I used to do USPS shops pretty regularly but I haven't seen any on the board for a while now. Did they move to a different company or is someone else just faster than me? They used to sit on the board for a while in my area.

I am doing the last few odd ones left in my area next week. They haven't changed MSC. Will there be more? I don't know.

I drove right past a remote location that used to get me $35-$50 a few years ago. The pay plus bonus right now is $15. Nope. Extra pics and questions on an a bulky app? Double nope.

They moved last year to an MSC posting them on ISS. Not sure if thats what you are referring to.

They sit here as well, due to the very low pay the new MSC offers.

@Liz36 wrote:

I used to do USPS shops pretty regularly but I haven't seen any on the board for a while now. Did they move to a different company or is someone else just faster than me? They used to sit on the board for a while in my area.

PLUS the added bonus of being called 99 times a week by some poor soul in the Philippines (while pretending to be in Virginia) begging us to take these jobs for $5. I miss the old MSC...and that is nothing something i often say!!

@sestrahelena wrote:

I drove right past a remote location that used to get me $35-$50 a few years ago. The pay plus bonus right now is $15. Nope. Extra pics and questions on an a bulky app? Double nope.

They did move companies about 6 to 8 months ago. They were lower priced but now bonus them consistently. The schedulers proactively call to have them completed and add the bonus.

They do them every 19 days according to the schedulers.

@Cassiespark wrote:

PLUS the added bonus of being called 99 times a week by some poor soul in the Philippines (while pretending to be in Virginia) begging us to take these jobs for $5. I miss the old MSC...and that is nothing something i often say!!

@sestrahelena wrote:

I drove right past a remote location that used to get me $35-$50 a few years ago. The pay plus bonus right now is $15. Nope. Extra pics and questions on an a bulky app? Double nope.

They never try to tell me that they are in VA. I usually ask them what time it is there.

They are dirt poor. I let them schedule me. I bet they get $1-$2 per scheduled shop, basically on commission. Plus they let me practice my Tagalog with them.

I send stuff to my kids or ship out eBay sales. If I have nothing to ship, I send myself canned food.

I first did them around year 2000 for the company that, much later, sold all their contracts and got out of mystery shopping. Then the shops were with a naked MSC for a while, then another MSC (can't remember which, maybe two), then the Walmart of MSCs, eventually ending up where they are now. During the years, the bonuses and reimbursements (two stamps???) have steadily decreased. Previously, the reimbursement stayed the same whether you shipped or not - you could get books of stamps, tape, packaging supplies, etc. To me, that's a significant difference because I could always use shipping supplies but two single stamps are not enough of an incentive to make up for the reduced pay. If I remember correctly, the base pay had always been $12, for at least 20 years. The problem there, of course, is that $12 in year 2000 dollars is about $6 in year 2020 dollars.

They work for an outsourced call center and are paid hourly, not per scheduled shop. These jobs are actually decent pay, as they work off hours. (night time for them, day time for us). Not saying they are rich, but these contact center jobs are pretty good gigs there, comparatively speaking.

And they call from a VA number, which is called spoofing and technically illegal in the US.

Either way, glad it works out for you!

@BayShopper22 wrote:

@Cassiespark wrote:

PLUS the added bonus of being called 99 times a week by some poor soul in the Philippines (while pretending to be in Virginia) begging us to take these jobs for $5. I miss the old MSC...and that is nothing something i often say!!

@sestrahelena wrote:

I drove right past a remote location that used to get me $35-$50 a few years ago. The pay plus bonus right now is $15. Nope. Extra pics and questions on an a bulky app? Double nope.

They never try to tell me that they are in VA. I usually ask them what time it is there.

They are dirt poor. I let them schedule me. I bet they get $1-$2 per scheduled shop, basically on commission. Plus they let me practice my Tagalog with them.

I send stuff to my kids or ship out eBay sales. If I have nothing to ship, I send myself canned food.

Base Pay now is $5, no reimbursement for shipping supplies, $15 reimbursement for shipping.

@sestrahelena wrote:

I first did them around year 2000 for the company that, much later, sold all their contracts and got out of mystery shopping. Then the shops were with a naked MSC for a while, then another MSC (can't remember which, maybe two), then the Walmart of MSCs, eventually ending up where they are now. During the years, the bonuses and reimbursements (two stamps???) have steadily decreased. Previously, the reimbursement stayed the same whether you shipped or not - you could get books of stamps, tape, packaging supplies, etc. To me, that's a significant difference because I could always use shipping supplies but two single stamps are not enough of an incentive to make up for the reduced pay. If I remember correctly, the base pay had always been $12, for at least 20 years. The problem there, of course, is that $12 in year 2000 dollars is about $6 in year 2020 dollars.

I am not trying to be political. But if they really want to cut the amount of money to this department, why not cut out the MSing? Every PO is done weekly all around the country for a fee of $5-15 and reimbursement. For 90% of the items, the clerks do what they are supposed to do. Every once in a while, the clerk does not ask for the survey to be done.

@Cassiespark wrote:

They work for an outsourced call center and are paid hourly, not per scheduled shop. These jobs are actually decent pay, as they work off hours. (night time for them, day time for us). Not saying they are rich, but these contact center jobs are pretty good gigs there, comparatively speaking.

And they call from a VA number, which is called spoofing and technically illegal in the US.

Either way, glad it works out for you!

Well, perhaps their employment is based on them being able to successfully schedule shops?

Example: Let's say they all get $8 / hour
Employee #1 schedules 65 shops
Employee #2 schedules 265 shops
Employee #3 schedules 25 shops
Employee #4 schedules 135 shops

Employee #3 gets cut.

Anyway, kid #1 is getting Kona Coffee, lychee gummy candy, a pile of mail shipped to my main residence, and a bunch of misc souvenirs. It would cost me $15 to ship that to him, so if I can ship for free and get paid, that's a W for me.

@Liz36 They are not worth doing anymore. @sestrahelena mentioned the $15 pay and I think when the new MSC took over they initiallyoffered less - $5. For all the pics, the work, standing in line, and report time, it isn't worth it. Someone mentioned that they tried sending a pound of food and the clerk's scale was not calibrated properly and it put on the receipt that 12 oz shipped and their shop was denied. I don't know if you still need to ship the box to a certain zone, but it all seems like more stuff to look up and verify.

If that story is true, the clerk should've said something since 12 oz is under the priority mail weight. The shopper is partly at fault since they should've paid attention to the screen to see what the clerk's scale showed and taken it back to add more stuff. Although the shopper claims to have sent the MSC a picture of the items in the box for their appeal, it was still denied. On top of all the work, the shop is risky since they will deny it even though the post office has a bad scale and you will be on the hook for the retail postage. It seems that they, the Post Office and MSC, would value the bad scale information because that is costing the post office revenue and that intel is more valuable than the clerk was friendly and processed it within 50 seconds and was wearing the full uniform.

People that sell stuff on EBAY and similar platforms might take advantage of the shop since the shop is offsetting the shipping cost, but is it worth the time standing in line when a shipper of any volume just puts the packages in the bin and leaves. It is hit or miss if there is a line at the post office and if the line is really long, you probably put up with it since why would you want to go back and roll the dice again. I don't know if EBAY gives you discounted shipping rates if you are a seller of any substance, but there are services that offer heavily discounted postal rates.

Also, @Cassiespark mentions a good point, there is no reimbursement for shipping supplies. I reuse Amazon packages or other boxes, but tape still costs money and they don't give you free tape at the post office unless it is priority mail tape, but they don't give you any to take home any longer.

Oh, I got caught on uncalibrated scales a few times! That's when I learned to know the price I'm supposed to pay and question any other amount. I kept extra tape in the car and was always able to find rocks outside to add to the box, then go back in and try again.

I may not have been clear on my reimbursement comment. I don't remember what the reimbursement was many moons ago for the postage but I'll use the current amount of $15 just to explain what I meant to say. Years ago, especially on hazmat shops, if the clerk refused to ship the package (which they were supposed to do), you still had to make a purchase to get a receipt AND you were allowed to spend the whole reimbursement of $15 or whatever it was. Great for stocking up at office supply stores and a significant discount towards the price of an ink cartridge. Unfortunately, the office supply stores almost never asked hazmat questions so usually I had to ship.

" During the years, the bonuses and reimbursements (two stamps???) have steadily decreased."

Does anyone know what the reimbursement amount is now? I tried to get an answer from several schedulers but no one knows. There are two big box stores near me that will only ship Media Mail so I need to buy something from the store.

Do not be fooled by the last comment by @sestrahelena. She is way smarter than a box of rocks!

Here's what I don't understand....I was all set to accept a job within their 3-day schedule. But when I clicked on a date, I got a message telling me that I couldn't do that day because another shopper was doing that location within their 18 day time span, and to contact the scheduler! So I tried a different location and got the same message!!! Um.....NO!!!! If that date isn't available, don't give it to me as a choice on your web site! So I believe I'm through with this MSC and their shipping shops....I used to do LOTS of them with the former MSC, but no more! I'm done.

The shops went quickly in my area. By 3-1, there were only outliers left. Currently, only 3 shops in a 50 mile radius of Indianapolis.

I do not see shops being done at every post office every 18/19 days where I live and also here the fee is $5, not $15 unless there is a bonus. 19 days is the rotation for the shoppers. I have no idea what the rotation is for the post offices but certainly not 19 days. For some it appears to be once per quarter. As for whether it is worth it to ship for only a $5 fee it all depends on what each person values. I personally do not do nearly as many shops as I used to when the fee was larger and zone 8 where my family lives was within the reimbursement. But I do like to send gift boxes to my son. I do not sell through an online retailer but if I did I would earn more per hour waiting on a post office line to get "free" shipping than on the average ms job around here.
As to reimbursement if your package is not shipped, there is another post office thread where shoppers say they have purchased a sheet of stamps and gotten reimbursed.

It's always been 18 days between shops at any post office. So day 19 is the first that any shopper can do. Glad they got rid of the dim weight category.

Reimbursement is up to $15. This is for the cost of shipping only, and does not include shipping supplies.

@Rho wrote:

" During the years, the bonuses and reimbursements (two stamps???) have steadily decreased."

Does anyone know what the reimbursement amount is now? I tried to get an answer from several schedulers but no one knows. There are two big box stores near me that will only ship Media Mail so I need to buy something from the store.

@Insight wrote:

I am not trying to be political. But if they really want to cut the amount of money to this department, why not cut out the MSing? Every PO is done weekly all around the country for a fee of $5-15 and reimbursement. For 90% of the items, the clerks do what they are supposed to do. Every once in a while, the clerk does not ask for the survey to be done.

I don’t believe it’s every PO. It seems to me that it may be only the corporate owned locations. There are many privately owned locations that are never shopped. I’ve never seen the one here in my small town of 3,500 people, nor the one in the neighboring towns around me. I guess it could also only be in towns over a certain population number.

The program covers the 7700 largest USPS locations in the country. They rank the locations in size based on the average number of items shipped and mailed each year. So its loosely tied to population for sure.

@misspocos75 wrote:

@Insight wrote:

I am not trying to be political. But if they really want to cut the amount of money to this department, why not cut out the MSing? Every PO is done weekly all around the country for a fee of $5-15 and reimbursement. For 90% of the items, the clerks do what they are supposed to do. Every once in a while, the clerk does not ask for the survey to be done.

I don’t believe it’s every PO. It seems to me that it may be only the corporate owned locations. There are many privately owned locations that are never shopped. I’ve never seen the one here in my small town of 3,500 people, nor the one in the neighboring towns around me. I guess it could also only be in towns over a certain population number.

I used to do these years ago. I live in a large metro area so when they paid 12 that was fine as they were so easy. and close. If there was a line I could work on reports on the app while waiting. I think the max was 5 per day and I just mixed them in with whatever else I was doing. Steady easy income. I thought I remember them paying for tape and boxes as I would not have eaten that. I used to ship 16 oz cans of the cheapest vegetables to the church food pantry in a small town where my parents lived. I did eat the .59 cents for those but I was told it did help.They were loving me there. They ate lots of corn and green beans!

The $15 bonus in my area has finally gotten my attention. So $20 total pay plus $15 reimbursement. But I still haven’t taken any because I’m still so annoyed at the new base pay. If I had something I needed to mail, I would do one. I’m waiting to see if the bonus goes higher. I used to love these shops when they were with the previous company.

I did a Hazmat yesterday with a $10 bonus. I weighed my box at home and it was three ounces under 2 lbs. Then the clerk told me the fee was $19.60 for ground. Wow higher than when I looked up the price a week ago.! . I mentioned it to the clerk. She told me once it goes over 13 ounces it gets charged by weight and my box was 2 lbs. She said the price went up again. Left the PO and looked at my receipt...3lbs 0.5 ounces. The clerk also told me she saw me taking photos outside before I came in. I had parked well away from the front in a huge lot. I could not think of a snappy comeback until I got back to my car. If that happens again I will tell them it was for nostalgia since I am expecting the postal service to close in the near future. But I think I was being outed by the photo comment. This clerk did everything correctly for a change.

What shipping supplies would you be paying for?? Boxes are free at USPS and buy a couple rolls of brown kraft paper at the dollar store.

@Cassiespark wrote:

Base Pay now is $5, no reimbursement for shipping supplies, $15 reimbursement for shipping.

@sestrahelena wrote:

I first did them around year 2000 for the company that, much later, sold all their contracts and got out of mystery shopping. Then the shops were with a naked MSC for a while, then another MSC (can't remember which, maybe two), then the Walmart of MSCs, eventually ending up where they are now. During the years, the bonuses and reimbursements (two stamps???) have steadily decreased. Previously, the reimbursement stayed the same whether you shipped or not - you could get books of stamps, tape, packaging supplies, etc. To me, that's a significant difference because I could always use shipping supplies but two single stamps are not enough of an incentive to make up for the reduced pay. If I remember correctly, the base pay had always been $12, for at least 20 years. The problem there, of course, is that $12 in year 2000 dollars is about $6 in year 2020 dollars.

@Luv2Travel123 wrote:

What shipping supplies would you be paying for?? Boxes are free at USPS and buy a couple rolls of brown kraft paper at the dollar store.

@Cassiespark wrote:

Base Pay now is $5, no reimbursement for shipping supplies, $15 reimbursement for shipping.

@sestrahelena wrote:

I first did them around year 2000 for the company that, much later, sold all their contracts and got out of mystery shopping. Then the shops were with a naked MSC for a while, then another MSC (can't remember which, maybe two), then the Walmart of MSCs, eventually ending up where they are now. During the years, the bonuses and reimbursements (two stamps???) have steadily decreased. Previously, the reimbursement stayed the same whether you shipped or not - you could get books of stamps, tape, packaging supplies, etc. To me, that's a significant difference because I could always use shipping supplies but two single stamps are not enough of an incentive to make up for the reduced pay. If I remember correctly, the base pay had always been $12, for at least 20 years. The problem there, of course, is that $12 in year 2000 dollars is about $6 in year 2020 dollars.

I know I was using 6X6 cardboard boxes for the cans of food. I know I was not paying for boxes and tape. I was eating (get it) the food!

The only shops that remain in my area are the hazmat shops, most still at the $5 fee. I've had them refuse to ship my package in the past, so if the reimbursement value is still only a few stamps, no wonder they sit there.

It's been so long since I've seen a regular shop, I wonder if they are coming back or shopped less frequently.