Ethical problem?

I'm in the middle of a two-visit mystery shop and I wonder if I'm doing the right thing.

Here's the deal. The final customer (paying the agency's bill) is high-end car maker A. The job involves visiting dealers for some combination of A and its five main competitors, brands B, C, D, E, and F. In my case I get to visit B, C, D, and E. The idea is to find out just how far the various companies will go with offering discounts. I have to make a first visit, get a quote for a high-end car ($100K+), then go back a couple of days later and ask for even more discount.

The problem I have is that I am taking up a lot of time of the salespeople of brands other than A. For example, one young salesman spent the better part of an hour configuring and pricing a car which I have no intention of buying, while other customers walked in and out. Maybe one of them would have bought if he had been more readily available.

I don't mind taking up the time of people who work for the final customer, or their franchisees; being mystery shopped is part of the deal. But I wonder about the ethics of company A paying an agency to /a/ spy on company B's policies, and /b/ in effect put company B's sales staff out of action for a while.

Or am I being over-sensitive?

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That is why I do not do these shops.

I've only done a couple of these competitor shops. When I visit the competitor, I've already got the options package picked out, that way I minimize the salesperson's time with me; i.e. "I want the Arnage [Bentley] with a drophead [convertible] and run flat tires."

I also wouldn't be surprised if at least some of the other brands shopped each other.

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Have PV-500 & willing to travel.
"Answers are easy. It's asking the right questions which is hard." (The Fourth Doctor, The Face of Evil, 1977)

"Somedays you're the pigeon, somedays you're the statue.” J. Andrew Taylor

"I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him." Galileo Galilei

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/30/2015 04:46PM by James Bond 007.5.

They know they are being shopped, they all do it to each other

It's a part of doing business, and as others have said they all do it to each other. That being said, I couldn't do it but I wouldn't fault anyone else who did. I eat meat, but I wouldn't want to be the one who slaughters the cow. We all have our limits. Just do what you can feel good doing and stop when it doesn't feel good any more.

There are two types of people in this world: Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.

I've done quite a few of these car negotiation shops, and I agree that they're ethically questionable. The salesperson who does a "good" job doesn't benefit from what we're doing but is in fact potentially harmed by it.

I think the comparison to meat-eating is valid. I don't feel entirely comfortable doing it, but the benefits are a little too high for me to stop.

The respoinse I had posted here belongs elsewhere. Sorry.

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/2015 04:23PM by myst4au.

>I've only done a couple of these competitor shops.
>When I visit the competitor, I've already got the options package picked out,
>that way I minimize the salesperson's time with me
That was my intention. Unfortunately, the configurations that the MSC told me to use had several bugs:
1. Prices changed (the configurations were created in December 2014 and the makers revise their prices on January 1)
2. Different pre-packaged options in the various models
3. Ridiculously implausible combinations of options, so I'm left trying to explain to the salesperson why I want feature A (which is obviously aimed at families) with feature B (which is obviously aimed at people with no children).

As a result, in a couple of cases, the salesperson spent a lot of time sincerely helping me to correct "my" mistakes, and I had to smile and sit there like an idiot. I then have to explain every change from the pre-packaged configuration on the report form.

Yeah, I've been asked why I wanted 4 wheel drive on a luxury sedan in a city with an almost entirely flat terrain, and had to sit there and smile awkwardly for a moment until the guy figured he'd rather not argue with me.

You can't just say, "Our summer home is in the mountains on a dirt road"?

Time to build a bigger bridge.

Never think of these things in the moment. I always tell myself I should prepare better.

myst4au,

Did you intend for your response above to be in another thread?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/2015 04:25PM by spaztck.

@af517 wrote:

Never think of these things in the moment. I always tell myself I should prepare better.

Gotta have your back story ready. i rehearse everything in the car driving to the job just in case someone gets chatty. Why am I there? Where do I work? Do I have kids? Where do I live? Where do I drive? Why does my drivers license have an address 100 miles from this dealer and there's a dealer for that make in my town? (Maybe I won't go in that dealer because I used to date one of the sales people.) Why that particular car? always be ready for the busybody who wants to know your life story.

Of course that doesn't always save you ... I went to do a Chrysler Plymouth Jeep dealer once. I decided I wanted a jeep because I no longer needed my 4WD truck since I sold my horses but I wanted something that could get me through the snow. Okay. Knew what I wanted, why I wanted it, and what it was replacing.

Told the salesman all that.

"We don't have any Jeeps. We sold through our inventory and the new models aren't out for another six weeks."

A little late to decide a PT Cruiser would work just as well. Luckily he had a used Wrangler on the lot so I let him show that to me so I could evaluate his selling skills.

Time to build a bigger bridge.

@dspeakes wrote:

Gotta have your back story ready.

True enough. I was doing a Lexus one when I first started car shopping, and told the guy I wanted a Lexus because my boss drives one and recommended them to me. The salesman asked me where I worked. Not thinking fast enough to lie I gave my real employer name, a small local business. Guy hesitates a second. "I think I've heard of them! What's your boss's name?" Once again the truth slips out. "Wait a minute, I know him! Hasn't he been here before?"

The fact is my boss doesn't drive a Lexus and has never been to this dealership, and the guy was likely either mistaken or deliberately bluffing me. I then get caught in a lie because "Oh, no, he doesn't drive a Lexus" slips out of my mouth when not a minute earlier I had said the exact opposite. I manage to stammer out some kind of cover that the guy either buys or decides not to argue with.

From then on I don't work for my company, but for one of its main competitors. I usually do better with as few direct lies as possible, and the more truth I can weave into my story, the easier it is for me to get into it. But that was a bit scary.

If I'm mystery shopping company B for company A, I don't think it's the end of civilisation as we know it if someone from company B's staff works out I'm a mystery shopper. It's not like word is likely to get back to the MSC.

Good point. But do you always know when you're doing a competitor shop? The only shops I've ever done where this was stated up front were shipping service shops and a couple of senior living ones. A multi-shop high dollar bank shop I did I only found out was a competitor shop after I was deep into it.

Time to build a bigger bridge.

I still wouldn't want a company to find out I was shopping them for their competitor. I'm not good at social confrontation.

>>But do you always know when you're doing a competitor shop?
I'm reasonably sure that the customer is A (and not B/C/D/E) because the PDF briefing files contain "X_competitor_" at the start of the filenames, where "X" is a high-end model from company A that competes directly with the models I've been shopping for.

>>I still wouldn't want a company to find out I was shopping them for their competitor. I'm not good at social confrontation.
Me neither, but as someone pointed out upthread, being mystery shopped in general is part of the deal in any customer-facing job. And personally, I can handle an uncomfortable but honest discussion slightly better than one where I have to tie myself in intellectual knots with an increasingly complex cover story. (That's also one of the reasons I've never cheated on my wife, but that's a whole nother story!)

af517, in those circumstances, I make up a company. It is generic so it is difficult to know what kind of work it does.

One time I told a car salesman that I sold nuclear reactors for GE. I was in Florida and had seen in the paper that a power company there was looking at converting some of their plants to nuclear. When the salesperson started to ask me details, I said I couldn't discuss them with him because he didn't have the security clearance. He asked how I knew that and I said, "If you had the security clearance, you wouldn't be trying to sell me a car."

@af517 wrote:

Yeah, I've been asked why I wanted 4 wheel drive on a luxury sedan in a city with an almost entirely flat terrain, and had to sit there and smile awkwardly for a moment until the guy figured he'd rather not argue with me.

I drive a 4-wheel drive luxury car. It goes faster.

Good to know. That's what I'll say next time.

I work in Mergers and Acquisitions. I travel a lot to various clients in order to streamline their business. I ensure that they are not hemorrhaging red. I need XX to be both professional and yet kid friendly since I have twins and another on the way. I also have 3 dogs, one of which is small and the other two are rottie/ mastiff mix.
If it is anything with all-wheel, I have to have a tow package and winter tires since my business is based out of NY however this client I have here requires me for the next 2 years.
How can you help me?

This is basically what I say. It answers many questions and keeps the looks to a minimum. I dress business casual with a professional hair cut. I will be getting my nails manicured since I am doing more and more high end shops.

I don't mind doing these commission shops since I have worked management and in commission sales and have seen first hand the pressure that some associate inflict.

by the way, I was asked where the kids were and I said at the nannies. Another time I was asked about my husband. I stated simply that I 'have no idea. I do ivf. where is the phone charger ports?'

Just lost trying to find a fire pit in a concrete jungle wishing it was a wooded glen...

if it wasn't for bad luck, I would have no luck at all

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