Does anyone have any tips on how to “double dip” and get a little more money in your pocket while doing shops? So far I have been trying to do shops where I can earn cash back rewards with certain credit cards. American Express in particular has deals where I can get a statement credit when I dine at a particular restaurant. I try to align the statement credit opportunities with the shops I do at those restaurants.

I also recently signed up for an f.y.e. card (I didn’t even know they still had those stores until recently). It is $11.99 per month, and one of the benefits is $5 movies. You buy your movie tickets like normal, then scan the receipt and you get a check in the mail for the difference. So if you buy two movie tickets at $12 each, you scan your receipt and get a check in the mail for $14. I’m going to try and do as many movie shops as I can now.

Any other tips or tricks on maximizing your net income while shopping?

LOL, I used to buy stuff at thrift shops and resell on Amazon or E-Bay. Actually, I found several things for $0.50 or less than resold for $100 or more.

My other suggestion is make a route. Third, ask for bonuses.

I cannot IMAGINE sitting through a movie for $5. (But if you actually LIKE seeing movies at the theatre, that's a horse of a whole 'nother color!!!)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2019 04:24AM by ceasesmith.

Check your debit card for cash back rewards. My debit card has cash back for 5Guys, Mr. Car Wash, and other places I shop.

@ceasesmith wrote:

LOL, I used to buy stuff at thrift shops and resell on Amazon or E-Bay. Actually, I found several things for $0.50 or less than resold for $100 or more.

My other suggestion is make a route. Third, ask for bonuses.

I cannot IMAGINE sitting through a movie for $5. (But if you actually LIKE seeing movies at the theatre, that's a horse of a whole 'nother color!!!)

You can make more money annually by flipping items than through other means of employment. I made $$,$$$ last year buying and reselling items on a PT basis. You have to know what will sell and drive hard bargains so that it’s worth your time.

Tip - add a little extra to your price to cover shipping and then offer “free shipping”.

Double dip on the same reimbursements. Example, if you have 3 different companies reimbursing you for the same $20 parking costs, you have an instant extra $40 in your pocket.

On my grocery shops, I buy stuff I can get reimbursed for at work. My main grocery store has a small selection of office/school supplies (pens, paper clips etc). I've also purchased Band-aid and Tylenol for the first aid kit.

FYI, that's kinda like fraud. The info in your signature might be specific enough that schedulers will recognize you. Same with having your job reimburse you for items also reimbursed by an MSC.

I mean, that's classic double dipping in a shady way. I suppose it's legit to mention it. Also worth mentioning that not everyone will feel comfortable doing it.

@Tarantado wrote:

Double dip on the same reimbursements. Example, if you have 3 different companies reimbursing you for the same $20 parking costs, you have an instant extra $40 in your pocket.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2019 06:10PM by 1cent.

Amex offers are great. Just be careful not to use them for charges that are reversed. This mostly comes up if you do hotels. I lost a $50 Marriott credit that way. My Chase card also offers a % off at different stores. I find that more difficult to keep in mind while I am out. It'd be nice to get an extra $1 here and there but I won't chase it.

You can also keep an eye out for opening a new checking or savings account. Then if a company needs a shopper to open at that bank, you can get an extra $200 or whatever. Just check with them before redeeming something like that. It might not be allowed. I did a shop opening an account once and realized after the fact that the new account bonus would have been less work for more money.

@1cent wrote:

FYI, that's kinda like fraud.

No. It's not at all like fraud.

Movie Shops??????
Always check Field Agent and other Task apps.
Try to schedule more than one shop for different MSC at same location. My record four.

@JessicaV1979 wrote:

I’m going to try and do as many movie shops as I can now.

@1cent wrote:

FYI, that's kinda like fraud. The info in your signature might be specific enough that schedulers will recognize you. Same with having your job reimburse you for items also reimbursed by an MSC.

I mean, that's classic double dipping in a shady way. I suppose it's legit to mention it. Also worth mentioning that not everyone will feel comfortable doing it.

How so? Thanks for reminding me on another classic double dip: When traveling on my full-time job for work, and I'm able to double dip on per diem, that's another "bonus."

Having two companies reimburse for the same expense is fraud. You might not get caught, but don't lie to yourself about it. It's also advisable to count one of those reimbursements as profit. Again, you probably won't get caught but if anyone ever looked, they would see one receipt and two payments.

@bgriffin wrote:

@1cent wrote:

FYI, that's kinda like fraud.

No. It's not at all like fraud.

@1cent wrote:

Having two companies reimburse for the same expense is fraud. You might not get caught, but don't lie to yourself about it. It's also advisable to count one of those reimbursements as profit. Again, you probably won't get caught but if anyone ever looked, they would see one receipt and two payments.

How so? Are you a lawyer? The Mystery Shopping Companies BUDGET for those reimbursements with their clients. As long as the Shopper fulfills their project requirements for the Mystery Shopping Company and there's an agreement for reimbursements for project expenses, the Shopper is entitled for that reimbursement up to an agreed limit. Same goes for a Shopper taking on another project with agreed reimbursements, as long as the project requirements are successfully fulfilled as well.

I used to work for a company that is no longer, and always did two shops in the same store, one in (say) handbags, then upstairs for dresses, then a block away did the same thing in another high end retail store.
Four shops within one block done in one hour, made 80.00...my best double dip...and all four with one company.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2019 07:38PM by Irene_L.A..

@Tarantado wrote:

How so? Are you a lawyer?

Are you a lawyer? That line goes both ways.

Anyhow, not all fraud is an outright criminal concern. Except that not claiming the excess reimbursement as income would be a concern for the IRS. If you feel comfortable getting money through dishonest means, you could also find free parking and mock up a receipt at home. And if you feel that there is nothing wrong with it, tell the companies exactly what you are doing. You're all clear if they write back: "No problem. We budgeted for this."

@1cent wrote:

Are you a lawyer? That line goes both ways.

Anyhow, not all fraud is an outright criminal concern. Except that not claiming the excess reimbursement as income would be a concern for the IRS. If you feel comfortable getting money through dishonest means, you could also find free parking and mock up a receipt at home. And if you feel that there is nothing wrong with it, tell the companies exactly what you are doing. You're all clear if they write back: "No problem. We budgeted for this."

I am not a lawyer.

Lol at you comparing a mock up fake receipt with legitimate reimbursements.

Explain again why double dipping on receipts relevant to the shops properly completed are dishonest? It would be dishonest getting reimbursements from multiple Mystery Shop Companies with the same project and end-clients, but if the end-clients and Mystery Shopping Companies are all different including the projects, please, please detail why it’s dishonest to obtain reimbursements as part of the shops?

Do you also feel it’s dishonest to leverage additional cash bonuses with an MSC due to say distances, even though you may have other shops along the way already that would give you a good profit from the beginning, but getting other MSC’s to stack on cash bonuses would be dishonest?

And please quote me when I stated how I claimed the double dipped reimbursements on my taxes?

It is not uncommon if i am luck to get two phone shops or a credit card shop in the same area. Never had one rejected. It is a challenge to make sure you get all the correct pictures etc If I am lucky I squeeze in a mobee or FA shop. My goal if I can is to get 3 to 4 shops per location. It is alot of work but it can be done.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2019 09:34PM by Mysteriousways.

@Tarantado Happy Thanksgiving, dude.

@1cent wrote:

FYI, that's kinda like fraud.

Fraud involves the false representation of facts. It can be intentionally withholding important information. It can also be by providing false statements to another party for the purpose of gaining something that may not have been given without the deception.

I’m an investigator in my non-shopping time. I primarily investigate fraud and fraudulent activity.

A shopper submitting the same parking expense to three separate mystery shopping companies is not fraud. They ask if you had parking expenses and the shopper said “Yes, $20. Here’s the receipt”.

Proving that fraud has taken place requires specific acts to have been committed. First, a false statement must be presented as fact. Second, the fraudster must know that the statement is untrue. Third, the fraudster must have intended to deceive the victim. Fourth, the victim has to show they relied on the false statement. And fifth, the victim has to have suffered damages as a result of acting on the intentionally false statement.

I’m guessing you knew that it’s not really fraud because you said “it’s kinda like fraud”. A better statement would be “It doesn’t fit in with my morals”.

I wouldn’t double dip on parking. I wouldn’t bill a client parking and get reimbursed from a mystery shop company if I did a shop in between investigations.

Questions?

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/2019 03:15AM by Capurato.

My immediate boss knows that I do grocery shops. He is OK with me picking up a box of paper clips for the office and having the company give me $2 out of petty cash. In fact, a few years ago on Black Friday I got several reams of paper from Office Depot or Office Max. It was way more than I would use and I only got so much because it was free after rebate. He told me to bring in the paper and the receipt and the company would pay for it. I kept one ream for myself and got the company to pay for the paper that Office Max was going to rebate! I told him I would buy some on the company card and we could do the rebate deal again for the company and he said that sounded like too much work.

@Capurato wrote:

Proving that fraud has taken place requires specific acts to have been committed. First, a false statement must be presented as fact. Second, the fraudster must know that the statement is untrue. Third, the fraudster must have intended to deceive the victim. Fourth, the victim has to show they relied on the false statement. And fifth, the victim has to have suffered damages as a result of acting on the intentionally false statement.

Presenting a receipt for an expense when that expense has already been covered fits those criteria pretty well. You would have to be dense about the definition of an expense to act like it’s not meant as deception to request reimbursement twice using the same receipt. The company pays based on your claim that you incurred a certain expense which they have agreed to cover. If someone else is paying for it, it is no longer an expense. The company would not pay that amount unless you claimed it as an expense.

You can negotiate to have expenses rolled into your payment to avoid this complication altogether.

That’s why I used the example of mocking a receipt (or even obtaining a real receipt) after using free parking. It’s not such a different thing. It also doesn’t matter much because these companies aren’t sharing info. It’s easy not to get caught.

It’s easy to do a search and find other discussions on the topic in other fields of work. Most address double billing by lawyers. Parking fees here and there really are small potatoes. The principle is the same.

I like the simplicity of the answer provided by a lawyer here:

[www.quora.com]

If I owned a company. Any company, not just an MSC and I needed a job done and was willing to pay $25 plus the parking fee of $15 to get it done and somebody offered to do it and I found out they billed someone else for the parking for something completely unrelated I would compliment them on their ability to increase their income intelligently.

Why would I care? I am willing to pay $40 to get the job done. They got it done for $40. That's spectacular.

If I do a job at Five Guys and have a 10% back offer on my credit card am I supposed to tell the MSC to keep $1.50 of my $15 reimbursement?????

@bgriffin wrote:

If I do a job at Five Guys and have a 10% back offer on my credit card am I supposed to tell the MSC to keep $1.50 of my $15 reimbursement?????

Lol exactly. You bring up another good example of “something like fraud.” Shame on me for not letting the MSC know that the Marriott hotel shop awarded me a $60 bonus statement credit from American Express even though the MSC is reimbursing me for the expenses with fee, or using the Famous Footwear $50 gift cards I bought for $20, but the MSC reimbursing me $35, or maxing out the parking reimbursement allowed to reduce my parking expenses for my personal travels, etc.

So it isn't fraud. But it is something. In the example, three companies end up paying three hundred percent of an actual cost That is... something...

@Shop-et-al wrote:

So it isn't fraud. But it is something. In the example, three companies end up paying three hundred percent of an actual cost That is... something...

What is it? The Quora post @1cent referred to consultants in the question regarding double billing the clients. What I can agree on as at the very least is that I did not realize this topic (or even this thread, in general) was a moral issue to other shoppers. If there’s anything I can agree on is that the topic on “double dipping” can be seen as a grey area.

Shoppers are not the guys billing the clients. Hell, the clients aren’t even our clients, they are the MSC’s clients. The comments in the Quora link above referred to “good customer service” for saving the end-client money by not claiming expenses. In the mystery shopping world, that could translate not claiming allowed reimbursements on 1 shop vs. a second shop claiming the reimbursement. And by that, the MSC for that first shop will remember you for it. The MSC’s don’t come back to us shoppers and say, “That’s awesome of you for not submitting any expenses for parking or other expenses listed in the shop guidelines!” and because of that we will offer you more work because you save us money for our client!

Would it make it any more ethical if the MSC structured the shops as lump sum fees where the reimbursement limit is embed such as 360 Intel’s fee structure, or request to reduce the fee because a portion of the expenses could be covered with another shop.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/2019 06:38AM by Tarantado.

P.S. Happy Thanksgiving to you as well! @1cent

@1cent wrote:

It’s easy to do a search and find other discussions on the topic in other fields of work. Most address double billing by lawyers. Parking fees here and there really are small potatoes. The principle is the same.

I like the simplicity of the answer provided by a lawyer here:

[www.quora.com]

Ethics and fraud are two different things.

@Capurato wrote:

Ethics and fraud are two different things.

They are not unrelated things. If you are accustomed to unethical behavior, you might easily cross the line. At that link, the lawyer stated that it probably is fraud as well. The cautious language when someone says that you might be doing something wrong is to be kind.

If I have to explain the basic value of business ethics to you, it’s kind of a lost cause.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/2019 04:47PM by 1cent.

@1cent wrote:

They are not unrelated things. If you are accustomed to unethical behavior, you might easily cross the line. At that link, the lawyer stated that it probably is fraud as well. The cautious language when someone says that you might be doing something wrong is to be kind.

If I have to explain the basic value of business ethics to you, it’s kind of a lost cause.

As I stated earlier, would it still be unethical if the 2 separate shops that share the same expenses provided lump sum fees instead of separating reimbursements and fees? Still fraudulent in your view?

A relevant example from many years ago was when Bud Light had a shop requiring me to order a beer. But I double dipped with a Buffalo Wild Wings shop at the same location and on the same receipt. Did I commit fraud, in hindsight?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/2019 05:12PM by Tarantado.