@sandyf wrote:

@dpatter wrote:

Download dropbox to your phone and computer. I go to my photos on my phone, move a photo to my mystery shop folder in drop box and within 30 seconds i have acces to it on my computer.

I will have to try that on my tablet. I don't have a smart phone so many of these tips would not help me. Before anyone chimes in telling me I should have one, I can afford a smart phone but I do not feel the need to get one just for saving a few minutes here and there shopping as I do this part time and the fees would be more than what I earn from mystery shopping. My friends call me anachronistic which is great. I also can walk down the street and admire the trees and sky. I know only a small percentage of people who can just put their smart phone away once they have one and spend time on the smaller pleasures of life.
In any case I will see if I can figure out how to add dropbox to my tablet, move pics to it and then do the dropbox thing on my computer. I do have some of the 21st century technology!

LOL! Obviously, you do not worship at the wireless of the Tech God. Good for you! You made my day. There really is another soul who blends old and new technology with plain old no tech.

I often spend more time than necessary which is my own fault because I have this sick need to edit perfectly submittable reports. But I don't mind too much since I rarely get ratings below 9.

I agree with everyone above - it most certainly depends on the type of MS and the company - and whether or not you are considering how much work in the report will keep you in their good graces.

In other words, there are a few companies that I will spend well beyond what it should to deliver a perfect or near perfect report so that I not only have a good track record with them, they will know me for my good reporting and therefore, maybe, offer me shops that might not be listed on their boards - reserved only for their 'best' shoppers. This has been to my benefit over several occasions.

I enjoy ACL, but I also agree the reporting is long. Especially if I have recorded an event and have to re-listen to it all in order to get timings. Yes, I am aware that you cannot record in every state - but in mine you can....and I do.

Other shops where I also consistently get high scoring might only take me ten minutes on an app on my phone. Again, it depends on the company and type of shop.

Hey, I still have a 5 year old flip phone. Don't hate. I will replace it when it goes ka-blooie. Let's see, any new smartphone is larger than my flip phone, learn new features on smartphone, must purchase a data plan, about $60 month, add'l monthly cost for phone with financing and possibly get targeted/robbed for having a smartphone. I won't plan on getting the latest smartphone. And I noticed that some of the smartphones are getting larger, will probably become the size of the tablets.

I am new to Market Force and picked up a quick burger joint shop...11 pages PLUS multiple narratives for $6...I'm like what the heck did I just do... Are all their reporting requirements like this? Because I could avoid them altogether if they are.

On a narrative report I take 20-30 minutes to write and rewrite, check spelling & grammar, etc.. But hours?? No way, you are obsessing over it by that point! LOL

@LeslieKay111 wrote:

On a narrative report I take 20-30 minutes to write and rewrite, check spelling & grammar, etc.. But hours?? No way, you are obsessing over it by that point! LOL

I'm happy for you.

LK it's just a few sentences for the narratives with MF. The character limit is 300 per box generally.

I just looked at it and it says minimum of 50 characters, which is nothing. thanks!

Make a whole six bucks. Good luck.

@LeslieKay111 wrote:

I am new to Market Force and picked up a quick burger joint shop...11 pages PLUS multiple narratives for $6...I'm like what the heck did I just do... Are all their reporting requirements like this? Because I could avoid them altogether if they are.

On a narrative report I take 20-30 minutes to write and rewrite, check spelling & grammar, etc.. But hours?? No way, you are obsessing over it by that point! LOL

LK, the burger shops for MF are worth doing. I generally don't take them at $6, but starting out you need to do a few at that price to prove your reliability and ability to follow instructions and write acceptable reports. Plus, lunch that doesn't cost you anything but your time and writing a report is a good deal if you don't have to go too far out of your way to do it. Do a few of the burger shops and a few others for them. If you are going to take them at $6, try to assign yourself one in the same area as you have booked other shops to bundle them and save on fuel. After awhile MF appreciates good shoppers and you will get phone calls from schedulers asking you to pick up hard to fill or last minute shops that may have been abandoned or performed incorrectly by another shopper. That's when you can negotiate bonuses. Usually the emails they send (Samantha) do not offer great incentives. I usually try to talk to a scheduler. Oh, and if a scheduler calls you, make sure you save the number to your contacts so if you seem something on the job board with an incentive but it's not as high as you would like, you can call them and see if they will go higher. Nine times out of ten they will. Oh, and don't pick up the cell phone shops for under $15 for any company. It's not worth the $7.50-$12 fees that are often given.

Thanks for the great advice! I scheduled myself for 3 of those cell shops. ugh. Now I know... But they are in areas that I am already going to be in so I will just learn from them this time around!! ha ha.

If you have cell phone shops, always avoid peak times like lunch and weekends. I think around 10:30 a.m. on a non-holiday weekday is a good time to go, and often around 2 p.m. is not busy. If we let those suckers sit on the board long enough at $7.50 they will raise them. Some people snap them up at around $11 each but I don't like to do that. You have to consider your time spent doing them. If you are spending 30 minutes in the store and another 30 minutes filling out the report, plus your time getting there and back, try to figure out what pay is worth it. Also consider that if the store is busy or if they are shorthanded, you might be waiting 30 minutes or longer and then another 15 interacting with the rep. Ugh.

ah!! I'm feeling worse and worse about this. ha ha

Some shops have a reschedule option, if you have shops for a weekend or holiday weekday (Monday) did you look to see if there were available reschedule dates? Whatever you do, avoid cancellation. MF hates that and they keep note of it.

If you hit it just right at the cell phone stores you can be in and out in less than 30 minutes.

Thanks, what times do you recommend? I like to do things in the morning. How do you think it will be at opening? These are set up for 1/3 and 1/4, and I have other appointments in the area that I thought I'd do these inbetween time. At least covers my gas money. LOL

Oh no, I won't cancel...I'll just tough it out. Some of my growing pains.

@JASFLALMT wrote:

If you have cell phone shops, always avoid peak times like lunch and weekends. I think around 10:30 a.m. on a non-holiday weekday is a good time to go, and often around 2 p.m. is not busy. If we let those suckers sit on the board long enough at $7.50 they will raise them. Some people snap them up at around $11 each but I don't like to do that. You have to consider your time spent doing them. If you are spending 30 minutes in the store and another 30 minutes filling out the report, plus your time getting there and back, try to figure out what pay is worth it. Also consider that if the store is busy or if they are shorthanded, you might be waiting 30 minutes or longer and then another 15 interacting with the rep. Ugh.

I wouldn't go right at opening, maybe an hour or a little more after, but not after 11:30 a.m., it's too close to lunch and people run errands on their lunch hours.

yes, I just reread that post. sorry about that. I had so many notifications and pm's I just got caught up. everyones been so helpful and supportive!

There are a lot of nice people on here. Most all of us have cranky moments (though there are a few who are close to sainthood, LOL), but for the most part the forum is a great bunch of folks. I think CM was just assuming something about you that obviously isn't true. We have had new members come in here and repeatedly ask others to violate forum rules, even after being advised not to do it, and she likely just thought you might be one of those. It's obviously not the case. So welcome to the forum, LK!

Today I did my favorite Japanese BBQ for one my favorite MSC's....yes no questions with 50 to 300 word narratives, very easy, with report taking 15 minutes. done with the long time consuming reports. BBQing at the table, the meat tender melting in your mouth, a fun healthy place with a 20$ reimbursement, plenty for one.