Hello, I am a shopper "newbie". Just completed the Silver Certification Course and am planning to do the Gold. Question, please. Is it wise to pay a fee to a web site which lists jobs?

The question is what do you hope to accomplish for the fee and do you have any solid evidence that the website will provide it?

I have never paid to shop. I do not ever intend to pay to shop. From the experience of other shoppers (aside from the Southern California area) I see no solid and believable support from shoppers that they DO get 'more or better' shops with MSPA or other certifications that the rest of us mere mortals. The only justification I can see for Shadow Shopper and similar pay to shop websites are if you either do not have the imagination or time to go look at job boards of the various MSPs to find the jobs posted there. I also find it to be of considerable concern that shoppers already snagged into 'pay to shop' sites are given potential financial benefit to tout the sites and get other shoppers to sign up and pay their money.

You have lists of companies here and on other forums and at the MSPA that are not flim-flam outfits that are going to 'sell you lists'. They are offered to you at no charge--you just have to take the time and energy to sign up and check their job boards. You will not ever get legitimate jobs from a company you are not signed up with. Shortcuts generally are how folks lose money with 'too good to be true' offers. ANY time ANYbody is asking you for money--especially when related to mystery shopping, which is very competitive in many areas of the country--you need to back away and really think it through. It is not just that it is 'voluntary' or 'only $15' or 'only . . .' per year or whatever. The bottom line is whether you are willing to do X number of shops to pay for the 'service'.

I suspect that in my shopping area the schedulers are willing to give 'newbies' a shot on a job or two--after all, that is how I was able to get started since relatively few of the companies I work with allow newbies with them to self assign (and I am a 'newbie' every time I sign up with a new-to-me company). That gives you an opportunity to build your reputation with the company. They all evaluate their shoppers, whether you get to see your 'score' on their website or not. Do marginal or poor work, you won't be invited to shop again for them unless they have a hard time filling a job. Do a good job that doesn't cause undue grief to the scheduler or editor, you will shop for them again in most cases. If they already have a cadre of good shoppers, those longer relationships may get first crack at stuff, but keep trying.

A quick example. A company I am allowed to do particular shops for every 90 days. There is a group of 5 shops I do every 90 days. I have been doing these shops every 90 days for about 3 years. I have received a score of 9 once (3 years ago) and all the rest are 10s. The shops were posted last evening. I have no idea how many folks applied, but I got all I requested. I would have been surprised/disappointed and annoyed if I didn't. But next month they will post and unless they have a long time shopper for them, a 'newbie' may get a chance at them. Or if this month I had been unwilling/unable to do them, a 'newbie' would likely have been given a chance. As a long time shopper with these folks, I go out of my way to request and perform these shops in part to keep the company from needing to go to 'newbies' who would be my direct competition.

I did a one month "gold member" trial of Shadow Shopper from Nov 24-Dec 22 for $4.99. I made sure to cancel 2 days early, as they are WICKED and UNFORGIVING about charging if you don't (according to the reports of many shoppers on several forums.)

I don't want to pay every month to shop, and get plenty of jobs as it is. But as a cheap offer landed in my lap, I figured, okay, $5, lets see what I can get for a month. I did get some jobs I would not have gotten. I had a company (not MS) contact me directly through SS about doing 8 shops for them. A local company here in HI. I am going to do it, and it pays pretty well. $20 per shop. For a shop that "gargantuan, hungry MSC" pays $8 to do. Very similar survey. Places I have shopped for the aforementioned MSC (but they did it for a national company whose service is sold at the stores.) I got another job that paid $30 per visit to swap out game cards in DS's; 7 stores total. I got another, too, from Amusement Advantage that was *super easy* and fun and paid $50. I am signed up with them already, but I don't get to see the jobs without the hassle of signing into their system, and then it is usually a 4-5 hour gig at a zoo that I am SO not interested in, that I quit visiting. So being able to see the description in my email worked for me there, too.

Overall, I end up a few hundred dollars richer. But part of this is timing and luck. It would not give me the same results month after month. If you can do a SS trial and are good are remembering to cancel on time, you might want to try and see if you get some decent leads.

I, like Flash, am pretty sick of seeing the other paid company's tag line used to recruit others on people's email, though. And since you can't take a test drive there, only you can decide whether its worth $30. For me, I decided not now, maybe not ever, after speaking to the prez of the co. You can call him. He will speak to shoppers. Warning, he is very "salesy" though, so put on your shopper hat.

:0-)

Dee, that sounds like a good and proper use of Shadow Shopper. You are already signed up with the companies you know about that shop your area. Certainly that information can be obtained by use of Jobslinger.com for free. You are also signed up I am sure with a number of companies that are not currently shopping your area. So you are using Shadow Shopper for additional leads temporarily to enhance your prospects rather than attempting to use a paid service to provide you with routine jobs. At least in theory, jobs done well for the new-to-you-companies will open doors to you for continued work even after you terminate Shadow Shopper.

My concern with these sites is more that they are viewed especially by new shoppers as a replacement for getting signed up with a variety of companies. My sense is that some of their most frequently offered shops are ones that the companies weren't able to give away on their own job boards or forum job boards.

Certainly a drawback of Jobslinger.com is that it pulls job postings from those SASSIE companies that CHOOSE to participate and it pulls off the MSPA, Volition and a few other job boards around. So by far it does not include ALL jobs in a given area.

I am a strong believer that Jobslinger.com is where new shoppers should begin looking for companies to sign up with and expand their horizons from there via company lists on various forums if they find that they are successful as shoppers.

I agree that new shoppers should use the free avenues while getting their feet wet. There's valuable information to be gleaned by going through the process of searching lists, signing up with MSPs, searching for jobs, and waiting for assignments.

I haven't yet paid for lists or assignments. While $5/month is nominal and recoverable, I don't know what the rate is to continue membership with Shadow Shopper. Dee, I'm happy for you that you had a better month. I'm interested to know if (1) you plan to extend your membership, (2) now that you have history with new-to-you companies, will they continue to send jobs that were previously unavailable to you, and (3) if you do continue with SS, can you do better than just recoup the cost.

Hi Mert,
I haven't really had a bad month shopping...Sorry if I somehow gave that impression. I usually make $500 or more, sometimes $1K or more. I have had a horrible month personally, since my husband got his pay cut 80%. With my teaching job/MS work and his 2 jobs we were okay, not rocking big time, but had a little spare cash to do something fun each month, or buy the kid stuff he wanted, or pay down the bills a bit. Now, I don't know. Time will tell.

I don't intend to renew. I never did. I canceled it two days early. I got a $5 buck deal, and it worked out. Most companies they list I already know. Most companies Jobslinger lists I already know. I got lucky and the timing was right.

I agree with people doing the research. But one method of research is that, too. It all depends on how you use it. I would probably do another cheap month, were it offered, late next year, and use it the same way. I found almost all my companies by V's list and reading the forums. I am signed up with 250 plus. But I only work routinely for about 30.

I would suspect that the time to use a cheap/freebie SS month would be Jan or Feb because that would alert you to who has the clients for the new year. But Dec may have been as useful because certainly a bunch of clients started being posted on new MSPs this month.