I am just curious but anybody get burnt out from mystery shopping? Especially those who have a full-time job and doing mystery shopping to supplement your income. Do you ever have to take a break from it and then return? I am just curious

Most shoppers get burned out, whether they have a full-time job or are just doing this part time. The most frequent cause of burnout is too intense a focus on finding and doing jobs for too long. There comes a day when you realize how exhausted you are and how little you have to show for it. Many shoppers take a breather where for a few months they do only the jobs they WANT to do and then they decide whether to drop it all together or continue doing just a few jobs or to put it back into high gear.

There is also the burnout you get when you did the job correctly and reported correctly and an MSP decides for some bogus reason not to pay you. This may be because they claim you failed to do something that was not in the instructions at all. Go through this nonsense a few times and you learn to save all instructions, whether from email or downloaded, because you really should be paid because you DID follow the instructions. You spend a whole bunch of time trying to email to get it straightened out, attaching copies of pdfs of all instructions and asking them to show you where they instructed you to do a certain thing that you did not do and were not asked for on the questionnaire. At the end of the day, when you finally do or do not get paid you realize you have spent several hours and a whole lot of emotional energy for a $15 job.

Then there are the jobs that you don't get paid for or get reduced pay where shortly after your problem the MSP goes belly up--at least you know why you got shorted or not paid at all.

Then you come to the beginning of a new year and the clients have done a fruitbasket turnover. When you finally figure out who is shopping them now, you discover that last year's $15 job is now paying $13, last year's $7.50 job is now with an MSP that rarely bonuses, last year's $10 job is now $8.50 and requires a bunch of photographs.

You come to realize that the shopper is always on the short end of the stick and indeed, you are burned out. Many would-be shoppers never even get it off the ground, many newbie shoppers give up after a month or two because pay is so slow in coming, many shoppers just get bored because they are seeing the same shops over and over and over, many shoppers realize this is not a particularly good way to make money and find something else that pays better and more reliably, many shoppers just get tired of being left holding the bag. I would contend that the shoppers who have a specific and extraordinary goal for shopping--paying off credit card debt, getting together some cash for their daughter's wedding, saving for a very special vacation--are the ones who are best motivated to wade through the nonsense of mystery shopping. Very few who are trying to make a living at this succeed. It works best as supplemental income or for a specific goal. I suspect the trick to survival and continuing is knowing what your realistic expectations are from shopping and finding a balance point where shopping works for you without being an onerous chore.

Yes Flash you summed it up about right. I am doing this to just supplement my income with a full-time job that is very demanding. Yes I have a goal to do something. I just feel for all that is being asked of a shopper little is being given in return. On top of that it sometimes invade your full-time gig which is over stepping the line. Of course with any job I believe in producing quality work but for what is being asked and receiving little is a bit wearing on a person. Thanks for the feedback.

If there are jobs you like, keep doing them. Once you have done this for a while you will know which ones are reasonable and comfortable for you. There is a balance point in there somewhere where you don't throw out the baby with the bathwater but you don't get unhappy about allowing yourself to be taken advantage of. Once you find the balance, occasionally take a new or different job to see if it "fits" just as an experiment. Occasionally add a new MSP and see if they offer anything that might work in your repertoire. And when you are sick to death with a job, make it the last time you accept that one because you really won't do a spectacular job of it in the future.

I've been doing this about three years now, while working a full time job. I sometimes think "What the #$!!# am I doing this for? (yes I know, never end a sentence with a preposition) Bottom line, I like it. I enjoy the looking for jobs, I enjoy doing most of the jobs, and I even like the little bit of money I make.

But like anything, there are ups and downs with it. One of the biggest things I have to contend with is to bid on many of the same jobs in different locations and getting most of them. Upps!! How CAN I work them all in? I really have to pace myself out and not take to many jobs at one time.

Then there is the problems Flash mentions, when you know you did everything right, but because the client wasn't happy with your report the come up with all type of reasons to reject your report. At that point, I have to decide if it is worth the effort to protest the incident, or just say "Screw U" to the MSP.

All this being said, you just have to decide for yourself if this is the part-time job for you. I am not trying to save for something important, nor do I need this extra money to live on, so maybe it makes me more casual about the whole shopping experience.

When I sit down and figure out EXACTLY how much I'm making per hour, on average per month, I laugh hysterically and then it turns into a combination of yelling, screaming, wailing and crying. I ask myself why I am spending $284 a month in expenses to make a net total of $189.50, including reimbursements. (Last month's grand total)! At that point, I am in total burnout mode, with a smoldering fire that would quickly ignite any company, client, scheduler or evaluator that said one wrong word to me.
I have to take some time off and regroup,look for closer and better paying jobs.

The only 'silver lining' I can suggest to that cloud Sandilynn is that with the mileage deduction the chances are that every cent from Mystery Shopping is likely to be tax free. I would hazard to guess that it doesn't cost you an EXTRA 50.5 cents per mile to do MSing, which is what you are allowed to deduct. I would hope that in your expenses are a whole bunch of reimbursements that are useful to you that are also tax free benefits. If cold hard cash is what you need, then MSing is a wretched way to try to do it.

In a "normal" year, my fees are usually about 20% more than my useful reimbursements. This year the fees are lower and my reimbursements are running about 20% more than my fees. With the increased mileage rate deduction for 2008 (2007 was only 48.5 cents per mile) my shopping business for 2008 is currently operating at a tax loss. I do find it helpful to realize that shopping has lifestyle benefits in addition to the cash and that as a business my goal is to have it break even while providing benefits rather than produce net taxable income.

Doing this kind of work is quite stressful in it self. There are so many details and things that you have to remember. Then of course there is the computer time. Many nights I was on the computer into the morning hours doing reports. I have since learned to pace myself. When I find that I am beginning to burn out, I slow down and do other things for awhile.

I have to chuckle about more differences. I am a night owl. Around 9:30 or 10PM my sweetie falls asleep in front of the tv or hauls himself off to bed. Before I was shopping I would drive him crazy clanking around in the kitchen. I never was quite as crude as to run the vacuum cleaner after he went to bed. Now it is great--he goes to sleep and I have quiet time to put in my reports.

And I do find that when I am burning out I just stop taking the shops that are irritating because those contribute more to burn out than anything else.

I'll bet you found more problems than Shopaholic could have imagined, Flash. You didn't mention the pressure of carrying around all these false identities, especially when they ask for an address and phone number. I was almost outed by a CSR at a bank today and it really threw me. Earlier this week I did a mattress shop, and had a name ready, but not an address. I really sounded like an idiot, not knowing my zip code, and left the store fast.

Oh, good heavens, Flash and anybody else that read my snippet and thought I was dead serious - after the first 2 weeks of this month, I AM in burnout hell!
Murphy's Law took over and ruined everything from car performance to computer glitches to wrong addresses on assignment sheets, to a report that printed out as 2 pages and ended up being 2 pages of boxes to check yes or no. BUT, they kinda' left out the fact that there were 6 sections, EACH requiring a 250 word essay on cleanliness issues in a certain area of the store and for the same area a 350 word essay on your experience in that area, including associate interaction, if any. After doing the shop and upon seeing the evaluation, I called the scheduler and told her that for $18.00 I would not be doing the report. I apologized and told her I hoped this was not going to reflect back on her. She said it would not and then said how sorry she was that she had not had time to get to me, to warn me ahead of time about the report. I had applied the day before the due date.
So --- here's what I know: I had a tax loss from the business last year! It really didn't matter, b/c we didn't have to pay any taxes last year anyway.
What with gas prices as high as they were and the long distances I have to travel for a lot of the jobs here, coupled with the $3000+ I shelled out for car repairs, I probably did use up every penny of the 48.5 cent/mile allowance for auto expenses.
I very rarely take a job if I have to buy something I don't need or can't use, unless I can return it. From Star$s and DD, I take a container to save the coffee in and of course bring the breakfast sandwiches or donuts home and freeze them.
Gas shops are great, I can always use gas and a candy bar (yum!) or something from inside. BTW - for people that feel like idiots going inside and asking for the attendant to turn on the pump for $1-$5 worth of gas -- get a credit or debit card that you use only for gas, or maybe all your business expenses. Use the card right at the pump, you'll get a receipt there too and you won't feel like a moron when you go inside. In addition, you'll have a record of at least some of your expenses. Well, you get the idea. If I need it, can use it, want it or can save it, I'll do the shop, if it's reimbursed and the job pays enough. If not, I've got to think it over carefully.
I operate on the "theory", that I will make some cold hard cash and also reap benefits from some of the shops that have reimbursements on "stuff" I want to buy. I agree that lowered prices, fewer jobs and more shoppers are making it a bit tougher to get as many jobs as I would like. My husband and I decided the other day that we were going to sign up with more MSPs to broaden our base somemore. We've left about 6 MSPs in the last 3 months for various reasons, mostly to do with money matters. We need to replace those and add more.
I'm giving myself 'til the end of the month to squelch this burnout. I'm back to work on May 2nd.
I appreciate your encouragement, Flash!

Sorry that your month got so rotten. Indeed it happens to all of us. I hit the wall about the 20th of the month. At that time I was read to sell the farm and move into a 1 bedroom apartment by myself, disconnect any and all contact with the outside world except for picking up books from the bookmobile to entertain myself and become a hermit. In my case only part of banging the head against the wall was due to mystery shopping (a whole series of bank shops that would have made my month finally profitable were put on hold for possible future rescheduling once the client is ready to get it back in gear), the rest is mostly attempting to deal with health insurance (did you know that it is not only your doctor and the hospital that need to be providers with your plan? If they call in an anesthesiologist or other services in connection with your surgery and these are not providers under your plan, you are responsible for their payment as "out of plan providers" while you got no opportunity to be involved in their selection or ask if they took your insurance?) We all get worn down to a frazzle, mystery shopping just adds to it. So have a good "vacation" for the rest of the month, sign up with a few new MSPs and do something nice for yourself.

It sounds as though you're month was "worser" than mine, Flash!
Yes, yes, yes, I do know that and other revolting stumbling blocks when dealing with insurance company/ies.
How about this? My husband was scheduled for angioplasty with his cardiologist. We got to the hospital, went through the usual preparation rigamarole, and he had been given a saline drip with narcotics and nitroglycerin, or some such thing for his heart, in it. Time to go! Got down stairs to the operating hallway and a Dr. we've never seen before, comes out, introduces himself and says he's going to do the proceedure, b/c our Dr. had a family emergency. He's one of the Drs. in the same practice and although disappointed, hey - let's get on with it. Well, you guessed it. He was not signed up as a provider under our insurance plan and we had to pay for his services, out of our pocket, to the tune of $2500. My husband complained bitterly to his cardiologist, who was supposed to do the job and told him that they should have either rescheduled or sent a Dr. who accepted our insurance. At least we got a little help. The practice's office offered to pay half the bill! That's just 1 miserable mess we've had with the insurance mafia.
There have been others and I'm at the point now that even though I need an operation (the 3rd) on my shoulder, 1 on each wrist for carpal tunnel, both hips and 1 knee, I'm like - when they fall into pieces, I'll worry about it!
I think you are so-o-o right. If everything's going along smoothly, I can readily take the aggravations that go along with MSing and even laugh at the ridiculous stuff that happens. But when other hassles have your nerves frayed, MSing can be the proverbial straw ---.

In my "real-life job" I do medical billing for a group of rheumatologists. I can tell you of many horror stories of insurance. We do infusion therapy that the drugs themselves are 10,000. We check with the insurance companies before we do the infusions to make sure they are covered, and how much the patient has to pay out of pocket, do pre-determinations and cover all our bases, and STILL have them denied for some silly reason.

I figure the next thing we will all need to buy is an insurance coverage that covers us when somebody else screws up. Surprisingly, I can understand the position of each party involved in the current folly. I can also figure who has at least partial responsibility for the situation. We were so careful to make sure "everybody" accepted the oddball insurance before doing this, so the stuff we couldn't check in advance seems hardly fair to indicate we "owe" about the price of a new automobile. And yes, life happens. And yes, this too will get resolved one way or another. And yes Virginia, there IS a Santa Claus. And meanwhile that report that doesn't go through so needs to be re-entered and the need to call the MSP to verify that indeed your total time on the shop was 12 min. because the place was virtually empty and yes the call to find out how to fix a shop where one crucial page of the materials for some gremlin reason did not print and your were too tired to notice, all become almost insurmountable problems.

The combination of "bad" things, happening in the same time period, is what makes each and every one of them seem insurmountable.
If these things would happen 1 at a time - like maybe once a month, I could deal. But, when they're all thrown in my lap at the same time, I feel overwhelmed. I become furious or depressed. Neither one is a nice place to be.
I was going to give y'all a rundown of my fights and other miseries that are driving me crazy, (I have to have something to blame my insanity on), but I've decided not to. I can hear the sigh of relief from here. I'm bored with all of the ?rap and I'm quite sure you would be too, after the first 20 complaints.
Have a great day, or night!

I agree with you both. Shopping is just part of my life. When I have a personal problem, and my primary business is in trouble, and the weather is working against me, and the cat is sick, and the car needs repair, and whatever.... then a little thing like one report seems to be a huge problem. We lose perspective.

Sandilynn and everyone with justified complaints--

Turn it into a funny story on the "Funny Narrative" or "Hilarious Reason Why I Missed a Shop" thread. Humor is a great palliative for anger and depression, and a lot more productive than reiterating our complaints.