Secret Shopper ?

My wife and I were secret shoppers for a restaurant chain. Not sure what happened, but the program kind of died out (at least for us).

We were given a phone call and asked about specific restaurants for an appointment. We were usually given 3 choices (locations and time of service ... Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner). Once accepted, they sent a form to us through the mail. We'd go to our appointment, pay (our of our own pocket) for the meal (the foods they had on their list), and then send in the questionnaire with the receipt.

A few weeks later we got reimbursed for the meal, up to a specific dollar amount. If the price of the meal went over the allocated amount (because we ordered something extra), that was on us.

DW and I did this for several years and had fun doing it. After a while it became a pain in the neck though, and since it was only the same restaurant chain it became mundane after a while. Then all of a sudden, they just quit calling us.

My sister (in Texas) also did it for several years and she also said, they just quit calling her too. I think with the down-turn of our economy a few years back, the company that did that probably went out of business.

This was our experience. But to make a living doing it ... NO WAY!

hum, Ok Thank you for your experience.

Friend of mine did it once. Company did not like how she wrote her report (she had to print out something like 15 pages of a report). On top of that she was thought the manager of the Denny's she was shopping was going to get violent with her. This was a shop where she had to note down (without anyone knowing what she was doing) every detail of what was said (specialty drinks and specialty foods offered) and not said. Plus she had to reveal to the restaurant manager that she was a mystery shopper at the end of the shop to get a form signed. The food was so bad that they could not eat it so they ended up paying for a really bad meal (her hubby's) but for the "other" meal they ended up buying because the first meal was unable to be eaten. I know that incident occured over 5 years ago and they both will not enter that particular establishment. I'm just glad her husband was along. Based on what she said, I think the manager (female) was going to attack her until her husband walked back into the place to see what was taking her so long to leave. She has never looked at mystery shopper jobs again. Also she said they all seemed to be in larger cities... like Atlanta!

moonlightrunner wrote:
manager (female) was going to attack her

:S

Sounds like this is exactly why there is a program setup. I understand how they feel thou. Thank you

I haven't paid attention in some time, but there were a couple scams going around, check any "firm" out carefully.

One of my co-worker's wife used to do a "price compare" for a "chain", due to the prevalence of on-line price comparison that program was terminated. Why pay someone to walk into your competitors store, when they publish their prices.

My wife did secret shopping a few years ago. It was fun and she made a few dollars, plus got free meals.

She decided to try it again last year and signed up with an online outfit.
She was sent two very official looking money orders for $1000 and told to deposit them, then take out a portion for her expenses and send the rest to her new manager.

It just screamed of SCAM. They were obviously fake money orders.
For the next couple days she got emails telling her how important it was to deposit the money orders and forward the remaining funds.

Just be careful. There are a lot of scammers out there....

gbopp wrote:
It just screamed of SCAM.

I got one of those too. That is what brought me to this site. My cousin did it for years. She has been called to our Father, or I would ask her about it. I am just looking for a way to make money while we are on the road. My wife retires in October and I would like fun money while out.

I did some mystery shopping with some reputable firms when I was out of work years ago.

I eventually gave up and told them all to go shove it - for the level of work that was involved, it almost always was not worth it. The last straw was one that had a smartphone app that ate my responses, and therefore I didn't get paid. I didn't find out about it until after the deadline for the assignment.

The shoppers for these companies are very much considered as disposable commodities; the money offered for the assignments was so poor that I literally had to make sure that I wasn't losing money in fuel costs to get there.

I'm a "secret shopper" for a major big box chain.

Baseline pay is $15/month for minimal participation, like adding to online discussions or answering surveys. Occasionally there are special projects with extra pay. For instance, recently I had to go to my local store and take pictures of a particular area, then upload them with my opinions of the layout.

The most I've earned in a month was $310, right before Xmas last year. Of course, the most opportunities are for Xmas shopping season. ;)

But for the down side, I don't think you can apply. I received an email asking me to join the community. I do not know how or why I was chosen.

Several years ago -- I worked as a Mystery Shopper for a Nursing Home Chain whereby I pretended to be searching for long-term care for my mother... I really enjoyed it, but it was a short-term position. There was a lot of paperwork but I am anal that way so that was fine with me.

Too bad they don't have something like that for campgrounds, RV Parks, RV Resorts -- whereby owners (especially corporate/chains) could make better assessment of their facilities -- I should would want to do that!

btw -- agree with the others re SCAM for $$ deposited and they get the remainder....NO!!