New low for MF?

Personal insight into what many fast food restaurants pay to scheduling companies "per" mystery shop- $40. Break down all the overhead of company, schedulers, payroll, shoppers...... The low fee paid to shoppers is very lopsided. Having to order specific items is not getting a meal for free. You need only take one or two bites to judge quality, then toss the rest. I stopped looking at MF shops listed as rembursement of meal considered part of fee a long time ago. Their easy questionable is a great way to work into greater work and pay but after a year, or less, it is time to move on from that tupe of work. Unless you love the food! Raise the fee to something that covers gas and time and I would go back.

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If I don't like the food enough that I would eat all or most of it, assuming it's up to quality standards, then I won't take the shop. I agree that the fees are relatively low but part of the fault has to be on the MSC for not charging enough to pay us, the shoppers, properly (MF may be the best-known offender in this category but quite a few other MSCs are just as bad if not worse on some shops). Then again, the presence of space cadets who will take anything and everything even if the fees are peanuts doesn't help...

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/2017 10:14AM by DrSquash.

@pedrospato wrote:

You need only take one or two bites to judge quality, then toss the rest.

But what if there's a nail, piece of plastic, raw center, etc. in the remainder of the food? Are you cheating the client by just taking one bite? Granted, many normal customers don't eat their entire meal or every last fry and toss some of it, but certainly not 90% of their burger.

Also, is it not just food waste to throw away most of the meal?

I do agree with you that $5 type shops for fast food just aren't worth it. The gas, mileage, time, opportunity cost, report time, labor, etc. make it not worthwhile. At least, it's not worth it to me. Maybe for others it's worthwhile and economical.

But if a person needs:

car
cell phone with data
computer w/ internet service
printer/scanner

To complete a shop that requires driving outside, buying something, and doing a report afterwards to be paid two months later, then it's hard to see how they'd survive on these shops.

You do not need to check the date on every individual product....
[/quote]

You are not talking about the grocery store where one has to evaluate the expiration dates on every dairy and bakery product?[/quote]

That's not what my guidelines say...

@Karen IL wrote:

You do not need to check the date on every individual product....

You are not talking about the grocery store where one has to evaluate the expiration dates on every dairy and bakery product?[/quote][/quote]

Can't figure this one out--My son does work for MF on a regular basis. They offered him a shop today for peanuts which was a 75 mile round trip and he turned it down. One hour later he was going out to do another shop he had been assigned to and realizied he was no longer getting shops, he had been removed from their database

@DrSquash wrote:

If people keep taking the jobs at the ridonkulously low rates, MF will keep offering them at those ridonkulously low rates. If the pay is too low, I let it sit on the board, or sometimes if I am pissed off enough I will explicitly decline it and say the fee is too low (MF lets you do this) or email the scheduler with my concerns.

$5 reimbursement only for a shop like that is a joke. Depending on how much narrative is required, $8 to $12 plus a cafe reimbursement if required for proof of visit. (It's becoming an irritant to me that companies require a small purchase as the only proof of visit but don't reimburse for it, even if it is "only $2" or whatever.) Money talks, B.S. walks.

That's how supply & demand works though, it is what it is

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/2017 07:08PM by badbeatking.

I did this shop - once. Mom was going there anyway so I figured: WTF. NEVER AGAIN. Although they did call and offer me a $15 bonus to do it and I would have except another shop I was going to do in the same area fell thru. Honestly - the shop is not worth doing for less than $15 and even then - dicey at best

@fxb5293 wrote:

Can't figure this one out--My son does work for MF on a regular basis. They offered him a shop today for peanuts which was a 75 mile round trip and he turned it down. One hour later he was going out to do another shop he had been assigned to and realizied he was no longer getting shops, he had been removed from their database

I thought "independent contractor" meant we were free to decline assignments as we wished. He should call/email in and ask why he was deactivated, as based on what you have told us he most definitely should not have been.

Chinese "restaurants" were posted for June today and the fee is down another dollar. I'm guessing this will eventually be reimbursement only.

@kenasch wrote:

Chinese "restaurants" were posted for June today and the fee is down another dollar. I'm guessing this will eventually be reimbursement only.

......................and the worst part is it is impossible to do them without going over the amount by 50-75 cents. Unless you do a Mall location and then you are spending over $10..........at least in CA

The worst part for me is that many of them are now scheduled for a 3 hour time frame, 11-2, 2-5, 5-8, etc., where they were once "anytime open." I still take the anytime or the 11-2 shops but not the others.

And, yes, I'm betting the fee will continue to go down. When they lowered the fee, these shops still flew off the board. They left those that were for specific time frames the same fee and lowered those that could be performed anytime. Now I notice they are all lowered.

There are four shops listed in my area today that claim they have no fee and no reimbursement. Bit they will pay me $3 if the shop is closed. I clicked through to see if there was more info but there was not. I was about to apply to read the cpi and see but there was a warning at the bottom of the page in red saying to make sure you could do the job before accepting it. I sent them an email as I do not want to use up my cancellations if there is a quota. But they also had a headline message that they are coming out with a newly updated website on Wednesday so perhaps they will (hopefully) go back to the prior one where you could actually know what shop you were requesting and whether or not there was a fee. Or is no fee, no reimbursement the low they have gotten to? Next week they will ask us to pay them for the favor of being allowed to shop at this rate.

Just showed up in my area. That is crazy. Not worth the gas or the time.

Sandy - MF doesn't say they are coming out with a newly updated website wednesday. It just says routine maintenance. That is a big difference. Did I miss something ?

I wish the would routine maintenance it back to the previous one.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

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