GigWalk, Field Agent, Mobee, Presto, etc.

I will preface this post with two things. I conduct 200-300 regular mystery shops a month and have done so each month for about six years now. Out of those thousands of shops, I have had exactly two rejected for different reasons.

The first was because the MSC gave wrong cross streets and landmarks. I went to the McDonald's next to the landmark at those cross streets when the actual McDonald's they wanted shopped was more than 20 miles away. My bad for not verifying the address. The second was I uploaded the wrong photo by error. It was a "no corrections allowed" shop so my bad also.

I've also made some good money and gift cards doing what I call "microshops" with the above companies. But they or their "clients" are getting on my last nerve, rejecting shops for reasons that don't seem to make sense. It's the same "clients" over and over. I'm starting to think there is some scamming going on and that they are using the photos I submit but don't want to pay up.

Anyone else?

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Which of these apps have given you this problem? All of them? Just wondering because I have yet to use them except one...Presto. I did some of the $5 menu board pics and was pleasantly surprised that they paid me for all of them. The pricing digits were just about impossible to read on most of my pics!

My first ever shops were with Field Agent. I had a few rejected for no good reason. One was for a drug store that wanted pictures of a hair dye computer. I did what I was supposed to do. The other was for a large retailer. I interacted with seven people. The one at the self-check out had their badge turned around. I took a picture of the area and gave a description of the person. They didn't take it since I didn't check N/A for name, but chose "no" and gave the other information. I do think Field Agent is a scam to some degree with things like this, you can spend an hour doing something and they will reject a shop for no good reason. I have a high rating with them, but they are the only ones who have ever rejected shops like this. And, they pay next to nothing.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/30/2018 12:14PM by Niner.

I used to field agent and gigwalk a lot before I found mystery shopping... I found them to pay so lousy that I stopped altogether once I had enough shops to do that I didn’t need the money from any of them... I will say I never had a job rejected by field agent but I know a ton of people that did.. I did have a gigwalk shop rejected because they wanted me to go back and take more photos when they had all that were requested and I refused because the extra ones they never asked for originally...they might be worse now as I quit working for them about 2 years ago....

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/30/2018 01:38PM by Lissymaree.

I just received a $50 MasterCard yesterday from Mobee. Some of their jobs are easy, some not worth the time. I also use Field Agent occasionally and Easy Shift. I do their beer shifts which pay fairly well and quick. It adds some $$ to my monthly budget, but ya sure won't get rich with them.

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The more I learn about people...the more I like my dog..

Mark Twain

I do jobs for Field Agent and Mobee on a regular basis. I only do them as fillers if I’m going to be in or near the store. I’ve had a few jobs rejected by Mobee which I have challenged. I give them credit for communicating with me in detail about what went wrong. In some cases they have actually paid me as a courtesy because I have done so many other shops for them. Usually the problem is because the instructions, in my mind, were not clear as to what was required. Sometimes I have to guess exactly what picture is required or what the question means. However in general I do them if I have time between other jobs and I’m in the area.

I have only done 3 Field Agent shops. The last one I did said to specifically get a picture of the cart storage area. The cart storage area was outside the store, so I took a photo of it. The assignment was not paid because all my photos weren't "taken inside the store". Well. If I hadn't included a photo of the carts being stored, it would have been denied for not having the cart storage photo. Heads we win, tails you lose.

I think I'm confused because I'm so used to having someone to ask questions of if I'm confused by directions; is there some place on Field Agent where you can contact them if you just plain don't understand the directions?

And I'm not very app proficient (what a surprise, LOL!!!)

The problem with these apps is that you cannot see the questions ahead of time. Once you are at the location I’m not aware of how you could contact them for onsite help. Sometimes the same project is repeated so in that case you can be better prepared for the second and subsequent visits.

I did quite a few Gigwalk shops before I got serious about mystery shopping. These days I only do them if I'm already going to the store where the gig is located, or if I find myself in an area far from home doing other shops and have some time left. What I like about Gigwalk is that there is no downloading of guidelines, etc. You just agree to do the shop and the app walks you through it. They don't pay a lot but they usually only take five to fifteen minutes. I won't do any that require interaction with an associate because they usually don't pay enough for that. I do the ones that want a quick product check and a few photos. I've never had any rejected. (I wish that was true of all the companies I work for.) The very best thing about Gigwalk is that they pay via Paypal the same day as the shop or the very next day. (The faq's say that they can pay up to, I think, fourteen days after the shop, but that's only happened to me once.)
I have Field Agent on my phone but haven't yet found a shop that I would be willing to do for what they pay.

I have a question about Presto. What does, "Reason provided by the reviewer:
"Excluded with closed location fee" mean? I did a job this past week for Presto and another MCP. The business was closed for good but, another business was operating in the location. I went in and even got a business card from the current business to show the address and that the past business is no longer there. I took pictures of the existing business. I even talked to the current business owner and was told that the business I am looking for is closed and been closed for a while. I did everything I knew to do to prove that the business no longer exists. Yet, it was rejected. I have appealed twice and haven't heard a thing...crickets. I am pretty upset and don't know how to talk to a person to get a clear understanding of why they are refusing to pay me for my hard work.

Shopping Arkansas, Louisiana, & Mississippi.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/01/2018 01:11PM by ArkLaMissshopping.

@ArkLaMissshopping wrote:

I have a question about Presto. What does, "Reason provided by the reviewer:
"Excluded with closed location fee" mean? I did a job this past week for Presto and another MCP. The business was closed for good but, another business was operating in the location. I went in and even got a business card from the current business to show the address and that the past business is no longer there. I took pictures of the existing business. I even talked to the current business owner and was told that the business I am looking for is closed and been closed for a while. I did everything I knew to do to prove that the business no longer exists. Yet, it was rejected. I have appealed twice and haven't heard a thing...crickets. I am pretty upset and don't know how to talk to a person to get a clear understanding of why they are refusing to pay me for my hard work.

Actually, it's pretty standard -- you will get paid whatever the "closed location" fee is.

But I may be wrong.

Well, I found out what it meant. They finally replied to the appeal. They stated I would be paid but, it was excluded on their side to keep the internal quota data correct. I don't understand why they couldn't just send a simple email stating this when they rejected the report. I will get paid for the full amount, not a closed location fee. I didn't see anything on the instructions about being paid for a closed fee so, I didn't feel they rejected it and would have paid a closed fee. Thanks for replying to me ceasesmith. You're great!

Shopping Arkansas, Louisiana, & Mississippi.

I do those photo audits where you go into a business to see if they carry the specific item, check the quantity, and take photos. I don't do the interactions with associates, restocking, resets or the reordering. Yes, the fees are low but I do the shops as a filler, when I can squeeze it in as a last minute shop or to help pay for gas costs since no purchase is required and does not have any lengthy narratives.

I've done Field Agent for a couple months now and it has it's pros and cons. I don't like how they mostly will give you 2 hours to complete a job. I have a 9-5 job and I would like to be able to accept the job so that I can do it when I get off. But other than that, it's ok. I also like to do ProductTube as an extra 'fill-in'. You make videos in stores and talk about the product or whatever they are asking you to look at. They only pay in gift cards though so I do Amazon. But I've done about 9 or 10 videos and have made about 200 bucks in Amazon gc's. I actually don't like to talk while I am in the store and recording because of other people that are around so I actually just film everything and use an app called Splice to overdub it with my voice - like narration. It's A LOT easier. Anyways, just wanted to throw in my two cents

Vanguard. Do you use the recording app in Product tube and save it somehow before you overdub it with Splice. I have a shop coming up and am brand new to this app. Not sure of the process required to overdub the video with voice. Thanks.

I just got a $10 bonus from Field Agent. Apparently earned for doing so many shops. I didn’t even know it was coming. Nice way to do business.

Mobee currently has many shops posted at well under 200 points ($2). I’m not doing any of those even if I’m in the store.

And with those Mobee shops you need to talk to an employee. I don't talk to an employee for $2.

I've done quite a few jobs for FA. I did get denied for one. They provided an explanation for why I was denied. I replied back, and they paid me 50% of the bounty. They responded really quickly.

Just did one of those Buy & Try products on Field Agent. FA informed me that they liked my comments and my comments would be posted in an article!

FA is starting to grow on me. I hated it at first - but have actually been making pretty decent earnings over the last two months.

I had one disreputable company reject my shop report because their System Quality Control Software reported that I had used an old photo in a recent shop. I was livid. I had never gone to that location before and I told them so. Then, they changed the shop in reference to another shop I had done that day. Again, I was furious and told them that I do not reuse photos. All of this was before HUMAN EYES had ever looked at my report. I told them I expected to be paid because I had driven over 100 miles to do those shops. I said that I was going to send my photos to the shopped company to see if they had received them on the report. (I did not and really had no idea of how to do it) Only then did they say they were going to pay me but because I was so unprofessional I was going to be banned from shopping for them. (No sleep lost over this)
From my perspective, they were calling me a liar and a thief because that is what someone would be if they tried to get paid for work they did not do. So, what do you call a company that reversed its rejection of a shop when they were called out and found out for using stolen photos?

Anitaplatt - Which company was it? Since you didn’t mention the client it’s ok to give the name of the company. This thread covers several companies so to be fair, which one is it?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/16/2019 12:20AM by kenasch.

FA rejected shops for innocous reasons. I went to one location, took the picture and chose from a drop down list what sort of building the store was in. This building was in an industrial park so I chose converted warehouse. It was. It was rejected because FA insisted it was a retail location. I went back and forth with them on that for a bit but they finally said we are right, you are wrong.

I haven’t worked for them since.

I’ve been doing these for years. At this point in the game, you have to be selective. I check EasyShift often but rarely do shifts any more, whereas I used to do them all the time. Trying to be inconspicuous while taking up and down section photos is NEVER worth the pay, and that seems to be what 75% of the shifts are nowadays. Back in the day, I loved some on shelf availability shifts but those seem to be rare now. I may do one or two a year.

Gigwalk is still good but I have a lot of trouble with the app or no gigs available.

I love FA but the types of jobs have changed and you really have to be selective. Buy & Try’s are awesome. And, the high price “skin” notebook “mystery shop” the other day may have been one of the best I’ve ever done when you factor in ease and product reimbursement. I would never do a mystery shop for $3 or $5 (can’t remember which one) except this one was sooo worth it. If it had been a regular mystery shop the report would’ve been at least 5 pages and no fee at all. I like the pickups too if people let them sit and the fees go up.

I deleted Mobee a looong time ago, though for a moment I did get a few gift cards from it.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/10/2019 11:06PM by MarionS.

Marion. You might want to edit your post as I believe you revealed one of the FA clients by name.

@kenasch wrote:

Marion. You might want to edit your post as I believe you revealed one of the FA clients by name.

I didn’t notice the second one but you may or may not be right so I went ahead and edited it. Thanks for pointing it out. I accidentally did it on the other one but realized it almost immediately, though I’m still not entirely sure it counts because I didn’t mention the actual store l, which may or may not have been the client, and really it’s more like an audit. It gets tricky when you aren’t talking about traditional mystery shopping. These jobs get talked about all the time in detail on the EasyShift forum as well, but it’s not exactly public, though all you have to do is sign up on the app to view it. Better safe than sorry though.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/10/2019 11:14PM by MarionS.

I love the FA recycling audits. They only pay $3 or $4 but they take less than 5 minures and I usually don't have to get out of the car. They are great add-ins when I am already out and about.

As anyone been assigned a FA pizza shop? They appear from time to time but cannot be reserved until 3pm. When I go back to the app to select one at 3 pm they are gone. Sometimes they even disappear before 3 pm. I’m guessing they only have a few of these shops to fill countrywide and when they get their quota they pull the rest. So the chance of getting one on the Westcoast due to the time difference is apparently impossible. But I’m only guessing.

I did one of their pizza shops. You just have to check often. Things come and go at a rapid pace.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/07/2019 09:18PM by Niner.

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