Anyone knows?

still in business and still shopping.

I shop for them several times a month...still in business and one of my faves.

Alive and kicking

It's a yes from me.

they only seem to have healthy ff reveal shops around here anymore.

They are still alive and kicking. Doing the healthy FF shops and the electronics audits...

Yes they are nice, but low pay right?

The healthy FF is not bad for what is required. Probably not worth driving miles across town for. The electronics audits pay a lot but you seem to earn every cent of it and then some.

I do the FF audits on a route of 4 each. That makes it worthwhile plus, provides supper that night.
The first electronics audit requires some extra time to learn the ins and outs. The next one is easier and requires a lot less time onsite and uploading at home

That's a lot of sandwiches! Maybe 4 suppers.

I think it depends how many you are feeding...

True enough. I am a grandfather raising my grandkids. Those subs do not last long...

I just completed my first electronics audit for GFK and yes, I earned every dime. However, I hope to do these on a regular basis for them as the pay is good and I am sure the work will get easier as I become more familiar with the store. The scheduler I work with is great!

Yes! They are still out there and I'm doing some subs and High End Grocery shops which seem to pay better than usual. If you wait, they put a bonus on them. Be patient.

pugmom, I'm still see emails for these shops. I've not read much feedback on completions, so found yours interesting. I'm sure they'll be easier for you next go round, as well as taking less time. I'd like to hear some details when you have the time.

The key to those audits is multi tasking. As you are doing one thing, check out another. For example: You are doing the price check, note how many fire ext. are there, or the fire exits. There are several things you can do at once. While my reports were printing, I checked out the equipment, the electric room. Beats the heck out of sitting waiting for the paper work to print.
I took pictures of the front of the store, parking lot, carts in the lot, before I even left my car. Why? Because I knew they would be needed before I left. As I was doing the price check, I noted what kinds of table the displays were set on. Saved myself a bunch of steps as I knew that they would want to know.
I keep a couple of blank sheets of paper on my clip board to make notes as I am doing this.

They got a $9 shop with loads of detailed questions. They don't show the questionnaire until you've completed the test. Then it's too late! 1 and done.

I did a $9 shop for them today. Bunch of easy questions. Report and upload maybe took 15 minutes, if that...

Mert, what do you want to know? It was a 2 day assignment and I walked 1,000 miles but it was great. Report was right off the audit form. Must pass drug screen/background check. Scheduler was 1st rate.

The fact that you will do it again says a lot. I may attempt this shop this summer and was hoping to hear tips and time savers.

Mert, I am doing audit again in April. If I come up with tips/time savers, I'll let you know. They did ask for suggestions for improving the audit and I suggested they do an entire audit per section instead of doing part of the audit all over the store then moving to the next part of the audit (all over the store.) They also paid 3 weeks after report was complete. Sweet.

I just did one of their cell phone jobs. Right place, followed the scenario, got my card and photo and uploaded, got it in on time, yadda yadda yadda. Whopping big $9. So what is in my mailbox today? Demand I mail in the original business card along with a copy of the email demand. Oh well, subtract a stamp, printing a 2 page email and envelope plus mileage to the post office because it MUST BE POSTMARKED NO LATER THAN THE NEXT BUSINESS DAY or I don't get paid. Losing money on this job!

I don't recall reading instructions for the cell phone shops that mail was required; uploads were, right? Maybe reimbursement for your time and supplies should be sought. Good faith from both sides.

Mert Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't recall reading instructions for the cell
> phone shops that mail was required; uploads were,
> right? Maybe reimbursement for your time and
> supplies should be sought. Good faith from both
> sides.


They state in their briefing notes packet that they will be randomly selecting shoppers to send in the actual business card from the shop, and that it must be done within 24 hours of request or shop will be considered invalid.

They also state that you may be required to send in brochure, and that you will be reimbursed for the cost of the postage stamp, so most likely they will reimburse for postage for having to send in the business card as well?

quietshell Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> They state in their briefing notes packet that
> they will be randomly selecting shoppers to send
> in the actual business card from the shop, and
> that it must be done within 24 hours of request or
> shop will be considered invalid.
>
> They also state that you may be required to send
> in brochure, and that you will be reimbursed for
> the cost of the postage stamp, so most likely they
> will reimburse for postage for having to send in
> the business card as well?


Yes, I saw that in their briefing notes and it is not outrageous. If they reimburse me 42 cents they have reimbursed the postage as suggested. And although it is not a significant cost even if they don't, there is also printing a couple of pages, providing an envelope, and the time involved in both the followup activity including a separate post office run because their request came after my normal mail delivery and there is a chance that simply putting the envelope in the next day's mail might not meet their postmark requirement. There is still a chance that I won't get paid because they don't perceive that they received it fast enough and/or that they don't receive it at all. So even though I complied immediately and had done the shop and report as required, I could still not get paid for my work.

Luckily I have only one more of these shops scheduled but I will certainly not be accepting more because their 'random' request is costing me time and money.

I have noticed that some of their shops are low pay compared to other companies that might be doing the same type of shop. So I tend to go for the higher paying shops. That is exception for their $130 audit shop, which I also passed on, because I felt it was not worth it. Sounded like they are trying to pay less in order not to hire a professional auditor which would get paid much more. But hats off to those that want to do it.

Some of the parts seem redundant. I have now completed two of them. The first month they were desperate and gave me a super bonus for a grand total of $300! :-D THAT was worth it. I'm at the point now where I'm thinking $130 is almost too low. It takes forever to input the data and the platform for entering it isn't laid out well (imho). For example, I got to the end to submit my zip and my computer froze, when I got back on, even though the data was saved, I had to click "next" about 1000 times to get back to the end. My mind is always thinking, "Just get through this part.. $130..." lol I live one hour away from my audit location so it's a long two days.

What is GFK and how does one contact them? I'm doing shops for a company that pays me only $5 sometimes and that involves, driving, getting copies from public computer etc... and end up making nothing.. Is there a way for someoen to send you a public message on here?

[www.cybershoppersonline.com]

is the website to sign up.

You obviously need to sign up with a lot more companies. There is a list of companies at the beginning of the 'stickey' thread at the top of the Mystery Shopping Companies Discussion section of the forum. There are also lists at Volition.com.