Maximising income - Mystery Shopping? Surveys? (Part Three)

in-it-to-win-it_4

Hermia wrote: »

Hello. I have just signed up with my first mystery shopping company (Gfk) and wondered if you can really make money from it? I am getting offered loads of assignments, but have had to turn most of them down because the money was so bad. The fees for everything I have been offered has been in the £9-12 range. I have been offered several that are in towns that are about 30-60 minutes drive from me and once I have paid for petrol and parking (no free parking around here!) I can't see that I would have much left. The ones I have been offered in my home town have been ones where you have to spend quite a bit of time at the place which would mean that I'd be getting a couple of quid an hour. I don't want to sound grumpy, but I'm not sure it's worth it. Any thoughts anyone?

I find it is swings and roundabouts. I did a two jobs last week for £10 each just in the next town so only a 5 minute drive and with no parking fees so that was a good earner for 1hrs and 10 mins. On the other hand I did a job which was 30 mins drive away, cost me £0.50 parking and I earnt £5 but I did get a burger lunch, with a drink and a coffee. I can't afford lunches out in pubs so for me it was a treat. You need to put a personal value on it not just a financial one so if you don't think it worth the money and you are not getting anything out of it just don't do it. Why don't you sign up to some of the other companies too, that way you might find jobs in the same town so the costs will be reduced and the profits increased. Like the others have said, you could not do it as a career.

bylromarha

I did a visit this week for GfK on a company which has just opened in our town and got £30 fee for it. :beer:

2 day visit-lots to assess and do, but I like shopping there, so very worth it for me!:T

Every now and then the goldmine jobs do come up like the posh hotel visits and the cinema trips, but you have to do quite a few of the rest of the jobs to get your profile up. I like the extras MS adds to my life, things I wouldn't normally do or spend money on.

Plus the whole reason I got into it was because I had such poor customer service one day in Tesco I wrote to head office to ask who mystery shopped them as I wanted to make a difference to the CS in my local store and knew this was one of the few ways I would be heard. This bit still gives me the buzz...the knowledge that you're hopefully making things better for future customers.

milkfloatquack

sorry if slightly OT - would recommend Globaltestmarket (pay by cheque) and Lightspeed (pay by paypal).

Hermia

TractorGirl327 wrote: »

No one is going to become a millionaire Mystery shopping!!! :rotfl: If you're wanting to make a fortune, try something else!

Ha ha! I definitely am not expecting to become a millionaire! I just thought it'd be a bit of extra cash to help with the bills. I just sat there and thought petrol costs, a couple of quid parking fee and a couple of hours of my time = not really worth it. I suppose I am just a bit too time-poor to do this at the moment. I thought I'd be better off spending that two hours combing the 400 local charity shops (no exaggeration, I live in charity shop land) and selling the stuff on ebay.

The mystery shopping assignments I have been offered have also been not that exciting either - they are all for banks etc. Some involved credit checks which worried me as I rent and really don't want more credit checks than necessary on my record.

I shall continue to see what comes up. I have done a couple of the postal ones which were good as I love receiving post!

domesticgoddess

chocolatebutton wrote: »

I thought you might all like to know that I have been out all day (picked up at 7.30am and finally finished filming at 6.15pm) filming for 'It Pays to Watch', and the item on mystery shopping will be shown NEXT WEDNESDAY

CHANNEL 5 at 7.25pm!

I have been filmed in silhouette, from the back and through a wineglass, so have made every effort to protect my identity from any shops I might visit in the future!!!

Ray the cameraman and Alison the co-ordinator were great, and I had great fun recording the interview with the lovely Ruth in the morning. The real star of the day was the lovely Bruno at Cafe Rouge in Whiteley's, where we filmed a pretend MS sequence in the afternoon. He simply could not have been more helpful, and if I had really been MSing Cafe Rouge, he would have got 11/10!!!

:T

very good my son now aspires to be a MS!

Woodyrocks

Have just tried to sign into OC and it is telling me that my login details is not recognised and that my username is not on the system. Wonder if they are doing a cull??

TractorGirl327

bylromarha wrote: »

I did a visit this week for GfK on a company which has just opened in our town and got £30 fee for it. :beer:

2 day visit-lots to assess and do, but I like shopping there, so very worth it for me!:T

Every now and then the goldmine jobs do come up like the posh hotel visits and the cinema trips, but you have to do quite a few of the rest of the jobs to get your profile up. I like the extras MS adds to my life, things I wouldn't normally do or spend money on.

Plus the whole reason I got into it was because I had such poor customer service one day in Tesco I wrote to head office to ask who mystery shopped them as I wanted to make a difference to the CS in my local store and knew this was one of the few ways I would be heard. This bit still gives me the buzz...the knowledge that you're hopefully making things better for future customers.

So who DOES Mystery shop Tesco? Can you PM me the reply as I dont think it should be put on a public board, Thanks!

jtb2412

Hi everyone

Fairly new to mystery shopping (done 2 assignments so far). This morning I've had an email from one of them saying that due to an 'internal error' the shop has had to be re-assigned (I had done the shop and submitted my paperwork) - what on earth does that mean? They did say I would get reimbursed for my efforts but was it something I did wrong? Getting worried now ! lol

Any help greatly appreciated !

wensie

TractorGirl327 wrote: »

So who DOES Mystery shop Tesco? Can you PM me the reply as I dont think it should be put on a public board, Thanks!

You have mail

southernginge

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=724411

Hi Guys

Do we need to merge this thread, also people are starting to put companies, fees etc.

Is there anythign we can do?