Pretty good piece about Mystery Shopping via vacationing for free....

The only problem: The shopper shows her face and gives her name. This might hurt her hotel shops. I thought they said she did 100 hotel shops this year...

She shows how vacationing costs her next to nothing...

[abcnews.go.com]

One person's comment about the article below:

"Why would ANYONE who is a mystery shopper be stupid enough to go public like this? She will NEVER be able to shop a hotel again since they now know what she looks like, and any mystery shopping company she works for would be smart to ban her for life. Is the 15 minutes of fame really worth it?" .... >>>

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/2014 12:55AM by SunnyDays2.

I saw the piece on the nightly news tonight and was wondering the same!

Have you heard of Sensor Quality Management? It does not seem to be listed in the list below. Maybe I'll google David Lipton. Who know who he could be?

It is on the list as SQM.

I saw an ad for the story on the morning show and wondered if the 'secret' wasn't one that I already knew...LOL

I want the general public to think that mystery shopping is a scam and that they should never ever want to do it. I guess the companies wouldn't like that.

And she was filling out the report as she was dining!!! Big no no

wow... what was she thinking??

I wouldn't be surprised if the name is fake or an actress hired to do a quick piece.

^ about the actor/actress part - she is a real mystery shopper according to her LinkedIn profile, which has her picture:
[www.linkedin.com]

But she also is an actress. One of her former jobs she has listed was working for Mystery, Inc which when I googled it, only had references to Mystery Inc with Scooby Doo and friends. hahaha I love that show. I would love to work THERE.

Still do not want to create even one more mystery shopper, so these national reports annoy me.

BUT...based on the numerous well advertised ms scams, the public at large remains quite apprehensive..

A Wall Street Journal front page piece in the late 1990's is what got me interestd in ms. It profiled a
serious, tenured female shopper. Most of you old timer shoppers probably remember that story...

She "does" shop:

"I frequently conduct corporate evaluations on restaurants, hotels and retail stores and have completed hundreds of retail evaluations for over twenty different companies."

So, put your face out there for millions of viewers/clients/employees to see.... and your mystery shopping prospects are going to go down hill.....

I don't really know about that. Can someone describe the sound of her voice? The color of your lipstick from memory? It's not that easy to remember people when you are not making an effort to do so.

LindaM Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't really know about that. Can someone
> describe the sound of her voice? The color of your
> lipstick from memory? It's not that easy to
> remember people when you are not making an effort
> to do so.


This may be true but she is doing "detailed" hotel shops, where there are cameras around and some employees have an uncanny ability to remember you ....when you wished they wouldn't...but this more applies to repeat shops...I guess...

My husband watched it and said, "They forgot to mention the part about the amount of money you have to provide in advance, while hoping the report will be accepted."

(heart)

PS
He's a former shopper and a current (happy) merchandiser employee.

And this isn't the 90's where the news would run a story and nobody would ever see it again. Now it's all available in perpetuity.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/21/2014 03:08AM by LisaSTL.

The woman in the ABC piece is an "actress" with many uncredited roles to her name on imdb.com.

[www.imdb.com]

But she is a real so-called mystery shopper. The mystery shop company saw the broadcast & recognized her right away by her name & because they have met her in person. Can you spell d-e-a-c-t-i-v-a-t-e-d?

Confidential Informant Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The woman in the ABC piece is an "actress" with
> many uncredited roles to her name on imdb.com.
>
> [www.imdb.com]
> 1
>
> But she is a real so-called mystery shopper. The
> mystery shop company saw the broadcast &
> recognized her right away by her name & because
> they have met her in person. Can you spell
> d-e-a-c-t-i-v-a-t-e-d?

The operative word is "so-called" in this case because a "good" mystery shopper would NEVER go on ABC news and say, "Hi. My name is Mary-Jane Doe and this is my husband and kids, and we mystery shop at HOTELS! Lots and lots of hotels! Here is a video of me shopping. See my face? Yes, that's me at the Sheraton, Radisson, Hilton and Four Seasons...Follow along with me as I do my paperwork in the coffee shop, in front of the employees!

SunnyDays2 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Confidential Informant Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The woman in the ABC piece is an "actress" with
> > many uncredited roles to her name on imdb.com.
> >
> >
> [www.imdb.com]
>
> > 1
> >
> > But she is a real so-called mystery shopper.
> The
> > mystery shop company saw the broadcast &
> > recognized her right away by her name & because
> > they have met her in person. Can you spell
> > d-e-a-c-t-i-v-a-t-e-d?
>
> The operative word is "so-called" in this case
> because a "good" mystery shopper would NEVER go on
> ABC news and say, "Hi. My name is Mary-Jane Doe
> and this is my husband and kids, and we mystery
> shop at HOTELS! Lots and lots of hotels! Here is a
> video of me shopping. See my face? Yes, that's me
> at the Sheraton, Radisson, Hilton and Four
> Seasons...Follow along with me as I do my
> paperwork in the coffee shop, in front of the
> employees!


I'm thinking that it was just one of her acting jobs. Most of the MS'ers that I know and talk to take their anonymity seriously and enjoy their jobs and wouldn't want to risk it by exposing themselves as shoppers. I could be wrong though.

pammie8223 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> SunnyDays2 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Confidential Informant Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > The woman in the ABC piece is an "actress"
> with
> > > many uncredited roles to her name on
> imdb.com.
> > >
> > >
> >
> [www.imdb.com]
>
> >
> > > 1
> > >
> > > But she is a real so-called mystery shopper.
> > The
> > > mystery shop company saw the broadcast &
> > > recognized her right away by her name &
> because
> > > they have met her in person. Can you spell
> > > d-e-a-c-t-i-v-a-t-e-d?
> >
> > The operative word is "so-called" in this case
> > because a "good" mystery shopper would NEVER go
> on
> > ABC news and say, "Hi. My name is Mary-Jane Doe
> > and this is my husband and kids, and we mystery
> > shop at HOTELS! Lots and lots of hotels! Here is
> a
> > video of me shopping. See my face? Yes, that's
> me
> > at the Sheraton, Radisson, Hilton and Four
> > Seasons...Follow along with me as I do my
> > paperwork in the coffee shop, in front of the
> > employees!
>
>
> I'm thinking that it was just one of her acting
> jobs. Most of the MS'ers that I know and talk to
> take their anonymity seriously and enjoy their
> jobs and wouldn't want to risk it by exposing
> themselves as shoppers. I could be wrong though.


Hey pammie, I didn't get the feeling she was "acting" but I did get the feeling she was being a bit stupid for doing the piece on ABC News

No. This was not an acting job. She is just that arrogant & dumb that she actually thought she could get away with going on a national news broadcast & get away with it.

People have met this woman in person at a training session. She was bragging about making up fake times on reports & basically writing fiction. Little did she know an employee of the mystery shopping company was at the training session. And other shoppers for this mystery shopping company. And now this broadcast.

This woman has lost a big chuck of her free dining hotels & retail. Maybe it will get her another uncredited role on tv.

Even if she is an actress, does anyone know if SQM is real or not?

Confidential Informant Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> No. This was not an acting job. She is just that
> arrogant & dumb that she actually thought she
> could get away with going on a national news
> broadcast & get away with it.
>
> People have met this woman in person at a training
> session. She was bragging about making up fake
> times on reports & basically writing fiction.
> Little did she know an employee of the mystery
> shopping company was at the training session. And
> other shoppers for this mystery shopping company.
> And now this broadcast.
>
> This woman has lost a big chuck of her free dining
> hotels & retail. Maybe it will get her another
> uncredited role on tv.


How does she make up/write fake/falsify times? That makes her reports worth ZERO, and they should be thrown out! Not to mention, her times can be corroborated with videotape....

This makes her an exceptionally stupid, awful shopper!

No wait, that makes her NOT a shopper by any stretch of the imagination.

SQM is real. I have not taken any offers yet, but they are a valid company.

lbw1000 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Even if she is an actress, does anyone know if SQM
> is real or not?

Yes, I have signed up and did two hotels and two retail shops for SQM. They have very few shops in the US, mostly in Canada. They have some nice hotels in CA and IL.

This is the msc with the 9 step training quiz. I got bored years ago and passed all 9 levels. I would happily do more shops for them.

SunnyDays2 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Confidential Informant Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > People have met this woman in person at a
> training
> > session. She was bragging about making up fake
> > times on reports & basically writing fiction.
> > Little did she know an employee of the mystery
> > shopping company was at the training session.
> And
> > other shoppers for this mystery shopping
> company.
> > And now this broadcast.
> >
>
> How does she make up/write fake/falsify times?
> That makes her reports worth ZERO, and they should
> be thrown out! Not to mention, her times can be
> corroborated with videotape....
>
> This makes her an exceptionally stupid, awful
> shopper!
>
> No wait, that makes her NOT a shopper by any
> stretch of the imagination.


Funny how people who brag about falsifying information on reports, or lying to get jobs, think nobody is watching or can figure out who they are.

Confidential Informant: Being an actress made it easy for her to fake the whole report and get away with it. If she took on the persona of her character, she could feel as if it was not her own lie.

Awful? Yes! Stupid? No! Apparently she was very intelligently and capably duping the companies she worked for.

How she could have been assigned hundreds of hotel shops a year has got me questioning the intelligence of schedulers and editors though.

"How she could have been assigned hundreds of hotel shops a year has got me questioning the intelligence of schedulers and editors though."

Maybe she exaggerated that number. I mean, realistically, how could you do that many in a year with family responsibilities? Even if you did one every weekend that would only be 52 a year. I guess there is summer vacation but still.

If she lied about everything else why wouldn't she have lied about the number of shops she completed. How interesting would a story be about someone who has completed four or five?

The statement was hundreds of shops (I think 150), not hundreds of hotel shops. If they were all hotel shops, the value of those nights would be far greater than the $5,000 quoted by the article.