I took a shop for checking on debit cards inside a store, for $14. It wasn't until I opened the app that I realized what they really wanted. They wanted me to check the dates on all their debit cards. I didn't realize how many cards there were and how many pegs they used. Than they wanted you to count ALL the competitors cards. There must have been over 100. I stopped that shop and said forget it, it was going to take way too much time for the $14 fee. You also had to search the stop for other displays of the debit cards.

I was going to say no right away, but then it occurred to me that I did once with an app shop.
I pretty much "fired" that app afterwards. Never for any actual MSC's. (I don't *really* consider this app to be an MSC). With what you describe, I would have done the same.

I, too, only cancelled once that I can recall, and that was on the Observa phone app about 2 years ago. "Simple" shop for $5, in a store where I'd be anyway....right! Take a gazillion photos of the spice section from various angles and levels, along with close ups of all the price tags....yeah, right!! Couldn't see all this until the job was accepted and begun. Nope. Left the store and wrote them and told them that it was way too much work for the pay. They never penalized me, as far as I can tell. But I haven't tried another one with them since. I can't recall ever cancelling a shop I already started with a regular MSC, but I've been doing this since 2005, so maybe I'm just not recalling any such events. If I do recall ever doing so, I'll come back and update. But so far, I think it's only been with the Observa app.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/2022 12:26AM by guysmom.

It sounds like a merchandising assignment. I don't take them, but they show up on the MSC boards on occasion. The other day, one came through that wanted a couple hundred plus prices, and they were paying maybe $15. Some of the things these folks want is physically impossible in a reasonable length of time. You are going to end up with repetitive motion injuries to boot, and I guarantee they are not paying enough to cover the doctor visit. I try not to, but I don't blame you for ditching the assignment.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/2022 12:28AM by GinnyLynn.

I usually slog through the shop, then put it on my 10-foot-pole list. The only exception was an app shop that had a surprise picture requirement at the end that would have drawn undo attention.

I cancelled a restaurant shop after I read the guildlines and they included a trip to the bar that required detailing many transactions. It was one of those $10 pay jobs and also a full dining report and bar audit. Plus conflicting instructions about reserations and also valet,etc. I really wanted to give them a piece of my mind but I just backed out. It's a shame when the description doesn't give you a full feel for the job.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/2022 03:30AM by olympia tennenbaum.

The Bowling and Amusement place that had a four hour wait to be assigned a bowling lane. A one hour wait could have been filled with the other requirements of the assignment. And the location was too far away to drive back & forth.
Then there was the assignment to take photos of menus. The report was returned to me with a question. Then it was returned again with a different question. The third return came with a request to drive back and redo assignment. I realized no matter what I did the editor was bound and determined not to pay me so I declined.
Usually I slog through awful jobs so these two stick in my memory.

I started a shop that was thru an app. I went to a sporting goods store. I was supposed to find a bunch of UPCs's that we're listed and scan them. I couldn't find any. I canceled the shop while I was still in the store. The scheduler was understanding and readily undrdstood the items were difficult to find.

Like many of you, I tend to tough it out and chalk it up to lessons learned. Maybe if more of us cancelled, the MSCs would be more forthcoming about what is involved in a shop, if they don't want to disclose the guidelines prior to assignment.

I won't load ANY app to my smartphone for any shop. Never, never, not ever. I'm not risking the security of my smartphone for anyone / anything. I only go to a secure webpage.

I have one where I stopped the shop and another where I almost canceled by kept going so as not to impact a relative.

I canceled a shop that was way too little pay for the work after starting it. That was the main reason and soon after I started a friend called needing me to go pick up medicine at the pharmacy for them. The job was scan all the shelf UPCs for both sides of an aisle and the end cap and take pictures of each bay.

I thought the 50+ scans and over 32 pics would not be too difficult. The pay was horrible, but I took it to truly measure how time consuming it would be. I had an issue with the 3rd or 4th UPC shelf tag since it was very faded and crumbled up that it would not register on the app. I bet that if I had completed the entire task they would've rejected it due to one tag not being able to scan though.

I attempted to do this late in the day. No clue how people do this on a Saturday with everyone shopping in the aisles and you getting in their way.

Early on in the task, my buddy called and asked if I could pick up his medicine before the pharmacy closed later that hour. I ditched the job because it proved to be a horrible investment of time for the money and I wouldn't be able to get to the store in time for my friend.

Another job was a grocery store pic assignment. You had to find specific items in the store and take pictures of them on the shelf. I went there three separate times to complete the job. It was a huge time waster.

I didn't quit because I wanted to make sure it didn't impact the status of a relative signing up with the company for an unrelated assignment.

I did this today with the Mcdonald's shop on the app. I was 35 screenshots in and still not even to the 23 required beverages. I spent over 50 minutes there and was almost late to work. For Mcdonalds? Absolutely not.

I accept that not all job requirements are available before acceptance.

Sometimes, after accepting a job and seeing the actual requirements, I ask for it to be cancelled.

But I tend to only accept highly bonused shops ( because of distances I must travel), so I am deeply reluctant to cancel.

I have cancelled a few shops after accepting and then seeing the ridiculous requirements. As for cancelling mid-shop, yes. I accepted a warehouse store pricing shop where you had to enter prices and other information for 100 items. Once I started doing it, it was very confusing and I decided it was not worth the money.

I've never stopped a shop mid-shop after realizing it was way too much work for the fee. But I never do it again. Unless it comes around with a huge bonus, and, depending on the nature of the shop, I still might not take it. I've cancelled one shop ahead of time after seeing the ridiculous amount of work it would have been. I explained that to the scheduler and never got a citation for it, so she must have understood.

I've canceled a couple phone shops along the way when various MSCs decided that I would make an infinite number of calls to reach an unreachable target. One was an apartment manager who was clearly not answering the phone (and still hadn't after six attempts over six days). It was an "easy" $5.00 assignment. That MSC's apartment call shops are now on my ten-foot-pole list. Another was to a target person with just as many attempts that I later found out had quit (and was not coming back), another on the ten-foot-pole list.

A couple were completely unreachable because of perpetually unresolved phone system errors and issues. They are mostly good MSCs, but with some of them, you might as well hang it up if somebody up the ladder enters something incorrectly into the phone system. I will note, I did not abandon these assignments completely, but at a point, I made it pretty clear that if they wanted me to complete the assignment, somebody needed to correct the error that somebody else made when inputting the shop into the phone recording system. There was nothing I could do to fix the problem, and I couldn't go any further on the assignment until somebody else chose to do their job too. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/2022 01:41PM by GinnyLynn.

@nolimitem wrote:

I did this today with the Mcdonald's shop on the app. I was 35 screenshots in and still not even to the 23 required beverages. I spent over 50 minutes there and was almost late to work. For Mcdonalds? Absolutely not.

I did the McDonalds shop yesterday. Options were either drive thru, kiosk inside, or on the mobile app; other options were breakfast, lunch, or dinner; and small, medium, or large drink. I figured I’d do do the lunch at a location near home on the app, since I occasionally have lunch there this way anyway. I ended up taking 59 pictures to complete the shop. One item was not on the menu, and one item category was not available at the particular restaurant branch. It took me nearly an hour and a half to complete the form, and you have to do it on a phone or tablet. It was the most tedious shop I’ve done this year. I will not do it again.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/2022 09:17PM by jgenad.

I'm dealing with someone at coyle who sent me another 40 questions today on a shop I did 2 wks ago with 176 questions. sz wont pay me any more fee for my time ($15 took me 4 hrs to complete survey). sz survey is being edited but she is asking me duplicate questions. any suggestions?

Exactly, I had an hour before I had to go and open up my bar. I was about a mile away. I got to my bar still not complete, still not even sure if I was doing it right and annoyed that I ate McDonalds for no reason.

I was pondering those McDonalds shops earlier today. Y'all told me all I needed to know. Stuff like that is why I love this forum, thank you.

@MSMistress wrote:

I'm dealing with someone at coyle who sent me another 40 questions today on a shop I did 2 wks ago with 176 questions. sz wont pay me any more fee for my time ($15 took me 4 hrs to complete survey). sz survey is being edited but she is asking me duplicate questions. any suggestions?

If this is one of their fine dining shops where you spent a lot and have a lot of reimbursement coming, it's up to you.

Bite the bullet and refuse to answer the additional questions, forfeiting all pay and reimbursement. Or answer the additional questions to receive a pittance of a shop fee and the reimbursement.

I don't recall ever being questioned on any Coyle shop I've done. Maybe they wanted additional details/longer responses? Where they questions completely different from the report or questions about your answers?

Reminds me of a targeted apartment shop I had a few years back.

MSC said to log IIRC 6 attempts to reach by phone, then just go in person without an appointment.

6 utterly useless calls, no one ever answered. Left phone message every time, no one ever called back. So I drove the 100 miles. Called again on the way, still no answer.

My first question when I got there (which wasn't even a required question, LOL) was "Hey, don't you ever answer your phone?" (I was....irked. )

"Nope. I'm too busy to answer the phone. Don't have time to listen to phone messages, either."

And that's exactly what I put in the report.

Hell of a way to run a business.

I did get paid in full, but have NEVER attempted another targeted apartment shop.

@GinnyLynn wrote:

I've canceled a couple phone shops along the way when various MSCs decided that I would make an infinite number of calls to reach an unreachable target. One was an apartment manager who was clearly not answering the phone (and still hadn't after six attempts). That MSC's apartment call shops are now on my ten-foot-pole list. Another was to a target person with just as many attempts that I later found out had quit (and was not coming back), another on the ten-foot-pole list. A couple were completely unreachable because of perpetually unresolved phone system errors and issues. They are mostly good MSCs, but with some of them, you might as well hang it up if somebody up the ladder enters something incorrectly into the phone system.

Never. The loss of earning a reputation as a flake is too serious. The only shops I have cancelled are ones where I have discovered an unexpected conflict-of-interest and one who upon reading the guidelines I decided was not an ethical assignment.

It is rare but I had asked schedulers to unassign me when the MSCs significantly changed the shop requirements after I had already satisfied all the original conditions. The shops I asked to be excused from most often were targeted apartment shops that initially required X call attempts only and then the MSCs kept telling me to make more and more calls.

As many shoppers know, some targeted apartment shops turn out to have targets that no longer work there. In other words, it is a total waste of the shoppers' time to require shoppers to keep calling.

There is a reason I do not do targeted apartment shops anymore. In fact, I rarely do any type of apartment shop.

Ah! Your post refreshed my memory. I did cancel several cell phone shops where my wait time was already more than 30 minutes and it appeared (based on how many people were ahead of me and how much time each person spent in the store) that I would have to wait HOURS to complete the shop.

@Rho* wrote:

The Bowling and Amusement place that had a four hour wait to be assigned a bowling lane. A one hour wait could have been filled with the other requirements of the assignment. And the location was too far away to drive back & forth.
Then there was the assignment to take photos of menus. The report was returned to me with a question. Then it was returned again with a different question. The third return came with a request to drive back and redo assignment. I realized no matter what I did the editor was bound and determined not to pay me so I declined.
Usually I slog through awful jobs so these two stick in my memory.

I would not do a targeted apartment shop where you have to keep calling. Remember, they have caller ID. If you keep calling, they can trace you. You're no longer a mystery shopper.

I have access to more than 10 phone numbers, not counting burners.

The main reason I stopped doing targeted apartment shops was the fee was rarely worth the amount of work. I am fortunate that there are much more profitable shops in my area. I don't mind working hard when the pay makes the shop worth it. I do mind very much when I accepted a shop at $A based on the amount of work required and then the MSC increased the workload significantly without added compensation.

I think sometimes projects seem harder than they actually are. Once you get on with it, it goes quickly and once you've done one or two you get a routine/system down and it goes faster. I've never had one of the card projects take more than 30 min. (Oddly, the worst store pays the least). I've only cancelled the barcode/upc scanning one offered on an app. I do my level best to NEVER cancel with an MSC.

Today. I had an HS Brands shop that said "easy" gas station shop with a bathroom picture. I accepted it, and only then saw the extensive pictures required. They don't show all the requirements till you accept the shop. Canceled immediately.