I think that if you actually count the minutes that it takes to input a shop it is more than 15 minutes. I do not care how fast your computer or your internet connection is you are still stuck with however slow the MSC connection is to the web and how big the pipe that they go through is.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/2020 07:15AM by 2stepps.

The longest it's ever taken me to do any of these shops including input has been 20 minutes. Even then, it's $24 an hour. You have minimum wage at $24 an hour where you live? I didn't think so. You can not care what kind of connection I have, but it seems it must either be faster than yours or I'm a more efficient reader/typer/answerer. I have timed how long it takes me - it is usually about 5 minutes. I have another client that pays by time so I'm used to looking at the clock when I start input and finish input.

I received an E-notice of a shop today that, to me, "takes the cake."

Make a purchase of, on average, $100, but could be as high as $200. Box the items and drive to the Post Office for a return. Use a SmartPhone for an establishment of being onsite and then await payment for a few weeks. The shopper fee was $10 + reimbursement.

I actually do see where you guys who defend the companies are coming from.

You know what, if I saw 5-10-15 of them, and I could bang them off the line I'd agree with you 110%. It's worth it, and that we don't see the potential, or understand how hard it is.

Look at it from my end, usually its 1 shop. I am in Canada, so part of its charm with so few people that mystery shopping isn't that big here. I am driving between points A and who knows what for my other jobs. Now it's one thing if I take a detour to do a shop worth say $20-$30+. I can see it being worth my while.

When I see under $10, and I know from experience with prep time, and data entry its over an hour. I just can't do it. Since I know Mr. Reality, and he has me booked once I get home from work with several dozen things I need to do.

@nixkit wrote:

I'm not sure I get the minimum wage comments here. In my situation, I am usually passing by a gas station anyways. If it takes me on the long end 10 minutes at the shop and 5 minutes input I'm at 15 minutes. At $8, the hourly rate for that is $32 an hour, which is well over minimum wage in my area.

It's not just about whether you are passing by. There's opportunity cost also. If you stop the car and do a shop that's worth $8 total and it takes 15 minutes (or 40 minutes...pick which ever reality you feel applies), you're making a choice to do that instead of something else If that means you turned down another job that would have paid $9, you have $1 of lost opportunity cost. There are 24 hours in a day, so choosing one thing actually does mean you are excluded from something else. It's just a matter of which would net you more.

The comparison to minimum wage comes in because work at that wage is presumably always plentiful and available to fill as much of your time as you want. So if you're earning less than minimum wage for a particular shop, it's because you've effectively turned down work that would pay higher to do it.

Plus, by the time you drive between them you can't actually do 4 gas stations in a hour. I'd guess it's maybe 2 per hour max average for most people under ideal circumstances. Sure maybe you find three spanning two blocks once in a while. But for every one of those there are 20 that are a half hour or more apart. Those minutes spent driving between have to be included in the time dedicated to the effort. So now it's more like $16 an hour max / average, and both halves of social security still have to be paid out of it. That's a lot of trouble to be hovering that close to minimum wage.