Mystery shoppers always want to know if they are getting paid adequately for their time and efforts. With each assignment varying in the time commitment involved, the efforts required at the job site, and the complexity of the report, it is not always easy to determine if an assignment is paying a reasonable fee. There are some easy steps you can make to help take the guesswork out of this process.
Estimate Your Time Commitment. It is not always possible to get a clear idea on the time involved in an assignment before you get started working on it. However, you can get a get start by taking into account your travel time to and from the job site, and estimate approximately 15-25 minutes for completing the report. Then take a look at the assignment requirements and try to gage how long it will take you to complete the site visit. If you need help, try posting a question on the mystery shopping forum’s website to get some help from your fellow mystery shoppers who may have completed the same assignment previously.
Calculate the Cost of Gas. If the assignment requires you to go out of your way, or to drive somewhere you wouldn’t already be, then it is very important to calculate the cost of gas. For example, if your car gets 30 miles per gallon, and you have to drive 15 miles to get there, and fifteen miles back, you would end up using a full gallon of gas. Which could mean $4 off your bottom line, plus the wear and tear on your car. The cost of gas can be managed by booking multiple assignments in the same area, setting up a route of assignments, or only choosing assignments in areas you are already driving to.
The Effect Of Required Purchases. A required purchase can make or break an assignment for you. First, check the minimum dollar amount of the required purchase as well as the amount that will be reimbursed to you. If there is a $5 minimum purchase and a $5 reimbursement, this may seem like a no-brainer at first glance. But this is not always the case. If the $5 minimum purchase is at a store where the cheapest item for sale costs $20 with only $5 reimbursed, you could be out $15 just for doing the assignment.. So think ahead and know what you plan to purchase before you you take on the assignment.
Even on assignments with no reimbursement on a required purchase, it may still make sense to complete the assignment. If the assignment requires the purchase of groceries, gas, or other items you plan to purchase anyway, the shop pay and travel reimbursement will help cover costs on a purchase you already intended to make. Keep all of these factors in mind with the required purchase.
Know Your Own Limits. If you find yourself having more time than money, you may find that an assignment that ends up paying just $5 or $10 for an hour or more of work is worth your while. After all, making that $5 or $10 for an hour of working is better than not making any money at all. Or you may find it insulting that somebody would offer to pay you just $5 or $10 for an hour of your time and efforts, and you may skip over those lower paying assignments altogether.
Each mystery shopper has their own threshold of where to draw the bottom line. You may even find that your own bottom line fluctuates depending on how many assignments are available at that point in time or how badly you need the cash from month to month. Keep in mind your own lower limits on compensation, and feel free to be as flexible or rigid with your lower limit as you need or want to be.
With all of these factors in mind, it is clear to see that there is not a magic number where the pay is too low for mystery shoppers in general. Where one mystery shopper may draw the line, another mystery shopper may jump at the opportunity. So with each assignment, do a quick analysis on the time and effort involved in completing the assignment, and compare that with the compensation, reimbursement, and your own threshold before requesting any assignment. When you complete assignments that you feel reasonably compensate you for your time and efforts, you will find greater job satisfaction in mystery shopping.
love this quote cuz i live in modesto ca
If you find yourself having more time than money, you may find that an assignment that ends up paying just $5 or $10 for an hour or more of work is worth your while. After all, making that $5 or $10 for an hour of working is better than not making any money at all.
I would base my pay on how difficult the assignment some that I have been considering do require experience. I would want i respectable pay or I would refuse it.
I agree with funny name 5 or 10 dollars an hour is better than 0 dollars an hour sitting doing nothing.
I have never seen a report that only takes 15 minutes to complete, I wish I could find those assignments.
For what it’s worth, I’ve discovered that the jobs that only pay $5-$10 and the ones that pay really well, (over $100) usually pay fast. (within 2-3 weeks)
The ones that everage $15-25 (and most of the jobs I do fall in that range) can take from 45-90 days to pay.
Sometimes, how fast you need the money can be an important consideration in deciding how much a job is worth.
I agree with funny name. I often work in the Modesto CA area and I can go a whole day working those 5 or 10 dollar jobs. I have a bit of reporting to do, but it seems the more small jobs I take, the more money I am offered for the next one.
When reading about other shoppers’ experiences and opinions about the lower paying shops, I take some and I leave some. The flexibility and autonomy is what I like avout this job. You are not working for someone else, you are working for yourself!
This job fits in around my personal life. I do what suits me at the time. I choose how busy to be. I can hire or fire a scheduler. I choose how much I want to earn.
Then again you get what you put in to it. The point is, that I am not out to get rich quick. I am out to do what works for me!
$15, for two pictures, is this a scam? I need more of those. Every other shop took me a min of 1hr reporting time. I have done some shops where reporting takes hrs. (I have never seen a shop that pays really well $100.00 unless this was a reimbursed amount. I guess I have been trolling in the wrong places, I was wondering how anyone can make a living from this). I guess the more experience you have with certain types of shops the easier they may be. I obviously need to get out more.
I have run into jobs where it pays $15.00. I had to visit 10 departments in a hardware store. Wait at least 3 minutes to see if a sales person enters the department and asks if I need help. This took about 1.5 hours since I had to count carts in the parking lot when I arrived and left the lot. Then going through the report took about 1.75 hours. If I had one store in one city Home Depot and Menard’s and Lowe’s in the same city I had to do all three within the same time slotted on the same day (before 2pm or after 2pm). They foolishly asked for comments, I told them this job did not pay enough. Before Macy’s took over Field’s I had to visit 6 departments and was paid $30.00 for the visit. I have severe back arthritis and was unable to stand and sit to enter my report so they gave me more time to enter my report. I was ready to blow them off and tell them to go to ____ but them begged for my report and I really needed the $75.00 since I did 5 stores in 2 days. They paid promptly which made me happy. I have done one store at a time again because they put a $5.00 bonus on it. (Makes me think they had other people complaining about the time and pay.)