When, in 2003, I signed-up for the Volition forum, I used my name. As such, in a post, approx. 2009, I expressed an opinion another member felt was counter productive to the business. I was warned, in that I had used my name, to temper my comments, lest schedulers took offense and blacklisted me. My response then, now and for the future is that any MSC is welcome to terminate our agreement. I never flake nor fail to give my best. If those traits are unacceptable and my candor is a problem, so be it.

I am the quintessential cherry picker; I work for Bob. In either Jan. of 2008 or 2009, Lorie Kern posted on the Volition board that we should be willing to aid struggling MSCs by lowering our expectation of fees. To paraphrase Clara Peller, "Where's the money?" After all is said and done, this IS still business.

To those who are considering exiting out profession, if your current business model is lacking, give an adjustment a thought. I did in 2007 and changed failure to success.

I was just thinking along the same/similar lines.
Just received an email for a $10 project...to manage a frozen pizza collection, stickers, inventory, photos, etc.
When you factor income tax, time and travel and other expenses, of course this looks less than minimum wage.
Depending on where you live and your total financial picture....you might apply for welfare income and come out ahead.
Why work? Seems as if the taxpayer could support you better than some of these MSC type companies.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/2025 03:11PM by BarefootBliss.

Another thought (gotta hold back, thinking too much today, lol)
back when I started in the 2017-2019 timeframe, there were several posters here
who were very active and noticeable here and they posted a lot. These were very knowledgeable people who shared a lot of information
and I always appreciate their guidance back in the beginning...
but they're gone now. I never see them here anymore.
Could be life issues.
Could be MSing is just not working for them anymore.
I can see that.

I have done a couple of restaurants for reimbursement only. I did them A) because i wanted to eat there and couldn't really afford it and i just wanted to check the shop out. I don't ever take another one. Red lob was the worst. Not only was it an essay report but the editor sent it back with a lot of questions (well over 10). $100 free meal is NOT worth hours of my time.
I consider essay reports more work, and I should be paid, really paid for writing. I never take essay reports without fee increases. And i might only do 1-2 apartment shops a year when shop fees are low. I also look at how many gas stations i can do in the time it takes to do an apartment or mattress shop. Why would I tie up an hour of my time doing it if I could make more doing a couple of easy gas stations.
I got really upset about the merchandising gig for money cards. I had been doing them for the $10 starter fee. But i noticed some stores took longer than other stores to do them correctly the way the guidelines say too. My sister lives in Virginia and i got her signed up to do some MS-ing. She got on the card merchandising gig on a bonus and the scheduler told her she could have them for the bonused price EVERY month. I had been doing them for years, in town, without a bonus. The next month i told the scheduler i would still do them but i needed to raise my fee i took them for. I don't think the scheduler liked that very much. I stopped doing them in town after that because I refuse to do an hour to an hour and a half worth of work for $10. I can do at least two easy gas stations in an hour depending on the brand and the assignment. It's also frustrating when you go into a location and see that other shoppers aren't actually doing the job and you are.
It is very difficult for me to cheat when doing the job. It makes me feel slimy, like I'm doing wrong. But I can tell other shoppers do in my state many times...

Bliss mentions--Could be MSing is just not working for them anymore.

Bob opines--That is why my 3 category system works for me. It has not mattered that MSCs have closed their doors, relationships have ended nor that the economy is struggling. I just keep rolling along with life. My system would NOT, though, work for the needy; those for whom fees were required yesterday.

I think some of them were banned, some of them got tired of being trolled, etc. Back then, people would come on and write a book, and you couldn't understand anything they wrote because of their spelling and word shortcuts. There were a lot of fights and disagreements back in those days too. I used to sit, read, and eat popcorn because some of the fights got really down and dirty. Some of them, I think, just had enough and left. It was a total different board in the past vs. now. I also think we lost some around 2020 covid time.

@BarefootBliss wrote:

Another thought (gotta hold back, thinking too much today, lol)
back when I started in the 2017-2019 timeframe, there were several posters here
who were very active and noticeable here and they posted a lot. These were very knowledgeable people who shared a lot of information
and I always appreciate their guidance back in the beginning...
but they're gone now. I never see them here anymore.
Could be life issues.
Could be MSing is just not working for them anymore.
I can see that.

I was shopping full time in college. The only way it worked was having very low financial obligations. My car was paid off already, my rent was low and I had no credit card or other debt to pay on a monthly basis.

I exited full time shopping over a decade ago. Thankfully other opportunities opened up after some hard work which allowed me to leave it. I now cherry pick shops. By no means do I have consistent work, but thankfully my reputation with some companies has scored me some good paying gigs that I did not pass up. But again, these are not monthly things and usually pop up randomly.

Low Pay: The only thing I can think of is that pay remains low because most of the jobs are now put out like bids to an auction.If no one bids, then the prices slowly rises.That and the industries ability to label us as contractors. It's an employers dream and a workers nightmare. No other industry I can think of continually skirts minimum wage law in this way, except for maybe ridesharing, or when undocumented immigrants do farm work or other labelr jobs and get stiffed. You can argue service workers in restaurants etc and I do understand that space (my ex GF worked in it during college), but it's still not a proper comparison to MSing because we aren't working for tips and we are depreciating our assets (vehicle) doing the work.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/2025 06:51PM by jdyeah.

@BarefootBliss wrote:

Another thought (gotta hold back, thinking too much today, lol)
back when I started in the 2017-2019 timeframe, there were several posters here
who were very active and noticeable here and they posted a lot. These were very knowledgeable people who shared a lot of information
and I always appreciate their guidance back in the beginning...
but they're gone now. I never see them here anymore.
Could be life issues.
Could be MSing is just not working for them anymore.
I can see that.

After Covid many people took their careers on a very different path. But I would think they would have popped in at least once or twice to say something about it, especially the prolific posters, but then again maybe not. An alternative we have avoided speaking of is the fact while Covid was not as bad as some of the worst case scenarios we feared, it did take a toll.

SteveSoCal, SoCalMama, Tarantado and MickeyB still stop in once in a while and I'm glad they do. It feels like they're old friends from grade school. DavePi appeared with his usual flourish once. And was gone again.

In the beginning, I learned a lot from walesmaven (as well as the others sestra mentioned).
She has been so important to this community and now it seems as if she has disappeared altogether.
I am glad HonnyBrown pops in with her wonderful sense of humor.
I learned a lot about airport shopping from Tarantado.
Grateful that they kept posting even with all the snakes that used to hiss and crawl around this forum.

This was before my time getting started in mystery shopping, but after reading the pinned threads in New Mystery Shoppers, I wondered what happened to Flash. Also, there was a member in the Fort Worth, TX area, I was curious what happened, as well.

Oh, and MFJohnston had lots of great insight. Many of the previous forum members had told us they were cutting down or quitting MS. Some told us they were quitting the forum because of the negativity.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/2025 11:23PM by sestrahelena.

@Okie I messaged with Flash less than a year ago and she was doing well...just taking a different path these days (and probably tired of the craziness). Some other members no longer around are FB friends of mine and I will visit with them occasionally when passing through their respective cities.

I am rarely MSing these days and probably going to take my leave from the industry in the near future, but I am fortunate to have a job where I have a good amount of idle time that allows me to peruse the forum and take part still.

This industry, and this forum (even going back to Volition) have been a part of my life for so long, it would feel weird to just walk away. And even if I am not posting here, I promise you that MickeyB and I are texting each other with MS gossip a few times each week.