I doubt that many clients are aware of how inexperienced most shoppers are. But then again, they rarely ask the tough questions on the cheap shops. The cost of a website for customers to report their experience is very small. Larger companies can certainly have their IT guy throw up a quick 5-10 question questionnaire on their own servers for customers to access. A $500 or $5000 prize given away at some date not clearly stated is cheap feedback and who knows, there might be some useful information by some of the customers who register and enter. Plus you then have a list of folks to send e-mail advertising to!

By the time you total what your cost is for ink and paper to print the information sheet. plus the cost of being online, your gas, time and most of the time out of pocket expenses to be reimbursed in 30 days, you end up paying to do these shops. Let alone the majority of these, you have to have a Pay Pal account to be paid.
If anyone is paying attention, Pay Pal is having a class suit against them for mishandling customers money through their bank account. They are going both ways, they wont give customers refunds and they also give refunds on ebay, to try to tell your side of the story to Pay Pal you might as well yell into your monitor, the results are the same. It is very frustrating dealing with Pay Pal to get in touch with a live person.
What I want to know is why cant the companies cut a check and mail to the shopper?

I absolutely agree that the only way to get decent pay is to stick together on these absurd $5.00 shops. Once you add up all the time you spend getting prepared for the shop, doing the shop and submitting the report you're lucky if you truly make 5 cents an hour. I am not doing anything for less than $15. Some of the tests you have just to apply for the shops are ridiculous. The only reason these companies are getting away with all this is because we are accepting it. Lets pull together and put a stop to it.

The best joke of the bunch is Corporate Research CRI. They have a whole bunch of shops for 5 bucks and you have to take a test to do them. They will find more ways to not pay you than Carter has little liver pills. This is one to stay far far away from if you want to have a smooth experience.

I am so glad I am not the only one who refuses to do these type of shops....I read 5.00 assignments and think "YA RIGHT"...thought maybe it was just me. I totaly agree w/ CCase on the expenses of doing 5.00 shops.I do have a paypal account but don't ever let monies sit there for very long. I have always wondered why it takes so long to get pd. from some of these places. Yes CRI can be a joke.
dee

Bottom Line: Yes, we can pick and choose between MSC. However, it is still a shame
that the companies treat all shoppers badly. If they need you, you are a champ. If they do not you will find that you have done a terrible job on their shops and they will not pay you. Or God forbid, the receipt is faint. That is the worst transgression that could occur. "Why don't you just go back and get a new one?"
"If we think it is faint, (due to no ink in the client register), we choose not to pay." Then you get a bad rating, no pay and go through a real pile of c---to try and get paid. I have a better idea. Stop working for them and sue them. It works every time. I know that it works and I get paid come H--- or high water. The downside is that they all talk to one another and a shopper will get a bad rep. for standing up for their rights. Too bad! I may be categorized as a nasty person by MSC but guess what? I get paid as they do not take well to a letter with a threat of litigation. Let the chips fall where they may but stop getting s------.

lets get together

rardon: You are correct but the problem is that they are organized with MSPA and all will delist a problem shopper ie: someone who complains that they are getting
beat up. Shoppers can only do one thing,(and they will not collectively do this) is to tell them that other shoppers have complained about their bad practice and then after they know that you are not a stupid person, boycott them. They would really learn that way. The one that sticks in my craw the most is the CRI guys which are all Marketforce. They offer you gas shops for 4 bucks and then after all the fools take those shops, they go up to 20 when they can't get them done.
Try the gas shop on Fishers Island in New York. They offer you 4 bucks for it.
It takes a $60 ferry ride to get there. You had better like ferry rides for that one. Then, when a shopper complains, the price goes up to $ 65. You spend a whole day and make $5. What a deal. Stay away from all the Market force companies as they work to do you in. This is a classic concept of all shoppers are stupid.

There are two different issues here - low pay and being treated badly. The notion of banding together and boycotting assumes that all shoppers believe the pay is too low. The choice is individual, whether you're an employee or an indpendent contractor. $4 or $5 shops are ideal for some, or they would not be offered/shopped/paid. That's free enterprise. Some shoppers want to work their way up, others don't. Some stick with it, but not all. Attrition is constant. Entry level positions are essential.

My criteria is different from yours - whoever you are. I did the $1.75 phone shops one month; it worked for me. Others find that amount ridiculous, even insulting. By accepting that shop, or any low paying shop, it does let the MSP continue to offer it at that price - the market will bear it. There are shoppers who are more suited for some shops than others, and not just because of what the payment is. The pay is probably the first thing I look at, but it's not the only thing.

Being treated badly is a different matter. A rejected shop is tough to swallow, though that is not necessarily being treated badly. If there are legitimate reasons provided, whether the shopper agrees with them or not, it's not a personal attack on the shopper. I've done 800+ shops and have had 3 rejected. Hated it, moaned and groaned. I had a choice to terminate with the MSP, or not, and the MSP had a choice to assign me another shop, or not. That's business.

You sound a bit arrogant. Do you pay long distance for making that $1.75 call? Some companies won't let you use your cell phone. And a problem with the cell phone is that you pay more monthly for your cell bill just to take the cheap job. Why don't you work with us instead of against us???

I don't think Mert sounds arrogant. I read it totally differently. I think she is correct-shoppers shop for a lot of different reasons; if it isn't money, then the low paying shop is easier to handle for those particular shoppers (of which I am not one.)

Then, sometimes you need money so badly that you are forced to take that job you never would have taken. The GM worker might end up at McDonalds, which is not the pay scale they are used to. However, they might still have to put food on the table. Shoppers in this category exist as well.

People who can afford to will hold out for the good jobs, the msc's that treat people the best, and the bonused jobs. Not everyone can, or chooses to. Mert's right-it is business.

That doesn't mean we have to like it, but that is the way it is.

Jeanne, I did not intend to come across as arrogant. Just offering a different point of view.

No, for the $1.75 phone shops, I didn't have to pay long distance charges and I was able to use my cell phone. I chose my cell phone plan long before I was a shopper, and don't pay more so I can take low-paying jobs. "Work wih us instead of against us"? I'm a shopper who appreciates that there are opportunities for all of us. You have every right to turn down a shop that you think pays too low, but what about the rights of others who are not of the same opinion?

Mert: I agree that if the shop is too low, pass on it. My complaint is the CRI and Marketforce companies who find nonsense ie: too faint receipts and then want you to go get another or forfeit getting paid. It is done too often to be a casual mistake. With the volume that they do, just think if they can get away with not paying for 100 shops a week. That is a fortune. It is basic mathematics. Numbers are a machine type game and we, as shoppers are the fodder for it.

I have never had an issue with a faint receipt for either of these MSC's. I have never had that issue with ANY MSC. However, if my receipt was too light, I would use the levels tool in my scanner or in photoshop to correct it.

I agree but after that action and it is still too light they will not take it.
And do you like the status department at CRI? You, if you have had no problems, are lucky.

I agree with you all. The $5 shop is degrading. I also used to do them, when I was new and have since stopped. Tesoro Gas, Kmart department store, Lowes hardward and more. The Tesoro's were a breeze, 10 minutes in the store and maybe 15 minutes to do the report, but the others took 30 minutes plus in the store and probably 20 to 30 minutes to do the report. So I say boycott the $5 jobs.

Bottom line is whether to refuse a job you perceive to be low paying is your perogative as an independent contractor. And no, my personal preference is not to take a $1.75 phone shop or a $5 gas shop. But if I have a 3 day window in which to make the phone shop, chances are I will seriously consider doing it when I am taking a break from doing something else. If the $5 gas station was convenient on my most travelled path, I might consider doing it. But darn sure I wouldn't just put $1 worth of gas in the tank to announce to the world I'm a mystery shopper.

For me it is less a matter of the shop but of the company I am working with. I have gotten nothing but respect from Market Force/Shop 'n Chek while I have seen no incentive to deal with CRI. On occasion I will check the CORI site and see if there is anything potentially interesting--I have done enough jobs bonused to $50 with them to make that financially worthwhile, though my sense is that they don't respect shoppers and I don't respect them. Yet I do a fair amount of work for companies where there is mutual respect, even when not every job is truly profitable. Last evening I responded to a request by offering to take it in exchange for a shop I wanted. Fine. I lost money on last night's shop but will make it up nicely on the shop I wanted. My receipt from last night was very faint. I messed with it for close to a half hour to get as much of it as possible readable. I don't expect any grief from it because there is mutual respect with this company. But copying it really dark and playing with it with various scanner software did not yield a clean, legible receipt. If they complain, I would be pleased to mail them the actual receipt which is slightly more legible.

Hey flash! They will not take the original as they just do not know how or want to take the time to convert it. Been there done that with these people. My major complaint is CRI, they are a piece of work. I cannot say how I really feel but use a very vivid imagination. The sun never shines there.

All I can tell you is that I personally have had no issues with MarketForce and receipts, therefore I don't know what their 'official' policy may be. I only did around 40 jobs for them last year with an average value of about $23 per shop. I did debate last evening (not for Market Force) making a photocopy darkened of the receipt, using a thin black pen to trace over receipt information on the photocopy and then taping the receipt next to the 'enhanced' receipt to scan the two together, using my software to darken the original receipt as much as possible so they could use the 'enhanced' as an aid in reading the original. I figured it really wasn't necessary as the editor who does that client knows my work well and is unlikely to give me grief as she sometimes sends me reminders of their writing style but over the years has only sent back inquiries for clarification on a couple of shops.

Flash: Thanks for the update. My issue is not so much with Market force as it is with Corporate Research International. I did everything that you suggested and as one hand does not talk to the other at CRI, I had to threaten suit. It worked. Thanks

This morning I went online to check out end of month Exxon shops and found I had to do the training again because there are some changes. But the training and test are the complete training, not just the changes. After an hour of trying I could not pass the test. I gave up. I do not shop these at the beginning of the month, but at the end of the month they can pay well. I was wondering if anyone else had the same problem with the new training.

I try to do any testing I may need in my downtime, and not when I'm applying. It is an aggravation to have to take the complete test each month. The grocery store tests, I can take monthly with no difficulty as only one or two questions will be new. I keep cheat sheets for the ones I don't do regularly. Sometimes, in an effort to minimize my time reading and testing, I set my laptop beside the desktop computer, and keep the guidelines/training open on it so I can refer to them as needed. It's easier that switching back and forth between windows.

With the Cori retraining test I first looked at the questions for the test. Then I played the video. While the video was playing I listened for the test questions and filled them in as the video was playing. Easy and simple.A Monkey could do this and pass the test this way.

That works fine, Hellbent, especially when there aren't bloopers in the test

I have been following this thread w/ great interest. I will keep my opinions on CRI to myself this time around. Touching on the testing & pay topics...I have noticed alot of the companies that I used to get regular assignments with now have lenghty training & testing and I somewhat understand that and have tried to go along w/ it but sometimes it gets so maddening when it takes 2-3 hrs to go through all the training & testing and either fail the test or not get further assignments even if I passed the tests and the pay is lower then it used to be.Not sure about everybody else but I spent alot of my own time on the computer training, testing and just looking for jobs that pay half way decent.Yes bottom line its up to each person if they accept or decline jobs but come on some assigments that require so much time to make a lousey 6.00 just doesn't seem feasible no matter how I add it up .
Thanks for letting me vent.

Yes I was one of those newbies when I first got back into MS and wanted to get my name in w/ scheduling companies but even this newbie was quick to learn 5.00 reimburstments were a joke , I am right along w/ everyone else on this topic...I would love to see it change but I have my doubts.

I hear you and understand precisely what you are talking about! And there are definitely companies that are more abusive with that stuff than others. To me it comes as little surprise that CORI is one of those because they pretty obviously rely in a newbie shopper base that, frankly, doesn't know any better. The testing allows them to eliminate those who were just looking to make a fast buck as well as those who can't find their way out of a paper bag without assistance. The CORI jobs only make sense when bonused heavily and unfortunately you have to pass the testing to see how crummy the pay is. There are a number of jobs where my 'training' has lapsed and I know better than to repeat it because the jobs never get to a bonused level they are interesting. There are others that eventually may become interesting where it makes sense to keep training current. But there are too many shoppers in my area anxious to scarf up the jobs at the original fee to hold my breath and try to compete with them for nothingness.

Trust me. I will never do a job at the release fees that Cori offers at the beginning of the month.It's only toward the end of the month when, the fees get above 10.00, that I even consider selecting them.

I have emailed MSPs, prior to testing, to see if it's worthwhile, i.e., any shops and what kind of shops are in my area. I don't ask the MSP what the shops pay in advance, but it's a big fat waste of time to test if there are no jobs. There are tests I don't consider, when I know the shops are not for me.

Also one of the advantages of forums--you get some notion of what the shops entail from the experience of others.