Well written tylerzmommy. tinman should read it and take a lesson from both the content and writing skills.

bmttinman Wrote:
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>
> Everyone that says they are making $ 650 a month
> or more on 8 shopping days Please show me the
> check and I will show you mind for 30 days of
> visits to the 5 job boards and for 5 completed
> shops for December and I made $ 279

If I am reading this correctly you made $55.80 per shop on your 5 shops. Unless they all required a very long drive that does not seem like third world wages to me...not even like our first world minimum wage.
If you did do a long drive for each then this one shop at a time to a far away place seems to be what is keeping your net income down.

is that what happened with Marjie?

Huh?

I believe s/he's talking about the mystery shopper, who recently died.

[www.mysteryshopforum.com]

(heart)

Very rarely are there 100 companies working in one area. HOWEVER there are times when I have picked up 2-3 jobs with one company that is researching a new grocery store layout. The shops paid quite nicely and it was money I wouldn't have had if I had only registered with the 12-15 companies that regularly have shops in my area.

stilllearning Wrote:
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> I believe s/he's talking about the mystery
> shopper, who recently died.
>
> [www.mysteryshopforum.com]
>
> (heart)


I'm fairly certain Lisa was aware of whom s/he was talking about, the post still doesn't make sense.

^Bingo.

What I want to know is what third world country has mystery shopping?

May be a bit politically incorrect for 2015, but perhaps this is the third world country...

[www.youtube.com]

I think whats missing here is an attitude of "wow this is cool, now to put in my time and learn to make it work for me." Which is where I am, after 3 itty bitty months of mystery shopping. I don't feel like I am entitled to huge fees from companies that don't know me at all. The ones that do know me don't hesitate to offer me bonuses for a shop they need completed ASAP. They know I'm not going to flake, the report will get in on time, and the editor isn't going to be pulling her hair out.

And yes, I take low fee jobs for new companies. I'm happy to have the opportunity to show them that I'm not a moron. Who knows where it will go in the future? And yes, I do new kinds of jobs all the time. I like finding out which ones work for me, and which don't. I even like the challenge of the ones I find difficult. (Gas Stations LOL.) I keep at it and let my scheduler know that I care about doing good work even when its a challenge.

Best of luck to the OP. My advice is if your not happy do something different. I love mystery shopping. If I didn't I'd do something different.

CoffeeQueen Wrote:
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> ...I take low fee jobs for new companies.
> I'm happy to have the opportunity to show them
> that I'm not a moron.

Love it!

To answer the OP's post, no, I don't feel like I'm being paid third world country wages at all. Although I believe that compensation could be higher depending on the client, I'm grateful that I can pick & choose the assignments that I feel justifies my shopping efforts.

Bmitttinman, you have quite a bit of advice posted on this thread from such posters as LisaSTL and Dspeakes. I strongly recommend taking heed to it than having an attitude of who & what is right or wrong.

bmttinman:

Where are you from? In your posts you do sound like English is your second language. I agree with the poster who said you need to work on your grammar, but I thought it might be because you are used to the grammar of some language other than English.

Canuck Wrote:
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>
> I balance the low paying fees with the higher ones
> and it's working so far.
>

I agree, Canuck. Putting the lower paying base rate jobs together with the higher paying ones does work. I have a route of ten shops coming up in the Springfield/Wilbraham area which will pay me a total of $120.00 plus $12.00 in expense reimbursements. This is for six different mystery shopping companies, one of which actually pays mileage for their shops (rare in the mystery shopping business), so my mileage for this route will be partially covered. The two lowest paying shops are both places where I can meet the purchase requirement by buying some grocery items, so, despite the low pay, I consider it worth doing them because I have to eat!

Well, mystery shopping saved my mortgage. I can say that and I live 40 miles outside of a major city. There was nothing much doing in my area and no mystery shops for feed stores and farms. However, I had been doing mystery shops when I did live in the adjoining "big" city and was known to several companies as a reliable shopper who was pleasant, polite, reasonable in expectations and no complaints so even though I spent at least $50 a weeks in gasoline money now that I live away from the city, I took the jobs. I accumulated the dollars and squeaked by on my mortgage payments and was grateful. I used Spell Check on my reports. Admittedly, I was a language teacher in my former years so grammar and spelling came easier to me than to other people but that's no excuse. There are plenty of online dictionaries and spell checker applications. Shoppers do not have to hand in sloppy reports.

I found that doing apartment shops worked well for me so specialized in that area, getting $25 a shop and doing two a day which left me with the expense of $10 for travel and 2 hour reports to fill out once I got home. Since I also have an independent contractor job online, I filled out the reports while waiting for clients to come in and chat with me. If a report was going to be late, I would alert my scheduler and she would be forgiving. I worked for that company for over 2 years. I didn't make millions or even thousands but hundreds allowed me to keep my roof over my head and that of my cats.

One day I was scrolling through the companies I had signed on with and found a series shop of 6 automobile dealerships which needed evaluations and needed them by a deadline so yes, I did all 6 in one day and earned $180 in one day. Of course, if you did the math, you would have seen that for the hours I spent on the actual shops, the gas money and the time it took to fill out 6 surveys for the shops, I earned around $6.00 an hour but my bank got the whole $180. Mystery Shopping is definitely not for anyone who thinks that life should come served on a silver platter but it's actually fun. It's freedom to do a shop or not.

I have had lots of fried egg sandwiches for breakfast doing fast food shops. I was called by a company that needed someone to do pizza shops at a pizza place that had opened up about a mile from where I live now and they wanted the shops as delivery shops. I was eating pizza once a week for two months, until my clothes got a bit tight but at least I had enough food for 3 meals. I had to take 8 photos of each pizza. Smile for the camera and show your pepperoni. There were no money payments but the pizza was free and delivered, the cost reimbursed and sometimes there were two pizzas, enough for 6 meals.

I now have a full time job in the "big" city 30 miles from where I live and have had to stop mystery shopping because between my on-going independent contractor online job and my full time job in a call center, I don't have time to do the mystery shops. I do intend to make some time to do at least two shops a week so the schedulers at the companies who used to give me shops won't forget me. Just in case I should ever need fried egg sandwiches and pizza again.

I just completed my second month mystery shopping and I made $900 this month. I only shop a couple of days a week usually, because I have a toddler and you usually can't bring a child with you. I do routes, and I typically make a day of it on Mondays. Not bad for a newbie, I think. My favorites are the high dollar audits. I also can fund date nights and I'm taking my daughter's to the movies tomorrow and being paid to do it. And, I'm not counting reimbursements in my $900 pay. So I actually ate a few meals and got a couple of cute things for free as well.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/2015 03:16AM by MelNel525.

bmttinman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> Everyone that says they are making $ 650 a month
> or more on 8 shopping days Please show me the
> check and I will show you mind for 30 days of
> visits to the 5 job boards and for 5 completed
> shops for December and I made $ 279

I wasn't going to reply when you first posted. Everyone doesn't say they are making $650 a month for 8 shops. I said it. It was my average for my first shop that paid less than $17 in March until the end of the year.

It's my average. Last month I made over $950 for 8 days of work.

Making that kind of money in a month for me, is hard. I worked my butt off so my schedulers would give me my routes.

I'm still a rookie in this business and I have a ton to learn. One thing I do know is...what has always been true; Don't bite the hand that feeds you!

Listen to all the people on this board that have more experience than either of us. Pay your dues and do the job right. I know for a fact my grammar needs work. It's always needed work.

I will say this out loud. I find your nasty comments; childish. Life can suck or it can be a beautiful thing...Make the choice!

I choose to find joy. Is mystery shopping a great thing every day?, OH HELL NO! But, it works for me most of the time. Where else are you going to find a job that you set your own hours and pick your bosses?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/2015 04:56AM by MA Smith.

I have a humble suggestion for you ... because these posts sound painful, even to me as the reader, I would suggest that you end the posts back and forth and absorb what the other shoppers have suggested to you. It IS about the quality of the reports you submit and those reports must be written well. If you do not have a good mastery of the English lanugage, you should consider doing something else to earn a few extra dollars. This comes to you from my heart. There is a lot to being a shopper who is successful and earns respect from the companies they work for. Editors will grow tired of correcting your mistakes and you will feel the heat, or cold if they stop assigning shops to you. If you continue to defend yourself on this forum and write your responses using poor grammar, you are only hurting yourself. Remember, Editors and Schedulers read this forum too. I hope you take my sage advice, for what it is worth. Good luck.

I've only been MS'ing since August last year and I do this on a part-time basis because I have a full-time day job that compensates me too well to walk away from. I've been lurking around the threads for a month or so reading the postings and have drawn some conclusions for myself.

1. No single method of organizing a MS business will fit everyone. There are too many variables to take into consideration like, where you live, how many other MS'ers are in your area, how many shops are available, what companies you sign up with, etc.

2. Read all advice carefully. Again, the question is one of fit - does this advice fit your situation?

3. Not all advice carries the same weight - for instance, if you want tax advice, you'll be better off reading posts by people who are tax preparers. Then consult a local tax professional. Not everyone is confident or knowledgeable enough to attempt to self-prepare, even using tax software like TurboTax or Tax Act. There are plenty of people who don't want to bother and would rather pay a pro. There's no shame in that.

4. Not everything stated as a fact actually is a fact. Sometimes it's really an opinion. Again, consider if it fits your situation.

I figured it would take a while to figure things out and I've learned a lot in 4.5 months. I am confident that I've only scratched the surface. Fortunately I am not under pressure to have to ramp up my income quickly doing this, so I am playing the long game. I feel for anyone who is new to this business and doing it full-time. It seems to me a difficult road to choose - at least for me.

I'm glad there's a resource like this forum to visit and find information. I find some very helpful bits on here.

Wishing you all a prosperous 2015!

TslewisCT, I admire your post and think it's very good and thoughtful Insight. I hope other NEW members have a chance to read it too . I came back to MS after a couple of years on hiatus Bc I was working FT. However I was just laid off several months ago which is why I'm accepting every type of work I can right now to get by! Problem is my ratings have gone from 10 to 8 recently . I know why though....because I've had rough time in my personal, professional, financial life plus health issues for about 6 months. As a result, there has been almost 1 shop per company that I was a day or 2 late or a few MINOR grammatical errors. So I'm starting to notice Im not getting scheduled for the higher paying shops as I had been recently. I'm rambling on Bc my question is to anyone reading....when ratings slip like that in such a dense period of time? How do I get back up there on the bright side again with the Schedulers/Editors? Do I just start accepting the lower paying ones again and hope I prove myself? My instincts tell me that's the case but just wanted to see if anyone else feels that's correct?
Hope everyone had a Happy New Year! Thanks.

Oh btw how do I add my signature/tag line to all of my posts? I've gone into settings but maybe my absent mind is missing something??

I have been a shopper for 5 years and doing shops on a regular basis for two years. Last January I said--OK--let's see what I can really do in a year if I work hard and take as many shops as I can while working full time at another job. I am signed up with over 180 companies but most of my work comes from 10-12 companies. I shop in a major metropolitan area that has a great deal of competition with other shoppers. Often the jobs are gone by the time I can check an email or a website. My totals are:

shopper fees $2185 and $1419 reimbursement for a total of 225 shops

At best I made $16 per shop or only $9.70 for fees only.

I figure I needed to "pay my dues" but I am not getting offered higher jobs by the companies I am working for yet. I bust my butt writing reports for hours trying to be very detailed and accurate. I can only hope that I can break out of the low ranks and get some higher paying jobs.

I've been shopping since last May on a part-time basis. I've only signed up with 6 companies so far. Two of them offer me bonuses regularly. The pay on some of the shops isn't great (a few have been absolutely awesome) but I know I'm far from being an expert at it and I'm not obligated to take any that I don't want too. I watch job board on this forum and make notes on which companies post jobs in my area so that I can sign up with some of them when the time is right for me.

Like siamese5555 I miss jobs because I can't look for them as often as some others can and sometimes I don't know my regular job schedule more than a few days ahead.

If you can't operate your vehicle for quite a bit less than 56 cents per mile, you have to be very careful about distance traveled for a shop.

I drive 4000 miles per month on my regular job so my expenses per mile are definitely on the low side.

vehicle cost - $18000/390,000 miles to date = 4.6 cents per mile
gasoline @ $3 per gallon = 10 cents per mile (even lower now)
$40 oil change once per month = 1 cent per mile
$800/year tires/brakes & routine maint. = 1.7 cents per mile
$950/year insurance/taxes/registration = 2 cents per mile
-------------------------------------------------
total = 19.3 cents per mile

Wow! It's been 8-10 years since I broke it all down. I've always known I made money on the standard mileage deduction. It figures out to $17,280 in money per year that is not considered income for tax purposes.

I apologize if any of my math is miscalculated. I didn't doublecheck it.

Bailey,

First of all, it is great to see you accepting that you have room for improvement. It is possible that taking a few low paying jobs may help. It may also be of benefit to reach out to any schedulers that you did a lot of jobs for and just inquire about any upcoming possibilities. In these contacts I would not focus on past errors, but your interest in future opportunities.

The last piece of advise I would give you would be to to do everything you can to get reports in on time. Either negotiate for extra time before accepting the shop or keep your scheduler in the loop if you are going to be late for some reason.

To change or add a signature, go to the home page by clicking on Mystery Shopping forum at the top of the page, in the blue bar above the forum list, click on the control center tab, then click on edit signature on the left hand side.

I need to come up with an interesting signature.

Thanks Shelly. . My motto/tag line has always been... "There's always room for improvement, it's the biggest room in the house!" I found it to be so cool you commented on my recognizing improvement and how that ties directly into my motto!!!

Bottom line IT IS A CHOICE!! you choose it.

Warren Buffet did not make it to the top by whining and know one helped him. It is not what you pay - it is the value go the return

Best part of America You will not get what you deserve - You will get what you negotiate.

Baileyseattle, you need to start repairing the bridges that have been damaged. Take the jobs you can, do them and turn them in on time. If you're going to be late, let the scheduler know. In other words, communicate.

I had been shopping full time for one month when I got a call that a cousin of mine had passed away. I had to cancel a week's worth of jobs to go to the funeral. It was rough and I thought I had really screwed myself before I had started this journey. The schedulers were understanding, and I've managed to achieve some success in this profession.

Note I did not read the entire 3 pages of this thread.

No, I have never in my life felt I was paid third world wages, even when for three years I worked in a Third World country.
Granted I had at that time a better than average pay even with the dollar exchange.

Now, mystery shopping, never! I get to choose what I want to do and face the challenges I am willing to take. I could earn as much if I am not very, very choosy with what I do. I would guess, an average person in a third world country would not have that option.

bmttinman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Everyone that says they are making $ 650 a month
> or more on 8 shopping days Please show me the
> check and I will show you mind for 30 days of
> visits to the 5 job boards and for 5 completed
> shops for December and I made $ 279

bmittinman - I've been reading this thread with the mindset to see both sides. I see your point, low wages, but I also agree with several who have posted the reasons for your low wages. I must also say that I have found it somewhat difficult to read your posts because of grammatical errors. In this forum there are many posts with spelling and grammatical errors but few that are as difficult to read as yours. And I will give you a point as I have a blind spot that causes me to miss letters in some words, so I had to read your posts carefully.

That being said, I have posted on this forum several times that I can not do more than three shops a day and usually need the following day to write reports. For 2014, my first year of shopping, I had 7 out of 12 months where I netted over $650 a month. The other months were lower due to being a new shopper and one month that I took off for personal travel. If I had the health to shop more, I would have netted more. I am a low-end shopper. I am able to get higher paying jobs because I try my best to live by the attributes that dspeakes mentioned early on.

I was terminated by an MSC because of an error, didn't matter who made it. What I did was beg for another chance, offering to take a hard to fill shop for next to nothing. Yes I begged because I wanted to work for that MSC. I now work for them and am about halfway back up the ladder to where I was before the error. There have been other errors, some mine and some the MSC's. I have found that when I approach the MSC in an innocent and positive tone, I have been granted a reprieve. Example - in a recent targeted shop, the "wrong" person was shopped. I had an electronic copy of the target assignment. I forwarded it to the MSC and said POLITELY "This is who I shopped. Did I do something wrong? Can you help me?" I gave the MSC an "out" rather than backing them in to a corner. As a result, I was told that I would be paid for the shop regardless of whether or not the company accepted it. If I had approached it differently, by telling the MSC that it was their fault and that I had proof that they owed me, I think the outcome would have been no pay.

I don't get paid third world wages for several reasons. 1) I like having extra spending money. I am fortunate that it is not a necessity for me. 2) My husband and I like to eat out and I like to pick up nice foo-foo for self, friends, and family. Getting it for free or at a low price is a bonus for me. 3) I shop for my health. Multiple sclerosis precipitates extreme fatigue and to fight that, I do volunteer work and I shop.

This third reason for shopping is "Priceless".