^ You have a good point. I guess a low pay to me would be anything less than $10 or $15 for a purchase and return shops - the party city jobs. Where they expect so much for $7, or the BestMark jobs where for $10 they want you to interact in 2 dept. (although their narratives are not bad).

Now I have stopped looking at ICCDS, MarketForce, Trendsource, GFk, Sentry job boards.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/19/2011 10:28PM by anakin.

Thing is, you're cutting off your nose to spite your face sometimes. I've received nice bonused shops from some of those same MSC's and it's because I've helped with shops when they've been in areas I'd visit as part of a route. Schedulers do remember such favors sometimes, and when when you ask for a bonus, they're more willing to give one.

anakin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ^ You have a good point. I guess a low pay to me
> would be anything less than $10 or $15 for a
> purchase and return shops - the party city jobs.
> Where they expect so much for $7, or the BestMark
> jobs where for $10 they want you to interact in 2
> dept. (although their narratives are not bad).
>
> Now I have stopped looking at ICCDS, MarketForce,
> Trendsource, GFk, Sentry job boards.

Anakin...perhaps you should look for a job worthy of you, say $20.00 per hour, Ins., and holidays, plus the prospect of becoming a CEO. MSing seems beneath you, it is what it is....not a big money maker.

Cool. If that is what makes you happy.

Anakin - How much money do you need to make? I'm under the impression that most of us are working this for supplemental income, with a few people working really hard for full time income. For a second job, it's hard to find anything that pays much. This is far better than any second job I've had or heard about.

I've shopped around home several days this month, maybe a lunch or a retail any given day but not enough to call it working. By the end of the month, I will work a total of seven long, crushing, incredibly hard days on the road, including reporting into the wee hours and spending the next day resting. I'll be looking at about $1,000 for the month, give or take a little. Something else might pop up and make my total better. You never know.

By no stretch of logic is this good money considering the work done. However, I can't work part time and irregularly anywhere else and get this kind of income. This works great for me. It may not work for you no matter what you do.

I always try to figure out if I'm dealing with a dead horse. You know the old saying about a dead horse -- you can beat him all you want and he's still dead. If there's no way you can get enough income, then mystery shopping may be your dead horse and you may be wasting your time. If you need a lot of money and a regular pay check, it would probably be better to take a job and try to work your way up to better money.

If you haven't been able to find anything you want, I want to recommend going to work for a big centrally owned convenience store chain, such as Racetrac or Quick Trip. Their cashiers start out modestly, but in a few years you can work your way up to manager, and those slots can pay $50,000 plus. Who knew, right? Also, there are some really good jobs available managing big fast food locations. You can start out right on the counter. Never underestimate the bucks being pulled in by the guy or gal flipping burgers or changing the pump hose.

I'm hoping you can get going in mystery shopping and it will be what you want. The problem I see here is that most of the jobs are never going to pay much due to the nature of the work and the fact that the work is being bid on our level and on the level of the MSC. The MSC has to bid to get the contract with the client, and we bid our price when we pick up the job. The nature of the bidding economy is that the bids go down and down. Not what we want to hear, but true.

We as shoppers cannot change the way the mystery shopping business is. We can either make the best of it and continue to shop, or we can walk away. Whichever we choose, it will not make the least difference in the business. There will always be more shoppers.

Mary:

why are you making this as your personal battle to defend peanut paying companies? No where in my posts I have said negative about any shoppers who do those shops. As I have mentioned this could serve as a guide to us newbies not to waste time looking at their job boards. Don't you think some companies are better payer than others? Anything wrong about saying which companies are blood suckers?

I recently did a breakfast shop. The reimbursement was $35 for food and $18 pay. The report was bit involved (BTW the editor said my report had amazing details), but the amount was more than what I spent for food and the pay was decent.

Then just today I saw a FF jobs where reimbursement was $8 for lunch and pay was $5 and they would PREFER that two people go. I call them as peanut paying companies.

I also don't like to beat on a dead horse.

Anakin - In answer to your question, Yes, I do think some companies pay better than others. I have made very good money shopping for Corporate Research. They have been the most frequent provider of high paying shops for me. Market Force has provided some very well paying jobs as well as steady availability of reasonable jobs. ICCDS has posted many welcomed and needed grocery shops I have been glad to get. I shop every month for QAMs and would not be willing to give them up. Trendsource has been more than generous and fair with me. And on and on and on.

It would be unethical for me to warn newbies off. I would be doing new shoppers a disservice if I told them they couldn't make money working for these companies. Of course, if I did that and persuaded newcomers not to shop for these companies, there would be more work for me. However, I would have to deal with my selfish and misleading behavior. So not worth it.

I'm going to shop for the companies I like, and I'm going to give them my loyalty and respect. This is an open forum, and until I get thrown off I am free to make positive comments.

I do want to apologize to you personally for annoying you. I thought under the circumstances I was quite objective, and was trying to be courteous, considerate, and helpful in my posts. My mistake.

Irene_L.A. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have a bone to pick with TS...they paid a nice
> $30.00 for a Senior Health seminar in my town.
> Report was long and involved, and a couple emails
> to verify info. was needed. I just got paid $4.00
> less than stated...when did this happen, as I have
> never in 6 years of shopping experienced it. I
> had no idea they do this, and quite p_____ off.


Trend Source?

cynb Wrote:
>
> Trend Source?

They are advertising these shops on their site. Isn't there another MSC doing these senior info session shops, though?

Anakin - First of all, please don't take this as argumentive, it is not meant that way. I just started shopping in mid-July. I have lost count of the number of companies I am signed up with, however, one of them has taken to calling me and offering generous bonuses to complete shops quickly. The normal shop pay is not great but since I did a few at the low pay amount and had good reports, they now offer me bonuses to do these which quite make them worthwhile. One of my vehicles, I will never have to pay for an oil change again. I know you can't say the MSC name but does anyone know if any MSC's do Nissan oil changes?


anakin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Fine Irene, don't post the names. Some of us like
> to know so that we can maximize our times by not
> even applying for those MSCs. You write as if you
> know 'it' all, but heck why does it bother you?
>
> May be many of us don't want to 'establish' first
> and get the 'invites', we want to maximize our
> time by only looking at job boards that have
> meanihgful jobs,

Mary,

I thought under the circumstances I was quite objective--YOU WERE,


was trying to be courteous, considerate, and helpful in my posts--YOU SUCCEEDED


My mistake--AND MINE FOR RESPONDING TO ANAKIN.

I should never have replied to Anakin's posts after I realized he/she and I had almost completely opposed thoughts on the business.

anakin: ..in a word Amen...!.....lol

example...years ago when I started selling realestate...the recruiting manager spoke to me about my referral person...she was in the "gold club" as she sold over 1,000,000,000 worth of property the prior year (I sad this was man many years ago).
He said she is a pleasure and that she worked very hard i fact most of her houses were around 25,000 dollars (while other agents reached that milestone in 10 houses). He said you can see that she work harder not smarter... she is one of the agents who don't like to go for the best she can do. She likes keeping it safe. His last remarks were she needed to get her esteem up to work smarter not harder, then you'd see super star....
smarter harder it is a matter of choice...

Anakin - I am a little confused by your motivation, because at first glance it would appear you are mearly a troll trying to bait people into arguments for you own amusement. If you are truly concerned about the newbies then telling them to avoid companies that start their pay low is bad advice. Even the most lowest paying companies can offer some big bonuses you would miss out on if you didn't check their job boards, thus defeating the purpose of listing these so-called companies.

Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.

Brak: You got me. It takes one troll to know another.

Triple Platinum Certified in Trolling.

The preferences we each have as shoppers seem to inevitably lead to the taunting of shoppers who perform shops the taunters find somehow ‘beneath their dignity’ or ‘pay peanuts’. I have a good shopper friend who performs shops I would not touch with the proverbial 10’ pole. Why? Because they work for her and are incorporated into routes she runs. Why don’t I? Because they do not exist along those routes I run these days. Yet I do $3 shops that are convenient for me, and that is less than she gets for her ‘peanuts’ shops. I am willing to spend an hour writing up a $50 dinner shop for which I receive no fee. Some shoppers feel that if they are paid no fee the shop is not worth it and are angry at the company that has the’nerve’ to not pay a fee.

For a new shopper there is validity in working with the lower paying companies to get started. First, those shops put very little of the shopper’s time or resources at risk. Those companies tend to pay more quickly than other companies so a new shopper doesn’t get discouraged waiting 3 months for their first payment. Those companies also tend to offer more complete instructions. Those who have shopped a while get annoyed with reading and getting tested on ‘simple and self evident’ instructions, but for those who are new to the business those same instructions give a clear idea of what is expected of them. We speak of ‘rookie mistakes’ such as forgetting to get the receipt (or losing it), forgetting to check the restroom, not getting a name or description, etc. We all were rookies once and aren’t we glad that we didn’t get that $50 dinner shop rejected because we lost the receipt or forgot to ask for the itemized one.

But once a new shopper is ready to move on to better paying work, there is no reason that they need to stop doing the lower paying quick shops if they work for them. Sure, knowing that if nobody takes them the prices are likely to go up is an important piece of knowledge. I don’t think I ever heard about bonuses on shops until I had performed 50-60 shops. In my market the low paying shops work for somebody at lower bonus amounts than they work for me. That is fine. For all I know they live next door to the location or drive by it on a daily basis to pick up the kids from school. It is none of my business. My business is to do the jobs that work for me, when they work for me and with companies I am comfortable working with. But even the low paying companies sometimes come up with sweet jewel jobs. My $3 shops company came through last year with a $100 sweetheart deal. I’m seeing some $30 jobs on their board that are too far to be worth it to me, but I will jump on them with both feet when they are close enough to justify the drive time. Some very time consuming $7.50 shops I do are with a company that came up with jobs that paid $70 for two hours of my time last year.

So why the sniping? Are we about to suggest another one of those ridiculous boycotts of low paying companies? Those come and go about once a year it seems because shoppers don’t realize just how few shoppers read forums, much less follow the suggestions of others. Not taking jobs you are comfortable with performing is only doing yourself harm. The only work I would suggest shoppers avoid is work for companies that are not paying as per their contract for accepted work.

So work with the companies that work for you and don't work for those that don't and realize that each of us is in a different location with different opportunities and goals.

Flash, you've summed it up well. Why the sniping?

Brak - what is triple platinum? Are you just being facetious?


Flash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The preferences we each have as shoppers seem to
> inevitably lead to the taunting of shoppers who
> perform shops the taunters find somehow ‘beneath
> their dignity’ or ‘pay peanuts’. I have a good
> shopper friend who performs shops I would not
> touch with the proverbial 10’ pole. Why? Because
> they work for her and are incorporated into routes
> she runs. Why don’t I? Because they do not exist
> along those routes I run these days. Yet I do $3
> shops that are convenient for me, and that is less
> than she gets for her ‘peanuts’ shops. I am
> willing to spend an hour writing up a $50 dinner
> shop for which I receive no fee. Some shoppers
> feel that if they are paid no fee the shop is not
> worth it and are angry at the company that has
> the’nerve’ to not pay a fee.
>
> For a new shopper there is validity in working
> with the lower paying companies to get started.
> First, those shops put very little of the
> shopper’s time or resources at risk. Those
> companies tend to pay more quickly than other
> companies so a new shopper doesn’t get discouraged
> waiting 3 months for their first payment. Those
> companies also tend to offer more complete
> instructions. Those who have shopped a while get
> annoyed with reading and getting tested on ‘simple
> and self evident’ instructions, but for those who
> are new to the business those same instructions
> give a clear idea of what is expected of them. We
> speak of ‘rookie mistakes’ such as forgetting to
> get the receipt (or losing it), forgetting to
> check the restroom, not getting a name or
> description, etc. We all were rookies once and
> aren’t we glad that we didn’t get that $50 dinner
> shop rejected because we lost the receipt or
> forgot to ask for the itemized one.
>
> But once a new shopper is ready to move on to
> better paying work, there is no reason that they
> need to stop doing the lower paying quick shops if
> they work for them. Sure, knowing that if nobody
> takes them the prices are likely to go up is an
> important piece of knowledge. I don’t think I
> ever heard about bonuses on shops until I had
> performed 50-60 shops. In my market the low
> paying shops work for somebody at lower bonus
> amounts than they work for me. That is fine. For
> all I know they live next door to the location or
> drive by it on a daily basis to pick up the kids
> from school. It is none of my business. My
> business is to do the jobs that work for me, when
> they work for me and with companies I am
> comfortable working with. But even the low paying
> companies sometimes come up with sweet jewel jobs.
> My $3 shops company came through last year with a
> $100 sweetheart deal. I’m seeing some $30 jobs
> on their board that are too far to be worth it to
> me, but I will jump on them with both feet when
> they are close enough to justify the drive time.
> Some very time consuming $7.50 shops I do are with
> a company that came up with jobs that paid $70 for
> two hours of my time last year.
>
> So why the sniping? Are we about to suggest
> another one of those ridiculous boycotts of low
> paying companies? Those come and go about once a
> year it seems because shoppers don’t realize just
> how few shoppers read forums, much less follow the
> suggestions of others. Not taking jobs you are
> comfortable with performing is only doing yourself
> harm. The only work I would suggest shoppers
> avoid is work for companies that are not paying as
> per their contract for accepted work.
>
> So work with the companies that work for you and
> don't work for those that don't and realize that
> each of us is in a different location with
> different opportunities and goals.

Flash....bravo to you, you know my blood was boiling, however, in my couple of years on the forum, I have never read anything so well written and to the point. I have now "let go", hopefully, the troll will troll on elsewhere, and this thread will go to sleep!

What is the matter with you people? Is it because the peanut paying companies are your bread and butter and you personally believe you need to defend them? Are you scared (I see that many of the offended people use their real names) that if you write bad stuff about them you won't get any shops from them? or rather if you defend them in public you would get more 'invites'?

Let us see the history here, the first stone was thrown at me by the low blood boiling point person on 9/19/11 @ 8.31 PM. Subsequent to that thesis after thesis have been written. I haven't called any one by name, but I have been called a troll, a dead horse and other things.

Flash: Your post was marvelous - non judgmental as well as full of useful suggestions.

This has nothing to do with what jobs one should accept or reject. It is a personal decision. Some wouldn't mind driving hundreds of miles. Some may prefer walking distance shops. Some may love FF shops, while others may despise them. Some love price audit shops at Walgreens (it works out to be $0.13/entry), while some may absolutely adore the MSC that pays $0.19/entry.

Have I done $4 jobs? Yes. Will I do more of them? Yes. However, that does not prevent me from saying that BestMark is a peanut paying company (they do pay peanuts very fast though). However, there are MSCs who trick you in to accepting jobs that are low paying and expect you to spend enormous amount of time (e.g. Gfk and their nutrition shops or ICCDS and their purchase and return shops or the company that had that famous Scandinavian maze ). Anything wrong in calling them out?

I don't.

If you feel they have tricked you then you will not work for/with them again. Others, however, may find they are upstanding and outstanding companies to work for. Is your opinion more valid than theirs? I saw some of the companies you listed as ones you won't work with and frankly wondered if you were trying to drive away your competition. Stranger things than that have been known to happen on public forums!

"I saw some of the companies you listed as ones you won't work with and frankly wondered if you were trying to drive away your competition."

Oh come on Flash.....but if you must know I have put some of them on my spam filter.

I have had some of my best paying jobs from the peanut paying companies. I do not often see bonuses on the slightly higher paying companies.

There are so many factors that come into play when thinking about whether a company pays enough. You have to factor in the time for the shop itself onsite and the length of the report. I am a slow typist, so lengthy narrative does quickly pull down my rate per hour.

The convenience of getting to the location is huge. I had three kids and when they were in varsity sports being able to pick up a few shops while driving the hour to watch them play made things of greater value to me. Because I am in a rural area with shops spread out in distance purchase and return shops don't often work for me unless I can return it in a fairly quick time frame. If I am doing a route and has one location the has to be shopped between 10 and 1 with another that can't be shopped until after 3, picking up a quick low paying shop or two in between will make my day more lucrative.

When looking at purchase reimbursements you have to consider whether it if for an item you need to have or at a location where you are spending the money to meet the requirements. Reimbursements for items that are very limited are not usually useful to me.

I personally think that there are so many factors that come into play in determining the value of a shop that setting a limit under which you will not work may work against you if you aren't taking the other factors into account. Also for some companies, you may miss the opportunity to be the first offered a higher paying job in the future.

I just picked up a $7 peanuts shop with an $18 bonus. Gotta love those chocolate covered peanuts!

My end to this thrend is, 90% of our treasured MSC's pay way too low, no reason to name names, they know who they are.

All those companies listed are great to use as "add on"jpbs when shopping a
higher paying job in the neighborhood. I did a $27.00 job yesterday and saw no reason not to go down the block and do a $10.00 one and a $7.00 one. $44.00 and no extra gasoline. The low paying ones add some diversity and put some money in my pocket during slow times for other companies. Love them!

Brak Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
I agree. If you think the pay is too low, don't take, there are dozens of others to consider. Sometimes, I look at the benefits or reimbursements. I like doing oil changes every three months. Most of the time, there is no pay, but you get almost a free oil change.... Shouldn't be any income taxes to it as it is reimbursing you for money that you spent.

> I will work for a low paying MSC much more often
> than I will work for one that takes forever to
> pay. I'm not going to touch a high paying job with
> reimbursement that I have to wait 3 months and
> pester the company to get paid. CRI is one of my
> favs as long as you wait for the fee to go up.
> Bottom line - if you think the pay is too low
> don't do the job, complaining about it anonomously
> on a forum isn't going to change the system.

anakin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Fine Irene, don't post the names. Some of us like
> to know so that we can maximize our times by not
> even applying for those MSCs. You write as if you
> know 'it' all, but heck why does it bother you?
>
> May be many of us don't want to 'establish' first
> and get the 'invites', we want to maximize our
> time by only looking at job boards that have
> meanihgful jobs,

In this business you can't write off the "establish first" and get the invites. I've complained that my income has become somewhat stagnant, but have gone from working 6 or 7 long days a week to about 3 short to normal days for that money. I certainly didn't start out getting offers for that huge bonus or an all expense paid road trip, but if I hadn't started somewhere with those companies the rest wouldn't have followed. It would be great to start out on top, but not very realistic. It makes me feel good to have a scheduler call with a high-paying job and say that I was the first person on her radar.