How are car inquiry phone shops and the homeschool education shops?

How are the $5 inquiry shops on cars? (also anyone done the inquiries on homeschool online shops for $10? I applied to a couple but no word back yet... )

The car shops...I signed up for 2 of them-- having a bit of a slow month in my area and trying to suck it up for some phone shops as I 1) need the cash, and 2) had hours reduced at my regular 9-5 due to new policies on full time vs part time. Ugh. Anyway, how are these shops? I'm going to try 2 of them out this week before Wednesday.

MegglesKat

Create an Account or Log In

Membership is free. Simply choose your username, type in your email address, and choose a password. You immediately get full access to the forum.

More About Phone Shops

The home school shops take at least 30 minutes on the phone, sometimes more, in order for the information to be given in a reasonable manner. Then time to write it up. I used to do them, but I simply got tired of doing them. I would encourage you to give it a try, but be sure that you have your facts straight (name and age of child, current school district, age, "problem", etc.)

I have stayed away from the $5 car inquiry shops if they are the ones which require you to call back as many as 5 times until you reach the right person (they are not targeted). I'd be curious also about the experiences which other have had with this one.

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

The homeschool shop was 45 minutes on the phone. The write up was detailed, but straight forward. Just remember to takes notes while you're on the phone so you know where to find references/phrases if you need to go back through the recording.

I am doing the car phone calls now, I can't say who it is for but they are the MSC that also does the $10 home schooling. I was actually searching to see if anyone else was doing the car phone calls because the guidelines are confusing. I did get voice mail today on a couple of calls. Then you have to call back the next day. I would say it depends on the car company. I think American companies have better service departments and are the easiest to do. I did some Toyota phone calls about 7 months ago and the service employees were not very bright. After the few calls I made today, the cars with an "I" in the beginning are made by Nissan, and the Nissan shops I have done took forever to get paid. Sometimes it is a poorly designed shop, and the guidelines are not well though out.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2016 12:04AM by breestjon.

@breestjon wrote:

I am doing the car phone calls now, I can't say who it is for but they are the MSC that also does the $10 home schooling. I was actually searching to see if anyone else was doing the car phone calls because the guidelines are confusing. I did get voice mail today on a couple of calls. Then you have to call back the next day. I would say it depends on the car company. I think American companies have better service departments and are the easiest to do. I did some Toyota phone calls about 7 months ago and the service employees were not very bright. After the few calls I made today, the cars with an "I" in the beginning are made by Nissan, and the Nissan shops I have done took forever to get paid. Sometimes it is a poorly designed shop, and the guidelines are not well though out.

I snagged 2 of them up, due on the 21st? Guess I'll start trying to call tomorrow and hope to get through. I'll even try a homeschool one. Any other advice folks?

Problem-- would this include broken leg (s) or something like that? I would like to get a little info. There seems to be tons available.

MegglesKat

A typical "school" problem is falling behind, or not interested in school, or something like that. A broken leg would generally just trigger some special accommodation by the school district ranging from an aide at school to home tutors.

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

I love the car shop calls! I've done a bunch of them for different MSCs... I've called to get pricing, seeing whats in stock, scheduling service, etc... What kind of questions do you have?

As for the homeschool - 10 foot poll. I was on the phone for 33 minutes and THEN had to do the detailed report... all for $9? I could have done 3-4 $5 car shops in that time. Won't do any more of those.

@clinen11

The first shop was confusing but now I understand. You have to see what is the earliest appointment time and the latest appointment time. You have to ask the person in the service department plus look online. I forgot to ask for the earliest appointment time, but luckily the employee told me they had a quick service and that it opened at 8:00 am. You have to ask for a day you want to bring your car in and see what they say. Unlike some service shops where you have to wait for them to ask you what day you want the service. You have to get the employees first and last name. I am really hoping these shops do not lower my shopper rating because I have already gotten three voice mails out of four calls. Then the shops have to be rescheduled. I really do not like contacting the scheduler 3-4 times a day. Plus, the guidelines say the shop deadline is 12 hours, however you have to wait 24hrs to call and cancel the service before you can submit the report. I am not sure how much you can say on the forum. I hope that helps. I think if you have the time to make the call backs and the shops get approved they will be easy.

@clinen11 wrote:

How are the $5 inquiry shops on cars? (also anyone done the inquiries on homeschool online shops for $10? I applied to a couple but no word back yet... )

The car shops...I signed up for 2 of them-- having a bit of a slow month in my area and trying to suck it up for some phone shops as I 1) need the cash, and 2) had hours reduced at my regular 9-5 due to new policies on full time vs part time. Ugh. Anyway, how are these shops? I'm going to try 2 of them out this week before Wednesday.

I've done a few of the homeschool online shops. On the last one, the registering data base had my records, so at least for now, I avoid them. It was difficult to wiggle out of a hard spot during the last one.

They keep records, but basically the employees were more educated, and the work was pleasant.

Well, I liked the scheduler for the shops, and decided to do them for the phone shop experience. I learned a lot about home schooling. The shops went well, and I improved my lying...er...acting abilities, but they did take time, detail, and the pay wasn't memorable.

Edited for grammatical corrections, and it isn't 10 PM here. Who knows the correct way to write AM or PM, or a.m. or p.m. ? Is there a space between the number and abbreviation or not?

Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2016 10:41PM by Robin2.

Are these K-12 shops? That's not homeschool; it's public school at home. Legal difference.

Now scheduling travel shops for the day after Christmas through mid-January.

It depends on the state. In PA, they are considered cyber charter schools. Recently, the MSC has opened the shops to other states, and in many other states, they are not considered charter schools, but are instead home schooling and the parents are responsible for paying for them.

@PasswordNotFound wrote:

Are these K-12 shops? That's not homeschool; it's public school at home. Legal difference.

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

@Jtack wrote:

I love the car shop calls! I've done a bunch of them for different MSCs... I've called to get pricing, seeing whats in stock, scheduling service, etc... What kind of questions do you have?

As for the homeschool - 10 foot poll. I was on the phone for 33 minutes and THEN had to do the detailed report... all for $9? I could have done 3-4 $5 car shops in that time. Won't do any more of those.

I snagged up 2 of them and did them today! They were great actually. Took me about 7-10 minutes each. The associates were all very friendly. I live in the rural southeast, so that helps. I even found reporting to go okay, I hope! The recorded calls help me out so much too, especially when they talked fast about things on the lot.

Thanks ladies and gents for the heads up and tips and the warning on school shops. I avoided those.

MegglesKat

@Robin2 wrote:

@clinen11 wrote:

How are the $5 inquiry shops on cars? (also anyone done the inquiries on homeschool online shops for $10? I applied to a couple but no word back yet... )

The car shops...I signed up for 2 of them-- having a bit of a slow month in my area and trying to suck it up for some phone shops as I 1) need the cash, and 2) had hours reduced at my regular 9-5 due to new policies on full time vs part time. Ugh. Anyway, how are these shops? I'm going to try 2 of them out this week before Wednesday.

I've done a few of the homeschool online shops. On the last one, the registering data base had my records, so at least for now, I avoid them. It was difficult to wiggle out of a hard spot during the last one. They keep records, but basically the employees were more educated, and the work was pleasant.

Well, I liked the scheduler for the shops, and decided to do them for the phone shop experience. I learned a lot about home schooling. The shops went well, and I improved my lying...er...acting abilities, but they did take time, detail, and the pay wasn't memorable.

Edited for grammatical corrections, and it isn't 10 PM here. Who knows the correct way to write AM or PM, or a.m. or p.m. ? Is there a space between the number and abbreviation or not?

I've usually just went with A . M . but I don't think that's it either. Of course, APA for Psychology is different from APA, AP, and MLA sooooos 0_o we double space those periods a lot too .

MegglesKat

I've done the K12 phone shops. They usually took about 20-30 minutes talking with the rep. and at least another 30 for the report since I'm a hopeless editor and keep rewriting until it sounds the best I can manage. I haven't done any lately because their database saved my number from a previous call. I acted like it was a weird mistake, but I'm concerned it would be too suspicious if it happened again.

I am getting to a point where if they expect you to be on a phone for a certain amount of time that you should be getting minimum wage as they are directing your time and as an independent contractor they are not allowed to do so.

Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.

Click here to login

How are car inquiry phone shops and the homeschool education shops?

Create an Account or Log In

Official List of Mystery Shopping Companies

Mystery Shopper Magazine