ShopUntilYouDrop Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "It took me this long to figure out that you meant
> the "V-God." How dumb am I? I did not know where
> he is from."
>
> Yes, Dee, he is easily found on FaceBook, neatly
> trimmed little beard and all. And I refuse to
> refer to him as V-God because he has some sort of
> problem with a reference to his site. Volition,
> Volition, Volition.......
>
> I kinda sound like a kid who just learned a new
> naughty word, huh?

Around here we call it "VIOLATION"

Hey have you guys tried out [www.premiershoppers.com]? I just ran across it and it's a free site (I think) to view mystery shopper jobs. What do you think of it? Should I still look for jobs on it?

I am curious why you put this in this thread.

Yes, I have tried it. I found it lacking. Your mileage may vary. It is free.

Wes,

I hear you and appluad your thinking. I to am well into my retirement years and try to keep my shops above $20 per. My goal is two to five of these per shopping trip which can be from 60 to 100 miles round trip. I am looking for MSCs who offer a steady diet of such shops with a form I can fill out on site. I am sick of making one of these 4-hour trips and coming back to another 4-8 hours work on my computer. Today's shopper needs to take advantage of the technology that is available if they hope to make it in a field where technology serves the MSCs in whittling down IC costs to the lowest possible denominator.

To have a fair chance at a decent fee, we need to increase our field of MSCs who have us on speed dial. That means quality work well ahead of the deadline, cutting out the low-end chaff.

Each one of us needs to be working with software that tracks compnaies by what they pay, when they pay and how long it takes them to pay. Against this we must know our actual costs and how long a given project takes, not just the visit, but the hours involved in producing 10-12 essay answers.

It seems then the math is pretty easy. Deduct your expenses from the fee and than divide by the hours. If the answer makes you sick to your stomach, stay home and troll for some better MSCs.

Each one of us is here, not by choice, but by God's will. At 71 I thank Him for the ability to get up and jump into the fray each day. I know He doesn't want me to sell myself for $10 for three hours of work.

Well said Reg....keep going, be discreet and shop the good ones, more power to you!! Your mind sounds more active and intelligent than some of the younger's.

I was just wondering. Are there any other sites like it? Similar to Shadow Shopper or Volition?

Thanks!


dee shops Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am curious why you put this in this thread.
>
> Yes, I have tried it. I found it lacking. Your
> mileage may vary. It is free.

What a strange time to put Premier's link in...most of us have heard of of it.

BamBam33 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I was just wondering. Are there any other sites
> like it? Similar to Shadow Shopper or Volition?
>
> Thanks!
>

BamBam, premier shoppers is NOT similar to Shadow Shopper nor is either one of them similar to Volition. Premier Shoppers Network is a place to spend money and not a mystery shopping company or forum. Are you spamming us or what? If you want to pay to shop, Shadow Shopper and others like it can be easily found if you do an internet search. Volition is a mystery shopping forum. If you want to ask about other companies, we would all appreciate if you use the company's name and NOT put in a link, we consider the links spam.

AM, they list shopping jobs.

really? charging fees?

No, they used to charge fees to shoppers, and no fees to the companies. When this was true, it was difficult not to get spam from other shoppers, as they paid a commission on everyone you got signed up.

I did a hands-on online tour with the founder, and found the site lacking for my purposes. A lot of the selling points were things like discounted shopping (ok, but I have no $ for that), resume preparation training (Geez, I was in HR for 9 years, and I know what a good resume is like; if I didn't, grad school taught this as well), and they touted that they had *SO MANY* jobs. But of course, nothing in HI for a long time. They finally changed the model to free, but that time they were really lame. I found that AF and one other place here used them, but they posted other, more regular places as well. Premier posted jobs months out, just basically replicating what was already there as monthly shops, sometimes for years! Many were not even true jobs. I don't know where all of them came from, but...

Eventually, I got one good shop from it, from a Canadian company I had never worked with previously, nor ever really even heard of prior to that. I did two jobs for them which were lengthy, travel-related phone calls with detailed narrative that paid really well and had a bonus. After that, I never got anything else I did not already know of through Premier, and I stopped looking there at least a year ago, maybe longer.

I think some of the people taking these lower paying jobs are new shoppers that are getting their toes wet, maybe seeing if mystery shopping is going to work out for them or to practice for the big ones? Newer mystery shoppers might be picking up the low paying jobs because it is the only ones they can get. They need to show the schedulers they would be capable of handling the higher paying ones, I guess. In fact one company I signed with said on their site, they wanted new people to start with phone calls (low paying) or ff shops (that only reimburse) before they try for the better paying ones. This kind of irks me a little bit, just because I was new to their company does not mean I was new to the industry and I am a pretty good shopper. Then of course I never got any better shops. Maybe if new people were given some suggestions of what companies would pay them well right off the bat, they would stop taking low paying jobs. Maybe this would encourage the companies to pay better, when it gets harder and harder for them to fill jobs. I know right now someone has a posting for a craft shop for $3.00 and I am dumbfounded that anybody would expect us to do that much work for $3.00, I mean they really want a lot of work done. As far as I can see there is no reimbursement either....ugh. No way. I shop at that craft store and would still not do that shop as long as I was there.

reg2putt Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Today's shopper needs to take
> advantage of the technology that is available if
> they hope to make it in a field where technology
> serves the MSCs in whittling down IC costs to the
> lowest possible denominator.

AND
>
> Each one of us needs to be working with software
> that tracks compnaies by what they pay, when they
> pay and how long it takes them to pay. Against
> this we must know our actual costs and how long a
> given project takes, not just the visit, but the
> hours involved in producing 10-12 essay answers.
>
> It seems then the math is pretty easy. Deduct your
> expenses from the fee and than divide by the
> hours. If the answer makes you sick to your
> stomach, stay home and troll for some better
> MSCs.
>
> I know He
> doesn't want me to sell myself for $10 for three
> hours of work.

AMEN! This is all true. If you don't track the time and costs, you don't know if what you are doing pays more than working at a minimum wage job.

If my memory serves me, I believe MSFreedom was pushing Premier and yes, there was a fee, think they got a kickback as to Lysa getting shoppers through them for her scheduling Co. Many were offended by that. They have since changed, but I have not found anything for me on there. Could be good for another, not slamming them, they have been around for awhile.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2010 04:07PM by Irene_L.A..

Jancyn was also pushing Premier for profit and I was amongst those most offended by it, as the owner of Premier was once part of the now defunct Datatron, before they ripped shoppers off. The referral program was also essentially a pyramid scheme, giving all the impression that they were just out to make a few $$ off shoppers.

You can read the entire debate on V.

As Steve said, Gary Cohn, owner of PremierShoppers, formerly headed Datatron. Datatron and Cohn's past is ugly. He ducked, owing shoppers thousands and thousands of dollars. I was forwarded the following email from a shopper friend. Also though, I received it myself. I have not registered with Premier, and don't know who gave or sold them my info.

"As PremierShoppers.com, Inc. gets ready to enter its third year of operation, we wanted to say thank you to all those who have made us the award winning site and company that we are."

"While we have not introduced a membership fee for our shoppers, we also know that it costs money for us to maintain the quality and service everyone has come to expect."

"To that end, we are asking our shoppers to make a Maintenance Contribution of $2.50 to help keep PremierShoppers.com at the head of the class. The math is simple. For as little as a nickel a week, your assistance will be monumental to our continued growth and enhancements."

"As we have also tried to watch our costs, we no longer can accept credit cards. We would ask that when sending your maintenance contribution, you mail us a check made out to PremierShoppers.com, Inc and mail it to . . ." It is signed "With my deepest appreciation, Gary Cohn President PremierShoppers.com, Inc."



This appears to be an attempt to penny ante off the backs of shoppers in order to stay afloat. Please do your homework. Research Cohn and Datatron, and keep your money in your pocket.

As Steve said, Gary Cohn, owner of PremierShoppers, formerly headed Datatron. Datatron and Cohn's past is ugly. He ducked, owing shoppers thousands and thousands of dollars. I was forwarded the following email from a shopper friend. I also received it though I'm not registered with Premier. Excerpts:


"While we have not introduced a membership fee for our shoppers, we also know that it costs money for us to maintain the quality and service everyone has come to expect."

"To that end, we are asking our shoppers to make a Maintenance Contribution of $2.50 to help keep PremierShoppers.com at the head of the class. The math is simple. For as little as a nickel a week, your assistance will be monumental to our continued growth and enhancements."

"As we have also tried to watch our costs, we no longer can accept credit cards. We would ask that when sending your maintenance contribution, you mail us a check made out to PremierShoppers.com, Inc and mail it to . . ." It is signed "With my deepest appreciation, Gary Cohn President PremierShoppers.com, Inc."



This appears to be an attempt to penny ante off the backs of shoppers in order to stay afloat. Not accepting credit card payments is indicative of little, if any, profit margin. Asking for a handout, from registered and non-registered shoppers seems a desperate move.

In fairness, the owner of Premier was out of there before Datatron was taken down and out by the guy who fought through the courts to take it over. No roses anywhere on that one though, I suspect.

Oh my. I had forwarded to me an email from Gary Cohn, President of Premier. Remember these guys started out charging a fee of something like $35 per year if I recall correctly. Shoppers did not arrive in droves even with a lot of hype being out there from other shoppers collecting I think it was $5 a head 'bounty' for delivering paying shoppers to them. So the site was thrown open as a free service and certainly my visits there showed no jobs I didn't already know about that paid enough to be interesting. Looks like that business model has not worked out so well either. The email indicates:

"To that end, we are asking our shoppers to make a Maintenance Contribution of $2.50 to help keep PremierShoppers.com at the head of the class. The math is simple. For as little as a nickel a week, your assistance will be monumental to our continued growth and enhancements."

The email goes on to request that payments be made by check because credit cards are not cost effective.

I don't know that I got the email, but it would have been trashed anyway without opening.

Shoppers unite!


I stopped doing the dreaded $3 gas shops at any price for a while. Guess what? Logged on recently and found a few at decent prices.

I kept looking for more jobs from more MSCs and found better paying jobs closer to me in my area.

The result is I'm doing a similar number of shops or a bit more for more money per shop and less driving.

You have the power!
Pass up the low pay/high effort jobs.
Keep searching for more shops and more MSCs.
Keep posting to show the newbies how to do it!

Back to Premier Shoppers for a moment. A friend forwarded me an email from Gary Cohen, President of Premier.

". . . we are asking our shoppers to make a Maintenance Contribution of $2.50 to help keep PremierShoppers.com at the head of the class. The math is simple. For as little as a nickel a week, your assistance will be monumental to our continued growth and enhancements."

He goes on to ask that contributions be made by check as it is not economically feasible to pay by credit card. This is a site that initially was charging $35 annual membership if I recall correctly. Folks were being paid a bounty of $5 for each shopper referred to the site who joined. When that was not getting the traffic, it was thrown open as a free site. Guess that isn't working out either . . . I signed up when it became free and did not see anything coming through there that I didn't know about already or would have bothered with had I seen it already.

Hi,

I am keen on forming an Independent Contractor Mystery Shopper's Association in San Bernardini and Los Angeles counties. Shopper's interested in being part of the association to maintain their self respect and dignity please respond to this post.

What is your goal...more details please.

Definite that Mystery Shoppers need to unite in some way. As far as how, I'm not sure.
MSPA is mostly for the MSCs. For reveal shops SAG would be a good union. For those who choose not to do Reveal Shops, a new independent union would be the best.

As far as how not to encourage MSCs to be so bad in the pay and in the treatment of us as shoppers, the Internet is a great tool. Use an email that you don't use to shop with and let them know you don't care for their ___________ (Fill in the Blank).

Right now the economy is driving a lot of people in to alternative incomes so it may be a long time before the cheapskate MSCs realize that they are just that, "Cheapskates"!