone for awhile. Right now, I want to keep a good rating with those mscs that will only assign shops based on a shopper’s rating. Some shops I have seen, some require that you have an “8" or “9". Yet since I tend to do very well with my non-telephone on-site shops, I rather not risk my rating for low dollar telephone shops.

Yet when some of those msc expect you to write a report and narrative to rival a book for a few bucks, it is just not worth it to me, and I would rather pass on that opportunity for a few bucks.

Now with that being said, since I have been into mystery shopping and merchandising for over a year now, I have never come across any msc that was not reputable or one that was not trustworthy. So there is no worry for me there at all, but I have a handful of mscs I consider unreasonable with their guidelines, their report requirements, and low pay and often untimely pay. So I no longer do work for them. So it makes my job easier to stick to the mscs I have been working with for over a year and knowing the regular mscs that always have reasonable guidelines, reasonable reports, grade fairly, offer adequate pay, and pay in a timely manner for doing their shops from start to finish.

Autumnicole, I have seen some shops that pay $15 to $60, but part of the mscs guidelines for the shop is, that it is mandatory that you secretly record your conversation on-site. Here in the Los Angeles area, I have seen these shops for storage facility shops and senior assisted living care facility shops. Yet thus far, I am not interested in doing the on-site shops where you have to go to a shop and secretly record and or video tape people. By the way Autumnicole, welcome to the world of mystery shopping, since you just started in September. Good luck trying to get a scheduler or editor to tell you “exactly” why they did not give you a rating of “10" on your reports (I am speaking mainly about the on-site shops in general), whenever you write them directly to find out why they gave you a less than “10" rating. Because I have written to several schedulers and editors (for various mscs) and none of them ever reply back to me . . . so it makes it very frustrating of how can I learn from my mistakes, if they do not provide feedback and tell me what I did wrong. GRRRRR!!!

Nicelytwicely, beware of those shops that say "easy" and "quick", because I often found that somewhere between the start and finish of the shop, it was anything but "easy" and "quick". In some of my past experiences, in many cases, oh sure physically doing the on-site portion of the shop was "easy" and "quick" , but they lowered the boom on me as far as dumping a long and very detailed report requirement that was hiding behind all of that "easy" and "quick" stuff. LOL!!!

MsJudi, you hit the nail on the head when you said “I don't understand why if the call is recorded some companies make you fill out a tedious recap report of the entire call. Those are definitely not worth it.”

Wilson

WestCoastWilson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Over the past year, I have gotten some easy to
> difficult telephone shops, that only paid between
> $2 to $8. I have received a rating from 7 to 10 on
> them. However since I know that the Sassie Shops
> mscs require a minimum rating on some of their
> shops (before they will assign them to you), I am
> not sure if I want to jeopardize my higher rating
> & average by dealing with these low dollar
> telephone shops, due to fussy and picky editors
> and risking my rating getting lowered.
>

i've done some phone shops that were worth it (although never less than $5), and some which weren't. sometimes the narratives are too extensive. it can be easier to just travel somewhere in my vehicle to do a shop that requires nominal narrative, than to stay at home and have to write an extensive narrative.

as far as ratings are concerned, i follow a general rule of thumb with any given company, especially if i'm only recently working with them. i generally don't accept shops for multiple clients to be shopped for an individual mystery shopping company until i have mastered the first client to be shopped. in other words, if i shop one client for an individual mystery shopping company (let's say a bank shop), then i will not accept another client to be shopped for that same mystery shopping company (let's say a car dealership shop), until i have absolutely mastered the reports for the first client shop (hence, the bank shop) in my sleep. otherwise, my energies will become too divided if all of the clients are new to me, thereby causing my performance to drop. i generally don't accept too many new shops (that i've never done before) all in the same week or even month.

I will not touch phone shops. Not worth my time and effort. The phone call may be easy but the forms are not.

Thank you for you input Vince, and Sbrahma. Vice, in regards to the shops I have done (telephone shops vs. on-site shops), I agree with you when you said “Sometimes the narratives are too extensive. It can be easier to just travel somewhere in my vehicle to do a shop that requires nominal narrative, than to stay at home and have to write an extensive narrative.”

Now with that being said, I know some of the $2 shops I have done (where the recorded phone call was the report), however the editors drastically critiqued my part of the phone conversation and marked me down to a rating of "7" and "8". MAJOR FROWN!!!

Wilson

WestCoastWilson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thank you for you input Vince, and Sbrahma. Vice,
> in regards to the shops I have done (telephone
> shops vs. on-site shops), I agree with you when
> you said “Sometimes the narratives are too
> extensive. It can be easier to just travel
> somewhere in my vehicle to do a shop that requires
> nominal narrative, than to stay at home and have
> to write an extensive narrative.”
>
> Now with that being said, I know some of the $2
> shops I have done (where the recorded phone call
> was the report), however the editors drastically
> critiqued my part of the phone conversation and
> marked me down to a rating of "7" and "8". MAJOR
> FROWN!!!
>
> Wilson

i mostly did phone shops when i first started mystery shopping, thinking that they'd be easier than actual visits. but now i prefer making actual visits. phone shops are good for someone who is unable to leave the home due to illness or some other reason.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2011 06:08PM by vince.

I don't find phone shops to be inherently any more or any less attractive than in-person shops. If the pay is good, I will do them. I won't issue the MSP a discount simply because I don't have to purchase anything or drive anywhere.

I do $6 paying bank shops as often as I can. The report is straight-forward and you are on the phone less than five minutes.

Hey I just had to follow up and make another post as I saw that one was 999. So here's to 1,000!

Carol

I would not do a phone shop for under $8.00; it is not worth my time. I can't even imagine doing a $2 or $3 shop.

cori had some pretty good rental shops for $2... took about 15 min all told

now they are knocked down to $1... no thanks...

i did read a good post on another thread a while ago that a lady did these while babysitting...

added a lot to her time and they are not that hard... granted a bit time consuming... but she could do them while being paid to sit as well

COMBO!!

a $2 shop where there's no report other than listing the time, etc, and that requires maybe ten minutes of prep (at most) to be ready for it, doesn't seem to bad to me. As long as you learn to PAUSE and not say anything that will disqualify your call!!!!! They aren't bad (I prefer banks to cash advance, however; the latter can lead to a ten- or fifteen-minute call), but it's also hard to do enough to have them amount to anything substantial.

I am another one who will not do a phone shop for less than $5 and only if the report is super easy and takes around 5 minutes. I get paid $60 per hour in my day job, so to waste an hour of my time, even if I am sitting on my duff, for $5 is just silly. Also, minimum wage is $10 per hour, so I need to do the call and the report in less than 30 minutes to even be making minimum wage

Everyone, thanks for the great and interesting feedback. Since my original post, I am still skipping all telephone shops. I just turned down 3 of them today alone, because I want to keep a good rating with those mscs that will only assign shops based on a shopper’s rating. Since some shops I have seen (via Sassie Shops), require that you have an “8" or “9" rating, before they will consider you for a shop that you want. Yet since I tend to do very well with my non-telephone on-site shops, right now, I rather not risk my rating for low dollar telephone shops. Plus with the on-site shops I come across, the pay is far much better than phone shops and I think the on-site shop reports match the pay vs. the pay and reports of "some" telephone shops.

LateRain, I agree with much of what you have shared, yet after trying several phone shops with various mscs, just making $2 to $8 for a phone shop, with or without a report, I just find the editors have critiqued my phone shops too much for me to consider doing them any time soon if ever again. Plus my getting the short end of the stick for that one $8 shop and working almost 4 hours on it, getting a “7" rating, and the slow pay just was not worth it to me. GRRRRR!!!

Coldcoupons, you make some excellent points. As far as my on-site shops go, I never do a shop for less than $10. Especially when you figure the time it takes to do the shop from the beginning to the very end + gas/wear-and-tear on my car, making less than $10 for an on-site shop is not worth it “to me”. Plus you have to think about the state’s minimum wage and if you want to sometimes be working for less than minimum wage.

However, after reading this thread over again, I don’t think I will ever do another phone shop again. LOL!!! Yet Godspeed to all of you that make phone shops work for you, I am very happy for you:-)

Wilson

I would do the $2 recorded shops if they would give you a group at a time. Never been my experience.

coldcoupons Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am another one who will not do a phone shop for
> less than $5 and only if the report is super easy
> and takes around 5 minutes. I get paid $60 per
> hour in my day job, so to waste an hour of my
> time, even if I am sitting on my duff, for $5 is
> just silly. Also, minimum wage is $10 per hour,
> so I need to do the call and the report in less
> than 30 minutes to even be making minimum wage


what is your day job, if you don't mind my asking?

Carol

Another good question would be why someone who is making $65,000 to $130,000 is mystery shopping and taking food out of our mouths, LOL!

Phone shops, like any other type of shop, depends on the MSC and their client. I've done $2 recorded phone shops that have had high levels of editor scrutiny and longer forms as opposed to $8-10.

As a MS colleague of mine once said, "Not all phone shops are created equal."

Just block *67 before calling and use a google number for a call back or you will be swamped with after calls. I do not believe in "making up" a number since it could be a real phone number. Not fair to that person.

Just be careful what shops you take. When I first started secret shopping I took a 'set' of shops on all different subjects; schooling, insurance, etc. After doing the first one I started getting calls. I never finished that shop and told them to forget paying me for the one I did. Also, if the shop requires you to speak with a certain individual and that person is never in, you end up never completing the shop for all the time you put in tryinjg.

I have done several $3-$5 phone and internet inquiry shops in the past couple of weeks. I never would have done them when I was out shopping because of the low pay. Now I set them up and make the calls or write the email while watching old game shows on GSN. lol

A little money for a little surfing on the net or a quick call doesn't hurt. Wish they paid more but the most I've gotten was $10 for an assisted living one that kept me on the phone for 25 minutes. Short report though.

Oh yes, meant to piggyback on what CanadaMommy just mentioned: use that *67 or *69 option! I got slightly lazy once and didn't do that, thinking that the automated system that you dial into would take care of making my number "unknown." Wrong! Called a shop 2500 miles away and the target almost busted me by saying that he couldn't service my needs due to having a phone number in another state. I had to convince the guy that I was actually in his town using my regular cell phone number. Could've been avoided by just using the *67 option!

Shop did work out well, but what an experience.

Thanks for the continued feedback Everyone. I am glad that overall (for the ones that replied since my last post) that phone shops are working out for you:-)

Yet I am very curious too, as to know what is Coldcoupons' day job is as well. I would love to make $60 per hour and leave mystery shopping behind. LOL!!!

Wilson