Wow! How cheap! I did one for $25 and you have to do both floors, elevators, any damaged carpet or furniture and other pictures. How low can they go?

$5 apparently. They were posted at 5 bucks each initially.

I did one when it was $45 plus a small food reimbursement and valet fee but not $8 crazy.

@SunnyDays2 wrote:

Wow! How cheap! I did one for $25 and you have to do both floors, elevators, any damaged carpet or furniture and other pictures. How low can they go?

@kessdarln wrote:

I did one when it was $45 plus a small food reimbursement and valet fee but not $8 crazy.

I felt ripped off at $45.

I did these about 10 years ago and back then I got paid $50.

It's $7 by me. There was another company offering $60 for the same audit.

I did one recently that was $25 but they didn't require photos of anything. I had to upload the business card.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/07/2019 12:59AM by JASFLALMT.

Wow. Can you ask for a bonus?

Even if I was in the mall, doing other shops, I would never take this at the base rate.

A fee of $8 for that is insulting.

I remember when these were $40-$50, depending on the mall and what they had you do--like give a reward certificate (good to exchange for cash) if the CSR answered a question correctly.

Just pulling your car in the mall parking lot, finding a parking space and walking inside should be $8 bucks Then we talk the rest of the fee for the job!

I also remember the gift card one where you bought a gift card at the kiosk, you looked for certain advertising, the way the attendant was dressed and the cleanliness. I believe you had to take a picture of the kiosk but that was totally different from the walk the mall project where you looked for defects. That gift card one paid $22 or $27 and you could use the gift card anywhere in the mall.

There is a specific brand of mall that I have done twice in my area. They assign you specific jobs and they pay for each one separately. So it is a list of jobs with perhaps 2 retail locations, a restaurant, the mall security, custodian, the car wash at the mall etc. They pay a small fee for each but the whole shop adds up to around $30-$50 depending on how many interactions there are. Each interaction is a few seconds. If they ask you to go to a food shop (longer than a few seconds) they reimburse for a purchase as well as the fee and the day I did the valet they reimbursed for the valet parking plus the car wash. Take a look and see if the pay you are seeing is broken down to that much for each interaction.

That's how I got $25. It took 3 emails to get it. They posted it at $8 and i responded about how I always did it for $25 before. Finally they caved.

@HonnyBrown wrote:

Wow. Can you ask for a bonus?

Just a one-time comparison of mystery shop apples and oranges along with base pays, bonuses, and other oddments.... and a consideration of this thread and current others like it...

So.

An entire mall eval can be had for $8. A variation of a gas station revealed audit can be had for $7. A drive-thru fast food can be had for $8.

The mall evaluation probably takes hours on-site in addition to prep and reporting. The gas station revealed discussion and taking of measurements is estimated to take "30 minutes". It was not clear whether this time was estimated for on-site activities only or for everything related to the shop, including locating or purchasing a sufficiently long measuring tape. I have forgotten whether you make reimbursed purchases or not. If I try the assignment, I will re-read that portion of guidelines carefully. The drive-thru meal, on a slow day, can be completed in less than twenty minutes for everything. Your meal is paid for via reimbursement. On a busy day, the shop might take a few more minutes-- t still come in well under one hour.

In my world, these three assignments would take days!!!!!!!!!!!! First, I would have to drive to the mall. The nearest one I have seen listed is three hours from home (on a decent traffic day). Then, I would need to break up the visits into little bits so that my back and feet would still love me. Along the way, I would have completed the gas station reveal assignment. On the way home, I would pick up the dinner drive-thru. Then, I would plunk myself into the most comfy-looking chair in the nearest library and report my little heart out before returning home. I would arrive home just in time to freshen up for the early job. Wait. That was just one day. Could I have completed the mall?

So that was completely silly. No amount of bonus money would cause the mall eval to fit into one, two , or three days (probably). My back and feet would demand this. Considering that all my extra work must fit within one day segments, I cannot even consider such an adventure.

But what do other shoppers do with these potentially huge assignments? How much of a bonus do you charge for a small mall, a mid-size mall, and a sprawling huge thing? Do you become more efficient over time? Is there time for mystery meals, or is it better to fast or nosh snacks from home in a restroom? Inquiring minds want to know!

It took me an hour to do the mall audit. If I were to "do it" for 8 bucks that feels like minimum wage.