Is Mystery Shopping "compensation" primarily just expense reimbursement?

I'm new to this, but the assignments I've seen so far are primarily just reimbursement for expenses incurred. And even that is only up to a certain dollar amount.

Is compensation for actual time spent doing the mystery shopping not a thing?

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More About Reimbursements

You can wag your tail as you will find jobs with fees attached to them. There are many that pay both fees and reimbursements and others that pay one or the other. Fees vary from one shop to the next. If you have not found any fee shops you need to sign up for more companies. They are there. Many shoppers are signed with 100-200 companies. There is a list at the bottom of the page. Start signing up for a few a day and you will see a large variety of shops.

Most definitely you collect fees. I don't do reimbursement only shops, personally.
Like Sandyf said, look in more places and sign up for more companies if you have not found any.

sandyf - thank you for that helpful information. Is there a consensus about which companies compensate best? Rather than signing up for a couple hundred & getting inundated by emails, I'd rather focus on the ones most worth signing up for.

The problem with that train of thought is that different MSCs have different clients in different regions, so if you sign up with MSCs that others recommend they might not have any shops in your area at all. The best bet is for you to do what most of us had to do and sign up with a lot of companies (link with a list of companies provided at the bottom of this page). I am signed up with about 100 companies. There are some other longtime shoppers who are signed up with even more than that.

Be patient, it takes time to sort out what companies offer you jobs within your radius, but once you find this, you'll work for them, build relationships, and most likely do same jobs over and over and it gets much easier. I had signed with about 60 companies, found about 10/12 companies I'm loyal to and work for all the time. I have been doing this for thirteen years, so really "sized down". I do both fee and reimbursements as I love to eat out and to buy groceries for a report, having many groceries in my town, that's my weekend gig. Decide if you want to work for the money, find those companies that do Banks, Dealerships and such, they pay well. Good luck and remember to have fun, there are jobs for everyone.

Live consciously....

@BarkLessWagMore wrote:

Is there a consensus about which companies compensate best? Rather than signing up for a couple hundred & getting inundated by emails, I'd rather focus on the ones most worth signing up for.

Even within companies it varies widely. For 3 years I made half of my income from a company that most people complained about as being cheap. I haven't worked for Intellishop for years because I never saw shops worth the fees but last month I did a couple a hundred bucks worth of shops for them.

Also, to keep from getting inundated with emails, create a MS only email address. That way you keep your regular email free of MS email and do get frustrated by the 200 irrelevant emails you get per day.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

That's excellent advice about creating a MS only email address. If I had known I was going to be doing this gig for so long, I would have done that back when I first started shopping in the early 2000s. Now I just have so much tied to my email address it would be a PITA to change it in all of my profiles. But I have really learned how to use that "delete" button!

Also, with just about any MS company, as a beginner you may not even see offers of any of their better paid jobs. They want o see that you are reliable and objective before they trust you with the better stuff. We all were once in your shoes.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.

I mystery shop only part-time, but am signed up with between 110-120 MSCs. Many have nothing in my area right now, but you just never, ever know! Just sign up with 5 or 6 a day. Soon enough, you'll see lots of shops!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/09/2019 12:44AM by guysmom.

Sign up for all. You never know when shops are going to switch companies or a unique opportunity is going to come your way. I have done one shop only for a company I have been signed up with for years. I had probably been with the company 7-8 years. It was maybe a 10 minute shop, required two people, paid 150.00 and was paid in two days. Haven’t done a shop for them since (probably 8-10 years ago) but you can bet I’m still with them.

Liz

I agree. I will do reimburse only shops if the location sells/serves something I want. I do restaurants if it's one I like. Oil change shops are great because I always get a small fee AND reimbursed for my service. Bonuses are added to these constantly so you can end up with a decent fee and get your oil change free. I self-assign a shop every six weeks or so and go with a family member so they get their change free, too. Mail shops are good for filling-in when you have a few good shops in that area already and you get to send a package for free or a lot cheaper after the reimbursement.

OP:
I mystery shop to make money, pure and simple. I primarily shop for straight payment.

Hard work builds character and homework is good for your soul.

One reason it's hard to answer is that there are so many factors. Different jobs require different skills. Some just need you to be a certain person.

When I was younger, I could make $2,000+ in a long weekend driving a wide area buying cigarettes for various companies. A big part of that was negotiating a good rate and being reliable. Underneath my work was that no one else was going after those jobs.

That is still the essence of how I make my money. I have to do my research and take on work that benefits the scheduler. That doesn't mean that you take crap work. It just also means that no one has an incentive to help you out with specifics.

I will say though, that pushing through a big pile of work for little pay has made me more than able to push out high paying work. It's like any industry. You have to learn the ropes and build your skills so that you can start to raise your rate.

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Is Mystery Shopping "compensation" primarily just expense reimbursement?

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