Corporate Research

I've noticed their bonues aren't as generous as they used to be. I won't take the gas shops, because in NJ, we don't pump our own gas. How difficult would it be to get a pic of the pump with all the employees standing around outside?!!

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Depends on the brand. Some of their gas shops are being done after shopping the inside as a mystery shopper and then presenting a letter of authorization.

Today I Will Choose Joy!

"Finally, whatever things are good, true, noble, lovely, of good report...if there be any virtue, if there be any praise...think on these things." ....It's a command, not a suggestion!
Don't know whether it's a glitch or not, but there's now a grocery cart by the branded unreveal/reveals. I have never tested for them, and they have previously had a Training indicator. Maybe they've sat around, gotten too dusty and it's housecleaning time. I don't know what the starting rate was, but now they're anywhere from $14.04 to $21.44.
I have only done one shop for them. I forgot about having to use Internet Explorer instead of Firefox. I requested help from the company and got a email back that was like this. You were told in the instructions that only IE can be used with out company. Read the instructions when in doubt. I find them to be sarcastic and cheap. I rarely even look at what they have to offer. The one shop I did stayed on the board for a considerable amount of time before it became worth my time. Then the editor was so nit picky that I haven't shopped for them since. I did call them though and told them how cheap they are. Thankfully we have a choice in my area and I don't need their cheap shops and miserable software system.
Like most of you, I only do CoRI shops when they are bonused. I just found out, however, that you have to be re-tested each month for the Sunoco shops. They say the reason is the the criteria changes. I get plenty of work from companies that pay fairly for the work, so I only do CoRI when it is convenient, and I feel like taking another test. I will say, I have never had a shop rejected, or been asked for further information. I've Never run into problems uploading photos either. I have Comcast cable internet access and use Outlook as my email client.

I do agree they are a go-to for newbies in the mystery shopping business. I did alot of shops for them when I first started. However, there are alot of shoppers out there who are really clueless. I was on a conference call today to train for 2 high-paying jobs I'm doing in my area. There were 19 shoppers on the phone from all over the country. The stupidity of some of the shoppers was astounding. They had not read their briefing notes, and asked questions that any shopper with minimum experience or a brain in their head, would not need to ask. The training call was supposed to take 45 minutes, but lasted 1-1/2 hours. By the end of the call, I am sure the moderator already knew which shops were going to fail. I certainly did.
rvrmnt, please take the client name out of your post. CoRI has already been named in the thread and revealing client name also is a violation of your ICA. "One of their gas stations" would work okay.
GregP Wrote:
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> I have only done 2 shop for this company. Both
> were when I first started. The first one had a
> really good bonus. The second was rejected
> because I did not stay in the shop for the
> required amount of time. I never see anything on
> the board that's worth it but I guess to some
> shoppers as long as they can stay busy they will
> sign up for as many shops as they can.


I had this happen to me . . . took a heavily bonused shop and the store was like two feet wide--I did EVERYTHING I needed to do, had a detailed narrative, and then "oops--you had to be in there for 15 minutes and you were only in there for 12". NEVER MIND that I totally would have been compromising my anonymity by staying any longer than I did . . . I was so upset. I have since taken occasional jobs from them, but only when the commissions are high enough.

In my area, it seems like they start them all at $3 or $5 but are then forced to raise the fees on the ones that remain. You think they'd just start out with a more reasonable shopper fee! Maybe it would help them to get the shops done on a more consistent basis.

So yeah . . . I'm not a fan, although I haven't deactivated with them yet.
roxygirlie1021 Wrote:
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> I guess I am one of the few (maybe?) that has been
> h
> I won't take ones for less
> then $15, and I won't do the reveal shops (you
> would have to pay me much more than even $30 a pop
> to do those!)
.


Kind of new to these boards, but wondering why you feel that way about reveal shops. Is it because you're afraid that you'll be "known" then, or do you just not like them?

There is a FF in my area that I recently did a reveal shop for . . . and have just realized that I am signed up with a company that shops the same FF, but blind. I've already determined that I can probably not blind shop the location I did the reveal shop for anytime soon.
There are several aspects to a reveal shop that may be or become a problem. First I won't do a reveal at a place I mystery shop already because of the potential of being identified as the shopper on subsequent visits and either not getting 'average customer' treatment or having the location invalidate the report because they identified me and getting me barred from shopping the client further.

Second, when a site does not do well or you reveal and start taking the required photos, sometimes the manager or an employee starts arguing with you or 'explaining' all of their deficiencies, etc. While I don't recall ever being thrown out of a site, there have been a number of instances when I was only to happy to have finished and be driving away from the property.

Third (and much less frequent these days), if there are rewards, such as actual gift cards, to be handed out, they need to be shipped to you and you can waste a day waiting around to sign for the package. Unused rewards need to be returned and I can only track the package, not have any reasonable way of proving how many of the rewards were actually returned to the company in the package. If any are unaccounted for, I am financially responsible for them.
good to know. Yeah, I guess I wouldn't do too many of them either.

My VERY first mystery shops (we're talking 15 years ago) were reveal shops for a car parts organization. Even if the employee did a horrible job, I had to give them a "reward". It was beyond cheesy.
On the other hand, I have a reveal to do within the next week. No problem. It is not a place I normally mystery shop. The rotation and staff turnover generally provide me with a new employee to work with. There are no rewards to deal with, I simply print my letter of introduction when I reveal. And bonus, the location is usually in fairly complete compliance so no arguments or attempted discussions are expected.
I started laughing so hard at Flash's posts that I accidentally spit coke all over my keyboard. Thanks Flash!
I've never had any issue with them. I've been paid on time and on a weekly basis, that is, when they are bonused up enough to bother signing up with them. I've noticed that the past few months they have dropped clients. CORI used to have Circle K and Aeropostale, to name a few. Does anyone know what is going on with them? The've added Dairy Queen but I find the low commission rate is not worth the effort.
kieferfan, please take the client names out of your post. It is a violation of your ICA to reveal who their clients are, and I suspect they could argue that former clients were also subject to confidentiality restraints.
I like Corp. Research when their fees go up. I had a route of jobs planned for Maritz last week and I picked up five easy CRI shops that fit right into my route and added $200 to my income for the trip... plus took care of my lunch out there in the middle of the Mojave Desert. They do start their fees ridiculously low, but if you can get them when the fees go up, they are pretty hard to pass up. Plus, they pay pretty quickly.

Steve... smiling smiley
Fresno, CA - and shopping all over the middle part of the state!
Has anyone done their $20 Apt. shops?
How is the report?
Do the pictures need to be time/date stamped?
I was going to do one of their grocery shops. When I found out I accidently put the wrong date in I immediately emailed the scheduler. Guess what? I had to cancel that shop and get deducted. It's not like I waited until the last minute.
They don't have apartment shops around here. But they take my gas shops with just the date stamp.
They just changed my dates on me without informing me!!! I'm just wondering if they didn't change that last grocery shop and I did sign up for the right date.
For their gas station shops: If your camera does not have a time stamp there are programs that can read the properties of your pics and paste a time stamp on them. Because it actually uses the real date you took the photo I do not see anything wrong with using this method.

I have to admit that last few months I am happy with this company. There are some slow days when I don't have much going on and I look at what they have and if the bonus is right I jump on it. Plus they do pay quicker then almost any company I shop for.

I just still do not understand the $4 shop thing though lol. Who is doing these?
Someone must because they're almost gone. Especially the grocery shops. Unless they are like I was when I first started out. I took everything I could get.
I have done work for them in the past that went okay and they do pay fast. I just did two of the gas shops that need the date and time stamp. They show on my camera and the flash drive I uploaded them to. But they e-mailed me that they didn't show on my report pictures and they need them redone. But I have no idea how to do it any different.

I upload pictures to other companies every week. No problem. Any suggestions on how to fix this? Do I need to change something on my camera? Help!
Odd. They have just become my "main" company since I was dumped by MF and the main project in our area with Maritz. Thankfully, out here in BFE there are bonuses for those who wait.

The fees increase using an algorithm that involves whatever the shop went for last time. New projects can sit for a long, long time without going up. Once a shop is well paying one month, it will pay well the next earlier in the month. Today was the sixth of the month and I earned a similar fee for a shop as I did on the last day of of May.
(Wow! I couple of the shops I did this evening have already been graded and approved, so I'll get paid for them next week.)
I just did 2 of the wholesale branded because of nice bonus. The time/date won't show up on my pictures with my camera, but I can get it to show up on the screen. I did a screen shot, which makes a PDF on my computer. I then had to resave as a JPEG and then sent that file. Didn't have to print anything but it did take longer than it should have. Still for the amount of money I was bonused I would do it again. Was frustrating because it did take me hours to try and figure out how to get the date to show up with my camera.
Krissyg Wrote:
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> I don't like how you have to add the job to your
> cart to see the pay.


That is not the case for me - I see the job pay when I click on details...I just checked and see how you can also click on the cart to see the pay - but its easier to just click on details for the info.

Liz
1. Yes, the fee is listed in the details page.

2. My camera will set the time/date to see on the picture, on the camera and on my computer but it vanishes when I upload the picture to a report. I hadn't thought of screen printing the image and saving as jpeg and uploading that. Sounds like a lot of work but if the shop is bonused well, I'd try it to see if it worked. I called Olympus and my camera won't do it. I also talked to a gazillion geeks at Best Buy and they don't know how to make it happen either.

Today I Will Choose Joy!

"Finally, whatever things are good, true, noble, lovely, of good report...if there be any virtue, if there be any praise...think on these things." ....It's a command, not a suggestion!
My camera won't imprint the date stamp as I take the pics, but, I can put the stamp on one at a time before taking the pictures off the card. Each photo, and I have to click that "I really mean it" for each one. Maybe there is a way to batch it but I have not figured that out.
You know what I realized last night, though? Just about every digital camera holds on to the original properties of the photo. So on any computer, you should really be able to click and see date and time. Now, maybe that's not what the MSCs need for their reports, and I'm not 100% sure that modifying the picture doesn't change that, but it strikes me that there is an iron-clad way to ensure that the shoppers are on the up-and-up.
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