I live in a little neighborhood called Fremont in Seattle Washington in the northwest of the United States of America.
Where do You live?
Jacob
Where do You live?
Jacob
where do you live?
i live in knoxville, tn, but i just moved here from ferndale, wa. outside bellingham, wa
I live in the sunny city of Hemet, California.
Nahunta Ga..........How 'bout them beans. lol
Wilkes-Barre, PA,
but originally from Sardis Arkansas, then Boise, Idaho, Vacaville, CA, Mesquite, TX, Fort Dodge, Iowa, and last stop was Golden Co. (All these moves were since 1990 - - all caused by my regular job- - I won't be here long either - -next stop - - not sure?? Maybe DC)
but originally from Sardis Arkansas, then Boise, Idaho, Vacaville, CA, Mesquite, TX, Fort Dodge, Iowa, and last stop was Golden Co. (All these moves were since 1990 - - all caused by my regular job- - I won't be here long either - -next stop - - not sure?? Maybe DC)
I am a Southern Bell.... I live in Beaufort, South Carolina
Medium size town 40 miles from Charleston,SC and Savannah, GA.
Great Country.
Medium size town 40 miles from Charleston,SC and Savannah, GA.
Great Country.
I live in Nahunta Ga, about an hour south of Savannah. We live thirty minutes from Jeckyl Island, I love it here. Its real cheap, cause there is nothing here but farms and rednecks, but still real close to our favorite pasttime, going to the beach. My husband is from Tampa and I was raised in Atl so we compromised and found here. Maybe Jude should get transferred down here with all us southerners. lol He would like it so much he would quit his job just to stay here......naw probally not, if I traveled alot I would probally like it too. Lifes to short to not enjoy whatever you are doing wherever you are doing it. Oh yeah I live 30 minutes north of the worlds largest SWAMP, thats where Shrek lives!! We used to live in Toccoa Ga, about 20 minutes south of Anderson SC. But there weren't any decent jobs. Goodnite don't let the bed bugs bite.....
The Bronx?! You must have tons of MS jobs there?????!!!!!
Yeah, there are a lot of jobs but not paying much. Usually I have to wait towards the end of the month for the fees to go up.
Hope that it is like that here. I have only been shopping for a month and haven't been paid yet. I should be getting about a grand from 20 different companies at the end of this month. They don't pay great here either, Flash and I were discussing this, she of course is a senior shopper (not old) and probally makes twice what I would on the same shop. I have't to schedule 8 shops at 10 to 25$ a day, to make any real money
The reality is that if a shop is posted at $8 and you sign up for it that is what you will be paid. If the shop is not taken then it may be bonused to find someone to take it. What you learn is when to look for the bonus. The other thing is that you will figure out what schedulers and what clients you can send an email offer to for what kind of price to take the job. You also learn what companies and jobs are worth so that when a scheduler calls you can confidently tell them what it would take for you to do the job.
I love in the little town of Hamlet NC
Flash are you saying if we just let them stress and we hold off for a hot minute, they will contact us with better offers, like good offers, as in 4 jobs for 100$ instead of 8 ?
I am saying that they have to get all or most of the jobs done. If there are no takers they have to find SOME way to get somebody to go do the jobs. When a cheap job gets grabbed at $4 you can bet that future jobs will post at $4. When a job gets posted at $4 and nobody is willing to do it for that, they start edging the price up. There are a few things you learn--how high will they go and at what price will other shoppers in your area grab it? Will they let a job expire without being done or will they just stretch the deadline at the same money? Do they call when they can't fill the job (and how far from the deadline do they call) or do they just keep raising the price.
I rarely pay attention to the $4 job. It is not worth getting dressed to go do and report. It makes sense only if it is part of a route of other shops and even then needs to be more than that to bother stopping the car and writing the report. When I find it has gone up to the $12 range it gets modest attention and if they call me to ask if I would do it the lowest price would be $15 with a higher price depending on how far out of my way it is. I have no issue with thanking a scheduler for thinking of me, but I have looked at the job on their site and because of the location I really would have to charge them $15/$16/$18/$20 or whatever for it to be economically feasible to do. And when they proclaim it has a food reimbursement of $5/$6 etc. for donuts or grease burgers or tacos, I thank them and say that though I love that stuff (I don't), I'm on a diet so would only get to nibble. I generally thank them again for thinking of me and tell them I understand that they can't pay that, but perhaps a shopper closer to the location could afford to do it cheaper.
Bottom line is, when I see a job in my area, if I feel I would be unhappy to find it gone if somebody else took it at the current price, it is time for me to take it.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/15/2008 02:03AM by Flash.
I rarely pay attention to the $4 job. It is not worth getting dressed to go do and report. It makes sense only if it is part of a route of other shops and even then needs to be more than that to bother stopping the car and writing the report. When I find it has gone up to the $12 range it gets modest attention and if they call me to ask if I would do it the lowest price would be $15 with a higher price depending on how far out of my way it is. I have no issue with thanking a scheduler for thinking of me, but I have looked at the job on their site and because of the location I really would have to charge them $15/$16/$18/$20 or whatever for it to be economically feasible to do. And when they proclaim it has a food reimbursement of $5/$6 etc. for donuts or grease burgers or tacos, I thank them and say that though I love that stuff (I don't), I'm on a diet so would only get to nibble. I generally thank them again for thinking of me and tell them I understand that they can't pay that, but perhaps a shopper closer to the location could afford to do it cheaper.
Bottom line is, when I see a job in my area, if I feel I would be unhappy to find it gone if somebody else took it at the current price, it is time for me to take it.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/15/2008 02:03AM by Flash.
The school bus driver ran over my dog, I just called and complained. She also ran over the stray that my dog was chasing and killed him too. My Peanut was only protecting my kids from the stray. The bus driver has always been real hateful to my kids and our dogs, plus she is always sending home with my kids those little religious phamplets. So she ran over the dogs and didn't stop, didn't apologize or anything, my son said he knew she had ran over the first dog (stray) but didn't know she had hit mine. He said he asked her to stop the bus and check on her but she wouldn't. I am disgusted!!!
As for the shops you are schooling me on, I see what you mean, the tax jobs, were sent out about a week ago with one set price and now are 10 times that. I wish I had my W2 from last year we are still waiting. I called then this morning too hurry these people up. It usually cost us about 400$ to get our taxes done professionally, this would be a nice plus. My old man said he was going to do them, and he is good with numbers and all its just I was raised with that belief that professionals have the experience and know how and are the best ones for the job. So naturally I want a professional to do them.
As for the shops you are schooling me on, I see what you mean, the tax jobs, were sent out about a week ago with one set price and now are 10 times that. I wish I had my W2 from last year we are still waiting. I called then this morning too hurry these people up. It usually cost us about 400$ to get our taxes done professionally, this would be a nice plus. My old man said he was going to do them, and he is good with numbers and all its just I was raised with that belief that professionals have the experience and know how and are the best ones for the job. So naturally I want a professional to do them.
The tax software available these days is remarkably good. I battled with it in the early days, but now it is quite useful.
As for the tax shops, it is important to realize that on the better paying jobs you need to have a refund coming to you because part of what they are checking is whether you are offered a refund anticipation loan. That seems to be the big thing advertised on television this year so obviously it is a big push with the tax prep folks. Since your return on these shops needs to be signed at the tax preparers office and they send it out for you, you are only going to get to do one of these. Also, if you were mystery shopping last year you may want to be vague about what you do as a business, like "consulting" or something to stay anonymous.
The tax preparer will ask you about the type of business because he must establish a "code" for it. I generally use "Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling", which is code 541910, but there are a lot of other possible options. My guess if you tell the preparer you do "Public Opinion Polling as an Independent Contractor" you won't give away your mystery shopping work but get a code close enough for IRS.
As for the tax shops, it is important to realize that on the better paying jobs you need to have a refund coming to you because part of what they are checking is whether you are offered a refund anticipation loan. That seems to be the big thing advertised on television this year so obviously it is a big push with the tax prep folks. Since your return on these shops needs to be signed at the tax preparers office and they send it out for you, you are only going to get to do one of these. Also, if you were mystery shopping last year you may want to be vague about what you do as a business, like "consulting" or something to stay anonymous.
The tax preparer will ask you about the type of business because he must establish a "code" for it. I generally use "Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling", which is code 541910, but there are a lot of other possible options. My guess if you tell the preparer you do "Public Opinion Polling as an Independent Contractor" you won't give away your mystery shopping work but get a code close enough for IRS.
Well since I am doing demoing on the weekends I could say that and it wouldn't be a strech from the truth. But I won't file taxes till next year on this, I'm still new. lol We usually get a refund of about 3g, and it usually cost between 4 and 500$. So that would be a nice bonus. The site aslo said the MSer needs a 5 rating. Does everysite we work for have their own scale? Or do they interconnect and its an average thing?
Some companies rate on a scale of 1 to 5 and others on a scale of 1 to 10. You would have to look at the company that is offering the job and see what their scale is and if your rating meets the requirement. Your score is usually posted somewhere on your nome page.
Most MSPs say that even if your rating isn't as high as what is required, you can still call the scheduler and request the job. Sometimes they'll give it to you. I had a rating of 5 (the starting rating) with a company because I hadn't done any work for them. I called the scheduler and was able to do a job that required an 8 rating.
Most of the Sassie companies start you with a 5 and if you screw up it goes down. Understandably if you have failed to perform for them already they don't want you taking more jobs. Many times job requirements are eased as they approach their deadline without having shoppers take them. Almost every month I get an email late in the month for a job with a 90 day rotation that the rotation has been waived for the current month. I am only too happy to grab the job. On occasion I have contacted an MSP for whom I have done no jobs and pointed out to them why they should allow me to take an 8 rating job--they won't regret it, they just haven't had jobs in my area before that I have seen to build my own rating. Some jobs also start out as "male only" and as the month progresses become "a male must be in the group" to "anyone". It won't always happen, but if there is something you want it doesn't hurt to try for it.
Well all those advice were very helpful. Now if I can figure out how to send a fax without having to buy long distance on my phone, that would be great. We live so far out that the phone companies have a monopoly on our service, local alone is 40$ and that only covers in town. And town is nothing, the phone company, gas co., elec co., dairy queen and a piggly wiggly and gas station. How often do we call half of these? Never. They want 30$ more a month for 90 long distance minutes, um, I told the rep, cell phones!!! My cell bill isn't that high and I call everywhere all the time, for 2 cells. Alltel rocks this area. We have the my circle plan its great. Any ideas???
Kristee, the majority of MSPs where you are required to fax something provide a toll free fax number. I don't know whether you can use that with your equipment and phone service or not. Apparently there are some internet fax companies where you upload your fax to them by your computer and they fax it. I understand that runs around 20 cents per page and there may be a membership fee. I have never used it, only heard of its existence.
I attempted once to use a calling card to fax with very little success. I don't know how I eventually got it to work, but it did after a lot of headache. My guess is that if I needed to do that often I would eventually get the hang of it.
At this time I have no companies I regularly do work for that require fax. There are still a number that will give you a choice of fax or scan and email. I usually take the scan and email option as I then have the scanned document on my computer and with the email I have a dated document of when it was sent. It also avoids the grief of multiple refaxings because the recipient couldn't read a receipt that was certainly dark enough to scan and attach to an email without much tinkering with the contrast to make it easily readable.
I attempted once to use a calling card to fax with very little success. I don't know how I eventually got it to work, but it did after a lot of headache. My guess is that if I needed to do that often I would eventually get the hang of it.
At this time I have no companies I regularly do work for that require fax. There are still a number that will give you a choice of fax or scan and email. I usually take the scan and email option as I then have the scanned document on my computer and with the email I have a dated document of when it was sent. It also avoids the grief of multiple refaxings because the recipient couldn't read a receipt that was certainly dark enough to scan and attach to an email without much tinkering with the contrast to make it easily readable.
Shopper jobs, Pinkerton, Mass connnections only take fax, and of course those are the three I did work for, I am already late turning this stuff in. I keep emailing and calling and no one is getting back with me. Why is it so necessary that I finish and turn in by a certain time, if no one is there. This silly stuff has me worried. They aren't going to pay for hours of work because I don't have a long distance fax. I tried faxing and then emailing but I can't seem to not use Outlook Express and when that program comes up it says POP3 is not what this program uses. And I am not that computer literate.
One reason the jobs have to be sent in pronto is so they know you did it. If you didn't, then they need to assign it to someone else. Another reason is because they report back to their clients. Not sure what that turnaround is; I'm sure it varies with each company. But one thing we always commit to is timely filing of our report.
One day I did five shops, three for one company. I submitted all of my reports but one. I could NOT get it to submit. The submit button simply was not linked to anything. I called, cried, yelled, emailed and then gave up. The next day I got a message that the shop was not completed and would be reassigned. I replied to that email and explained what happened. I immediately got a phone call. BUT the scheduler did not believe me when I said the submit button was not linked to anything. I finally got out of the report, and she went in and attempted to submit it herself and learned I was right. I had to type the answers into an email and send to her - she put it on the form. This was the ONLY time I have ever had problems submitting a report - and it was my second day shopping - - - glad I didn't give up!
Maybe you should get you one of those simple books for computers (no offense intended or implied) Computers for Dummies, or PC for Idiots. That is how I taught myself Excel and Access. They really are helpful and speak my language. Also, you might check your PC company. Some of them have free help either online or via a 1-800 number - - - in any case - I was just doing some shops and saw a very reasonable fax on a clearance shelf - thought of you - - -
Maybe this thread should be moved - it's no longer about where we live - - -
One day I did five shops, three for one company. I submitted all of my reports but one. I could NOT get it to submit. The submit button simply was not linked to anything. I called, cried, yelled, emailed and then gave up. The next day I got a message that the shop was not completed and would be reassigned. I replied to that email and explained what happened. I immediately got a phone call. BUT the scheduler did not believe me when I said the submit button was not linked to anything. I finally got out of the report, and she went in and attempted to submit it herself and learned I was right. I had to type the answers into an email and send to her - she put it on the form. This was the ONLY time I have ever had problems submitting a report - and it was my second day shopping - - - glad I didn't give up!
Maybe you should get you one of those simple books for computers (no offense intended or implied) Computers for Dummies, or PC for Idiots. That is how I taught myself Excel and Access. They really are helpful and speak my language. Also, you might check your PC company. Some of them have free help either online or via a 1-800 number - - - in any case - I was just doing some shops and saw a very reasonable fax on a clearance shelf - thought of you - - -
Maybe this thread should be moved - it's no longer about where we live - - -
I was thinking that Jude and realized that in a very real sense most of us do live "in" our work since we can't lock the office door and go home, leaving it behind. 
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