I had to turn one down today for one of my absolute favorite companies for that reason.

Carol

I no longer touch insurance quotes. I hate the letters, cards, emails, and phone calls that follow, sometimes for years.

I have turned down bank shops where even though I met the offical rotation requirements I felt there had not been enough time elapse since my prior visit due to low staff turnover and low customer volume in the location.

There are lots of shops that I have never performed because I felt I would not be an 'average customer'. There are a lot more shops I have not performed because they just hold zero interest for me. I suppose that if the fees got high enough I would do them, but even if the originally offered fee is fair they hold no interest for me. There are shops I have tried and found them uncomfortable to perform so will not do them further. These things happen, and they are why a diversified shopper force is essential.

I won't burn any bridges by saying absolutely not, I won't do that job.

However, I stay away from places that want me to do mystery competitive pricing audits, whether it be in a grocery store or a cafeteria-type place. I have trouble picturing maintaining my anonymity while trying to candidly glance at a menu (which, since my eyesight is not 20-20, I would have to be sitting directly in front of just to be able to see it) at a restaurant/store I'm not familiar with and write down every single price for every single size for every single product. The MSCs can't pay me enough to do that!

Flash Wrote:
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> I have turned down bank shops where even though I
> met the offical rotation requirements I felt there
> had not been enough time elapse since my prior
> visit due to low staff turnover and low customer
> volume in the location.

That is how I am with some of the "quick" bank shops for Maritz. They allow you to do the same branches monthly, but some of them here out in the boondocks have 1-2 bankers that recognize me now so I stopped shopping those.

There are probably more I turn down than acccept, mostly because I don't have the interest, low pay, location. I might even like the job if I ever did it, but no desire...for instance, McD's or pizza...no on many counts.

I don't do integrity shops. I am particularly appalled by the ones that require you to go to a thrift shop donation site and make a donation, then pick out an item in the pile of donated items and offer the attendant cash for the item to see if he will take it.

Agree with AustinMom, have a good LP program in place to take care of that stuff...try and catch your staff doing good you'll be suprised what it will do to your bottom line.

I didn't like the integrity shops where I had to leave a $20 on the counter and try to leave with my purchase....
I felt like a thief, and most employees are so shocked by this, that they wouldn't have had time to catch me if I had "ran" out of the store like the guidelines said. I usually walked, and they had time to catch me...
ugh... I agree with you guys- I felt like LP.

Then there are those shops with stupid requirements that are designed to get you made. Buying a large pizza, an appetizer and two drinks for $27 during the lunch buffet that is $5.52 plus drink and includes appetizers and salad? Plus, you can ask them for any pizza on the menu to be put on the buffet. I hear the servers laughing about the shopper in table 14. Best pizza in town, so now I go enjoy the buffet and don't have to write a report. Buy six buffets and drink and the seventh is free!

I turned down a trio today. Three car dealer shops where there is one salesman at each location and two of them remembered me the last time and asked if I ever bought that "blue dream car" I've been looking for. It would be different in a major metro area with many salesmen at the location.

I have turned down California Tortilla shops because the required question is a dead giveaway, and the required food purchases exceed the reimbursement.

I have turned down long interaction shops at sites that I have visited within the last 18 months.

Purchase and returns shops. Not only because it is a pain to return stuff in general, I would feel horrible doing a purchase and return shop at an electronics chain where sales reps work on commission.

I don't like the purchase and return, either. Especially the one where you have to return it in 5 minutes. It pays $35.00.

I agree, P & R shops are a PITA.

There is a shop I applied for once, and was happy I didn't get it. You have to make a purchase, and if you decide to return it, you must identify yourself as a mystery shopper. The store is right in my neighborhood, which made me especially uncomfortable. And, it just about borders two other stores that are also mystery shopped. I can just see myself walking down the street and being pointed out, "That woman is a mystery shopper!" Don't ever want THAT to happen!!

I won't do purchase and return shops where I suspect the clerks work on commission.

I won't do sting operations - I mean integrity shops.

I won't do shops that require I reveal myself to the manager.

I don't do integrity shops but had to order in the bar while on a waiting list for a table. I ordered a Diet Coke and the bartender asked for $2.00. I handed over two bux and it never made it to the register. Plus a Diet Coke with tax is $2.59. lol Sorry. If you are a thief, it comes with the risk of being caught. I just report the facts. Too bad for that guy that there was a wait at the restaurant or he might still be stuffing his pockets.

I dislike purchase and returns if there is only one shop. I have, however, purchased during one shop and returned at the shop at another location. I don't mind those at all. I just try to buy something I can use or give as a gift at the last place on the shop list since I don't want to make a special trip back to return it.

I do reveal shops at some restaurants. Their turnover is pretty high and I've never seen the same manager twice if there are at least 120 days between shops. I've done a reveal at a wings place twice in 8 months and was in there the other day and saw no one I knew. It's uncomfortable not knowing but I get good food when I go there and no one ever has a clue.

The most uncomfortable one I do right now is where I have to call a bank and ask about checking accounts over the phone. I give an alias name and try to word the question differently but I've only had a bad telebanker once out of tons of these shops. I would quit doing them but they pay $12 for making a deposit into my own account and make that dang phone call. And they have about 15 branches scattered around areas where I shop soooooooooo I keep taking them and pretending they don't know they are being shopped.

I haven't ever gone back to the gas station where the crazy Arab chased me and tried to take my camera. Now I hope they assign me his station on a route so I can march in with my Letter of Authorization. lol

LOL he chased you?? OMG!

What MSC has those bank shops, Bless?

I notice that the Hooters shops stay open for a LONG time in my area. I would never even consider them, and luckily have a husband who wouldn't either. I also turned down a clothing store shop (with reimbursement) when I went online and saw what the considered to be clothing. It was supposed to be for a kid under 17, so I was bringing my very tall 8 year old daughter. What little covering there was on the models surely told me this store was NOT for my kid!

57carol Wrote:
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> I had to turn one down today for one of my
> absolute favorite companies for that reason.
>
> Carol

i had turned down a car dealership shop for a $100,000 car negotiation.

Tech, the bank shpops are for a regional bank in the Kentuckiana area where I live. I think they have about 11 branches. I do walk-ins, drive thrus and phone calls for them.

A friend had a bad experience with one of the locations that has been mentioned in this thread. To sum it up, she was told that her report was being rejected because of the possibility that the employee could be terminated due to negative experience she had with the employee and my friend ended up not being paid.

I would find it very hard to imagine that a company would TELL your friend that they were rejecting a report because it might get someone fired. I have had negative reports (that SHOULD have gotten someone fired) questioned fairly closely to have me verify my facts. But I have never not been paid for such a shop. Whether the MSP chooses to use the report or not is a judgment call on their part, but if I have done what I was hired to do, I get paid.

I've turned down some bank shops because the rural branches are very small and some only have one banker. It made me too uncomfortable going in multiple times and acting like I didn't have an account.

I've dropped the bank shops for a while. We have 50 of em in my city and the rotation is every other month for the same shopper. So I did about 15 in the first two months, then all 50 for the next 4 months. I was starting to see the same people and be recognized - even at other branches because the employees move around. When you come in and are asked "so, did you decide about that credit card" you need to be prepared, my answer was usually I'd gotten the info from X & Y bank to compare and then couldn't find what I'd gotten from this bank. That only works once! I'll likely do them again in six months - can do 12 or more a day if you plan well.

Thirty years ago I did lots of loss prevention shops, working with a security/private dectective company. The thing to remember is, you can't bribe an honest man and no one is forcing someone to steal. I've offered cash when buying a case of liquor for a discount - using marked bills. Did lots of price-tag switching and outright and obvious shop-lifting - only caught once on the price-tags. Of course, this is done with the manager aware and on-site and a auth letter in your pocket.

Why worry about commissions? If the salesman does a good job, he's getting a much better thing than the commission from the process. If he's not doing his job right - that's what you're paid to find out!

I guess all my work directly for employers over the years in loss-prevention has left me looking at this from the management view. A poor employee is costing the company money each and every day. It's our job to stop that.

my first involvement with mystery shopping involved visiting several locations at a specific retail store chain. it was my first exposure to mystery shopping, and i was technically hired as an amployee and not as a contractor.

however, since i was so new, i think that one of the managers recognized me as a mystery shopper during my very first shop. i kept trying to look at her name tag as she was covering it up. then that manager may have called other stores in the vicinity to alert them that i might be coming.

i had to ask the same key questions during each and every store location visit, so they could probably easily spot me. in addition to asking lots of required questions of the employees, i never bought anything either.

i felt uncomfortable going back.

later, i learned about online mystery shopping as a contractor through the mspa, as opposed to being a direct employee for a mystery shopping company. now i avoid those mistakes that i had made when i first started learning, and i don't shop the same company every month.

Today I did a "Smart & final", and it is not a difficult shop (I've always enjoyed it), but today the store was being remodeled and everything was a mess. Shelves were literally empty, the restroom was flooded and closed, the meat dept. had moved, you get the picture. The help was great, however, when I got in line to checkout, I didn't realize the instructions said to check if the Cashier looks at the bottom of the cart of the previous customer, not you cart. I got the email stating my report was unfinished, corrected it and due to that, got a 7. The report was good, I read and re-read it, I think this MSC sets you up for this...you could not see the cart in front of you with all the boxes due to remodeling. I just might not do that again, not sure, a whooping $7.00 didn't seem enough for the drive and the hassle.

Irene_L.A. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Today I did a "Smart & final", and it is not a
> difficult shop (I've always enjoyed it), but today
> the store was being remodeled and everything was a
> mess. Shelves were literally empty, the restroom
> was flooded and closed, the meat dept. had moved,
> you get the picture. The help was great, however,
> when I got in line to checkout, I didn't realize
> the instructions said to check if the Cashier
> looks at the bottom of the cart of the previous
> customer, not you cart. I got the email stating
> my report was unfinished, corrected it and due to
> that, got a 7. The report was good, I read and
> re-read it, I think this MSC sets you up for
> this...you could not see the cart in front of you
> with all the boxes due to remodeling. I just
> might not do that again, not sure, a whooping
> $7.00 didn't seem enough for the drive and the
> hassle.

i've accepted $7.00 for a phone shop, but never for an actual store visit.

i personally have a computerized text reader which reads and re-reads the briefing and questionnaire of each shop.