Mystery shopping is the most exasperating way to earn extra money, let alone to try and earn a small income. I personally feel this is for the "young". For those of you who still have the compunction to be run ragged for a few dollars. The research needed to find the best and highest paying jobs takes much out of a person. I have spent 55 years in the work force. I am retired, or should I say that at times I'm just tired. I wanted to fill some hours and earn a few needed bucks. What it seems to take is just rotten. I have found many companies that will not share enough of their compensation with us.One company offers many jobs in Fl. for me. I won't do a job for $5.00. It would take up wards of 45 minutes with the report for each job. I refuse at my age to work for what ends up being less than minimum wage.
Just plain disgusted in Florida.

Hi Al,
I hear you. I am seeing a lot of the same nonsense. A lot of it is the economy, a lot of it is the number of shoppers out there at the moment and I suspect a lot of it is that the MSPs are competing for clients by offering discounted rates off the back of their shoppers.

Me too. I've just eliminated the 2 dept electronics shops from my list. I can evaluate 1 person for more $$

Who pays more than the MSP with the 2 depts?

AL R--
It is hard, but it gets easier. I've been doing it only 3 months, and already some schedulers are throwing things my way and remembering me. After a while you can eliminate the cheap companies, and stick with a few others. And, yes, it will always be less than minimum wages. I stay because I need to flex it around my primary business, but if you don't need that, try merchandising. It pays upwards of $10/hour.

Same msp/different client/1 person+cashier/15 minutes in and out/$2 more

Just finishing up my last elec. shop....Good riddance!

Their questionnaires are a PITA. But I'll look for the 1-person shops. Questionnaire must be half the size, no? Sometimes I combine 2 small shops on a trip with 1 larger shop, and it makes the trip worthwhile. Well, we're not mentioning the clients, Al R. The MSP is Bestmark. They do a lot of electronics shops. But we're not allowed to mention client and MSP together, at least not publicly.

The 1 person shop is a hardware store. I love going in there anyway because they have everything that no one stocks anymore. Unfortunately, the rotation is 2 stores a month

I agree with what you all are saying. We certainly are not making a more than mininum wage here, but it beats being a WalMart greeter or working at a McDonald's. I rather critiqe them, than me being critiqued. Plus I love working out of my home and on my computer. And the tax benefits are great, having your own home business.

I'm starting my own online shopping website soon. I'm hoping I'll be able to supplement my income with greater rewards than the MSing.

I hope you'll let us all know when it's ready.

Sneakers,

I sure will let you know. I hope I can make some money with it.

I had three drive-in shops today that I was supposed to do between 2-4pm. The first shop, no problems. The second shop was about ten minutes away. It took forever for the speakerperson to come on to take the order. Over the 20 seconds time that they are to do it in. And the drink I ordered took a long time, too.
The last location was thirty minutes away. Needless to say, I didn't make it in time to be able to do the shop correctly. I'm hoping the schedulers won't be angry with me and will let me reschedule. I had no idea it was going to be that far away. I got my DHL package only yesterday with the locations they gave me. We drove all the way to the last location and couldn't do it. Talk about frustrated and hungry. These people very seldom try to upsell you. So all I got was a drink.

On a happy note, I got a very nice check for eleven shops I did last month at the credit unions.

How will you make money on your shopping site? From accepting advertising, or selling newsletters? This is so exciting. The few shopping sites I've been to that were run by individuals were total wastes of my time.

Why do they send the locations by DHL? There are thermometers for testing the coffee?

I am done with the 2 dept. electronic shop MSP also. Those jobs should be paying upwards of $20.
In addition, down here they have only age related jobs, which is discriminatory.
The only ones available for my age are the 2 dept. ones and a restaurant chain with 3 locations that are too far away. Besides, I don't work for food, unless it's someplace I really want to go.
Charlened - make sure you start a new thread on the forum, when you're ready to go with your website. I'm sure we'd all like to see what you're up to!
I commiserate with Al. I get really tired when I overload myself, but sometimes I do it on purpose so I can take a couple of weeks off. I nearly killed myself, (NOT), the first 2 weeks of the month, but I'm not taking another job 'til May. I met my quota and I'm done for the month!

If I had a dollar for every time I say I'm taking a break, I really could take a break. Those darn schedulers just seem to know, and they send out those pleading emails that I just can't resist

Oh, you bet they have our number! They know exactly how to play their cards. But,
sometimes I am all booked up and just don't have any time to squeeze anything more in. So sorry!. Call me again next time and hopefully I'll be available.
I can be booked up with napping, catching up on housework, reading, doing some- thing on my mile long "To Do List", or staring into space. Booked is booked! With what, is my business.

I'm working on getting some capital to do the advertising to my website. I'll certainly will start a new thread on it. Ya'll will be my first shoppers.

I have to learn what kind of merchandise is going to sell on a dollar website.
You will be able to save a lot of money shopping on this site. It's like going to the Dollar General. The main one will have about 12 different Fortune 500 stores to shop on. And I'll have another one that I will make money when people just fill out an application for mortgage information. I'm waiting for the manuals for these. A lot of advertising has to be made to get traffic to these sites. I have one already up. I've had it for a couple of months, but I haven't made anything with it yet. It's called www.search-burn.com. I'm going to link it to the others. You can check it out if you'd like. It will take you to Ebay, Amazon.com, and Hotel.com. I get a percentage if you buy something from them through my site. Check out your horoscope while you're there also.

The questionnaires, gift cards and oops cards all come in the DHL package. I don't have to download anything off the computer. I make copies of the questionnaire and stick them between the sheets of a newspaper with the crossword puzzles on top. This way I have a pencil in my hand to take notes. It looks like I'm doing a crossword puzzle. I also take notes by hand on a little sticky notepad. I haven't bought a DVR yet. I shopped for them on Amazon.com but can't get one right now. I've got to make some serious money.

I did get a thermometer by priority mail, I think, to test a pizza.

Getting back to all worn out. Don't we get pretty worn out trying to find the shop locations? Sometimes you need to be a rocket scientist. Even when I do a map, the streets don't have signs or they are confusing. Thank goodness my husband drives. He's at the wheel and I'm looking for the address or the landmarks of the business. Between the two of us, we make it!

Your website is about real shopping, not MSing?