I think of it like this. Suppose you were the unemployed family bread winner. Do you sit back and hope that you are in an area where jobs go unfilled (not likely or you would be working) or do you take whatever job(s) are available when you find them. It may not be what you want, and you may be still looking for something better, and it may even take a lot of extra effort on your part, but at least you can feed your family on some "low hanging fruit". At one time in my career, when jobs were really tight, I took a part time hourly checker position at a local retail agency. I have a masters degree. But at the same time, I needed to help pay family bills. I learned to love being hourly and not having to work for unpaid overtime as a salaried employee. I liked not having to deal with people problems and paperwork, paperwork, paperwork. I liked being able to go home when my shift was over. Don't get me wrong, I loved my field of work too and when a job in my field became available I took it. But what I learned in that part time job paying "low haning" fruit was invaluable stuff. I still use a lot of those skills today at home. There are benefits and disadvantages to every job/shop. The only way all these shops can be filled is by differences in people. And FYI - I am one of the ones who mostly sits back and waits. It's because I have other stuff to do at home and I don't mind if I don't get a shop. But if I see something I like, I will go after it. What you don't know, is that 90% of the time I may work a shop early in the month because I ask for and receive the bonus. Some schedulers will do this if they know you because they want to get their shops done early. So many reasons. But the OP is entitled to their opinion, as I am sure there are many other shoppers who wish the same thing.

That's true, if you're desperate you will take the crap.

not all low paying shops are crap while many high paying shops are crap. crap is in eyes of beholder.

It is one thing to go for a quick shop, quick report $5 or $8 shop right next door to where you are going to be anyway and entirely different to run all over town for $5 to $8 shops taking an hour or more. In the first instance you work smart by padding your income, in the second you are likely spinning your wheels and probably losing money not to mention the physical and emotion toll for someone with a family. Nobody deserves to work 16 hour days to earn $40. It really is sad to think there are people out there doing just that.

Shop smart, going to the mall daily, easy to pick up a quick shop, daily this works...would I drive for a 9.00 shop on our freeways, i think not. Those that need the income, remember the time involved and always schedule 3 or 4 low paying jobs to equal your time, that's the only way to do it, if signed with enough companies, it is duable.

irene you dont like doing shops that involve driving on freeways. some shoppers prefer faster highways to get from point a to point b w/out all traffic lights. accidents happen on freeways & surface streets. ive seen an accident happen in someones driveway.

Leaving the ship, having picked up my van that was shipped from the Big Island, and driving towards Florida I experienced literally being stopped on those freeways, not moving but yards an hour for a couple of hours.

Freeways in LA? I don't blame you, Irene. Ninja, freeways in LA aren't always the fastest way to get anywhere, same in a lot of large cities (like Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh, to name a few) where you will get stuck in traffic jams and definitely not worth $9 to do it. Here in NE Ohio it's great way to get from point A to point B because our traffic isn't all that bad most of the time. When I visit my brother in Houston I have to be very strategic with timing if driving on their freeways or I get stuck at a snail's pace. All it takes is one idiot to cause a wreck and the highways are jammed up for hours.

I had a reason to look at Google maps around the LA area some months back. Not even rush hour and there were dozens of accidents and traffic backed up everywhere. Over a dozen interstates here we have plenty of days with no accidents. It has to be an ice storm during rush hour for us to begin to approach the number of accidents in LA on a sunny day Here it can also depend on which direction you are heading. During rush hour it can take me 45 minutes to an hour to get downtown, a drive of only around 30 miles. If I go the opposite direction I can get to the middle of the state, about 115 miles, in 90 minutes.

@spicy1 wrote:

What is fair to the MSCs?

What I consider fair to MSCs is if I have a rapport with the company and the shop is 5 minutes from my house I will not ask for a bonus. I receive bonuses enough and for a good reason, the schedulers know this.

MF gave me a large bonus on a home improvement store about 5 minutes from my house. They were offering $14 fee (normally pays around $7) and I got them up to $17. I probably could have gotten more. I don't feel that's unfair at all.

It's not all distance for me either. I'm always going to base any request on how long it takes so a shop taking an hour originally offered at $8 is not going to cut it regardless of the MSC. Two other factors are if it needs to be done right now and if right now means working in the evening. Without me even asking, one scheduler gave me about $35 for a shop originally paying $12. The shop was four minutes away at most. The contact was around 5 pm for a store closing at 8 pm which was already four hours late. I was willing to drop everything to make the visit and submit the report immediately.

@spicy1 wrote:

Leaving the ship, having picked up my van that was shipped from the Big Island, and driving towards Florida I experienced literally being stopped on those freeways, not moving but yards an hour for a couple of hours.

Yes, I get it, living in L.A., the 405 with construction considered a season, (summer and construction) bumper to bumper is not as Ms.Ninja says "without traffic lights", guess she hasn't driven L.A. freeways......then there's parking in the city, all metered (if you can find a meter). More challenges come from the enormous amount of Papparrze in front of the popular restaurants trying o get pictures of celebrities, not a fun day for a few bucks.
Big cities have their challenge.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/07/2017 08:10PM by Irene_L.A..

i live in large metro area so i know all about traffic accidents & shootings on highway. my timing is good though due to planning. i avoid peak highway times when possible. i leave way before sunrise many times. ihate surface roads w/school zones so i try to plan around them to. early release days throw me off.
yes i used to have to work in la la land & i hated it. not just traffic just the whole area. i like san diego much better & i love san fran. i dont usually drive in san fran though. gotta love a cable car.

I don't understand why anyone would take them for $7 either. The cell phone shops I've done take a lot of time on site (minimum 35 minutes and one took over an hour), followed by a not insignificant amount of time taking notes and photos in the car after, and then more time at home to upload pictures, write and send report. I hate doing them for even twice that amount, considering the work involved.

Because I live in a small town that on a VERY rare occasion has an automotive shop, I usually will only do so when I have some other reason to travel to another area. And even then, for any to make sense for me, I have to get multiple shops on a day just for it to pay anything over expense.

Recently I completed seven in a day spread over a large metro area, leaving my home at 7:30 am and not getting home until almost 9 pm. Then I still had all the reports to get submitted. The scheduler set it up so I could submit some before Midnight and the rest the next day. I would never have made the Midnight deadline for all seven. So, I got a whopping $105 for my day. Why did I take these at $15 a shop? Just based on value of my time and gas money, it would not have made much sense. I did so because I had a dentist appointment in that metro area.

Sadly, today I was contacted to pick up two more cell phone shops at $25 each. I could only justify the 120 mile roundtrip if I got both shops, but unfortunately I had shopped one of the two stores in the last 90 days, and it just doesn't make sense to travel all that way for one shop. Bummer - would really like to do a route of shops at bonus pay rates.

@MountainCacher88 wrote:

@spicy1 wrote:

Nevertheless, it sucks when someone takes a cell phone shop for $7. It definately bites!

I was griping about this a few days ago. I can't imagine. My last one, it took 28 minutes to see an associate (so close to getting outta there!) and then the associate rambled on and didn't listen to much of what I said I needed.

me: I'm a loyal android user. I have/had used Apple but I just don't like it.
Sales: Ah, we have the new Iphone yada yada in stock, it's really great....
me: Yeah, no, not my thing. I like android.
Sales: We also have the Iphone S blah blah blah in stock

Me: I only use about 1 gig a month of data, sometimes less.
Sales: Oh if you add on the 16 gig package you'll be able to have bladity blah blah
Me: Yeah, I really only need like 2 gigs to be safe
Sales: Or if you go unlimited you don't have to stress and it's only such and such more
Me: I don't stream very often and I always use my Wifi
Sales: You can even add on a tablet so you can stream movies on a larger screen

Ummmm 0_o

I did this one for $25 thinking it wouldn't take too long. I can't imagine $7 for these.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/07/2017 10:08PM by Pro Evals-Audits.

@MSNinja wrote:

i live in large metro area so i know all about traffic accidents & shootings on highway. my timing is good though due to planning. i avoid peak highway times when possible. i leave way before sunrise many times. ihate surface roads w/school zones so i try to plan around them to. early release days throw me off.
yes i used to have to work in la la land & i hated it. not just traffic just the whole area. i like san diego much better & i love san fran. i dont usually drive in san fran though. gotta love a cable car.

But Ninja, Irene is semi-retired and does this for food and fun, she doesn't have to worry about planning around traffic like that. And I think she likes where she lives just fine. I guess I really don't need to speak for her but when I get to be older and have lived in one place for a long time with lots of friends around me, I hope to be able to live just like that. And it won't be in NE Ohio, believe me! I like San Francisco well enough (my sister lives in Palo Alto and I go visit her occasionally) and one of my closest friends lives in San Diego. Nice enough area. But real estate in CA is so darned expensive. I am thinking of someplace out of the country, like Belize...

Pro Evals-Audits, if you sign up with more MSCs, you can make routes of different kinds of shops. If you do cell phone shops for IPSOS, you can complete the reports on an app. It's quick and easy and then you don't have to sit and do reports (for those shops) when you get home.

Ms.Ninja..San Diego is the best, a friend just sold his home here and bought a small condo near the ocean for $650,000, great place to live but you wouldn't believe how prices have jumped. I never drive during rush hours,
my jobs consist of retail stores opening at 10:00. Traffic has gotten much worse as they are re-constructing the
area off the 405= impossible. I drive through the canyon to get into the city avoiding the 405 freeway, now the canyon has so many potholes, always something. San Francisco is a no driving or parking city. My brother-in-law used to own DeSoto cab Co. San Francisco where I was born and very well connected, we always got a book for free rides...he passed, now it's Uber. My family is no longer in the city, so life got easier, not the way I remember it growing up. SF a great place to visit (beautiful), would I want to live there again, no, too expensive.

@JASFLALMT wrote:

But Ninja, Irene is semi-retired and does this for food and fun, she doesn't have to worry about planning around traffic like that. And I think she likes where she lives just fine. I guess I really don't need to speak for her but when I get to be older and have lived in one place for a long time with lots of friends around me,

i have no idea what irenes status is or why she shops. i dont need to worry about her work habits just mine. i have right to prfer highway driving no matter what part of country just like she has right not to drive on highways. there are much bigger things to worry about in world;

@Irene_L.A. wrote:

Ms.Ninja..San Diego is the best, a friend just sold his home here and bought a small condo near the ocean for $650,000, great place to live but you wouldn't believe how prices have jumped. I never drive during rush hours,
my jobs consist of retail stores opening at 10:00. Traffic has gotten much worse as they are re-constructing the.

see i barely do retail & i hate malls.

I had no expectations when I began. I had a different confguration of other jobs then. I had a Master's degree but no clue about mystery shopping and no confidence in my ability to do whatever it was.

Eventually, I found more job types in this industry. Editors taught me how to do various jobs or report them. By myself, I learned to blend my loves with my work. This is not an unwise workplace romance. Rather, I work in locations that are situated on the other sides of my beloved wide open spaces and/or near personal errands. Sometimes, jobs just sound like fun, and I do them.

I get up at 1 AM for my beloved primary job. I recently discovered that I am unwilling to stay up late for other jobs or other purposes. So, I do a few assignments in this industry, occasionally have a long work day, and let it be enjoyable. Most days, I have free time for me. I do not recommend this for anyone else.

I do recommend that everyone should work in their own way and at their own pace. Everyone must define those qualities for themselves. No shopper, auditor, or merchandiser should be pressured, guilted, belittled, bullied, defined, called to account, or otherwise manipulated or maneuvered by anyone within or outside of this industry.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 10/08/2017 11:56AM by Shop-et-al.

When I was laid off from my 9-5, I shopped full time. I knew the patterns for the bonuses, and I knew certain shops were never bonused.

That being said, I would stack the cell shops near the bonused apartment/bank/auto shops with the lengthy narratives. The volume of those shops let me hit my minimum for the week or month.

@Shop-et-al wrote:

Despite very part-time involvement, I have been able to reduce my need for income from this industry. It is more efficient and enjoyable to work part-time at another job. A third job is on the back burner.

I, like some others, need not treat this industry as significant income. We are free to take it or leave it. We may or may not be wealthy, but we have an array of work options. This is another difference in perspective.

Thanks. I appreciate that input. I have noticed the cell phone shops you mention, usually only paying $12. Based on my other cell phone shops (and the fact that I have to drive a good distance to do any shops), I haven't been interested in taking those on at what seems like an unreasonably low rate. But if the reporting requirements are less onerous and faster/easier to do, then that could be a consideration.

@JASFLALMT wrote:

Pro Evals-Audits, if you sign up with more MSCs, you can make routes of different kinds of shops. If you do cell phone shops for IPSOS, you can complete the reports on an app. It's quick and easy and then you don't have to sit and do reports (for those shops) when you get home.

I watch them and wait for the bonuses. I don't like them at $12, either, but once they hit $15 or higher (I have done them at $18 and $20), then I snap them up, especially if I have other things to do in the same area so I can make a little mini route. I do other shops for them and another MSC on the app as well. But maybe try one at $12, a location that is very convenient for you, and you will see that they are indeed a snap to report on the app.

Please, please learn to spell on this forum. Do not abbreviate, because in your reports you cannot do that, or you will get a scolding from an editor, and get a lower rating.. Your bad grammar and spelling is like long finger nails on a chalk board.

@gbarnes wrote:

Please, please learn to spell on this forum. Do not abbreviate, because in your reports you cannot do that, or you will get a scolding from an editor, and get a lower rating.. Your bad grammar and spelling is like long finger nails on a chalk board.

Your posts add nothing positive to this forum. Perhaps take your own advice and go to that complainer's website?

Here you go:

" There is a web-site called www.complaintfreeworld.org. I hope you go to this web-site so you will learn to stop complaining and venting. "

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/2017 06:53AM by SoCalMama.

I agree with SoCalMama's above post....it is not like one needs an English Literature degree (as my daughter has) to Mystery shop...lets get over ourselves...this goes to those on the forum who have a need to edit others.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/2017 05:16PM by Irene_L.A..

Then I guess you would appreciate someone telling you that fingernails is all one word.

@gbarnes wrote:

Please, please learn to spell on this forum. Do not abbreviate, because in your reports you cannot do that, or you will get a scolding from an editor, and get a lower rating.. Your bad grammar and spelling is like long finger nails on a chalk board.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/2017 05:13PM by kimmiemae.