@jangler64 wrote:
I've been reading through these forums for a while now, and don't normally post a whole lot. Typically, I read through early in the morning before i head out on my shops for the day. I'm a full time shopper, and work with many highly reputable MSC. The recent negative posts about this company makes me want to stick up for them.
I have worked with both Mandy and Hallie for almost 2 years now. To me, the fees they pay are reasonable for the work required. The shops are detailed and require time and effort to get them done. The shops are NOT quick and easy like gas stations, banks, or cell phone stores. Rather, they are multi hour and possibly overnight shops. The shop details are pretty cleary explained in the guidelines, and every time I have had questions before, during, or after a shop both Mandy and Hallie have been there to answer them. My first shop with them took me quite a long time to finish both on site as well as finishing the reports and then working with Mandy and Hallie to finalize with editing. After that, I have been able to put together a system that works for me when I am on site, and the time to finish has gone down substantially. Remember your first shop, where it took such a long time to complete. After that, you laugh at how long it took you to do the visit and report.
A typical Casino Resort might require interactions with restaurant staff, Security, hotel desk clerks, Valet attendants, plus all the other Casino Gaming staff. It is a lot of people to keep track of and the client wants to know how each person treated you. Then there is the food and beverage quality, the overall facility condition. Meals to eat, Someone mentioned about 8 different interactions in a prior post. If it was just 8, then the time on site could be pretty quick. I know some other MSC ask shoppers to complete Casino visits, and have seen fees of $25 to $40 plus reimbursements. There were some posted on the job board here earlier today or yesterday.
Casinos have cameras everywhere, and they are able to verify pretty easily what we report. They do check the videos against what is submitted, and I have been informed by both Mandy and Hallie about this. Nothing negative about me, rather that the client confirmed what I had reported.
I was on a trip for CHC and there were air travel issues. Cancelled flights, late arrivals, bad weather, you name it. What was supposed to be a 1 1/2 day short visit turned into a 3 1/2 day ordeal. Mandy and Hallie worked with me both in fee adjustments and some other travel issues. When I was stuck in an airport, Mandy offered some phone shops for one of their clients. It wokred out, and the next few trips have been pretty great with pay as well as seeing some parts of the country I never really thought I would get to visit. I only wish that I could have extended 1 trip another couple days to be able to sight see.
I know people comment about not being able to keep wiinnings if they are lucky while on a shop. This was a concern to me at the beginning, but I came to understand where the MSC and the client see things when it comes to gambling winnings. Bottom line with winings is that the Casino operators pay CHC for the reports, and reimburse the expenses. They want the shoppers to concentrate on providing accurate information instead of trying to win money. There are loss amounts that get reimbursed too. Most trips I leave with losses that are not the maximum limit on the shop, but if it happened, I am covered. If I have winnings on a shop, I put the amount on my expense report, and it offsets my other gaming losses at the location, reimbursements, or possibly even paying the majority of my fee immediately and have a small check come in the mail.
I know that this is pretty long, but I hope everyone will see things a little more clearly.