Assuming there is no reimbursement and just a fee, which sub-$7.25 shops do you guys find worthwhile to do?

I have done $2 and $3 phone & online shops before. I was more desperate than anything. I needed the shops/money. But, I always felt they were a rip-off.

Are there ones out there worthwhile?

What kind of report do you have to do for a typical phone shop?

I tried one for $15. I called, left a message. He called me back. I called him, the call was supposed to get recorded and there was a problem and it did not get recorded. I did not know this. I spoke to the guy for around ten minutes and spent nearly 45 minutes on the report, on the first part. There was a second part where I needed to contact him again. The shop got rejected because the call was only partially recorded. I wasted a good two or three hours reading instructions, writing up the shop, and communicating back and forth.

This was all for zero dollars. That was an incredible waste of time. This was one of the "I won't give you X shop unless you do these not so desirable Y and Z shops."

Never again.

None of them. I find phone shops impossible. I did try them; I just can't do them.

I'm not being patronizing or condescending: the nearest shop to me is 45 miles away, and the second nearest is 60 miles away.

The minimum wage where I live is, I think, $10 an hour. A person can't make a living on that, so my goal is $25 an hour.

None, but then I am neither desperate for money nor activity. I, though, can see the point of someone being so in need.

Under $7.25? None.

@Niner wrote:

What kind of report do you have to do for a typical phone shop?

There aren't any "typical" phone shops, Niner.

I've done $2/3/8 ones. I think I might have done a $15 one once.

The cheap ones have decently short reports - such as the payday lender ones.

But problem is that you have to do research before each one:

come up with fake name
come up with fake address near the location of store
come up with fake job near.....
come up with fake x/y/z.....(lots of Google Maps searching)

They don't let you schedule more than 5 at once (if you can even get 5). That means at $2/shop, you'd need to do 4 to make $8/hour - assuming each one lasted 15 minutes. I might not, given the person may not pick up the phone or they talk a long time on it.

And, you have to be working at prime/optimal speed.

That's just the calls and report themselves. If you throw in research time, I think you'd more likely only get 3 phone shops done per hour, which is $6/hour.



eta: I have to say I LOVE the schedulers/editors for the main company that offers the $2 phone shops. They are super nice and helpful. I just wish they paid more.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/2018 09:52PM by shoptastic.

This may sound like an echo, but none.

I started doing phone call shops because I had to be at home for a number of unimportant reasons, amd my car was kaput. I made money doing them, even if it was $5 per.

Fast forward.

I've completed thousands of telephone shops. Once you get on a roll and established with good schedulers, individual projects get offered. I can sit in my pjs, not brush my hair, not have to worry with mileage, get to write off my phone bill, pay the bills and sock away some money and do this as 75% of my MS income. I have no "real" job.

I made $200 in three hours for one phone call. 1 hour prep, 25 min on the phone, tag time included, and 90 minutes on the report. In my jammies. I think that's pretty good, hourly. But I had to do my time in the trenches before the offers started rolling in.

Funny thing is, I have always detested talking on the phone. But I found a niche and ran with it.

I know there are a few more of "me" out there, doing the same type of call shops. I can't be the only one. However, it is not for everyone.

Edited because I always forget something.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/2018 02:39AM by nslinhar.

@nslinhar wrote:

I've completed thousands of telephone shops. Once you get on a roll and established with good schedulers, individual projects get offered. I can sit in my pjs, not brush my hair, not have to worry with mileage, get to write off my phone bill, pay the bills and sock away some money and do this as 75% of my MS income. I have no "real" job.

I made $200 in three hours for one phone call. 1 hour prep, 25 min on the phone, tag time included, and 90 minutes on the report. In my jammies. I think that's pretty good, hourly. But I had to do my time in the trenches before the offers started rolling in.

Funny thing is, I have always detested talking on the phone. But I found a niche and ran with it.

I know there are a few more of "me" out there, doing the same type of call shops. I can't be the only one. However, it is not for everyone.

Are these projects you mention advertised on the job boards? I only see the $2/3/8/15 phone shops.

Almost all of them are brutally underpaid - especially, the non-repeatable ones, where you have to spend lots of time memorizing the complex guidelines just to perform the shop once for a measly $15. I takes me 1.5 hours of prep before even making the call. Then, the call might last 30 minutes. That means 1.5 hours of replaying my audio file to extract and verify info. on the call. Then the report takes another hour or two.

At that rate, I'd be making $3/hour! That's about what many Uber drivers make (a calculation I saw a couple of years ago had it at $2/hour after all expenses paid). It's what people on Amazon's Mechanical Turk make. It's what people in the exploited gig economy often make.

Working for $5-6/hour for years just to get a chance to work for a decent wage doing phone shops sounds like an awful choice! I'd rather substitute teach for $110/day (7-ish hours).

***Sorry, I'm so negative. It just really angers me to see such low-ball wage/fee offers sometimes. We're human beings! Not animals to be used and abused for profit!

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/2018 02:44AM by shoptastic.

Also, working for $5/hour for several years would make me likely to be DEAD! Who can survive on that?!

MSC: Dear, shoptastic - We have a great deal for you shoppers. If you spend several years working below minimum wage for us, we MIGHT eventually pick you to do higher paying shops that allow you to make a sustainable living and not die.

Me: Hmmmm. Why not allow me to live now?

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/2018 02:54AM by shoptastic.

1. No

2. I disagree. You dont have to memorize. You can write it on a piece of paper to read from.

3. Yes, you would.

4. I never said it took years to get the offers. Go for it.

5. Then don't be negative. I agree on the low pay. I just don't do those jobs any more. I have a set hourly goal and I make it.

6. I never said I made $5/hr doing it. Never made that low. Just had to hustle and be efficient.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/2018 03:05AM by nslinhar.

@nslinhar wrote:

1. No

2. I disagree. You dont have to memorize. You can write it on a piece of paper to read from.

3. Yes, you would.

4. I never said it took years to get the offers. Go for it.

5. Then don't be negative. I agree on the low pay. I just don't do those jobs any more. I have a set hourly goal and I make it.

Which MSCs do you phone shop for, mslinhar? I have the following list saved in my browser folder for MSCs offering phone shops:

1.) I Secret Shop
2.) Intellishop
3.) Shopper's View
4.) Confero
5.) Baird Group
6.) Verify Healthcare
7.) Reality Based Group
8.) Market Force Information
9.) ath Power Consulting

Other than Shopper's View easy $2 repeatable shops (which was okay for a while for me, but not anymore), all the other ones I've seen offer horrendous pay for often one-time projects. $15 for a project that takes at least an hour to "memorize." I agree you can take notes, but you do have to internalize the project to get a sense of its flow and what it's all about. The calls can take forever if no one picks up. You have to call every 30 minutes! I had one where I called for hours and no one picked up EVER. The reports can take hours to do, because of replaying audio, narratives, thoughtful reflection, etc.

How long did it take (and how many phone shops - presumably done very well for the MSC) before you got offered "good projects." Do you feel you can average $15/hour doing phone shops?

I'm definitely open to trying, but so far I've shopped for two years and when I ask for a bonus, I sometimes don't even hear back! I get high marks on my shops too!

I plan to continue to MS part-time through next summer, when I'll be applying for a full-time position. I can substitute teach now, so it's harder for me to look at MS-ing, given the low wages and prep you have to do for these often one-off projects. For $8 - NO WAY! STAY AWAY! I had a few $8 projects that were so horrendous they took hours to do. The form/report was just endless commentary!

I could give a hypothetical $8 phone shop here. I doubt anyone could do it within 1 hour. The pay for MSCs seems ON PURPOSE 50% of what it SHOULD BE.

1. Those and a hundred others.
2. If they don't work for you, don't do them.
3. I dont recall, to paraphrase Mr. North. Yes.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/2018 03:29AM by nslinhar.

@nslinhar wrote:

1. Those and a hundred others.
2. If they don't work for you, don't do them.
3. I dont recall, to paraphrase Mr. North. Yes.

What are some other companies with phone shops other than my list that you like, if you don't mind sharing, nslinhar?

I have mostly stopped doing phone shops, because I find them to be rip-offs, but will do some occasionally, b/c I need the money.

Although, I thought you strategy/advice was to keep doing them at base pay to build up a good history, is that still correct?

You don't recall how long it took (or how many phone shops you did), before getting offered the better projects? Can you offer a guesstimate? I'm not being snarky and suspicious of you, in particular, nslinhar. I apologize if my tone sounds directed towards you specifically.

I'm just in a jaded and snarky mood already (from observing and working in this industry). It's a depressing line of work most of the time, primarily due to offensive wages.

I've become cynical.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/2018 04:19AM by shoptastic.

1. See the "list below". Virtually every one has a phone call shop I like.

1a. My strategy was to do them to earn money. Do them efficiently and make good hourly pay. Do them perfectly and get personalized offers.

2. Make up your mind.

3. No, i dont recall. Should I, you will be the first to know.

4. So don't work in this industry.

Edited due to my thumbs

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/2018 04:41AM by nslinhar.

@MFJohnston wrote:

Under $7.25? None.

He summed it up for me.

@nslinhar wrote:

4. So don't work in this industry.

I just wanted to speak up for those of us who have and/or are working in mystery shopping to pay bills, because we have to. It's not that we want to do this work per se (there are many shops that I love and many that are horrendous and everything in between). Many people, particularly those in economically destitute areas, do it because we have no choice. For me, I have a version of a handicap that is not covered by disability - although, my doctor may be able to diagnose me with the more severe version, as symptoms have gotten worse this past year - on top of many other things - which makes ms-ing a temporary necessity. I do have other options thankfully, at the moment, should my health maintain.

It's not just a matter of not liking the wages and wanting to quit. Many of us cannot. That's also why many of us try to help each other on this forum, offering tips on how to get bonuses, insights into which jobs are good deals vs. 10-foot pole projects ppl should avoid, what new "hot" shops there are, etc.

I do understand the logic of making your own way and choices to improving your life and career in a capitalistic system, but it's not as simple as sometimes is told to people when it is said: "So, quit, if you don't like it."

I don't know if I came off rude or offensive in any way to you, nslinhar (I somehow sense that I offended you in some way), but if so, I wanted to say that I'm sorry and that it was not the intent. I have a "tired" and "jaded" view of this business is all.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/2018 05:07AM by shoptastic.

just to continue from above...I've also seen the horrors of the gig economy in other jobs I've taken as well that lead to earning $3...$2.50...$5/hour. There is a lot of exploitation out there plain and simple.

I am glad you are making good money in phone shopping and the same to others doing well. Just know that many of us put in very hard work, get good feedback, and still don't find much progress in regards to higher fees and opportunities. That's why I wondered how long it took. I'm two years into this myself.

On my final rant note of the night: If MSCs pay so ridiculously low, do they not think that some unscrupulous individuals may cheat their reports or mail them in and not do a good job? And would that not lead to the MSCs' clients suffering, as they don't get the valuable feedback that could help them stay in business or profit more?

Over the long-term, I can see this hurting the clients, who if they go out of business would then hurt the MSCs.

Do the clients even know how little people get paid for work? $2...$3....$8 for hours of work sometimes.

Sounds like you think I do this for fun, however, I mentioned MSing pays my bills. I offered advice, helps and tips on how to make better wages doing this. I responded to your original post, in full. I absolutely have a tired and jaded view of some things, many of which I have walked away from with no tears. That's just how I operate. Now, I'll be walking to bed. Have a good one.

@nslinhar wrote:

Sounds like you think I do this for fun, however, I mentioned MSing pays my bills. I offered advice, helps and tips on how to make better wages doing this. I responded to your original post, in full. I absolutely have a tired and jaded view of some things, many of which I have walked away from with no tears. That's just how I operate. Now, I'll be walking to bed. Have a good one.

k - no worries (like I said, just me being cynical lately)

bedtime for me too. pooped.

Glad we agree that sometimes the conditions are pretty horrible in ms-ing. But, good to know sometimes it can be better than we expected too. Have a good one!

Where I live the minimum wage is far above $7.50 and the living wage is even higher unless you have 6-10 people stuffed into one apartment. So this discussion is moot for us here in other states/cities. But the fees are exactly the same as they are in places where you can still pay under $2,000 rent for a one bedroom! A small two bedroom house in my neighborhood rents for $4,000.

@sandyf wrote:

Where I live the minimum wage is far above $7.50 and the living wage is even higher unless you have 6-10 people stuffed into one apartment. So this discussion is moot for us here in other states/cities. But the fees are exactly the same as they are in places where you can still pay under $2,000 rent for a one bedroom! A small two bedroom house in my neighborhood rents for $4,000.

YIKES! That sounds like San Francisco!

I live in rural Nebraska. I have a 1400 sq ft, 2 bedroom, 2 bath house with 2 car garage (detached). My rent is $250 a month. Utilities, however, are a killer. Water/sewage is $70 a month. In the winter, heat can run $400 a month (or more). Gas is a MINIMUM of $48 a month. I receive about $l,000 a month SS retirement, and in the winter, rent and utilities takes almost all of it. In fairness to my landlord, I've been here 14 years and he hasn't raised the rent a dime in all that time.

I MS for survival, as the downside to living in a small town is there are NO JOBS.

My 1400 sq ft 3 bedroom 2 bath house has 1k+ in taxes per month. I can't wait to get out of NY. My husband and I are here because we were born here, and we are part of the NYS pension system, so we are stuck until retirement, then it's TN or bust.

Anyway, ACL was the company that had the $15 phone shop, and they have trouble filling them. You have to call, call back, and write a 45 minute report. If I did not have a job or could not leave my house, I would do as many of these as possible.

The ten foot stick is based on individual circumstances. Those of you who do these have more than justifiable reasons for doing so.

@Niner wrote:

I can't wait to get out of NY. My husband and I are here because we were born here, and we are part of the NYS pension system, so we are stuck until retirement, then it's TN or bust.

Eeek. I hope all goes well for you guys!!

I have heard some scary things about NY's pension system. As in they might be bankrupt. All throughout America, there seems to be pension fraud by Wall Street firms over the past 10 years or so. They have gambled away people's retirement accounts.

Lots of municipalities get these "slick talking" Wall Street bankers to pitch to them why they should utilize their services. Matt Taibi (spelling?) had an interview I remember listening to on The Majority Report, where he discussed this. The bankers sort of "bully" the non-financially literate board members of these pension funds into investing with them. But, they don't tell them what they'll be doing and how dangerous and risky it will be.

yada yada....in the end, I remember something about how there is a huge pension crisis all across America right now.

edit: Okay - quick searched it and found this: [www.youtube.com]

This was the interview I saw. Description:

Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi joins us in studio and explains how a former Enron commodity trader who wants to destroy pension plans across the country, why Rhode Island is at the forefront of pension "reform" policies, why pension "reforms" passing public funds into the hands of Hedge Funds, why Wall Street and crony capitalism caused the pension crisis, the single biggest scam devised by Wall Street, why if you are in the Hedge Fund business you never lose and why Unions are beginning to recognize the pension scam.

edit again: Matt Taibbi had this story in Rolling Stone on the same topic:
[www.rollingstone.com]

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/2018 02:49PM by shoptastic.

Oh yeah, something I forgot to say earlier...I'm signed up with about 120-135 MSCs right now (lost count) - lots from the list below on every page - but I rarely see phone shops from them.

That's why I posted the list of phone shop MSCs above in the earlier post. Those are the ones I've seen consistently offer them. I dunno if it's just me, but I see lots more MSCs that don't offer phone shops than ones that do.

Or, am I missing something?

@sandyf. While I agree with what you say regarding mimimum wage in terms of hourly pay, Whatsits name started the thread talking about $7.50/job for a phone call. I can sit wherever and make a call which is in a state with higher hourly pay and lower living wage than my location, resulting in a higher shop fee.

I have a 10 foot pole list for phone call shops, but will happily shop onsite for some of those MSCs.

@Niner, I love the ACL call shops. They work for me because I have a system. As well, not all of them, for any MSC, turn out so lengthy. It's just like many onsite shops; the CSR/associate/target doesn't do their job and the call and report are short and sweet. They balance out the PITA calls. But I understand if they don't appeal to you. More for me

Edited to unsuccessfully try to fix comma filled sentence and because I finally realized what using "@" does.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/2018 02:56PM by nslinhar.

Hi, all! I just wanted to pop in and clarify that Shoppers' View has recently raised the base pay of our phone shops to $4. We no longer offer $2 phone shops. Thanks!

@ShoppersViewChristine wrote:

Hi, all! I just wanted to pop in and clarify that Shoppers' View has recently raised the base pay of our phone shops to $4. We no longer offer $2 phone shops. Thanks!

Awesome, Christine!

Been a while since I last did them. I shall check your job boards out again!