@jrj76 wrote:
... You are basically asking us to do the same as for example using the Mobee app to get some gift cards because probably at some point I will be buying a game...
Oh, no I am not suggesting people work for MoBee by any means, haha. Their pay is often terrible in my opinion with missions for 200 points, but you are right, I am suggesting that people can use other opportunities as leverage against the MSCs, and their low pay though. For me personally, one of the forms of leverage I use, and find to be much better is trading on the stock market, and earning fantastic returns that way, but that’s just me.
(If you found a way to make MoBee work for you, then more power to you though.)
@jrj76 wrote:
You are assuming that these shops within a reasonable area get up to a fee worth doing. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't.
No, I know that shops in some areas pay more than shops in other areas, and that is because of what people are willing to work for to do some areas vs. other areas. You do need to take into account location along with shop pay when considering profitability. Otherwise, it will throw the numbers off.
For example, if you could get a shop at $50, there is going to be a big difference in the profitability of doing it if it is 10 hours away from you round trip, versus if it were 30 minutes away from you round trip. If it were 10 hours away from you, I’d say it’s not worth doing for $50. But that $50 that the MSCs are willing to pay for that remote location should give people an idea of what MSCs are capable of paying if other people don’t do the work for less. And an idea of what is good pay if they don’t have to go too far for it.
That’s why I say if you are able to get the work for $40 to $50, you did well. That is assuming you don’t have to go too far out of your way to do it though. It is a rate of pay that the MSCs do not like to pay people at, but is not the highest pay I have ever seen a gas station shop go at either.
@jrj76 wrote:
At the very least, going to work for Door Dash or Uber, or literally any app that is like that means that we all have to put even MORE miles on our cars to do that work.
Not necessarily. It depends on a number of different factors, but the aim of my suggestions isn’t really to reduce mileage. It is to increase shopper profitability.
But for the sake of discussion, let’s say that it does indeed increase the number of miles you put on your car. If you make a greater profit putting more miles on your car doing that, than you do with less miles on mystery shop work, I’d say you came out ahead then. That again would depend on different factors though, and that’s one of the reasons why I had said that the Door Dash idea won’t work for everyone, but that it could for some.
@jrj76 wrote:
Basically that person could skip the gas station audits and still make out better by getting a $5 tip...
Well, yeah that would be another way of looking at it. If you don’t care to do gas station shops, you could look at it as you don’t really need their $5 fuel reimbursements anyway when you are getting that much in tips.
@jrj76 wrote:
I would also like to say that this is hardly the way to handle this situation...
I just offer ideas with this post. I don’t claim to know any one person’s situation, or what would be necessarily best for them.
What I have often seen over the years when people complain about pay is that some snarky person on here would say that you don’t have to work for the MSCs, or “more for me, less for you”, or the MSCs don’t owe you anything, and blah, blah, blah. I just don’t think those kind of responses to the situation of declining shopper pay are helpful. People need money, and the MSCs don’t have to be so greedy.
Even the more conventional advice of just don’t work for low fees, and they’ll go up, could be improved upon. So that is one of things I was pushing for here. Better advice, or ideas for those that could use them.