Mystery shopper??

[hutt90]

Here's a question. I hear all the time about mystery shoppers. Wow what a perfect job for me. I type it in my search engine and bammm 500 websites.. Anyone know a good and reputable company to look into. If anyone has done this I would love any input they can give. Sounds like a good way for a stay at home mom to make a little cash? Any help out there?

 

[cinamin27]

volition.com is a wonderful website for mystery shopping research. there is a forum for job posts by schedulers & MS companies, one for people with questions & comments, etc. read read read the posts from the members before asking questions, do lots of research of what to expect by reading the forums.
they also have a huge list of mystery shopping companies that you may sign up with. Ray only lists companies they have been advised by the shoppers that are reputable. the #1 thing to remember is to NEVER pay a company to become a shopper with them or pay to have a list of companies sent to you. #2 would be to apply to lots of companies, the more you apply to the more you will receive shop opening emails from.

 

[maggiew]

Every time I see these threads, I always read them because I am interested. I have even gone as far as looking at some of the websites. But there seems to be sooo many companies out there that I just don't know where to start. I also am afraid that there is a "catch" somewhere.

I wouldn't necessarily do this to earn extra money. But since we are in "super saver" mode so I can save money for a Disney trip, it would be nice to maybe have some meals paid for since we aren't going out any more.

What is everyone's experience?

Maggie

 

[cboudre1]

I went to volition.com this morning and I signed up for 4 companies. I wanted to start small and I didn't sign up for any that wanted my ss#. mysteryguestinc called me at 3 and offered me a lunch assignment for tomorrow. They are paying for lunch at a place I like to eat. It looks very easy.

 

[HappyMommy2]

cboudre1, please post again and report on your mystery shopper experience! I hope it works out well. I'm curious about this, too.
Thanks!

 

[parrothead5]

About 5 years ago I was a mystery shopper and checked out Burger Kings.
I dont remember the name of the company, but I applied threw an ad in the newspaper. I had to write an example of my most recent resteraunt experience.
When I got the job, the company would send me an assignment. Telling me which Burger Kings to go to, what to order, whether to go inside or threw the drivethrew. And what to lookfor and report on... lobby clean, time waiting inline,,, etc..
I would buy the food that they told me to, and get a receipt. I sent the receipt in with my report, and in a week they would send me a check for $35 per Burger King that I mystery shopped, and reimburse me for the food.
So it really does work, and was very easy.
I didnt get rich, but free food, and $35 for 10 minutes work were pretty cool.

 

[cinamin27]

for the companies that ask for your ss #, you could always leave it blank if the form allows you & advise them in any comment section you will provide number when you get your first assignment.

 

[cboudre1]

We went to lunch today at Smokey Bones. I just finished the questionaire on line. It took about 15 minutes. You don't have to send your receipt, you enter numbers from the receipt on the survey. It was very easy. The women who called me said I will recieve my check on September 20th. She also said to keep the receipt until you get paid. They pay $17 for lunch. We spend $23, so lunch cost us $5. She also said they call around 6 times a year.

 

[maggiew]

How does Mystery Shopping Work in terms of your taxes???

Maggie

 

[SRRN]

I was told that as long as you stay under $300.00 per year,you don't have to pay taxes.More than that and you have to declare it on your taxes.

 

[HappyMommy2]

cboudre1, thanks for the report! Glad you had a nice $5 lunch!

 

[disneefamily]

Disnee Dad Says.........................................My wife did oil changes for a company named Confero for a few years, they are much bigger back east, so we never go anything else going. I don't think we paid for an oil change for about three years on either car.

I signed up at Business Evaluation Services a few weeks ago, haven't done anything yet, but they have a nice format where you can ask for jobs by geography.

I'm so weak, they have a job five minutes from my house to visit a furniture store for $12.50 and I didn't ask for it yet! Maybe tommorrow!

 

[kfeuer]

I've been mystery shopping on and off for a few years now. I really like it since I always have the freedom to refuse an assignment if I want to.

It pays to sign up with as many companies as you can (keep good records of your ID and passwords, many mystery shopping companies have similar names).

When a MS company has a big client, then the same assignments are often available over and over again. Once you do an assignment once or twice, it gets very easy after that.

I've done lots of restaurant mystery shops. The best one I had was at a fancy restaurant in a trendy part of town--it included drinks at the bar, appetizers, entree, dessert, everything. We got a $100 dinner for free, but the report took 2 hours to complete (and I type 90 WPM). It was still very worth it! Unfortunately, those kind of assignments are few and far between.

I also used to do the oil change mystery shops, but they're not doing them in my area this year

Retail mystery shops often don't pay very much. However, if it's in an area I would be going anyway I'll do it from time to time. Sometimes you get to buy (and keep) merchandise and get a small shopper fee on top of that.

All in all, I like it and would recommend trying it. I'm intending to start doing it more myself after our Sept. trip, otherwise we'll never get back to Disney and that's just too depressing!

 

[LoriZH]

I have done mystery shopping and to be perfectly honest with you, it's kind of a pain in the butt (oops can I say that? lol)

You have to travel long distances to stores/restaurants and order EXACTLY what they want you to order all the time doing it within a time frame and gathering all the information they need (usually about 6 to 7 pages full of questions) then you only get paid a small amount of commission and you get reimbursed for your purchase up to a certain amount. BTW, if they say they want you in the store for 30 minutes, the amount of questions and information they want you to gather will take you about 1.5 hours, so it makes your commission even lower.

If you are interested in doing something on an hourly basis making more money, I would try and do Merchandising. A friend of mine does it and she loves it! She gets paid for basically going into a store and standing at the counter answering questions for the product she is there to sell. If she is selling lancome makeup then she only answers questions for lancome products that's it. If they make a purchase, then they make a purchase, if not, no big deal, they want to make sure you have the mdse looking nice and displayed correctly that's all. She works on her own schedule which means if she is in a major department store, she takes her breaks when she wants and does not sell any other product. Good deal if you are looking for something easy to do and make money with your own hours. Do a search at monster.com or another job site and see what comes up in your area.

 

[NYDisneyMom]

I was a mystery shopper for a few years -- just before the big Internet boom swamped my area with shoppers. Some of the shops I did were fun....some were totally not worth the time and effort I had to put into them.

I DID get to shop Disney, though! We had our park passes remibursed just for visiting the ticket booth and evaluating the CM. That was one of my favorite shops. Last I heard, though, they no longer do these shops.