Inspections and grocery shops

Today was my forth inspection. Everything has been super easy, gone through with no problems, and paid quickly. I like them.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/04/2016 09:18PM by Kristie6923.

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I paid the $6 for the background check. I get a lot of work through TS (MS and inspections) and a bonus or PAD whenever I ask for it. They also pay pretty quickly.

ETA: I requested PAD for two in home assignments. I got it for both, and the rep never showed up. That was an easy $70.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/04/2016 10:11PM by HonnyBrown.

On a subject other than background checks...Trendsource was one of the first msc I worked for but I could never get my scans to fit their requirements.I had to redo and redo the scan sizes.It would take me an hour just to adjust the scan to their requirement. I have not had any readjustments with my scans from any other msc in all these years I have been shopping. If anyone else had this problem in the past have their requirements changed since then?

I have been concerned about my photos and the sizes with all of my shops and am surprised I have not once had to resend any photos. I really enjoy these inspections and Trendsource.

I did six shops for them in February where I had to send in photos for each shop. The photos I sent using the photo editing program I use for every other program, for some reason, would not go thru. So I tried using the free Picasa program on my laptop, and they went through! Beats me why that was!

@HonnyBrown wrote:

ETA: I requested PAD for two in home assignments. I got it for both, and the rep never showed up. That was an easy $70.

Color me foggy, but what is PAD? TIA

PAD = pay and distance, which is a Trendsource specific acronym which other companies refer to as an incentive or a bonus.

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

And all this time, I though it was short for 'Money to pad my bank account.'

@DareWright wrote:

I paid the $6 background check and only ended up doing one assignment. TS was such a pain in the butt about the one assignment, calling me several times a day to remind me of the assignment, and then calling me twice afterwards (we're talking like within an hour of when I left the location) to remind me to do my report. It was overkill and I won't do those assignments again.

I wonder when that was? I would recommend trying them again. I've been shopping with them for a year and a half, and pretty much only do business inspections. I don't remember paying to do a background check but maybe I did. They don't hassle me at all. They only call once a day if they need clarification on a report already completed. I have never experienced what you say and I've done many business inspections for them.

$17 is slightly low pay, but the no narrative in the reports makes up for that for me! They're easy assignments and pay so quickly. I enjoy working for Trendsource.

MKKP - you definitely paid $6 (I think it is $6 rather than $5, but it is nominal in my opinion anyway) of you are doing onsite business inspections for them. You have to get the online background check and re-certify once every twelve months. I do these and the low-paying but very easy printer / toner / ink shops for them. Can't remember doing any others in the last year. In my area, they have hospital parking garage valet shops and some grocery competitive pricing surveys, neither of which interest me.

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

@myst4au wrote:

PAD = pay and distance, which is a Trendsource specific acronym which other companies refer to as an incentive or a bonus.

Ah. Thankyouverymuch!

@myst4au wrote:

MKKP - you definitely paid $6 (I think it is $6 rather than $5, but it is nominal in my opinion anyway) of you are doing onsite business inspections for them. You have to get the online background check and re-certify once every twelve months. I do these and the low-paying but very easy printer / toner / ink shops for them. Can't remember doing any others in the last year. In my area, they have hospital parking garage valet shops and some grocery competitive pricing surveys, neither of which interest me.

Oh okay I probably did than haha. It's worth it for the amount of business inspections I've done! I stay away from the printer/toner/ink shops with them. The service in my stores suck, so I end up spending at least a half hour in those stores waiting for help. For $7? No thanks! I've done them a few times but not anymore. I've heard about their grocery shops, but in my area, we only have local grocery stores, no chains so unfortunately those aren't available here. No parking garage shops either. So I just stick to their business inspections!

I do the the $17 inspections in my area. I don't go to another town for $17 though. I can self-assign these shops so I normally get the ones in my town. I have done a more extensive inspection for $40 onetime that took a lot longer. I think the $17 shops are easy once you know what questions to ask and what type of pictures they are looking for. I think the background reports are probably looking for people with felonies. Considering the inspections are for finance companies, I don't think that is unreasonable.

I did one shop for them and decided it wasn't worth it. I got paid $5 and a free pizza that was horrible. I took dozens of photographs and had to keep resubmitting them. I decided then that Trend Source was not for me. They rarely offered anything in my area accept for the pizza. So I bowed out.

Shopping off and on for 20+ years in NE Arkansas.

@Chocmom wrote:

I did one shop for them and decided it wasn't worth it. I got paid $5 and a free pizza that was horrible. I took dozens of photographs and had to keep resubmitting them. I decided then that Trend Source was not for me. They rarely offered anything in my area accept for the pizza. So I bowed out.

I haven't done any of their food shops, but they offer office supply stores, big box electronics stores, business inspections, parking and Medicare. I hope you give them another chance; they are a really good company to contract with.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

Be sure to have plenty of printer ink and paper on hand. The reports average 15-20 pages that you must print,

In my experience, that is only true for the business verifications. Even then, some are shorter and some are longer.

@loghomelover wrote:

Be sure to have plenty of printer ink and paper on hand. The reports average 15-20 pages that you must print,

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

Does anyone know why their assignments say that they pay between $10 and $15?
I just accepted an assignment last night and it is in the "approval" process.

I'm new to Trendsource. I was finally "invited" to take an assignment via email. I went to their page, signed up for a grocery shop that was open. Two days later, I hadn't heard anything so I went back to the site and I'm assigned as a backup shopper.

So, I signed up for another grocery shop two days ago and I haven't heard anything. This shop needs to be done by Sunday so I assumed it would have been assigned to me, or to someone. It has an R for being reviewed.

I don't see a place to "un-request" so I hope they have another backup shopper for this one; I don't plan my work one day at a time.....my Sunday is now booked solid.

They usually move the dates when it isn't assigned quickly enough. I have never been assigned anything without at least a 2-day window for completion. Although it's unsettling for new shoppers to have to wait for approval on a requested shop, the reason for the delay is that they give their current shoppers first shot at the shops. If one of the current shoppers do not take the shop first, it may be assigned to a new shopper.

There is no "un-request." After you request, if it is offered to you, you will have the opportunity to accept or decline. If by the time the shop is offered, you decide it doesn't work for you, just decline. It is not a negative.

I see, thank you.

And, as I understood the terms, once I complete this shop I, too, am in their current database of shoppers and won't be overlooked, or underlooked in this case?

It usually takes a few shops before you get first dibs on shops. I recently referred a friend and she did about 12 shops before she made it into the next group, where assignment is faster. Then a few more shops and you can reach self-assign status on some, but not all, shops.I would say the actual number of shops it takes to be recognized as a regular shopper rather than a newbie shopper probably varies depending on the location and competition.

If I remember right, if you sign up for direct deposit it gets you self assigning privileges.

I have done them and find them interesting. Trendsource is one of my favorite shops because of their app. I mostly do Medicare audits for them. I need to renew my back ground check and email I got said they would reimburse me with my 2nd inspection.

@CoffeeQueen wrote:

If I remember right, if you sign up for direct deposit it gets you self assigning privileges.

Good to know! Thanks. I like this company. I PAD almost everything, even the one that's barely more than walking distance. I'm guessing nobody else is applying for the ones near me at the base rate.

Now scheduling travel shops for the day after Christmas through mid-January.

@CoffeeQueen wrote:

If I remember right, if you sign up for direct deposit it gets you self assigning privileges.

Either you signed up for direct deposit much later than you registered and you had already qualified for self-assign, or the policy has changed. I signed up with TS two months ago and although I signed up immediately for direct deposit, it has not gotten me self assigning privileges.

They also want an EIN and I don't use that, so it may be different if you provide an EIN.

how long do these inspections last? about how long is the face to face time?

@Jay C wrote:

They also want an EIN and I don't use that, so it may be different if you provide an EIN.

I do grocery shops for Trendsource, and can now self assign. They DO mention in their ICA agreement that they DO NOT REQUIRE an EIN to shop UNTIL/UNLESS your earnings reach the $600.00/year level, (at least for the grocery shops...not sure if requirement is different for the inspections) because then they have to send out a 1099 for tax reporting. Since the grocery shops pay more in reimbursement than they do in pay, that works out well for me. If I do 8-9 grocery shops/month for them, over the course of one year, I won't have to worry about getting an EIN, since my earnings won't reach the $600.00/year level. I don't want to bother getting an EIN when I have a SS# and that works for every other company I shop for.

And they DO pay SUPERFAST!! So to each his/her own!

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2016 02:57PM by guysmom.

I did pay for the background check because these shops are fun to me. They are easy to fill out also.

I have only done inspections and can get them done sometimes in less than 30 minutes. I like them because I don't have to pretend I want to buy something. You go in and take a few photos ask a few questions and you're done. No narrative either. As far as the lengthy report, I printed and laminated mine and use an erasable marker. And I'm not sure this is going to work going forward because I noticed my most recent one had some different questions. If my next one has the same questions, I'm going to print it and laminate it again. It's a lot of questions but a lot don't pertain to the company you are inspecting. The inspections I have done are areas that I'm very familiar with. Therefore, I know before I go that I don't have to answer questions regarding them working out of their house and if the area around the business is commercial or residential.

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