Can anyone give me information on Video shops. I have never done one before and I am really interested in doing them. Are there any secrets to doing them? Is it worth the money? Is there a report that as to be turned in along with the video? Is it a good idea to rent a video camera to use or just buy your own? Is there any training available for it? Is it difficult? I am guessing they are all reveal shops since there is a video camera involved? Please help me out guys, there are some available that I am interested in and I would like to know if I should just go ahead and do it. Thank you all .

Mar -

Do a search here on the forums, and you'll find a heck of a lot of discussion threads devoted to Video shopping and where to get more information on them!

Video shops are anything BUT revealed, as they are conducted with covert mini-cams. Please searh here and on volition for "video" and read, read, read. Then post to a video thread and you will get a ton f nfo.

I can only speak for the video shops I offer, schedule and have completed myself, for our clients. A button camera is the best, as you can record your entire visit. You can review your video later to help with other information that you need to fill out your report. Next best thing is a cell phone. Besides using it to text in the information to yourself during your visit. You can also turn on the camera, hold it up to your ear and film without being noticed. Nobody pays attention to someone using a cell phone, as it is common practice. I know that the iphone 4 can record in both directions. Using a regular camera for my shops is the most difficult, still possible, but usually only a backup plan. If you wish to try one of my shops, please go to MSPA home page and click on about us. Then on the right, click on Providers. From this page you can search for companies by name, country, region, industry or services. Companies listed here are legit as they must show 2 years of tax records, give 3 clients as references and also pay a yearly membership fee in order to join MSPA. Enter Taylor & Associates if you would like to find our contact information. The jobs we offer are only for certain times and usually scheduled very late with only a day or two notice sometimes. So it is good to sign up as you would be contacted as an assignment becomes available in your area. This way you do not miss the posting on a job board if you don't happen to check for it during the short period it is available.

Beware: Taylor and Associates is not on the company list provided here, nor is it on the last at Volition.com.

MSPA membership guarantees nothing for the shopper.

TNA has not had the courtesy to provide a sig line giving his/her name, position in the company, and company Internet address.

Beware: Taylor and Assoc. is NOT on either the MSC list here OR the volition list.

Edited to add: I just checked the MSPA member list. There is no web site shown for this company. All that is there is Rob Taylor's name and a link to his email, plus a phone number. A Google search turned up no MSC-probable companies.

Anyone else find anything?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/19/2012 07:16PM by walesmaven.

I have also NEVER heard of using a cell phone to do a video shop. Not saying you can't (I don't do video shopping right now, but do talk with video shoppers), I've just never heard of it.

None of the covert video shops that I have done or heard of would use a cell phone. Ususally the client requires that the target's head and upper body be well framed a minimum of 80 percent of the "available" time. So, when you sit beside the rental agent in the golf cart, that does not count, lol. BUT, it seems possible that one sort of video evidence might be captured by video phone. That would be where you go to, say, a sports bar, and check to see whether they are showing football games that they have not paid to air, i.e., "pirated tv signals." Not much evidence would be needed to check that out, unlike rental shops, that may last 30-45 minutes, or new home shops that could run 2 hours. AND, btw, the technology available at reasonable prices to us as shoppers does NOT include good night picture quality.

This is why I stated for my shops, a cell phone is able to be used. That expensive equipment wasn't necessary. A person not wanting to train or invest in this, could still perform my shop. Then by contacting me through MSPA and providing his/her area of coverage. I could contact them if something becomes available.

A camera, CMD-BU13, which plugs into my Lawmate PV500, does fairly well at night as it had the best Lux or low light rating I could find at the time (.05 Lux) with 1280 x 900 resolution. It is expensive around $200. But when I contacted a company that was advertising on Ebay, they packaged this camera and recorder (listing around $500) for $600. This is much more expensive than a $200 or $300 setup. But when the camera fails to perform and cost you time and money, which happened to me, then it was worth it to buy the better model. When first researching cameras online, I had a hard time finding out anything and learned the hard way.

I'm new and I need all the pointers you can give me to get the best jobs. I'm from the south in Mississippi I appreciate your help.

If you are interested in doing video shops, please do a search for "all dates" for "video" here and on the volition forum. If you are new, it's probably best to do a couple hundred traditional shops before venturing into video. Video shops tend to be much longer, more complicated interactions of 30 minutes to well over 2 hours.

Has anyone done video shops for Bare lately? I did my first shop for them yesterday. The instructions were out of date as I discovered when I went looking for the Excel file that was not there and the instructions about uploading all the material I was given when they only wanted the business card. The instructions for using FileZilla to send the videos are unreadable and I cannot follow them. I keep sending emails for clarification and it is quite frustrating.

Since Bare fired the most knowledgeable video folks in the industry a few years ago, they don't seem to have committed much in the way of resources to that activity. The company founder even told the first IMSC conference that he did not believe in video shopping. Since then, I won't take their underpaid video work. YMMV My advice is to stick with the big seven video shopping companies plus EPMS plus any third party companies that schedule through Instant Replays or Clear Evaluations.

The big seven run the Video Shopper Network, where they post jobs. Check out VSN.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/18/2012 12:47PM by walesmaven.

I definitely would not purchase video equipment until you have a few shops under your belt. Most of the companies that I am familiar with has equipment they will loan to you. The shops are a little tricky to do because you have to keep your subject framed in the camera which is hard to do sight unseen. I would definitely say practice, practice, practice with the video equipment BEFORE you do your shop that way you will have a better understanding of where to stand and how to act natural during your shop. Remember that while you may be able to turn your head to look at something you must turn your body for the camera to 'see' it too.

Personally, I don't do the video shops anymore, they are too involved and time consuming for my tastes. But to each their own.

hopsue,
Thanks. More videos for me. smile

Porterwj, I've done video for Bare. Are you in contact with Steve Carwile there? He was my scheduler for all the apartment shops I did for them. He was great about staying in touch when I last did some shops for them fourth quarter in 2011.

I've received reach outs from MSPA on their behalf. They use Hotmail for their email: taylornassoc@hotmail.com I passed.


walesmaven Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Beware: Taylor and Associates is not on the
> company list provided here, nor is it on the last
> at Volition.com.
>
> MSPA membership guarantees nothing for the
> shopper.
>
> TNA has not had the courtesy to provide a sig line
> giving his/her name, position in the company, and
> company Internet address.
>
> Beware: Taylor and Assoc. is NOT on either the MSC
> list here OR the volition list.
>
> Edited to add: I just checked the MSPA member
> list. There is no web site shown for this
> company. All that is there is Rob Taylor's name
> and a link to his email, plus a phone number. A
> Google search turned up no MSC-probable companies.
>
>
> Anyone else find anything?

Interesting, Tech. I am wondering if my inqueries thru MSPA about this company may have been a catalyst.

Ah yes, wasn't this the mystery man who thought we were all full of it because we didn't just jump on the bandwagon for his vague, yet high-paying shops.

He is indeed. I have had a few words with the new MSPA manager about that. The original posts from the fellow and the info available from MSPA at the time would not have passed the smell test on a business verification job. All MSPA said when they got back to me was that "the party is unaware of anyone pretending to be affiliated with the company on the firums," or words to that effect.

Well that's about as clear as mud.

Lisa,
I speculate that the MSPA manager may have approached the MSC owner with the idea that perhaps some jerk was pretending to represent his company on the forums and he wanted the owner to be aware of the fact that the posts might really make the company look bad. Heck, he might even have suggested that the company would benefit by posting a more obviously businesslike email and/or phone number on MSPA. Listing the company's jobs on the MSPA job board might also have been suggested as a "confidence building" measure. All of this is, of course, pure speculation.