Depending on what is involved and how much you have to drive a $12.00 shop can be reasonable pay. I do bank shops for ath that pays $12 and find that reasonable for the amount of work involved. There are only a few $10 shops that I will take. Below $10 I never take.

See, I value bank jobs at a higher rate. I won't take an ath bank shop for less than twenty and I shop them every month. This month I did four for $24 and there's one on the board now for $50. I don't take it because I only shop two days a week and it's due before my next shopping day. My point is everybody values each job differently and until you know what the reasonable max is you will continue to take jobs at a lower rate then others. I paid my dues and did lower paying shops when I first started. I did it for two reasons, first the experience and second to get noticed by the MSC and to be offered higher paying jobs which I am now. I also agree this forum is a wealth of important information for people who want to learn and avoid the mistakes we have all made at one point or another.

It depends with the bank shops if you are talking teller or platform. Twelve for the teller is fine as I have been out of the bank in less than five minutes each time. I would want twenty for a platform shop.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/2013 08:27AM by Shelly.

What it comes down to, for me, is respecting myself, my time, and my sanity.

If I want to do a job I like that pays $4 plus reimbursement? I'll do it, because I get the intangible benefit of enjoyment. If I don't want to do a $30 shop because it's difficult and I don't like it, I don't do it because I don't need the stress. There are some shops that I won't do on principle - the base rate is acceptable and the shop is easy, but the base rate has been cut 50% in the last six months and I disapprove. So I don't do it. If I've done a shop for $60 in the past, I won't even consider emails begging me to do it for $10.

The funny thing is, since I've put this self-respect philosophy into practice, I've been making more per month than I was before.

Exactly my point. I did the $12 platform shops in the beginning and felt like a boob when I saw them go for $25 the next month. I saw what the max potential was and I will never do them for $12 again. I've seen them go for $30 but I risk not getting them. If I take them at $20 or $25 then I'm comfortable that I am getting my value. I've learned as time goes on which shops go up and which are just going to be what they will be. I think the most important thing is to learn as you go and do what makes you feel comfortable, financially and emotionally.

I do drive-thru teller shops all the time for the base pay (I think it's $9). There are two branches of this particular bank in my town, one 1.5 miles from home and one about 6 miles from home but next to my grocery store. The interaction takes 2 minutes, the report 10 at the very most, and I consider the fuel and mileage negligible. I don't do platform shops for less than $25, however.

Just another way everyone has a different take on things.

And this is not the only profession where rates go down. Hubby and I both work full time in school districts and and compared with three years ago, we are bringing home over ten thousand less combined.

I mystery shop to support my teaching habit


MsJudi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> With the prior MSC, Bob's Furniture store used to
> pay $18-$20. With a new MSC, it's at $12 and I
> haven't seen a bonus yet....and I haven't done one
> on principle. Their furniture is crap anyway, but
> the snacks were good.
>
> This is the only profession where the pay rate
> goes down over the years instead of up. However,
> somehow, my income does seem to rise each year,
> but not enough IMHO. I guess it's knowing how to
> value your time and make shop choices that will
> give you the best fee for the time involved. That
> comes with experience of having done the dogs at
> some point and learning how to say, "NO THANKS,"
> and mean it.

My approach is quite simple, $5 fee must be: near, easy, and simple. So many of the forms are idiotic, obviously whoever 'designed' the form has never done a shop and then filled out the form. Many forms do not allow you to accurately reflect the experience. And then you have the editors, many are great, and are interested in a good report, and then there are some who just don't get it. One called me because a particular shop ended after the latest allowed START time. She finally accepted that the report was in compliance. You would think the client would demand better reports. I have been in many different businesses and can see the use for confidential business for management to monitor activities not otherwise observable to them. BUT, the MSC must completely understand the business in order to design the entire confidential shop process. And then they need to understand that the need to be fair with the shoppers will make or break the entire business.
AZ

It seems that for most of the shops the pay has gone down since I began mystery shopping back in 2002. I also do not do very much mystery shopping anymore. The pay for other type of work I do has stayed flat and the amount of work required and the hours have increased although the pay stays the same(60.00 for four hours of work becomes 60.00 for six hours of work.)

Glad to see a sister out there. How about a new car shop for $30 with a report of 1.5 hours and time at the dealers of 1 to 1.5 hours. Don't tell me how you can spend 20 minutes at a dealer because I can tell you it can't be done. Or maybe you have never purchased a new car or you went to different dealers to decide what you wanted and just walked in and asked for best price.

GOOD FOR YOU Cindy.

cindy55 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> As long as they can get someone new to take a
> burger for a 3 page with photos as pay, and the
> $4 and $7 shops, we will keep seeing this. I
> really don't think they are aware of the actual
> cost of driving over, time spent doing /observing,
> going home, uploading, filling out audit/survey. I
> can't touch anything that doesn't pay my car .51
> cents a mile, then I would want a fair hourly
> wage. We all have had the site upload problem,
> where 12 photos take 30-60 min. Not on your end,
> on theirs. Faxes that keep retrying as someone at
> the MSC forgot to turn it on/load with paper/etc..
> How much is the frustration worth? It is a big
> ticket item in my world. I will work my butt off
> for a fair wage and fair expectations, however, a
> specific 2 hour window, specific day, pictures and
> 3 pages of questions, and an upload for a sandwich
> and, if your lucky, $3? I think I could pick up
> cans and make a better wage. As IC's, they are
> forgetting about the taxes we have to take out of
> pocket and expenses. Newbies, please wise up. You
> have costs. " I'm going that way anyway" isn't a
> reason to sell yourself short! Would you swing by
> an office and type for 45 min. for a sandwich
> because it was on your way to the beach? Run a
> cash register for half hour on your way to the
> show? I bet you wouldn't, so treat MS like a job,
> as that is what it is. Please excuse the rant, I
> just looked at 9 boards and was disappointed to
> say the least.

You can spend less than twenty minutes when a test drive is not required and the salesperson is disinterested. He literally came out after I hunted down assistance,read some info off the sticker, let me sit in the vehicle, and turned on the radio. Then locked the keys in the lock box and wandered away.

I spent 17 minutes on site and then submitted without waiting for follow-up. Had to convince the MSC that since they didn't have name, address, phone, or e-mail that I was confident they would not be contacting me.

I had a 20 minute shop once when the dealership had NO new cars of the brand I was shopping. I let the guy show me a used one just to give him a chance to show some selling skills. They were supposed to let me know when some came in (six weeks later) and mail me a brochure but I never heard from them again.

Come to think of it, that was also the dealership where the salesman pointed out the roomy trunk and said, "Yes, there are power seats" when I commented as he adjusted the seat to drive it off the lot and never mentioned, acknowledged, or explained another feature on the car. Four minute test drive, an immediate handoff to the sales manager, I got my quote and was out of there.

squireparty Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't mean to take this thread over but I
> thought of something else. I need some dental
> work done and I live in Arizona. Guess where I'll
> be going to have it done? Mexico. I will save at
> least 60%, probably more by doing so. The price
> diffential is so great that I will no longer see
> an American dentist unless it's a life or death
> situation, I just can't justify paying the costs
> on the US side of the border. Point is that in
> Arizona I have a lot of company in this and
> dentists are seeing a race to the bottom to some
> degree too. And really, am I not just like an MSC
> by crossing a border to save money? I want the
> lowest cost, too, and know of dentists that are
> good and trustworthy and have the same equipment
> dentists on the US side have. Just something I
> thought I'd pass along.

Shoppers believe newbees are snapping up the shops. They believe that immigrant are taking “their” jobs. How much experience could the newbees have and what kind of reports can they offer a client?

Here are a few entrepreneurial principals otherwise known as common sense. You get what you pay for and you get what you deserve. "You can have everything you want in life if you will just help enough other people get what they want." This is a quote from Zig Zigler (google him if not familiar).

That principal for business and personal relationships is common sense that was taught to me before I was ten years old. I was taught "There is no such thing as a free lunch" (literally) when I was four years old. I am fortunate enough to have been taught and I understand that people will not give you a value unless you give a fair value in return unless you cheat them. It is much more difficult to replace a client or personal relationship you have cheated or abused than it is to earn the respect and trust and enjoy the relationship. I had the same clients (before retiring) for fifty years. If they needed the value I offered they came to me. They sent others to me.

Kenny Rogers said it famously, "Know when to hold them. Know when to fold them. Know when to walk away. Know when to run!" If someone is taking advantage of you and does not care about the relationship because you can be replaced by a newbee, know when to run!

This is the United States of America and believe it or not there is opportunity. Even the illegal immigrant who is working 18 hours a day has a plan. They save and send for their family and use the resources we Americans take for granted. Eventually most immigrants you, your parents or relatives further back came to America and used the freedom. Unless you are Native American you or your family was an immigrant. Do not use that as an excuse. Is the “pity party over?

I will give a burger to a "homeless" person on the way out of a burger shop because he asked me for change when I walked by him on the way in. You don't think I will actually eat a "two minute burger" when it actually takes at least five minutes to cook a real burger. YUK! I was a newbee once.

The bottom line is "you get what you pay for." Anything can be made less expensively. The hay is cheaper once it has been run through the horse. I NEVER said "I told you so" but I let time prove me right!

Any relationship relies on trust. You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people CHEERFULLY AND WITH INTEGRITY. No one wants to be cheated or abused.

If issues occur you can not be upset because a newbee will work for nothing. In this economy there are people who will be happy to have Mac and cheese and Raman noodles. If you are on that level you have to find your value, then find someone that will reward you for performing that value. There is no value it working for nothing. As Kenny Rogers suggested, “Know when to run!”

If you think mystery shopping has turned into a industry of bottom feeders preying on the unfortunate and you will not work for peanuts, congratulations. You have taken the first step toward recovery. Don’t let the mystery shopping companies offer you peanuts unless you feel like an elephant and will work for peanuts. You need a mentor.

Try “Score.org.” if you want to hire yourself rather than be a “human resource”, a person that is used until you are no longer valuable then tossed back on the unemployment line. America was built on free enterprise.. Look at the thriving inter-cities where bodegas and other ethnic stores serve “their people”

Remember, be cheerful and be honest. Know your customer’s needs. Offer outstanding service. If you knew of a business that did that you would shop there and send your friends there. So contact SCORE.org and ask for advice. Retired business people are waiting to help you.

PHD, you present a lot of good advice and insight, but I wouldn't be so quick to disparage the quality of a newbie's work. My first shop was a $5 + sandwich shop in my local town. I had to go back in three times before I managed to get the cashier's name, but the report I wrote was accurate, had good narrative and detail, and got a 10. The new shopper I just started has gotten 10's on all her shops so far. The type of stuff newbies are going to be offered with no track record is not rocket science.

In the 250 shops I've done, I've never had less than an 8 and that was from Intelli-shop.

We really have no way of knowing if newbies or clueless experienced shoppers (maybe they only shop for that one MSC?) are the chicken littles who grab up all the cheap shops. I figure if they want to occupy their time with $3 shops, then they're not likely taking the $10 or $15 jobs I'd rather do anyway.

By the time the $3 shops become $10 shops, I'm busy doing $10 shops that have become $20 or $30 shops anyway, LOL.

Because they can. Quality companies do not engage in this kind of greed because they recognize the value of quality shopper retention and respect their shoppers. I reference Dynamic Advantage as a prime example of this. I am particularly disappointed with Sinclair. I love this company and have worked for them for nearly ten years. Over the last two years, I have watched them shave shopper fees and restrict reimbursement. This really makes it tough for schedulers trying to fill jobs.

Our pay is being cut because they can find someone else to do it for less. I was doing a food shop that had the fee reduced and the ordering instructions changed to what I considered less desirable items. I won't work at the new rate, but I'm still happy to do the shop when they bonus it up to something I can work with. I don't have any hard feelings when a company cuts the rates. If I can't do the work for the offered fee, I wait for a bonus I can live with. If that doesn't happen, I don't do the shop. I don't know what any other shopper is worth, but I know how I value my own time.

It would be lovely if everyone here would simply respect other people's choices in this matter, and the fact that those choices will evolve and change as circumstances change.

The question should be directed to the shoppers...why are we accepting less?

The MSCs reduce shopper pay to underbid other companies and get new clients and so they can maximize their profits. Business 101.

You can't blame the client companies, either, for shopping around, but it really does IRK me that when the MSPs under bid each other, it seems that they expect shoppers to take the hit.

I do video shopping and on a large project I did last year for one company, I was paid $100/shop; this year another company got the contract and is paying $75/shop. I negotiated and have been assigned many shops, so it will work out, but I am probably not making as much as I should.

What is going to happen with these cuts and the video business? The shops you mentioned paid $100 for approximately a half hour last year and at that time you could still get a camera for $500. In addition to the 25% reduction in pay, additional requirements have doubled the shop time and the cost of the camera has doubled as well. That means 12 months ago it only took five shops to be in the black for the investment and now it takes 2 and a half times the number of shops and quadruple the time.

I will tell you (how modest of me) that I am the first person standing in line when it comes to respecting other people's beliefs. I won't preach to you about religion. About sex. About the right or the left. But... (and you knew there had to be one, right?)

What one person does... is affecting us all. Because what one person doesn't isn't just what one person does... it's the person they talk to over coffee who thinks, "Yeah, that sounds like fun. I think I'll try mystery shopping." It's their relative who just lost their job. It's the friend of a friend of a friend who's in college and just needs beer money on the weekends (okay, bad example, those liquor shops are bonused up the wazooooo!).

Anyway. This perpetuates an ideal. And then, companies think, "Hey... I got an idea. Let's lower the rate a buck and see what kind of work we get."

Reports turn in. "Yeah, okay," they say. "That wasn't so terrible. Let's try three bucks this time." Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

It's not about respect. I respect your "right" (I don't remember reading about respecting this right, but we'll just punt on this one) to believe that taking a job at $2 isn't hurting anyone but you.... but it's just not true. It shapes the model every business uses and it hits everyone right in the pocketbook.

I would ask a question, now. Wouldn't it be smarter-- wouldn't it be more responsible (and respectful to a whole host of other people who do this) to realize the chain event that's going to be set off by settling for a lower rate, than sticking to principle and waiting for reason? Reason is you, me, everyone being paid what we deserve. It's not doing more work for less pay so someone can decorate the corner office. It's making sure I can feed my family tonight. It's making sure the senior (who does this to supplement their medical costs) can get their prescription tonight. It's making sure that mom of three doesn't have to work nineteen hours for a job that used to take two and pays fifteen dollars less.

Isn't that respecting others?

I know I sound like a broken record, but banding together on this issue can only improve things for everyone. =)


itsasecret Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It would be lovely if everyone here would simply
> respect other people's choices in this matter, and
> the fact that those choices will evolve and change
> as circumstances change.

I schedule mystery shops, and feel you all deserve a fair price. I have paid a bonus out of my own pocket to get shops done. It is a challenging industry because clients expect a lot for a cheap price. This places stress on all of us. I wish you all lots of good paying shops!!! Dawn

Hi Dawn,

I know of one other scheduler who also paid a bonus out of her own pocket (Hi Joan @ Insight!!). You can't really know, but I suspect you have an idea, how much that means to those of us out here who are busting our butts. =))

We really appreciate schedulers and owners who understand the quality of the shopper they have working with them and who consider quality over quantity a winning combination when it comes to mystery shopping.

Thanks, again, Dawn-- for all that you do. =)

Sending the best,

Jen

Jen, I want to be you when I grow up.

There will always be newbies and fly by night shoppers in and out of the business and we cannot influence them. Call me a cock-eyed optimist for believing we can have a positive influence on those that seek out and find a forum that is growing by leaps and bounds. Tell me of any time in history where people wanted to improve conditions for themselves and their colleagues and they were successful overnight. We may work alone, but slowly and surely, we are not alone.

I had a scheduler email me last month about a shop that she said was "urgent" to get done on that day. They shop was paying $11 and she told me it "desperately" needed to be done on that day. I told the scheduler that I was not interested in that shop at $11 but that I would do it for $18. That scheduler emailed me back that my area had plenty of shoppers so she never bonused shops here. I wondered if she had so many shoppers why was it so urgent and why was she so desperate to get it done. Looks like it did not get done that day by any of her many shoppers and the next day the same shop at the same location was bonused up to $25.

Goofy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I had a scheduler email me last month about a shop
> that she said was "urgent" to get done on that
> day. They shop was paying $11 and she told me it
> "desperately" needed to be done on that day. I
> told the scheduler that I was not interested in
> that shop at $11 but that I would do it for $18.
> That scheduler emailed me back that my area had
> plenty of shoppers so she never bonused shops
> here. I wondered if she had so many shoppers why
> was it so urgent and why was she so desperate to
> get it done. Looks like it did not get done that
> day by any of her many shoppers and the next day
> the same shop at the same location was bonused up
> to $25.

That's when I tell them I don't care what you paid in
the past. This is now. Things change. costs change.

The best is when I make an offer and they give me the
same excuse. Then they don't get it done. So they contact
me the next day or day later...and ask if I can do it. I say
sure but for me to do it today it will be 30 (instead of the 18
I initally offered). Sure I could do it for the 18 if I wanted,
but someone has to send them a message.

Always business. Never personal.

In this business, the only thing more important then money, is more money.

In the beginning...ok, August 1, 2012, my first shop. It was a clothing shop for $15. But most of those early shops were in the $5-$10 range. It's a matter of proving yourself, then you start getting offered the higher paying shops. We were all newbies once, and I'm pretty sure we all made the same newbie mistakes.

I had one give me that "plenty of other shoppers" line when I told her I couldn't go to Globe right then, but I was starting a new shopper so "there will be two of us who can go to Globe" and suggested that maybe my friend could do it the following week if there was other work in the area.

The job she called me about two weeks ago was still on the board as recently as yesterday (it's not showing now, but I doubt it's because they got someone to do it). So much for those "plenty of shoppers." I know darn well there are no shoppers in Globe because I've been paid $70 to go there to eat a sandwich for another MSC. (Same MSC paid me $40 to do a car shop the same day.)

I've thrown in the FF shop she was calling about when I was up there on the bonused shops for the MSC who knows what it costs to get someone to that town but they wanted me to go there just for their shop for $15 and insisted they had plenty of people willing to do it, as if she was doing me a favor by offering it to me.

Yeahsureright. 170 mile round trip on a winding 2-lane 45 mph road by a lake for a $10 bonus. I'll get right on that.

For me, the cutoff is $10, but that's only for a yogurt shop very close to me. Otherwise, the total must be $12-$15 or better and no more than seven miles from home. I'm fortunate that I live in a suburban area with a lot of shops nearby. There are some burger places I shop so often (no arches), I figure they have made me as a shopper by now. But all of them are doing top-notch customer service at this point, and it's a real pleasure to go there.