Shell Shops - Where Are They?

August 30, 2023 12:40AM

Aren't the Shell gas station shops due to be released - or should be by now?

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August 30, 2023 12:45AM

They were released earlier in the month but then disappeared from the job board sometime last week. I have a bunch assigned to start on September 1st.

August 30, 2023 01:39AM

Probably hoarders..

August 30, 2023 02:22AM

Well, the dates offered were 9/1-7 with a limit if 10/day. After 10, that day would gray out. So there was a definite limit as to how many one could hoard. They had the traditional fee and reimbursement. I'm wondering if the MSC posted them in error then pulled them back to lower the pay as they're wont to do.

August 30, 2023 02:27AM

Yep, they were posted earlier in the month. I got a couple, but I was shocked at the sudden disappearance.

August 30, 2023 09:58AM

Hummm... I still have one scheduled.

Shopping Arkansas, Louisiana, & Mississippi.

August 30, 2023 10:27AM

I have a few and took screenshots showing the shop log with the pay rates I accepted. Just in case they change it retroactively. It could happen.

August 30, 2023 12:36PM

I see a handful open, all at pathetically low fees.

August 30, 2023 04:45PM

The fees for some are not bad. Starting at $28 total compensation, is not bad depending on the station. I got a few I am very familiar with that have 6 pumps and a kiosk. For me 6 pumps and a kiosk for $28 total compensation ain't bad. What surprised me is that everything disappeared in a couple of days including some I know that have 16-18 pumps and a comprehensive store. The starting comp of $28 is approaching "pathetically low fees" for me in that case.

August 30, 2023 06:42PM

@1forum1 wrote:

The fees for some are not bad. Starting at $28 total compensation, is not bad depending on the station. I got a few I am very familiar with that have 6 pumps and a kiosk. For me 6 pumps and a kiosk for $28 total compensation ain't bad. What surprised me is that everything disappeared in a couple of days including some I know that have 16-18 pumps and a comprehensive store. The starting comp of $28 is approaching "pathetically low fees" for me in that case.

Reimbursement of expenses is not compensation; it is reimbursement.

While some may take shops at low fees, I prefer shops that are profitable - quite profitable.

September 01, 2023 01:14AM

Once you have done a station for $50 it makes it hard to do that station again for pennies. If people would just wait and not grab stuff at rock bottom rates it would help everyone lol

September 01, 2023 06:16AM

Yep, I went looking for Shells.. found one, 2 hours from me. All of the shops locally have been scooped up at base pay before the start date, September 1. The end date they have set is the 7th. And the hoarders will probably be able to extend the date for 5 - 7 days at that point. So expect the dropped shops to post again between the 9th and 14th.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/01/2023 06:18AM by Morledzep.

September 01, 2023 12:00PM

Obviously the shops were pulled. They all disappeared in every state. I could believe someone might take every shop in a state or region in some misguided belief they can make it work, but not in the whole country.

And unless you are paying $7 per gallon for gas (maybe some are,) the total compensation is not $28.

September 01, 2023 12:40PM

I do think the two gallons of gas looks a whole lot more attractive to people after the E/M was reduced to $2 making people who use this as a way to get gas more likely to sign up at lower rates. As a coordinated strategy it works out quite well for Shell.

September 02, 2023 02:44AM

Mystery, I know of one Shell that is still on the board in my area. Don't know why no one is claiming it. That, and the way they disappeared piecemeal over several days, leads me to believe that they were not pulled.

September 02, 2023 03:47AM

Usually they have a handful of Shell shops on a different release schedule for some reason. They don't show up on the main list sent out by email. Maybe they were done late or something last quarter. It may be one those.

September 02, 2023 04:02AM

Actually several years ago, with the old MSC, somebody did grab every single available EM shop within 100 or more miles of me the first week. I resigned myself to not working much that month. But near the end of the month, they all popped back on the board with the "ginormous" bonuses, dozens of them. I moved my mouse as fast as I ever have, and got them all, and was out the door in an hour. I was happy as a lark. I assumed someone had just overestimated what they could do, but in the back of my mind I worried a tragedy had befallen another shopper, with perhaps no one even knowing. Right after that, the MSC instituted a limit of how many shops a shopper could claim at once.

September 02, 2023 02:47PM

@Morledzep wrote:

Mystery, I know of one Shell that is still on the board in my area. Don't know why no one is claiming it. That, and the way they disappeared piecemeal over several days, leads me to believe that they were not pulled.

I am beginning to think you are right. I took a closer look at the ones released in my area, and they are almost all metro locations that get done early every period by base-rate volume shoppers. With the lack of other projects on the board at the time, I guess those shoppers had no other options to fill their schedules.

September 02, 2023 03:51PM

Shell does seem like a better opportunity during these times of diminishing pay. I picked up some I usually do in my area. Does that make me a hoarder? Shouldn't we maintain a positive attitude towards peers, perhaps moving towards kindness, these days? Why is it you label those that conducted business as suits them with disparity because you happen to miss the equal opportunity.
Dare I say you snooze you lose? Please don't be a sore loser. Don't diminish others.

Addressing the situation on this string challenging the pay, gas doesn't have to be $7/gal. After the appreciated $2 for the store reimb, gas would have to be $6/gal to hit the reimb. I am not happy with the fee but respectful of Shell for creating a better program for us than its competitors. I am thankful it is 2 gallons instead of 1/2 gallon. You do the math. It goes a long way to enhance the fee.

September 02, 2023 04:13PM

I haven’t done a Shell since last year. Locations that I audited for $75 and up are getting scooped up now for less than $30. Love or hate it, the “new” MSC is genius - they put out a few emails about the shops being “highly coveted” and they actually advertise who they shop to attract new shoppers (while the other MSC’s stick to NDA’s). This bunch has folks working for fees that were popular back in the early 2000’s, paying to come to their seminars, and eliminating schedulers while continuing to gain new clients from other MSC’s. I wish I had invested in their stock about 3 years ago.

September 02, 2023 05:21PM

Look under the middle shell.

September 02, 2023 08:01PM

I can only speak for myself, but I generally think the sentiment with the word "hoarders" is generally not referring to shoppers that sign up for a bunch of shops and then actually do them. If a shopper signed up for every shop available and did them all, I don't think anyone would fault them. The issue is that a lot of the ones that are getting assigned don't end up getting done. Large swaths of the available shops disappear right when they hit the board, and then half of them come back on the board when the first due date hits. As stated above, that can be delayed some one time by extending the date. Clearly, some shoppers are assigning themselves many more locations than they actually are able and willing to complete. I believe that this is what the majority of the posters are referring to when they use the word "hoarders." If a shopper is grabbing a bunch but actually completing them, then there's no harm or fault in that. That's part of the game. But "hoarding" a large swath of shops and then not completing them does a disservice to everyone involved.

@emm2131 wrote:

Shell does seem like a better opportunity during these times of diminishing pay. I picked up some I usually do in my area. Does that make me a hoarder? Shouldn't we maintain a positive attitude towards peers, perhaps moving towards kindness, these days? Why is it you label those that conducted business as suits them with disparity because you happen to miss the equal opportunity.
Dare I say you snooze you lose? Please don't be a sore loser. Don't diminish others.

Addressing the situation on this string challenging the pay, gas doesn't have to be $7/gal. After the appreciated $2 for the store reimb, gas would have to be $6/gal to hit the reimb. I am not happy with the fee but respectful of Shell for creating a better program for us than its competitors. I am thankful it is 2 gallons instead of 1/2 gallon. You do the math. It goes a long way to enhance the fee.

September 02, 2023 11:34PM

I liked it when jobs came back on the board with a bonus, but I would never do it myself on purpose. I have noticed something new, though. When a job is abandoned (or rejected) and reappears, the fee stays at the amount when it was originally claimed. So that perc is no longer in play.

September 02, 2023 11:34PM

Shopper competition is big, big in my area. Almost nothing comes back to the job board once it's assigned.

September 03, 2023 04:13AM

@Katierlou wrote:

Once you have done a station for $50 it makes it hard to do that station again for pennies. If people would just wait and not grab stuff at rock bottom rates it would help everyone lol

There is one location which I used to complete regularly for $100.00. Recently they sent me a pleading message asking me to complete it again, bonused up to $15.00. Looking forward to doing it on the last day of the quarter when they realize I can sleep for free but will not work for (nearly) free.

September 03, 2023 11:52AM

They have not added on all those extra "satisfaction" questions onto the end of the surveys that they have on most others. Yet. It has been said that those questions go into a separate project. If so, just another way of them making more money without paying us for the extra work.

September 03, 2023 09:52PM

The guidelines say they are easier than they used to be. T I find that they take much more time than the Mobil shops. You till need to take every pump and almost as many pictures as before. I did do 4 yesterday,

September 06, 2023 07:31PM

This is very strange - I see Shell shops in my area - but they are starting in October???

Why??

September 06, 2023 07:49PM

Yep I got the email just a bit ago.. Oct 1 - 15. Don't know why they are going out in stages.. probably another way to keep the pay down..

September 06, 2023 08:33PM

@Morledzep wrote:

Yep I got the email just a bit ago.. Oct 1 - 15. Don't know why they are going out in stages.. probably another way to keep the pay down..

The email that I received lists the same shops that were originally posted in August with start dates of 9/1.

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