This is really a vent.

I took an apartment shop with a target. Okay they don't want us to be obvious when calling, yet they rush you to go out and do the shop. I receive emails constantly saying "Please up date me on the following shop." Well I accepted one and after days of playing phone tag...by myself, I was finally told that Jane Doe was on vacation and when Jane returned, she may be helping out at another property.

I informed the company and they got back to me 3 days later to say the shop would be cancelled. They asked me to pick up another shop with a certain due date. I thought it was a stretch. Well I got another email this morning asking for an update come to find out they had shortened the due date. I'm thinking I had the whole week since I did line up some other jobs before being informed that shop number 1 was cancelled.

I called Shop #2 today...3 times, Call number 1, Sara answered and I asked for hours, she was persistent and tried to assist me, after thanking her, I hung up quickly. Call number 2, I decided to ask for Jane Doe by name in case it were another situation about being on vacation. Sara answered again and tried tried to help me. It was almost as if she didn't want me off the phone. I took a stab and called a third time and lowered my voice asking for the wrong name. Wouldn't you know, phone police answered again.

If the company wants a arget so bad, why can't the company just tell us when the person is working so we won't waste time trying to reach that target randomly.

I never take those shops with a target. I don't think the targeted shops pay near enough for the extra work and time you have to put in finding the target, not to mention the stress. I like apartment shops, but give me a good NON-targeted shop any day.

And of course the calls you put in on shop #1 you will receive no compensation for at all even though you were being prodded to 'update' 'update' 'update'. Heck, I got $5 for a phone shop today that was less stressful and required a quick y/n to a handful of questions emailed back with a couple of sentences about the call.

The company I use that has Target shops usually does list the target's schedule for the week. However, even then, it can be difficult to get them on the damn phone. have done 4 Target shops and had the target's schedule for all of them, and 3 of the 4, I had a lot of difficulty still getting the target on the phone.

Doesn't bother me, as I'm home alot and call, but it always takes many calls unless your lucky. My last one was on vacation, but the other broker wouldn't say that. I finally got her and all went well...pay was 17.00 down from 25.00.

*Many calls* and an apartment visit? No thank you. I don't do targets for a reason.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/2010 05:18PM by dee shops.

Crikey! $17 for an apartment shop of any sort is insane. For a targeted shop it is apalling. The only targeted shops that I take state that you can ask for the target! And they start at $40, with many paying more. Better yet, the video ones are mostly much higher and have almost no written report.

I have NEVER seen a targeted apt. for $40.00....on any MSC site. Maybe L.A. is getting away with murder, they used to be 25.00, no more. We have alot of shoppers here, so demand and supply thing. I only do them when necessary, not like before, and has to be a close location. I'm interested in Real Estate and like to know what's out there, but I agree, pay is too low.

I also dislike the targeted apt. shops and won't do any more apt. shops because of low pay/too long to pay issues. Seriously, nearly 3 months to pay?

I live in the beautiful, bilingual city of Montreal. Shoppers are more or less expected to be bilingual (French and English). I was offered a targeted shop 25 minutes away from me for $20. Since I was heading in that area anyhow, I took the shop. When I looked on the board to print my info, I noticed 2 shops listed: 1 for $20 and another for $5. I contacted the scheduler who informed me that I was being paid $20 for the report and a measly, paltry $5 to translate the entire thing into French! I explained to the scheduler that translation services cost $0.10/word and that $5 would not come near covering it. I asked for the job to be removed from my list and haven't accepted another assignment from them since.

$25 for 2 complete reports, many phone calls and a targeted visit? Do I look like I have a sucker stamp on my forehead? What if I don't translate something properly and end up with a flag on the assignment in one language but not the other? And how sneaky is it to not even mention the second report until the assignment has been accepted? I figure if something needs to be translated, the onus should be on the MSC to do so, not the shopper!

Actually, I was wrong. I have seen low paid apartment shops here from Bare, but forgot about that as I seldom pay attention to their announcements. Everything that they have in my area seems to be in the rush to the bottom of the fee scale. Their video fees are a joke. I suspect that they cannot charge more for videos because all of the prime video shoppers avoid them. So, it is a downward spiral. To top it off, they are the only video outfit that will not pay for travel. And, I do not think that they are on the list of video MSCs that are subsidizing training workshops for video shoppers. (I am willing to stand corrected on that one.)

I put these shops in the category of low-paying P&R shops. There's no residual value so the pay offered for most is an insult.