Because I have other gigs on the side (don't put all your eggs in one basket), I am able to refuse certain mystery shops that are underpaid, but I can see cheap shops disappearing due to the fact that people are struggling.

@freshlybakedcookies I think you are right. I am with @big_sky_thunder trying to understand why some do these jobs with the low base, like the Circle Ks at the base rate of $5. As someone else pointed out, the members of this forum represent a very small minority of all shoppers out there.

There are some jobs, like the Circle Ks, that get bonused throughout the cycle starting 6 days after release. I wonder if those that are scooping them up at $5 realize this. I can't see that they are making minimum wage when you factor in average time to do a shop including the report and transportation time. I drove by at least 5 Circle Ks when I was on a route yesterday and it didn't occur to me to do any of them. I hope that I can stop by them much later in the month for a higher rate.

Sometimes I wonder if they are aware of the bonuses or are they jumping on these based on past experience where someone else beat them to it at base. I could perhaps understand if it is a shopper doing a route and they go into one for a gallon of reimbursed gas because they were going to get gas anyway, but not someone that builds a route around those gas stations at base pay that takes hours. They got bonused today to $8, but did the person that did all of them on Day 1 know this? A few months back another poster said that they get to $10 in his area, but that is when they fly off the shelves.

Some of these shops that are slow (think 2 months) to get bonused will get picked up by some when they are building a route and these base pay shops will help their bottom line. I forgot who said: what is this a 50¢ bonus on a retail oil shop ( I agree ).

I am not saying I don't take jobs at base, I think we all do, but it has to make sense. I've done the credit card when there were a bunch in a cluster so that conservatively, you could do 4 or 5 an hour factoring in transportation, shop, and report. I've passed on the contactless card shops the last few times because their base is lower and there were few locations being offered and spread out. The total numbers might have looked enticing, but they might have had 10 Domino's and once you claimed one, the others fell off the map. The issue with that shop is it is $8 + $5 (I have never seen it bonused), so you either go in to buy 1 or 2 Cokes to stay under the reimbursement limit or buy a pizza and consider the shop a free meal. I am not doing this for free meals.

I've even done the electronic shops at base, but liked them better when they were bonused last month.

When my son and I left the house this afternoon, we looked to see what Circle K shops were available. But none were. We did my shops and he didn't have any except for one of the pandas that he was able to grab before all of them disappeared. And we needed gas for him to do doordashing and Uber Eats. So we looked for Circle K shops and there were none. He looked on upside so that he could get some money back on the gas that he didn't that he needed to purchase. And we got I think three cents back per gallon, which isn't nearly enough. And we only got 5 gallons just enough so that we could Dash and head for home. But as we were leaving the big city north of us all of the Circle K shops came back on the board. Of course it was after we passed them all on the way home.

I know I've said this before but what we do with the Circle K shops is we use them for discounts on filling up the Jeep. They're currently at $8 that's $8 + $3 reimbursement for gasoline, that's $11 off of a tank of gas, plus my son does Upside, which is another usually between 11 and 15 cents per gallon off of the gas. And we get a drink too while we're there, reimbursed. It makes all of our mystery shopping routes just that much more profitable, it's not much, but it helps.

Not sure if tomorrow is a shopping day or not, I only have one thing that I really can do tomorrow and a couple of maybe things, there are a couple of things that I can postpone if I need to that Istill have a couple of days to do. So we may just sit tight for a day and schedule a few more things and go back up there on Tuesday, after we get paid. We'll do our mystery shops and he will do his doordashing and Uber Eats and when we get down below a quarter tank, we will find a Circle K and we will fill it up, plus one gas can. Circle K and grocery shops are the only things that I use for discounts rather than for profit.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/06/2023 08:30AM by Morledzep.

I tried that Upside app, but I had issues with it. The sign up bonus stopped appearing, but I've never cashed out. When I do those Circkle Ks, I just get the $3 reimbursement, so the cashback is small which is understandable.

They've emailed me asking for proof that I made a purchase. I checkin or whatever they called it on Upside and then I proceeded with the MS part for the Circle Ks, but it seems like there is a conflict for some reason. I know I can use it at other gas stations, but stopped after their emails requesting proof.

My experience was that for the small amount of gas I am getting, it isn't worth the extra step to go to their app and then do the mystery shop. It seemed that the extra step was too time consuming and like you, I need to keep moving.

Hey,

My son got locked out of his account a couple days ago, when he tried to cash out $30. But it was only one time, and he got tech support involved and today he was able to get back into his account and cash it out. In the mean time he made a new account and the sign up bonus was fifty-two cents per gallon. He said that he wished we had more gas cans with us.. lol. Just filling up the Jeep got him $9 back.

Like the Upside commercials say, you've got to get gas anyway, might as well get some cash back while you're at it. My son has no trouble navigating the apps. But he only uses Upside at Circle K. The Shell stations require you to send in a pic of the receipt and jump through a bunch of hoops, and we only get 2 gallons at a time at Shell, and the locations that participate are few and far between. At Circle K we fill up the tank plus a gas can, because we live in a remote area and gas isn't easy to get to.

Last month they got up to $20 near the end of the month, we got 2, a full tank of gas, 2 full gas cans, and 12 cents per gallon on Upside at each one. And didn’t pay for any gas at all, and even made some money before my son cashed out Upside.

I've used Upside and had some issues with it as well. Since I already take pics of receipts for receipt scanning apps and shops, it hasn't been a big deal. I do see similar deals to Upside on the Checkout51 couponing app - works the same way - you get some cents back per gallon. There is also the Bing rewards app - you have to link a card, similar to upside. Sometimes its only .75c per fill up but every little bit adds up.

@CA senior....Are you saying you are getting current offers to do Jack in the Box shops now? Guess I have not seen those. The big program with the "i" sassie company ended at the end of 3rd quarter 2022. I was unaware they started back up or with another MSC.

Maybe it's just a particular franchise that is shopping some of their own stores?

@CA senior wrote:

@hbbigdaddy wrote:

@CA senior

Are you saying you are doing Jack in the Box shops in Southern California? Or are you saying the locations still exist?

No. I have never done JIB. I get emails for them.

@joanna81 wrote:

I've used Upside and had some issues with it as well. Since I already take pics of receipts for receipt scanning apps and shops, it hasn't been a big deal. I do see similar deals to Upside on the Checkout51 couponing app - works the same way - you get some cents back per gallon. There is also the Bing rewards app - you have to link a card, similar to upside. Sometimes its only .75c per fill up but every little bit adds up.

Are you able to stack the discounts or just use one app to get discounts?

They sort of stack.
One very helpful rep at upside explained to me that if Checkout51 is paying 12 cents per gallon and Upside is paying 14, Upside would credit you the difference of 2 cents per gallon. If they are both showing 12 cents, then they won't stack, so just submit against one app.
And...if you get a discount on gas, like 5c off per gallon for using rewards, they would credit you 9c per gallon.

Bing seems to be out of the communication loop with these apps - Bing gave me full credit on a fill up at BP and I got credit on Upside.

They do all require that you load/activate the offer prior to filling up. I haven't used them much the past few months - been going to a gas station that isn't on any apps because they're the lowest price and I'd rather pay less up front than pay a higher price and wait to get money back.

@jazzzyjd wrote:

@joanna81 wrote:

I've used Upside and had some issues with it as well. Since I already take pics of receipts for receipt scanning apps and shops, it hasn't been a big deal. I do see similar deals to Upside on the Checkout51 couponing app - works the same way - you get some cents back per gallon. There is also the Bing rewards app - you have to link a card, similar to upside. Sometimes its only .75c per fill up but every little bit adds up.

Are you able to stack the discounts or just use one app to get discounts?

Love your perspective on the different shopper behaviors. While I do not rely solely on this income I do appreciate when MSCs value our contribution with a decent pay rate. I will perform shops with zero or minimal fees for casinos, hotels and amusement passes as those experiences are ones I highly value.

I was doing lots of jib in California before they stopped last October (2022). Could anybody tell me if JIB resumed? but with a different company than before?? I’m assuming a new company as the prior company never posts or emails about them.

@mleighb wrote:

I was doing lots of jib in California before they stopped last October (2022). Could anybody tell me if JIB resumed? but with a different company than before?? I’m assuming a new company as the prior company never posts or emails about them.

I haven't seen them on the job board since last year.