@spicy1 wrote:

I mean, all companies are low-ballers. This is a low-baller industry. None of the shops pay appropriately unless it has a bonus. But compare the same gas station shops of MF base fee $8 fee and $5 reimbursement to Alta 360 $7 fee and a candy bar. Babysitting $$, all of them!

Base fee of $8 and $5 reimbursement. I am doing 5 of those this week. All 5 I will literally drive right past. They take less than 10 minutes and honestly I usually report them on the app while I'm driving. 10 minutes for $13 is $78 per hour.

$78 an hour is not babysitting $$.

Didn't you make a snide comment the other day when I said my target is $60 an hour?
$78 is more than $60 but you can think it's babysitting money if you want.
And I can think you just haven't quite figured out how to do this business.

Sure, I did my 5 today, in fact. I report on the spot with my tablet and all 5 are less than 6 minutes away from each other. But there's 5. There's only 5. So, $78 once. I did a slew of cell shops Easter weekend where I was over $125 an hour. But that was for a few days. Alta's and AboutFace are $7 and $4 and a candy bar: BABYSITTING $$

I'm now getting calls at home on some shops I've done in the past, they've almost double the pay.

"And I can think you just haven't quite figured out how to do this business."

I'm at $2,700 a month mystery shopping, fees and reimbursements, and I work 45 hours at my day job. And I haven't even completed any video shops yet. I volunteer at my local Habitat for humanity, am in a majong competition group, have a vrbo and my neighbors come to my house for the parties. I've got it figured out so it works for me.

THat's why I only do deadline shops with them. I one got $30 and got offered $40 for another fast casual shop.

That's what I do with most shops. I take the minimum and then I do recoveries. Call me when the ones who took the shops at base pay flakes, admitted they were a mystery shopper, reported too late or their report was overly negative.

@spicy1 wrote:

That's what I do with most shops. I take the minimum and then I do recoveries. Call me when the ones who took the shops at base pay flakes, admitted they were a mystery shopper, reported too late or their report was overly negative.

I love when that happens. I check the jobs list a couple of times a day and scroll through for the Make An Offer jobs that suddenly appeared that need to be done within a day or two. When I pick up a job for a place I got invalidated on once before, I always wonder if the person made my same mistake.

At the same time, I make sure to take at least a few jobs a week at the offered price so they don't see me as someone just doing bonus shops. I don't want to be one of those "they deactivated my account!" people for that reason.

Personally, I'll take those $8 gas stations with $5 for gas all day. Takes about 4 minutes if I stretch it and I get gas. Woohoo. I'll do more when bonused too.

They just posted a new round of grocery shops in May for $3 plus $5 reimbursement. I did one last month (the grocery store is new in my area of Socal) for $10 plus $5 reimbursement to see what it was like. I would do it again for that pay if I was in the area of the store for other shops but no way will I do it for just $3. Hopefully it will get bonused eventually.

I do two every month in my area for ten plus 3 reimbursement directly through confero

@kenasch wrote:

They just posted a new round of grocery shops in May for $3 plus $5 reimbursement. I did one last month (the grocery store is new in my area of Socal) for $10 plus $5 reimbursement to see what it was like. I would do it again for that pay if I was in the area of the store for other shops but no way will I do it for just $3. Hopefully it will get bonused eventually.

I don't like that store at all. I hope that I am never that poor that I need to shop there for real. I did one to try it out. No thanks. Depressing.

Jacksonville has 171 assignments available to me and my area has 48.

@SoCalMama wrote:

I don't like that store at all. I hope that I am never that poor that I need to shop there for real. I did one to try it out. No thanks. Depressing.

I don't know what those stores are like where you live, but where I live, while not "high class", they are clean and carry LOTS of organic products, which I love! I can get organic produce, organic dairy, organic grass fed ground beef, Angus beef, organic canned goods, all sorts of stuff like that, for half of what I'd pay in a Publix or BiLo store. One day I was looking at their Angus Beef Chuck Roast, and the employee was packing out the roasts from the freezer boxes. On the box, the label read "TYSON", although the label on the meat package was their house brand. So I asked the employee if the roasts were Tyson roasts and she said YES, they were!! And those Angus Beef Chuck Roasts in the crock pot are SOoooooo tender!! Now, I will agree that years ago, their "image" was that of a store that "poor people" went to, and they never used to carry organic products. But they have been renovating their stores, and the newer stores are more up to date and carry a wide assortment of truly fine products! Sure, you'll see the occasional pack of strawberries with the white fuzz on the bottoms, or the apples with soft spots, but I see those no matter WHAT store I shop in, from time to time. True, they don't carry the number of items of the big grocery stores, but I do about 50% of my weekly grocery shopping there. Now, I have NOT done a MS shop there because the fees are just WAYyyyyyyy too low! Just thought I'd put in my perspective.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/2018 03:18PM by guysmom.

Whole Foods, Gelson's, Sprouts, Pavilions, Albertson's, Kroger, Smart and Final etc basically never have bad produce.

Here, that store has stuff on pallets on metal shelves, in warehouses with concrete floors. I'm not buying off-brand everything. My kids want Goldfish, not Penguins, etc. It's just not my thing. It's like shopping for groceries at Big Lots or the 99 Cent store. I don't mind going there, but I'm not getting the majority of my things there.

Well, to each his own, right SoCal?? We're not all the same.

@guysmom wrote:

Well, to each his own, right SoCal?? We're not all the same.

100% agree. Some shoppers hate integrity shops. I love them. I'm doing a quick job for $50 after my real job tomorrow.

Meanwhile, shoppers do apartments, video and car shops for big bucks too. Not me. Can't stand them.

I take shops for the listed fee. Sometimes it's disappointing, but I figure that I have $X more today than I did yesterday.....

Most food shops, I take for the listed fee, especially my favorites. If there's travel involved though, that needs to be paid for.

Regarding the supermarket shop that is listed for $3 plus $5 reimbursement and some of the comments above, I’m wondering if we are talking about the same chain. The one I did before they reduced the fee and reimbursement is a German owned company with new stores in my area. You had to deposit a quarter to get a shopping cart.

Thats the one

Market Force by far worst company ever. I am with about 50 companies. Pay is weak, then they have the audacity to deduct out of it and not explain why. The only company I quit working for. Some there are schedulers i am not fond of but did not quit.

@VirtualMarsha wrote:

Market Force by far worst company ever. I am with about 50 companies. Pay is weak, then they have the audacity to deduct out of it and not explain why. The only company I quit working for. Some there are schedulers i am not fond of but did not quit.

Market Force has been one of the best companies for me. You can always count on them paying and you can change the dates of your shop.

@SoCalMama wrote:

@guysmom wrote:

Well, to each his own, right SoCal?? We're not all the same.

100% agree. Some shoppers hate integrity shops. I love them. I'm doing a quick job for $50 after my real job tomorrow.

Meanwhile, shoppers do apartments, video and car shops for big bucks too. Not me. Can't stand them.

Yes, this is so true. It is what makes for such varied viewpoints on various MSCs and the shops they offer. It's very refreshing to have a decent conversation with someone such as yourself, even though we have different perspectives. Thanks for your viewpoints.

I got approved for a make an offer on a wireless shop listed at 7.50 for $35

I was wondering about the MF birthday bonus email. I did not receive one this year either. Maybe they decided to do away with it.

@kenasch wrote:

Regarding the supermarket shop that is listed for $3 plus $5 reimbursement and some of the comments above, I’m wondering if we are talking about the same chain. The one I did before they reduced the fee and reimbursement is a German owned company with new stores in my area. You had to deposit a quarter to get a shopping cart.

Yeah that’s the one.
I lived in Europe. We never had grocery stores like that, maybe East Germany? (I lived there when the Wall was still up. I saw both sides.)

There’s a brand new one in Corona, CA. I went to one in Ontario.

@eyelove2shop wrote:

I got approved for a make an offer on a wireless shop listed at 7.50 for $35

Great job. I really don’t like those. I haven’t done one in 15 years. For $35 I might try it again. Base fee was $15 in the 90’s.

@sstsau wrote:

I was wondering about the MF birthday bonus email. I did not receive one this year either. Maybe they decided to do away with it.

I didn't get a birthday bonus email, either. My B/D was in March, and it came and went with no mention of a bonus from MF. It didn't dampen my day, though...haha!!!

I used to love doing the loan shop ones they had a couple of years ago. As there are not many shoppers where I live, those used to get up to $100 and were very simple. Aww, the days gone by. Another company has them and they're only $25. Not worth it anymore!

What does it mean to be deactivated? Do they tell you they are doing it, or do you just realize one day that you no longer get shops from them? If you are deactivated, do they pay you for any jobs you have completed and not yet been paid for?