ISS has become cluttered with the worst assignments! They apparently allow absolutely anything to be posted including offers that are just a coupon with feedback requirements for use. News for them, men who spend $100 on a button up shirt aren't going to write about the experience of buying it for $10 off that shirt. They should be embarrassed even asking such a thing.

One thing I've learned in all my days of MSing: MSCs - no shame in their game.

I was thinking the same thing with ISS lately-who are taking all the jobs at such a low wage?

I agree ISS has some really low paying not worth doing downright insulting shops. The $10:senior phone shops posted today are worth at least $30/for what is required. So much detail and in all likelihood multiple calls and phone screenshots for $10? Anyone taking them is either crazy or starving. Shame on cheap companies!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2025 08:23PM by OldmanJames.

If they know someone is going to make the purchase anyway and may want to share their feedback, why not ask and see what happens? Then again, a number of coupons will provide you with a coupon or some other freebie for taking their survey as a regular customer to begin with. No complex report required in that case as well.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2025 08:28PM by jp43209.

I saw a convenience store shop (on ISS) for $5 pay, $2 reimburse. I won't even open to see what is required. It could be the simplest shop ever (doubt it-but could be), but it doesn't even peak my interest for $5. It doesn't help it's not a place that I already am a customer of. Now if I went there, I might look just to see what is required.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2025 08:34PM by hbbigdaddy.

It's not ISS. It's the mystery shopping company.

I regularly pick up shops on ISS $15 that take me 10 minutes at a location I'm already at. Or $15 plus $5 in gas and $5 reimbursement that takes me about 10 minutes to complete.

I think those shops are more than reasonable. It's not ISS its the client!

I know that. I'm not sure if OP was complaining about ISS in particular or if they just unsatisfied with the amount of "crap" shops they are seeing.

Because ISS is a centralized job board for multiple MSC, you are likely to see more "crap" shops than you would if you looked at a single MSC job board.

When I see the emails from ACL about the sub sandwich shops, I think of holding up a "Will work for food" sign, although they claim the sandwich is "on them."

Insulting pay is fine! You'll get badges instead! And you might even get your name on a list of special people!

Not just ISS but all of them unfortunately. There was someone on here bragging about the assignments they do for CI at $10 a shop and they did quite a few locations (I believe they did hundreds or close). People like that is why the pay has been so low. Some TY assignments were finally bonus near me and I took those and the displays were horrible. One stand almost fell over as soon as I touched it. One store said the person came in and took some pictures looked over the stand then left. Didn't even check with anyone.

I'll say it again and be annoying: you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

@Swimgirl123 wrote:

I was thinking the same thing with ISS lately-who are taking all the jobs at such a low wage?

The $2 banking survey was actually priced appropriately. But the work: benefit ratio is absurd on others.
I understand that it isn't ISS to blame, merely pointing out that site seems to attract more than its fair share.

The biggest insult from my POV is the reimbursement only shop with pay lower than the cost to perform the job.
I'm not paying to work. Full stop.
They should pay enough so that *you can buy the required items with nothing out of pocket*. They don't have to pay enough for you to take your pick but you should be able to get at least the average item(s). And, they don't need to pay to treat friends but if they require two adults at the table, they need to pay for the guest. And if they are selling $100 shirts and require a purchase, no return? Yeah, the job needs to pay for that shirt.
Shops that meet these specifications DO exist and I happily perform them when they come up. I have even seen such a thing on ISS. But my gosh, the trash you have to dig through to find them

I live in a very rural area and do not have much competition for the shops out here. With that being said, shops in ‘my area’ are within a 500 mile radius. So anyone willing to travel that far must take into consideration gas, and wear and tear on their vehicle. And I guarantee you, no one is accepting a shop that doesn’t have a high bonus.

But over the years of mystery shopping and merchandising, I have realized that people that live in a city are in constant competition with all of the other mystery shoppers and if they wanna make a buck, a lot of them will take these lowball offers right off of the board. For some reason, none of them will collaborate together and think to themselves that if they wait for the companies to increase their fees, it would be better for everyone. But most everyone is greedy, and want their money now and they want to snatch it up quickly since all of this work is either bid jobs or taking it right off the board.
Like here we all are on this forum, talking about Shops and sharing tips and useful information, but no one wants to collaborate on how we can make all of this work for each other. Like I’ll stay in my neck of the woods, and you stay in your neck of the woods and i’ll hold out until they pay more in my area and you do the same. I just don’t see why something similar to that, wouldn’t ever work. Doesn’t have to be done on a forum which is nearly impossible to find, it could be something on Facebook, which is something that a lot of people use. Monthly group live calls would work best, since we’re not allowed to type the company name and the client online for all the works to read, but we can sure as heck talk about it in person or over the phone.
I’m just confused why changes have never been made to make things easier for the shopper.

I've been in Facebook groups where shoppers collaborate and of course, they're using their real names as far as anyone can tell...so it's a whole different vibe.

HaHaHa! Was thinking the same thing...

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/28/2025 05:25PM by SBP.

I won't even open those. I've done enough of them to know my time is worth far more than .025 cents per each of the 65 questions, plus narratives, which require perfect grammar, punctuation, and spelling, or you're rejected. I keep wondering if that's just a cheap and underhanded way to get the information, then not pay for it, because my other interactions with several of these companies/schedulers have inspired me to block their emails.

I clicked on this to reply because the OP does not understand my city which may be similar to many other large cities. All; I know is that I have so much competition for jobs if I ever found the other 50 to 100 people who live somewhere nearby me and tried to aportion the jobs out I would only have a few jobs a year.
And how would iI ever even find the other shoppers? Most are probably not looking for shopping partners to share jobs with. If I started a facebook group the other 50 shoppers would be laughing as they accepted the jobs easily for themselves. Or maybe there are 100 or 200 or even 1000 shoppers in my area. There is no way to know. All I know is that this month I was in rotation for a hot shop which has about 5 shops per month. I missed every one of them even tho I saw the email a few minutes after it hit and applied to several of them.
I actually saw another hot shop come up in email this morning because I opened my email just before it hit and grabbed it as soon as it was sitting there posted. I just happened to be trolling my email at the right time. these shops are not on job boards. You just have to be lucky. I felt fortunate to at least get the shop i got this morning. I cannot imagine trying to reign in every shopper around here.

@misspocos75 wrote:

I live in a very rural area and do not have much competition for the shops out here. With that being said, shops in ‘my area’ are within a 500 mile radius. So anyone willing to travel that far must take into consideration gas, and wear and tear on their vehicle. And I guarantee you, no one is accepting a shop that doesn’t have a high bonus.

But over the years of mystery shopping and merchandising, I have realized that people that live in a city are in constant competition with all of the other mystery shoppers and if they wanna make a buck, a lot of them will take these lowball offers right off of the board. For some reason, none of them will collaborate together and think to themselves that if they wait for the companies to increase their fees, it would be better for everyone. But most everyone is greedy, and want their money now and they want to snatch it up quickly since all of this work is either bid jobs or taking it right off the board.
Like here we all are on this forum, talking about Shops and sharing tips and useful information, but no one wants to collaborate on how we can make all of this work for each other. Like I’ll stay in my neck of the woods, and you stay in your neck of the woods and i’ll hold out until they pay more in my area and you do the same. I just don’t see why something similar to that, wouldn’t ever work. Doesn’t have to be done on a forum which is nearly impossible to find, it could be something on Facebook, which is something that a lot of people use. Monthly group live calls would work best, since we’re not allowed to type the company name and the client online for all the works to read, but we can sure as heck talk about it in person or over the phone.
I’m just confused why changes have never been made to make things easier for the shopper.

I agree with the sentiment overall of doing something to give contractors a better shake. But the barrier to entry for this work is low, and people are constantly coming and going. We were all the new shopper at some point, probably taking jobs for less than the shoppers who did the shops previously. Any kind of arrangement, even if it were possible, would fall apart as soon somebody new in the area stumbled upon this thing called mystery shopping.