How far (would/do) you drive for a mystery shop and what price range would make you take the shop?

I'll travel 2-3 hours if I can make over $120 on the shops I'm doing.

If something takes up my day and shuts down my other options for the day, I want $150.00 whether it's one shop or whether it's multiple shops. I'll drive around 175 miles round trip, for which gasoline will be about $17.50 to $20.00.

Only one company so far has come close to making this work. They offered over $150.00 in multiple jobs on a trip of approximately 250 miles. I found other work along the way to put with their work and made the day a little over $200, so I took it. I left at daylight and it was a long day, but I was satisfied with the deal. I've booked several days on my own that were over $200 and over 250 miles total.

Usually my routes are about 60 to 70 miles from home one way, and I look for a total in the neighborhood of $100 for those days. I do a lot of what I consider half-days, which will be just three or four shops and less than 100 miles total.

On these longer runs, I'm usually doing mostly bonused gas stations and all the money except up to $1 for an inside purchase is bankable money.

Average for me is 60 miles rd. trip for three to four jobs, no purchase.
I'll make from 68.00+lunch, for a half day's work,( which includes driving)
I do one, or two, must pay 10.00 and be very cose to home, that's a
day when I'm free and just hanging around. I may take a hotel 2 1/2 hours
away overnight for an 80.00 fee, just to get away, pays for all meals and an interesting job....trying to get some gas $$ for that one. Gas is now over 4.00/gallon, and I drive a V-6, so......

I use mapquest which tells me the trip and return is going to be 56 miles but it always turns out to be 90 or 107....I used to do further away - 150 miles but I also drive a NOrthstar motor. If it was just highway it would be 21 to 24 miles a gallon, but with all the stop and go and detours around and about it can be anwhere from 16 to 19 miles a gallon.....so I try to stay close to home.... of course if I can get some MSC to pay for the gas or airfare - shucks - I'll go anywhere - except Alaska or the Middle East

I don't usually travel far (less than 5 miles), but I look at what I'll net after gas/vehicle expenses and total hourly rate including travel and reporting time if I can get a route. A couple months ago and again this month I'm doing a route of 10 audits at bonused rates I negotiated ($30 per vs $18) and found a few more good paying shops to add to it ($300+ day). I make sure I'll come out at least $10-15/hr overall. I wouldn't have done just one at that rate based on how far I had to go, but making the route makes it worthwhile.

I will be gone 7 hours tomorrow with only a little over an hour of that being devoted to shops. I cannot tell you how many miles, but it is quite a few. At the end of the day, I will make almost $250 so that works for me. I can start out my week with less pressure to do "x" number of shops to make my weekly $$ quota. I might even get the laundry washed, dried, folded, and put away all in one day next week which will be a nice, welcomed change of pace in my house!!!!

If I do 4 shops with a 40 mile round trip, I think that's too far, that's why you people make the "BIG BUCKS".

@shoppingalong, I hate mapquest and will never use it.

I setup my routes on google maps on my computer, and can automatically pull them up in google's free nav app on my android phone, and if im using a vehicle with onstar, i can send the google map route direct to the vehicle as an added bonus.

I will drive, fly & take a boat pretty much anywhere as long as their willing to pay.

How much I need to make varies based on the amount of worked involved, can I have a 2nd person, and the entertainment factor, if any. If I was planning on taking a vacation to texas, and they send me there, i might take alittle less since I was going already.

I've done 30 shops in a 20 mile radius and have done 10 shops in 400 miles that have paid about the same amount of dollars.

if i am driving 100 miles round trip, i better be pulling in at least $100. i always try to work in some gas shops as well to help with fuel costs.

I must really suck LOL.
I just got back home from OK City which is roughly 100 miles one way. I made $70 so I cleared about $35-40. And now I am here rushing through the reports because in few hours I have to go to work (real job).
It amazes me how people can do many jobs, drive for hours and still do all the reports.
On the side note, if I earned $100 dollars a day I would quit my full time job )))

Tomorrow's drive is 262 miles according to google. Will be making $304 with 10 stops. It is almost all rural driving, so most of the time will be able to 55- 60 miles per hour. The only traffic I am likely to encounter which will slow me down is Amish buggies

Wow, I need to up my distance. We have some real "routers" here! But so far the max has been 40 miles. I try not to go over 20 miles, but I live in the city surrounded by good shopping counties.

You go, Shelly! All right, ATTAGIRL.

262 miles 10 stops? Must be really quick jobs.

Charyuop - not necessarily really quick jobs, but you can bet if she's driving 262 miles and doing 10 shops in a day, she's good.

One will be about 5 minutes, the rest will be in the 30-40 minute range. Two different photo audits, so once I get the pattern going, things will pick up in the day. I have done both before, but it has been a while.

I would make a route to the moon with a pit stop on Mars if it paid well!!

I live in a city, so I like to take shops downtown that no one wants. I had 4 bonused shops the last Friday in July. I drove a total of 6 miles (3 into downtown, 3 back home). I parked in a parking garage (I used my regular jobs work pass, so I did not pay). I made $86 for 2 hours. One shop was a car dealership bonused to $41. I didn't get to test drive since the lot was in an area where they request advanced notice for test drives due to the way the cars are lined up and it takes a while to get the car out. I was there only 23 minutes!

23 minutes???? I stopped doing car dealership because I am so convincing that I want to buy a car that I cannot get free before 90 minutes :O



gigishopper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I live in a city, so I like to take shops downtown
> that no one wants. I had 4 bonused shops the last
> Friday in July. I drove a total of 6 miles (3 into
> downtown, 3 back home). I parked in a parking
> garage (I used my regular jobs work pass, so I did
> not pay). I made $86 for 2 hours. One shop was a
> car dealership bonused to $41. I didn't get to
> test drive since the lot was in an area where they
> request advanced notice for test drives due to the
> way the cars are lined up and it takes a while to
> get the car out. I was there only 23 minutes!

Geeze, I've been selling myself short! LOL! I only do shops within a 20-30 mile radius because I am in a tourist-y area...but when I increased the miles on my ms jobs search, the shops double. I guess I better plan routes...it does make sense to do that and it does open up for more of a variety!

I usually won't go more than 25 miles between shops, but I'll string together 20 mile intervals all day long.

In terms of payment, it costs me about $0.20/mile to drive somewhere, including fuel and vehicle wear, and I usually try to maintain 75% profitability on a route, excluding reimbursements. It's also very rare for me to take a shop for less than $13, excluding reimbursements.

So, minimum payment that I'd need to do a shop with a 1-way drive distance of 25 miles is $40. (50 miles x .20/mile = 10 in vehicle costs. $10/.75 would make $40 my target payment to hit 75% profitability).

amie068 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I would make a route to the moon with a pit stop
> on Mars if it paid well!!

LOL and please let me know if TMOBILE have coverage up there. haha
We have some long distance routers, for sure!

@charyoup, I have never been on a car shop over 45 minutes. I always get good feedback too. I usually go during the "lunch hour." I guess they are hungry and are ready to get rid of me!!! The 23 minute one was a shock to me too. I felt like I really got lucky.

I also do not chat much with the salesman. I keep it all business.

Most of the time is spent in the office...they just do not let me go. last time I even brought my wife so she could see how hard it was. The salesman even went and call the manager of the place who sat down in the office and started trying to convice me. He almost gave me a finance under 1% LOL. My wife said that it is good money, she did not understand why I did not want to do them anymore. When we hopped in our car she looked at me and said NO MORE!

gigishopper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> @charyoup, I have never been on a car shop over 45
> minutes. I always get good feedback too. I usually
> go during the "lunch hour." I guess they are
> hungry and are ready to get rid of me!!! The 23
> minute one was a shock to me too. I felt like I
> really got lucky.
>
> I also do not chat much with the salesman. I keep
> it all business.

charyoup - Some suggestions:

They won't let you leave? No no no.

(1) Pick up business cards immediately when you sit down.

(2) Do NOT drive the car until you have ALL OTHER necessary information for your report.

(3) When you are ready to leave, say something like this:

Thanks for your help, Joe. I've got all the information I need and I'm not going to make a decision on this today.

If they are withholding your driver's license, you say: I'll need my license back now. I'm not going to make a decision today, and I'm ready to leave.

If they keep talking, you say something like this: I'm just waiting on my license. I'm not going to buy this car today. I need my license back now.

(4) Now leave. You are the customer. They are not in charge.

After you get the required followup call(s), you say: Sorry, Joe, I appreciate your help but I've decided I'm not going to buy that car. Again, thank you.


Another way to handle the license deal (this is what I do) is to say: Here's my license. I need you to make a copy of it and give it back to me before we go on. Then I sit there dumb as a rock until I get it back.

Hope some of this will help you. These shops are reasonably lucrative once you learn how to get in and get out and refuse to waste your time. You can make this work if you make a plan.

I agree with the above post. I always pick up the card first thing! Another trick I have used (in reference to the lunch hour). I act as if I am on my own lunch break from work. The salesman usually asks where I work and I say, "I work near here at XYZ" or "I was in the area for lunch." That way they think you have a time frame to look at cars.

You gotta get back to work, ya know!

Well, I survived the route, but wouldn't say it went well. Got started late because I couldn't fall asleep until 5 am, so was on the road shortly after 9.

Two different places where the roads were closed. The roads were not big enough to show up on the state list, but since it was the country it was miles to the next road.

Another location didn't exist at the address, but I could see another one a couple of blocks away. It was a gas station location with a fairly unique name which matched what was on my sheet. Go into the library and thankfully CORI answers my chat request and after going back and forth for a while saying it relatively new looking location, but they all are reporting for 123 Main St and the receipts just say Hwy 789 without a street number. She then sends me the pics from the last two reports which are clearly for Hwy 789. Google maps, my GPS and the address on the front of the building, which actually has the street name and not just the numbers on it all indicate the location of 123 Main St. is a few blocks away. She tells me to go to the HWY 789 location and do that one.

I would have just reported it as closed, but that was the single largest paying location on my route and wanted to make sure I didn't lose that pay or it would really reduce my profitability for the day. I wasn't sure if CORI pays full fee for a closed location, nothing at all or somewhere in between. Unfortunately the whole messaging and checking with supervisors takes another half hour out of my day.

Roll into the driveway about 9:30, eat and chat with hubby for a bit and then sit down to work on reports. I get the first 2 reports in and then the internet goes out around 11. I have noticed a couple times recently where it has dropped for 5-10 minutes, but then comes back on. This time it didn't come back on until about 9:45 am. I waited for a while and worked on getting some pics ready, but finally gave up and went to bed. Since my laptop crashed last week, I couldn't really go somewhere else to work on these.

Got up this morning and started contacting schedulers and then worked on reports that were now all late. It looks like a few of them have already been accepted.

Every closed location I've had with CORI did pay in full

techman01 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> @shoppingalong, I hate mapquest and will never use
> it.
>
> I setup my routes on google maps on my computer,
> and can automatically pull them up in google's
> free nav app on my android phone, and if im using
> a vehicle with onstar, i can send the google map
> route direct to the vehicle as an added bonus.
>
> I will drive, fly & take a boat pretty much
> anywhere as long as their willing to pay.
>
> How much I need to make varies based on the amount
> of worked involved, can I have a 2nd person, and
> the entertainment factor, if any. If I was
> planning on taking a vacation to texas, and they
> send me there, i might take alittle less since I
> was going already.
>
> I've done 30 shops in a 20 mile radius and have
> done 10 shops in 400 miles that have paid about
> the same amount of dollars.

I do use it to figureout routes, but I think you're right, will try google maps -
meanwhile my GPS for some odd reason likes to take you all around the Mulbery bush instead of in a straight line. I've learned to ignore it except when it gives a ding and "you've arrived". No wonder I put so many extra miles on with that darn thing. It's Magellan so you would think it would give a straight line instead of zigging and zagging.

Tech, I'm guessing you make your reports by smart phone as you finish each shop and that's how you get so many in ?

Again, I'm more suburban rural than city and city to city is spread out - takes time...I don't really do short shops - if it says 30 minutes I'm there for 30 minutes or more until I find my answers... very difficult to get more in that 6 shops a day unless I've got some gas stations thrown in which can be quicker.