Has anyone found it worth jumping through all these hoops?

This is not 1099 and is hourly pay.
They do not say what the hourly rate is past the testing at minimum wage and base it on your area cost of living.
By paying you an hourly wage and not guaranteeing you any hours at all and breaking the hours up into three hour blocks, it would appear you would not have the ability to turn down an undesirable shop as your not an IC and a direct employee answering to a manager.
They pay mileage after 20 miles and do not state what the reimbursement is.

Two days of minimum wage testing including in the field shops.

Training Required: All shoppers must complete a paid training process that consists of one eight hour day.The day immediately following will consist of utilizing your home computer and communicating with an office staff member over a 6 to 8 hour period performing various tasks. An additional 6 to 8 hours will be spent in the field performing practice shops. All training is paid at the local minimum wage amount. The first two training days are normally scheduled during the weekdays and are conducted between the hours of 8:00am and 6:00pm on back to back days. Training classes are scheduled throughout the United States and Canada on a on regular basis.

A trip to a drug screening facility. (They pay for test)

Drug Screening: The company that is seeking employees has a drug-free workplace policy. This means that if you are offered employment, the offer will be contingent on your taking and passing a drug screen (urinalysis or oral fluid) in order to begin work. The company will pay for the costs of the test. (This does not apply to applicants in Canada.)

Wage: We pay by the hour and issue checks on a weekly basis. Our current wage rate varies from city to city. We offer direct deposit for those shoppers that are interested.

Scheduling of shops: We schedule our shops from 9am - 9pm seven days a week. Shoppers are sent a written schedule in 6-8 week blocks that are sent out 7-10 days before they start. All shoppers are assigned to shop on specific days and during one of the following time frames. A= 9am - 11:59am, B= 12pm-3:59pm, C= 4:00pm - 6:59pm, D= 7:00pm-9pm. The days and time frames vary from week to week and would require you to have a flexible schedule.

Expenses: We reimburse mileage minus the first 20 miles/kilometers. We do not reimburse you for anything purchased in the store. If an over night is required, the company will reimburse for a pre approved hotel and provide a meal allowance.

No, no and NO!! Anyone who is successful with mystery shopping--able to keep to a schedule, do their bookkeeping, follow directions, write acceptable reports--is worth more in the 9 to 5 job world than minimum wage and would more than likely be receiving benefits such as health insurance, paid vacation days and sick days, workers comp, promotions, raises etc. Why be an 'employee' 'on call' 9AM-9PM 7 days a week? You are likely to work less than 30 hrs per week so they can claim you as part time and eligible for no benefits.

Someone from the Nazi Gestapo must be dreaming up these requirements! You vill turn right at the corner, no bowel movements during work hours, ve don't pay you to s#@*. Sounds like a real laugh riot of a place to work for. Saluting and goose stepping optional.
Has their HR department even heard of micromanaging?
Well, at least they are up front with what you can expect life to be like working for them.

I thought its against the rules to post word 4 word guidelines. Property of msc and all that.

Those weren't shopping guidelines, that's a job description to become a mystery shopper. I don't even want to think what the shopper's guidelines look like.

40-foot pole here. That job description is contrary to everything I'm working to achieve with my MS activity.

If I wanted to be "owned" I know of a certain retail gig which would not involve driving all over the place with only a limited mileage reimbursement, for starters. A minimum wage employee expected to front hotel money, for another.

If there is anyone for whom this does work, please feel free.

I have not seen this offer. If I did, I would snigger and delete.

Who's the MSC?

There are lots and lots of people I have known that would love this job. I work in the other world and for other world (not mystery shopping world) this sounds quite like lots and lots of other jobs I have seen advertised and heard about. Basically if someone wanted to be assured of a schedule in advance (1-2 wks) and only wanted to work part time hours due to all sorts of things...retirement, school,other part or full time job, children etc. this would be ideal. Of course the wage is probably not great but if added in all the time I spend surfing the job openings, applying and reading rules and regs etc. I doubt I usually earn that much. Here you are assured whatever the wage is. If you have not looked for a job in the past 10 years, most companies do not tell you the wage until much later. You just get your assignment and go. Of course there are some vague things but most jobs seem to be vague these days so you need to actually get an offer to find out what is vague. No checking websites, no running after payment and no of any of the other annoyances of mystery shopping. I would think that your "hours" would include any prep time needed as well as writing up time. And you have a steady paycheck. I am just assuming these things about this job as it looks like a regular employee and that is how regular employees work...you do not work outside of your paid hours...if you do you can report them!
Of course if you love the excitement of mystery shopping including the excitement of waiting to see if you will actually get your pay, then this is not for you. But many, many people could not handle not knowing from day to day what they are doing.

Funny you should mention Nazi Germany. They were the first big users of metrics on political opinion. We follow in their footsteps albeit without the nasty stuff.

I would not do it. Sounds like micro-management to me and I retired from a job because of the micro-management of the supervisors

@Mert wrote:

I have not seen this offer. If I did, I would snigger and delete.

Who's the MSC?

Quality Shopper.

@Flash wrote:

No, no and NO!! Anyone who is successful with mystery shopping--able to keep to a schedule, do their bookkeeping, follow directions, write acceptable reports--is worth more in the 9 to 5 job world than minimum wage and would more than likely be receiving benefits such as health insurance, paid vacation days and sick days, workers comp, promotions, raises etc. Why be an 'employee' 'on call' 9AM-9PM 7 days a week? You are likely to work less than 30 hrs per week so they can claim you as part time and eligible for no benefits.

"Hours: We do not guarantee any hours as all shoppers are classified as part time project employees. Currently our shoppers average between 4-12 hours per week. As a part time project employee you are not eligible for benefits."

All shoppers are assigned to shop on specific days and during one of the following time frames. A= 9am - 11:59am, B= 12pm-3:59pm, C= 4:00pm - 6:59pm, D= 7:00pm-9pm. The days and time frames vary from week to week and would require you to have a flexible schedule.

Apparently, they require that the shopper have a flexible schedule, but they don't require the same thing for their company. This seems to be another example of what I have called in other posts, twentieth century thinking. Does this company not yet get that mystery shopping is 24/7 and not nine to nine?

If they were going to guarantee me 15 hours/week at a decent wage, I might consider something like this. But now way am I going to put the rest of my life on hold waiting to find out what my 4 to 12 hours will be so that I can fit all my other obligations around that. I just left a part-time retail job due to exactly these issues.

I'm betting as an employee you are not free to IC with other MSCs.

I need to clear up a lot of misinformation concerning Quality Shopper.Org. Having worked for this supermarket chain (over 500 stores on CA alone) from 2011 to 2014, I can tell you this is a 5* company. I worked for them in Northern CA and also in SoCal when I relocated. This was the best part time job I’ve ever had. The shopper org. was corporate run and was 1st class all the way. None of the headaches of some MSC’s.
Here are the facts of their superior MS organization:
Assignments were scheduled in sets of 2-3 stores per set, normally 2 sets per week, pre-assigned for each month. Since they have so many stores there was also an extra board posted on their website with 30+ unassigned shops open to everyone. Shoppers were free to accept or decline assigned shops or add additional shops.
Shops were scheduled during specified time frames between 9a -9p which is when a full staff was on hand.
The report form was multiple choice or fill in the blank, with minimal narrative required, 20min. to 25 min. to complete.
Reports were rarely rejected, if ever, and if they couldn’t be resolved by phone and were actually rejected, you were still paid (less the report time). How many MSC’s do that?
Pay structure (paid weekly):
$11.30 per hour. You were paid for roundtrip drive time, shop time and report time. Initial training and any conference calls were paid. If there were any questions from corporate you were paid for the phone or e-mail time. Since shoppers submitted their own payroll days/time worked, mileage, etc you were paid for payroll entry time.
Mileage reimbursement was $56.5 per mile, also paid weekly. In No. CA I worked from Sacramento to the Oregon border and had a regular set each month to South Lake Tahoe, Zephyr Cove, NV & Carson City, NV (330mi RT), another to Reno, Sparks and surrounding areas (275 mi. RT). In SoCal, Riverside County, I covered the Desert Cities (Palm Springs, Palm Desert, La Quinta, etc, LA, & San Diego. As you can see the money was in the miles.
Working 2-3days a week I averaged between 250 -500 miles a week or $141-282 a week. My hourly pay including reporting & payroll usually was between 20 -35 hours or $226 – 395. My weekly paycheck range was $375 - $677.
Unfortunately, when the chain was purchased by a much smaller chain in 2014, the program was terminated and it’s been killing me ever since.

I worked for this company for over 3 years. See my comments in my reply below.

I need to clear up a lot of misinformation concerning Quality Shopper.Org. Having worked for this supermarket chain (over 500 stores on CA alone) from 2011 to 2014, I can tell you this is a 5* company. I worked for them in Northern CA and also in SoCal when I relocated. This was the best part time job I’ve ever had. The shopper org. was corporate run and was 1st class all the way. None of the headaches of some MSC’s.
Here are the facts of their superior MS organization:
Assignments were scheduled in sets of 2-3 stores per set, normally 2 sets per week, pre-assigned for each month. Since they have so many stores there was also an extra board posted on their website with 30+ unassigned shops open to everyone. Shoppers were free to accept or decline assigned shops or add additional shops.
Shops were scheduled during specified time frames between 9a -9p which is when a full staff was on hand.
The report form was multiple choice or fill in the blank, with minimal narrative required, 20min. to 25 min. to complete.
Reports were rarely rejected, if ever, and if they couldn’t be resolved by phone and were actually rejected, you were still paid (less the report time). How many MSC’s do that?
Pay structure (paid weekly):
$11.30 per hour. You were paid for roundtrip drive time, shop time and report time. Initial training and any conference calls were paid. If there were any questions from corporate you were paid for the phone or e-mail time. Since shoppers submitted their own payroll days/time worked, mileage, etc you were paid for payroll entry time.
Mileage reimbursement was $56.5 per mile, also paid weekly. In No. CA I worked from Sacramento to the Oregon border and had a regular set each month to South Lake Tahoe, Zephyr Cove, NV & Carson City, NV (330mi RT), another to Reno, Sparks and surrounding areas (275 mi. RT). In SoCal, Riverside County, I covered the Desert Cities (Palm Springs, Palm Desert, La Quinta, etc, LA, & San Diego. As you can see the money was in the miles.
Working 2-3days a week I averaged between 250 -500 miles a week or $141-282 a week. My hourly pay including reporting & payroll usually was between 20 -35 hours or $226 – 395. My weekly paycheck range was $375 - $677.
Unfortunately, when the chain was purchased by a much smaller chain in 2014, the program was terminated and it’s been killing me ever since.