Ritter gas stations

I used to do stations for this company before the company switched MSC's. Their pay was OK. So once a year, I try and do some just to keep the account active. I go down to Virginia Beach once a year for vacation, and do about 10-15 while I am down there. Last year, the jobs paid $9, plus a small $1 reimbursement. This year, I went online and they are paying FIVE dollars. At that little money it can't even pay to drive around to them. Who on earth does these piddling jobs for FIVE DOLLARS???

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Ritter has lowered fees for several yrs. My last work for them was almost 2 yrs. ago, and, based upon my log, the gas stations paid me $25+ $4+ $1, BUT, those were bonused due to Christmas Eve.

As to whom finds these shops attractive, that's the $64 question. It might be the same folks who complete the $.50 phone shops. Even though I realize there are shoppers with a need, it's difficult to fathom why anyone would work for nothing, but they do exist.

You hit the nail on the head about working for nothing. Some will say desperate times and a little bit of money is better than no money. Those people don't always see the hidden costs of doing business. Costs, low fees and a long wait time for pay and reimbursement is not a successful strategy.

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
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I really liked Servanne's approach to the shops people choose...she basically said (at the convention) that it is not for her to decide what works for people and I think that is just perfectly stated. Granted when first starting out I think we might all have tried just about any shop without much thought to payment/benefits/cost to us but hopefully over time I have figured out which ones are best...thing is for me that means if I get my Diet Coke for free on a route then the shop is probably worth it (asssuming its on my way, isn't a huge problem of a shop, and fairly easy to report). So you will find me picking up convenient store shops that pay 5,6,7 or whatever and allow for 5 in inside purchases so I can get my fountain diet coke. On the other hand there might be another type shop that pays little but doesn't serve my needs so I pass on that.

Liz

I typically take Ritter (and other) low paying shops if I am going somewhere that is next door or a skip over. Why not? 5 minute shop, 5 minute report, get a free 32 ounce drink that has that good crunchy ice, and gt $6 or more bucks to boot. Would I go out of my way....not on your life, but getting paid $6 for 10 minutes worth of work equates to making $36 an hour if you are like me and always equate shops out to what I am making per hour. Now that gas prices are through the roof, I have to make sure if I set out to shop, it is really going to be worth it.

I'm dredging up this old post because I just received my first assignment notification email from Ritter. I went to the job board and quickly scanned it and saw that a $54 fee was being offered for a gas station assignment with multiple pictures required on-site. Ok. A few seconds later I realized this fee was for doing NINE locations. Are you kidding me? Is this typical? Do these ever increase in pay?

_____________________________________________________________________________
"Between stimulus and response, there is a space.
In that space is our power to choose our response.
In our response lies our growth and our freedom."
~Viktor Frankl

The only way things will change if people stop taking shops at this price.

In a way its actually good for experienced mystery shoppers as a lot of new shoppers take these jobs and then realize that mystery shopping isn't worth the effort and never return.

I would love to know the burn rate of companies like Ritter that have low shop fees.

The amount of shoppers that do one or two jobs for them and never return might be pretty high.

shopgal Wrote:
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> I'm dredging up this old post because I just
> received my first assignment notification email
> from Ritter. I went to the job board and quickly
> scanned it and saw that a $54 fee was being
> offered for a gas station assignment with multiple
> pictures required on-site. Ok. A few seconds later
> I realized this fee was for doing NINE locations.
> Are you kidding me? Is this typical? Do these ever
> increase in pay?

I used to do Ritter too but stopped because their fees just dropped ridiculously low. Before I started mystery shopping I was working for ChaCha until I calculated they were only paying $2 an hour. On the ChaCha boards are hundreds of people who know they're working for peanuts but they need the money so desperately. I'm guessing it's the same situation with people taking ridiculously low mystery shops too.

dwater Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In a way its actually good for experienced mystery
> shoppers as a lot of new shoppers take these jobs
> and then realize that mystery shopping isn't worth
> the effort and never return.

We can only hope you are right. I was so bummed. I have been updating my MSC list, and was so happy to see assignment announcements pop up from a new company. Happiness quickly turned into amazement, followed by disappointment.

The vast majority of shops for ritter are assigned to route shoppers and never make it to their job board. They pay their route shoppers better, and much faster.

Their non-route shoppers, the pay is too low and too long

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When you try to please everybody, you end up pleasing nobody

Thanks for the heads up on that, TechMan. It would be great to land one of those off-the-board routes one day.

I no longer do Ritter, since I had that problem (posted some months ago) with a trucker who told me to move my F'n car and some other choice words. So not to have a confrontation or whatever he was going to do I didn't look in the ice case and count the ice bags. I explained everything and well their response was no very nice and more importantly I did not get paid, so I quit them. Now that I see they are lowering their prices even lower; I guess it was a good choice for me. Although, if you live around the block I guess it wouldn't matter. Everyone is different when it comes to what they will do.

I don't really do shops for Ritter, maybe if I can get several of the gas shops close together I will do them. I prefer the parking shops. The new garage in Hollywood always pays $20-25 by mid month. But that's because they have so many of them and you can only do one once every two months I believe it is. I've only had the opportunity to do one once, unfortunately I spent it as fast as I made it. While accumulating a parking fee me and the kids went and did some clearance shopping and took photos with people dressed as superheros (who work for tips). About $35 for fee and reimbursement, I spent about $50 lol.

I had mentioned their lower fees on another forum, but no one replied! Thank you all so much! I thought I was going crazy. They have really cut fees, huh?

I've been shopping for 13 years. I had heard of Ritter and was signed up, but don't know if I did anything for them early on or not. Anyway, I got an e-mail several months ago saying that there were yellow gas station shops for $14 plus a lottery ticket and a promo item. I grabbed a bunch that are a half hour of driving and take about an hour including the visits. Pretty worth it, especially if I ever hit the Lotto!

Apparently, they were bonused. As the months have gone on, I see that I'm not getting the same amount and have cut out the 3 that were not close enough to be worth it. I'm in a major metro area, so there are 4 that I pass by on a regular basis and will do for only $6 and the lottery ticket 'cause, hey, I could hit one day. In the meantime, I'm holding out for bonuses on the others. They pretty much get taken at $6, though.

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