Corporate Research International

I don't see why the phone wouldn't work, but I don't remember seeing any information on it in the guidelines. My plan for any shop is whatever works.

Mary Davis Nowell. Based close to Fort Worth. Shopping Interstate 20 east and west, Interstate 35 north and south.

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I agree abut the lack of help on the video...I got a question wrong, know which one, went back and looked (again) at the video, the answer is not there, way too demanding and time consuming, then checking to wait for fee to go up.....the good thing is, they have many shops in my town, but gad, it is frustruting.

Live consciously....
I hate Corp Research! I would go to a bonus shop expecting to get paid a decent amount and then the pictures would not upload! This happened several times with different shops. I tried it on different computers and still had problems. Then you cannot contact anyone for help. When someone finally gets back with you the shop is cancelled and you spent your time for nothing! I refuse to do any for them anymore.
I've never had an issue with uploading photos when I use IE. It's rare for a shop to be cancelled without having an opportunity to reach someone. Shops don't auto cancel for 36 hours and they have some staff there over the weekend even though the hours are more limited than they used to be. In other words if your shop was on Friday it would not have cancelled until Sunday at noon. Meanwhile you can get through to the office on Saturday mornings. Holiday weekends are different, but I've often found schedulers at least monitoring their e-mail from home.

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.
I just signed on with corporate research I hope to get some pizza shops. I heard they give a test before each shop you do? Are the tests hard?
Hello DJ - I see you are new to posting on the board. First of all, I want to welcome you. Second, let's talk about those pictures.

The pictures are supposed to be sized at 640 x 480. If the pictures are too large, you'll hit major problems.

Three available options are

(1) You can get your pictures to 640 x 480 by pre-setting your camera to take this size pictures, or

(2) you can resize individually using your computer's picture program, or

(3) you can install their resizing program available on the Corporate Research website.

Pre-setting the camera is the best way to go.

I hope this helps. I use Internet Explorer and have never had a problem uploading pictures to Corporate Research. I believe the problem is on your end. Let's try to work this out. They're a good company and can mean substantial income over time.

Mary Davis Nowell. Based close to Fort Worth. Shopping Interstate 20 east and west, Interstate 35 north and south.
I have used IE, Firefox and Opera with CoRI shops, and have never had issues uploading pictures that are in the neighborhood of 800x600, which is larger than their recommended size.
Picture size is the biggest factor that I run into with on their shops. Shoot for your file size to in the 150 to 300 kb range. I try to remember to reset my camera to the right size, but sometimes forget.

I know they say to run IE, but it is flakier than all get out on my MacBook. I usually use Firefox, If I have difficulty they will say it because of IE, but it tends to be something else I have figured out that will fix it.
I got paid today for the big box hardware shops I did a few weeks ago. Whew I'm glad to know they pay in a decent amount of time and that my shops were accepted without any problems. I'll take on more work from them now that I know the payment time is reasonable and that I didn't have any problems with the first two shops I did for them.
Do they eventually raise the prices on all of their shops or just the hardware stores? They are the only one's I've noticed in increase in the shopper fee. The craft type stores, the linen stores and the convenience stores have not increased any.
I think every shop in my area has gone up eventually. The lower they've been taken in previous months the longer it will take and the raises will be smaller.

Supposedly it is all computer generated, but I've seen several weird things. Some gas stations which have been on the board since 9/1 stayed at the starting rate for over 6 weeks, despite having gone up to astronomical amounts during previous rounds. Now they are moving up quickly. Meanwhile, the other gas station audits which don't even have a start date until 11/6 have been listed with the October shops and have been steadily increasing for several weeks. Go figure.

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.
I have several small towns located within 30 to 50 miles. I have done one of the gas shops at $50.00 and the blue box store for $50.00 in these small towns.
I found the videos to be very helpful in understanding how to do shops and what the company was looking for.
There has been a gas station and a craft store in my town sitting at $6 and $3. I don't care if they are down the street from me, my time is worth more than that.
autumnicole Wrote:
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> I found the videos to be very helpful in
> understanding how to do shops and what the company
> was looking for.

That, I think, is the primary value of this company for the beginning shopper. While the videos and certification are a PITA once you know what you are doing already, getting started is scary and their required instruction gives you a good foundation in moving on to shops with other companies. That they also have shops nationwide so there is virtually guaranteed to be some shops for new shoppers to try as a 'test run' for whether shopping works for them is just a real bonus. The pay is absurd, it is the shop experience that matters.
Why is this company one of the most difficult to reach with issues and change needs? Do they not realize that most of us have othe jobs and the short term booking and no allowance of problems can can a real deterrment? I had hoped that Stericycle would have changed some of the dated policies and added a few perks. Low pay is their rep but consistant wok is their motto. Any thoughts?
I don't know what to say. I've found them one of the easier companies to reach. Like most of the big corporations they keep normal business hours so nights are not possible, but they do rotate schedulers for the weekends. The 3-day window for scheduling is a total PITA. It was more fun when schedulers could actually negotiate a bonus and help with scheduling a route.

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.
Shopping for CRI seems to run in spurts or me. Their initial offerings are really, really low. However, when they do bonus out shops they are not bad. I hadn't done much for them for the last month or so, but this month is a different story. One week this month I made about $250 from them by doing several of their bonus shops a day. Additionally, their payment is quick and like clockwork.
I do not like any MS company that would offer a job for $7. That is wrong. Travel, shops execution, and reporting takes about an hour. $7 an hour is a communist country's pay rate.

Those damn $7 K-Mart jobs sucks. I don't know why amyone would take them. Standing in line for 15 minutes alone is not worth that $7 they offer.
Yeah agreed. Right now there is a craft store 5 minutes down the road from me for $3. Even though I drive past there every day, not going to pull into the parking lot for $3.

SoCalShopper Wrote:
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> I do not like any MS company that would offer a
> job for $7. That is wrong. Travel, shops
> execution, and reporting takes about an hour. $7
> an hour is a communist country's pay rate.
>
> Those damn $7 K-Mart jobs sucks. I don't know why
> amyone would take them. Standing in line for 15
> minutes alone is not worth that $7 they offer.
Is Stiricycle going to improve the 3 day window and if you have issues allow you to reschedule without penalities?
I have done over a dozen shops for CRI over the last couple of years and always get 5's on the editor emails but my rating stays at some fraction of that 4.3 or something. What's up with that?
I recently did 3 shops in 150 miles all bonuses. Their system wouldn't take my photos or report or something on 2 of the 3. I was denied pay because it says in my contract that I would use their preferred web browser and didn't. I don't because their browser doesn't play well with Mac. Not to mention one can't even find a download because it is obsolete and not supported for Mac. I've never had any problems with CRI submissions before this.
Too bad. They paid decent bonus and paid fast. I didn't remove as a shopper but did opt out of emails. They still email me.


ahmaynard Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well I got a 5 on my report so I'm happy about
> that. I wasn't sure how long it would take to get
> the report finalized with them. Some company's
> take a week or more to finalize and give scores
> ect. I'm pretty sure I just over thought the whole
> thing. The whole 6 greetings thing really isn't
> too bad. I do a bunch of grocery shops for
> Trendsource and I'm used to doing a lot of those.
> It was the report I was more nervous about getting
> right. I must have done alright. I know that
> stores have video going but when a company points
> it out to you that your shop will be compared to
> video, does it make you more aware of what you are
> doing? Between the warnings about being video
> recorded so make sure you are doing everything
> perfect, the trick questions on the report and
> their team shopping warning, CORI sure makes their
> shoppers honest that's for sure. I see several
> shops available and it's so hard not to just jump
> on them all, but knowing that the fee's go up I'll
> be holding out a little long I guess. Thanks for
> the advice everyone!

Shopping far East West Texas since 2005
Shopping CoRI is all about timing. I consider them a good "volume" type company. You're not going to get a huge payday for one shop from them, but if you find that they have a job you enjoy doing, they tend to have quite a few of them in any one given area.

The key is patience, and a willingness to pass on a shop if it doesn't hit your minimum. They have a big box hardware location that is quite literally across the street from my office. I've done this location 5 times this year at an average of $11 plus reimbursement. Not the highest paying job, but considering I can walk there during lunch, worth it. I've also watched it get claimed by other shoppers at well under $8, and I'm more than happy to let it pass.

Start keeping an eye on locations or neighborhoods that they have trouble filling. When it comes to the end of their reporting period, it's not unheard of for them to offer $40-50 per location.
+1. Driving 13 miles RT in an area I pass several times a week to snap a couple of outdoor pics at an office store for $4? Don't think so.

Waiting until the end of the month when they offer $15 for the same job?

Priceless.
Once in a blue moon, the payoff can be nice. Not long ago, I made $144 in fees and $39 in reimbursement, for three shops. For some reason, they had been bonused, and I happened upon them. Their reports are easy, comparatively speaking.
I once got $70 something bucks for a CORI shop. I haven't seen that type of shop since...not one of the box hardware shops or anything that I could hint at here. I see gas station shops for $38 but they are an hour away from here.
I have done a lot of work for them. Some of the jobs are worth the money and some are not. Mobile ones take a long time, especially if they are quarterly shops.The later you wait in the month to complete shops the higher the pay and may be more worth it. I am doing fewer that when I first started with them, becxause I am looking for higher paying jobs. Usually when the pay goes higher, you need to jump on the job right away as many other employees do the same thing. I have done $4 shops at the beginning of the month that can be $15 to $50 by the end of the month.

They were the first company that I did Mystery Shopping for. In 11 months, I have completed around 300 shops for them.

I did a movie rental shop for them that took less than 5 mins. to write up. And 20 mins. in the store. Pay was $6. Averages out to $12 an hour. This one was well worth the $6 pay.

Retail stores that pay $4 are worth a lot more as you spent a lot of time in store and 1 to 1 1/2 hours on report. I have spent too much time looking for 6 employees to interact with and as much as 75 mins. looking for 6 employees. They say you must get name, however if employee doesn't wear a name tag, then you can't get their name. I always comment on the unfairness of this requirement and that the business should be penalized and not us. They always accept my shops. Of course I have learned to wait for the pay increases before I do them.

I suggest looking at the reports before signing for up for the shop.
With the get 6 names shop, I have put not name tag or name tag flipped over and never heard a peep from them.

I had vowed not to do that shop because of the difficulty with finding 6 employees at the local store. Imagine my surprise then I picked up one bonused to $50 yesterday and found that you can do N/A for employees 5 and 6 if you don't see that many now. That one just went back on my willing to do list---- For the right price.

They have 4 gas stations that are a bit out of town for me that I am hoping will get bumped enough to make it worthwhile to try and do this weekend.
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