I just took a 9.00 job and have done it before....close to home, will take 5 minutes to take a few pic's, in and out.
I was bored, so decided to do it, why not? I could be out spending the 9$, thinking of taking two more close by, not as close, but not a biggie since all our parking is free and plentiful.and keeps me busy.

Good for you, Irene.

Re: Padded envelopes: lol! I have no plans to.complete any more post office shops.

P.S. My silly image situation was resolved. I will.be be paid for the initial visits. The MSCs are like a dream come true!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/2019 12:15AM by Shop-et-al.

@Shop-et-al wrote:

Demos are out unless and until some of the rules are revised and include a larger number of workers.

1. When reasonable and possible during shifts, the worker can stand on their own approved, provided mat.

2. When reasonable and possible during shifts, the worker can sit on their own provided chair (or stool). I would need a chair. YMMV.

That sounds like Wally World. I had a problem with a manager in an out of the way place a few years ago about what is covered under the ADA. All I had to do was say lawyer and that took care of it. They closed that one down a few years ago.

Time is money. The MSC reimburses for the cost of the box. Why spend your time remaking a box when you can buy a new box and need maybe 1 minute to tape it up and it is ready to go? The boxis free after you get reimbursed. 14 minutes of time flows back to you (easily enough to report the shop).

@Shop-et-al wrote:

It took more than fifteen minutes to make a "new" box and pack it properly.

And, it took more than fifteen minutes to buy a reimbursed box. Time was spent getting to and from the box seller as well as for the actual purchase at the register. I did not order boxes online, but that would require time online, opening the delivered box of boxes (or whatever that parcel was), and taping the new boxes for use.


I am not completing post office shops. The point was to provide a heads up for newbies; depending upon how they define and distinguish between preparation and work, they might choose to charge more or less for their various assignments. That is all.

I love, love, LOVE my post office shops. I have a box I mail to myself. I'll keep mailing it until it's no longer usable. I have tape all over the box, which means all those labels peel right off. Thirty seconds, ready to re-use!!!!



(This only works for shoppers like me, who do these USPS shops 100 miles or more from home. You CAN NOT mail to yourself if you're mailing from the town you live in! And I actually have 3 boxes all ready, just in case I'm on a route and a shop pops up that I can take.)

I can mail to any zone 1. Some zone 1 locations are less than 20 miles from my home. I have mailed packages to my husband from thse post offices many times.

I like sending treats to my friends' kids. I get snacks and candy from convenience store shops. I have access to boxes to reuse from merchandising gigs, I am already at the stores so when I see boxes that are the right size I grab them. It takes less than 3 minutes to turn it inside out and tape it back up. I am a firm believer in recycling whenever possible

I especially love it when I get a BONUSED PO shop that is only SIX MILES from my home, like I will be doing tomorrow! Fee is $25.00! WOO-HOO!! I don't do this to lose money.

MIleage is not what it appears to be. You do NOT get .58/mile off of your tax payments. The mileage is deducted from your income. Now that you have deleted that, you pay tax on the remainder.

The average tax rate in the US is 15%. Your taxes paid are reduced by .15*.58=.087 or NINE cents a mile. That's why companies offer more than the tax deduction.

Assume you have a 20,000 car and assume it is thew first year you have it. Your actual depreciation (if you can claim it) in the first year is $8k . If you drive 20k miles your car depreciates about 40 cents /mile. You might have an older car that was depreciated in which you do a little better. ]

But you are only saving NINE cents/mile. Fuel Costs ALONE cost more than that. Oh, you cannot deduct mileage if you are reimbursed for it.

Any CPAs here?

I just looked at a shop where one had to pay for the (product/service). You could be reimbursed for that product/service if you met the company's (not MSC) requirements on the website. Everything on the website provided pricing for online ordering only. You had to buy a product/service without knowing the price, without knowing the requirements for return and agree to a reimbursement only if you met requirements which you would not know until after you would be assigned a shop.

How many people here think it's a good idea to agree to terms without having a chance to review them? Or take a shop without determining what your net will be?

One more factor often not stated. Order phone service? Open a credit card? Even fill out a form to find out cable pricing? Your credit rating drops for every inquiry. That means your mortgage rate or car loan amount will increase.

I do the calculations for each job. I want to calculate the extra cash in my wallet (after the higher SS tax for 1099 contractors), and my real costs for the car or bus/. Then I look at the time away from other activities. I take the time to sign up, take tests, to get to the location and back, do the job, write it up, correspond with the MSCl . You may have to wait at home before being assigned a job, transfer and edit photos. Most jobs take 2-4 hours from your day. Now add in the time to verify you were paid, the amount of time you spend SEARCHING for the job, you are sometimes getting under $2/hour. There are exceptions, and sometimes you get something you might want. For restaurants you are effectively getting a discount coupon, but you may have to bring a guest and be required to purchase specific items that you don't necessarily want or need. The time you spend with your guest is mostly spent focusing on making sure you observe details and go to the bathroom.

And yet with the lowest unemployment rates, payments fall.

I've had fun doing a lot of these jobs, but to lose a half a day that I could spend gardening, or sleeping or with friends....$10 before my extra costs isn't going to cut it. Ever wonder WHY you get so many emails from the MSCs where they need your help? IF they paid the right amount, they would have more shoppers than needed and could select the best among them.

Even $40K is hard to believe, even so at half of it. Between time to get the shops, drive to and from, do the shop and report we are lucky to come up to minimum wage at this point in time. Once upon a time I had schedulers call me and I'd get two or three apartments a week, several banks and gas but that was long ago. Few companies appreciate that we work hard for them as they lower our fees.

@Shop-et-al wrote:

People who might not want or need more than a $10 gig once in awhile should be valued instead of the subject of snide posts and threads. People who occasionally have a shop rejected or incur some unforeseeable expense should be encouraged to ask their tax pro about non-reimbursed expenses or some such monetary salvaging technique instead of presumed to be 'not fit' or otherwise bad. Newbies should know that due to their own factors or factors beyond their control, work results might not meet expectations. The need is to question the underlying assumptions and expectations. Were those realistic? How can the work be configured with a greater chance of success in future?

I don't shop full time, but know that I could easily do $50k if I needed to.

[/quote]

I think everyone is deserving of decent pay. If I went to work and my boss told me he didn't like an email I sent and I wouldn't be paid for the 15 min I spent writing it, that would be ridiculous. And super illegal. But the secret shops companies CAN do that, which opens the door for a lot of shady people who like to shortcut others. IMO. I don't think this happens too often, but when it does happen, it really hits on the self-esteem and motivation to do shopping.

In theory, there are these super sweet bored people who pick up a 10 shop, and it's no biggie. It's something to do, and they are happy to make some money. In reality, though, that isn't what happens. There are people trying to make enough money shopping so they pack in those 10 dollar shops, and that is why there are so many people complaining about the lower shop fees that are happening (and IMO, shopper fees will CONTINUE to get lower unless we say it's not okay).

I feel very strongly that asking someone to do a 10 shop is wrong. I think it's wrong even if that person thinks it's great. The shopping infrastructure is fragile, and I think that's because there is no regulation or standards with it. We will see how long mystery shopping even exists. My thinking is it can't sustain itself for too much longer.

There is no 'we'. There are individual independent contractors who operate uniquely.

Rick, I respectfully disagree. Mileage is exactly what it appears to be.

I understand that it doesn't work for everyone like it works for me, but it does work for me.

Before I shopped, I had a minimum wage job. It was an hour from where I live. One hundred miles a day, round trip. Five hundred miles a week. Not one dime of which could be written off, as it was a "commute". Two thousand miles a month, 24,000 a year. The wear and tear, maintenance, and insurance were exactly the same as though I had put those miles on my car mystery shopping.

Meanwhile, every dime I earned was taxable income.

Now, I not only make much more than minimum wage, but I work WHEN and WHERE I want to work. If I put the same 2,000 miles on my car in a month, I can earn over $l,000
MSing, and every single last dime of it is sheltered.

One day this past week, I did 4 shops at $75 each and picked another one up on the way home for an additional $40, making a $340 day (plus reimbursements). We left home at 10 AM, got back shortly after 6 PM. With prep and reports, basically a 10 hour day. At my job, I would have put 500 miles on my car, and worked 32-40 hours over 5 days. And my pay check would have been less than $340.

As with so many other things, we have unique situations. My car (was) old and fully depreciated. It had very good mileage, over 30 mpg. And what works for me doesn't apply to everybody, but it sure works for me!!! In my mind, it's the poor man's tax shelter -- and has been over the 50 years I've been using it.

Hi Birdy,

My comment is really a request for information. You mentioned that you have been self-employed for 35 years. I assume you are around 55 years of age. I am familiar with the IRS hoops of reporting Income/Expense but I am 63 and trying to apply for Social Security/Medicaid. They request a copy of last years taxes and the last thirty days of "paycheck stubs". They will not accept the pay invoices and want a letter from each provider stating the amount I made and my filing information. I have not requested it from my providers, I have over 65, and, I think they are over-reaching. Most providers state that we are not allowed to put their names on IRS forms and the SS Agency request would, in my opinion, also fall under that confidentiality agreement. What should satisfy the "Proof of Income" requirement?
Do you know of anyone who has dealt with this issue?
Does anyone in the community have any info on this topic?

If you can't or don't supply recent pay stubs, they will compute your payments based upon the last income tax that you filed (and all of the ones before that). When you file your return for Tax Year 2019, they will recompute the amount you should get. Don't stress about this. By April, itcwill all get sorted out. File as early as you can.

@anitaplatt wrote:

Hi Birdy,

My comment is really a request for information. You mentioned that you have been self-employed for 35 years. I assume you are around 55 years of age. I am familiar with the IRS hoops of reporting Income/Expense but I am 63 and trying to apply for Social Security/Medicaid. They request a copy of last years taxes and the last thirty days of "paycheck stubs". They will not accept the pay invoices and want a letter from each provider stating the amount I made and my filing information. I have not requested it from my providers, I have over 65, and, I think they are over-reaching. Most providers state that we are not allowed to put their names on IRS forms and the SS Agency request would, in my opinion, also fall under that confidentiality agreement. What should satisfy the "Proof of Income" requirement?
Do you know of anyone who has dealt with this issue?
Does anyone in the community have any info on this topic?

Anita, I do not understand your situation. Particularly, what do you mean, providers say not to put their name on IRS documents? And I cannot imagine what kind of social security you're applying for that requires proof of income. They already have all those records, as your income is reported to SS every year when you file taxes.

If, however, you are applying for SSDI, that is a totally different kettle of fish, and may require proof of income. If you are applying to your State for Medicaid, that, too, could require proof of income.

So if you could explain just a little...in a PM, if you prefer.

(Not to be construed in any way as legal or tax advice. The only legal or tax advice I give on a forum is "Consult a professional." )

@anitaplatt wrote:

Hi Birdy,

My comment is really a request for information. You mentioned that you have been self-employed for 35 years. I assume you are around 55 years of age. I am familiar with the IRS hoops of reporting Income/Expense but I am 63 and trying to apply for Social Security/Medicaid. They request a copy of last years taxes and the last thirty days of "paycheck stubs". They will not accept the pay invoices and want a letter from each provider stating the amount I made and my filing information. I have not requested it from my providers, I have over 65, and, I think they are over-reaching. Most providers state that we are not allowed to put their names on IRS forms and the SS Agency request would, in my opinion, also fall under that confidentiality agreement. What should satisfy the "Proof of Income" requirement?
Do you know of anyone who has dealt with this issue?
Does anyone in the community have any info on this topic?

Hi!
Thought I’d chime in... my full time job is at Job and Family Services authorizing Medicaid and food assistance/stamps as many call it. Every state is a little different regarding Medicaid and what they will accept for income verification regarding self employment. But, I can tell you in Ohio they need the full tax return including schedule C to verify or if someone works under the table or has new self employment/under a year you can provide a list of the last 90 days of income/expenses. They do not need you to break it down by all the companies you are an IC for. They simply need just all self employment income and then your total expenses. You can write it on a paper if you don’t file taxes or if your self employment is new where your taxes don’t show a full year of your earnings. Now, social security office/Medicare is a separate agency and could have different requirements since I have nothing to do with their process I can’t advise you regarding them. I suggest calling your local job and family agency in your county to make sure they will use what I stated above if you are not in Ohio. Good luck!