The video shops do make a big difference as they pay much better than other shops and tend to have shorter (sometimes non-existent) write-ups.

I focus on higher paying shops, doing one or two most days after work. I also try to do a longer day route most days that I am not at school.

At first, I was more stressed about inadvertently unplugging my camera while stashing it in a pocket - and not finding out until after the shop.... And, yes, that has happened to me more than once. :(

Hi Debby,

Don't wait for emails to come out. Check the website briefly each morning or evening and you are likely to see assignment before they are advertised over email.

Also, if there is no work in your area at all, it might be worth while to look outside of iSS for shops. iSS is great, but only represents a small fraction of mystery shopping companies.

Doreen -

A site where you can expand your knowledge and understanding of the mystery shopping world is the MysteryShopForum. It's free and not affiliated with any specific company.

It really depends on why your application was denied... Contacting the company is likely the best route to go.

I did a few of these when I first started shopping and realized that they were not for me. Restaurants will let you look at menus and not make a purchase, especially if you planning a large family or business gathering... Fast food can be a bit trickier as the menu boards are often set up so that they can only be seen well if standing almost directly in front of them and in clear view of the employees at the counter. I've been kicked out of a couple of these places. :(

The forum is a place to ask questions and discuss mystery shopping.

I would do two things: About one or two business days after making the request, I would send the schedulers a nice email letting them know that you are planning a route and need to know - one way or another - whether or not you are going to be assigned the shop.

At the point in time when you are actually re-arranging your schedule, simply delete the shop request. Schedulers fully understand that you cannot wait forever for an answer and that not assigning a shop to you right away means that you might find other options and become unavailable.

Ellis (EPMS) is a company that specializes in apartment shops.They are not on ISS, so you will not learn much about them here.You can try the Mystery Shop Forum.

The companies that use iSS financially support this forum, so I do not like to recommend other companies on this particular forum. However, if you check out a different forum (MysteryShopForum), you can widen your knowledge of the mystery shopping world and learn a lot about the industry- which can help you whether you are working with iSS companies or others.