I have quit from shopping companies. I have been terminated for sexual harassment, giving food away, taking someone on a shop and just the hoops I had to jump thru to get paid was not worth the shop Th get a shop that pays above $ 7.00 dollars plus reimbursement is a fight in it self. I have found out to what till the final weeks of the shop is the best time to call and ask if they will give incentives. the more shops for the shop ( Chase Bank, Shell, Singular) that are ones that know one wants are the ones I try for. If I have to drive I use MapQuest to get the round trip milage and then figure how much I have to charge for each shop. Sometimes the will go for it without question Maritz, MarketForce or BestMart but other times the wile call you with a lower offer. Unless you have given them a real high figure do not come down.

You will find yourself doing less shops for more money at least equal to miminime wage

I think many would be interested to hear the details of the sexual harassment claim that you had also mentioned in you previous post.

How did that come about?

In answer to the question, absolutely not. First, I'm not being paid wages since I am not an employee and not forced to take any assignments. Second, I only take those assignments I judge to have a satisfactory work/pay ratio. It is up to me to be sure my income per hour is above minimum wage and mine is well above the minimum in the highest paying state.

I think I agree with Lisa. For the most part I deselect more shops than I select and I tend to be hesitant to try anything new. If I do try something new it is usually just one or two shops until I see if it will work in my system. Secondly, if it is a new company I will rarely do more then 1-2 assignments until I see how the assignment, scheduling, editing and final payment processes all work out. I might try a new company and not to another assignment for that company for 2-3 months until I get a comfort level with their ability and willingness to pay, based on their stated guidelines.

To answer your question, no, I do not. I make sure the shops I do are worth my time, effort, and energy. Otherwise, I don't take them. Maybe if the MSCs you are signed up with only have low paying shops most of the time, you could try signing up for more MSCs.

Third world wages, not at all! I make well over $100 after non-reimbursed expenses per day. Are there days when I want to kick it to the curb? You bet!

I'm still a rookie, so please take what I say with a grain of salt.

Yes, I have found shops that I'm not going to volunteer for again. That said.

I haven't found anything I've done since last March; not worthwhile. Overall it's been a huge learning experience. I thought I was observant when I was a travel agent in the '80's and '90's. The stuff I missed back then is amazing; when I fill out reports now. I didn't take prisoners back then and what I missed is an eye opening experience.

I love what I do for a living. I get to choose my bosses and the days I work. Do I wish I made more money, well of course I do.

I choose my paycheck every month.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/26/2014 10:52PM by MA Smith.

I only do far away shops if I am going to be fairly close to them on my regular job route. IE.. Within 10 to 20 miles, a lot of the times I find that I am going right by the place, so why not.

I can't believe all you people responded to the OP and overlooked the multiple ICA violations in his post.

And I know that some of you want to be all hugs and kisses all the time but the OP has admitted to not following the guidelines by giving food away (maybe without tasting it first) and bringing someone on the shop. And his grammar is awful.

And I never work for anything close to minimum wage.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/26/2014 11:10PM by Sybil2.

I find myself agreeing with the shops I "liked". Could not have said it better myself.

I am perfectly willing to let those who are absolutely desperate take the lower paying shops.

I hope they are grouping them together in routes that are low mileage between shops and that the reports are short. It does not matter how far away the shops are if the "stepping stones" between the shops make them "local".

Sybil2 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I can't believe all you people responded to the OP
> and overlooked the multiple ICA violations in his
> post.
>
> And I know that some of you want to be all hugs
> and kisses all the time but the OP has admitted to
> not following the guidelines by giving food away
> (maybe without tasting it first) and bringing
> someone on the shop. And his grammar is awful.
>
> And I never work for anything close to minimum
> wage.


I could be wrong, but since the OP didn't say, "This client is shopped by this MSC," or vice versa, there was no ICA violation. It looks to me like they just mentioned some clients and some MSCs without indicating any kind of correspondence between them. Again I could be wrong.

bmttinman, perhaps Mystery Shopping just isn't for you? I don't accept anything I don't find to my benefit. It is always up to me, and should be for you as well.

Third world rates? haha - you ....might want to look that up.

He announced he has quit mystery shopping.

I think that was a wise decision, since apparently he is incapable of reading and following directions and that is what we are being paid to do, otherwise he wouldn't have been dumped for bringing someone on a shop, which is always spelled out in the instructions.

He linked client and MSC in a signature line/resume' which has finally been removed.

Mystery shopping clearly isn't for everyone. Regardless of what that Market Force agent said in court, there is more involved than just "breathing."

The skill of reading is required.
The skill of writing a coherent sentence is required.
The skill of following directions correctly is required.
The skill of knowing when not to hit on the sales clerk is required (speculating here, since he has not explained the sexual harassment thing).
The skill of understanding who works for whom is required.

But he has said he is quitting mystery shopping. At least he has the skill of recognizing when something isn't working for him.

dspeakes, I love your tag line!

My guy Rio cannot figure out sleeping on my body is absolutely unacceptable. i could live with him, but I do own more than one 4 legged furry creatures and they all believe my body is the best electric blanket/pillow.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/27/2014 03:12AM by MA Smith.

When I first started mystery shopping I would take just about any shop I could get. Never mind minimum wage, I'm sure I often ending paying to do them when travel expenses were taken into consideration. I just consider those days as my apprenticeship and have no regrets.
These days I pick and choose my shops. It takes a special situation to get me to leave the house for less than $20 (over and above reimbursement).

If you're being paid third world wages, you're not doing it right.

I feel for the MSPs. Anyone can register. How are they to know what they are getting until they get a report? It's people like this that make it harder for everyone. Regardless, if I am doing a $10 shop or one that pays $500, I handle myself professionally and follow the guidelines presented.

You don't need a college degree to shop, but you need to have a grasp on how to write. Clearly, OP has neither. MSPs need all kinds of people to give a good representation of demographics. OP isn't going to be successful shopping unless he has a huge change in attitude.

The sexual harassment was brought on my Bed Bath and Beyond when I was able to work for <that MSC>. I worked for them for 4 months and had a good numbers and fair jobs. BB&B was one of the first shops I did. I am a White male and at the time 59 years old. I gave they girl helping my a bad report and at that time I had recorded video on my phone and had every thing recorded. I did not get with in 6 feet of her. The asked me to send a picture of myself three months later and asked if I wore a cowboy hat on the shop to which I respond yes. I was terminated a week later. I tried to fight it but that did as good as the post on being terminated from Market force that posted here.

Everyone is saying that it takes time to get more pay to which I say tell us how much you are getting for which shops and companies. I get phone calls to do shops from Market Force and Maritz to do shops all the time but I have to ask where and have to figure how much round trip milage it takes to pay for that shop at $.56 per mile or figure out if I can route it with other shops from other customers.
I am a construction worker and have been a mechanical contractor in the past and if it was not for spell check and grammar check I could not do any of these long winded narratives. I fell that I have to have $ 20 per shop plus milage to cover that 1/2 hour shop and two hours to do the report.

what other question do you have.



Mod note: Look, knock it off with naming the MSCs for clients, for crying out loud!

I say that bmttinman should pay a $5.00 fine for every post where he names the client and the MSC in the same thread/post. It is almost every single post with him. And the money goes to the moderators for making them do extra work.

Only $5.00? I think The Mod deserves, at the very least, minimum wage, $.56 per mile plus a huge bonus for all of the aggravation.

(heart)

But he is new to the forum so I was being nice.

Sybil2 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I say that bmttinman should pay a $5.00 fine for
> every post where he names the client and the MSC
> in the same thread/post. It is almost every
> single post with him. And the money goes to the
> moderators for making them do extra work.


I might be new, but I can learn. If I am not to mention the companies than why spend my time here. I am wanting to learn not to be QA.

You can mention a company, but you cannot say the names of their clients. You cannot link the name of the company and the client.

Most of the shops we do don't pay extra for mileage. The bigger part of them are done at base fee plus whatever is reimbursed. I have 205 shops scheduled for January and February and ALL of them are at base pay as listed and offered. I make that work by doing several each day in the same general area. I usually drive well over 100 miles a day, often over 150 miles per day, to shop those routes, but I make it work by doing a lot of shops while I am there.

The MSC is not responsible for where we live, or for what it costs us in gas and time to do their shop. It is up to the shopper to make it work. The MSC will pay no more than what is required to get the shop done, and the shop will be assigned at the lowest accepted amount.

If you require $20 plus mileage to do any shop, you will not get many opportunities. Consider taking a route of several base rate shops that are located in a general vicinity. Do multiple shops in one day to generate a day's income that will cover your expenses and leave you a profit.

Do not expect the MSC to be concerned with whether you are willing to do their shop for X dollars. Usually, someone else will pick it up. Rarely, they won't and it will be bonused. Most shops are done without a bonus, and if you wait for a mileage bonus on every shop you will not see much income. You may see a profit on a few individual bonused shops, but you will miss out on the income from a high volume of base rate shops.

Tinman, there are at least ten grammar or spelling errors in that longer post you just made.

Okay, lots of people's grammar is worse than yours, but few of them are mystery shoppers and every error you put in a report has to be corrected by an editor. Editors don't get paid extra for fixing your errors. So turning in poorly-written reports is not going to curry favor with the MSC's and after awhile they will despair of getting you to improve and simply drop you. And you may not really know they did it because they might leave you signed up -- just not give you any jobs.

How could you have evaluated a clerk without getting within 6 feet of her?

Your signature line used to list all the companies you work for and I think there were only about ten of them if I remember right. If you want to succeed as a shopper you need to sign up with at least 100.

An MSC is not going to pay a bonus to a shopper who does not do quality work. Many of us here can almost write our own check for some hard-to-fill jobs for some MSC's but we didn't get to that point by turning in poor reports, not following instructions, and copping an attitude when we don't get what we ask for. You have to earn those bonuses -- not by the job you are about to do but by the last ten jobs you did for that company.

I've been paid $150 in bonus to drive 200 miles round trip to do a cell phone shop -- three times -- by one company who knew if they gave me the job, it would get done and be done right. They are not going to offer that to someone who has not proven they can do quality work.

Many times I have driven as far without any bonus money, though, and made it work by doing ten shops at standard rates of $10-15, maybe with a $30 shop in there to help. If I could get $150 on a route, I'd do it -- even if I lost half of that to travel fees, because that $75 net profit went into my bank to help pay the bills. And I proved I could do the jobs and was reliable.

I have never flaked a job. My written narratives are readable and relatively error-free. I follow instructions. I have blown two shops out of 600 jobs -- one I shopped the wrong branch when two Chase banks were on the same corner (one was inside a grocery store, and I shopped the one in the parking lot by mistake), and another I got to the shop 30 minutes early because I was two hours ahead of schedule on a route and forgot that last shop had a time constraint.

Two shops out of 600.

I don't do a 200 mile route for $150 any more. I get my 40 cents a mile and $10 per hour for a route now, because I'm not doing $10 and $15 shops any more, I'm doing $30 and $40 shops now. I've been shopping for over two years. It didn't happen overnight.

Based on your self-reported difficulties fairly early in your shopping career, I'm inclined to think this really isn't for you. Some people can make a decent living mystery shopping full time, but none of us have gotten rich doing it. You're expecting too much too soon and have not earned your way to higher shops because you have blown too many of the lower shops.

If you have changed your mind about quitting shopping, here are some suggestions:

1. Read instructions. Every instruction. Everything you are told to do on a shop, you must do. Period.

2. Sign up with 100 companies. Start with Jobslinger and the Presto app. It will show you shops in your area. If you focused on shopping near your home from lots of companies, you wouldn't have to ask for bonuses to shop outside your area.

3. Practice your trade close to home. That way if you mess up and the shop is rejected, you're only out a little gas and time, not a lot of it. Bonuses are only paid if the shop is accepted. After you have proven you are a pro at certain shops, and reliable, you might be able to get a decent travel bonus to do that kind of shop somewhere outside your area.

4. Be humble, not belligerent, when an MSC tells you that you made a mistake. instead of complaining about not being paid and dumping that MSC, ask what you did wrong and come here to find out how to avoid making that same mistake again.

5. Running spell check isn't going to save you from words that are spelled correctly but aren't the right word. Typing "The" instead of "They" will not be flagged by a spell checker. Read your narratives to yourself, out loud, after you have written them. It might help you "hear" what you wrote wrong.

6. Try to focus on shops that don't require much narrative.

7. Forget about 56 cents a mile. Figure out what it costs *you* to operate *your* vehicle. All that 56 cents a mile does is allow people to write off their mileage without having to prove their expenses. In many, many cases (low mpg vehicles) 56 cents a mile doesn't even cover it. But for most economy cars, their actual per-mile cost is far less than that.

8. If you don't have an economy car, it likely won't pay for you to drive very far to a mystery shop. I don't drive my 15 mpg truck on shops; I drive my 40 mpg hybrid, and the car I shopped with for the first year and a half got 30 mpg.

Anyway, I hope this will help you, if you decide to give it another shot, and if you decide to quit like you said you were, I wish you well in some other pursuit.

What a great post dspeakes!

Now what have I learned? For some reason you think I will quit shopping. I should go to job board of a hundred companies when I can on use 5 that work my area with in 400 miles. Shop jobs as to what it I think I should be paid. ( the whole comment I started with)
and the rest of the lesson is what I try to do on every shop. Try not to give the associate you shop a bad review for this is why I got the sexual harassment charge and terminated

I can see that everyone thinks they are always right even me.

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

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/29/2014 11:49PM by bmttinman.

You received some solid advice. Just like any brand new business it doesn't happen overnight. You say only a few companies have work in your area? Does that include those you voluntary stopped shopping for because you didn't like it when they expected assignments done correctly and according to their guidelines? If you want to make it in this business that kind of behavior is just cutting off your nose to spite your face. Rarely will you find a company unfamiliar with your work and reputation to be willing to pay high fees to have you perform their shops. You have to build a reputation as someone who gets the job done AND does it correctly. I worked nine days this month and made a little more than $650. Even if you were my best friend I would not show you "the check"." As I do most months, my assignments came from eight different companies paying primarily by direct deposit and PayPal. Only one sent a check. And BTW, $279 for only five shops works out to over $50 per shop. Many new shoppers would kill to have a per shop average that high. For that matter a lot of established shoppers would as well.

bmttinman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have quit from shopping companies. I have been
> terminated for sexual harassment, giving food
> away, taking someone on a shop and just the hoops
> I had to jump thru to get paid was not worth the
> shop.

bmttinman, YOU are the one who stated that YOU have quit mystery shopping. If that is not what you meant, that is a perfect example why you need to work on your writing skills.

Yes I have quit companies I can not get the job done for I don't have the A in English as you. Again you say you did $ 650. My zip code is 81323. Now what part of the country do you live in? Go to MSA and show me the 100 companies working my area. With your zip code I will, then those high paying companies you say you shop I well then see. I have never been afraid of showing anyone by books for they say they are making money than provided proof. How about one shop statement that shows payment.

Ya right! Like I am going to show you, a made up name on a public forum, anything related to how much money I make. And you must have me confused with someone else because I never said that I only make $650. And why on Earth would I waste my valuable time researching your zip code for available jobs in your area? Keep posting. You are digging a deeper hole.

Instead of disagreeing with everyone, you should really take some of their advice. Maybe you will learn something that could help you make more money.

You posted the amount. Give me your zip code and I will research your area to see if there are one hundred companies working you area.