Perhaps MS is not worth for you period Lol

Well if you are not happy then go do something else and quit bring us down with all of your negativity.

Me? This thread ia called:

" Some Shops Are Just Not Worth Doing." To contribute, one would need to note the negative. Perfect for your perception of me, yes!?

I see you've joined the "gang". What do you get, like a Merit badge or something? Who, exactly, do you think "Us" is, anyway?

People on here are just stating the facts. Pay has gotten so low, many shops are not worth doing. They have the right to express their opinion.

The client will actually be reviewing the tape for a shop I did on Saturday night. MSC called to confirm that I actually stayed for the amount of time that I stated.

Good thing I didn’t go wait in the car.

... and that my friends is why I make the big bucks. Integrity.

I'm now holding off on the burger shops. Even though one shop is just across the street from me. I want more than $7.

@Jill_L wrote:

Don't you get a bad shopper rating when you cancel?

I try to never cancel, because I have found it to be sooo detrimental. I think part of the problem is that we mystery shoppers are strangers on the other side of a screen who are working for pretty low pay, and they do not know us and do not always respect us. (not always the case, but often it seems like that)

Once, years ago, I cancelled two shops for Intelli because I got into a car accident while doing the shops. I got two "flake" citations. Those were the only shops I ever cancelled! I have since picked up shops in which they were desperate for a shopper to pick up, and have said, "if I take this shop, will you remove the "flake" citation?" They say that they will remove it, but it never goes away....waaaah!! :'(

When I see that particular scheduler, though, I never take the shops, no matter what they are.

Intellishop still has a flake on one of my shops from 3 years ago. They won't remove it. Even all of my shops are 9 and 10. It doesn't matter. I still get shops and I still get paid.

@johnb974 wrote:

I'm now holding off on the burger shops. Even though one shop is just across the street from me. I want more than $7.

Is someone telling you to do shops that don’t pay you what you think your time is worth?

@TroyHawkins wrote:

@johnb974 wrote:

I'm now holding off on the burger shops. Even though one shop is just across the street from me. I want more than $7.

Is someone telling you to do shops that don’t pay you what you think your time is worth?

Why do a shop for $7 when you know in time they will raise it to $10 or $12. It appears some shops in my area are not getting done, because there's no one here doing them. I'm surprised at the number of pizza shops I get because they are not being taken, even with a bonus. I get calls asking me to take the shops.

There is always, always a bonus on the table if you are signed up with enough msp. Me too, just out of stubborn principle, I don't take the pizza shop with no fee even though I could walk there in a few minutes. If it was Pizza Hut, awayyyyyy I would go! Oh, my poor little Pizza Hut is such a tiny hut now.

i don't take online shops, but hubby did a few wks ago: $150. WITH $150. bonus!! shocking! I leave the online ones usually for older adults and handicapped persons.

@johnb974 - I would do a $7 flat fee burger shop if I was in the area on one of my routes. It's basically free food, plus a couple dollars for gas. And the report will be done before I'm finished eating. I wouldn't go out of my way for it, but if it fits into my schedule, it doesn't matter if you were waiting for it to get a bonus. Just because a shop is not worth it to YOU does not mean it isn't worth it to someone else.

I'm sure it would be worth it to someone else. I've eaten there so many times, I don't mind waiting.

Sad to think, I'm sure there are some shoppers who do fast food and other restaurants, because they could not normally afford to eat out. Sad state of this economy when you cannot even afford to eat out at fast food places.

How would someone who can’t afford to eat out be able to afford to wait to be reimbursed? Shoppers who are that bad off financially are not doing shops where they have to pay.

@TroyHawkins wrote:

How would someone who can’t afford to eat out be able to afford to wait to be reimbursed? Shoppers who are that bad off financially are not doing shops where they have to pay.

I did that when I was struggling to make ends meet a few years ago. I could spend $12 on a burger shop, knowing I would get the $12 back, plus the fee. It also cut down on my food bill. As a single person I was able to do this.

If you were comfortable tying up $12 with the chance of not being reimbursed, you weren't that bad off. And you definitely did not save money on food because $12 still buys a lot more at the grocery store than at a burger joint.

If it is the MSP I know of that has $12 burger shops, they are reliable about paying and reimbursing every month like clockwork, as long as you follow the simple shop guidelines. Plus the shopper gets the fee plus the $12 returned. The burgers are good sized, and you can pile up so any toppings that one burger plus fries can last at least two meals. (If the location also gave free refills on drinks, that's an extra drink to go with the second meal.) I can see how a struggling single, who ordinarily couldn't afford to eat out, would benefit from doing this, especially if they really liked those burgers.

@Susan L. wrote:

If it is the MSP I know of that has $12 burger shops, they are reliable about paying and reimbursing every month like clockwork, as long as you follow the simple shop guidelines. Plus the shopper gets the fee plus the $12 returned. The burgers are good sized, and you can pile up so any toppings that one burger plus fries can last at least two meals. (If the location also gave free refills on drinks, that's an extra drink to go with the second meal.) I can see how a struggling single, who ordinarily couldn't afford to eat out, would benefit from doing this, especially if they really liked those burgers.

That is what I did. I have never paid for another burger there again. I always got my money back. I've done this with many places I go out to eat. Whatever I paid for the meal, I got my money back. Saved me a lot of money on my food bill.

I don't do bed shops under $25.00. I like to do them, but they are time consuming. 45 minutes at the store, usually an hour of detailed writing.

Tru, the mattress shops, plus you can only rotate 6 months or more and no one else in the store freaks me out.

I had 5 shops with 10's. I did a car dealership shop. Filled the report and waited what I thought was three days. I did not count Saturday as 1 of the days. i planned on finishing it. They took it off, then added two 1's and a flake citation. The email was TeamTopGun. I never got a response. I have not applied for a shop with them.

They're a low ball outfit. Bonused shops are the only one worth doing. Trust no one at Intellishop.

One shop I could not see doing was for a cell phone audit. Not a mystery shop. but an audit. It paid $10, BUT you have to agree not to return to the shop for at least 6 months. The same store could be done by two different companies. Why would anyone reveal themselves as a mystery shopper for a $10 shop?

The storag-insurance shoos out niw, you can only do one. For a grand total if $12. Sign up, read the guidelines, travel, do shop, cancel purchase, do report. funny

@spicy1 wrote:

The storag-insurance shoos out niw, you can only do one. For a grand total if $12. Sign up, read the guidelines, travel, do shop, cancel purchase, do report. funny

I won't touch those shops. Way too much work for the low pay. It use to be $12 just to go in and ask about renting a storage unit.

I see my phone typing while driving is terrible.

I mean, I would do it if I could do 12 of them in one day. Just one? No way.

I did IKEA for years. I put up with the long narratives and wait months to be paid because I like the store and is 5 minutes from my house. Always got scores of 10 and high praise. I never had a problem. When they offered $100 I jumped on it.The new format is okay. The SASSIE has a glitch. I completed it, submitted it, and saved a pdf copy. Days later I get an incomplete. Many narratives were bllank and the receipt attachments were blank. Thank god I saved that pdf. I know it was all there, there were no red “oops” incompletes. I opened and viewed it before submitting it. Everything was fine. I contacted them and they replied that I had to remember to save it before every 30 minutes. I replied that I would complete it again, but could they please see if they could look in the system and find it. Too many hours were put into doing this but for the $100 pressed on. I have received an email that it has been rejected and I will not be paid. I did not get all the co-workers names. I gave detailed descriptions and good reasons why I did not get them and that has always been accepted in my past audits. I write terrific narratives and take pride in my work. In the furniture department the co-worker was taking care of a 4 customers alone, He jumped back and forth between us doing a great job while 2 other staff hung out by the kiosk talking to each other. He closed a sale with me and was going to write it up. I wasn’t about to waste his time so I said I’d return in an hour when things were quieter. I wrote that as the reason for not having it written up and also gave high praise for that mans customer service. Rationales have been acceptable in the past. The Mystery Shop company also said it was late! It dissapeared into the SASSIE stratosphere that’s why. Things are different this year at this company. It was a beautiful report. Too beautiful to just discard. 10 foot pole my friends. Where does the $100 go?

@Cricut157 wrote:

I have only been mystery shopping for about two months and already pass over a lot of shops because of the pay. This is a sideline gig for me to earn some fun money to splurge on extra craft supplies or something indulgent. I have already stopped doing grocery shops, the reports are too long and you have to ask a lot of silly questions that surely give you away as a mystery shopper. Some of the lunch spots I pass on because they ask for far too many times and the reports are excessively long.
None of the shops pay enough for anyone who is trying to make a living particularly when you consider what you will pay in taxes at the end of the year. My opinion is that mystery shopping is a good way to have a few free meals and to pick up some extra spending money without being tied down to a 9 to 5 job.

Exactly! Given the usual pay scale, I have always considered MSing to be a hobby that happens to bring in a few bucks. Even so, I have long since stopped allowing myself to be taken advantage of by those assignments that offer truly insulting "compensation."

If we look at it with the same pessimism... Most "real jobs" paying up to 50k per year are not worth it after uncle Sam and expenses are said and done. Mystery shopping has to be managed very well for it to be a profitable and worthwhile hobby. Taxes are part of the game and that can be managed also. Remember taxes are a suggested law and they can be manipulated with loopholes, the wealthy do it all the time and so can we. Picking and choosing mscs and jobs is another thing that requires strategy. Put the time into spreadsheets and planning upfront and it can be very worthwhile in the end.

@jlovesnyc wrote:

If we look at it with the same pessimism... Most "real jobs" paying up to 50k per year are not worth it after uncle Sam and expenses are said and done. Mystery shopping has to be managed very well for it to be a profitable and worthwhile hobby. Taxes are part of the game and that can be managed also. Remember taxes are a suggested law and they can be manipulated with loopholes, the wealthy do it all the time and so can we. Picking and choosing mscs and jobs is another thing that requires strategy. Put the time into spreadsheets and planning upfront and it can be very worthwhile in the end.

Would you please quote your source for your statement: "taxes are a suggested law..."?