I am new to this and have only done a couple shops...but Cetified Field Associates
are ok except for the films.........They owe me $ 40.00 for a job that took me all evening and they said i did something wrong so they will not pay me.... but Bare System (baidata.com) is very good.Got paid right away...quicker than the two Brooks shops i did for CFA

I did a couple of shops for Sassieshops in the beginning of NOv. and still waiting for pay. I had no problems with CSI and Maritz.

Has anyone done any shops for Ath Power? They offer a lot of bank shops. Just wondering how they are about paying.

Bob E sassieshops is the software many MS companies use, not an MS company.

I do every assignment I can for Cerified Field Associates (CRINY). My first shop for them was a blind theater check. Spent an entire day watching a single movie (5 times), had to buy tickets for each showtime, count people coming in, and the # of seats in the theater. It was a lot of work, but I got my check the other day for everything. The shop paid $75, I got to see a movie I wanted to see, took a nice nap during one showtime (30 minute power nap), got reimbursed for all of my expenses, and got paid. As of today, I've performed 21 shops for them and have not had any rejected.

I'm scheduled for a bank shop with Ath Power. I've had to reschedule it twice, once at their request, the second because I didn't receive the check I'm to use for the shop. We'll see how this goes.

Some company's shops require so much detail, I'm afraid to accept them. Is it ethical/legal to use a digital voice recorder and secretly record the shop? Any opinions? Any recommendations on dvr's?

The Companies that i have found to be the best for our part of the country(Minnesota) are Customer 1st, Experience Exchange, and Corprate Research. I do about 80 shops a month for Customer 1st alone. They always pay the same time every month. Usually between $650.00 and 900.00 a month from them alone. Not bad. Experience Exchange limits you to 10 a month otherwise I would do more for them. The always pay also right on time.

Trend Source is a great company. I also work for Corporate Research! I would avoid Check Mark, they do not pay in a timely manner.

Hey, can somebody tell me what mystery shopping company will do motels, hotels in Georgia? Would be nice to get out for a weekend. HELP??? thanks

I am a little concerned after reading this thread. Are you aware you sign an ICA(Independent Contractor Agreement) with each company stating you will not mention which businesses they shop for? I have read several posts here in which the writer named the company and the business they shop. The companies check these boards and I would hate for anyone to lose their shopping privileges because of this.

As for which companies are the best. I have read good and bad posts for every company out there. My advise is never invest more than you can afford to lose until you find which companies have proven themselves reliable in your own experience.

Making the world a better place to shop, one assignment at a time.

I have had several good experiences with MS companies. I especially like athpower and Kerns Scheduling. I am venturing into video shopping now and have registered with Melindabrody.com My average shop is $25 and because this is only part time I am very selective about my assignments,

I have done a demostration shop but I prefer not to commit to so much time and was disappointed to find that the two ladies and I were all being paid differently.

Tammie,

What is the current URL for A Cut Above, please? I lost contact with them and thought they were no longer in business. I couldn't find them with a search.

Sandra Sue

I shop for ShopNChek, Intelli-shop, Maritz, Gapbusters, Baiservices, GFK, Trendsource, CMS, CRI, Marketing Endeavors, athpower, ACE, Ritter and Associates, Bestmark, Speedmark, IMYST, ServiceCheck and occasionally a couple others. I have found all these companies to be very reliable and have always been paid when they said they would. I have worked for Checkmark in the past and understand they have had some problems, but I was ALWAYS paid in a timely manner for anything I did for them. Does anyone know, are they still in business? Their website is still there but it has been months since I could find an assignment with them.

Yes, clobmier,

I have done employee incentive shops for a burger chain for CheckMark, Inc., recently. I was paid for February's work, but I still haven't received payment for March. I get the impression that that program, which was temporary, has ended.

If you want to know how busy some companies are, and if they let you self-assign, check other geographic areas than your own. Then you can get an idea that, if they have many shops in another part of the country, perhaps their contracts in your area ended, or for some reason are just not active right now.

I am very happy with GAPbuster, kernscheduling,Beyondhello, BAREassociates and shopnchek. I too have problems with GaPbuster mall shops, but they recently told me to mark the non applicable sections as if you checked them and make note of this in the other shopper comments section. It is difficult to find companies with shops in Ontario, Canada. I had problems receiving my pay from Mintel because the scheduler in charge of my shop was no longer working for them and I kept getting sent in a loop by her auto response.I did the work in the beginning of December and was paid the end of February. Then my bank put a hold on the check for 6 weeks because it was an American check.

I have had very good luck with epmsonline.com. They do apartment mystery shops and you can sign up on their website. They pay on the 7th and 22nd of the month and I have always gotten my check on time every time!!

two more places are GFK America, great company fast payment. do mostly gas station shops
and national shopping service, they do lots of pizza places and clinque places as well

Has anyone shopped for Pacific Research? I DO NOT TRUST THEM!!!!

One of their clients is *****. I signed up and because I really don't care for KK I wasn't going to do the jobs. They called me and talked me into it and even offered me a bonus for the driving distance. The report is 114 questions long and requires detail comments for any no answer, plus 21-30 photographs.
The first assignment I did took me around 2 hours to complete on site with another hour at least submitting the report online and photographs. My pay was to be $30 plus $10.71 for the required purchase. My total invoice $40.71. It takes 6-8 weeks to be paid.
I checked the online status of my invoice and they have deducted points for the report and have reduced my pay to a total of $23.71.
I shopped for them again in July but that report is still in editing so no telling what they will do to it.
I submitted photographs required plus every NO response photograph and then one month later they deduct from what they owe me.
I would NOT recommend anyone shop for Pacific Research.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/07/2007 04:55PM by JacobJ.

Hi All,

When I start to work with a new company I will just do 1 or 2 shops for them. Then if I am not paid I am not out that much time or money. I wait untill I get paid before doing anything else for the new companies. I usually have to turn down a few shops but it gives me time in case they don't pay.

All the mystery shopping companies that I have worked for to date have always paid when stated. The only time a shop isn't paid is if I don't follow the guide lines, and that has only been twice. I have been shopping for over a year and average 3 to 5 shops a day 6 days a week. The extra money is nice and lets me take some nice vacations.

Mike

Trendsource pay is low but pays on the 5th and 20th of each month. David Sparks has alot of banks shop. Beyond Hello takes 6 weeks to pay and only get one in about 3 months. Imyst do not waste your time on this one.

It's nice to know what the good companies are, it would also be helpful to know what geographical area some of them cover too. A great company in Texas doesn't do me any good in Illinois.

In northern Illinois I have done shops for 13 different companies so far. They have all paid within the time frames they gave me but not all of the time frames are as quick as some would like. My favorites so far are Certified Field Associates, Speedmark, Bestmark and Second to None. For Certified all I do is the Trailer Checks, it is easy money to just write down what the trailers are. I work afternoons and weekends in my full time job so I never do the audience reaction and patron counting checks so don't know much about them. Certified is also good if you like doing Merchandising shops.

I did one for NSite that was only a reimbursement, but it was to a place I had wanted to check out and my friend and I had a really good time on their dime,but they only pay 30-45 days after the shop and the only one I have done was paid on the 44th day. Other than that one, I haven't found too many in my general area.

Other companies that have shops in northern Illinois are Intellishop, aTH Power, Shop n Check, Spies in Disguise, Beyond Hello, BARE International, Corporate and Service Performance Group.

Most of the Corporate shops don't pay well enough to make it worth the trouble, but they are good starting place for new shoppers to get the experience.

My advice to new shoppers is to only take the shops that just reimburse expenses if it is someplace you like to go to anyway. Most of them are restaurants and you are allowed to take a guest so it is a good way to go out to eat with friends while on a budget. Also, if you don't have a flatbed scanner, it would be worth your while to get one, they are not really expensive and most of the companies want you to upload your receipts.

Sentry Marketing is a really good one, they work with you if you have last minute scheduling problems. They mostly deal with car dealerships.

I don't care for Best Mark. The jobs are very time consuming. Between travel, gas and time spent preparing, I lose money. The survey takes about an hour. They pay $10 to $12 dollars for these shops. I guess you have to try places out to find what works and what doesn't. I am having a hard time finding grocery shopping jobs. Dose anyone know what companies have more of these?

My fav's are:

1. Beyond Hello
2. Intellishop
3. Super and Service Sleuth
4. Bestmark (pay low) Cory nice
5. Bare
6. Shoppers Critique

Hope this works for you guys not in L.A.

Retail Eyes, Beyond Hello, Super Sleuth, Intelli-Shop, Franchise Compliance and more. Bestmark (Cory) are nice, but compared to the work they require, they need to pay more. They make promises...do this and we'll do that. So far I get alot more of this than I do of that. I'm giving them March and then if I don't get anything decent, they go on my not to do list. I can be selective, because there are alot of jobs in Los Angeles and my area Valencia.

I trust:
1. Beyond Hello---pays like clockwork (never have to ask)
2. Retail eyes ---pays like clockwork and has site to track pay.
3. Service Sleuth
4. Mercantile
5. IntelliShop
6. SM Marketing
7. Bare (very nice company)

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/14/2008 02:51PM by shop 4 u.

There are a whole lot of them I trust--fewer that I work with much because of the low pay situation.

Like clockwork is: Service Intelligence--never a problem, never an issue, money lands by direct deposit in my account the last day of the month following the month of the shops.

Very timely: Maritz, Mintel, A Closer Look, CORI, Bestmark, Bare, and many many others.

Pokey but on time by their schedule: Service Sleuth

Pulling hen's teeth but it eventually gets done: Freeman, JC& Associates

the company I trust the most is EPMS I have done about 20 shops for them now.The pay is good.they are good at working with you.Very dependable on pay.I would like to find more like it.If anyone knows of any please let me know.

dudly54 you must have a really good contact at EPMS because there are a lot of folks who have had a very different experience: "lost" checks, dismissive "assistance", shop problems way beyond a shopper's control that get $ deductions or no payment, etc. In fact it sounds like two very different companies. So enjoy your relationship, don't let them get to owing you too much money and may it continue to be a love fest.

Hey JacobJ,

Another good Mystery Shop company is Second To None - www.second-to-none.com

JacobJ Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> One of the hardest parts of mystery shopping is
> finding a good mystery shopping company to work
> with. That's why I started these forums -- so we
> can make it easier for everyone.
>
> So, is there a specific company that you've gotten
> along with? Let us know here...
>
> Edit: Here are the companies recommended so
> far(Thanks everyone!):
>
> Service Evaluation (
> [www.serviceevaluation.com] )
> Gapbusters ( [www.gapbusters.com] )
> Bare Associates International (
> [www.baidata.com] )
> Shop'n Chek ( [shopnchek.com] )
> DSG Associates ( [dsgai.com])
> Consumer Research International (
> [mysteryshops.com] )
> CyberShoppers NOP (
> [www.cybershoppers.nopworld.com] )
>
> You should be able to apply to each of the
> companies directly at their website...

I had good luck with Maritz, Bare and Ath Power. In my opinion, after 15 years of shopping, Shop N Chek, aka Marketforce is evil incarnate.

Which really shows you how diversified we are in our experiences from our interactions with companies. I have had myself terminated with Maritz after getting plowed through too many times for peanut crumbs, I am not convinced that Bare does the right thing (though I am still shopping with them occasionally), Ath Power does not pay a fair fee when compared with other bank shops and some folks find them pretty non-responsive (I don't attempt to contact them so have no personal comment in that regard). I do have one Ath job scheduled this month.

On the other hand I have great success with Shop N Chek aka Market Force and although they have only had cheap shops lately, I do check their site 2-3 times per day and currently have 6 jobs scheduled that I both enjoy and feel they pay fairly for. I feel a strong trust for them.