Never have I ever done these shops...have you, and should I?

September 13, 2023 02:37PM

There are some shops that are always available that I have avoided, but wonder if I should give them a try?

1. The 3 letter Car shop-I'm afraid of how intensive this is.
2. The bank where you call a random branch and complain that an employee has opened an account you didn't authorize, but you won't provide details and you don't want your account closed. Really?
3. Go take a test and fail. Get there 30 minutes early and sit pretending to take the test for 1.5 hours. Seems too tedious and time consuming for the money.
4. Send money to someone then turn around and cancel. Bizarre.
5. Any phone shop for $4-5.
6. The big box electronics shop that you have to pay for your own background check. Besides for that part, it looks intense!
7. Same big box $16 shops that require a selfie. This seems like it could take a long time to get help and too many questions/requirements.
8. Reveal shops with a safely vest. $12 for all of that?

Since no one wants to take these shops in my area I assume I am wise to avoid them? Or should I give them a try?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/13/2023 02:38PM by bradkcrew.

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September 13, 2023 02:47PM

I've done the car shop. It's tedious because of the screenshots, but it's worth about $100 to me. I would wait until it's highly bonused.

I have also done the revealed gas station one. Definitely not worth $12. I did one for the first time earlier this year only because it got bonused to $100. It took me one hour because I was new at it.

September 13, 2023 02:48PM

It depends on why you are shopping to begin with. If it's for income, then the "3 letter Car shop" might be worth it for you.

Because this is a hobby and not a necessity for me, I am super-selective with what I will do and spend my time on. I do the phone call complaints but for another scenario. I will not do the "fraudulent account" calls.

I have not done the others and will not do them, unless I lost my job and needed the money out of desperation.

September 13, 2023 02:50PM

I have done four 3 letter car shops. I think the guidelines need to be a little more clear on what to do if they don't use the DRT tool on their website. I just took the screenshots and explained. I had no issues. I would not do one for under $100, but overall they really aren't bad if you are an experienced shopper.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/13/2023 02:51PM by nhgirl1970.

September 13, 2023 02:50PM

If you are really desperate for low pay for shops that are stupid and make it obvious you are either a shopper or mentally unbalanced go for it. I am personally morally opposed to calling a bank as shown in 2 of your list and falsely claiming a bank employee did something wrong- that could result in some innocent person being fired for no reason- not worth it to me for the shop fee paid! The rest of them are also annoying and too low paying to be of interest.

September 13, 2023 03:30PM

The phone call for the bank will not get anyone in trouble. It is a compliance issue. The bank wants to know the employees are correctly tracking customer concerns. It's all about the customer complaint submission and giving you a reference number. The person taking the call is not supposed to investigate or try to fix something on their own. They are to document the customer issue and provide a tracking number.

Then, the bank will remove the complaint from the profile after assessing what happened during the call.

I just don't bother with the fraud account scenario because my account has been open 20 years. It makes more sense for an account with no activity and opened for a shorter time.

@Fatlady wrote:

If you are really desperate for low pay for shops that are stupid and make it obvious you are either a shopper or mentally unbalanced go for it. I am personally morally opposed to calling a bank as shown in 2 of your list and falsely claiming a bank employee did something wrong- that could result in some innocent person being fired for no reason- not worth it to me for the shop fee paid! The rest of them are also annoying and too low paying to be of interest.

September 14, 2023 02:22AM

I won't do most of those either. I've done $4-$5 phone shops in the past and they were more time consuming than they were worth.
I've debated on doing the revealed gas stations - they get decent bonuses near me, but I'm in a fairly small town and don't want to reveal myself in the event there's other lucrative shops there. Lots of the gas stations here have restaurants attached and I've done some of the restaurants as shops.

September 14, 2023 02:38AM

@bradkcrew wrote:

There are some shops that are always available that I have avoided, but wonder if I should give them a try?

1. The 3 letter Car shop-I'm afraid of how intensive this is.
2. The bank where you call a random branch and complain that an employee has opened an account you didn't authorize, but you won't provide details and you don't want your account closed. Really?
3. Go take a test and fail. Get there 30 minutes early and sit pretending to take the test for 1.5 hours. Seems too tedious and time consuming for the money.
4. Send money to someone then turn around and cancel. Bizarre.
5. Any phone shop for $4-5.
6. The big box electronics shop that you have to pay for your own background check. Besides for that part, it looks intense!
7. Same big box $16 shops that require a selfie. This seems like it could take a long time to get help and too many questions/requirements.
8. Reveal shops with a safely vest. $12 for all of that?

Since no one wants to take these shops in my area I assume I am wise to avoid them? Or should I give them a try?

1. I only do car shops for cars that I might actually consider owning.. which basically means I don't do car shops anymore.
2. I do Bank shops now and then, but I won't do the complaint shops because I am afraid of jeopardizing my personal accounts.
3. I did that test shop one time, but I realized what I was doing could possibly be construed as illegal, and I was asking a vulnerable employee to do something that could be construed as illegal or get them fired. So I will never do another one.
4. I also won't do money transfer shops because many times you have to ask the employee of the store to do something that could possibly be illegal. I refuse to set anybody up for failure.
5. I hate talking on the phone so I really don't do phone shops.
6. I paid for my own background check to do those big box audits when they first started with the original mystery shopping company, that the current company purchased. But I have never done a single one of the audits.
7. I have done, and probably will do again, cell phone shops that I have to take a selfie for, but only after they are very well bonused.
8. I make most of my money off of bonused revealed gas station audits. Some with the mystery shopping included, some without. But I only very rarely do them for base pay, like blue moon kind of rare. It happens now and then, usually only to fill out a route, and never for the company that keeps track of how much you did that for the last time.

September 14, 2023 10:57AM

No, none of them!

Super fun and funny format!

September 14, 2023 11:01AM

@Morledzep wrote:

3. I did that test shop one time, but I realized what I was doing could possibly be construed as illegal, and I was asking a vulnerable employee to do something that could be construed as illegal or get them fired. So I will never do another one.
4. I also won't do money transfer shops because many times you have to ask the employee of the store to do something that could possibly be illegal. I refuse to set anybody up for failure.

This is a really valid point. We are occasionally a two shopper household. My SO recently did an Uber alcohol delivery shop. After we realized how it could play out for the driver we felt REALLY awful. We also hated the fact that we had to use our address, name etc.

A "free" bottle of really overpriced alcohol was not remotely worth doing that shop.

September 14, 2023 12:42PM

@bradkcrew wrote:

There are some shops that are always available that I have avoided, but wonder if I should give them a try?

1. The 3 letter Car shop-I'm afraid of how intensive this is.
2. The bank where you call a random branch and complain that an employee has opened an account you didn't authorize, but you won't provide details and you don't want your account closed. Really?
3. Go take a test and fail. Get there 30 minutes early and sit pretending to take the test for 1.5 hours. Seems too tedious and time consuming for the money.
4. Send money to someone then turn around and cancel. Bizarre.
5. Any phone shop for $4-5.
6. The big box electronics shop that you have to pay for your own background check. Besides for that part, it looks intense!
7. Same big box $16 shops that require a selfie. This seems like it could take a long time to get help and too many questions/requirements.
8. Reveal shops with a safely vest. $12 for all of that?

Since no one wants to take these shops in my area I assume I am wise to avoid them? Or should I give them a try?

1. Haven't done, but intrigued.
2. 10-foot pole.
3. 10-foot pole
4. I've done it several times. Not the ones where you have to try to get them to do an illegal transfer, but the straight-up send and cancel. Not bad if they're bonused, although it always feels a little goofy telling them you're sending $20 to Brazil or Panama. $20? I may be done with them, though. The MSC promises a "money back guarantee" if you can't get your $20 plus transfer fee back. Well, I had one last month that went sideways and I applied for money back. I got an email yesterday saying, good news! You've been approved for a refund of $25! Problem is, the client recently raised its fee from $5 to $9. So now I'm going back and forth with the MSC to get my $4 back.
5. I've done some. A few of them are pretty easy and I don't mind doing them, like Agri-Supply or KS BanNek (small regional bank). Most of them are too much hassle for the pay.
6. Never done
7. Never done
8. Not for $12. And certainly not in the heat of summer.

September 15, 2023 12:05AM

I think I am going to go for it with the car shop this month. At least it is a high reward scenario, and who knows, maybe it won't be too bad! As for the others, it sounds like I should stick with my gut!

September 15, 2023 12:10AM

Has anyone seen the shop where you try to bribe the urinalysis lab worker? Like legit pull out a $50 and a bottle of fake urine (or real, your choice, lol)?

September 15, 2023 01:50AM

@bradkcrew wrote:

Has anyone seen the shop where you try to bribe the urinalysis lab worker? Like legit pull out a $50 and a bottle of fake urine (or real, your choice, lol)?

I've heard of it. 10-foot pole.

September 15, 2023 02:25AM

@bradkcrew wrote:

Has anyone seen the shop where you try to bribe the urinalysis lab worker? Like legit pull out a $50 and a bottle of fake urine (or real, your choice, lol)?

Not quite as you state it, but not in 3-4 years

You got a job interview coming up where you need to pass a drug test?

September 15, 2023 02:47AM

Never, ever to all.

September 15, 2023 02:56AM

Well, the MSC admitted they owe me a $29 refund, not $25, so there's that.

September 15, 2023 05:03AM

1. Nope
2. Nope
3. Nope
4. Yes i have done it and the cashier looked at me like i was crazy. Won't be doing that one again.
5.i have done these. They help pass the time when the weather is bad and I dont want to get out in it. But the pay isn't worth the call. They always take longer than they say they will.
6. Nope
7. Nope
8. I have done a number of these but only once they hit 30.00 pay. They take a long time and require a lot of pictures.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/2023 05:04AM by Lferguson1963.

September 15, 2023 01:05PM

My reasons are a little different from yours:

I won't do any shop that is a revealed audit. I do not need that kind of drama in my life.

I won't do any shop that requires I tie up the valuable time of someone working on commission.

I'm definitely not doing any shops involving applying for credit cards because that would mess up my travel hacking game.

Any scenario that would just make me feel like an ass - an example being the bank job described by OP

I should point out I have a 9-5 job so I have the luxury of being picky. If MSing was my main source of income I'd probably do almost anything.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/2023 01:05PM by callinectes.

September 16, 2023 02:46AM

I’ve done a bunch of the car shops. For me, they weren’t labour intensive, but maybe that’s just me.

The rest, no. I won’t go near anything with urinalysis, breathalyser, bribing someone, etc. I’m a teacher and I can only imagine if someone somewhere found out I’d taken ten pee tests in a month or tried to bribe an exam proctor.

September 16, 2023 04:14AM

@Morledzep wrote:

3. I did that test shop one time, but I realized what I was doing could possibly be construed as illegal, and I was asking a vulnerable employee to do something that could be construed as illegal or get them fired. So I will never do another one.
.

Maybe I just missed it but I don't recall seeing the instructions on the shop on what to do if they accept the bribe. Like--was I supposed to have a couple of hundred dollars on me...do I get reimbursed?

September 16, 2023 04:20AM

Metro,

It's been a few years, but if I remember correctly, you're not supposed to offer them money, just imply that you could. Or see if they will do it out of sympathy. And you're not supposed to actually go through with it.

I used to take very similar tests to maintain my licenses in CA. It never even occurred to me that they might be able to change the tests or make it look like you passed. I really don't think they could do it even if they wanted to. But I will not under any circumstances set someone up for failure.

September 16, 2023 03:19PM

#1: these actually are pretty easy/not too bad. But only worth it for me when the pay gets over $80. Preferably over $100.
#4 - have done these when it gets to at least $25. I just say they texted me and they don’t need the money anymore. Just avoid certain stores at certain hours and I won’t do these new ones that are making you go back on mother day to make a complaint.
#7: I’ll do these bc they are quick. Easy form.
I’ll do a bunch while running errands

September 16, 2023 04:08PM

@bradkcrew wrote:

There are some shops that are always available that I have avoided, but wonder if I should give them a try?

1. The 3 letter Car shop-I'm afraid of how intensive this is.
2. The bank where you call a random branch and complain that an employee has opened an account you didn't authorize, but you won't provide details and you don't want your account closed. Really?
3. Go take a test and fail. Get there 30 minutes early and sit pretending to take the test for 1.5 hours. Seems too tedious and time consuming for the money.
4. Send money to someone then turn around and cancel. Bizarre.
5. Any phone shop for $4-5.
6. The big box electronics shop that you have to pay for your own background check. Besides for that part, it looks intense!
7. Same big box $16 shops that require a selfie. This seems like it could take a long time to get help and too many questions/requirements.
8. Reveal shops with a safely vest. $12 for all of that?

Since no one wants to take these shops in my area I assume I am wise to avoid them? Or should I give them a try?

1. I will do one of these shops in the future. I've done car dealerships in the past that paid 1/4 of this fee. They are offered $125 on up.

2. Probably not.

3. There would have been a time where I would have done one of these shops to check cheating. And it say I took the MCAT, LSAT, etc.

4.I've done these in the past. Not as hard as it seems. I stopped when I had a close call with the money sent. They now guarantee refunding it. Did the other ones like offering a bribe. They were fun. Got to break bad.

5.I've done a few with short questions. Mostly do in the $10-$45 range.

6. Avoided these. The fee seems very low for the work.

7.Must be the smart phone shops. Usually get service within 10 minutes at the big box store.

8. Reimbursement? I do one brand that starts at $10, usually bonused to $15. EZ-PZ and quick. The $12/$10 reimbursement ones are the most lucrative.

Do not read so much, look about you and think of what you see there.
Richard Feynman-- letter to Ashok Arora, 4 January 1967, published in Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track (2005) p. 230

September 16, 2023 05:08PM

@wrosie wrote:

@bradkcrew wrote:

Has anyone seen the shop where you try to bribe the urinalysis lab worker? Like legit pull out a $50 and a bottle of fake urine (or real, your choice, lol)?

Not quite as you state it, but not in 3-4 years

You got a job interview coming up where you need to pass a drug test?

No on probation!!

September 17, 2023 02:55PM

@bradkcrew wrote:

There are some shops that are always available that I have avoided, but wonder if I should give them a try?

1. The 3 letter Car shop-I'm afraid of how intensive this is.
Been there, done that, never again

2. The bank where you call a random branch and complain that an employee has opened an account you didn't authorize, but you won't provide details and you don't want your account closed. Really?

Too weird to even bother

3. Go take a test and fail. Get there 30 minutes early and sit pretending to take the test for 1.5 hours. Seems too tedious and time consuming for the money.
See my response to #1

4. Send money to someone then turn around and cancel. Bizarre.
and time consuming for the money.
See my response to #1

5. Any phone shop for $4-5.

Agreed

6. The big box electronics shop that you have to pay for your own background check. Besides for that part, it looks intense!

I've always been reimbursed for any required background checks. Out of my own pocket? NFW...

7. Same big box $16 shops that require a selfie. This seems like it could take a long time to get help and too many questions/requirements.

Done plenty of that retailer, selfies have yet to be required. As with most, not worth it to me for base pay.

8. Reveal shops with a safely vest. $12 for all of that?

My bread and butter, but never at base pay for that brand. Remote routes with big bonuses are how I roll. The conditional reveal and flexible reimbursement gas shops are the only ones I'll do for base pay.

Since no one wants to take these shops in my area I assume I am wise to avoid them? Or should I give them a try?

If they are not being taken, sit back and wait for bonuses (or increased fees)...

Have synthesizers, will travel...

September 17, 2023 10:54PM

The only one on your list that I have done is the 3 letter car shops....didn't find them too difficult...except I have one salesperson who keeps contacting me.

I don't do the rest either...myriad of reasons: pay is too low, may incur discomfort, crosses my ethical boundaries...I have low tolerances when it comes to mystery shopping....I guess.

September 18, 2023 03:45AM

I did #4 once at a branch in a grocery store if it is the same shop. It was pretty easy . I just lucked out that day and someone was there but never did it again as there were no scheduled times for the counter to be open.

September 19, 2023 08:02PM

1. I was afraid of these but when they got over $100 I got over my fears. Have done a few, all got paid, I don’t love them, I just like the money.

2. No to the banks, that’s awful

3. Never pays enough money and again, it is awful.

4. Never have, never will

5. Not enough money

6. Nope

7. Yes, these are a pain, my shops often got negative comments. I only do them if I am desperate or really really bored

8. No to the reveal shops. I have seen some get nicely bonused but still haven’t done them. I would do one or two at base just to see what they are like, this way when they get bonused, you are confident in what you are doing and you can maybe grab a few.

Try the car shops, at least they are profitable. Just need to be good with a computer to get all of your screen shots, make sure they are saved as images, follow the directions carefully.

So I would say try 1, 7 and 8.

There needs to be a Part II to this list.

October 06, 2023 11:56AM

Well, I ended up completing one off of my list, a big bonus car shop. It wasn't bad! I got a 10, but from what I have read I am not out of the woods yet. Apparently if the dealership doesn't like my report they can refuse payment?

LOL, I was almost tempted to do a money transfer shop the other day because I was already at the location, but it wasn't even bonused so I passed.

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