What has your mystery shopping experience been like so far?

I would appreciate it if you could answer the following questions(not necessary, but useful!)

1. How long have you been mystery shopping?
2. How many mystery shopping jobs have you done?
3. How many companies have you applied to?
4. Is there anything you’d like to know that would help you with your mystery shopping?
5. Any positive experiences you’d like to share?
6. Any negative experiences you’d like to warn other mystery shoppers about?

Thank you for your feedback!

Also, if you have any questions about mystery shopping...please create a new discussion in the main forum.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/05/2006 08:58PM by JacobJ.

i have not heard anything back from when i filled the details in to be a shopper so i cannot comment on how it went

I started Mystery Shopping the end of May 2006 and have done about 30 shops. I am registered with about 40 Sassie-Shops and get about 10-30 e-mails a day for shops to apply to. I have done gas stations, grocery stores, wireless phone shops, fast food shops, carpet stores, motorcycle shops, and a whole variety of shops. It has been very interesting and am now starting to see the checks come in. It is now a job I will get rich from but it helps the retirement.

I only signed up with one company. Why would I pay to get on a list to mystery shop? Kind of defeats the purpose of trying to make money. I only have been called out on 3 shops. Two were for the same resturant. Wish I was called more with different kinds of shops.

I have been shopping since January and get several jobs. Mostly the smaller ones in pay but better than nothing. Does it really pay to get certified? I have heard if you are certified you are more apt to get higher paying jobs and more of them. Anyone know. thanks

I went out on two mystery shopping assignments. Went on a storage unit assignment which was three different storage units and I got sick and was put in hospital due to my asthma and the hot weather on the days I went, it was fun and met some nice people, and would really like to do some more am up and ready to do some more as soon as I am contacted. The other one was a complete disaster so will not discuss it

I have only had the oportunity to do two mystery shopping assignment. I signed up last year and it was exciting and interesting. I did not have enough available time, but now I have retired and my time is available. Mystery shopping is something I am looking forward to spending a lot of time.

I started in Jan, 2006 and have done about 70 shops with different Companies.
They are all different as for as thier requirements but it is easy to conform to how the client would like the assignment to be handled. As of right now I am rated 5/5. I am having car problems now so I have to stop for a time untill it is fixed then I will be back full time. I am retired and the extra money has already given me an Alaskian cruise, in April of next year it will give me a 12 day Hawian cruise. Not bad for a job that pays you to shop!

I have been mystery shopping for over a year now. I had always worked full time, but after having my baby I decided to stay at home. Mystery shopping gives me extra spending money. I like that I can pick and choose what jobs I want to do and when I want to do them. I am able to take my now 2 year old with me on most shops. I also really enjoy shops where I audit and reveal that I am auditing the store. I have gotten to shop stores that I never would have went to if I hadn't been given the shop. It has been a great experience. I have applies to hundreds of companies and work for at least 20 different companies. We are doing a great service to the public - and it's fun!

My first shop was on Feb. 17th. of this year. I have done 54 mystery shops, 19 demonstrations, 2 surveys, and 1 merchandising job. I have 1 mystery shop today, 1 tomarrow, and 2 Monday. That has been through 13 companies. I have signed up with 106 companies. That goes to show how many you need to sign up with because most of them never give you a job. My first month I made $37.80, second month $345.24, third month $300.20, fourth month $589.50, sixth month $397.40, and last month $387.07. For the one that says she doesn't want to pay someone to tell her companies, you don't have to. There are free list all over the internet. One is on Volition.com. Go there and look at over 100 companies.

1- One year.
2- Around 12
3- A lot, but for the time being few I'm dealing with.
4- Actually yes, is there any kind of fees to pay for the membership?
5- As for # 5-6, no I don't have any negative experience, it was nice to meet people and feel you have a very important task to do.

I have been mystery shopping since April of this year. I've done about 20 shops, not because I haven't had opportunity, but because I am picky. There have been some high paying jobs, but more low paying. I can't justify the gas when a shop pays too low, plus filling out the reports are very time-consuming--not cost effective in my opinion. Twice I've been burned and not gotten paid by two different companies. One was a bonus and the other changed owners and chose to forget their obligations. I'm registered with about 12 companies and find some are better than others. What I do like about it is the variety. It's different with every shop.

I signed up and paid Mystery Shopper company for jobs to begin with. After I got some jobs, I cancelled my membership and got hooked up directly with the shoping companies. I have been shopping for about 10 months. My first three shops were great. I did financial bank shops. After a telephone call for training, I posed as a person who wanted to invest money. It was great fun; like being in a play and playing a role. The pay was good, too. I've done a total of 6 bank shops. I am bilingual so I do bilingual shops and get paid a little more for those. I've shopped celluar company, sunglass shops, restaurants, Radio Shacks, Payless Shoe Store, movie theatres, drug stores and food stores. At first I took everything I could get. I did at least one shop a day. Then I began to realize that some shops didn't pay for the time I spent shopping and inputting the report, especially when the price of gas went up. Now I look for shops that pay $20.00 up and are not too far away from home or movies and restaurants that reimburse AND pay to shop. I mostly do a restaurant around the corner and the movie theatre a the the Mall close by. I eat and see a show for free once a month.

I have been a mystery shopper for over 15 yrs. for over 20 companies. I pick and choose the shops by pay range. Some shops require you to be in the store 20 minutes, make a purchase and reimburse you $5.00. Also, some shops are not worth the pay due to the distance and the price of gas. I love the Shops that I do choose, and I agree, never pay a company to get shops. SCAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been shopping for 9 months and have done about 40 shops. I have shopped convenience stores, restaurants, wireless stores, clothing and more. I've applied to over 100 companies and only do assignments for 4. I am in Ontario and would love to hear which companies offer shops in this province. A lot say they have assignments in ON, but, when I go their sites, all shops are in the States. I haven't had any negative experiences. I've found sales staff to be friendly and helpful.

I have registered with several companies in the last 3 months but have only done 2 shops. The first one was May 30/06 and June 10/06 and I have not got paid for either one as of Aug. 4/06. I have sent emails for update but get no replies. I enjoy doing shops and would like to get more to do but would also like to get paid. I shopped 1 restaurant and 1 shoe store, both were positive experiences. I would like to find more Canadian shops but most sites that I have visited are USA. I need to know some good companies to register with.

I have been a shopper for 2 years now and it has been going alright. I do about 10 shops per month and I do merchendizing also.I belong to 5or 6 different companies. The amounts for the shops need to be raised with the way gas prices are you really can't make much money so most of them are not really worth it.

I did my first shop in Mar. 2006, that consisted of interviewing customers
of a well known fast food operation. This assignment lasted 4 days, 12 hrs. per day. The compensation was good and the work pleasant. I did a few more shops with nice outcomes, but one, which involved counting patrons at a movie
theater, turned out badly because of the ineptness and inefficiency of the
company that contracted me. They didn't pay me for one job, and when I
contacted the BBB, I found that there were a dozen complaints over a 12 mo.
period for not paying their contractors. This has soured me re mustery
shopping, and have more or less washed my hands of the experience.

I shopped March - June 2006, and am presently taking off due to my fathers death. I just LOVE it!!! While working, I worked 3 days per week, and complete between 3 - 5 jobs per day. With the rising cost of gas this has been benifitial. When I first started, I spent two weeks registering for every company I could find. I do have around 6 companies,that I like, and do most of my work for them. What I like best about mystery shopping is the variety, the ability to choose what jobs I like, and the ability to work when I can. The worse experience, was in the beginning. Some forms were long and tedious forms.

I have been a mystery shopper for about 6 years and I loved it. We did major restaurants and Target stores mostly. The last year there have been no restaurants for us to do so we have basically dropped out. I keep checking but you just have electronic stores and hardware stores now. If you ever get restaurants again, please let us know.

1/ been doing this now for 1 year

2/ have done 6 assignments now over the last year, do more merchandising work

3/ have applied to 10 companies

4/ no

5/positive experiences, met some lovely people, like this kind of work it makes you feel important.

6/ negative exp some workers in the shops that we do mystery shopping there is really some rude people and ignorant



2/

I've been doing assignments for several companies since July of 2001. I couldn't begin to tell you how many shops I've done, but I'm sure they number in the hundreds. Just a few of the types of shops I did were retail, rental, race track, cinemas, various restaurant--fast food, buffets, high-end Italian, sit-down--digital audits, telephone audits and many more. I've applied with between 15 and 20 companies, some of which have closed and some I just haven't heard from after I applied. The main company that upset me is the one that asked me to do a shop at Hooters, saying they would reimburse me for the price of a meal for two. Everything ran smoothly for about two years, then, after I did the shop at Hooters and filled out my evaluation, as normal, the dam broke. For no good reason, they wrote back and said they didn't like my evaluation and not only refused to reimburse me, they were going to drop me from their database. A couple weeks later my husband, who had the same last name and address, got an invitation to shop at Hooters from the same company. Then, after we had our lunch and he had submitted his receipt and evaluation, they wrote back and told him they wouldn't pay him because he took me along. I got the idea that they were "using" shoppers but not going to keep them in the database, so you might want to beware of Northwest Loss Prevention Consultants.

1. A little over a yr.

2. I've done 16 jobs so far, I currantly have two assigned to be done within a
week.

3. I have applied to about eight companies.

4. not at this time

5. I have had some very good food and very efficient servers. I enjoyed the atmosphere and the people that are around me.

6. I have had some bad food and the service was worse than I normally put up
with. I have found the property around the business in need of serious
cleaning, and needed to be repaired. Several of the restrooms were nasty and some of the servers needed to do something with their appearance.

I have been mystery shopping for over 1 year now and really enjoy the experience. I have had some difficult assignments and some truly wonderful ones. My shopping assignments range from restaurants, theaters to hardware stores, ladies apparel and candy stores. Having the option of choosing my assignments is so convenient and at times, I wish I could do this fulltime, but there are not enough hours in the day (as I work fulltime). The fact that my observations may actually affect customer service is also one of my reasons for choosing to mystery shop. I do believe some businesses are unaware or unaffected by their employees service. If they only knew, their sales personnel are the frontline people and their behaviour reflects negatively or positively for that business. I hope that the observations made by mystery shoppers does indeed make a difference to the customer service aspect of today's businesses. It only takes one bad sales associate to lose a customer forever. I have shopped several assignments and have only had one negative experience. As well, I do find a few companies require more detailed reports than others and the time required is not entirely in line with the amount of work expended. However, I love to shop and I love to observe. This is a pleasant part-time job.

I have been mystery shopping since Jan. 06, successfully completing approx. 15-20 shops. I have applied to 15 companies. However, I have had my best experience with mysteryshops.com and I mainly do shops for them. I work full-time so this is an excellent part-time job for me. I can shop when I feel like shopping. I love to shop and I love to earn cash. Therfore, this is perfect for me. I dine out a lot. Now I get to do it for free. All of my shops received perfect scores and I never had a problem getting paid. Since I dont work that often and some payments are small I just put the payment in my Christmas Club Account so that I will be ready for this year. For those that complain about gas you can use it at as expense on your tax return. I am not a lawyer but this only makes sense if I am an independent contractor and this is my business, and I am required to use my car to perform the job. At the end of the year your mileage adds up. I had a part-time job and quit because mystery shopping takes up that slack and then some. The only negative experience that I had was at a restaurant where I was required to take pictures. The manager was very nasty and denied me access. He went as far as to escort me from the property and threatend to call the police. I showed him my authorization letter and he stated that he knew nothing about this. I felt that the company that hired the mystery shopping company should have advised the restaurant that this was going to be done. Payment is still pending. It has been 2 weeks. Do they generally deny payment if you did everything you were supposed to do but the manager doesn't allow you access? Overal, I love mystery shopping and will continue to build up my companies. This is great for stay at home moms, part-timers and retirees. Eventhough I am none of the above and I have still benefited from the shopping experience. If anyone wants to ask me any questions about my experience and my preference in companies, I can be reached at shawn1417@yahoo.com

I have been a mystery shopper for about 6 months! So far no luck. I signed up with lots of companys but no bits.

I have not done any shops because I have only been contacted by companies that I have to pay to get the shop information. How do I get contacted by companies like everyone else??

I have not done any mystery shopping because I was never contacted by a company to do so since I have filled out the application.

Some companies that I have tried to go through wants you to pay. How can I get companies to contact me?

I cannot reply either on my shopping experiences as I have never been assigned to an assignment in my area. It would be nice though. So please have companies contact me asap to get started immediately. Especially with the school shopping season at bay.

Jan I have not applied yet because I have been out of town a large portion of the summer because of family matters but now that all of that is out of the way I will be starting to apply any day now. I am looking so forward to this shopping experience because I grade each business I go into for my own personal shopping so I hope I will enjoy being a mystery shopper. Thank you so much for your help Barbara