Some shops are just not worth doing

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My experience is my source. Personal example: my tax rate as written by US tax law is 28% (suggested tax rate) given my income. However, my effective tax rate (taxes I actually paid) were 7% due to deductions, credits, and so on. Review Warren Buffets public returns for further examples.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/13/2018 02:39PM by jlovesnyc.

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@jlovesnyc wrote:

My source is my own experience. Personal example: my tax rate as written by US tax law is 28% (suggested tax rate) given my income. However, my effective tax rate (taxes I actually paid) were 7% due to deductions, credits, and so on. Review Warren Buffets public returns for further examples.

Do you count paying both sides of Social Security and Medicare as an Independent Contractor?

I would like to do "One" loan company shop where they check my credit and offer a personal loan at 34% interest for $15.00. Yes! Let me at it! Wait. No. Just signed up for a better one where they are willing to offer me a payday loan for upwards of 300% interest for $20. Hey. I know. I'll do both and just make today a truly rewarding experience!

I applied for one of those. Has anyone done one of these A-Z. Is it worth it? thanks.

@spicy1 Why does the interest rate matter? Are you not reimbursed? Why so much negativity? If the fee’s not what you want, then ask for more or pass it by.

I must reiterate that this thread is called "Some Shops Are Just Not Worth Doing."

Therefore, to contribute to this thread, the idea is to call out what is positive to this thread. Which is what I did and what I will continue to do when I see shops that are just not worth doing.

Since you are asking me, for whatever reason, I would not accept a hit from a sub-prime lending company on my credit report because of the points unless the pay compensates for the lowered score. At $15, it does not. Also, let's just say something goes awry, my fault or not, and I end up paying 30% - 300% interest. Something I'm not interested in at all. These companies take advantage of desperate people, including many in our military. I just don't agree with that underground system.

You, can do whatever you want. Except keep calling me negative and telling me that I'm not supposed to comment on the shops that are just not worth taking. If you want to just go around talking about all the great stuff there is in mystery shopping then go ahead.

"Why so much negativity?" lol

Good point spice. Something could definitely go wrong and a shopper could end up with a crummy loan at x% all because of a $15 shop. These lenders will look to approve anyone and everyone at all cost and not answer the phone when there is a problem. I will not be accepting this shop if approved for it.

I think, though, for the One Financial, you may not need to actually get the loan. You may just need to inquire, it's over the phone, but they DO hit your credit report. I need to go and read all of the guidelines to know for sure.
So, maybe that one is ok for you?!

You realize that payday lenders don't check your credit even if you get the loan. Neither do they report to your credit when you pay it off. Or at least the 1 I did didn't.

I do agree that the shops are not worth doing though. They take a bit of time and then you have to go back to pay it off and they seem to want a bit of detail.

Hilarious side note though. I know nothing about this industry. So had no clue. So when I did the shop I thought, meh, I'm not gonna go back to pay it off, I'll just let them deposit the check. A whole lot easier.

Oooooooops. Apparently they don't actually deposit the check????

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

I'm now seeing shops for storage units. They want you to use a credit card to rent a unit, and then cancel it. The shop pays $15. Will this affect your credit score?

Does it affect your credit score when you go to Macy's and buy a shirt then return it?
No.

Why would it?

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

The One Main Financial checks your credit and it's not a soft check as I understand these.

@spicy1 A negative comment on a negative post does not make it positive

The tile: "Some shops are just not worth doing" should have been "Some shops are just not worth doing for me" because "worth" is subjective. There is absolutely zero reason to complain about a shop that you personally do not feel is worth it. Just don't do it. Ask the MSC for a higher fee. Whatever.

Something positive would be advice on how to make shops worth the time and/or money. But this thread is really about how MSC's should just pay shoppers more instead of anything that helps other shoppers learn how to be more successful. Please have fun ranting away.

I don't think OneMain is a payday lender. I wasn't commenting on them.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

@TroyHawkins wrote:

But this thread is really about how MSC's should just pay shoppers more instead of anything that helps other shoppers learn how to be more successful. Please have fun ranting away.

That's a much nicer way of putting it than I would have chosen.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

The two of you. You're just so amazing. Hold hands and take a bow. We can all use such inspiration and insightful messages, not only in shopping, but in our daily lives. I aspire to be like you, yet, humbly, know that, truly, (as I bow my head in sadness and shame) in my heart of hearts, I could never achieve such an achievable dream. Nevertheless, please continue to lay the cobblestone path, brick by brick if need be, so that, at least, I have hope.

You know there are people on this site who are constantly complaining. Complaining that fees aren't high enough, or that shops aren't plentiful enough, or MSCs are too hard to get along with. Or whatever other barriers they can throw up in order to make themselves feel better about why they're not successful in this business. There are two types of those people. There's the types that just don't have the ability to do this. Either they're not intelligent enough or too lazy or just expect everything to be given to them. Those people are just kind of annoying in their own right, but it's just whatever. You understand why they're doing it. Then there's the type that aren't those. They're smart enough and they work hard but for some reason they fall into that trap of being negative about everything. I'm not sure if it's just that they have a negative personality or they're angry about something, or what. Those I just don't understand.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

Not the mama! Not the mama!

I LOVED that show!

I hear ya. The disregard with which we are treated is, for me, the worst part of this work. I feel as though we take the employees seriously, taking care with their evaluations, and we work hard on our reports, and then poof! Something like what just happened to you occurs. I think the lack of accountability inside the MSC is a big part of the problem. I wish I could whittle my client list down just to the ones who won't do this. Being out cash, in particular, on a bar shop or other expensive shop, only to have it excluded for an issue beyond your control (such as taking photos being too risky but being willing to spend an extra hour on detailed descriptions and full receipt backup), or that reflects common sense, is why I feel devalued sometimes in this work.

Doing my best, every day

Well yeah, if you don’t feel valued enough by an MSC, don’t work for them. No one’s making you. Just like no one’s making you accept a shop that requires pictures. How you manage to meet the requirements and figure out a way to get the pictures you committed to is entirely on the shopper. Don’t pass blame to the MSC if they don’t accept a shop when you failed to meet the requirements.

What great advice. I mean, talking about nothing, sorry, absolutely nothing, except having no advice but to not do something if you don't like it, in response to someone else's valid concern, because that is the only advice that someone has to give, especially having been here 6 months is a one trick pony that no one wants to ride except for the other one trick ponies, see proof above.

The harsh tone of this forum is weird. Are we here to be competitive and snarky with each other, or to have a place to vent and give support? Would you talk that way to my face?
I've grown resigned to being trolled on Twitter, but here? Jeez, SoCal, learn to meditate, get therapy, and some help for your aggression issues.

Doing my best, every day

Shosh, I joined a few months ago. Your perspective is shared - It's definitely a negative/often juvenile vibe quite different from most forums. I noticed it right from the start. I don't need or care for venting/support as much as I do exchanging data/experience. All I can suggest is to take what info is useful and leave the rest. The rest is a rabbit hole you don't want to go down, IMO. There are other shopping discussion groups that are about data exchange.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/2018 04:31PM by BarefootBliss.

Where are the other shopping discussion groups that are about data exchange? I could only find volition which is not active.

Facebook

Thanks! You're spot on, the data and information exchange would be the most valuable. I'll look on Facebook

Doing my best, every day

Data and information exchange is here. Facebook has a few pages for sure, but nothing like this site!

@Shoshi99 wrote:

The harsh tone of this forum is weird. Are we here to be competitive and snarky with each other, or to have a place to vent and give support? Would you talk that way to my face?

We are here to exchange information. I'm all for exchanging information. I give freely of a lot of information. What I am not here for is b****ing and complaining. Here we have a whole thread simply of people complaining about shops. Complaining about shop fees or requirements is a waste of energy. It wastes the poster's energy typing it up and it waste's the reader's energy to read the negativity. There are some of us who aren't into negativity. Our thought is get past it and move on to something positive. Then you come in here and compound the negativity and then complain that WE have a harsh tone. I'm sorry, negative is always harsher than positive. But if you want to read it that way, go for it.

And to answer your question, if we were at a conference and a group of us were standing around talking and you started going on about how this shop didn't pay enough and that shop had stupid requirements I would tell you to find other shops to do and I would tell you that directly.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

@Shoshi99 wrote:

Are we here to be competitive and snarky with each other, or to have a place to vent and give support?

Venting is not the same as complaining about an MSC because you couldn't figure out how to meet the shop requirements. That's called transference. Did you want support? What issues prevented you from taking the pictures you referred too? Plenty of shoppers are more than happy to offer advice and suggestions.

@Shoshi99 wrote:

Would you talk that way to my face?

Yes, I would. Although I doubt I would be as polite in person. Especially if you started talking about how poorly MSC's treat you, then use an example where you didn't meet the shop requirements.

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