Survey shop where you pay the people for taking the survey.

Have any of you done a survey shop that requires you to take twenty five $5 bills and pay each person who takes the survey? The pay sounds too good to be true, paying $16 an hour. You have to put up the first $125. They show the shop paying $690.00 I would not take this shop. I have never heard of this before, where you have to put up the cash first. This is on Trend Source.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/26/2019 05:38AM by johnb974.

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WOW. Gobsmacked.

I have done fast food reward shops for TS where I had to front the reward money. Long ago. As long as the shop is done correctly you will be reimbursed. I would check that pay amount more carefully, though. Looks way too high for Trendsource.

If you front the money and then they don't like your report, you're SOL. Not my kind of shop!

@bestofbothworlds wrote:

If you front the money and then they don't like your report, you're SOL. Not my kind of shop!

Trend Source is known for that. If you're late on a Medicare shop, they deduct $3 from your pay. If the agent does not show up or changes the time, you don't get paid.

I have paid the $10 cash to the Subway employees when they meet their criteria.

@prince wrote:

I have paid the $10 cash to the Subway employees when they meet their criteria.

I would not trust Trend Source with this kind of shop. They have a habit of cutting your pay or not even paying you if anything goes wrong.

I absolutely trust Trend Source. They only cut your pay when you are late submitting shops or receipts. And all companies might not pay you if you do the shop incorrectly. Are they cheap? Yes. Are they dishonest? No.

@CoffeeQueen wrote:

I absolutely trust Trend Source. They only cut your pay when you are late submitting shops or receipts. And all companies might not pay you if you do the shop incorrectly. Are they cheap? Yes. Are they dishonest? No.

I did one of their Medicare shops. When I got to the Senior Center, the agent asked me to wait an hour so he could finish a bingo game with the seniors. I was not going to wait an hour just for him to finish a game. I was there at the scheduled time. The agent refused to do the shop at the scheduled time. Trend Source refused to pay me.

By the way, Trend Source is the ONLY MSC that cuts your pay for being late. I work with many other companies that don't.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/26/2019 08:50PM by johnb974.

I wish we cut doctor's pay when they're late. Somehow, they're entiltled to keep patients waiting for hours and still get full pay.

Years ago, I did assignments where I had to pay people taking a survey. Two different MSPs (not TrendSource). One was at a cell phone store and the other at a tire store. Both MSPs sent me the cash in advance. While TrendSource is a reputable MSP, I don't think I would put up that much cash out of my pocket.

I would never put up CASH to do a shop. Too many things could go wrong, especially with Trend Source.

I saw that shop on their job board. Ten foot pole; too much could go wrong.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

As Trendsource was mentioned, my comment is simply that their business model is structured toward those shoppers who are either desperate for money or activity. They pay quickly and are, in my opinion, an MSC whose integrity is at the highest level. In the past three years, I have completed two assignments for them, both of which met my fee requirements.

A quick question to ask yourself: Would you pay $24 to have work completed, if you knew another person, whose need/desire for cash was greater, was willing to do a quality job for $12?

@johnb974 wrote:

I did one of their Medicare shops. When I got to the Senior Center, the agent asked me to wait an hour so he could finish a bingo game with the seniors. I was not going to wait an hour just for him to finish a game. I was there at the scheduled time. The agent refused to do the shop at the scheduled time. Trend Source refused to pay me.

By the way, Trend Source is the ONLY MSC that cuts your pay for being late. I work with many other companies that don't.

Every MSC has different rules and guidelines. We are independent contractors, not employees. We are not guaranteed pay just for showing up to work on time.

It was perfectly reasonable for you to decide not to wait an hour to complete the shop. The time to find out whether and how much you will be paid for an unsuccessful shop attempt is BEFORE you do the shop. You can't just expect TrendSource to pay you when you did not do the shop, unless there was an agreement for them to pay for unsuccessful shop attempts.

It is patently untrue that TrendSource is the only MSC that cuts your pay for being late. Customer Impact and other fair and reputable companies do the same.

@johnb974 wrote:

I would never put up CASH to do a shop. Too many things could go wrong, especially with Trend Source.

Smart decision.

@BusyBeeBuzzBuzzBuzz wrote:

@johnb974 wrote:

I did one of their Medicare shops. When I got to the Senior Center, the agent asked me to wait an hour so he could finish a bingo game with the seniors. I was not going to wait an hour just for him to finish a game. I was there at the scheduled time. The agent refused to do the shop at the scheduled time. Trend Source refused to pay me.

By the way, Trend Source is the ONLY MSC that cuts your pay for being late. I work with many other companies that don't.

Every MSC has different rules and guidelines. We are independent contractors, not employees. We are not guaranteed pay just for showing up to work on time.

It was perfectly reasonable for you to decide not to wait an hour to complete the shop. The time to find out whether and how much you will be paid for an unsuccessful shop attempt is BEFORE you do the shop. You can't just expect TrendSource to pay you when you did not do the shop, unless there was an agreement for them to pay for unsuccessful shop attempts.

It is patently untrue that TrendSource is the only MSC that cuts your pay for being late. Customer Impact and other fair and reputable companies do the same.

I have done other Medicare shops for another MSC and they paid if there was a problem with the agent. I was there ready to work. The agent was not. That was not my fault. I did what was expected of me, show up and be ready. I have no control over what the agent does. Not paying me was not right. I will NEVER do another one of their Medicare shops. You cannot trust them to pay you.

@johnb974 wrote:

I have done other Medicare shops for another MSC and they paid if there was a problem with the agent. I was there ready to work. The agent was not. That was not my fault. I did what was expected of me, show up and be ready. I have no control over what the agent does. Not paying me was not right. I will NEVER do another one of their Medicare shops. You cannot trust them to pay you.

This is not about fault. This is about a contract and who bears the risk of loss when something goes wrong.

What part of different companies have different rules and policies don't you understand?

For what it's worth, I think it's the right decision for you never to do another Medicare shop for TrendSource. But then again, based on many of your posts, I also think you should not be mystery shopping for any company unless you change the way you operate.

@johnb974 wrote:

By the way, Trend Source is the ONLY MSC that cuts your pay for being late. I work with many other companies that don't.

That isn't accurate. Others do as well. Bestmark for one.

@BusyBeeBuzzBuzzBuzz wrote:

@johnb974 wrote:

This is not about fault. This is about a contract and who bears the risk of loss when something goes wrong.

What part of different companies have different rules and policies don't you understand?

For what it's worth, I think it's the right decision for you never to do another Medicare shop for TrendSource. But then again, based on many of your posts, I also think you should not be mystery shopping for any company unless you change the way you operate.

The loss was on me for taking a shop Trend Source had no intention of paying, if the agent did not follow their company guidelines. I don't think you or anyone else should be commenting on if anyone should be mystery shopping or not.

I have only done Survey shops where the reward was deposited into my PayPal first. Easy and good paying shops. The last one I did was at '"Toys R Us" to give you a time frame. I wouldn't put u any money u first.

A Dad shopping the Ark-LA-Tex and beyond.

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