Mystery Shoppers - Anyone try this?

I haven't done it personally, but one of my students in a writing workshop did. She found a local, San Diego company to work for. They gave her assignments, like going into Subway, buying a sandwich and writing a "review." She said it was easy but she made very little money - something like $6.00 or $8.00 per assignment. I know she went into banks a couple of times too.

Carlene

I've done contract work for this company since 2005.

You have to be very careful that the outfit you sign up with is a bonafide company and not a scam (like you pay them to list you in a directory, or similar). Check the FAQ, Terms and any fine print for any hint of fees or other red flags (stuff you do not want to agree to, basically).

Check to see that a mystery shop outfit is a member of NARMS.

The pay rates have fallen dramatically over the last two years for all third-party assignments, so you do have to be smart about gas costs and wear on your car when considering and selecting projects.

Some assignments require you to make some initial investment (buy a pair of shoes, movie tickets, etc.). These costs will be reimbursed by reputable companies, and instructions about how to receive these funds back should be clearly outlined.

Some assignments involve gathering information about products in a store in a covert fashion (without alerting store management to your presence).

Merchandising tasks are done with a store management's knowledge and cooperation.

Reputable companies will have a dress policy for their contractors (i.e., business casual).

Sometimes regular (weekly, etc.) gigs are available.

In the FAQs section - under general stuff there is mention of needing a credit card. If they do not want fees then find out why. A scam company in the UK said there were no fees but they charged for the training manual. It was an expensive training manual!

Any company asking you to pay them anything for anything is a scam. I mystery shop and work as a merchandiser on the side. The pay has really diminished or at best has not keep up with inflation and raising gas prices so you have to take all of that into consideration. On top of that, the pay is for the assignment or if there is an hourly rate paid (some merchandising assignments do) that rate does not include the time it takes you to input the report which can be anywhere from five minutes to two hours or more. Some jobs only pay reimbursement, especially jobs at nice restaurants and amusement park jobs; you’re getting a free meal or a fun activity for your kid in exchange. I’m going to be doing a job at an amusement park and the report will take two to three hours to write and input but my kid and my boyfriend’s kids will have fun and we look like really fun parents and it doesn’t cost me anything but my time.

SS

Fatal Serenity said:

Does anyone know if this is how other mystery shopper companies keep track of purchases or do they use receipts? According to an email I recieved from the company all purchases are covered "in advance" and "there are no startup fees".

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You should never authorize other parties to use your personal credit card to make purchases "on your behalf"...and reputable companies will not ask!

Use your Gut Instinct to protect yourself.

Go to my first post above and click on the NARMS link so that you can get good information about reputable companies and their actual in-store needs in your area.

Good luck!

Fatal Serenity said:

Thanks everyone. I'm going to look into it further.

Shakesbear, you have a good point with the credit/debit card requirement. According to the FAQ section of their website, a card is required shortly after registering for the purpose (it seems) of making purchases that they can keep track of and reimburse.

Does anyone know if this is how other mystery shopper companies keep track of purchases or do they use receipts? According to an email I recieved from the company all purchases are covered "in advance" and "there are no startup fees".

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Um.... baloney! The only people who can track your credit card purchases are your credit card company. I would have thought that you would need to keep receipts and submit a claim for expenses. How can they cover purchases in advance? I mentioned this to a friend in a 'phone conversation yesterday - she told me that she had found a similar type of thing (in the UK) and that they had all sorts of hidden 'stuff' - things like admin charges for giving out the info about where and when to do the mystery shopper stuff, a charge for working out how much they had to pay you and some other silly stuff which made it a total waste of time to even think about doing the work.

One other thing - have you checked that they address they have on their site is real? If it isn't then they may be breaking the law.

Go to the Jobs/Careers tab at NARMS and it will direct you to the Job Search tool...that will let you customize a search by location.

Just make sure the pay is worth the chance of someone getting fired. A friend of mine was nine months pregnant and didn't move fast enough to greet a mystery shopper and was promptly fired after the review came in. The rule was something like we had to greet a customer within 30 seconds of them walking through the door. No warnings - just the axe!