Do you have the support of family doing mystery shopping and does it help?

I wondering how many on here have family supporting or encouraging them with mystery shops. There for encouragement, helping to keep track, helping to find shops, or even going with you. Does it make a difference?

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Family is delighted with meals out due to shops. There is acceptance of shops they do not see as benefitting them directly. There are shops where I can not take another person, which causes a little friction if it a place they would like to go. There are shops where it is not prohibited to take along another person. I have discovered that 'happiness is' when I let the family member make the selection(s) that will be reimbursed.

Back in the day my significant other registered with a couple of companies because there were so many shops to be filled in our area that we each could run a full schedule of easy, well paying jobs. I have also been begged by schedulers to find them 'someone' to do jobs I was out of rotation for, so he has gone with close supervision his first time out. He still gets emails and tells me about them or forwards them to me when it is something he thinks 'we' should do.

I've only recently started doing mystery shopping at least once weekly (usually more than once) and my husband is not a fan of it. He has enjoyed the free meals, but we both work full time and opposite shifts so this sometimes pulls me away from him. He gets a little irritated. Hoping that changes with time...

he also flat out refuses to come with me on any unless he gets dinner out of the deal! I also told him he should sign up just for the dinner ones where I'm out of rotation. Would MSCs allow that?!

Who would hate a free blender or oil change?

Only two people know what I am doing - one family member and one boyfriend. For family member, it is payback for a favor or a special occasion. For boyfriend, he helps with texting names and descriptions during my high-end shops that require a second person. I prefer keeping my alternate life on the down-low.

It took a little while for my husband to become fully on board with it all but he now sees the major benefits rolling in and supports me. At the start, he didn't think a hamburger meal at 5 Guys was worth leaving a messy home for (I was a stay at home mom when I began my adventure) but now that my shops have gotten much more lucrative, he overlooks the messy house. For the record, I now work outside of the home during the school year so the house is no longer my responsibility. I hate cleaning!!! Though I can launder, do dishes, and take trash out like its no one's business

Doing what I can to enhance the life of my family! I LOVE what I do

@ShopSouthTexas wrote:

I hate cleaning!!! Though I can launder, do dishes, and take trash out like its no one's business

Cleaning sucks! It's only slightly better than living in filth. Slightly.

Shopper in California's Bay Area

My wife thinks it is a new "hobby" for me.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/30/2015 09:30PM by dkpskipper.

I'm not living in filth... I have kids. Kids make messes. Not sure that you were accusing me of that but if so, my house is far from filthy.

Doing what I can to enhance the life of my family! I LOVE what I do

My family fully approves, as they benefit. No, they do not help me find assignments, help me keep track, or puzzle through guidelines and reports. No, they do not clean the house if I am out and about. Well, hubby occasionally tries, but he does not do it like I want it done. I suspect he recalls the story about Tom Sawyer and the fence that needed whitewashed.

@ShopSouthTexas wrote:

I'm not living in filth... I have kids. Kids make messes. Not sure that you were accusing me of that but if so, my house is far from filthy.

No, not at all.. I was saying that the prospect of living in filth is the only thing that motivates me to clean. If I could get someone else to do it for me, I totally would. But if I don't do it, it doesn't get done, so I guess I gotta clean. (My house is actually really clean. Not because I like cleaning, just because I hate dirt more than I hate cleaning)

Shopper in California's Bay Area

I wish my late husband were still here. He would have been my greatest supporter. I have two sons and I usually ask their help for upscale men shops. They occasionally re-arrange their schedule to go with me to high-end restaurant or movie shops. Only when it comes to demography. Other than that, I am on my own.

Both of them know the city very well, so I could usually depend on them to tell me how best to reach a location. And oh, my other son is a techy, sort of and so many times, he saved my reports.

Oops. Forgot about that.

I provide job security to a local cleaning service. I am more productive outside of the house.

Got it. I'll take my sensitive self somewhere else.
There are aspects of cleaning I actually do not mind. Unfortunately, they don't add up to total neatness. My husband is gifted at housecleaning but I grew up with live-in housekeepers... Still trying to learn how to be domestic after all these years.

Doing what I can to enhance the life of my family! I LOVE what I do

@johnb974 wrote:

I wondering how many on here have family supporting or encouraging them with mystery shops. There for encouragement, helping to keep track, helping to find shops, or even going with you. Does it make a difference?

My family very much supports me in my mystery shopping. My kids think it is "cool", like I'm some kind of secret agent. My wife appreciates the evenings out or not having to get dinner if I have a carry out shop. Everyone loves the occasional event or activity we get to attend together. It does make a very big difference to me that my family supports me. I can't imagine it any other way. While I don't ask for any help in finding shops, completing shops, or any other task in support of this work, I've never heard any complaints because they don't want to go along. Mostly just complaints because they can't go along, due to certain requirements of some shops. Sometimes on certain "bar" shops my wife encourages me to alone so I can get a bit of me time away. My family is awesome!

proudly shopping in the D.

We are a retired couple, both former teachers. My husband is very supportive! He drives me to almost all of my jobs. That way I can concentrate on what I need to do when I get there, and I can work on reports in the car on the way home or to the next job. He also helps me make decisions about whether I should take some jobs or not. In addition, he reminds me that I do not have to do this and should not feel obligated to work more than what I want. When it is allowed, he will often go in with me to be an extra pair of ears and eyes. Sometimes I will ask him to read part of the report to see how it sounds. Mostly, we are finding this to be a fun way to spend time together. Needless to say, he enjoys the restaurant shops!

When allowed, my family comes. They help with photos, getting names and descriptions. It is when I have to write the reports that drives them nuts. I can't tell you how many times I have said, " I need to do my reports, give me a few minutes".

@traceypowdi wrote:

When allowed, my family comes. They help with photos, getting names and descriptions. It is when I have to write the reports that drives them nuts. I can't tell you how many times I have said, " I need to do my reports, give me a few minutes".

Haha. Same here, my husband is glad I'm home, then I tell him I have to enter reports still. I usually get an, "UGH"!

I guess I may be in the minority here but my husband groans when I say I have to go out to do mystery shops on evenings or weekends, and complains that I'm always saying "I just have to submit this mystery shop". He agrees that we need the extra money but I also work full time and so he feels like he gets ignored. Overall, he supports me but sometimes grumpily. He has seen the benefit that those extra mystery shopping checks have brought and he happily goes along with me to mystery shop at restaurants that need two people (he is great at helping me with those), but too often I think he just sees me not spending time with him or when I am home I am typing into the wee hours submitting shops.

@Alice919
That is pretty much exactly how my husband is too! You explained it perfectly.

John, I'm in this alone and I can see you're wondering if having some family at home would help. I think overall it would be a disadvantage. Families require time and attention, and spouses and children are not really in a position to render a great deal of support. Most of it we have to do on our own regardless of how much family we have at home or how much they're willing to help.

I'm going to tell you what I told my friend Fred K. when his wife Toni left him and took their children back to Indiana. "Fred (I said) here's your chance to do all the things you ever wanted to do but you couldn't because you had a wife and kids underfoot. So go for it." Ok then John, so go for it. You can do this.

Incidentally, Fred made a trip to Indiana and repossessed Toni's false teeth right out of her mouth. Seems she ran away before he got the dentist paid and he was somewhat resentful. Go figure.

Mary Davis Nowell. Based close to Fort Worth. Shopping Interstate 20 east and west, Interstate 35 north and south.

Mr. Cat refers to himself as a "Professional Shop Companion"! He is also a good sport about taking pictures of the men's room, the food, etc.

@CaliGirl925 wrote:

@ShopSouthTexas wrote:

I hate cleaning!!! Though I can launder, do dishes, and take trash out like its no one's business

Cleaning sucks! It's only slightly better than living in filth. Slightly.

I'm a male, it's closer to even for me.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

@Sybil2 wrote:

Only two people know what I am doing - one family member and one boyfriend.

So the other boyfriends have no clue?

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

I'm single, doing this on my own. It is interesting reading the post of couples and families doing this together:...... "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor:
If either of them falls down, one can help the other up."......Ecclesiastes 4:9.

@bgriffin wrote:

@Sybil2 wrote:

Only two people know what I am doing - one family member and one boyfriend.
So the other boyfriends have no clue?

Damn skippy!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/05/2015 01:38PM by Sybil2.

Johnb, I don't care what Ecclesiastes says, two are not better than one. I have been two and I have been one so I am speaking from experience. I am much better as one than I was as one of two. When I was one of two I was always somewhat either dependent on or inhibited by two of two and I suspect that is the usual position of both one in a set of two or two in a set of two. One is good. Stand up straight and carry on. When you become so independent you no longer need another person, that will be the perfect time to find another person and become one of two.

Mary Davis Nowell. Based close to Fort Worth. Shopping Interstate 20 east and west, Interstate 35 north and south.

In most cases two are better than one. It's bad if you marry the wrong person or join yourself to the wrong person. In some cases some people are better off alone. If the person uses other people, best to leave them alone. I believe in mystery shopping, most of us like to have someone with us.

I think every person is the 'wrong person' at least part of the time. Being two does call for compromise and compromise, by definition, can not be one being the doormat to the other. I have to laugh at how my current 20 year relationship has evolved over time to being really good friends who like our private time. He loves his in the morning (I love to sleep in), I am a night owl (he goes to bed early).

I don't know who this most of us is you are referring to. This is my business, not my family's or my significant other's business. Taking things like dining shops out of the equation, you don't take a spouse to work with you in an office why would you feel the need to mystery shopping? For me it more desirable to go do my work quickly and efficiently so I can then have personal time to enjoy. Having someone along is a distraction and since it would violate every ICA I have ever signed, no way would I have anyone accessing websites to search for assignments for me.

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.

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