I'm new to mystery shopping I have only done a few gas stations, one store and a restaurant. I was curious when these jobs become available do the pay go up if you wait? I noticed a few where at 4.00 but then almost 2 weeks later it went up to 8.00. I'm trying to figure out if I should be waiting longer so pay goes up? Some are just not worth it for only 4.00 with the gas price I end up spending more on gas then making. If anyone can share some knowledge or am I doing this wrong?

I signed up to about 50 companies so I am confused if only certain companies the pay goes up if you wait or do all of them go up if you wait (I.E. toward the end of the month). Thanks

That would vary by company. From the pay you are quoting, I am guessing what company you mean. They bonus as they have to. Here, it has been as little as two cents. Yes, two cents. If people snap up the shops cheap where you live, you won't see a bonus. If it is the company I suspect, they used to pay more for routes, changed their system recently, and then I heard they were changing it again, but to what, I don't know.

And companies handle bonuses differently. Only a few post bonuses on their job boards. More frequently you will get an email showing an offered bonus--follow the instructions given carefully because if you rush off to the site and take the shop you may not be eligible for the bonus. Other companies will call reliable shoppers in the area to see if they will take the job and bonuses can be negotiated.

Hello and welcome to the forums!

There are some jobs on certain job boards, like Corporate Research, that will sit there because everyone agrees that it is insulting to do the job for $2. If you should wait or not depends upon how many other MSers are in your area scrambling for work. In some areas, those jobs may get taken at $8. In my area, I can let most of the Corp. Research jobs sit and ripen. One gas station in particular goes up very high.

It really will take a month or two for you to monitor which boards and which jobs are worth waiting for. I tend to sit and wait for a bank checking account inquiry job to get bonused before doing them.

Of course, it also means you have to be pretty flexible in your schedule and willing to do shops last minute.

Sorry I am confused about bonus? As I said before I just started 2 weeks ago. I have not seen any have a bonus. All are set price. I did see some go up in pay but hoping they go up a bit more.

And forgot to add yes I am very flexible with taking last minute jobs. I work at home free lance web designer so Mystery Shopping is perfect for me. I am my own boss and can take last minute jobs.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/10/2009 11:12PM by Petra.

Sorry to confuse you. I suspect the shops you did were the $4 gas stations for Corporate Research. They rarely state 'bonus' but rather that the price has increased. As Dee Shops points out, the increase of late seems to be running in the pennies at a time. But towards the end of the month if the jobs have not been taken the fee will increase to $8, $12 or as little as they can pay to get a shopper to take the job. We tease about the jobs being given a chance to 'ripen' and sometimes for remote shops the fees can get above $50 (for a job that started at the begining of the month at $4). As a shopper gaining experience, you need to watch the jobs and see what shoppers in your area are willing to wait for the price to be before they will jump in and take them. Unfortunately in my area shoppers are not too bright and they clear the board at $4 per shop--thus I do almost no work for Corporate Research because my time alone is worth more than that to me.

Often times, usually towards the end of the month, you will see shops getting a bonus payment to try to get them done. This occurs most frequently when it is a shop that paid so little nobody was willing to do it for the stated fee. It also occurs when a shopper has accepted the shop and failed to do it (a 'flake') or when a shopper so messed up the shop that the company cannot accept it (a 'rejected shop'). With the economy where it is, there are a lot of new shoppers out there who 'flake' or have 'rejected shops' as they are just starting in the business and either they are scared off by the instructions once they have accepted the shop or they just can't follow instructions to get the shop done right. The companies are getting smarter about this and posting everything to be done during the first week or two of the month. Then if there is a problem with the shop they can repost it later in the month without the need to pay anything extra to get the work done on time and correctly.

Oh ok thanks for the explanation that helped me a lot
Is there a place I can go to and find more companies? And do most take a month to pay you?

I noticed corporate pays weekly but some others don't pay till the following month + you have to come up with the money upfront before they reimburse you for the expense. If it's only a few dollars I don't mind but some wanted me to eat at an expensive restaurant and they would reimburse me 100.00. But I was not willing to spend that much upfront.

Here are some companies I am signed up for. And 80% of the companies DO NOT have any jobs in my area. So far only 4 or 5 companies did have a few. Out of 50 companies I am signed up with. And I DO NOT live in a small town either. So I thought I would be able to find more jobs then I have.

Corporate Research International
BestMark
KSS
Ace Mystery Shop
A-Insights
Business Evaluation
Marketing Endeavour
NSS
Quam
Remingtion
And quiet a few that use the data base sassie
etc....

Petra Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Is there a place I can go to and find more
> companies?

Yes, there is a list in the "Mystery Shopping Company Discussion" section of the forum, very first thread, first post of legitimate companies you can sign up with. It will be most productive for you if you first check Jobslinger.com for companies currently shopping your area. The ads you see there will mostly be for jobs that have been accepted already, but you query by your zip code and a radius and you will see at least who has clients in your area.

And do most take a month to pay you?

A few take a week or two and most pay in a month to six weeks with some being "on schedule" taking 2 months or longer to pay. Usually somewhere on their website a company will say what their payment schedule is supposed to be.

>
> I noticed corporate pays weekly but some others
> don't pay till the following month + you have to
> come up with the money upfront before they
> reimburse you for the expense. If it's only a few
> dollars I don't mind but some wanted me to eat at
> an expensive restaurant and they would reimburse
> me 100.00. But I was not willing to spend that
> much upfront.
>
And it is not smart for a new shopper to go out of pocket large amounts for things they would not purchase otherwise until they know that they are producing acceptable work and not likely to have their shops rejected. If your shop is rejected you are neither paid nor reimbursed.

> Here are some companies I am signed up for. And
> 80% of the companies DO NOT have any jobs in my
> area. So far only 4 or 5 companies did have a few.
> Out of 50 companies I am signed up with. And I DO
> NOT live in a small town either. So I thought I
> would be able to find more jobs then I have.

There is less work out there than a few years ago and a lot more shoppers trying to grab it. The list is long in my area of clients who have stopped shops due to the economy and client locations that went out of business. Companies have also shifted so most shops are being posted during the last few days of the month and the first few days of the month. Thus we are facing 'feast or famine' with many folks noting they are busy the first 10 days of the month with little else the rest of the month. And it is not unusual to have only a few companies out of the many you sign up for have jobs. I am signed up with around 200 companies and over the course of the year probably see at least one job for only around 30-40 of them.

Me again Are we allowed to name companies on this board?

I have a bank job I just received an email for and the pay is $14.00 (does not require me to open an account). I'm wondering if I should wait for it to go up or is that the highest a bank usually goes? I can give the company name or initials but I am not sure if I am allowed. I am new and trying to find out which companies I can let jobs sit until they go up. Thanks

Your Independent Contractor Agreements almost all indicate that you are not to disclose who their clients are. The standards in forums are that you can mention the MSP or the client in any given thread, but not both in the same thread. While that can get cumbersome in long threads, just exercise some caution and if the discussion is about ABC company, you can talk about their 'bank jobs' or 'gas stations' or 'grocery stores' and be pretty safe. Similarly if the discussion is about a particular client, avoid mentioning companies that shop it.

As for bank jobs, they probably will not go up in price unless someone accepts the job and only at the last moment cancels it or messes up the shop. The only place where bank jobs go up is aTH because they pay so little for their jobs to start with. But in this economy there are a number of shoppers willing to do bank shops for however little they pay because they require no purchase. You will find as you do this that a teller only shop generally pays about $10 whether you are going through the drive through or going inside. Platform shops, where you sit down and talk with a banker pay about $15 and platforms where you are required to open an account usually pay a bit more. When they put together a teller and a platform most frequently the fee is between $15 and $25.

Thanks for the info
This offer I got does not require me to open an account but does require me to sit and ask questions about a CD and is between $10 and $15 so good price I suppose.

It is sort of average. Hopefully this is not one where you are doing teller transactions plus platform. But even if you are, it is a good place to 'get your feet wet'.

In essence there needs to be some equivalence between the time you must spend doing a job and reporting it. If you come away from it angry that it wasted your time for peanuts, then you know that the shop is not something to look forward to in the future. And we all have our different criteria as to what is a waste of our time for peanuts.

You will find a great deal of similarity between bank shops and the differences are primarily in the quality of the reports to be done. There is a company with whom I do bank shops every month that pays $35 for the job. It has a separate questionnaire for the facilities, for the teller and for the platform. They require significant narrative be written (I usually turn in over 6000 characters) and take several hours to write up. They are an in depth evaluation, so you take your time both on site to observe everything possible and in writing them up. I could probably make more per hour doing a bunch of junk shops, but the company treats me like a colleague and I don't mind at all writing, especially in the evening in my jammies with a fresh pot of coffee.