I know this is been discussed many times, But I just can't believe I just saw a motorcycle shop for $25 email to me. I just did that shop a couple weeks ago and got paid $50. If shoppers would work together we would be getting bonuses all the time and higher pay. I make so much more with the bonuses, and our time is worth more than some of these $14 shops. I wish some shoppers would stop grabbing shops at such little pay so we would start making more money With added Bonuses. Isn't your time worth more than $14 an hour.

No. No we wouldn't.

That company makes maybe $50 on that shop. Once they pay you $50 they are paying scheduling, editing, infrastructure, and management out of their pocket.

They can do this because half of them get taken at $25. If everyone demands $50 the company loses money and goes out of business. Then there is one less company to work for and prices go down because they have less competition.

I'm not saying the shop is worth $25. I'm just saying the reason you got $50 is because someone else took one at $25.

I lost one of my favorite schedulers recently. I think it was because of over use of bonus because they kept going over budget each period. Of course, when you're scheduling 240 locations every 3-4 days I can only imagine it could take some bonuses to get shoppers out on $5 shops. I usually pick up a route of them and try to ask for $10-$35 per shop myself due to distance and lack of shoppers. One week, I did 22 of his shops. I did about 9% of all his shops for that week. Nutty and a lot of miles logged. 22x5 isn't much but 22x18 is. Anyway, I digress.

I'd work for $14 an hour. Many of these states still have a $7.25 minimum wage law... plus those laws don't apply to us 1099'ers. (: It's all in what you're after.

@clinen11 wrote:

I lost one of my favorite schedulers recently. I think it was because of over use of bonus because they kept going over budget each period. Of course, when you're scheduling 240 locations every 3-4 days I can only imagine it could take some bonuses to get shoppers out on $5 shops. I usually pick up a route of them and try to ask for $10-$35 per shop myself due to distance and lack of shoppers. One week, I did 22 of his shops. I did about 9% of all his shops for that week. Nutty and a lot of miles logged. 22x5 isn't much but 22x18 is. Anyway, I digress.

I'd work for $14 an hour. Many of these states still have a $7.25 minimum wage law... plus those laws don't apply to us 1099'ers. (: It's all in what you're after.

I guess the state you're in makes a huge difference.

@MScat wrote:

I know this is been discussed many times, But I just can't believe I just saw a motorcycle shop for $25 email to me. I just did that shop a couple weeks ago and got paid $50. If shoppers would work together we would be getting bonuses all the time and higher pay. I make so much more with the bonuses, and our time is worth more than some of these $14 shops. I wish some shoppers would stop grabbing shops at such little pay so we would start making more money With added Bonuses. Isn't your time worth more than $14 an hour.

I'm guessing shoppers aren't always aware of the option to ask for a higher pay rate.

I didn't know until recently after months of working at list price.

One problem of shoppers "working together" is that there will always be new shoppers, such as myself not too long ago, who don't "know any better." I'm sure they'll eventually realize there's something up with those fluctuating rates, however. I've seen some huge jumps too and realized that those rates must be going up because no one is taking the shops. But I didn't realize you could ask for a higher rate vs. just waiting for the rate to go up.

I've always been so curious what companies pay for a shop. Especially those which involve high reimbursements that aren't just reversed on your credit card. If they pay $50 for a shop, what would an editor, scheduler, company owner, and shopper make to not go over the $50? I have only worked as a shopper so I have no clue what a scheduler makes every time I pick up a shop, and how much an editor makes to read over my shop. I see $50 as a bargain when you have three people to pay per shop plus a profit to make.

As for working together, you never know who just signed up with that company today and has no clue the same shop can and will go for higher amounts later on down the line. You can talk to us here, but I've only met one other shopper in real life. It was so much fun to talk shop with someone who truly understood what I did. But I would feel weird telling her "don't take that shop..." Everyone wants to make money but sometimes waiting a shop out means someone else will come along and grab it. By then, you're out of luck.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/2017 02:04PM by ShopSouthTexas.

@bgriffin wrote:

No. No we wouldn't.

That company makes maybe $50 on that shop. Once they pay you $50 they are paying scheduling, editing, infrastructure, and management out of their pocket.

They can do this because half of them get taken at $25. If everyone demands $50 the company loses money and goes out of business. Then there is one less company to work for and prices go down because they have less competition.

I'm not saying the shop is worth $25. I'm just saying the reason you got $50 is because someone else took one at $25.

But, wouldn't the demands of the workers also force the mystery shopping companies to demand more from the clients?

Otherwise, the ms companies would all go out of business themselves if no one worked for their wages.

I suppose the clients might just say: "Oh well..." Yet, I could also imagine a wealthy client (hypothetically, let's say McDonald's***) willingly paying more to have people do mystery shops, since their value their brand and customer service quality (presumably or hypothetically).

***I picked McD's, bc it's the first thing that popped into my head, but I have no idea if they hire mystery shoppers or not.

I take some of those low paying shops at the beginning of the month. Some MSC pays twice a month. For example, the banks shops offered at $9.50 or $15. I'll take them at the beginning of the month. I know, some of the locations weren't filled and were bonused towards the middle and the end of the month. I have bills to pay that cannot wait at the end of the next month to coordinate with the MSC payment schedule at the end of next month or 90 days. My earnings from my regular job does not cover all of my living expenses.

I agree that there should be some coordination among us shoppers to have the rates be higher. I also understand why some have to take the lower paying shops, so they can pay bills.

But I think over the long run it's better to get the rates up. It isn't going to happen overnight but to see and do a shop where you have to spend 15-45 minutes in a computer store and pretend to be a buyer and then fill out a lengthy report, all for $12 isn't worth it.

I like what Shoptastic said, which is to force the clients to pay more to get more quality feedback.

@shoptastic wrote:

But, wouldn't the demands of the workers also force the mystery shopping companies to demand more from the clients?

No. There are hundreds of MSCs. If Griffin's Widgets can't get Shoptastic Inc to do their shops for $30 there are 199 other companies and eventually one of them will. So Shoptastic Inc can take the $30 if they can get them done for that or they can lose the contact.

Now, at face value one might think if there were less MSCs then fees would rise. The problem with that is that as there are less MSCs, the competition for our time gets lower, therefore they can pay less even though they make more. Now if there is a company that pays too low for a shop we can just ignore it because we have 199 other MSCs to shop for.

The laws of economics works both ways. I would suggest finding ways to get the shops to fees you're ok with, finding shops that have fees your ok with, or finding a way to make the current fees work in your business. Worrying about what other people take shops for is counterproductive. Quite frankly I couldn't care less what anybody else does a shop for. I only care what *I* get paid.

@shoptastic wrote:

I suppose the clients might just say: "Oh well..." Yet, I could also imagine a wealthy client (hypothetically, let's say McDonald's***) willingly paying more to have people do mystery shops, since their value their brand and customer service quality (presumably or hypothetically).

***I picked McD's, bc it's the first thing that popped into my head, but I have no idea if they hire mystery shoppers or not.

Poor example. McDonald's stopped their main mystery shopping program because it was too expensive for what they got out of it. Those shops started off at like $6 per.

@7star wrote:

I agree that there should be some coordination among us shoppers to have the rates be higher. I also understand why some have to take the lower paying shops, so they can pay bills.

But I think over the long run it's better to get the rates up. It isn't going to happen overnight but to see and do a shop where you have to spend 15-45 minutes in a computer store and pretend to be a buyer and then fill out a lengthy report, all for $12 isn't worth it.

I like what Shoptastic said, which is to force the clients to pay more to get more quality feedback.

No one is forcing you to take that shop. I agree, $12 isn't worth it so I ignore that shop.
What you don't understand is that most clients get the quality of feedback they want. Otherwise they would write more detailed shops.

@ShopSouthTexas wrote:

I've always been so curious what companies pay for a shop. Especially those which involve high reimbursements that aren't just reversed on your credit card. If they pay $50 for a shop, what would an editor, scheduler, company owner, and shopper make to not go over the $50? I have only worked as a shopper so I have no clue what a scheduler makes every time I pick up a shop, and how much an editor makes to read over my shop. I see $50 as a bargain when you have three people to pay per shop plus a profit to make.

It depends on the shop and the company. For instance, I happen to know of one convenience store chain that pays the MSC $20 per plus the reimbursement amount. The standard fee for that shop is $10. This company has full time schedulers and editors that are paid hourly. Those are sunk costs that really can't be attributed directly to a shop. But if an editor makes $15 an hour and can edit 5 shops an hour that's only $3 per shop. Those shops fly off the boards with little scheduler intervention, I would guess only a few hours per month for the whole contract. Scheduling in that sense probably costs them less than $1 per. So at $20 a shop they're still making at least $6 a shop to cover the cost of management, offices, etc.

On average, I would guess 2x the basic shop fee would be a fairly good estimate. Heavier narrative shops would probably get more. As would shops that are harder to fill because of demographics. I imagine the starting rate on age compliance shops is low compared to what the MSC gets paid simply because of the risk involved in getting those shops filled.

One of my bank inquiry shops is $14 and rarely bonused. I take the ones by an auto dealer where I am doing a negotiation, an apartment that I am shopping or some other high dollar shop. When that one check comes the following month, I'm glad I did volume of low paying, easy narrative shops.

I just added a low-paying shop because the task is new to me, might be fun, and is within walking distance of another, higher-paying job which is near yet another shop. My personal cost for the new job is nothing-- the fee and reimbursement are purely additive. My day will be a little busier, and I probably won't have time to play. But that is okay. I will have mo' money to play with later.

If this new job were a free-standing unit, I might have wanted a fee increase or a bonus.

Maybe the shopper's overall schedule makes it necessary or unnecessary to have higher fees or bonuses for individual shops?

Everyone's priorities and needs are different. This week I saw a $15 cell phone shop that I really wanted (it was bonused $2 lol) It was right next to the gym I work out at. Easy money for a shop I know well. The MSC pays super fast. I asked for $20 thinking nobody would take it. It was gone in 5 minutes. That's the gamble.

If the work is easy and not stressful then I'll do a lower fee. I'm banking on the fact that my skill set is growing and I'm forming relationships to cash in on later.

I am all for boycotting shops where the work sucks though...

Speaking of low pay and new shoppers..... I checked one job board last nite and today the majority of the shops I do were gone.......I spoke with a scheduler later on and figured I would try to get at least one of my regular shops. I live in the country and usually travel anywhere from 80-200 miles to complete shops, so when I saw that even the local shops disappeared, I got nervous . The scheduler looked at the board also and was surprised so many had been picked up. I just hope this new shopper figures it out soon and finds this forum. I sure can not be traveling 80 miles for $5

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/2017 05:39AM by dmp777.

Since the beginning of the year, I have been noticing some things have changed. Maybe it's just me and I am imagining things. But, first of all I am seeing far less shops available to me than ever in my 4+ years mystery shopping. I mean I have not done 1 job in the past 3 weeks and I look every day. I just won't take anything that is less than $15 during slumps. However, with the lack of shops, I am willing to work for less if I can get a group of lower paying shops that will add up. I can't even find more than 2 or 3 at a time between my 100 or so MSC's.
Second, last year I rarely worked for the posted rate. I negotiate everything to meet my rate that I have set for myself. I had no problem with that and had a pretty productive year. This year, the shops are posted at what seems a much lower rate than ever. And, before I can even get on the phone or email to bid on it, It is gone!
It looks to me like all of a sudden my area must have been hit by hundreds of brand new people that have decided that being a mystery shopper and getting paid $7 to do mystery shops that will take them a couple of hours each is really cool!
Yes, I am venting and upset because I feel like there has been some kind of shift, and all these $7 shoppers are doing something really negative to our industry. I feel like the quality and expertise that clients get from me means nothing because they can pay some newbie next to nothing. I am curious to know what % of their reports are rejected, and how much extra work are editors having to put in to get these reports acceptable to the client.
So, to end this on a positive note, I just received a Sizing Audit with a $5 bonus that the person that grabbed it before me a few days ago flaked on. Maybe it will all work out in the end -just when does "the end " come?

There is always an influx of new shoppers. They will do the low paying shops and the Cirrus shops to see what they are like. After the bill is paid, or they see reality, most will go back to their norm.

Keep doing what your doing and your patience will be rewarded. Seasonal or other fluctuations in the market may be out of your control but what you can do is to continue to deliver complete on-time reports which schedulers will remember when looking for a dependable shopper.

Remember, the newbies that took that shop for $7 is probably learning the ropes too. We all started from somewhere. There was one MSC Clark's shoe shop that paid $18. They offered to pay me since the location was closed and asked me to redo the shop when the location reopened. The shoe store was being remodeled. It was cool because I got paid $36. That MSC sadly had merged with another MSC. That company now offered the same shoe shop, same requirements for $10.

@catgrannyof5 wrote:

Remember, the newbies that took that shop for $7 is probably learning the ropes too. We all started from somewhere. There was one MSC Clark's shoe shop that paid $18. They offered to pay me since the location was closed and asked me to redo the shop when the location reopened. The shoe store was being remodeled. It was cool because I got paid $36. That MSC sadly had merged with another MSC. That company now offered the same shoe shop, same requirements for $10.

That $18 Clarks Shoe shop was a Purchase and return so even $18 was not worth it unless already in the mall on other shops and could easily kill the hour required between purchase and return. The MSC that had it did not merge but was swallowed up by a large low paying harder grading MSC due to the owners of original MSC getting cancer if I remember correct. You can try to get a bonus if you can find someone to respond to email or answer the phone for that shop with the MSC its now with.

What Co. does motorcycle shops?

Monterey is an excellent company and they pay on time.