Mystery / Secret Shopper

[NitaCircle]

I've heard about mystery / secret shoppers but can never get valid information on how to get assigments. I know they are for real because, when I worked at at a retail store we had a secret shopper come in on day. As a side note: "I don't it that secretive, because the managers knew she was coming that day; :rolleyes: They just could not figure out who it would be. We where told to be on our best behavior." But I digress. Most of the websites on this are scams. Have anyone here successfully do secret shopping work, or know anyone how has? And is there a place one can apply directly to companies looking for secret shopper?:)

[lostnotyetfound]

I think most of the times the secret shoppers come from within the company, either from another store or corporate.

[steph78]

I don't know how you get into this, either. I spent about half an hour looking into it online once (so I'm not exactly an expert) but it seemed like most of the organizations I came across want you to pay an upfront "membership" fee before they will send you on assignments/you earn any money...seems like a potential scam to me.

If you find out, I'd love to know about it, though - it would be a perfect way for me to make some extra money now that I'm staying home with my daughter all day.

[Deni81]

Be careful about the mystery shopper thing. I was interested in it last year as a easy way to make extra money that wouldn't interfere with my full-time job. So I saw an ad for it in the paper and called the number. They explained the job a little and then asked for my credit card number. You had to pay for the listings of jobs. Needless to say i quickly hung up.

[winneythepooh7]

I honestly feel that anything that looks like it would be easy, quick $$$, probably is in fact, a scam.

[Eithne]

I did it through a temp agency, Manpower to be exact.

[NitaCircle]

Thank for the replies. I think the jobs are for really but the path to getting to one is minefielded with scams. One of the posters said they did one through Manpower. I'm gonna try them and see what pans out.:rolleyes: I'll keep y'all posted on my progress.

[pepsi91307]

Whenever I get secret shopped at my store, it is from a company named Shoppers Critique (www.shopperscritique.com). Considering that it is the same company sending us a secret shopper in time, I would assume they are legitimate though I have not looked into it all. Just throwing a name out there for you to look into if you like.

[sundaycomics]

I did the secret shopper thing for awhile and quit recently. The problem wasn't that it was a scam in the sense that random people were taking my money. I was getting paid, just not enough to make it worth my time and all the BS that goes with it.

[winneythepooh7]

I did the secret shopper thing for awhile and quit recently. The problem wasn't that it was a scam in the sense that random people were taking my money. I was getting paid, just not enough to make it worth my time and all the BS that goes with it.

Yeah, I signed up for the site Pepsi recommended and it doesn't look like it would be worthwhile. There was only like one place listed in my area which is surprising because I live in a major urban/suburban environment, it didn't list a reimbursement rate, and you had to spend minimum $75.00 on food.............

[ccc1979]

I did some of these when I was in college. Not worth it, IMO.

Typical shops ask you to spend at least 15 minutes in a store, interact with someone, buy something small to prove you were there (they'll reimburse you $5 for it), then run home and fill out a lengthy survey online. On top of the merchandise reimbursement of $5, they'll give you a payment of $8. So, you spend 10 minutes getting to the store, 15 minutes in the store, 5 minutes taking notes in the car (the companies typically want a detailed narrative, a play-by-play, of the entire scenario), 10 minutes driving home, 45 minutes filling out the survey and composing your narrative. Then you need to make a copy of the receipt and mail the original to the firm you are doing the shop for. So in about 1.5 hours, you've "earned" $8, plus a bag of gummy bears. About 1.5 months later, they paypal the $8.

Many of them also require you do the shops completely alone- you cannot bring children. This is because the mystery shopping firms really want you to give the shop your undivided attention.

I still do some shops that I feel are worthwhile, either because they offer more in free product I would like anyway, or because the surveys are shorter. The ones I find worthwhile are few and far between, though.

[NitaCircle]

That sounds quite unappealling.

I did some of these when I was in college. Not worth it, IMO.

Typical shops ask you to spend at least 15 minutes in a store, interact with someone, buy something small to prove you were there (they'll reimburse you $5 for it), then run home and fill out a lengthy survey online. On top of the merchandise reimbursement of $5, they'll give you a payment of $8. So, you spend 10 minutes getting to the store, 15 minutes in the store, 5 minutes taking notes in the car (the companies typically want a detailed narrative, a play-by-play, of the entire scenario), 10 minutes driving home, 45 minutes filling out the survey and composing your narrative. Then you need to make a copy of the receipt and mail the original to the firm you are doing the shop for. So in about 1.5 hours, you've "earned" $8, plus a bag of gummy bears. About 1.5 months later, they paypal the $8.

Many of them also require you do the shops completely alone- you cannot bring children. This is because the mystery shopping firms really want you to give the shop your undivided attention.

I still do some shops that I feel are worthwhile, either because they offer more in free product I would like anyway, or because the surveys are shorter. The ones I find worthwhile are few and far between, though.

[Martel]

My Mom used to be a part time mystery shopper for a fast food place. It was mostly for free food though. A couple times a week she would go to a restaurant at a certain time and mostly just time everything. She only had to fill out a one page form.

It was pretty fast and easy. I don't know how she got paid though.