Secret Shopper ?

[Ropdoc]

I apologize if this is the wrong section for this question.

Does anyone know anything about a ligit "SECRET SHOPPER" progrm. When I was a kid a cousin of mine traveled the US as a paid shopper. She did very well shopping in restraunts, movies, stores etc. I was hoping it could be an option for my wife and I.

Thank you,
Dave

[zippyphil]

I did not get that certification but a friend did and also called is a joke.

I me an if you are a fast and creative writer. Some surveys require very little narrative. The steakhouse I do I can be be with the while report in 15min NOW. Sometime you see the same questions in different reports, so you will remember how you said it in another report.

[carl2591]

Lady Pamela wrote:
I have been a mystery shopper for several over 9 years. There is a website called "Mystery Shoppers Providers Association". You can find many reputable companies there and sign up for them but they do not tell you which companies they do shops for. I am signed up with over a hundred companies and have only worked for a handful because they do not have shops in my area. You can also take a course to be certified which I did and was offered better shops because of my GOLD certification. It cost $100 for the course at the time. I have done fast food, movies, casual restaurants, grocery stores and retail stores but most only reimburse for the cost of the meal and/or a small fee for the report. As I started getting high scores for my reports I started asking for more money to do the shops. I don't do many any more as they are just not worth it to me.

sound to me like the only thing the "Mystery Shoppers Providers Associations" provides is a steady income to THEM.. you paid 100 buck to get a GOLD certification.. they got 100 buck for a piece of paper.. sounds like they are a scam and not worth the effort or expense..

guess you did get to sample some different places and got a small stipend as well.. but what is your time worth.. ??

[Ropdoc]

zippyphil wrote:
i hope this has helped,
Zippy

Thank you for the advice. This is very helpful.

Dave

[zippyphil]

i would not consider myself an expert on mystery shopping, but i have done quite a few of them for various shops. i get 15-20 emails each day for shops. i decline most because they are not projects i want to do or they are too far. i get requested to test drive a car an test the knowledge of sales staff daily guidelines for this say you need to 40K to drive to the dealership. some shops now are asking for you to wear covert cameras. you either have to have the equipment or buy it. some mystery shopping business will charge you a fee to use theirs. dealerships usually pay well. A shop I do on a regular basis is a steakhouse. the requirements for that shop is 1 or 2 people 1 min. beverage (soda or beer) one appetizer and 2 entrees. plus tip i get reimbursed $35 for this. my job though is not complete. i still have to file my report. you need to keep track of times when food came out, were the hot plates hot and the cold plates cold? did they offer the upsell. take a quick trip to the restroom. this are not meant to be overly nit-picked and go in there expecting to unnecessarily pick on things. you still have to remain silent and not reveal yourself (some you do) you cant go in there with a chip on your shoulder attitude or the "ha ha i hated that place or i hate someone who works there". the paperwork i have to fill out only takes me 30 min to fill out. the first few times it was over an hour. out of pocket and after my reimbursement dinner for 2 was under $5. each shop is different and they arech will give you VERY specific instructions and time frames of what question they want asked. if you miss any of these or you try to just make something up you may not get paid at all ( if you were asked to get a persons name you need to provide what the person looked like which includes hair color, length, glasses, short, tall etc.) which also brings up another MAJOR part of the jobs. dont bother even applying if you got D's in grammar, spelling, punctuation, adjectives, and the proper use of something like too, to and two. no slang or shorthand. people who got A's on book reports would do well. 99.9% of the complaints online saying "screw that company they never paid me..." did not follow the directions to max or did not submit paperwork on time etc. after typing so much of this now maybe i am an expert. lol. another point is when applying to mystery shopping companies some ask you question about you that require you to write out an answer with a 3-4 sentence minimum. no copying an pasting the answers here either. I have not applied for these because of that, but if i DID I would get even more requests in my email. They DO have software that WILL DETECT things like that. i have never been able to submit the same report to a mystery shopping company.



understand a few things:

1. any type of mystery shopping that wants money for joining. these are 100% scams. I have never paid anything to anyone ever for any shop.

2. they pay 99% paypal. THE SHOPS ARE PAID IN 30 DAYS IN 99% OF THE TIME. this is normal.

3. Some sites, when registering eventually ask you for your EIN or SS number for payment records. If this worries you get a lifelock account or similar. i have never ever had an issue in 15+ years. the ones that complain are the ones that got scammed.

4 here are some LIGIT sites as of this posting

this is "new" considering how long I have been doing this and is a GREAT place to start. I wish it was around way back then! http://www.jobslinger.com/ they are connected in every way, facebook twitter instasgram announcing the current openings. job slinger puts just about all the legit places to work. there are many of these mystery shopping places. some are large and some small. you may need to understand this too. with so many of these places to fill their applications out with it can be daunting. this part you may be able to copy an paste some information.you may want to set up a separate email account and a robo auto form filler. job slinger site also allows you to search by zipcode, so like i said before I do a steakhouse chain. traveling in the RV I could try an schedule my stop around that if its convenient. free steak dinner? (in 30 days) LOL there is a lot of jobs if you have a teen 18 to something to try an buy tobacco. i wish i had someone in that age range.

one last thing. i did not correct all my errors in this post. this would not be a great report and you may not get accepted for the job the next time the project comes up. Again NEVER pay for something.

i hope this has helped,
Zippy

[Lady_Pamela]

I have been a mystery shopper for several over 9 years. There is a website called "Mystery Shoppers Providers Association". You can find many reputable companies there and sign up for them but they do not tell you which companies they do shops for. I am signed up with over a hundred companies and have only worked for a handful because they do not have shops in my area. You can also take a course to be certified which I did and was offered better shops because of my GOLD certification. It cost $100 for the course at the time. I have done fast food, movies, casual restaurants, grocery stores and retail stores but most only reimburse for the cost of the meal and/or a small fee for the report. As I started getting high scores for my reports I started asking for more money to do the shops. I don't do many any more as they are just not worth it to me.

[charming]

I used to do quite a bit of it but I got board with writing the reports and the nitpicking that went on with some companies. It is not good money if you are trying to make ends meet but it did pay for some great dinners at places I wouldn't normally go to. There are plenty of legitimate companies - just be really good on your grammar, have a good stop watch and be prepared to look stupid.

[called2write]

Best source of information... http://mysteryshop.org/

[WeBeFulltimers]

I have never worked as a secret shopper, but I have always wanted to be a full time mattress tester! :W

[debw241]

Good LUCK!!

Something my husband and I really enjoy is passing out samples at grocery store etc.

CROSSMARK ( they acquired NCIM (New Concepts in Marketing)-- is reputable and you can say Robert and Debra Wiliams referred you if you are interested. We have worked in Utah, Nevada, California and I think Idaho for them... I know they no longer have the Smith/Kroger account where we worked mostly -- and now we are not able to do it as either travelling too much or working at location too much...

http://www.crossmark.com/

Good LUCK! - Deb

[Ropdoc]

Thank you, I would love the RV PARK review as well. But all in all sounds like a job that is just not worth the time. Oh well, time to look for something else I guess.

[debw241]

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!!

[AprilWhine]

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.

[JoeTampa]

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.

[Ropdoc]

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.