Should I call it a comeback?

I'm deciding whether it's worth it to come back into mystery shopping either as a scheduler or as a shopper again. I have some downtime from my regular work from home job (I'm still being paid of course) and I am seriously bored. I have been down since 12/25 and I am going stir crazy!

I haven't done many shops since I quit scheduling in 2015, however, my track record for shops prior to that was amazing. Scheduling, I used to schedule well over 1500 shops in some months.

I'm just curious to see what people say on here. Advice, whether it would be worth it, etc.

Arguing with fools is like playing chess with a pigeon...
...No matter how good you are, the pigeon will s@^t on the board and strut around like it won anyway.

Not scheduling for ANY company.

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I commute to work now (90 miles round trip).
I do jobs before work, at lunch, and on the way home. I have 75% of weekends free and 50% of Fridays free when I pick up extra shops. I make about 1/3 of what I made when I shopped full-time (so around $20,000 in fees), which is a nice addition to my full time job. Plus, I try to do $300-$350 a month on eBay. It all adds up.

ETA- as a full time shopper, I did between $50-60k most years.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2019 08:01PM by SoCalMama.

I say if you are bored go for it! The worst that can happen is you don't like it the way you used to and you can stop. I am thinking this will be what I do when I retire, I just cant see sitting on the couch all day every day.

Orlando - lightly shopping NC

My best month I brought in over $4200 in fees for mystery shopping. I won't disclose how much I brought in as a scheduler.

I have done about 10 assignments since 2015.

Arguing with fools is like playing chess with a pigeon...
...No matter how good you are, the pigeon will s@^t on the board and strut around like it won anyway.

Not scheduling for ANY company.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2019 08:19PM by DanteScheduler.

I say, what else can you do to offset boredom? Is mystery shopping the only thing you can do? (I suspect not. I remember you from previous posts. You seem to be a keen soul.

Anyway, if you have time, why not use it to travel/shop and see some places you like or have not visited?

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. - Lao-Tzu

You are in charge of your own destiny. As a former shopper you already know what you like and don't like about mystery shopping. And yes, it can relieve boredom, but putting making a bit more $$ aside unless that is your goal there are so many other things you can do including volunteering, following your heart into areas you love and did not have time for...get outdoors, meet new people, do things. Or you can shop a little and do other things as well.

I say fine as long as you're not in my territory. (smiley face)

You want fees? You want reimbursements? Pick and choose, there's no downside.

I would say shop again as little or as much as you want to fill the boredom. There was a reason you stop scheduling as you felt the stress and pay not worth it if I remember correct. You could use the shops as a way to travel see parts of the country if you have the freedom to do so. I would stay away from the mid west and northeast for the next two months.

Shopping Western NY, Northeast and Central PA, and parts of Ohio and West Virginia. Have car will travel anywhere if the monies right.

Hi Dante! Nice to hear from you. I say go for it. Don't know if scheduling was too much of a hassle, I'm just going by what I've seen on this board, then stick to mystery shopping. You are great at both so you truly can choose.

Kim

@kimmiemae wrote:

Hi Dante! Nice to hear from you. I say go for it. Don't know if scheduling was too much of a hassle, I'm just going by what I've seen on this board, then stick to mystery shopping. You are great at both so you truly can choose.

Thanks kimmie and thank you everyone for responding!

I enjoyed scheduling, except for some of the issues I dealt with that I felt made me compromise the person I am. I feel like I learned from it and grew as a person. A lot of the issues revolved around the company I did the majority of the scheduling with, but that's all in the past. I feel eventually I would like to try my hand at scheduling again someday to see if I learned from the past.

The work I am currently down from is for a virtual call center. I am a salaried manager for them (which is why they have to pay me for the downtime) and they are a vendor for customer service/tech support for a major brand of electronics. My NDA prevents me from disclosing much more than that. Basically, I supervise a team of 25+ tech support reps.

Recently I did a shop for Sinclair, which was actually the first company I ever did a mystery shop for (Gina is my FAVORITE scheduler). So, in essence, I did go back to my roots in mystery shopping and it did pique my interest again; especially since the apps were in their infancy when I was involved in this industry.

Arguing with fools is like playing chess with a pigeon...
...No matter how good you are, the pigeon will s@^t on the board and strut around like it won anyway.

Not scheduling for ANY company.

Dante, you never mentioned what has you down since 12/25 that I have read. I am not sure if you're down due to the company being down or if you are hurt in some way, etc. But, if it's okay with the company, I would go for it. I wouldn't jeopardize my salary for it, though. It is always nice to be able to supplement your salary when possible.

Shopping Arkansas, Louisiana, & Mississippi.

There are some system issues within our company affecting several employees. The last day I worked was 12/25 and they are working toward resolving the issues.

Arguing with fools is like playing chess with a pigeon...
...No matter how good you are, the pigeon will s@^t on the board and strut around like it won anyway.

Not scheduling for ANY company.

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