Hello,

I am very new to this. I hope I enjoy mystery shopping as I enjoy detective work :)

Can someone please explain how the payment works & what 'Shop pays' & 'Bonus' is referred to?

Thank you.

Hi Radhika, and welcome to iSecretShop! Here's how payment works:

Each Mystery Shopping Provider that posts shops on iSS is responsible for paying shoppers that complete their shops. When you complete a shop, and the editors review and approve it, the MSP will make the payment according to their payment schedule. Most MSPs use PayPal as their method of payment. There are a few different terms when it comes to the amount of money each shop pays:

1. Compensation (a.k.a. "shop fee", "shop pays", etc) - this is a fixed amount that is paid to you for successfully completing a shop.
2. Reimbursement - this is the amount up to which your expenses on a shop will be reimbursed after successfully completing it (i.e. if you spend $42 on lunch while doing a restaurant shop, and the shop reimburses up to $50, then you get $42 in reimbursement.)

Some shops have a Compensation, some have the Reimbursement, and some have both.

3. Bonus - this is a fixed fee that's paid to you for successfully completing a shop, in addition to the compensation/reimbursement. It's usually added on shops that are hard to schedule, or when schedulers are approaching a deadline/end of the project.

Here's an example of a shop with all 3:

Compensation: $20

Reimbursement: $40

Bonus: $5

Once the shop is approved you'd get $20 + $5 + up to $40.

Great, that explains very well.

Thank you Ivan.

Happy New Year :)

Thank you Ivan as well. I have been signed up for a bit however unable to participate in assignments until next month. Once you click on the commitment and sign the contract to an assignment will you receive paper work to complete for each shop?

Hi,

Once a shop is assigned to you, two things happen:

1. An automated email is sent to you, confirming the shop is assigned to you for the specific date, and containing the shop details/guidelines. An internal announcement is also sent within iSS itself, and can be seen in the Shopper Announcements portion of the iSecretShop homepage.
2. The shop becomes visible on your Assigned Shops page on iSS. There, you can click "Complete Shop" to access the shop page - it contains all the shop instructions, guidelines, any attachments (like scenario files, etc), and this is also where the shop report is filled out, section by section.

I hope this helps!

Radhika,

If you are worried about getting paid, let me ease your mind a little.

I am using a template that I made myself to keep track of shops and payments. But even with this I have lost track. On one occasion I mismarked a shop as paid and thought nothing more of it. It wasn't until ISS contacted me and said that a MSP had failed to pay me. They took the steps to contact the MSP to make sure I got the money that was owed. Thank you ISS!

ISS also has a very good spread sheet on the site that keeps track of the payments for you. I have used this to back up my own data from time to time. I found it to be on the money as far as dates and amounts and is an excellent tool to use on its own or in conjunction with your own tracking system.

Just my two cents.

Dave

Thanks I wasnt worried but nice to have someone out there letting me know how the little things work great job man

Hey Dave,

Do you notice it takes a very long time to get paid? I haven't completed shops in years but I've started back up again. I completed a shop totaling 60 bucks the beginning of January and stop haven't rec'd pmt. I've emailed the msp 2 times with no response. I know the support area says it's not for payment issues but what's next? If kind of like to get the 50 I spent and the 10 I earned back for this shop!!

Hi Victoria,

It's very likely that the payment is just not yet due - each MSP has their payment schedule (you can read up on their payment policy at the very top of the MSP contract that you signed on the Provider Contracts and Policies page) and many of them only pay for shops once the month in which they were done has expired (for example, they make payments by mid-February for all shops that were done in January, etc).

Still, if the MSP is not replying to your emails, I would suggest calling them using their official contact phone number (also visible on the Provider Contracts and Policies page).

I hope this helps!

Hi Victoria,

My payment for my first shop took forever. I was thinking that I messed up and wasn’t getting paid. Lol. It will come though.

welcome