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The Mystery Shopping thread - part 6
Comments
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Mystery Shopping sites have been pretty quiet this week. I only started last month and I think most of my jobs I did came from RE, GFK and Grassroots, however, this week has been really slow and I am doing some MSing Friday/Saturday but after that it's all quiet.
I was hoping this would be a steady little income? am I mistaken?0 -
Some people have earned well over 2K in less than a year on this thread doing MS.
I've done\going to do 37 visits since mid Jan, they total £277 cash and £112 of reimbursements - tax may have to be considered next tax year.
Remember I'm one of the misfitsand don't get invited to as much but I do think it's possible!
Off Topic: If you use Firefox, download the English dictionary from the Firefox addons website it highlights incorrectly spelt words and offers suggestions as you type which come in really useful when you're working with a c**p spell checker or annoying spell checker (I'm talking to you GfK)0 -
How do the jobs on Grass roots work >? Im not an inexperienced MS but have yet to be offered any work for them. I check the site a multiple times day and night and have not seen anything there. I emailed them to ask if there was a problem with my account and had the standard response regarding first come first served etc.. Im just suprised that there I have never had chance to catch sight of any work there, let alone apply for one.
Im busy with other companies, Gap,Gfk, retail maxim, optimum contact, retail eyes, Amber Arch and business blueprints and have been accepted by TNS just waiting on paperwork from them so its not too bad... I just feel a little left out lol
What are others experiences of Grass Roots and do you have any tips of how to bag their jobs ?0 -
Mystery Shopping sites have been pretty quiet this week. I only started last month and I think most of my jobs I did came from RE, GFK and Grassroots, however, this week has been really slow and I am doing some MSing Friday/Saturday but after that it's all quiet.
I was hoping this would be a steady little income? am I mistaken?
You must be in a hotspot area, as that is a very good number of agencies to get jobs from for your first month. There are peaks and troughs and that is one of the perils of depending on it as a fixed income.0 -
I'm happy with the amount I've done so far, and £2k for MSing is great, I hope I get to that stage but I know it comes in peaks and troughs and I guess I'm just hoping that the jobs keep coming in. The funny thing is, after I posted, I went to RE and there are loads for what looks like a mall or high street in Hull, but it's too far for me to go
As for Grassroots...it is a pretty much first come first served I'm constantly checking the different sites and it's happened where by the time I clicked a job it was gone. I guess all we can do is to keep trying. It seems to me by the time their email gets to me the job is long gone, so like you I check the site all the time.0 -
Some people have earned well over 2K in less than a year on this thread doing MS.
OK, i'll be honest here, I've not had a bad year so far, financially at least. I've done well over 100 jobs now in 2009. Just over £1k in fees and approx £500 in reimbursements, which looks kinda pretty on paper but if I were to add up the hours spent searching and looking for that MS work, then the time spent reading, printing and preparing for assignments, then the time filling in questionnaires and answering the odd query that comes through, I bet it would work out that I'd earnt about £2 per hour all year :rotfl:
Add to that the fact that I've been running around like a crazy person, I've put over 1,500 miles on the clock of my lovely car, some nights I've been filling reports in until 2 a.m and you are beginning to get the whole picture.
There IS money to be made, but you have to work your !!!! off for it. I've done bits of MS for years but as an experiment, decided to pitch up and see how much I could do as a means of alternative income to my business (which has been flagging recently due to the economy). Since Jan 4th i've pretty much took as many jobs as I can humanly manage.... and I'm knackered. Mentally and physically. My Husband and I were discussing it last night and hour for hour, I would have been probably MUCH better off financially had I been flipping burgers at the golden arches all year, than I would have mystery shopping and munching the odd burger for them.....
Not that I would, fast food ain't my thing and my Husband is veggie and would hit the roof if I applied to such a chain! Though, I think, generally (before I get flamed, I know there are the odd few who make a VERY good living from MS, we're talking 25K a year in some instances for exceptional video shoppers, but you are the lucky ones and not the 'standard') when you see the figures over time, most of us are working for a pittance and GYP in particular take the preverbial.
As an example, and giving a 'hypothetical' (almost LOL) example. There is a certain MS company offering £6 per assignment currently for a travel shop. Ignore for a minute the fact that other MS companies STILL offer this same client for DOUBLE the fee that this company is offering and consider the facts.... (a few of my MS friend have expressed happiness at these assignments as they don't involve a purchase) Consider your time spent looking for the assignment, then printing out the job notes and familiarising yourself with the details. Then consider the time spent travelling to the assignment (petrol AND time) then add to that the 30 minutes conducting the assignment and THEN a further 30 minutes photographing the 'evidence' and filling in the report. THEN, deduct from that job fee a portion for tax and NI... maintaining your records, filing your tax return and faffing about answering random queries from the MS company if they aren't happy with your report.... you're looking at a net income of about £1.20 an hour...if you're lucky! Can you REALLY be bothered??????
:mad:
Cherry xx
(With a bee in her bonnet, AGAIN!!!!!)0 -
I'm in a very chatty mood this evening - most probably because I've got three visit to fill report for
- but I can't believe that as a guy, that travel agent visit this afternoon has made me broody!
I had to fake it and say I had wife and kids and she was so lovely customising everything to how it would be nice to take them on their first holiday, how you can put them to bed and you can relax in your apartment... made it sound so desirable!
Must add that to my diary too.
I can just see the entry now "Saturday 21st Feb 2009 - Make a baby". :rotfl:
Seriously though, thanks for the help today, I really appreciate it!0 -
WHOOHOO! Just logged into RE and got my first job! There were two offers, both for a local chain of Jewellers so I've taken one of those - £15 fee! Happy days!
I'm sooo happy, but I've no idea how I'm gonna remember all the Q&A's!0 -
I could answer that or I could just be nasty and tell you to have a peruse of the past 4000+ posts
They're poo to work for, occasionally - although there are a few GAP fans here, who will change their tune when they get their random gap-sacking!
I'm surprised I haven't been sacked from Gap. They used to ring me constantly asking me to do jobs which weren't even in my area. I'm an air stewardess and one time when I was away they called my mobile at 2am when I was fast asleep. I cancelled the call twice but they kept calling back! I picked it up and screamed "Leave me alone I'm abroad and trying to sleep!". It did the trick, I've never heard from them since!:D
Very surprised I didn't get a little 'bye bye' email after that!
How do they decide who's for the chop anyway??0 -
OK, so I'm one of the few who hasn't had problems with Gap. Yeah, will probably get sacked next week, now!
I was about to comment about them on here anyway, this week, because I took a stamp shop job and got there to find it was closed. I reported this and got an email back very promptly saying thanks for letting them know and they would pass it on to their "closed locations team" or something and that I would be paid the fee for visiting anyway.
I then got a confirmation email a couple of days later saying this had been verified as a closed location and my fee would indeed be paid (this was from a team leader). So my current experience is that I think they have improved.
I know they pay what is generally termed on here to be a pittance, but in terms of an hourly rate I honestly think they're comparable, because the report is so short and you don't have too much to do on the actual report.
Having said that, there are a few reports on here of people being sacked with money owing, which is obviously pretty awful, but I can only talk about my own experiences so far.0
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