Has anyone heard of Premier Service or done any shops for them? I have a shop to perform for them this week, but I do not know anything about them, so I am a little apprehensive in performing this shop. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Why don't you use the Search function of the forums? Or click on the "Official List of Mystery Companies" shown at the bottom of each and every page? I see four threads other than this one regarding Premier Service.


carolynsmystery Wrote:
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> Has anyone heard of Premier Service or done any
> shops for them? I have a shop to perform for them
> this week, but I do not know anything about them,
> so I am a little apprehensive in performing this
> shop. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
> Thanks

I shop for them all the time. They are out of Montreal. Their forms are long and required much narrative. The pay is not great for the amount of typing required but they do pay on time. Be careful as they deduct pay for mistakes. They do not have a job board, you get an email with the jobs available and you must apply.

I have done work for PREMIER and the pays is always on time. I did a 45 shop assignment and when i told them the time and extra mileage involved They added a little more money as compensation.

I have been doing shops for premier service for almost 5 years now and I love them! They are absolutely fantastic, always pay on time, are easy to communicate with and if you complete shops on time, and are a regular shopper you will get better opportunities!

Premier is my favourite company to shop for. As was said previously, all job offers come by way of emails. I have always been paid on time.

In addition to the regular kinds of shops, they also have projects which include multiple locations as moviereeler mentioned.

Why are they now asking for a background check to apply?

Why does Premier Service add all payments (including reimbursements) and send a 1099. Most of the other companies don't do that, they only send a 1099 when the fees (and not the reimbursements) total $600 or more?

Premier Service totals everything, the reimbursement, the fees and then send me a 1099 last year.

What do you think?

I always got an invoice from them. Pay through Paypal.

I think I would direct a question to them and point out that not only does it artificially increase your earnings for tax purposes but it also artificially increases their wages paid, which would benefit their tax position, which the IRS might find interesting.

But I don't know anything about taxes, so they could just laugh at me and hang up ;-)

Do you think it has something to do that they are located outside the United States? They are a Canadian firm.

Chances are good that the total of 'all compensation' is what their accountant told them to do. Where a company is simply a pass through of the reimbursement from the client to the shopper, that is a clean and traceable transaction. If a client pays a flat amount to cover everything for their shops including company charges, shopper fees and reimbursements, a more specific accounting is needed. You aren't likely to change how a company reports what they have paid you on your 1099, and if their accountant told them to include 'all compensation' including reimbursements, that is what they are going to do. If they claim everything received from the client as income, then reducing that amount by fees and reimbursements as expenses is accurate. It is, in fact, the way I do my own Schedule C--claim every penny received and deduct out the reimbursements.

They are located right here in Montreal.

Even though they're a local company, I will never work for them again.

I find them to be cheap with payments - very cheap in fact.

They don't want reports, they want essays like those written in university ~ all from a 2-minute FF interaction. Repetitive reporting doesn't begin to cover their reports. Every single answer requires a 1-2 complete sentence narrative, whether it's yes or no. Every answer must be justified! i.e.: Were the trays on the garbage can as they should be? A yes or no answer won't suffice. You tick the answer then provide a paragraph about the trays. There are 40-50 questions per report. I'm a quick typist yet these reports could easily take 45-60 min. All this for only $12 ($20 payment incl. reimbursement for an $8 sandwich)? Pffft!

If you enjoy writing and can wring a novel from ordering a meal, this is the place for you. Since working with them, I've learned that many companies are much more generous with payment and require a heck of a lot less work.

They have some high paying Veterinary shops here in the United States. They pay $100 reimbursement plus $25 dollar fee. Problem is, they count the reimbursement as earned income and if if you do just a few shops for them you can easily end up getting a 1099. Other Mystery Shop companies do not count the reimbursement as earned income. For example: Customer Impact, Market Force and others. I wish they would treat the reimbursement as just an expense you would ordinarily have when you go to the vet and/or a restaurant. The fee, of course should be counted as earned income.

MtlShopper Wrote:
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> They are located right here in Montreal.
>
> Even though they're a local company, I will never
> work for them again.
>
> I find them to be cheap with payments - very cheap
> in fact.
>
> They don't want reports, they want essays like
> those written in university ~ all from a 2-minute
> FF interaction. Repetitive reporting doesn't
> begin to cover their reports. Every single answer
> requires a 1-2 complete sentence narrative,
> whether it's yes or no. Every answer must be
> justified! i.e.: Were the trays on the garbage
> can as they should be? A yes or no answer won't
> suffice. You tick the answer then provide a
> paragraph about the trays. There are 40-50
> questions per report. I'm a quick typist yet
> these reports could easily take 45-60 min. All
> this for only $12 ($20 payment incl. reimbursement
> for an $8 sandwich)? Pffft!
>
> If you enjoy writing and can wring a novel from
> ordering a meal, this is the place for you. Since
> working with them, I've learned that many
> companies are much more generous with payment and
> require a heck of a lot less work.

Irene_L.A. Wrote:
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> Why are they now asking for a background check to
> apply?


I applied for them maybe in September and didn't have to do one. Although, they don't exactly have shops I'm interest in out here, so I have somewhat put them on the backburner.

They do background checks for their large jobs where they put a huge sum of money in your PayPal account so that you can reward employees with a twenty dollar bill if they do what is required. I was advanced over $700 for such assignments. They just want to make sure you are not going to take off with their money.