Last month these shops started at $15 which I thought was crazy. Now they're starting at $10!!!! This is just insulting. Who is doing these for $10? When you take one there isn't even any guarantee you will be able to avoid one of the sales people you're not supposed to shop. What the heck!?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/2018 03:18PM by jrobidoux.

I just don't understand Intelli, their pay for shops is awful. I just got an email to take several pictures and more for $8. Are they kidding! I have not shopped for them in a few years based on their pay. The last shop I did for them paid $70 haven't seen that in a long time.

I don't get it. Intelli-Shop lowers their fees, and shops can't stay on the board. Are they going to see how low they can go?

I can't blame Intelli-Shop.... If folks are willing to do the shops at the lower fee with adequate quality, why should they pay more?

I approach it rather simply: I sign up for lots of other companies and I choose the work that pays the best for my efforts.

I completely agree with MFJ's response; it was concise and logical.

Who's going to do a watch shop for $10? By the time you get done, you're not even making minimum wage. Because of overhead and self-employment taxes, "net" profit is around 70% to 50% of gross income. I've never done this shop, but I've done another watch shop, and I do jewelry-store shops. Minimum of 45 minutes to more than an hour in store and report, plus travel time, if any. $10 gross works out to around $7 or less. Factoring in the time, it's crazy to do one. Even if you tack it on to a route, it's still not profitable. For $10, I'm not spending more than 15 minutes to a half-hour of my time! Probably why I don't shop for Intellishop. Back when I heard they were paying $17 (I think it was) for car shops, I said, "Forget that one!" LOL

I've yet to see a job with them that is worth my time, and I shop for many other companies.

They have some valet parking shops in my area that pay reasonably well... They've recently had some high end car shops (vehicles costing over $200,000) that paid well.... There have been a few others, too....

I have never seen a car shop that paid more than 17.00....They hardly ever have shops here worth doing.
Naturally we all want to make $$, but unlike some, we don't have high fees due to many shoppers that grab these jobs.....which is why our fees stay low. I make more from the European companies, like 40.00 for a watch shop.

They do stay on the board though, the ones around me last month hung around until the end of the month and the fee was up to $30 (I still don't think they're worth it at that much, because half the time you get stuck with a salesperson you're not supposed to shop). I guess they got them done but I can't be the only one turning my nose up at the $10 fee. Anyone who takes the shop at $10 can't be a very experienced mystery shopper or they would know better. Why be so stingy?

Intelli-Shop is in a race to the bottom. And they may well win the race. It as if they do not wish shops completed. At present, I have all their e-mail messages filter directly to the trash.

I was surprised to see a mall visit for $5. Requirements include pictures and possibly some narrative. Purely insulting.

Also, the tire shops (compare and contrast) went down to 6 bucks. The single phone calls have already gone down a buck from 5 to 4 and now this!

I did these for $50 each (no bonus) with the previous company.
Screw intelli-shop.

As someone who has only been doing mystery shopping since the beginning of this year, I think we can blame the constant fee decreases on the same thing that brought me in - sites like Penny Hoarder that constantly promote how much you can make doing "quick and easy" mystery shopping jobs. The first article I read was written by a woman claiming she made $14k in a single year doing one or two shops after work every day on her way home, and then she quit after she had enough to buy a new car. My thought was "well, I can do half as much work and still be pulling in a nice extra income for an early retirement". It didn't take me long to realize how wrong I was! I've managed to get up to a $500/mo average doing jobs most nights and weekends, but it is in no way quick or easy. All the new people who sign up, though, will take jobs as offered on the boards not realizing that it should be paying much more. It took me several months, and visits to this forum, to realize that an $8 fee with no reimbursement on a fast food shop was not the great deal I thought it was.

I have a feeling that a lot of people also don't take the time to figure out what kind of hourly rate they are pulling in with shops. Filling a day with 6-8 jobs all paying $10-15 sounds awesome....until you sit down and realize that when you factor in drive time, shop time, and reporting time it probably averages out to less than $10/hr and you could have made more money flipping burgers down the street.

I, too, think that shoppers don't a) value their time as much as they should, and b) fail to take into consideration all of the costs, both hard costs and opportunity costs, associated with being an IC and conducting mystery shops. The added tax burden alone can be a hefty amount.

@Irene_L.A. wrote:

I have never seen a car shop that paid more than 17.00....They hardly ever have shops here worth doing.
Naturally we all want to make $$, but unlike some, we don't have high fees due to many shoppers that grab these jobs.....which is why our fees stay low. I make more from the European companies, like 40.00 for a watch shop.

I wonder if car shop fees are set by region. We didn't seem to have a lot of shoppers in my area who did car shops. I've never done one for less than $40, but the rest have been $50 to $75. One of the luxury-car shops has been offered here at $20 (the one I did for $40), and they never used to get taken at base price. However, lately someone has been taking them at $20. They're not worth it for that. I'm guessing it might be a new shopper or shoppers here who are doing them at base instead of waiting until they get bonused. Which they, in the past, have always been toward the end of the month.

I've seen car shops range from $17 to $75 and I'm on the east coast.

Ive been getting lucky, im in a metro area which I assume is heavily shopped, but been getting about $12 for most of my pizza shops. I LOVE ther pizza! As a single person it can be a bit expensive to have pizza so this works out great. Pay and free!

I chrcked tonight really wanting it so was goig to order to dog park, but score! The shop for my home delivey zone was back on the board. Only $5, but hey its cheap,way to satisfy my craving.

Intellishop occasionally offers $50 to $100 for dealership visits in my area. I have stopped taking the $17 or $22 visits. Not worth the trouble.

Since my first shop for Intelli in 2005, I have completed an additional 55; last year was two and two so far this year. The low number is that, being self-employed, I am free to only accept those jobs for which the work:pay ratio is acceptable to me. Never has the company responded to my request for more money that they are insulted nor have I been offended by their offers; we meet when we meet. Absolutely no company has the slightest obligation to any contractor to pay them more than necessary. To do so would, in my opinion, be fiscal malfeasance, as a corporation's raison d'etre must be to increase shareholder equity.

That is terrible. I won't turn the key in my car for less than $15

@shopperbob wrote:

Never has the company responded to my request for more money that they are insulted

That would require them to actually reply.......

The only upside to their shops is that you can self assign any number of shops. I have about 45 phone shops (compare and contrast) this month. Pays $6 each but still a lot of money for someone who is sitting at home.

@HonnyBrown wrote:

I don't get it. Intelli-Shop lowers their fees, and shops can't stay on the board. Are they going to see how low they can go?

The art of negotiation and relationships with their schedulers. Not saying I know or anything about that.

I cant believe they’re trying to pull $10 for a watch shop when at the same time, two other MSCs offer luxury watch shops for $25 and $30, plus often bonuses. I think I saw a mall shop from Intellishop for $4 last week. Sadly I think someone took it.

They increased the fee to $10 for the mall shop and then it disappeared.

Who on earth can they find to do this shop for $10 that actually knows anything about the brand?

Nobody. The women’s watches start at $18,000 I think? It’s almost impossible to find a men’s watch under $25,000 that’s in stock.

Somewhat off topic------
I have received 2 e-mails from Intelli-Shop in the past week. When I click on the link to the state and location I read something about a scenario of " I haven't been to the mall since Christmas" and then the screen gets wonky and jumps around and then freezes.
Maybe it's not really from Intelli-Shop
Maybe a virus is about to be put into my computer
Maybe it's just a problem with this one offer and I shouldn't give up on Intelli. ( two weeks ago I completed a well paid assignment and hate to give up on the company due to one glitch)

My guess is that people who take low paying jobs do not claim the money they make doing MS on taxes. That way if the shop pays $10, their profit is just that minus the gas...