@Msaddict wrote:
They should lower their own pay not ours.
I've seen several clients being shopped by more than one MSC, obviously trying out other MSCs. Client companies are squeezed and they are looking for ways to reduce their costs. Many have stopped their shopper programs. Some are looking for the same mystery shopping program cheaper. In some cases, in order to keep the client, the MSC has had to lower the fee the client pays. In some cases MSCs have lowered their own pay AND also lowered the shopper pay. Ardent recently had their burger client shop with another company that paid less to shoppers .... I shopped both companies and I can tell you I am glad Ardent kept the client. To keep the client, Ardent lowered their own pay and lowered shopper pay $3. Shopper pay is now $18 instead of $21.
Of course, we don't know how much any MSC makes from any client, so we will never know how much they did or did not lower their own pay. And, there is such an overload of shoppers and so much competition in many areas, lowering pay will likely not keep them from filling the jobs. There will still be shops they have to bonus but most shops will get filled by shoppers at the offered fee. Supply and demand. Many fees have been the same for 10 years or longer. Many are lower than they were 10 years ago. Many clients are no longer shopped.
Once the internet really opened up to everyone, it was a lot easier for MSCs to get a lot more shoppers....and it gets easier for them every day to find people who want to make a little money ..... mystery shopping looks to most casual browsers like easy money. As long as there are a lot of shoppers willing to take the shops, fees will stay the same and some will go lower. If some shoppers decide the pay is too low and stop mystery shopping, there will always be a huge number of new potential shoppers available who can easily sign up on an internet website and accept jobs immediately with no requirement for any education or experience and no verification of anything the new shopper says. Mystery shoppers are easy to get, cost the company virtually nothing because the new shopper comes to their website and signs up and the company verifies nothing but social security number, Mystery shopping assignments are easy to get and to most companies, shoppers are worth very little. Like buses - there's always another one coming along.