The Shop Logs

I just read this Volition Post that has me all fired up about that big bonus that I didn’t get paid in March.
Read this first and aren’t YOU angry for this new shopper(s)!?!
Some of the veteran shoppers are a little too far up some scheduler’s behind the way they talk about ’shoppers should realize it was just a mistake.’

FOLKS… PUT DOWN THE CRACK PIPES!

In any other industry the contract would have to be honored - why should Mystery Shopping be so different? Because the MS Companies do not have to look us in the face?

BAD Karma, BAD, BAD Karma!

I came across a fun blog to read: Tall Poppy Diaries
My suggestion is to start with Mystery Shopping 101
This author incorporates Mystery Shopping into her life & her blogs and has a real flare for writing.

I have finally given up trying to display an Excel chart in Wordpress and have just put the image up for viewing at the following link:
MS Excel Income Chart
In this chart I am showing money that has actually been paid to me. I find this more useful when trying to predict my MSing income for a certain time of year, like holiday/vacation planning.
This spreadsheet is in addition to the Excel Spreadsheet that acts as a calendar for work to be completed and when payment is expected.
In the spreadsheet I have a running total for the year of money out, money “promised in” - even future projects - and mileage deduction. This helps me determine if a shop is worth my while.

I left work early yesterday and scheduled a doctor’s appointment for today.
As I started the day I kept checking the usual sites and the boards - I suddenly realized here I was sick and still looking for shops “on the way to the doctors office.”
Boy, that sure is sick!

Great - MSing - the New Enron!

“August 20, 2003

Coke Consultant Paid Kids to Buy Value Meals.

According to the Wall Street Journal (available only by subscription), in an effort to convince Burger King to invest in a multi-million dollar ad campaign for Frozen Coke, Coca-Cola hired an outside consultant who gave money to non-profit organizations in Richmond, Virginia to fund the purchase value meals at Burger King during a Frozen Coke test program. As part of the program, the purchase of value meals entitled customers to a Frozen Coke coupon, which in turn boosted sales of Frozen Coke at the restaurants. In addition, several Coke mid-level employees and outside consultants posed as “mystery shoppers” at Richmond Burger Kings and purchased large quantities of value meals to boost the results. Based on the results, Burger King signed on to the Frozen Coke program. Matthew Whitley, an internal audit manager at Coke, later discovered an executive’s expense report seeking over $4,000 in reimbursement for a “mystery shop” at Burger King. Whitley advised upper management at Coke and recommended the termination of the mid-level executives involved. Coke did not fire the executives and did not advise Burger King about the test. Whitley was later terminated from Coca-Cola and claims that his termination resulted from his role as a whistleblower with respect to the Burger King test and unrelated accounting issues at Coke. Coke denies the allegations and is cooperating with the investigation of the Atlanta federal prosecutor’s office into the matter.”

That’s it, my cover is blown! They have used my picture to advertise Mystery Shopping on Yahoo. If you didn’t catch my picture you can see it here. It is possible you did not know you had to be quiet this attractive to MS - well -that would explain your lack of shops, wouldn’t it?
Actually, I have been meaning to ask you normal shoppers to just quit already so we can get down to the business of the dating service that this advertisement is subliminally promoting.

I have taken the next step with my domain after this BLOG - I have written a short newsletter. It covers Mystery Shopping from my point of view, incorporating blogging, the blogs of the shopped, reviews of forums/products. I think the quality is on par with other MS newsletters I have read.

The real question for me is how to promote it? I first thought about Volition, because that is arguably the largest online community of MSers. I posted information on my blog and received some interest initially, but ultimately the topic was removed. Later I posted information on the WebRing to which my BLOG and newsletter belong, that was removed and was accompanied by a short ( and not so sweet response) by the administrator accusing me of SPAMMING his forum. Possibly my favorite forum MSR, Mystery Shop Resources, was my next stop. That forum did not treat the posts as SPAM. If people did not like it they simply ignored it and I did get a couple of replies that were encouraging.

So - was my post (admittedly self serving) SPAM?

Still not sure, I asked a scheduler that was emailing me a newsletter to include my newsletter in her next emailed newsletter. She must be a better scheduler than a writer because she wrote: “Free online Mystery Shopping Newsletter - shoplogs.com” that is hardly the problem though. She used this newletter to advertise many NON-MSing, referrel-getting offers that stirred up many on Volition to call her a SPAMMER. Super, I love being included in this newsletter now!

I still don’t know exactly how to get the word out about my pages, but I am learning how NOT to!

I have only conducted 11 shops in April. Four were in a short route and one was within walking distance from my house! I am simply being more selective in the shops I accept.

Are gas prices weeding out the part time Mystery Shopper? Volition Forums have an excellent topic on this that I am watching: Gas Prices Up - Still Feasible to Shop?
I have the summers free and count on the summer months to put a spike in my Fall income, looking toward Christmas. I hate to say that in April Christmas looks bleak, but…..

Ask the Coach
I recently responded to Melanie Jordan’s blog entry about her upcoming interview with a Mystery Shopping Co. owner with this question.

I had also asked Heather Mitchell this same question ( Construct-A-Shop owner) and got the same ambiguous answer.

I guess there is no answer for the timid. And no response that would sway the determined!

I prefer to not quantify the recent absense of a home PC in my life in mere DAYS.
The calendar alone could not express the agony of trying to enter shop reports via a PDA (can you imagine how PDA friendly some of the MS Co. sites are?) or trying to enter reports before work hours from work. Since my Excel spreadsheet contained all record of my past, current and future assignments the sheer surprise at the reminder emails (always for the next day) were VERY exciting!
Now I am hostage to the whim of my husband (although if he reads this I love him for the new computer!) to import all my EI favorites and passwords, etc. I am recovering slowly - as is my data.

Yeah!
I was sitting at the computer reading other email when a good self assign offer come in today - I nabbed four of these shops.
What a lucky day!

How cool would it be if the Mystery Shopping Providers Association, MSPA, had a dedicated shopper liason that blogged? It would feel empowering to have that immediate feedback instead of wallowing in our miseries on the forums.

Blog-o-mania Hits Newspapers March 27, 2005

I have always found information (heard on National Public Radio) from the Pew Center to be interesting. This information about bloggers & those that read blogs is especially riveting!
Pew Internet & American Life

uploading a picture today and got the message:

“…picture to large, no more than 300kb…”

to? How about TOO people?!? Any betS on how They would respoNd if I used the wrong spelling of a word in my narrative?

RevSpork: My new second job

I am taking a week of “vacation” from my full time job this week. I have a dumpster here to do some Spring Cleaning of the woods/old sheds/garage, I am working on my Master’s paper that should have been done last Spring and I have 4 mystery shops to complete before Thursday.
Why do I do this to myself? Am I the only one? ARGH!

Looking at my income from last year I could see I needed to set monthly minimums to reach.
I had three months in particular that were awful: March April and May.
I am happy to report I buckled down and income for March is up seven fold while mileage to earn that money is up only fives times.
Now I just have to concentrate on April and May; this could really make an improvement in my overall yearly income.

Well, I am now living the old adage “if it seems too good to be true….” I was promised a hefty bonus and am now told I am not getting it. I have had numerous email exchanges with the scheduler. I did keep it nice; I love these shops! I am sure she does not like me anymore though.
It is my firm belief she made the offer and is now trying to wiggle out of it. I asked her for the name of whoever was in charge and she gave it to me (after forwarding our emails to him). I sent a certified letter, copies of my paperwork received and a copy of the emails to this person. I have yet to hear from the company.
I suppose I will give them 60 days and then send a copy of my correspondance to NCPMS and MSPA.
I do not want to post the MS Co. name until the situation is resolved one way or another.