how will this affect me in the future?

recently, i had filled out a personal profile for insula research. just yesterday, i had received a call from a nice person who asked me to do some cell phone shops in my area that had to be done in two days, even offering a small bonus. i said "fine, i can do them". therefore, i was assigned the shops.

however, after receiving the email and reading the instructions after being assigned over the phone, i noticed that the shops require the upload of digital photos. i had already indicated in my shopper profile that i do not own a digital camera, even though i own a digital audio recorder. therefore, i had to decline the shops on the prophet system. i also left a message declining the shops this morning, because i don't own a digital camera.

normally, i just read the instructions for shops to verify whether or not they require a digital camera before accepting them, but i had originally accepted these assignments over the phone when receiving a surprise phone call from the company. i have never ever been called by a mystery shopping company out of the blue like that before to be offered assignments. it's always been through the internet where i can read the guidelines first. and i haven't yet even worked for this company. i've been mystery shopping for about 6 months, and have completed about 100 assignments for other companies, but no shops requiring digital photos as yet.

the person on the phone was extremely nice and professional. it's just that she hadn't checked my shopper profile to see if i owned a digital camera before calling me on the phone to offer me these cell phone shops.

how will this affect me in the future with this company?

You talked to an Insula scheduler and explained why you could not complete the shop. I'm not surprised that your profile was not checked prior to offering you a shop. If you see lots of shops available in your area that are of interest to you from Insula, you may want to consider investing in a digital camera. Lots of MSPs require photos, and depending on the amount and type of shops you want to do, it could be a worthwhile investment. Do you have a cell phone that takes pictures, with the ability to upload them? That could possibly be another option, depending on resolution.

I would not think you've hurt your ability to ever shop again with Insula. You didn't know the requirements when accepting, and I'm sure you apologized to the scheduler. Watch their site for visits you can accept with them, and familiarize yourself with details of the visit for anything interesting.

Those phone calls for assistance can catch you off guard.

Mert Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You talked to an Insula scheduler and explained
> why you could not complete the shop. I'm not
> surprised that your profile was not checked prior
> to offering you a shop.

correct. after declining the shops through the prophet system and leaving voicemails/emails, i was not contacted again in any form whatsoever. so i just have to assume that the scheduler got the messages.

> If you see lots of shops
> available in your area that are of interest to you
> from Insula, you may want to consider investing in
> a digital camera. Lots of MSPs require photos,
> and depending on the amount and type of shops you
> want to do, it could be a worthwhile investment.

i've looked at cameras, but i've refrained from purchasing one on the basis that digital cameras aren't adequately covert. unless, of course, one wishes to hang a sign around their neck saying: 'mystery shopper'. wouldn't i just be giving myself away?

> Do you have a cell phone that takes pictures, with
> the ability to upload them? That could possibly
> be another option, depending on resolution.
>

my current cell phone takes pictures, but you can only email them to an email. you can't directly upload them to a computer in any way. since it is a pay-as-you-go go-phone, it would be too expensive to purchase the full phone plan that would enable emailing. i can't email the pictures from my phone without the expensive plan. i had replaced this old cell phone with a new one that uploads photos directly, but then i had returned the new one, because the manufacturers' quality dropped substantially.

> I would not think you've hurt your ability to ever
> shop again with Insula. You didn't know the
> requirements when accepting, and I'm sure you
> apologized to the scheduler.

she never contacted me again. not even to let me know that she got my messages.

> Watch their site for
> visits you can accept with them, and familiarize
> yourself with details of the visit for anything
> interesting.
>
> Those phone calls for assistance can catch you off
> guard.

i don't have the appropriate digital camera. a standard digital camera for $50 is not covert. and i don't wish to purchase an entire expensive cell phone plan at $500/year just to take pictures. my samsung AT&T go-phone costs me only $8 per week.

if i bought a new digital camera, it would have to be covert. so i don't know what to buy. no fancy cell phone plans attached. and not an overt digital camera.

I would strongly suggest putting a handful of fresh, new AA batteries in your pocket and wandering into your local Goodwill or similar thrift shop. There are probably a number of digital cameras available. I would stay away from the Kodak EasyShare cameras as they eat batteries, but you don't need a camera with lots of megapixels to do mystery shopping. Not long ago I was tempted by a Sony 4.1 megapixel Cyper-shot for $2 at Goodwill--it is exactly the same camera I currently use for mystery shopping and would be a backup. In any event, drop your fresh batteries into the camera and give it a try to make sure that the electronics aren't fried. If the camera has been without batteries for a while, it may take a minute or two to 'charge' up enough to work.

About a year ago there was a big push for folks to 'simplify' their lives by disposing of desktop computers, digital cameras, iPods, alarm clocks and laptops because "you can do it all with your smart phone or iPad". Thus there is a surprising amount of electronics at Goodwill these days.

Edited after reading your post, Vince:
In mystery shopping you will do a lot of 'hiding in plain sight'. People go around taking pictures of a whole lot of odd stuff just because they can. Whereas with a film camera I probably shot 3 rolls of film per year (i.e. about 100 photos), with a digital camera I am free to shoot thousands of photos and discard those that were lousy with no added expense (like film developing to discover if anything turned out okay). I have shot photos of meals in restaurants, displays in stores, pumps at gas stations etc. etc. and nobody has raised an eyebrow. If I'm on a shop I usually have a ready excuse in mind, but heck, I take pictures even when I'm not on a shop!

I have an antiquated flip phone that has a camera and I don't pay to have email on the phone. I purchased a cable that allows the camera to upload to the USB port on the computer. It is a bit twitchy, but it works. Because it is twitchy, I am just ballsy and whip out my camera to take pictures and use the cell phone as a backup in case I forgot to bring along extra batteries and my camera goes dead.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/27/2011 01:22AM by Flash.

Best Buy, and other electronic/office supply stores, have gadgets that can upload photos from your cell phone to your PC or laptop. Then you can email or upload them to an MSP. I have seen these under $20. There are different types, some wired, some USB. Take some cheapo electronics or office supply shops, and wander over to the wireless department while you're there to check availability.

I wouldn't call my camera covert. It's a Kodak EasyShare. It is kind of a battery eater, as Flash said. It takes AAs, and rechargeables don't work well in it. Don't leave it powered up if you're in between pictures for any length of time, and the batteries will last longer.

My EasyShare takes fabulous photos and it will work with brand new rechargeables, but once rechargeables have been charged 6-8 times, forget it. They will last for maybe 1-3 photos, even on low pixel settings. The power pack of batteries that came with the camera is good for perhaps 6 photos and then it quits. Using my flip phone as a backup was required because of the battery slurping.

With the little Cyber-shot I can do extensive photos on one set of batteries and it is not nearly as persnickety about rechargeables.

Flash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I would strongly suggest putting a handful of
> fresh, new AA batteries in your pocket and
> wandering into your local Goodwill or similar
> thrift shop. There are probably a number of
> digital cameras available. I would stay away from
> the Kodak EasyShare cameras as they eat batteries,
> but you don't need a camera with lots of
> megapixels to do mystery shopping. Not long ago I
> was tempted by a Sony 4.1 megapixel Cyper-shot for
> $2 at Goodwill--it is exactly the same camera I
> currently use for mystery shopping and would be a
> backup. In any event, drop your fresh batteries
> into the camera and give it a try to make sure
> that the electronics aren't fried. If the camera
> has been without batteries for a while, it may
> take a minute or two to 'charge' up enough to
> work.
>

thank you. i will visit the goodwill store. ironically, goodwill was my first mystery shopping assignment, lolol. i had a chain of five goodwill stores that i had visited. however, i was so bad on my first day that they spotted me looking at employee nametags. it was working for a company that i had found through a careerbuilder job site, so i was a direct employee and did not find it through the mspa. when i got hired by the company, one of the interviewers accidentally asked me if i was a mystery shopper with the standard mystery shopping companies that are available to us here, to find out if i knew of their competitors. but i had never even heard of such a thing as mystery shopping companies through the internet. that's how i learned about mystery shopping. therefore, i quit that company and got silver certified about six months ago.

> About a year ago there was a big push for folks to
> 'simplify' their lives by disposing of desktop
> computers, digital cameras, iPods, alarm clocks
> and laptops because "you can do it all with your
> smart phone or iPad". Thus there is a surprising
> amount of electronics at Goodwill these days.
>
> Edited after reading your post, Vince:
> In mystery shopping you will do a lot of 'hiding
> in plain sight'. People go around taking pictures
> of a whole lot of odd stuff just because they can.
> Whereas with a film camera I probably shot 3
> rolls of film per year (i.e. about 100 photos),
> with a digital camera I am free to shoot thousands
> of photos and discard those that were lousy with
> no added expense (like film developing to discover
> if anything turned out okay). I have shot photos
> of meals in restaurants, displays in stores, pumps
> at gas stations etc. etc. and nobody has raised an
> eyebrow. If I'm on a shop I usually have a ready
> excuse in mind, but heck, I take pictures even
> when I'm not on a shop!
>

i will probably just buy a new digital camera then for $50. i saw them at best buy for $50 three months ago, but they only had the pink ones left, lol. but i will look again and maybe they will have other colors also. it was a clearance item.

> I have an antiquated flip phone that has a camera
> and I don't pay to have email on the phone. I
> purchased a cable that allows the camera to upload
> to the USB port on the computer. It is a bit
> twitchy, but it works. Because it is twitchy, I
> am just ballsy and whip out my camera to take
> pictures and use the cell phone as a backup in
> case I forgot to bring along extra batteries and
> my camera goes dead.

i really like my current phone because it has a full qwerty keyboard and looks like a blackberry for $100. but it is a go-phone. i use it for the calendar and notepad, so that i don't forget anything anymore. no more penciled to-do lists and i never miss appointments now. so i will keep it forever. it is a samsung phone, but i really seldom use it as a phone, except for emergency purposes. it is a pay-as-you-go go-phone which charges me $2 a day only on the days that i use it for unlimited usage per day. and i only use it once or twice a month at best. it can also receive voicemails without charging me a fee. if i use it only once for the month, then i pay $2 for the month. and i never miss appointments now. it even doubles as my alarm clock. i just can't attach a cable to it to download/upload pictures, so it's no good for pictures without the email option. i'm just too afraid to part with my go-phone. it does so much for so little, outside of pictures.

Mert Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Best Buy, and other electronic/office supply
> stores, have gadgets that can upload photos from
> your cell phone to your PC or laptop. Then you
> can email or upload them to an MSP. I have seen
> these under $20. There are different types, some
> wired, some USB. Take some cheapo electronics or
> office supply shops, and wander over to the
> wireless department while you're there to check
> availability.
>

my cell phone is only 1 1/2 yrs old, but it doesn't take usb nor an insertable graphics card. it can't be hooked up to any device in any way. i tried, but AT&T says that email is the only way. but that requires a full phone plan, so it's not economical for me. but the phone itself and the phone plan are so good for me in other ways (not relating to taking pictures) that i just don't want to start using a new cell phone.

> I wouldn't call my camera covert. It's a Kodak
> EasyShare. It is kind of a battery eater, as
> Flash said. It takes AAs, and rechargeables don't
> work well in it. Don't leave it powered up if
> you're in between pictures for any length of time,
> and the batteries will last longer.

i will just have to purchase a digital camera. i just didn't know what to buy exactly.

PS. aren't there hidden surveillance options from the spy detective store? i have a private detective license. could i buy a pen that is also a hidden video camera or something?

Flash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My EasyShare takes fabulous photos and it will
> work with brand new rechargeables, but once
> rechargeables have been charged 6-8 times, forget
> it. They will last for maybe 1-3 photos, even on
> low pixel settings. The power pack of batteries
> that came with the camera is good for perhaps 6
> photos and then it quits. Using my flip phone as
> a backup was required because of the battery
> slurping.
>
> With the little Cyber-shot I can do extensive
> photos on one set of batteries and it is not
> nearly as persnickety about rechargeables.

what about these cameras? they start at $17 at best buy:

[www.bestbuy.com]

The $17 camera at 100 kilopixels is talking about 1/10th of a megapixel photo. Pixels are, of course, the number of dots of information in your photo. Think of a small box filled with marbles. Looks like lots of marbles, but when you dump them into a shoe box you will see lots of the box bottom. As a 'thumbnail' a 100 kilopixel photo may look great, but when you enlarge it you don't have enough marbles for a clear, crisp picture. Most companies are looking for at least 1 megapixel and you are safer if you get a camera that has at least 3 or 4 megapixels. Larger than that is occasionally useful, but mostly you will want to go into the menu on the camera to take 'lower resolution' photos so they don't eat so much battery juice and memory card space. This also makes the photos more compact to upload into your report.

I'm looking at eBay and for under $10 I can see a new camera with accessories that says '8 Mb' but the software would indicate 1.3 Megapixels that closes in a couple of minutes. A little Sony Cyber-shot like mine closes in 50 minutes. It is 99 cents with no bids because nobody is willing to pay $30 in shipping. Another one with no bids closes in about 8 hrs and is 9.99 with 7.50 shipping. Still another for $37 and free shipping is a dsc-s40 with 4.1 megapixels and a Zeiss lens. Of course the list could go on and on. Reviews of almost any camera offered can be googled on the web. You will find that most of them have a zoom lens, which is very useful. You will be able to determine the type of memory card used (if you record to internal memory you will need either a cable or a memory card to transfer images to your computer to upload). There are more than 51,800 digital cameras and accessories currently on eBay and the older technology is adequate for our work as well as cheaper.

I lost my camera and picked up a great camera for $39.00 at Sears, it was discontinued and really neat....look around. Best buy has nothing under $80.00+. Another $10.00 for card and your good to go.

Flash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The $17 camera at 100 kilopixels is talking about
> 1/10th of a megapixel photo. Pixels are, of
> course, the number of dots of information in your
> photo. Think of a small box filled with marbles.
> Looks like lots of marbles, but when you dump them
> into a shoe box you will see lots of the box
> bottom. As a 'thumbnail' a 100 kilopixel photo
> may look great, but when you enlarge it you don't
> have enough marbles for a clear, crisp picture.
> Most companies are looking for at least 1
> megapixel and you are safer if you get a camera
> that has at least 3 or 4 megapixels. Larger than
> that is occasionally useful, but mostly you will
> want to go into the menu on the camera to take
> 'lower resolution' photos so they don't eat so
> much battery juice and memory card space. This
> also makes the photos more compact to upload into
> your report.
>

i bought the following camera at walmart for $19.

Vivitar Freelance 2.1 MP Digital Camera - Black 526C973C

[www.google.com]#

will this be sufficient?

Mert Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I wouldn't call my camera covert. It's a Kodak
> EasyShare. It is kind of a battery eater, as
> Flash said. It takes AAs, and rechargeables don't
> work well in it. Don't leave it powered up if
> you're in between pictures for any length of time,
> and the batteries will last longer.

This is a little off topic, but I LOVE the Kodak EasyShares. I've had three and they weren't the most long lasting cameras, but for the price, the pictures were very clear.

Vince, depending upon what you are taking pictures of, I don't know if you will get clear enough images from that camera, especially for MSing.

lisams901 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Vince, depending upon what you are taking pictures
> of, I don't know if you will get clear enough
> images from that camera, especially for MSing.

several mystery shopping sites require uploads of less than 640x840 megapixels. therefore i bought a low resolution camera.

When you own your own company you have to figure there is going to be some cost that will provide you a better income. The cost of a digital camera will pay for itself in a short period of time. Many cell phones have good cameras built in that you can use and just email or message the picture to your computer. I own a Kodak Easy Share I picked up at a yard sale for 3 bucks. It does eat batteries so I take them out unless I am going to use the camera. My cell phone camera takes great pics so I use it most of the time.