First of all…if you have NOT yet pledged to boycott $5 mystery shopping assignments…click here.
Since I asked you to boycott $5 mystery shopping assignments last week, we recieved literally hundreds of pledges. There are now over 485 responses to my original blog post.
I have also recieved some responses from owners of mystery shopping companies.
One of them was supportive. His only caveat was that he didn’t think the boycott should stand if you recieve something of substantial value as a reimbursement…such as a free meal.
Another response was from John Swinburn, former Executive Director of the Mystery Shopping Providers Association. Here are his comments:
The company representatives at the MSPA Pittsburgh Conference were not recommending a boycott of $5 shops, nor would I ever do such a thing. They were simply reiterating what they have said all along; if you don’t think the pay for a particular shop is acceptable, then don’t accept the shop. The shopper is in control and each individual shopper should be able to make his or her own decisions. I was in a session at which a very experienced, very professional shopper who is regularly given high-paying shops said he occasionally accepted $3 shops because he knew the scheduler needed help and the shop was convenient for him…so he took it. His reasoning was that the scheduler would remember him for having helped out in a pinch and would reward him with better shops later. While no one is particularly enamored of $5 shops, they are a part of the mystery shopping business. Shoppers can opt to ignore them…that’s fine…or they can take the ones that are convenient, like the shopper I mentioned. I’m opposed to boycotts, in general, because they tend to ignore an individual’s motives and replace them with a group’s collective attitudes. Individually, everyone is free to refuse to take $5 shops, or $10 shops, or $50 shops. But for people for whom the time and energy required is modest and for whom an extra $5 or $10 or $50 is welcomed, I say let them make their own decisions.
I would be very interested to hear what YOUR response is to what he has to say.
Is it EVER OK to accept a $3 shop? I would say no.
Should $3 or $5 shops be part of the mystery shopping industry?
The reason I started the boycott was because I believe they should NOT be.
What do you think?
I have also contacted some of the companies who appear to be the worst offenders in terms of offering these very low paying assignments. I have yet to hear a response from them.
Remember: for every $5 assignment they’re not able to fill, they will have to raise the price on it to get it filled. That’s why it is so important for everybody to boycott very low paying assignments. In doing so you benefit everyone.
Hi again: Just a thought about the larger paying shops. I have and do get offered a fair amount of shops worth $50 and have had some (apartment buildings) that paid me $75 and lenscrafters paid me $100. Is it possible that either you arn’t a upgraded member or you rating isn’t high enough yet? We do get rated (there may be some that don’t know this) on the shops we do. There are some shops that say “you can’t do this shop unless your rating is 9” so this may have something to do with it. I know that I do lots of shops for $20 and $25 dollars and didn’t think there were very many shops for $5 and $8 except for telephone surveys and I like those. I do agree that it seems when you get a shop for under $20 it takes forever to get the reports finished as it is pages and pages and asks the same questions over and over with just different wordings. We might be focusing on getting them to send us shorter reports and that would make a big difference. I am not boycotting because I feel that I joined shadow shoppers without any promise of only big paying shops and can quit any time I am not satisfied but to each his own so good luck.
I can appreciate the freedom of choice argument, but when it comes to penalizing a shopper who failed to report a $1.75 phone shop, requiring the shopper to be within the area code/pre~fix dialing area, that is a bit much!! I support the boycott, but I have a scheduler who offers $5 shops, that happen to coincide with a higher paying shop, at the same target, on the same date!! These, I will accept! Thanks.
As I had stated when I signed the boycott, I am retired and have a good income and I do MS because I enjoy doing it. I have went back and checked my ratings with all the companies I am contracted with, and found the lowest rating I have is an 8. And the rest of the 53 companies I have 9s & 10s. The eight was due to a mess up that was entirely my fault and I understand this. I have completed 312 shops this year, and to have this type of ratings, I must be doing something right. But I have to agree with Mr. Swinburn, I am an independent contractor, and it is my right to choose not to do $5.00 shops. And I choose not to do the $5.00 shops (and look very closely at the $10.00 shops). As I stated, if I am going to lose money, I will play golf, go fishing or lose money some other way that I enjoy, but not lose it on $5.00 shops.
No, shopper rating has nothing to do with companies offering $5 shops. Like I stated before, this one company is offering $5 for a shop that was previously $13.Talk about lowball!
Shopping for $5 is not worth the time to start my car.
This is for Floyd Hickerson. I did mystery shopping until a year ago, I went back to work part time and do not have the time anymore.
I shopped for over two years, did make some money but not enough to supplement my check. I love shopping so mystery shopping was a great pastime, and the money helped out.
Gas is way too expensive to start back if I had the time. I live in a small town, the better paying jobs are close to 50 miles away, it wasn’t always convenient to schedule a lot of shops in one trip, and as everyone says, the paperwork, editing pictures, etc took way into the night, wasn’t worth my time even then.
My two main points in posting were to give tips. First the Exxon shops: I put a gas can in my truck, worked the inside job then as I checked out told them I wanted a $1.00 worth of gas. It looked less suspicious, and I knew if I put only $1. in my tank it would. I have done as many as 5 Exxon’s in one area in the same day and had lawn mower gas for my household. paid for and the small amount of money X5 was acceptable (when gas was cheaper) It’s just an idea, Exxon gas is and always has been higher in price, I never ever buy my gas there! I accepted a shop about 40 miles away, it paid $40. and was at the end of the month, gas was around $5. for the trip, I made some money on that one!
Tip # 2: I went on my search on the internet and found as great little tool called ieSpell. You download and install, it works great. Other programs and email clients have their own, but I prefer this one. I would never send a report or email without checking my spelling first. IE stands for Internet Explorer so may not work on other browsers.
‘Former silver certified shopper’
I am a mystery Shopper in Upstate NY. One particular company has TONS of $5 shops available in my area, but I refuse to take them. But I did write to one of the schedulers and commented / asked if it were possible to get a higher rate on these shops. I surprising got a reply saying to write back with a list of the shops posted that you would like to do IF the fee were higher and how much you would accept to do them, and she would talk to her boss and see if any of the fees could be raised. I haven’t tried it yet to see if it will work; but I suggest other shoppers can try this rather than boycotting. Do not refuse to shop, just ask for me and see what they say. I did a $3 shop yesterday, but it was a 2 minute phone call and a very short report.
….ASK FOR MORE…..
The problem is not so much with shoppers taking the $5 and under shops; it is with the MSCs always undercutting one another in order to get that almighty client contract. What a short-sighted way of doing business! Lower fees mean experienced shoppers will seldom take the shops, leaving them to newbies who feel they have to “prove themselves” by giving away their time. This degrades the entire mystery shopping genre, as only the most determined newbie will be able to provide a high quality report such as is everyday fare for a more experienced shopper. So the client gets less than they should, the shopper gets less than they should, and the MSC is out there scrabbling for an ever-diminishing group of shoppers who are willing to work for far less than minimum wage.
Not until the shopper is accepted and appreciated as a professional……and not until the shoppers all behave as professionals……will things get better.
I have been a shopper for about 9 months, and I’m learning all the time. I consider myself a professional and certainly a grown-up. To think that I will consider accepting a $5.00 shop is ridiculous. Throughout my learning process, I have accepted jobs which I thought paid fairly well, but the end-result is that I’ve probably made less than $5.00 an hour counting time spent doing the shop and writing the report. Lesson learned? I will never do that shop again. Even though gas is very expensive, remember that as independent contractors, we can write $0.58 per mile off our taxes. That helps a lot!
I am retired and have been approached to do mystery shopping. Is there any school to learn the proper way to conduct such an assignment? If I should choose to do this I believe that I owe the one who is paying a professional opinion based on the performance that they expect from the business being targeted. They may be more willing to pay extra for a person who they know is more qualified to give a proper evaluation. Let the solicitor know who has been properly trained for thier particular assignment.
Greedy companies if they can pay more then $5 in 2 weeks after waiting especially for the damn Gas station shops that they make you go thru training, pass a damn quiz and then want 5 or 6 pictures and have 30 questions and NO save feature along the way! Only to submit the shop and have the whole thng wipe clear of answers or have some bitch in the editing department say you didnt do it right and they are not going to pay! I say Bullshit to that and the under 10 dollar shops!! and then you get another company as to where you were doing a really good job for them, You have a computer problem (we actually had a tornado) and so you dont get the shop submitted by their 11pm deadline and they take away your status. so you have to go back thru them “wait 2 weeks” for a shop to be approved only to find out they gave it to another shopper that just signed up and had dominated the board with their family members but you try and tell the scheduler the facts. and they dont care.
Honestly, I know one gal that digned up everyone in her family and SHE does the shop every time, so there goes the $5 shops because she wants the $
this must stop and there must be a way!!
Yea Paul your right. I know the company well, they called me once when i was out working and they gave me the shop over the phone and told me how much it pays so I said ok. When I got home and was printing instructions, I found that you had to buy a pair of shoes than return them but you dont get yout money back just a store credit for another pair, so I cancled the shop, they lowered my rating to a one so I cant get anymore shops for them. What they dont know is that lowering my rating was the best thing that happened to me , i cant get no more shops for them AMEN
I think that the people who would offer only five dollars for an assignment either do not consider this a job or feel that there is always a shopper that will complete these assignments. Here are some issues that I take into consideration when I am deciding whether I will accept a shop:
1. How much time will the shop take to complete? I include not only the time spent in the business but the time it takes to drive there and back as well as the time spent writing the report. Most of the time unless it is part of a route these shops are not worth it.
2. Is there any form of compensation that is not mentioned above-free item, meal etc.
3. Do I have a reason for being in that town or city anyway? e.g. doctor’s appointment, class, etc.
Interesting website, i read it but i still have a few questions. shoot me an email and we will talk more becasue i may have an interesting idea for you.
Some really superb info , Sword lily I found this.
This is one of the best posts I’ve came across in quite some time. Good work.