This MSC changes the fees for their shops about as often as i change unspeakables. I can not get a handle on when things are going to be bonused enough to even think about doing one of their shops. One day it's $17, the next $28, the next $23, and the next email will claim a huge bonus and offer a whopping $20 which is less than two of their other previous offers??!! I think these pricing games are a huge turn-off for me personally and I stay away from them. I don't mind doing the shops themselves, the reports are long, but the fees just aren't reasonable for the effort put into the project. Get to $40 plus and we'll talk...

Just out of curiosity, I took the test (easy; less than 5 minutes invested). But not one of these shops is showing on my job board, even though the e-mail gave about 20 locations within driving distance.

@ceasesmith wrote:

Just out of curiosity, I took the test (easy; less than 5 minutes invested). But not one of these shops is showing on my job board, even though the e-mail gave about 20 locations within driving distance.

Are you able to click on the link for your state from the email and request the assignment from there? I didn't see it listed on Jobslinger, either. I wonder if they're waiting to see who takes the test...

Quite right. I immediately got a window that said I wasn't qualified. Too bad they can't tell you that BEFORE you print out everything and take the da..... test! If I wasn't snowed in, or had anything better to do, I'd be ticked off! Good luck, intelli-shop, finding oodles of shoppers all earning in excess of $70,000! Why not just send the e-mail to shoppers who qualify? Egad. Not that I would touch one at $20.

@ceasesmith wrote:

Quite right. I immediately got a window that said I wasn't qualified. Too bad they can't tell you that BEFORE you print out everything and take the da..... test! If I wasn't snowed in, or had anything better to do, I'd be ticked off! Good luck, intelli-shop, finding oodles of shoppers all earning in excess of $70,000! Why not just send the e-mail to shoppers who qualify? Egad. Not that I would touch one at $20.

Because the extended profile in SASSIE doesn't seem to have any way of being used to target shoppers via email. If it did, maybe I wouldn't get 37 emails a day asking me call funeral homes speaking Spanish?

Our household income is more than twice that and I'd consider them.
I'm retired and MS is fun money for me. I've made a few extra payment on a couple of credit cards and I enjoy getting out and interacting with other people. If I spend 2 hours on a shop and get $20, then that's $20 more than sitting at home wasting time on FaceBook or buying crap I don't need on EBay. There are plenty near me and I could get an easy $200 over a few days.

@dkpskipper wrote:

Our household income is more than twice that and I'd consider them.
I'm retired and MS is fun money for me. I've made a few extra payment on a couple of credit cards and I enjoy getting out and interacting with other people. If I spend 2 hours on a shop and get $20, then that's $20 more than sitting at home wasting time on FaceBook or buying crap I don't need on EBay. There are plenty near me and I could get an easy $200 over a few days.

We'd love to hear what you think of the shop if you pick up one or two. Happy shopping!

Well, I will say I spent MAYBE 10 minutes prepping for the test, printing off the 5-page guide, and taking the test. So it's pretty easy prep. You must also (supposedly; I didn't get that far) print off in COLOR the photo guide; I'm not sure how long it is. If the report is truly narrative free (LOL!!), it might be some easy money for you if you actually have 10 that are conveniently close. I'd rather do a gas station audit, with 20 minutes on-site and 90 photos and take an hour downloading photos and make $50, thanks. If you do these, please let us know how it goes!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/2015 02:09AM by ceasesmith.

@ceasesmith wrote:

Quite right. I immediately got a window that said I wasn't qualified. Too bad they can't tell you that BEFORE you print out everything and take the da..... test! If I wasn't snowed in, or had anything better to do, I'd be ticked off! Good luck, intelli-shop, finding oodles of shoppers all earning in excess of $70,000! Why not just send the e-mail to shoppers who qualify? Egad. Not that I would touch one at $20.

Did you say snowed in? Good Lord, I'm in the midwest and it was 62 where I was today.

Been over 24 hours; Number of Scheduled Shops in:
New York: 0
Mass: 0
PA: 0
NJ: 0
Maryland: 0
North Carolina: 0
Florida: 3
Cali: over 20... guess that's where the money is.

It's a shame as I like the chain in question quite a bit.

@chigirl777 wrote:

@ceasesmith wrote:

Quite right. I immediately got a window that said I wasn't qualified. Too bad they can't tell you that BEFORE you print out everything and take the da..... test! If I wasn't snowed in, or had anything better to do, I'd be ticked off! Good luck, intelli-shop, finding oodles of shoppers all earning in excess of $70,000! Why not just send the e-mail to shoppers who qualify? Egad. Not that I would touch one at $20.

Did you say snowed in? Good Lord, I'm in the midwest and it was 62 where I was today.

Are you kidding? They even closed I-80 for several HUNDRED miles.



Yep, snowed in.

Been e-mailing schedulers all day, postponing, cancelling shops.

Holy cow, cease! Isn't it a bit early in the season to be snowed in???

Good grief, no! We've gotten snow here in September...and as late as May!!!!

I sent an email to the scheduler, asking if the client requested the high income amount for a requirement. He said that may be amended in the future but for not, it was a qualification. I did tell him the $20 was very low too, but I did not get a comment about that. There is a hotel 10 minutes from me, it really is a shame they expect someone to work for less than minimum wage, and inspectors should be getting higher than minimum wage anyhow.

I did apply for this and got it. I'm burned out on narratives and really enjoy the picture audits. I did one yesterday at a dealership and it was a piece of cake. I should have waited for a bonus, but my fingers just got away from me. I sometimes find myself with a full calendar without realizing how. I'll let you know how it goes.

Our household income is more than $70,000, and there's no way I'd take this shop! But I would take a Five Guys' shop, I do Chipotle shops, and used to do the wings' shops. The shop fees/reimbursements help defray the costs of meals we'd eat anyway, so it's a good economic decision, regardless of income.

But to spend that much time and effort (taking the photos, plus everything else) for just the fee? No thanks. I just did a $20 shop that should have taken 1 1/2 hours, tops. The shop took 20 minutes; the report, hours (because it was so screwed up). Nope. Not doing that again.

I'm in this income bracket and I can confirm that's way too much work for twenty dollars. LOL.

I just started this week and have no history or credibility anywhere yet, but I have already done several shops that give you a higher rate of return than that. My fave this week have been cell phone shops where I just have to stop at a place that's already on my way home, walk in, get the guy to tell me his three favorite smartphones and chat about it for possibly 5-10 minutes, walk out, do my report in the car (these were on iSecretShop and I used their app) and drive home. I made $9 each for these and they took less than a half hour. I also got paid $6 today for looking up checks online which took about 5 minutes and I didn't even have to get up from my desk.

@breestjon wrote:

I cannot believe the income requirement or the $20 payment. Uploading the photos, and filling in the report would probably take a couple hours, you would be lucky to make $4-5 an hour.

Didn't the OP say that there is no narrative and about 45 photos required? Why would uploading photos with no real report take a couple of hours? Are you using dial-up or something? I shoot and upload hundreds of photos several times a week. It takes me about 10-15 minutes because they are very large files.

@Sybil2 wrote:

@breestjon wrote:

I cannot believe the income requirement or the $20 payment. Uploading the photos, and filling in the report would probably take a couple hours, you would be lucky to make $4-5 an hour.

Didn't the OP say that there is no narrative and about 45 photos required? Why would uploading photos with no real report take a couple of hours? Are you using dial-up or something? I shoot and upload hundreds of photos several times a week. It takes me about 10-15 minutes because they are very large files.

I know your very opinionated, yet I disagree with you on this one.

I used to live on the road for five years nonstop and flew home one weekend a month. I have spent two weeks at a time living at a Comfort Inn in my past job on full expense report when that was the best available property in the area and I could stay at Residence Inn or better if it existed, but I worked out in the country areas at times.

They are a middle of the road property and the auditor will spend a considerable amount of time with the front desk and the LOA, then getting a key card programmed to access the areas they need to see will probably take the front desk calling the manager/owner and waiting another 20 minutes if all goes well. Now add in walking around the property time, and you are working for $1 an hour after you upload those photos and take all the other time issues into account. If you count mileage, this is a negative shop as they place them next to the highway and not center of town.

This MSC is a joke based on this offering, and I have never taken a single job from them. This should be a $75+ job.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/13/2015 01:00PM by scanman1.

I'm actually doing these audits in my area! I'm doing my fifth one today and I have 5 more for next week. However they pay from 70$ to 110$! And I did not notice anything about minimum income! They do take about 2 hours. The first one I did took 3.5 hours! I also did one that took 1.5 hour but that's because the dealership was incredibly organised and had all the documents I needed ready for me. I'm loving these audits and I'm more than happy with the pay. I would never do them for 20$ though! Even though the reports are a breeze considering there is no narrative! I wish I could do this for months if not years!

@scanman1 wrote:

I know your very opinionated, yet I disagree with you on this one.

I used to live on the road for five years nonstop and flew home one weekend a month. I have spent two weeks at a time living at a Comfort Inn in my past job on full expense report when that was the best available property in the area and I could stay at Residence Inn or better if it existed, but I worked out in the country areas at times.

Yet I disagree with you. You need to read my post more carefully. I was not addressing the OP. I was addressing another poster quoted) who made a comment about the photos taking a couple of hours to upload even though apparently there is no written report with this shop. I was NOT talking about performing the shop. I am not sure what you living on the road for five years has anything to do with my post of photos taking minutes, not hours to upload.

@Sybil2 wrote:

@scanman1 wrote:

I know your very opinionated, yet I disagree with you on this one.

I used to live on the road for five years nonstop and flew home one weekend a month. I have spent two weeks at a time living at a Comfort Inn in my past job on full expense report when that was the best available property in the area and I could stay at Residence Inn or better if it existed, but I worked out in the country areas at times.

Yet I disagree with you. You need to read my post more carefully. I was not addressing the OP. I was addressing another poster quoted) who made a comment about the photos taking a couple of hours to upload even though apparently there is no written report with this shop. I was NOT talking about performing the shop. I am not sure what you living on the road for five years has anything to do with my post of photos taking minutes, not hours to upload.

You are quite good at the art of non-sequitur. And @scanman1 was being quite diplomatic with his description of you being "opinionated". You do come across as combative in your posts, seem to like to focus on one little detail of the bigger picture and then pontificate about it.

Scanman1 was addressing the total value of the shop. He was pointing out that in addition to the time it would take the poster (in this case breestjon) to upload the photos, the poster needed to also consider the length of time it would take to accomplish the on-site visit. I also found it valuable that he was sharing his personal experience with this chain and it's staff as they will be an integral part of accomplishing this assignment efficiently. He was expanding on the poster's concerns and looking at the job from all angles - not just one small aspect of it.

I can appreciate that you are able to shoot and upload hundreds of photos every week. However, your comment about the poster using dial up is not only unnecessary and unhelpful, it's snarky. If you truly wanted to be helpful or informative you could have asked why it took him so long to upload photos. Or you could have shared the method you use to upload photos so quickly. And yet you did neither of these. Your post added no value to this thread at all.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/13/2015 03:12PM by KimRod.

Before criticizing the assumed true client of this assignment, I want to say this to me seems like a competitor doing this to get info about CI. Why would corporate not want you to stay overnight? Why would they only care about this brand when they have other flags under their umbrella.

They only want photos of guest amenities. This is a competitor's shop.

I envy anyone who can upload "hundreds" of photos a week, LOOK at them, choose the best ONE of multiple shots for EACH answer, and somehow get them to upload to the report without staring at that darned little icon while it spins round and round....my PC is less than 2 years old, I use a digital camera, take 3 photos of every required item, and look at each photo carefully before I use it in the report. And I have hi-speed internet.

I do not think I've ever spent less than an hour on a report where I have to include photos (the exception would be the FF that requires 1 photo, entree only; even the stupid pizza with now 3 photos takes an hour); most seem to take about 2 hours.

The closest audit to me is an hour away. So I'm looking at 2 hours drive time ($9 just in gas), 2 hours on-site
(and probably more for the first audit), and, if it's true there's no narrative, a mere hour on the report.

Which is probably why I did just 10 shops for one MSC last month, at an average per of a little over $75. I've only been doing this about 6 years, so I guess I have a lot to learn in order to zip right through these things like you professionals do.

I wouldn't touch these at $20. I wouldn't do one if it was right next to the FF shop I'm doing for $50. Last hotel audit I did, I was paid $115, and felt I earned every penny. I was on-site about 2 hours, took 90+ photos, and spent roughly 2.5 hours on the report.

@ceasesmith wrote:

I envy anyone who can upload "hundreds" of photos a week, LOOK at them, choose the best ONE of multiple shots for EACH answer, and somehow get them to upload to the report without staring at that darned little icon while it spins round and round....my PC is less than 2 years old, I use a digital camera, take 3 photos of every required item, and look at each photo carefully before I use it in the report. And I have hi-speed internet.

I agree. I always take multiple shots, just in case. The time consumption is not just on the uploading, but choosing the right photo for the right line item in the report. I have high speed Internet, too, and just spent two hours on a report the other day where I took 160 photos, but probably only used half as many for the report. On shorter inspections, it only takes a few minutes to upload the necessary photos. But, all of that time should be considered when looking at the cost of doing business.

I thought about doing one of these, but I realize the "Professional Photographer" in me would not be satisfied with the pictures. I would end up shooting HDR {High Dynamic Range] photos inside the rooms so that the exposure of the room, and the view outside the windows, would be balanced. Just OCD on my part but it makes the job not worth it at $20.

I saw that and laughed. I'll jump right on that one after I sign up for the $15 compare shop at two different auto dealerships. Are they out of their minds???!!!

Probably.

I applied for the shop but was denied because my income level in my profile didnt match. So I immediately changed my profile and in a few days was accepted for the shop. I do not think it will be that many photos, honestly. And I think they require the income level because anybody who makes less than 70K a year might steal the towels. No shopper makes that much money, pretty ridiculous guidelines. I will let the forum know how it goes.

Interesting about multiple photos of the same thing. I'm a one and done kind of person who utilizes the preview screen on my phone. As long as it is clear I move on. Uploading can take more or less time depending on the platform. For photo audits on Sassie my experience is they always require one photo at a time. So while uploading them to my computer takes no time since they automatically sync, uploading dozens can take way longer than it should.