When I go out to TXRH with my husband, we will stop at the coffee shop afterward. We will then drive around and chat for a while as we sip our coffee. IDK why, but driving around is sort of a "bonding time" for us. We can talk in the car (kids at home) about stuff concerning the kids, etc. It's relaxing for him to drive and relaxing for me to sit in the passenger seat. And it's a great time to talk with no interruptions. Or to just listen to the radio and have it be silent otherwise.

When we do this, I take my laptop and work on the major parts of the report (narratives, uploading receipt) while driving around. Very little work to do when we get home....And I take a long time to "work," as we are talking and so I have to "save" often, but it's relaxing

For the most part, I like doing my reports ASAP. Having them hang over your head is just more stress.

Bowling and car dealership reports are a pain in the ar**. I stopped doing both of them due to lengthy reports. While the whole family is ready for a nap after a good game of bowling, Mum is stuck with receipts, reports and a bad craving for tea. By the time I am finished with the report, DD starts asking for dinner or wants to go outside for "more fun." DH always goes for a nap so I am stuck doing everything. I realized they were not worth my time.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/26/2018 02:24PM by Mum.

@Mum wrote:

Bowling and car dealership reports are a pain in the ar**. I stopped doing both of them due to lengthy reports. While the whole family is ready for a nap after a good game of bowling, Mum is stuck with receipts, reports and a bad craving for tea. By the time I am finished with the report, DD starts asking for dinner or wants to go outside for "more fun." DH always goes for a nap so I am stuck doing everything. I realized they were not worth my time.

I used to use "fun" shop outings as my leisure time, but realized the reports were ruining them and stopped doing that. I still take my own time to pay for a movie or go out to eat with fam/friends. It's true, it comes out of your own pocket, but I get the full relaxation time for my mind/body/spirit. That recharges me properly.

When doing a "fun" shop for money, there's this unnatural break in the joy I feel and I know I'm still having to work. I do them still for the benefit of family, so that they can enjoy. But I, myself, don't get the same enjoyment. I realized this after many of these "fun" shops. It's still work! And it interrupts my much needed relaxation.

There are only TWO exceptions:

Five Guys (super easy report)
Chili's (super easy report as well)

Although, FG has that super narrow reporting window. Have seen my report disappear many times and had to frantically ask for it back.

@Jill_L wrote:

When I go out to TXRH with my husband, we will stop at the coffee shop afterward. We will then drive around and chat for a while as we sip our coffee. IDK why, but driving around is sort of a "bonding time" for us. We can talk in the car (kids at home) about stuff concerning the kids, etc. It's relaxing for him to drive and relaxing for me to sit in the passenger seat. And it's a great time to talk with no interruptions. Or to just listen to the radio and have it be silent otherwise.

When we do this, I take my laptop and work on the major parts of the report (narratives, uploading receipt) while driving around. Very little work to do when we get home....And I take a long time to "work," as we are talking and so I have to "save" often, but it's relaxing

For the most part, I like doing my reports ASAP. Having them hang over your head is just more stress.

That's a really cool idea. I could give that a try sometime.

One thing I might be doing is trying too hard on my reports. I dunno. I was always told to do your best on everything you did at a job. It's also a guilt thing to me if I feel I write in a quick report that ddin't give as many details as could benefit the client. So, I put a lot of pressure on myself. But, maybe I'm overthinking things and overdoing things sometimes. I dunno.

For now, I'm going to work on speed w/o compromising quality. I'll give your idea a try sometime maybe. But, I still obviously like just going out on my own dime and not having to worry about ANY work afterwards. My body needs it or else I'll burn out.

I don't do movies, as I love going and want to concentrate on the movie, not counting heads. I find that enjoyment should not be interrupted. I recently saw "A Star Is Born", the music was amazing, so glad I had no interruptions. The money really isn't enough, of course, it's never enough here in L.A. where bonus's are nill.

I only do car sales shops for a "no haggle, no pressure" client that pay very well, take 60-70 minutes on site and have a quick and easy report. Of course, if the SA is terrible, the report is a total drag, but that seldom happens with that client. This local family of dealerships permit one shop per month and has about 10 locations so provides steady income.

Otherwise, the times when I really go into "report revolt" are always when struggling overnight with just how to best phrase a highly negative report. I want to avoid writing that report with a flame-thrower, after all.

@walesmaven wrote:

I only do car sales shops for a "no haggle, no pressure" client that pay very well, take 60-70 minutes on site and have a quick and easy report. Of course, if the SA is terrible, the report is a total drag, but that seldom happens with that client. This local family of dealerships permit one shop per month and has about 10 locations so provides steady income.

Otherwise, the times when I really go into "report revolt" are always when struggling overnight with just how to best phrase a highly negative report. I want to avoid writing that report with a flame-thrower, after all.

RE: car sales shops, I hope these are for at least $40.

I remember one of my first shops a few years ago, I took a car sales shop + test drive that paid $12 and the report took a disproportionate amount of time for the pay... I was disappointed and was appalled that people were taking these. It's at least an hour visit with an hour report. That's less than $3 an hour!

The ones I do are $75 plus up to $12 for mileage to and from the dealer. I'm fussy, lol.

I agree about dealership's, I will do them for 60.00 (lowest) and we have them in my town on Auto row. I'm doing an AARP today for 50.00, which is fair, as I did one for another MSC for 34.00. This one is a bit more involved, but their paying and (again) it's in my town. I did a Tesla for 75.00, lots of work and driving. I remember when starting, I didn't want to turn anything down, and did a dealership for 17.00.....I learned fast, driving is time and gas, so I stick to my town, everything is 2/3 miles....

I still do movie shops for Bestmark. Just saw the "Bigfoot." The reports are brief and to the point. No names necessary and only ticket stubs are uploaded as proof of visit.

I never saw a movie shop for Bestmark, and now I don't work for them...they only had auto repairs for american cars, of which I don't have.

I'm 100% female.

I don't do the movie shops much anymore. Too much work. I would rather pay for the movie and just walk in and watch it.

Better yet, wait until it comes out on DVD and rent it (or on Netflix for those of you who have that).

@Mum wrote:

I still do movie shops for Bestmark. Just saw the "Bigfoot." The reports are brief and to the point. No names necessary and only ticket stubs are uploaded as proof of visit.

What types of requirements are there for them (any movie shop w/ any cmopany)?

I signed up for one once, but cancelled it right away due to doctor's appt. conflict. Never even saw the guidelines yet.

I know there are some where it's buy a ticket and go to test the concessions stand customer service. On the surface, that sounded pretty nice. Free movie + free food. I never can add movie shops, b/c like TXRH, they get shapped up within minutes of posting. Seriously, how do people get them so fast?!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/26/2018 06:46PM by shoptastic.

@shoptastic They need you to buy two tickets, a small popcorn and 2 small cokes. They don't want the receipt for the Concession since it's not provided sometimes by the team members. All they want is the two stubs. If you are on rotation for Bestmark, you will have a movie shop every 3 months. The report is not long and no long narratives are required. I have done about 5 or 6 by now and the movie theater (that Bestmark shops) is pretty nice! Better than your average theater.

I have done many movie shops with full ticket reimbursement and a high reimbursement for food. No counting, no names, no buy an R ticket and wait and see. Love them!

I didn't mind an occasional movie matinee at Regal with my husband or his mom or his grandma when I was not doing a whole lot of anything else. But that's the trick...weekday matinee. I usually only had to count 5-10 people, which is a whole lot easier than counting a full theater. It's been a few years since I did a movie theater shop. There's really nothing worth seeing, usually.

I actually love writing reports and I'm really good at the narrative. It's the report structures that really IRK me and what can be a peeve of mine. I hate it when you have a bunch of timings but can't just type in the numbers, you have to select from a drop down or a wheel of numbers. It takes five times as long. Just let me write the freaking numbers, already. I also hate when you have to break up a naturally flowing narrative because the questions are all over the place. I also dislike having to write a bunch of mini narratives which basically says everything but also having to do and "overall" narrative at the bottom.

The other thing that bugs me is when shops are due in 12 hours. Especially if I did a group of shops that day or it was a shop that ended later in the evening e.g. a fine dining shop. I always ask for extra time.

By all means make sure that you have an extension to the report deadline as often as you think you will want one. A lot of schedulers have gotten to know that I write much better reports early in the AM than late afternoon or evening! Really good schedulers are trainable !!

I love bowling!!!! I used to bowl in legues when I was younger

@Hoju wrote:

I don’t mind reports when the report is well structured and organized and doesn’t ask stupid questions repeatedly. I’m looking at you, TrueGuest.

I'm not familiar with TrueGuest (maybe it's a company back East), but I definitely felt that way after submitting 3 Shared Insight reports today. Yes, I think that maybe websites/forms that are so poorly designed that it appears their main purpose is to make more work and difficulty for the shopper to submit the shop are worse than having to write long reports.

@shoptastic,

I also think I take far too long on reports. It's rare that I get a report done in less than half an hour (even "easy" ones) because I check and re check....I feel the same way: anything my name is associated with has to be as good as I can possibly do it.

That said, there have been a few times when I have been too darn exhausted to finish a report...out all day and then reporting late into the night. Those reports CAN end up being quick and less detailed. Once or twice, I've let the less detailed report go through. Mostly, though I try to email the scheduler and just say that I have to get some sleep and will do it in the morning so that the report will be done well. I don't think I've ever had an issue with a scheduler in that case. They know the shop is done. They know I plan to report. In those cases, I will usually "start" the report and "save" it, because I think with just a receipt attached or a small bit of the questions answered, they know you've already invested time (I think they can tell that you've started, but not sure)

There have been times when I've done parts of a report and saved...more parts a little later and saved....more parts a little later and completed the report...and my grade comes back within a few minutes, so I'm pretty sure that at least the editor is looking through the reports as a shopper is "saving."

When I was shopping a lot a few years ago, I would do a lot of the "fun" shops at major attractions. It got really hard, though, to enjoy the time at the attraction. I would have to run into the bathroom 15 times during the day to jot notes (very hard to do when you're in a swimsuit at a water park....lol)

The reports really did ruin it for me and I stopped doing those shops for a looooong time. Just did one a couple weeks ago and it was more enjoyable because my kids are older. So instead of caring for little kids AND trying to do the shop, I incorporated my older kids in helping me read name tags, etc.

@AZwolfman wrote:

@Hoju wrote:

I don’t mind reports when the report is well structured and organized and doesn’t ask stupid questions repeatedly. I’m looking at you, TrueGuest.

I'm not familiar with TrueGuest (maybe it's a company back East), but I definitely felt that way after submitting 3 Shared Insight reports today. Yes, I think that maybe websites/forms that are so poorly designed that it appears their main purpose is to make more work and difficulty for the shopper to submit the shop are worse than having to write long reports.

The last time they called me I told them I still had not forgotten how long the reports were.

The last time they called me I asked if Roldan was still working there. That’s my deal breaker.

I like this 15x!

@crayon wrote:

I actually love writing reports and I'm really good at the narrative. It's the report structures that really IRK me and what can be a peeve of mine. I hate it when you have a bunch of timings but can't just type in the numbers, you have to select from a drop down or a wheel of numbers. It takes five times as long. Just let me write the freaking numbers, already. I also hate when you have to break up a naturally flowing narrative because the questions are all over the place. I also dislike having to write a bunch of mini narratives which basically says everything but also having to do and "overall" narrative at the bottom.

The other thing that bugs me is when shops are due in 12 hours. Especially if I did a group of shops that day or it was a shop that ended later in the evening e.g. a fine dining shop. I always ask for extra time.

I used to do a theatre regularly as a way to treat my family but realized it just wasn't worth it any longer. Sure, they paid for the tickets and the popcorn and drinks and even $5 toward playing the video games.

They also required you "experience" absolutely everything offered at the theatre, whether it was a ropes course or laser tag or whatever. Which means we always spent more than the max reimbursement. (And no one in my family wanted to do the laser tag thing so that became a real negative.) You had to have at least five experiences with personnel. You could not order your food and drink at the same time. And all food or drink items had to be separate purchases with different cashiers. Oh, and it always had to be the busiest times, weekend evenings. You had to take a lot of photos and you had to take notes while on location (initially they required that these be on sheets of paper you later had to scan and send in with your report). So we were always going to be in the theater at least 3, more likely four hours. If we went to the earliest movie we were allowed to choose, we still did not get home until after 10 pm, usually closer to 11.

I didn't mind the time on location or even all the observations and photos and notes. Like others, this is now so much a part of who I am that I make observations and watch little details everywhere, even when I'm not getting paid. I wish I could send in reports for some places!

I disliked having to prove I took notes on location and preparing a very detailed at least 30-page report. All the pictures and receipts had to be sized a certain way and labeled a certain way. And worst of all, the report was desired by Midnight, but no later than 12 hours after the shop began. This meant after driving and doing everything, I was always going to be up half the night editing photos and writing this huge report.

Ultimately, it just became an evening that made me frustrated and resentful and wasn't worth doing without a fee in addition to a reimbursement that actually covered everything.

@Irene_L.A. wrote:

I don't do movies, as I love going and want to concentrate on the movie, not counting heads. I find that enjoyment should not be interrupted. I recently saw "A Star Is Born", the music was amazing, so glad I had no interruptions. The money really isn't enough, of course, it's never enough here in L.A. where bonus's are nill.

Car sales shops should be a minimum of $60! They are too much time on location, reporting and follow up hassles to do for less. And some are way worse than others. Like many, I learned the hard way. I did my first one for a "bonused" pay of $23. Two and a half hours at the dealership and another 2+ hours in reportland later and I said: "Never again!"

Unfortunately, I can't stick to my town or I would never have any work.

@Irene_L.A. wrote:

I agree about dealership's, I will do them for 60.00 (lowest) and we have them in my town on Auto row. I'm doing an AARP today for 50.00, which is fair, as I did one for another MSC for 34.00. This one is a bit more involved, but their paying and (again) it's in my town. I did a Tesla for 75.00, lots of work and driving. I remember when starting, I didn't want to turn anything down, and did a dealership for 17.00.....I learned fast, driving is time and gas, so I stick to my town, everything is 2/3 miles....