And Secret Shoppers out there?

[darthspud]

Where did you sign up? Are they worth while?

I would like to get info from people that do it instead of searching the net only to find scams and such.

Any info people have would be greatly appreciated!

Jill

 

[hffmnheidi]

Market Force. I signed up yesterday and already have an assigment for this weekend. There's no sign-up fees and it's not a scam. There's a variety of kinds of assignments that you can choose from.

 

[JoiseyMom]

The best place to go is to www.volition.com, they have message boards adn there are hundreds of companies to sign up for. It is alot of work for not really alot of money. Once you factor in finding jobs, traveling, gas, typing reports and submitting them....it doesn't come out to much.

NEVER EVER PAY to mystery shop!!

Happy shopping...

 

[luvthatdisney]

I used to do Market Force, its been a while. I seemed to only be able to do McDonalds. It seemed like a lot of little rules (eat at this time, watch this, do that) to the point I had a hard time remembering what to do. It was hard to watch what I was supposed to and make sure I did everything. Twice I threw away the receipt, Duh!!!

For my prep time, gas, time there/back, writing review and getting all paperwork together, I did not make much at all if you average the pay by the time spent. I gave up after a while. Stressing myself over such a small amount of money was not worth it to me.

Others may have different opinions, but I won't do it again.

 

[JoiseyMom]

I used to do Market Force, its been a while. I seemed to only be able to do McDonalds. It seemed like a lot of little rules (eat at this time, watch this, do that) to the point I had a hard time remembering what to do. It was hard to watch what I was supposed to and make sure I did everything. Twice I threw away the receipt, Duh!!!

For my prep time, gas, time there/back, writing review and getting all paperwork together, I did not make much at all if you average the pay by the time spent. I gave up after a while. Stressing myself over such a small amount of money was not worth it to me.

Others may have different opinions, but I won't do it again.

Nope, you are correct. McDonalds and all their timings..OMG...

But most companies want times, names, clothing, what they said, did they ask 1 - 4, did they....

Lots of details, lots of reports, some not so bad, they are multiple choice...others...geez. It was fun for a little while..and how much fast food can ya eat?? LOL...

 

[StephMK]

I agree with volition. If you go to the forums, check the job postings section. You can enter your zip & find the local jobs. I signed up for those and have gotten jobs not listed at volition. It's a good resource for narrowing down companies that have work in your area.

I agree, read the directions before you accept any jobs. I just started doing it again last month & made $125 in money & free products and a dinner. The best was an eye appt that paid $50 and was fully covered by my ins. I don't do jobs that aren't worth my time or are wayyy too detailed or I'm not comfortable with the terms.

 

[LisaInNc]

I was a serious secret shopped. Gold certified with MSSA...yes there is a certification that helps you get jobs. It's legit.

I agree w/ volition it's where you want to start.

When I started I went and signed up with every company on their list it took me days to do it. To save time I downloaded a free program it was a form filler type of thing and once I would type in my info like name address, email etc, it would go and fill it out in the next form.

Some companies want an essay. I wrote one and saved it in word and then I would just change it to meet the specific request of each company.

I made a file with the name of the company and my user name and password. That helped me find that information quickly.

Then every day as soon as I got up I would go through the volution list of companies to check and any favorites that I would have that were not on that list.

Many of the jobs are self assigned so you need to get them early.

By doing that I has as many secret shops as I wanted.

I purchased a digital voice recorder and I would wear it in my bra to help me write the reporst later.

I stopped doing it because it wasn't worth it for me. A lot of it is fast food and I don't eat that stuff. I didn't even want to take the one bite the most shops require. I also felt that it was a lot of work for the money and most companies pay through Paypal and that is a big pain and they take 30-45 days to pay you. Other shops require you to buy and item and they don't reimburse you, you are allowed to return it later but that means 2 trips to that store.

That was me, you might enjoy it. With a little work at startup in registering with a lot of companies you can make money.

Another thing that goes hand in hand with the shopping is merchandising. There are links on volition to the merchandising sites too. I liked doing that a lot better but those job are a lot harder to get, they are pretty desirable from what I could tell.

I wish you a lot of luck.

Lisa

 

[Purseval]

My wife does Mystery Shopping. If it isn't local or at a place she goes to anyway it generally isn't worth it.

 

[shan136]

I work with a few companies... I started last summer with Marketforce and did about 10 jobs. Some are worth it, some are not. I stopped doing it actively for a while because it became a hassle to fit it in.

However, six weeks ago I decided to set a goal of earning an extra $500 for Disney spending money before our trip in November and Secret Shopping was the easiest way to do this since most of my regular income this summer will go to camp & childcare for my DD6. I went to Volition and signed up with a few other companies. In may, I did about 15 shops and earned $200.

My rule of thumb is to only sign up for projects that I enjoy and don't take me out of my way because the paperwork for each job is very involved for the amount money SS companies pay.

 

[Ava]

Sorry to bump up an old-ish thread, but didn't want to start a new one since I knew this topic has come up here before!

For those of you that do Mystery Shopping, how long do the shops usually take you? I'm thinking of trying to do some on my lunch break from work; I work in midtown Manhattan so there are a lot of stores/restaurants/etc nearby. However I only get 1 hour for lunch so if the shops usually take longer than that it won't work.

 

[DisneyToddlers]

Sorry to bump up an old-ish thread, but didn't want to start a new one since I knew this topic has come up here before!

For those of you that do Mystery Shopping, how long do the shops usually take you? I'm thinking of trying to do some on my lunch break from work; I work in midtown Manhattan so there are a lot of stores/restaurants/etc nearby. However I only get 1 hour for lunch so if the shops usually take longer than that it won't work.

You could definitely get a shop done on your lunch hour if you don't have to travel much. The time for each shop varies, but I find that a lot of my shops take about 20-25 minutes. Some are less, some are a lot longer. You can usually figure out how long they will take from the description before you accept it. The report will have to be filled out later, usually the same day. Hope that helps!