I just accepted my very first shop with Intellishop. It was bonused so the fee is $30. After doing $14 car shops for Bestmark, I'm pretty darn happy about the fee. My question is - how are the reports for their car shops? Do they require a ton of narrative? If anyone has done car shops for both Intellishop and Bestmark, how do they compare? I've read some previous posts that have me a bit worried about writing a book for the report.

Not bad at all. I am doing one tomorrow...

I have done both and Bestmark is a lot less paper work and pays way faster. Intellis pays 60 days after the last day of the month you shopped.

You can view the actual form you'll be filling out by clicking on 'View/Submit'. I won't do the dealership shops for $20, but I think $30 is reasonable. I don't do dealership shops for $14, either, so I have no idea how Bestmark compares.

Good luck with the Intelli-shop car shop. Their reports require a great deal of narrative. Prepare to spend a lot of time on the report. I completed one last month and it was a nightmare. The only reason I took it from Intelli-shop is because they offered a bonus. The shop itself was over an hour. The report was about 2 hours. Not worth the money in my opinion. Especially since they take forever to pay you. I've worked with them since 2008 and I think I'll be deactivating my account with them.

Mantis Wrote:
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> You can view the actual form you'll be filling out
> by clicking on 'View/Submit'. I won't do the
> dealership shops for $20, but I think $30 is
> reasonable. I don't do dealership shops for $14,
> either, so I have no idea how Bestmark compares.

But you can't see the form until after you have accepted the assignment.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/27/2012 05:18AM by KathyC.

It's not too bad. Just detailed.

True, Kathy, but I would have no qualms about canceling if I thought the shop wasn't worth the pay. There's no penalty from Intellishop if you cancel a shop within a few minutes of acceptance, and you explain why.

I have done car shops for both companies. I seem to like the Bestmark reporting better. Although I do not remember anything out of the ordinary with either company. I know it does not give you specific information to address your question, but it is all I can remember without actually looking up the hardcopy of the reports.
Snuffycuts99 Wrote:
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> I just accepted my very first shop with
> Intellishop. It was bonused so the fee is $30.
> After doing $14 car shops for Bestmark, I'm pretty
> darn happy about the fee. My question is - how
> are the reports for their car shops? Do they
> require a ton of narrative? If anyone has done
> car shops for both Intellishop and Bestmark, how
> do they compare? I've read some previous posts
> that have me a bit worried about writing a book
> for the report.

Snuffy - I recently did my first car dealership shop for the regular price of $20.00. I had over an hour at the dealership, and a couple of hours in the report. I have also shopped the $14.00 shops. My memory is the report is much, much shorter.

hmmmm....well it sounds like some people don't like them and some don't mind them. i guess it's that way with most shops. i'll find out tomorrow what side of the fence i'm on...

ok, i performed the shop and the report except for the follow up section. it was definitely more work than the bestmark shops, but not all that bad. i was at the dealership for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, and it took about 45 minutes to enter the report. So, about 2 hours in all for $30. Not great but not bad for a shop in my hometown. I would not be willing to travel far at all for another one of these shops, unless it was highly bonused. Thanks to everyone for the advice...it is appreciated!

Thanks for the timely post snuffy. Doing my first car shop for them tomorrow. I am actually looking for this type of vehicle so this will be worth it for me. The pay is slightly more than yours was. Guess you had to wait an extra day

I'll be taking lots of notes and using the survey to guide my narratives so It shouldn't bad. Thanks for being my human guinea pig!

I'm joining the discussion late... I just did one for them and the pay was much less than what has been discussed in this thread. I found the report to be long and tedious. When I saved the file, the number of pages was eighteen. Yikes! I recently did another type of shop for a different SASSIE company. That report was three pages. More my style

shops4aliving Wrote:
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18 pages long, but the questions are broken into sections so that you cannot count the total number. The printing costs alone for the colored instructions and evaluation form are beyond belief. Let's see.......30 minutes to print and review the questions, 60 minutes at the dealership, 90 minutes reporting and 15 minutes answering editor's questions....all for reduced pay. My thought is that they are relying on new shoppers who have not experienced this process from beginning to end.

> I'm joining the discussion late... I just did one
> for them and the pay was much less than what has
> been discussed in this thread. I found the report
> to be long and tedious. When I saved the file, the
> number of pages was eighteen. Yikes! I recently
> did another type of shop for a different SASSIE
> company. That report was three pages. More my
> style

KathyC Wrote:

> -----
> 18 pages long, but the questions are broken into
> sections so that you cannot count the total
> number.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

What I discovered in doing Sassie reports is that if you "Save" at the bottom of the report BEFORE you get started with it, it will tell you how many questions are unanswered. They call these "Oops"s. I have started doing this as a matter of course so that I have an idea of how many questions are on different reports I do.

My two latest for Intelli were long and a bit involved, taking close to an hour. They said they are paying within a month for these, and raised the price
to 35.00 (usually 20.00). Guess they needed to get these done, had tons of them. You have to wait 3 days for the follow up...it's been a month and I'm still getting emails.

Irene_L.A. Wrote:
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> My two latest for Intelli were long and a bit
> involved, taking close to an hour. They said they
> are paying within a month for these, and raised
> the price
> to 35.00 (usually 20.00). Guess they needed to
> get these done, had tons of them. You have to
> wait 3 days for the follow up...it's been a month
> and I'm still getting emails.


I agree, Irene, a lot of work, even more than most dealership shops, and $20 is not enough. (I wouldn't do the ones for $14 or $17 either!) I do these only when the bonus brings them to $30 or $35.

It IS good that Intellishop is trying to change their payment schedule to pay faster. I got an e-mail notifying me of the new payment schcedule and saying they were listening to their shoppers.

Did one once. It wasn't an insane amount of narrative, but more than I care to fill out. I'd call it a 7/10 in the grand scheme of things. "Free form" sales evaluations like this aren't my cup of tea though.

Not terrible for $30, definitely not worth it for list price.

I raised my bar to $50 for auto inquiry jobs, so much hassle especially when the majority of the time I am not treated as the client wants to hear (no rolling out the red carpet for a female arriving solo). Salesperson only seems to want to know my car color preference, cannot tolerate being spoken to in that manner.

I agree with you. The last one I did the salesman said three times the car was bluetooth enabled so I could talk on the phone while driving. He missed all the safety features, warranty and Why I would buy from the dealer. I did get a good view of how the seats work, the satellite radio and the extra large glove compartment. My report was none too favorable about the salesmanship.

mysterymom Wrote:
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> I raised my bar to $50 for auto inquiry jobs, so
> much hassle especially when the majority of the
> time I am not treated as the client wants to hear
> (no rolling out the red carpet for a female
> arriving solo). Salesperson only seems to want to
> know my car color preference, cannot tolerate
> being spoken to in that manner.

No more car shops for me. Nine months later and the salesman is still hounding me. I can only imagine what my life would be like if I did car shops on a regular basis.

kalfini Wrote:
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> I agree with you. The last one I did the salesman
> said three times the car was bluetooth enabled so
> I could talk on the phone while driving. He missed
> all the safety features, warranty and Why I would
> buy from the dealer. I did get a good view of how
> the seats work, the satellite radio and the extra
> large glove compartment. My report was none too
> favorable about the salesmanship.
>
> mysterymom Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I raised my bar to $50 for auto inquiry jobs,
> so
> > much hassle especially when the majority of the
> > time I am not treated as the client wants to
> hear
> > (no rolling out the red carpet for a female
> > arriving solo). Salesperson only seems to want
> to
> > know my car color preference, cannot tolerate
> > being spoken to in that manner.


So true. I was only asked about the color and not even offered a test drive. When the vehicle that I was assigned to was not on the lot, I was told to look at a totally different model and shown color choices again. I was asked to buy that vehicle without even opening the doors. When I clearly stated that in my report, as well as why this was inappropriate, the editor wanted more details as to why I was unhappy with the presentation. "What specifically was wrong with that?" She also had lots of questions to questions that had already been answered. I just hate it when the previously answered 129 questions are asked again.

P.S.: I do purchase autos on my own with no escort and a ton of research. Many women do.

I have all but written off car shops, even though some companies do offer great pay for them. I go into the dealership dressed professionally, no wedding ring so he/she will not presume I need to "check" with someone else, and matter-of-fact in demeanor to hopefully eliminate some of that fluff talk. EVEN SO, I end up spinning my wheels with an associate for what seems like an eternity, usually over an hour, and along the way deal with several questionable or, at least, minimally offensive comments if taken the wrong way. The last two experiences caused me to pull out every manner I was ever taught to not go toe-to-toe with an associate for the multiple implications made about the "shallow" thinking of a woman driver. I learned how to use the navigation to find local nail salons and take-out restaurants, how to control the heated and cooled seats, and how to control the voice activation system to call my "friends for lunch". Yet, I could not get the person to tell me anything about any safety features even after telling him I had 2 children. Go figure.
If you have good experiences, continue because they usually are great paying shops. If you are treated poorly or otherwise offended, I say, proceed with caution or write them all altogether. Of course, this is all just my opinion.

The worst part is when you respond truthfully that the salesman was condescending you get poor marks.

I've found those condescending idiots tend to be in the minority and have probably done well over a hundred new car shops. Video is the best so there is no doubt about how you were treated. A pet peeve of mine is when they try to get away from talking about the price of the car and steer the conversation to monthly payments. That's how they get people into more car than they can afford and screw them on financing.

LisaSTL Wrote:
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> I've found those condescending idiots tend to be
> in the minority and have probably done well over a
> hundred new car shops. Video is the best so there
> is no doubt about how you were treated.

Ah .... revenge is so sweet!
Also agree with your peeve.

I just did my 1st for them last Friday. I've done lots of others for other MSC's. This one took longer than any of those because of factory reps on hand who prolonged it way more than it needed to be.

Too much time for $14.

1980dory Wrote:
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> No more car shops for me. Nine months later and
> the salesman is still hounding me. I can only
> imagine what my life would be like if I did car
> shops on a regular basis.


If I get called by the salesperson later, I always say I have already found something or I am no longer interested. That usually takes care of it.