MYSTERY SHOPPING THREAD 18 - please don't mention client names or fees on here!!

polythenegirl

As I said above - its a horrible no win situation for new starters in the industry and I can safely say that it sucks!

katiekittykat1977

Rosy_Violet wrote: »

I don't blame you.

If I were new I would be snapping them up too as I wouldn't know what the fee used to be.

It just rankles that shoppers used to be paid a fair wack for their work. Now it's a race to see how little they can get away with paying.

Good luck to all who want to work for peanuts!

That's the trouble - as new shoppers we have no frame of reference for the fee. It's not that I want to work for peanuts, and not that I want to do this at the expense of more experienced shoppers - it's that I want to get to the stage where companies are ringing me for work and I can negotiate a better fee. But I need to make a start somewhere! I can't speak for other new shoppers, but at the minute I'm prepared to take what I can get and hope I do a good enough job for them to offer me more work.

Rosy_Violet

polythenegirl wrote: »

I don't think its a case of us wanting to work for peanuts though. I certainy don't, but until I've built a reputation with the companies I'm not in a position to either demand more or turn down jobs with lower fees

You are under selling yourself though by accepting the jobs. Your time and opinions on the shopping assignment are surely worth more?
Some of the assignments expect a lot. May not be rocket science but you still have to be objective and write a good report. All this eats into your time and judging by some of the comments on here people's stress levels! Just not worth putting yourselves through it for what can end up being a total loss.

serendipity2706

Taking the time to read the assignment and print out necessary paperwork, travelling, time in store, travelling back, time to write report and general admin, then following up on queries, I'm not prepared to work for the minimum wage, although I'm lucky in that I do have a full time reasonably well paid job too, and MS is really for the treats and free meals.

polythenegirl

Rosy_Violet wrote: »

You are under selling yourself though by accepting the jobs. Your time and opinions on the shopping assignment are surely worth more?
Some of the assignments expect a lot. May not be rocket science but you still have to be objective and write a good report. All this eats into your time and judging by some of the comments on here people's stress levels! Just not worth putting yourselves through it for what can end up being a total loss.

There are still a lot that I don't accept (especially on RE and ESA) but for some of the compnaies that seem better to work for there isn't really anything else for it. We can't prove that our time and opinions are worth more unless we show them

jen_br

polythenegirl wrote: »

I don't think its a case of us wanting to work for peanuts though. I certainy don't, but until I've built a reputation with the companies I'm not in a position to either demand more or turn down jobs with lower fees

but this is the problem you ARE working for peanuts and do you really think the companies are going to "give you rep" and then pay better-- I can tell you they won't.

Just when you think youve got a good rep with a company and they ask you for a "favour" and you humm about the fee-- they will turn around to the "newbie" at the time and get it done for 1.00 less then it was even listed for.

polythenegirl

jen_br wrote: »

but this is the problem you ARE working for peanuts and do you really think the companies are going to "give you rep" and then pay better-- I can tell you they won't.

Just when you think youve got a good rep with a company and they ask you for a "favour" and you humm about the fee-- they will turn around to the "newbie" at the time and get it done for 1.00 less then it was even listed for.

So we'd be better off just not doing it then?

jen_br

Let me put it this way to you--

If you were working a part - time job at Asda and they said to you:

I want you to buy your own uniform, travel here every thursday, work until you complete said task, btw you need to fill in a daily report for your work 50 questions and you need to print it out at home and bring it with you daily (using your own paper). Oh and if I dont think the report is up to much then you wont get paid...

I want you to do ALL this for 7.00 it will take you roughly 1hr plus travelling to do What would you say?

You would tell them to shove it.

So why are you putting up with it from MS companies? They are asking you to do jobs in time frames, using your own travel, paper etc and then going home at night filling in the report for LESS then minimum wage.

mimi1234

jen_br wrote: »

but this is the problem you ARE working for peanuts and do you really think the companies are going to "give you rep" and then pay better-- I can tell you they won't.

Just when you think youve got a good rep with a company and they ask you for a "favour" and you humm about the fee-- they will turn around to the "newbie" at the time and get it done for 1.00 less then it was even listed for.

Even if they did give you rep, there is always gonna be a newbie who will do visits with reduced fees, hence rep actually means nothing!

Having said that, some companies like React do actually give you visits based on your past performance.

serendipity2706

polythenegirl wrote: »

So we'd be better off just not doing it then?

Most definitely "Yes"
The people who get the best jobs and can negotiate good extra fees are MSers who have been doing it for years, or are prepared to travel 50 miles for a job. At the mo there are so many newbies willing to work for next to nothing, the companies have no reason to enhance the rates or give extra.
I haven't been doing this for long, but I have noticed some fees dropped almost by half- the egg jobs for example.
I'm not prepared to do it, and neither are the long standing decent other MSers as they don't need to.
It's unlikely a newbie will get these well paid jobs, because others who have a rep built up over years get them and those companies pay a decent rate.