I am a huge fan of self-assigned shops. So for my area, Marketforce and Statopex are the two best MSC’s.
Marketforce allows you to pick up as many shops as you can with a cap of 3-5 per shop type. Furthermore, you have two chances of re-scheduling by yourself.
Statopex allows you to self-assign up to 10 shops of any type at any given time. They don’t have an auto re-scheduling tool but the scheduler are quite lenient if you need more time to complete a shop.
Self-assign shops allow you to plan shop trips accordingly. Whether it’s a quick trip to burger shop for work lunch or multiple shops in the same area, mystery shopping just becomes much easier.
Then there are those MSC’s that requires you to apply and wait for their response, which I don’t quite understand. Those MSC’s often put shops out in advance. It will take ages for them to process, leaving you with very limited time to complete shops. What’s worse is when they will remove the shops from your “apply” status, making you think that the shop has been assigned to someone else, only to assign it to you last minute. They have no regards on your personal life whatsoever as if we just sit home and wait for their mystery shops to be assigned. And it would look bad on us shoppers when we have no choice but to decline those last minute shops due to time conflicts.
Some companies really need to re-evaluate their shops assigning process in order to improve their month to month shop completion rate.

Why would you wait until the a shop has been assigned at the last minute then cancel? If it get to be too late for you to comfortably add a shop to your schedule, cancel the application. My personal life is not their responsibility nor their business. I get self-assign companies can be easier to deal with. They also tend to pay a lot less.

@civic82 wrote:

They have no regards on your personal life whatsoever as if we just sit home and wait for their mystery shops to be assigned. And it would look bad on us shoppers when we have no choice but to decline those last minute shops due to time conflicts.
Some companies really need to re-evaluate their shops assigning process in order to improve their month to month shop completion rate.

While I agree with the sentiment of your post, when I deal with these "apply" companies, I have a timeframe in mind of when they need to let me know by, or I delete the application. You are free to do that with most if not all of the companies that you cannot self assign with. I don't send any messages or emails to the scheduler to let them know what my deadline is for them to accept; it's simply my personal business policy as an IC. It is on you to factor in your personal life. "Delete application" is something you should never be afraid to use. I find myself using it often for a well known banking MSC, but such is life.

I did not wait for last minute to apply. It's already at last minute or deadline approaching when it's assigned to me.

To tcurione: trust me. I do the cancels too. It's when they remove those shops off of my apply box for a few days only to assign them to me after. By then, I either have a tight deadline to get on or no choice but to have it cancelled.

I have never even once self-assigned a shop. I don't allow companies to "automatically" assign me, either.

I also have never (to my recollection) done a shop at base rate; generally, you don't get bonuses (at least, you can't ask for a bonus) if you self-assign.

Since I won't drive around the block, park my car, get out and walk into a business for $10, I just don't self assign.

You probably wouldn't, either, if the closest shop to you was 45 miles away.

I get part of the OP's post. It is frustrating when you definitely have cancelled your application and it's no longer in your app list and lo and behold, the shop is assigned to you after a long period of wait. I have never cancelled when it happened before and had lived with the inconvenience but next time, I will tell them that I had cancelled my application according to my records. Why was it suddenly assigned to me when my situation had changed? This concerns the MSCs who post job availability months in advance.

I read it as the OP was not actually canceling the application, the app was just pulled from their list. Personally, I've never experienced a big lag between the assignment being removed from my app list and added to my assigned shops. I would love to know which MSCs and if they are using previous applications as some sort of back up.

I don;t understand. There are companies which regularly allow me to self-assign shops. Some of them pay up to $50 each. If you refuse to self-assign shops, then IMHO, you are eliminating many MSCs and many well-paying shops. I prefer shops which I can self-assign. I click on the button, and it is mine. What is wrong with that? Better than waiting and "maybe" being assigned to the shop. Why do you refuse to self-assign shops which otherwise (timing and payment) meet your requirements?

@ceasesmith wrote:

I have never even once self-assigned a shop. I don't allow companies to "automatically" assign me, either.

I also have never (to my recollection) done a shop at base rate; generally, you don't get bonuses (at least, you can't ask for a bonus) if you self-assign.

Since I won't drive around the block, park my car, get out and walk into a business for $10, I just don't self assign.

You probably wouldn't, either, if the closest shop to you was 45 miles away.

I would guess because otherwise timing and payment doesn't meet their requirements?
I'm much the same. Can't remember the last time I grabbed a shop at base rate off a board.

I just took a shop at what I think is base rate. It is a new to me shop/new client to MSC. I had a 2-hour break in my schedule. My afternoon gig can not start until after 2 PM and my morning job will already be completed. So instead of sitting in my car for two hours, I snagged a lunch shop. I rarely take time to eat lunch so it will be a nice break for me. Hopefully they will have free wi-fi.

Sometimes shop boards list a bonus and then you can self-assign. Maritz is one company for whom I recently completed a self-assign bonused shop.

I am confused. Once an application is removed (by the MSC) from a shoppers applied for cart, how can the MSC assign it a few days later?

I have personally have never had that happen. That doesn't mean it can't happen, but I also can't understand how it could happen.

@isaiah58 wrote:

I am confused. Once an application is removed (by the MSC) from a shoppers applied for cart, how can the MSC assign it a few days later?

@myst4au wrote:

I don;t understand. There are companies which regularly allow me to self-assign shops. Some of them pay up to $50 each. If you refuse to self-assign shops, then IMHO, you are eliminating many MSCs and many well-paying shops. I prefer shops which I can self-assign. I click on the button, and it is mine. What is wrong with that? Better than waiting and "maybe" being assigned to the shop. Why do you refuse to self-assign shops which otherwise (timing and payment) meet your requirements?

@ceasesmith wrote:

I have never even once self-assigned a shop. I don't allow companies to "automatically" assign me, either.

I also have never (to my recollection) done a shop at base rate; generally, you don't get bonuses (at least, you can't ask for a bonus) if you self-assign.

Since I won't drive around the block, park my car, get out and walk into a business for $10, I just don't self assign.

You probably wouldn't, either, if the closest shop to you was 45 miles away.

The nearest shops are 45 miles away. The average is 100 miles (or more). I have never found even one shop I was willing to travel 200 miles round trip for base rate.

Therefore, no self-assign shops meet my requirements.

Even the Maritz shops, which get up to $37.50 on "self-assign" -- would you drive 90 miles to complete a shop for $37.50?

My criteria is this: there's not enough hours in the week for me to make a living if I don't get paid for drive time.
There's not enough working hours in the week to make a living no matter how many hours I work if I'm earning the equivalent of something less than minimum wage.

Fortunately, I do live in an area where shoppers are VERY scarce; most companies are pleased to bonus my shop, just to get them done.

No, but I would drive 90 miles for $48.60 (mileage rate) plus another $30 (1.5 hours @ $20/hour), so when a Maritz gas station showed up for $100 and was self-assign during the last week of December, you can bet your sweet bippy that I self-assigned it.

I am more than happy to do jobs for Maritz. They only call me when they are in a crunch and willing to pay what I reasonably ask. When they call me and ask me to work for the starting pay I laugh at them. They only call me when they are seriously needing the job done now. Even then, they didn't make it worth my while the first time around and I needed to wait another week and stand my ground to get a paycheck worth the effort.

I did give them a very good quality job for the payment and I'd like to do more work for them, but to see a bank shop job for $9 makes me LOL!

I do not frequent more than a couple of Job Boards (Just those that have hotel shops) , but often go there in response to emails alerting me to large bonuses. I am wrapping up a $150 shop that started out at $50, was later emailed to lots of shoppers with a smaller bonus. In fact, it is a shop that I might have taken at $50 on a slow day but would have eagerly snapped up almost any day at $75. Great MSC and not a burdensome report.

However, now my new favorite MSC is allowing a few shoppers to self-assign which is ideal for how shoppers like to do those particular shops. It means that we get first crack at forming well designed, profitable routes of their fairly compensated shops, which can make a huge difference in a shopper's daily total of fees.

So, it looks to me like a strong preference just "for or against" self-assignment may be missing the mark. Looks more like, "It depends," would be my position.

@ceasesmith

Your situation is a good example of why each of us should reserve our opinion at times without knowing all of the facts. I am fortunate to live in a well populated area. The flip side is there are opportunities 20 to 30 miles from me that would take an hour to drive too. Many of those potentiality would include additional parking costs. We see posts here from those in areas where they pay tolls to get too shops within a 30 mile radius.

From my perspective, it costs me less in time and gas consumption to head 25-45 miles north than 15-25 miles south. North is mostly a straight shot, locations not far off the interstate. South typically means traffic congestion, combined with lower speed local roads and plenty of traffic lights, locations well off the highway.

Fortunately, I have a decent base of opportunities near my home and job as well as along my commute. Not enough though to earn part time job income, more like supplemental income.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/2016 01:40PM by isaiah58.

@isaiah58 wrote:

I am confused. Once an application is removed (by the MSC) from a shoppers applied for cart, how can the MSC assign it a few days later?

It happened to me. I cancelled my apps and they appeared again when they were due. Twice I had to reschedule something because of that. But I won't next time. I also wondered how...

You would like to think that they have assigned it to someone else once your shop application is no longer in the apply status. It happened to me a few times that the shop came to me a day or two after it is off my apply box. Furthermore, that shop in question is approaching the due date by the time it is assigned to me. The MSC would send me a warning email that I should have it completed ASAP. I had to respond back and ask for a due date extension. In their defense, they said that the warning email is done automatically. They have also extended my due date but everything could have been avoided with a little bit of due diligence or have their shops setup as self-assign.

@isaiah58 wrote:

I am confused. Once an application is removed (by the MSC) from a shoppers applied for cart, how can the MSC assign it a few days later?

I have a company that I self-assign. The shop pay is better than most shops pay for the same service. I like to self-schedule on my route type shops. When another shop comes in I can change the date on the self-assign to match up to the shops I can't self-assign. Works well for me!

I would like to add something to the discussion. Last week, a scheduler assigned me a shop with a very nice bonus, in a town I was going to. However, on the scheduled day, we had high winds (60 mph+) and pouring rain. I e-mailed him it was impossible. He cancelled the shop. He e-mailed me, and his disappointment was
very apparent. He asked me if I could do the shop on Saturday, Sunday, or Monday, to meet the deadline.
All the other shops on my route were already cancelled; no way could I afford 180 mile round trip for a $22
bonus! So I regretfully told him it just wasn't possible: I had to cancel the route, weather stank, etc.

Woke up Tuesday to a perfect day -- no wind, no rain. I felt so bad about disappointing this scheduler! I checked the job board, and there the shop was -- no bonus, base rate. I called some other schedulers, picked up an additional shop, and off I went. I self-assigned this shop, at base rate (two things I NEVER do -- take a shop at base rate, and self-assign!). After I got home and completed the report, I sent him an e-mail that at least he wouldn't have to worry about the March rotation, as I had self-assigned and completed the shop. I told him that where I live, if you get a clear day in March, you use it -- because you might very well be snowed in the
next day!

I still hardly believe what happened. He issued me a hero citation (to cancel the first "flake" on the initial shop), then issued ANOTHER hero citation to put my record right. He then went in and added the bonus back to the shop I had self-assigned at base rate! Without my asking for it! The report went in with a 10, the shop actually was easy (10 minutes or so), the report was easy (less than 20 minutes, for sure), I'm on his "go to" list of
shoppers -- and he is DEFINITELY on my list of schedulers that I will bend over backwards for! Frankly, it's so
rare as "self employed independent contractors" that we receive any indication at all that our work is
appreciated that, yes, I will bend over backwards to help this scheduler out next time he needs it!