I see lots of shops at a certain location. It's a big box electronic stores. Many MSPs seem to have clients that want you to go to this store, either for the store itself or for one of the many brands they sell. I am fairly certain I could spend a whole afternoon at this store and do at least a half dozen shops for different MSPs and clients. In fact I think next time I walk into the store, it might just be full of mystery shoppers haha.

Question is: Is it considered unethical to do this? Go to the same store for different MSPs and different clients? Or is this something people do all the time? thanks #newbie

If in doubt, ask the MSPs involved. If you don't care to do that, walk out the door to put your most recent purchase in the car, walk back in and do shop #2 rinse and repeat.

I do it, but I have some personal "rules" about how I go about it.

1) I know who the client is for each shop. I don't double up and I keep the reports all very separate. So, I may enter the store and head to the cellphone area to see if they recommend my local cable company for internet service to go with my phone. Then, I may head over to the laptops and ask a few questions about a specific brand. Then, smartwatches, then appliances, etc. etc. For each "department" I note the time in and time out and don't let them overlap. I don't ask/evaluate the same employee for different shops.

2) I note beforehand which shops want what for a POV. If I need to get a receipt, I make sure that only one of the scheduled shops is offering a reimbursement. I never ask to be reimbursed twice for the same item. Most of the time, for me, it works out that either a receipt is required with no reimbursement or a time-stamped photo is required.

That said, I find that I get really terrible service at the Big Box Electronics store and spend way more time in there than I'd like, just trying to get assistance. I usually end up cursing myself for taking the shops and swearing to never do it again.... only to find myself in the same store a month or two later.

@meghan9262 wrote:

That said, I find that I get really terrible service at the Big Box Electronics store and spend way more time in there than I'd like, just trying to get assistance. I usually end up cursing myself for taking the shops and swearing to never do it again.... only to find myself in the same store a month or two later.

I feel the same way normally, with the additional twist that I am a female, I work in IT for my day job and when I go in there, a lot of the sales guys look right past me and talk to my husband, who works in the travel industry and can't really tell the difference between a toaster and a computer (except you can't watch movies on a toaster). But last time I went in there I actually got good service, so we'll see. I might attempt something like this in a couple of weekends.

I look for opportunities to do this! That said, if two different MSC's are sending you in to check the XYZ cell phones, I would not do that unless you check with both MSC's. No sense loosing future work! That said, recently I visited this store and did a shop for one MSC where I shopped for 50" TV's, another MSC where I shopped for appliances, another MSC where I shopped for laptops, and yet another MCS where I shopped for cell phones. I did not use the same POV for all shops. I was able to use a business card, a brochure, and a couple of small purchase receipts (a drink when I entered, and a separate small purchase as I left.)

OK so basically avoid double dipping by doing the same shop for two different MSPs, or getting reimbursed twice for the same reciept, and I should be fine, right?

Right.

I agree although personally I don't have a problem getting reimbursed twice for the same receipt. That's like saying if Company A offers you a travel bonus to go do a shop in City Z and then you call up Company B and say hey I might can grab that shop for you in City Z, are you going to say no when they offer to drop an extra $20 on it? I find it hard to believe you would say "Oh nooooooo! Company A is already paying me to go there! I couldn't possibly let you pay me to go there too!"

It's the same thing. Company A wants a receipt that show you were at Store Z. Company B also wants a receipt to show that you were at Store Z. They are not "reimbursing purchases" they are paying you to get a receipt to prove you were there. Just because they are both offering to reimburse the cost in order to get the proof doesn't mean it is unethical to use the same receipt.

That totally depends on your ethics. Mine would say it was terribly wrong to have two different companies reimburse you for the same expense.

And I think it's rude to call me unethical.
Please explain HOW to me it is unethical to do so?

Once again I did not say you were UNETHICAL but rather that my ethics are different. A reimbursement is to cover an expense or loss which you have incurred. You only incurred it once yet you would have two companies repay it?

For the big box electronics store shops I've seen the reimbursement is normally $1-$2 to cover the cost of a small item in order to provide a receipt to prove you were there. It is merely a payment in return for proof you actually where were you said you were. One receipts satisfies that requirement for both companies.

When you drive to Clewiston you only incur the driving expense once. Do you refuse bonuses above what that requires?

If you had to send an item to an MSC and they were willing to reimburse your postage to send it priority and you were able to do a USPS shop would you tell the MSC "oh no I'm getting a USPS shop for that" or would you get reimbursed for both?

If you sold something on eBay in which someone paid you for priority shipping would you refund their money if you were able to get a USPS shop?

When an MSC gives you a $20 bonus for gas and you pick up one of those nice gas station shops that reimburses $5 in gas and pays a $6 fee do you refund $5 of your $20 gas bonus?

If I'm doing an overnight route and the MSC offers to add a $100 bonus for hotel should I refund that bonus if I pick up a hotel shop?

When doing a shop downtown in a major city and you see two companies that bonus for parking do you refuse the bonus on one? What if you pick up a parking shop? Do you refuse parking from both?

It should be okay..i would just run it by each MSC to be sure....and if you are being reimbursed for a small token purchase...you can likely purchase 1 larger item to cover all the reimbursements...for example, if you do 6 shops that each reimburse $2...that is a total of $12..so if you spend at least $12--you are probably okay using the same receipt.....but you can't spend $2 and submit the receipt to each company and get $12 back...unless you have their permission.

it is unethical to be reimbursed 6 times for 1 purchase...and can get you banned from the MSCs....reimbursement is not a bonus, so they cannot be compared.

getting reimbursed to do a USPS shop and to send something to a MSC is a problem as you are getting reimbursed 2x for the same expense...and again can get you booted...even sued

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/2015 04:39AM by jmitw.

Sure you can. It is none of their business what other shops you are doing.

Some MSCs want a POV and even let you pick up a discarded receipt as long as it has the correct date and location. I have always thought that was odd, so I buy something. Since they are not reimbursing me, I buy a low value gift card which I can later use. If another MSC had the same policy, I would not have a problem using the same receipt (shopping a different department and a different product and a different Associate). Or if the second reimbursed me $1.25 (yes, that is a common amount for one MSC) and the second said that I could use a receipt I found on the ground, I feel that I could use the same receipt for both. Oftentimes, one MSC wants a non-reimbursed receipt, and the other wants a date and time stamped photo of the exterior. No problem for me at all. To me, it is like going to two different stores at a mall for two different MSCs.

@bgriffin wrote:

I agree although personally I don't have a problem getting reimbursed twice for the same receipt. That's like saying if Company A offers you a travel bonus to go do a shop in City Z and then you call up Company B and say hey I might can grab that shop for you in City Z, are you going to say no when they offer to drop an extra $20 on it? I find it hard to believe you would say "Oh nooooooo! Company A is already paying me to go there! I couldn't possibly let you pay me to go there too!"

It's the same thing. Company A wants a receipt that show you were at Store Z. Company B also wants a receipt to show that you were at Store Z. They are not "reimbursing purchases" they are paying you to get a receipt to prove you were there. Just because they are both offering to reimburse the cost in order to get the proof doesn't mean it is unethical to use the same receipt.

yes they are reimbursing purchases

Now I am wondering if it would ever make sense to submit a receipt as POV but not ask to be reimbursed. I was wondering that on the thread too where people were debating whether it was OK to return purchases. If you only bought the item for POV and then you decide to return it, or present it to more than one MSP as POV, would you ever just say "ok here's the receipt but I don't want to be reimbursed" or would that be a red flag of some kind?

I think some people are too hung up on the "I'm getting paid for it already" and not focusing on what is important. The MSC couldn't give a rats rear end if someone else is reimbursing you for the same purchase. It doesn't affect their bottom line and that's all that matters. They know if you do that ink mystery shop that they're gonna pay you $6 and pay up to $1.25 for reimbursement so you can get a receipt. Do you REALLY think they care that you're turning in that $1.25 receipt for the cell phone shop you did across the aisle? No.

I did a route last year where the MSC directly reimbursed me for hotels. As in I submitted a receipt and they added it to my payment. They EXPECTED that some of the receipts would be hotel shops. They didn't care because me using that same receipt for another shop did not affect their bottom line.

Just stay out of Best Buy all together if possible! Only the european company that pays me in Euros to my Paypal will bring me into that store. The company that wants me to shop appliances or the other one that wants to inquire about internet and tv services is not worth it to me.

If I could stack them in the same visit, I might be tempted to pick up the other two though.

I have done the trifecta shop at Costco before without leaving the store for separate companies all in different areas visiting different employees. I bought a $5 roaster chicken for the POV for one and the hotdog and a drink as POV for the other one. Those are both loss leaders for Costco and I ALWAYS get both if I visit. So I have two separate receipts. I get the dog and drink on the way in and the chicken on the way out so I can sip on my soda while shopping and it keeps the shop timings from overlaping this way as well.

One queston: We know the base pay for auditing the big box electronics store. Has anyone matched or beaten the reimbursement for the hours-long store audit by doing multiple shops in the same store in the same day?

I have made $45 for 3 completely different mystery shops in that Big Box electronics store and was in and out in 75 minutes (total). Is that what you are asking? That is more than 50% of the base rate in far less time and far easier IMHO.

@myst4au wrote:

I have made $45 for 3 completely different mystery shops in that Big Box electronics store and was in and out in 75 minutes (total). Is that what you are asking? That is more than 50% of the base rate in far less time and far easier IMHO.

Thank you. That is exactly what I was hoping for today.

@CeciliaM wrote:

Now I am wondering if it would ever make sense to submit a receipt as POV but not ask to be reimbursed. I was wondering that on the thread too where people were debating whether it was OK to return purchases. If you only bought the item for POV and then you decide to return it, or present it to more than one MSP as POV, would you ever just say "ok here's the receipt but I don't want to be reimbursed" or would that be a red flag of some kind?

I suspect it would be a red flag. A correctly completed shop is done according to instructions and if the instructions indicate you are to make a purchase and get a receipt, that is part of THAT specific shop. It is your proof of visit. Submitting the same receipt for several shops would bring all of the shops into question. I strongly suspect that those who would use the same receipt for more than one shop would not submit the same receipt for multiple shops from the same MSC. Most of the time obtaining a receipt is also to evaluate the cashier, so picking one up off the ground would also defeat part of the evaluation and in fact I have never seen that as an option on a shop. When I have asked for permission to do multiple shops at the same location for an MSP they indicated it was fine, but that I should evaluate separate cashiers with separate purchases on each shop and they would prefer there be no overlapping times at all. Where I was doing multiple shops through the same scheduler AND there was no cashier evaluation AND the purchase was not being reimbursed but was simply to show where and when I was present, then I was encouraged not to leave and come back in but rather to evaluate and collect the POVs from the other vendors first and then start my timing for the shop that required the receipt.

I don't know that I'd do them all together like that. I would exit the store between each shop. If someone reviews your activity and notes you haven't left the store, they may question it, especially if you need to make a purchase for POV. I think it's a risk that could come back to haunt you one day. Unless guidelines expressly state the contrary about multiple shops, I'd leave and make a pretend phone call or something. Folks do that all the time.

Disregarding whether I think it's "right" or "wrong" to use the same receipt on two different jobs for two different companies, why would the companies care? And disregarding whether I think it's "right" or "wrong" to go into the Big Box and do two to three shops while I'm there for two to three companies, why would the companies care? As long as they get a shop done to their guidelines, a timely report, and a receipt dated within the timeframe of their shop, what difference does it make to the company? Why would they care? I'm not asking about ethics, I'm asking about business.

If time in/time out is of importance for meeting client requirements or any in house 'checks and balance', doing both at the same visit and providing one receipt will distort actual time spent on one shop. There are many aspects of shops that shoppers are not privy to, though on some shops we are required to spend a minimum amount of time on a particular task and time distortion could come into play. A client decides to review the store video. You state you went in at 11:15 and departed at 11:45. They look at activity at their kiosk between 11:15 and 11:45. No customer appeared until 11:30 because the shopper did the other part of the shop first. The associate went on lunch break at 11:25 as scheduled and the shopper reported there was no associate to assist them. There potentially could be a number of wrinkles.

Your in/out time has absolutely nothing to do with using the same receipt for two or three shops. You record your in/out time for that interaction, not the whole time you're in the store. If they have a problem that the receipt is timed 15 minutes later than your interaction then you just explain to them that you had other business in the store. Be it a shop or personal business. I personally would have no problem telling them the other business was another shop. IF you went to Best Buy, did your interaction for a cell phone shop, went to the TV department to look at TVs because you are in the market for one, then bought a coke and exited the store, your receipt time would be off 15 minutes too, and they wouldn't care.

But MDN hit the nail on the head. From a business standpoint they don't give a rat's behind.

Here's how I see it:

If they get what they paid for and they're happy, I've done my job.

I recently did a double dipper which included an automotive service shop and an assignment to photograph the entire parking lot for a striping project. My time on the automotive service shop began when I entered the building and ended when I exited the location. During the required wait time for the automotive service I photographed the lot. That job started with the time on the first picture and ended with the time on the last picture. As far as I know they got what they paid for and they're happy. I did my job(s). I don't see anything wrong with it.

If they had both required a $1.00 purchase (which they didn't) I could have made a $1.00 purchase and collected twice, or I could have made two $1.00 purchases and collected on each one. I don't think either process would have been "wrong" or "unethical" because they would have both specified a $1.00 purchase and I would have provided them with a $1.00 purchase receipt.

Had I made a $25.00 reimbursed purchase on a shop, I would not then return that purchase for a refund to that client because that client already paid me for it and I don't agree with the idea of expecting the same client to pay me for it twice. I would not hesitate to gift it or sell it elsewhere, which would provide exactly the same financial result as having two clients reimburse me for the same purchase. I see this as complicated and I believe we should all do whatever we think right and pay no mind to anyone else.

I would like to comment on bgriffin's practice of doing hotel shops while on routes and then also collecting the hotel fees from other MSCs contracting other jobs on the same route:

Brilliant! Bravo! Ding ding ding!

One MSP sent out an email stating that a mystery shopper had been caught doing this - they are no longer mystery shoppers for this MSP.