The Shop Logs

Well, turns out the mystery shops that are making me an overnight millionaire are taking up some extra time.

Chorus: “Suprise, Suprise”

I submitted the resceipts only to log on again (a fluke) shortly after and see the receipts “needed submission.”
I had already submitted them, but put it down to CoRI ignorance.

Chorus: “Suprise, Suprise”

I resubmitted without comment to CoRI, because did they suddenly start to care now?
Of course not, I blogged the “proof” that they were sub-creatures to me, called ‘em “crackheads” and resubmitted. Smooth move……

Well, I had submitted sub-par pics.

(Chorus: “Suprise, Suprise")

When I actually could click on the link “View Submitted Receipt” and saw the extent of the horror (I mentally noted to switch my pic software back from whatever I downloaded recently) I got it, but was still peeved that they couldn’t have told me the first time my pics were the problem, instead of asking me to upload the same crappola.

So I fired off (Chorus: “Suprise, Suprise”) this:

“Jobs @#$^%^, @#$^%% and @#$^%$ will have updated receipts by the end of business FRIDAY. It would have been more efficient to tell me the receipt quality was the reason they were not showed as submitted instead of letting me resubmit the same receipt.”

To which I received a NICE reply (Chorus: “Suprise, Suprise"):

“Hello Penny,

I agree it would be very helpful to know exactly what the problem is when submitting a report. Even as a scheduler, we have to search to find why a shop has been rejected. With (Co. Name Omitted) being a new client there are a lot of bugs that need to be worked out of the system. Please be patient with us. We are as they say “learning something new everyday”. Eventually things will run much smoother. Thank you for you help with this matter.

Have a good day!

Carrie Kern

Scheduling

Corporate Research International

130 E. Sandusky St.

Findlay, Ohio 45840

ckern@mysteryshops.com

www.mysteryshops.com”

Well, ahem, yes, that’s, well, err…..right then……
I am at a loss for words.

Slate Magazine is asking if CBS can pay Richard Hatch’s taxes, but I am asking who can do my shops while I collect the checks…
Because, really, it’s about that stupid to expect!

I am not sure if I am the crackhead or the company in this case.
Gosh I knew better than to shop for CoRI, but the new year and all, I guess I just thought they might have changed. Well, that delirium has subsided.

I shopped a stupid series of the cheap gas station shops for them - man they were right in my neck fo the woods - I couldn’t resist.
The entry was relatively painless, once I got past the ‘you’re-giving-us-too-much-information message’, and I KNOW I entered the receipts because you can’t get into the report without the receipts being uploaded first, the two pics are at the end.

Well they were missing two out of three I did on one day and one out of two I did on another day.

Shall we pause for a moment and stroke our chins? Dare I apply *logic* (uh oh, there goes another quarter to CoRI’s swear jar) to this situation? Be warned, I did just finish watching Erin Brockovich on TBS.

Let’s say for the sake of argument that I hacked into CoRI’s report page cleverly bypassing the uploading of the receipts. How smart of me, I will just provide them the information for free. Does it ring true that I would enter only some of the day’s shops correctly and not the others? It isn’t like I sat down and complete my data entry in one setting is it?

Is this the lone crackhead theory? Possibly - more like the crackhead company conspiracy, or is it so true I just blew your mind?

See Also V Thread

I am updating links to and from my blog.

I am sad to report Sharri Shopper is officially blog-dead to me. She has not posted in a full year and(*sniff, sniff*) I think I have to let her go now. Tall Poppies is in ICU at this point….

I have found a couple more prolific bloggers to take her place though and I have great expectations for them in the coming year.
1. SYI - Mystery Shopping. I love the Watch List and grade reports on shopping companies.
2. Mystery Shopping Podcast - wanted to do it, but Rhonda beat me to the punch and she does a nice job. She seems to be producing these at regular intervals; yeah, keep it up Rhonda! She released podcast #2 on the 16th, check it out.

These are the things that drive me nuts!
I received an email from Ray at Volition:

“Please stay on topic.”

1. Which topic?
2. I can’t remember going off topic (I do that, but usually remember what the whole thing was about…)
3. If I want to know I have to go through my recent posts (not as many recently because of these randomly dished generalizations) and if I am lucky he simply editted something he did not like, but more than likely, he deleted it.
4. I am never going to know - am I?

Self Doubt aside I did find it, only slightly modified, but I still am left wondering how these modifications make the statement more on point:
The post as it is now:

quote:
——————————————————————————–
Originally posted by RonD

The company I work for just renewed its Mystery Shopping program. The competition to get our business was fierce (and we have less than 400 locations nationwide). Mystery Shop providers were bidding up to 50% less than our previous contract.
——————————————————————————–

With information like this we have no right to be surprised that our fees get lower and lower. If the MSPA only allows companies that have been established for two years to join they aren’t able to exert any influence on the (newer) companies that would underbid by that amount to establish themselves.

I doubt shoppers are the ones they need to be educating and trying to pin down with certifications; sounds like the fledgling MSPs are the ones running the fees into the grounds.

Now this is under the topic of Businesses Stopping their MSing Programs.
The mods make my stastement shorter and more well written (a thank you as always to editprs everywhere).
I quote someone talking about how their business negotiations for a new program went and then I say if the MSPA wants to control that underbidding (and indirectly our lowering fees) they could open up membership restriction a bit more.

Is that inciting a riot? Got me.
Did I use too many characters in original statement making my post automatically off topic? Dunno.
Could he be talking about another post entirely? Absolutely.
Will I ever know? Absolutely not.

ICU emailed me that they have shops available in my area.
I log on and see a shop that Yahoo tells me is: “Distance: 75.2 miles Approximate Travel Time: 1 hour 19 mins ” - ONE WAY.

I might suggest ICU Associates either has a problem understand the, apparently, fluid phrase “in your (my) area” or some modification needs to occur on their Prophet site. I would not mind seeing other shops that are already scheduled for instance.

I remember that when this MSP first started up there was quite a thread of uncertainty on the V about payment. Ray Sola, from Volition, reported that Marc MacGillivray told him, that LP Innovations (LPI) purchased ICU Associates.

I have an ongoing issue with at least one splog (spam+blog) that I know scrapes my site(cough*bastards*cough).
I was researching PPC (Pay Per Click) schemes and started learning about click fraud, an underlying issue that tempts some to scrape to increase traffic. If you run Ads by Google you may want to do some research about click fraud, especially if you have an AdWord campaign through Google!
Wired Magazine always have concise stories about such techy things.

I found this blog while reading MSR. It is called, “Supplement Your Income - Mystery Shopping.”
SYI - MS offers a Watch List, love this idea, interested in the data source. The Reviewer offers generalizations about companies, tendancies (such as late pays, etc.).
SYI - MS also offers reviews of the company with specifics such as:

Number of jobs/clients
Types of Jobs
Rate of Pay
Speed/Method od Payment
If bonuses are offered

This is one to watch…….
http://extracashblog.blogspot.com/

See the IRS for more:

“WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today issued the 2006 optional standard mileage rates used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving purposes.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2006, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car (including vans, pickups or panel trucks) will be:

44.5 cents per mile for business miles driven;
18 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes; and
14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations, other than activities related to Hurricane Katrina relief.
The new rate for business miles compares to a rate of 40.5 cents per mile for the first eight months of 2005. In September, the IRS made a special one-time adjustment for the last four months of 2005, raising the rate for business miles to 48.5 cents per mile in response to a sharp increase in gas prices, which topped $3 a gallon.’”

When I changed the mileage from last year to this year’s I took a $300 hit in my overall profit - yikes! I can’t say the New Year has brought any dramatically increasing shop fees yet. Using the new mileage I started off my new year with soma fairly simple local gas shops that only (barely)put gas in my tank when all was said and done.
Here is my earning chart, including the entire 2005 shopping year:

As you can see I track earnings as paid, not as made. I had a mad dash before the Holidays and now expect the cash flow to drop off. I use this to look back (boy was 2005 rocky!) and make estimates of what my monthly income will be based on the mean of the past two or three years. I am finally collecting enough data to help me predict my income. Based on previous years I will not pick up the pace again until June.

Blog of a first time shopper….

His excuse made me giggle, but his cover sure is blown there…. I can’t remember if that shop is the orange place or the blue place. I didn’t even have to use the word penis, I pretty much took it out of the rotation on my own. After the first time I used up that much of my life just sitting in the parking lot waiting to return I had that shop on the DNR (Do Not Revisit) list.

I fear he may not make it as:
“Pet Peaves:
…
Grammer Nazis”
(if you don’t get this please email me)

Yep, I was pulled back in with the lure of “just up the road.”
It really was just up the road, but I am also an idiot and forgot the intensive effort required for this company to barely compensate a shopper…..funny my college degrees looked SO CONVINCING…..I was just starting to feel clever.

Allow me to do the math:

Lured in by the shoe shop, but actually did the math before I started dreaming of new shoes.
Got tricked into the entire stew when I saw my zip code……. I’ll give ‘em that time for free.

Cool I am able to load to my cart without taking one of their stupid training courses, get excited take four total, none more than 3 miles from home. 4 minutes

“Oh, I see that I do need to take the training after all… well for $7 and $2 reimb. how much could their be?”
(when will someone give my inner voice her proper meds?)
There are 79 pages to the training slide show - OMG - I am NOT kidding - I wish I was!
I get through 29 and then cut straight to the test, 7 questions…. 15 minutes

Whatever…I am on the road….check the camera….holy poop…..stop at the drug store, $17.99 for the batteries. I know the holidays did this to the camera, so I am not counting it against the shop, but I was tempted to once I wrote it here.
*free*

At the gas station, pumping (freezing), taking pics of the restroom, etc. 12 minutes

Report time ten minutes, coming to grips with the message “text entered too long…” repeatedly and often… two minutes

Total
43 minutes that’s right for $7 and $2 reimbursement….who’s the marter now, b!tch?
The concurrent shops will not include:
Scheduling time - 4
Training time - 15
“text entered too long…” time -2
and the next three shops will take 22 minutes……must I figure out my hourly wage for you?

Lorri Kern said on this thread at Volition:

“Actually, the program is in the works right now and I’m very excited about it. The MSPA has given me a larger speaker budget to get even better presenters and we sent out a survey to all Silver and Gold shoppers back in September and got TONS of feedback on topics that you all want to learn more about, so I am hoping the content will be beneficial to EVERYONE, even shoppers that have attended the last two conferences.

While the format will be the same (general and breakout session), I think the sessions will be on different topics. I"ve already been talking to speakers and I can’t wait to get the program nailed down. My “goal” deadline is Feb 15.. don’t hold me to it, but I’m hoping to post an entire program with speakers, topics and schedules by then.

Also, “early bird” registration will open on January 17th at a very reduced rate.. so keep watching for more details. I can’t wait to see you all there!”

I wonder what the program will be? I am excited and keeping my fingers crossed for an editor’s panel! (pretty please Lorri)

When the larger budget for speakers came up all I could think is…”no motivational speakers, no motivational speakers…” We’ll see.

As for “a very reduced rate,” well I am on pins and needles. It must be pretty cheap - anyone thinking about attending should reserve EARLY. Not just because of NASCAR (good thinking to have early registration before the NASCAR season starts by the way MSPA), but because the second conference was a bit of a disappointment, I imagine the MSPA would just as soon see this sell out! They’ll have great PR after this one- “sorry, due to popular demand….” not to mention to kill the taste of the second conference to the groupie shoppers who were dissapointed to get the same presentation as the year before.

Posted to Volition (see thread)

Happy New Year!

As always, at ServiceCheck, we very much appreciate the hard work of every mystery shopper, and we do our very best to keep you informed, provide assistance, and help you shop.

Many shoppers have made great use of the wonderful list of MS companies that Ray Sola, Volition.com’s administrator, has provided on this website. Many web-surfers-turned-mystery-shoppers sign up with 2, 3, 4, or in some cases, 20+ mystery shopping companies for many reasons. For some shoppers, you want to pick up some extra cash to supplement your income. Other shoppers enjoy the occasional shop for fun. A distinct few have achieved SuperShopper status, seemingly shopping, and miraculously, not dropping!

As a mystery shopper, especially those Super-Shoppers out there, you are probably used to filling out contact forms with your name, email address, home address, phone numbers, etc. Many of you are aware that the IRS requests, in some cases, that you report all of your income derived from mystery shopping. Some MS companies even request your Social Security Number or Taxpayer ID number to assist with this process.

It is important to note that due to the nature of the industry in which we are all involved, both shoppers and companies have the potential to be defrauded, abused, and our information stolen.

On the MS company end, schedulers and executives work very hard to protect the integrity of each mystery shop completed. Companies put lots of effort into selecting good shoppers, training others, and coaching many more to achieve this level of integrity. Shoppers take exams companies provide to them in an effort to secure shops. Still many more cross-reference all of the information received to make sure that data is accurate.

As a shopper, your willingness to give out some of your sensitive information makes you a prime candidate for identity theft, fraud, and many other ’shady’ schemes.

Here are some simple ways to protect yourself against identity theft, fraud, and fake mystery shopping companies:

1. Know your MS company!
Mystery Shop.org is the Mystery Shopping Provider Association. Member companies of the MSPA adhere to a strict set of ethics. If there’s a company you’re not sure about, feel free to see if that shopping company is registered with them.

NCPMS, the National Center for Professional Mystery Shoppers is also a good resource to learn more about mystery shopping companies.

If a company is NOT listed, they may still be legitimate. Give that company a phone call and ask for more information about them. If they’re legitimate, they won’t mind a polite inquiry.

2. Give your information on an as-needed basis.
If you don’t feel comfortable giving a company your social security number, and you’re not sure they even really need it, don’t give them your social security number! If they give you a hard time about it, or refuse to make arrangements for you, just walk away. If it doesn’t seem right to you, or you think they don’t need it, or if you’re just not interested in taking the risk, don’t risk it!

It’s not worth it to give a fake social security number either. There are several negative outcomes from doing this.

If someone asks for your Social Security number or Taxpayer Identification number for tax reasons, feel free to ask a CPA, tax-preparer, or visit the IRS website at www.IRS.gov. You’ll find the right, accurate, information there.

3. Keep a paper trail, and KEEP YOUR EMAILS
We’re in the digital era, so you can make a CD, or save files on your computer, or simply print out all of the information on each MS Company that has received your information. Though often times, this info will not be used, keep it anyway. You never know what might happen in the future.

If you’re concerned about eating up space on your own computer, get a free Gmail.com account that comes with 2.6 GIGABYTES of storage space. That way, you’ll never delete those important emails. Or emails that can come in handy if you think you may have given your info away to an illegitimate shopping company or person.

4. Get a PayPal account!
Some shopping companies pay with PayPal. This is a more secure method of sending and receiving money via the Internet. The website is www.PayPal.com . You can find more info there on how PayPal works.

5. Get a Taxpayer Identification Number
Some shoppers already run small businesses and choose to use their Taxpayer Identification Number, rather than the Social Security Number, to do their mystery shopping taxes and accounting. This is a good idea. Please check out the IRS website at http://www.IRS.gov to learn more about how this can help you as an independently contracted shopper. For even more info, see your tax professional.

If you have other tips to share with shoppers, please feel free to list them in a reply to this post. Many shoppers have excellent suggestions and tips to share!

Thanks again for your time, and I wish each of you a wonderful year in 2006. At ServiceCheck, we build businesses and develop our shoppers, one cheerful contact at a time!

Kim G., Director of New Business Development
ServiceCheck Inc.
www.ServiceCheck Report.com
www.ServiceCheck.com

I used to do this “Type of Shop: Bar/Dine Combo ” with my sis in law, she was the younger shopper & I was … not.

When we used to do it we did the bar & dining in the same visit, that is still the same. The bar was Drink for her(drink for me) appetizer for us, but the dining was the full on deal: entrees for both of us, dessert to share, she drank at at the table too, but I made away with my share of calories. No, I did not like the reveal parts, especially when they did not identify her appropriately, but it was a decent meal…

Now the shop consists of Friday/Saturday nights only[pretending I have something better to do], now I (the less younger of the two) can have a drink in the dining room with her it will probably go straight to my head because the appetizer from the bar is at the table and there is no dessert.

Plus, where I used to get reimbursed for the bar bill I now have to pay for it myself! Dining room still comped, but Geez - way to cheapen up NSG! Gotta wonder how much less the customer pays when I am picking up more of the tab, creating a smaller bill to be comped….I am sure NSG charges them less for such shops…eyeroll…

Hey, I have been aspiring to make a podcast on this for awhile…
This one is instructional, but I would like to make one of a shop - actual or simulated.
MS PODCAST
Check it out & leave your opinion.

This continues to be an extremely profitable industry for MSPs because of your willingness to work at below minimum wage, your mania in accepting assignments if any scheduler calls & asks you (you know that virtual stranger on the other end of the phone, right after you cussed out a telemarketer ,but right before you told your local fire department representative no), and most importantly because you kindly allow MSPs to pay you long after you complete work .
Since you allow MSPs to pay you for your work at an average of 37.3 days after completing assignments (ignoring a pilar of economics - “money today is worth more than money tomorrow") you allow the MSPs to employ many more workers than they can ‘officially’ pay, creating more work for shoppers.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I have been advised/scolded/whatever….guess I don’t have my web images set up correctly.
I am working on rearranging them so I will have fewer issues up loading pics in the future…