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Shopper Shell Game??

December 11, 2025 10:58PM
Here are some of the shops that I have no idea what the MSC is doing.
1 Monthly E/M shops: At the beginning of the new month, I noted all of the E/M shops available. Albeit, they were going for fees of $15 and had a 72 hour time period. I viewed all of these shops that were up for self-assign over quite a large geographical area. The very next day, they were gone - all of them! Now, I see one of them showing up as a bonused shop. Makes me believe they were not gobbled up by a shopper - rather, they were mistakenly put up for all shoppers, regardless of their (the shopper's) rotation.
2 The $5 shops for UPS and E/M shops where the shopper takes a photo of the storefront and a photo of the over age 55 sign. They were there, then they were gone. Then, they were back and then they were gone. Are shoppers flaking? SMH!
3 E/M Lubes Shops: I saw a few - yet I know there are many, many more. what happened?
4 BP Shops: suddenly addresses appear that I know were never up for assigning. Did someone forget?

I could go on
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December 11, 2025 11:32PM
In the past I have viewed shops while not logged in, and I see all including the rotation ones, and then when I log in I only see those I can do. This has confused me many times. But your explanation is probably the right one.

I also noticed the dearth of the lube shops. I just assumed someone grabbed most of them. Now I'm thinking they only do oil change shops where the oil name is the main branding, and not just a repair shop where they also carry the oil.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/11/2025 11:40PM by mystery2me.
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December 12, 2025 12:32AM
There is no rotation on E/M. I often do the same stations every month. In fact, the MSC who shops it seems to have done away with almost all rotations - giving the shoppers who shop cheap a better chance of doing more lower paying jobs.
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December 12, 2025 01:53PM
Sestrahelena, I think mine have rotations on E/M. The ones I did the month before pops up later and bonused for $18 to $20. But, the ones I didn't do the prior month starts at $12-15 and pops up quickly.

Shopping Arkansas, Louisiana, & Mississippi.
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December 12, 2025 01:59PM
On #1, expecting that I would be dead this month in terms of work while having a two week, shop-free Christmas vacation planned (that begins on Monday, btw), I did scoop up a bunch of monthlies at base. Don't usually, but whatever. I think this was a gameplan of others, too, across other areas I may go to (but didn't) also saw their monthly batch go very quickly.

#2 I suspect is one of those projects that doesn't actually need all locations shopped, they just have a certain quota. Once that quota was hit, they were gone. A few flakes nationwide would temporarily open up "all" locations again.

Can't comment on 3 and 4.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/12/2025 02:00PM by KA047.
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December 12, 2025 03:01PM
FWIW, I was able to put together a nice out-and-back for today with some petroleum industry scraps: an EM Site Experience that I had bailed on previously @ $25 is now $100 (it's the farthest point), a Mobil 1 audit bonused to $40, a couple of storage photo audits with increased fees, and a couple of credit unions for a new client that I just joined up with.

I'm looking forward to that last one moving forward. 4 shops per month are allowed and they pay $25 for a banker interaction. Their drive-thru jobs also require a product interaction which struck me as odd, so I won't be doing any more of those.

I opened a 12-month CD that allows you to continue adding funds, so plenty of opportunities for visits and they have more locations than the other credit union I shop.

Have synthesizers, will travel...
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December 12, 2025 08:49PM
Sometimes if an EM shop doesn't get done until the last days, or even into the next month, they wait a bit before it goes back on the board
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December 13, 2025 01:04AM
For the E/M, Shell, etc., with that one company. They have a quota they have to meet. If everything doesn't get done, no biggie. It's not like with the other companies, where everything has to be done and the scheduler has panic attacks when it doesn't. It was like that with P66. They are a big company, so they don't care if all of them are done or not. They have a quota to meet. If you notice, they have a crap load of Marathons on the board.
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