@OldmanJames wrote:
Wish I could make $1000 plus a month. I never have in over 20 years of shopping. Guess it depends on where you live, number of shoppers in your area as well as if you are willing to drive hundreds of miles a week to get shops done. I have done shopping in 3 states and never was able to make that much. Low paying jobs, newbies jumping at low shop fees and not waiting for fees
I’m old enough to remember when there was NO Presto app. To plan a route, I had to have a dozen windows open on my laptop, each on a different company’s Job Board. It took HOURS. I’m so grateful for Presto making my life easier.
OTOH, I was getting paid a lot more, pre-cellphone apps. For example, a red and white gas station’s base pay was $25, instead of $12. I look back at my mileage logs an
I’m a better science teacher with 15+ years of video and traditional mystery shops under my belt.
1. Writing SO many narratives has helped me be concise and sharp when I write emails to parents, admin, and colleagues.
2. I’m better at multitasking.
3. I notice small details in my classroom - like who had the bathroom pass last, or that I only have a few pieces of Kleenex left. This hel
“So what have you done about it? We need to band together and write to his customers. Send them Google links. BBB and MSPA are not helpful. He doesn't belong.”
1. I took care of my wallet first. I pursued Elite CX for my overdue fees and had an attorney friend type up a demand letter. I was relentless and was paid in about a month. I was owed just under $1,000 for a weeklong route of several c
OK, here’s some tea:
David Hartley, co-founder of Elite CX, used to be a shopper. Back in 2013, David asked for multiple extensions and eventually flaked on a route of about a dozen luxury auto dealership/auto service shops back in 2013. He was incredibly unprofessional and left the MSC hanging. It took a massive effort to mend the relationship with the client. I saw all of this happen firstha
@Purplepugs wrote:
All I can say is that if it takes more than a day to reach ANYONE, the apartment complex has some serious issues.
I just did an $220 apartment shop where I called 3-4x/day for 11 days. Yes, about 35 calls!!!
It was pretty outrageous, nobody answered the phone - the agents just switched over the phones to the Call Center from 10-6. Finally got someone by calling at 0959 a
I use it daily in my work as a chemistry teacher.
I can feed an assignment into ChatGPT or Magic School and have AI differentiate it many ways:
- I can translate it into the home languages of each of my (very very diverse) students. For example, last year I had students who spoke the following languages: Spanish, Haitian Creole, Urdu, Pashtun, and Marshallese. AI produces a workmanlike
I loved doing video shops for exactly this reason.
My favorite “gotcha!” was doing a chain of Southwestern fast food evaluations. Walked in during the dead time of 3-4 pm. Absolutely nobody in the restaurant. Nobody appeared as I waited. I finally walked out and checked out back; everyone was smoking weed out by the grease trap. All on video.
(I was actually glad to see everyone there. It
I love apartment video shops, and can knock out 3-4 a day at $100-$200/each on a route. The trick is to build a relationship with a scheduler or company owner, and to be able to travel quickly to bonused locations.
I’m convinced that she has a diagnosable mental illness, maybe borderline personality disorder. Her mood swings are absolutely terrible, and she seems to lack all empathy and consideration for the ICs that she schedules.
That said, she will never lose her position in the industry until she becomes a liability to her employers. She seems to be able to act in a sane manner when it matters. The c
Back in the day, video shoppers could make that much money; here’s a sample schedule:
M-F: 3 new home shops per day @$120 each = $1800
Saturday: Add in 3-4 apartment shops, tire, car, or furniture rental shops @$80 each
Plus a couple of bonused gas stations on Sunday, you’re over $105K for working 48 weeks a year (1 month off)
There were also negotiated bonuses for completing full routes.
@mjt9598 wrote:
I have had shops where the cash register used to be at a different location in a different city and state, and they just had not updated the address. I have also had a cash register receipt that was completely illegible because printer ribbons were no longer available for the older printer. I had one gas station that listed the year 1947 as the date. Shoppers shouldn't be penalize
Your post makes me miss route shopping (kind of.)
If you start with video shopping, you could double or triple your earnings with new home and apartment work. And very little reporting at the end of the day. Might want to consider it…
Those Shell evaluations used to pay between $25-$50. Same for the other gas stations in my area. Now they’re $12-$14.
NOT worth it for the crap that an evaluator has to deal with these days.
Those Wells Fargo shops are court-ordered due to their previous corporate criminal history.
(Google “Wells Fargo Cross-Selling Scandal”)
The mystery shops are so basic, the company should thank their lucky stars for them; they are the end recipients of a firehose of cash inflow.
For me, they are an easy $200 monthly. Open an account ($120 with bonus) on my way home from teaching with a
I’ve told some people, nobody has said anything derogatory (to my face, anyway.)
I’ve also coached a small handful of friends through video mystery shopping. It is a major investment of time, and I did it for free.
My two biggest success stories are: #1, a new immigrant friend who built confidence through daily apartment and storage shops, then after two years of MSing she went and got a j
Some sharp salesperson from a reputable MSP should be making a spreadsheet with these names as sales leads. If they were shopped pre-pandemic, they might be ready to re-sign contracts for 2025.
I also want to add: I think that, during the pandemic, a lot of corporations took a hard look at their balance sheets and their “pain points.”
Mystery shops are not a necessity.
They involve working with MSPs, who employ some very unpleasant and unprofessional people. They are subject to shopper fraud (Photoshopped receipts, incorrect information on reports, Google Earth photos) and just a
Minimum hourly wage in my city is slightly above $18.50, and we are estimated to be short 30-40,000 entry level workers to fill positions in retail, restaurants, and other sectors.
In reality, employers need to offer at least $20/hour to fill positions here. It’s a sellers market here for jobs, and it’s been this way for years now.
Why would anyone pick up a $5 Presto job that takes an hou
@PiggyBooboo wrote:
@ColoKate63 I mean, I guess if you like your schedulers and editors to be treated poorly...
You are coming off as dramatic and unprofessional.
I get it; I’ve been pissed off at employers before. But burning bridges on the internet is poor career strategy.
If it were me, I’d ask the forum mods to delete this entire thread, go have a glass of wine or a long walk, and re
@ArkLaMissshopping wrote:
I have no clue how she's getting away with these videos.
It’s a small channel. My teenage students who are creators on TikTok, Switch, etc have 10x the followers she does.
The average age of people working in this industry is pretty advanced. I’m not surprised that she hasn’t been discovered yet. From what I’ve seen, MSPs made a few Tweets in 2019, then abandoned s
@Mousegal wrote:
Has anyone see the TikToks posted by Kayla Laughs Out Loud? How is she getting away with these?
I never heard of her channel before, so I pulled her up.
Yeah, she’s definitely breaking her IC Agreements and revealing proprietary information. Hopefully someone will let the MSPs know that she’s vlogging about their clients.
Her voice and onscreen persona are like fingerna
I have a little album on my iPhone titled MEAN MUGGING of people in the background glaring at me while I take overall photos.
The best is some dude who looked just like Quentin Tarantino giving me the Evil Eye at a Polestar showroom. (Seriously, it actually may have been him.)
Whenever I need a little laugh, I flip through the ten years of grouchy faces. It’s a natural mood lifter.
If it helps: I had this happen over ten years ago. Hasn’t happened to me since then.
I honestly think that this is a bookkeeping email of sorts that the automated IPSOS system churns out. Not a genuine notification.
Remember, as an IC, you DO have a written contract with IPSOS to perform the work.
Daycare costs are astronomical; my son and daughter in law paid $2800/month for a couple of years when their children were little. Luckily, they both have solid careers with good income and could afford the bills - but many cannot.
Schedulers may be choosing to WFH after doing the math on commuting, daycare, and all the associated expenses of a traditional office job.