Thoughts? Stories? How to stay safe if we do these?

I’m seeing more and more jobs with pay rates of $8-20, and instructed purchases of $80-100+, then having to wait 6-12 weeks for reimbursement.

That’s only a fraction in minimum wage for our time.

I’ve saved my receipts as an employee but was reimbursed weekly, so no additional wait or interest charges on my card.

Do you feel comfortable fronting that much for so little while being at risk of not being paid at all if something goes awry?

Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 07/30/2025 11:37PM by SBP.

What shops are you doing where you are being paid more than the reimbursement? Even if you do a texas roadhouse, you are spending $50 with $0 pay. Or how about Raising Cane's where you spend $10-$15 and get paid $5.

I am clowning on the title of your thread. The only shop that I can think of where you are paid more than reimbursement would be phone call shops or maybe a gas station where you spend $5-7 and make $10 or more?


I think your concern is laying out all kinds of $ buying the vape products?

If you cannot afford to lose the $ or you don't have the cash flow to be able to wait, then do not do them.

let's be honest, the amount of interest for a month on $1000 if you were to do 10 shops is not that much money even with a 4-5% interest rate. At 5%, you don't even earn $5 on that money for the month.

And if you had thousands to invest, you are better off investing other ways than the 4-5% rates at the highest paying accounts.

Are you talking product purchase and keep or product return, you are only getting menial shop pay? I have very different feelings about these two scenarios.

Yes I agree with DeeDeez and their thoughts. If I am getting a product to keep it is worth something to me. Not worth 100% of the price as I may not have purchased it if it was not available for the price of the time I spent. And I may have been able to purchase it elsewhere at a discount. If I am returning the item as per the shop instructions that is generally not worth it to me as it is extra work, often not paid much more than a non purchase shop.
Most mystery shops pay quite a bit below minimum wage in my state. Minimum wage is not a consideration for me.

SBP, I think I'm cornfused. What job are you accepting that the reimbursement + pay is less than what you are required to spend for the shop? And why would you accept it if you know that you're going to lose money?

ok, I tried to re-read it.. I think I understand. If you don't trust the MSC, or it's one that you see a lot of threads saying that they don't pay, like Elite CXS, I would not go out of pocket for them, actually, I won't work for them at all.

Sometimes I take restaurant jobs that have a small pay and $60 - $80 reimbursements, but they are for companies that I've worked for consistently for years and I've always been paid.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/2025 02:56AM by Morledzep.

I would have to know what you mean by "out-of-pocket." When someone states out-of-pocket, if applicable, I consider that the amount the shopper paid beyond the shop's reimbursement amount, to complete the shop.

If this concerns the reimbursement amount and the time it takes to get paid/reimbursed, it doesn't make a difference to me.

If this were a dine-in shop, for example, low pay and high reimbursement, I would add the pay and reimbursement, and then consider the total amount in my head as a reimbursement shop. The low pay is negligible at that point. Sometimes, I know I will go "out-of-pocket" at some shops.

All that to say, cash flow is not a problem for me. I welcome high reimbursement shops from MSCs I haven't had any issues, where I have never had a shop rejected.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/2025 04:12AM by paniconmon.

I don't know of any company that takes 12 weeks to pay, although there are some that pay at the end of the following month, so they can be up to 8 weeks. If you can't afford to float the outlay, you need to be focusing on phone shops or mattress shops that do not require an expenditure. In regard to food shops, many of us are happy to get the reimbursement especially in the higher-end shops. In my humble opinion, the $250 dinner shop I just did was actually worth much more to me as I do not pay any tax on that $250, and therefore, the hour or so I spent on the report was well worth it.

It's why I invest in a diversified stock market such as the low cost S&P 500 index. If you did this you could earn about 10% on average (at least for the past 10 years).

If you believed in the "AI revolution", you might have noticed that Microsoft stock has gained about 32% since the beginning of this year alone. And since AI requires energy to run those data centers, a stock like Constellation Energy has also increased above 54% so far this year.

Note: Don't take investment advice from someone you don't know on a mystery shopping forum. Do your own research before you invest. Oh, and don't vape. Eat a sensible diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables.

@hbbigdaddy wrote:

What shops are you doing where you are being paid more than the reimbursement? Even if you do a texas roadhouse, you are spending $50 with $0 pay. Or how about Raising Cane's where you spend $10-$15 and get paid $5.

I am clowning on the title of your thread. The only shop that I can think of where you are paid more than reimbursement would be phone call shops or maybe a gas station where you spend $5-7 and make $10 or more?


I think your concern is laying out all kinds of $ buying the vape products?

If you cannot afford to lose the $ or you don't have the cash flow to be able to wait, then do not do them.

let's be honest, the amount of interest for a month on $1000 if you were to do 10 shops is not that much money even with a 4-5% interest rate. At 5%, you don't even earn $5 on that money for the month.

And if you had thousands to invest, you are better off investing other ways than the 4-5% rates at the highest paying accounts.

SBP inquires--Do you feel comfortable fronting that much for so little while being at risk of not being paid at all if something goes awry?

Bob replies--No, so I avoid such work. I also have no interest in jobs that require multiple under paid* pics, any one of which could give cause for work being unacceptable.

*18+ yrs. ago, I was paid $5 a pic.

I think I also missed the reimbursement thing..

One of the restaurants that I like to do has a $70 reimbursement for required purchases, I will bring up a menu or the online ordering prices to see if I can make the required purchases and give the required 20% tip under reimbursement BEFORE I accept the job.

All major restaurants have to go order menus on their website now, and some publish their printed menus online for each location. It's really simple, most of the time, to figure out what you need to order to meet the requirements. And if you can't get the required purchases under the reimbursement amounts, then don't take the job. I think one of the most common mistakes is that shoppers order what they want, or what they think they should order, rather than what meets the guidelines.

One steak restaurant commonly says in the guidelines that you have to buy 2 entrees, an appetizer OR an alcoholic beverage OR get dessert, plus pay 20% tip. One of the entrees must be steak. So I look up the steak dinners, and the 6 oz sirloin with a side and a potato is usually the least expensive steak, and there is a hamburger or a chicken entree that is quite reasonable by comparison. The alcoholic beverage comes with a gimmick toy for $8 - 10, the least expensive appetizer is $12, and the least expensive dessert is more than that. So I usually get the alcoholic beverage with the toy (I have a collection). Sometimes I get quite close to the max reimbursement, I think one time I only made it under by $0.29.

A little bit of planning and reading comprehension can make all the difference.

Delete because double post

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/2025 04:13PM by mysterioso412.

There is a round of grocery delivery shops that come up periodically around here (just got some a few weeks ago). The total reimbursement is $35, and the fee is $8. However, the minimum order for delivery is $35, then there's a $9.95 delivery fee (sometimes it's waived as a promotion, but not this time), and then I always put a $5 tip. So, I end up spending about $50 and only get $43 total from the MSC. BUT, I figure I got $35 worth of groceries for $7 out of pocket, and I didn't have to leave my house. Pickup shops are $35 minimum order, but no pickup fee, and MSC gives you $10 fee. So, I basically make a few dollars on those, after tip (and the one store doesn't allow tips - I asked when I picked up). It's a store I don't often shop at because I'm an Aldi junkie and this store is more expensive, but, they have a larger selection than Aldi, so, I use those shops to stock up on items I need/use that Aldi doesn't carry, like coconut milk, tampons, frozen pineapple juice, etc, or items that are on a good sale (I ate two pounds of on-sale cherries in two days after one of those shops - delicious!). In the end, I did one delivery and then three pickups on my way home from an appointment (two were pickup at the same location because they transferred!) and got $140 of groceries for nothing out of pocket after factoring in the MSC fee.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/2025 04:15PM by mysterioso412.

I cancelled a pizza delivery shop after I did the math and discovered I would be OOP about $10 for food that I couldn't choose and wouldn't want if someone offered it for $10. But, I have done a ton of grocery shops where I paid more than the reimbursement to avoid fees and just worked it into my routine grocery shopping purchases. Totally worth it.

But my mind went to the shop I turned down years ago that required buying (non-returnable) industrial products for hundreds of dollars and documenting the purchase experience. Fully refunded, they said, but I looked at the risk/reward and declined as the products were not useful to me at all. Fantastic deal for someone with the right kind of business. It wasn't that the shop was a poor value, I just wasn't the right fit.

Then there are the storage rental and phone return shops where you literally get nothing but the hassle of clawing back your funds if things go sideways? Those are ones that I hesitate about. Not because I can't afford to wait for it but because I don't believe the base pay is aligned with the risk of a hassle at all. I did a storage rental but not until a bonus tempted me. And, it wasn't a big deal so I would do that again. For a bonus. But, the phone return remains a nope for me.

Well said, SandyF. As soon as I see the words "purchase and return" I move on to another shop offer.

@shopperbob wrote:

SBP inquires--Do you feel comfortable fronting that much for so little while being at risk of not being paid at all if something goes awry?

Bob replies--No, so I avoid such work. I also have no interest in jobs that require multiple under paid* pics, any one of which could give cause for work being unacceptable.

*18+ yrs. ago, I was paid $5 a pic.

In 2007 though, was a standalone camera used to capture the photo?

Thanks so much everyone.

It just didn’t make sense to do so much work and get paid so little, after forking over 10x that amount to complete the shop.

They put the total funds involved in the assignment transaction in the title of the shop so you’ll click on it, and when you read the text, you end up with an actual payment of $8.50 or some such nonsense.

This is an interesting sideline that reminds me of a famous line about a box of chocolates from Forrest Gump…

Take care and have fun out there.

@paniconmon wrote:

@shopperbob wrote:

SBP inquires--Do you feel comfortable fronting that much for so little while being at risk of not being paid at all if something goes awry?

Bob replies--No, so I avoid such work. I also have no interest in jobs that require multiple under paid* pics, any one of which could give cause for work being unacceptable.

*18+ yrs. ago, I was paid $5 a pic.

In 2007 though, was a standalone camera used to capture the photo?

It was when I did it, and you had to know how to use it too! 18 years ago I was earning a great full time income traveling and taking photos.

Loved the and the money, sense of adventure, and the opportunity to do something creative I adore but hated the deadlines and huge egos involved.

Everything has its pros and cons, but it sure was great to make good money doing something fun.

@Morledzep wrote:

I think I also missed the reimbursement thing..

One of the restaurants that I like to do has a $70 reimbursement for required purchases, I will bring up a menu or the online ordering prices to see if I can make the required purchases and give the required 20% tip under reimbursement BEFORE I accept the job.

All major restaurants have to go order menus on their website now, and some publish their printed menus online for each location. It's really simple, most of the time, to figure out what you need to order to meet the requirements. And if you can't get the required purchases under the reimbursement amounts, then don't take the job. I think one of the most common mistakes is that shoppers order what they want, or what they think they should order, rather than what meets the guidelines.

One steak restaurant commonly says in the guidelines that you have to buy 2 entrees, an appetizer OR an alcoholic beverage OR get dessert, plus pay 20% tip. One of the entrees must be steak. So I look up the steak dinners, and the 6 oz sirloin with a side and a potato is usually the least expensive steak, and there is a hamburger or a chicken entree that is quite reasonable by comparison. The alcoholic beverage comes with a gimmick toy for $8 - 10, the least expensive appetizer is $12, and the least expensive dessert is more than that. So I usually get the alcoholic beverage with the toy (I have a collection). Sometimes I get quite close to the max reimbursement, I think one time I only made it under by $0.29.

A little bit of planning and reading comprehension can make all the difference.

It made me quote the whole thing, but your last sentence should resonate. That whole reading and math thing. It helps.

@SBP wrote:

It was when I did it, and you had to know how to use it too! 18 years ago I was earning a great full time income traveling and taking photos.

Loved the and the money, sense of adventure, and the opportunity to do something creative I adore but hated the deadlines and huge egos involved.

Everything has its pros and cons, but it sure was great to make good money doing something fun.

I find it fun as a hobby

I have a friend whose husband is a full-time photographer who works for himself. He manages his schedule and does events and private shoots. He is booked deep into next year.

His wife makes the big bucks. He does it for fun after he was able to make more than his full-time job. It keeps their marriage intact.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/2025 05:17PM by paniconmon.

@87Supra wrote:

...
It made me quote the whole thing, ..

Nah, you just have to edit it manually.

Realized that today but it won't be the last time I expose my "not paying attention" issue.