Hi

I understand you are not suppose to mention MSC here apparently it gives them free publicity however how is this company as far as paying.I am yet to be paid for completed assignments when I called they said they pay on a weekly basis.Has anyone out there worked for this company.They apparently have sef assign and I assigned my self a bunch of jobs and these mysteriously dissappeared from my inbox the next day I had planned to complete them. Am not sure if this was a system error or their self assignment process is a joke.Any thoughts?By the way they send out daily emails like clockwork with assignments paying as little as 1.00

mysteryme, you may mention the name of a MSP here. Or you may mention the name of the MSP's client here if you are describing a shop. What we don't do is mention BOTH the MSP and the client in the same thread, because most MSPs have shoppers sign a confidentiality agreement, and telling the clients, etc., of a MSP violates most of those agreements. That said, I don't work for this one...their fees are too low for me. In many areas the jobs are apparently significantly bonused as the month goes on, so many shoppers here do work for them. In my area, because there are so many shoppers, big bonuses are not commonplace.

It has been so long since I worked with them because of their low fees that I hardly remember, but I think you put stuff into a shopping cart with them and then 'check out' in order to self assign the shops. I am assuming that you did this and they still disappeared? That would be unusual.

You must go through the checkout process and pick a date and confirm. You will receive a confirmation email shortly after that...

Ooh, I only just realized that they've stopped sending me emails! Gee, I wonder if it's because I've never done a shop.

They are a valuable resource for new shoppers. I have used their "University" for training. I only do their shops when the money builds...

I want nothing to do with them. I did a bunch of training and then did some gas station shops. So much expected for so little pay, and then when the pay came, it wasn't the full amount and there was no explanation as to why. I think they're crummy for new shoppers because they're hard to work for.

I agree to some extent that some of their training is pretty helpful, but I really dislike the fact that you have to go through the client training before you can even see how much the shop pays. It just seems to me that the pay is pretty low for how much work is involved.

I found it a bit insulting that they "charge" me to receive Paypal payments but don't offer me any other option. In the US, you guys can have direct deposit but they don't offer that to Canadian shoppers.

I'll have to remember to keep that in mind if/when I accept shops from them. I was dismayed to see 3% of my hard-earned money go towards paying to receive the rest of my earnings. Of the over-100 companies I work with, they're the only ones that do that and I find it's really low of them!

Just to give an example:
1 shop = US$22.50 - US$0.68 PP fee = $21.82US = $20.97CDN (conversion rates are slowly killing my business!) - $0.50 PP fee because my balance is under $150 US = $20.47 CDN take-home pay. I'm losing over $2 per shop just to get my money! I did 5 shops for them at the same rate so I can expect to lose $10....

But the point is that the basic training is helpful for all future shops you do for any MSP. Of course specifics will vary job to job and company to company. You think you are doing the training for the job they are offering, but don't be too disappointed when the fee is too miniscule to mess with, education is never a total waste of time.

What is a waste of time is having to recertify every month for the same shops. I don't think CRI ever required that and I haven't seen it with other companies in quite some time.

I haven't done a job for CRI in several years because of the fee situation. In my market ones that I am potentially eligible for don't make it to my minimum fee requirement for the job because there are shoppers in my area willing to work for a lot less. That is fine as it is their personal choice.

Don't know whether to laugh or cry ....

Went to CRI website to see when I was getting paid for previous jobs and decided to look for work at the same time. Oh, I see 4 new phone shops and get a little giddy! Darn, gotta take the training but that's ok. I did some phone shops for other companies this month that paid $20-$30/each so I'm thinking I might do ok here. Do the training, pass the test, go back to select the jobs and notice 2 are already gone. I'm thinking I better hustle if I want any, right?

Clicked on "details" so I know what the pay is.... and nearly fell outta my chair. The pay is a HUGE $1.92 for a recorded call that looks like it will take at least 5-10 to make + another 10-15 for the report. Seriously? And some rushed to take these???? I won't even do calls for less than $5/ea but maybe I'm a phone snob??? lol Don't these poor suckers realize that, if left there, the shop fee will dramatically increase as the due date nears?

Guess not. Some people seem to like shooting themselves in the foot. Yeah, well, not I. I left them right where they were and am moving on with my day

Most of their shops are $4.00- which is almost a gallon of gas in the northeast here. They do pay quickly though.

They may start at $4.00 but will increase them fairly quickly. If people didn't grab them at the low pay you can get some decent pay.

The chops in my area quickly reach the $20.00 mark for several of their clients with simple yes/no answers and a couple of names, however I live in a rural area. It is funny, I think, that some of their shops with 10 - 15 pictures never hit the $10.00 mark. These shops often carry over month to month.

Stopped working for them because they will not accept a Federal ID instead of Social Security Number. They don't need the the SSN anyway--They don't pay enough to ever get up to $600 in one year.

You know, I really like them. Easy reports, and quick (but low) payment.

Great company to work for. When the end of the month starts approaching look at their available jobs because their commissions gradually increase as the month goes by sometimes up to $50.

New gas is now $4 with a reveal. Hop in line fast for those!

Still reimbursing $1 for gas purchase I feel sure. Perhaps you could carry in your chain saw to fill with your 1/4 gallon of gas--oh wait, those use a special mix of stuff. Push your lawnmower in to top off the tank?

I wait until the tail end of the month when they are begging to have things done, then complete 4 or 5 the last week of the month when I am usually slow. I did a shop last month they begged for, and it paid $38.22 plus $1 reimbursement.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/2011 12:31AM by Jaosmom.

Jaosmon, please edit the client's name from your post, due to ICAs and this forum's guidelines.



I am already seeing bonused shops for the month. Instead of the beginning increase being .03, I have seen initial bonuses of 25% plus on two specific shops.

Yes, My friends, CRI pays weakly every week.

I was hoping that shoppers would stick together and not do the new shops that CRI just stole from another MSC...they are paying so little, it is not worth it. Plus you cannot combine any in the same zip code to make it worth the trip. But, today I see they raised the price to a whole $7. Big deal. But, some shoppers are picking them up for that. So frustrating!!! These shops used to pay over $20! (and more in rural areas)

I keep asking them if the rates would go up $4 for a job is unreasonable. The gas here in the northeast is almost that amount for 1 gallon.

I have done loads of shops for this company. They have paid me faster that most companies and for the most part are reasonable as far as payment amount goes. Some of their pay for their shops is ridiculous but my personal policy is to NEVER start my car for under $10.00 and NEVER accept insulting offers.

That is a good policy to have. Your $10 rate may have to go up soon with the price of fuel. But atleast you have values. I appreciate that.

I can see both sides of the argument with CRI. Their shops are extremely low-paying and borderline-insulting when they are first released. However, by the half of the month, they are normally at respectable rates. I did a craft shop at $12 this past week, and did gas shops for the new client around the $9 mark (with $3 fuel reimbursement ... a better increase from the absolutely insulting $1 their main gas client provides). Two others I did for the main gas client were above $10.

Plus, they pay weekly, and I have never had an issue with pay from them, ever.

At the end of the day, their rates do go up to a respectable level, however are offered if people want to accept them at the lower rates. That is smart business on their part, as far as I'm concerned.

The things I don't like about CRI are their extremely lengthy training presentations. That is just way too involved to sit through versus the pay of the shops and can be very frustrating, as you pretty much have to watch the videos to pass the tests (you need to get every answer correct or you won't be permitted to take the shops).

I also don't like that you can't see how much shops pay for a certain client, unless you sit through the training videos.

The final thing I don't like are the snippy "Nothing is ever our fault, everything is your fault" schedulers. I absolutely hate dealing with them, especially the one from the main gas client. I recently had a problem with a shop that I entered, as it apparently accepted on their end, however all the data did not properly load on their end. There was clearly an issue and this has happened several times before, but they told me that "they didn't receive all my data for the shop". I was re-assigned, apparently and asked to submit it before noon. I had no idea this even happened until I got home from work, only to find out I was unassigned for not entering it "on time" by noon that day. And that meant I lost both the shop fee ($12), as well as the expenses for fuel and the interior purchase I made.

Their shops can't be submitted UNLESS you answer all questions, so that clearly was done on my end, and the problem was on theirs. I pleaded my case and was still given an attitude that "you need to resubmit your shop as they did not receive all my data (interpreted: their software program is a piece of s*#t and I am being blamed for it). I was told I had to submit the shop by noon that day (the next day) or else I will be re-assigned again. No apology. No nothing.

As long as you don't have to deal with the Schedulers, it's a fine company to work for, in my opinion ... and probably doesn't deserve the amount of hate it gets.

I did 4 photo/report shops last week and got paid this week.

...on the other hand though the payment is fast it can be downright insulting. I make it my personal policy NEVER to leave the house for less than $10.

I stopped working for them because of their low fees and their dumb training procedures. I will say they pay very quickly for a mystery shopping company. Their schedulers are difficult sometimes too.

I also don't take any jobs for less than $10.00,But I find that if you handle the scheduler with a certain amount of tacked they are all okay.