bgriffin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm going with yes, it's very obviously a joke.


Yeah, I'd say so too. And, why is she SCREAMING at us in two consecutive posts? :/

I saw not the first one as it has been edited.

AuburnHarleyMama Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> LJ Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Would someone please post here the names of the
> > MSCs whose clients are restaurants with food
> that
> > I would like, pay a lot of money, aren't too
> picky
> > with reports and....
>
> IS THIS SUPPOSED TO BE A JOKE?
> WRONG. WHY POST SOMETHING LIKE THIS.
> TOO MUCH TIME ON YOUR HANDS.
> GET A LIFE.


Did you read all 7 pages of postings so you could get an understanding of what some of us have been dealing with? I am guessing no or you would understand LJ's sarcastic response.

And take the CAPS LOCK off next time. Yelling is considered rude here. Take care.

Hi. I've been doing MS and merchandising since 2002. Here's what I find to be some good companies with which to work;

Market Force
Corporate Research Intl
Certified Reports
TNS
Bare Intl
Ritter Assoc.
Informa
CastForce
Gfk
Maritz Research
A Closer Look
Best Mark

Good luck!

Ishop4you904 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> I went to Australia and they have a ton of terms
> we don't use in USA. Like fort night. Had no clue
> what that meant. So if you're intelligent you will
> use the words that will eventually become words.
> You can also use context around a word to figure
> out a meaning. I think it was in the 3rd grade
> they taught "Context clues".

If you are intelligent and continued in school beyond the 3rd grade you should know the word fortnight.

Based on number of jobs available in my geographical area and based on reliability with regard to payments (Sometimes slow, but these companies all pay regularly) I would say the ten best, in those terms, are:

Bestmark, Market Force, Corporate Research International (or whatever they are calling themselves now), Beyond Hello, Ath Power Consulting, Customer Perspectives, Intellishop, Bare International, Goodwin and Associates and Maritz

Years and years ago when I first started mystery shopping on a regular basis, I started with Service Intelligence as they were then called. On their website they had a link to a list that I think had been developed by a shopper calling herself or himself JoNY. I fail to see why people have such a problem with providing a similar list.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/2014 10:13PM by alannajm.

We are not being asked to supply just a list. Read her first post.

Canuck Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> We are not being asked to supply just a list. Read
> her first post.


Canuck I supplied a list of the ones I thought were the best ten based on number of jobs available in my geographical area and on how reliable the company is with regard to payment. Isn't that what the poster wanted?

Nope, that is not what the poster wanted. He/she wanted the a list of the 10 best MSC's in the COUNTRY based on pay, volume of jobs, and quality of editors. You provided a list based on your geographical area and reliability of the company, two things the OP did not ask for at all.

LisaSTL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am going to help the OP and maybe they will see
> why the question tends to get old. For the record,
> these were all on the first page of search
> results. There were many pages beyond that.
>
> [www.mysteryshopforum.com]
> 63/244663
>
> [www.mysteryshopforum.com]
>
> [www.mysteryshopforum.com]
> 37/302137
>
> [www.mysteryshopforum.com]
> =1
>
> [www.mysteryshopforum.com]
>
> [www.mysteryshopforum.com]

Teach a man to fish.....

Thanks Lisa. The information is all there and that includes the information that says some of this will work for you and some of it wont. It will still take work. My thoughts are that you could provide some people the url and more for an MSC but they MAY be too lazy to go after it and or MAY be too lazy to write a good narrative. But what if they aren't? What if they do read thru everything you've provided and do the work to hook up with the MSC and then write good narratives. They have been "taught" and you've got some good karma coming.

BTW - you have taught me. I wish you good Karma Lisa.

So this thread of all threads gets the most "participation" of any thread this year? Started with statements of "I've got no time for this" to some people having way too much time for this.

Anyway, here's a few of my favorites for what it's worth.

Service Sleuth, Secret Shopper, Regal, Maritz, Goodwin, Coyle

"I've got no time for this" referred to spoon feeding someone who is too lazy to do the research themselves. It didn't refer to having a discussion about irrelevant topics.

bgriffin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Nope, that is not what the poster wanted. He/she
> wanted the a list of the 10 best MSC's in the
> COUNTRY based on pay, volume of jobs, and quality
> of editors. You provided a list based on your
> geographical area and reliability of the company,
> two things the OP did not ask for at all.


Oh wow look at all these people who want to discuss this topic!!!! If only it wasn't filled with all of you telling people not to.
Next Grffin you got it wrong... again. He asked for YOUR top 10 list. Which means if your top 10 list is based on some of these categories that's ok and they did answer the OP's question. You didn't, not sure why you or any other of you circus clowns come in here to derail a conversation.

You should try to understand what the person is asking. He listed a few things you may consider for your list, they didn't mean on that criteria exactly!

bgriffin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I saw not the first one as it has been edited.


It was just a one-line post, in the same vein as the 2nd one, and also all in caps. I saw it pre-edit but forgot what it said.

This has been an interesting read. I wonder if the original poster is still with us?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/03/2014 02:58AM by CotePony.

A minute of anger in your heart shortens your life by 10 minutes.

Has this thread enlightened your lives?

You can take your big thank you and you know what you can do with it. Most seasoned shoppers work hard and take the best they can get sometimes.
I am a seasoned shopper for about 12 years. You need to do the work, find the shops on your own.
This business is not easy. Once you get a good shop, do not forget to thank your scheduler and the people who write to you and proof read your reports. They are the gold in your mystery shopping world.

Wow! I can't believe this thread is so long and that I read all of it!

There's some great advice here. I've been doing mystery shopping for one year. I have learned a lot, but I know I still have a lot more to learn. I got into MS because I was signed up with a focus group in NYC. They called me, offered me a shop with a $200 reimbursement for downloading an app on my iPhone, shopping at 3 stores connected with the app. plus a $30 fee, so I thought, why not? I started with that MSC and they have remained the best MSC for me, but I have signed up with many MSCs since then.

I found Jobslinger and Volition and signed up with several MSCs. I found this forum and found more MSCs in the list. Through the discussions here I found more MSCs to sign up with. It has not been an instant process, but rather a slowly evolving one. I am someone who actually likes to seek so that I will find, and it has paid off.

I don't blame anyone for not wanting to give away the names of their most lucrative companies on an open forum. MS is EXTREMELY competitive in my area! Ridiculously so. I can blink from the time I check my calendar to see what dates are available and find the shop I want has been taken when I return to the shop page. I don't have a car (it's a liability here), so I am limited as to what shops I can do to begin with. Why should I make it tougher for myself to help people I don't know?

I have told a few friends about my MS work. One lost her job and I felt sorry for her so I gave her a number of the MS companies I have worked with. She signed up with all of the MSCs I gave her, and has done well for herself. I am glad I helped my friend, but she has now become a competitor and has gotten a few shops I would've wanted because she beat me to the website to self-assign. That's the price I paid to help a friend. It was worth it, but a small part of me resents it as well. Hey, I'm only human. I told her if she wanted more companies she would have to read the forum here, go to Jobslinger, Volition or do some google searches. Guess what? She has not done any of the searching or signed up with any new companies on her own! Soon she will find herself with fewer shops available because she's done most of the available shops from the MSCs she already signed up with.

MS is a sink or swim business. Anyone who tries to rely on others too much when they can find the opportunities for themselves doesn't deserve to succeed, IMO. A little reliance is fine. The sooner we find our own way the better off we will be.

If I wanted to know what were the biggest 10 MSCs in the U.S., I would do a Google search for "mystery shopping companies." I have done that and found work in my area. It isn't rocket science, and it's not much work. The biggest MSCs in the U.S. have been named on this thread already.

To IShop4You904: You are young, which I could see right away from your writing style. Nothing wrong with being young. I can guarantee as you get older you will realize you knew much less at 25 than you believed at the time. I am absolutely not trying to dump on you, but it is extremely important to use the language correctly in business communications. Slang words do find their way into the dictionary eventually, but they're not acceptable in business communications and they never will be. If we want to be taken seriously, we need to present ourselves seriously. If people won't make the effort to spell correctly or use correct grammar because they can't be bothered, guess what? People whose business depends on accuracy and professionalism won't bother with them. There is always someone else available who will get the job because they will make the effort to play the part. The Internet has created a culture of young (and some older) people who are always looking for short cuts in communications, and this carries over into other things as well. I love the language in its pure form and I personally cringe at a lot of what I see online and hear in real time. One of my Facebook friends posted last week that he was going to scream if one more person said "prolly!" Just a little synchronicity ...

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/03/2014 09:52PM by nycrocks.

WOW What a thread... Interesting enough I found an article on pennypincher.com about the top 10 Mystery Shopping Companies. Are any of you Seasoned shoppers open to the fact that Maybe just Maybe you are seeing posts from
people trying to gather factual information from those of you in the "know"?

How ironic would it be that rather than possibly being quoted as an expert in your field in one of these articles; you are instead lashing out at the poster due to your boredom with the "same old question" as many of you put it. Writers scour many,many sources to validate their information. This being a public forum dedicated to mystery shopping it certainly might serve as a useful source for many mystery shopping related purposes.

I just don't get the hostility I am reading with comments like "do the work", " I did it the hard way" "we aren't giving you information"

Then why not

A-form your own " been at it too long group"
or
B- simply refrain from adding your 2 cents if you are ill equipped to add a positive contribution to the community.

On one of my first posts I innocently asked for your opinions of companies that had work based on East Coast/West Coast.
Was I surprised by the initial replies that I received. Initially not at all welcoming. Same for BoredOx who was simply thinking outside the box and trying to offer a fun opportunity.


Why give those of us shoppers here that like to be helpful a bad name.


You know what they say when you assume?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/04/2014 04:44AM by busybme.

"You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you TRY sometimes, you just might find
You get what you need." - Jagger/Richards

greerder: This very well have been a question that I might hav asked when I was a new shopper. I might have asked that question not knowing how long and hard seasoned shoppers have worked to find, cultivate and secure companies that have work in their area in this competitive field. We all began by spending many days signing up for multiple companies.......several of which were not a good fit due to shop locations, etc. Still, the time was spent. There is an aformentioned list here of companies, what industries they evaluate and where the evaluations exist.

Having said that, I prefer companies that offer phone personal contact information for emergencies; some shoppers prefer e-mail instead. I prefer companies that use the Prophet Platform for its simplicity; some shoppers hate it for its quirks. I dislike companies that use non standard software because it breaks down in the midst of reports. I dislike Intellishop and Marketforce because they tend to be unreasonable in their expectations and pay. Many shoppers love them. Most important to me are companies who will back you and your pay you, even if the client disputes your findings or if the schedulers err. You will find these gems over time. For me, they are Harland Clarke, Feedback Plus, TNS, Jancyn, Bare and LP Innovations.

You will have to do the work beyond this meager post.

Shoppers, please be kind: only 13 posts.

nycrocks Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Wow! I can't believe this thread is so long and
> that I read all of it!
>
> There's some great advice here. I've been doing
> mystery shopping for one year. I have learned a
> lot, but I know I still have a lot more to learn.
> I got into MS because I was signed up with a focus
> group in NYC. They called me, offered me a shop
> with a $200 reimbursement for downloading an app
> on my iPhone, shopping at 3 stores connected with
> the app. plus a $30 fee, so I thought, why not? I
> started with that MSC and they have remained the
> best MSC for me, but I have signed up with many
> MSCs since then.
>
> I found Jobslinger and Volition and signed up with
> several MSCs. I found this forum and found more
> MSCs in the list. Through the discussions here I
> found more MSCs to sign up with. It has not been
> an instant process, but rather a slowly evolving
> one. I am someone who actually likes to seek so
> that I will find, and it has paid off.
>
> I don't blame anyone for not wanting to give away
> the names of their most lucrative companies on an
> open forum. MS is EXTREMELY competitive in my
> area! Ridiculously so. I can blink from the time I
> check my calendar to see what dates are available
> and find the shop I want has been taken when I
> return to the shop page. I don't have a car (it's
> a liability here), so I am limited as to what
> shops I can do to begin with. Why should I make it
> tougher for myself to help people I don't know?
>
> I have told a few friends about my MS work. One
> lost her job and I felt sorry for her so I gave
> her a number of the MS companies I have worked
> with. She signed up with all of the MSCs I gave
> her, and has done well for herself. I am glad I
> helped my friend, but she has now become a
> competitor and has gotten a few shops I would've
> wanted because she beat me to the website to
> self-assign. That's the price I paid to help a
> friend. It was worth it, but a small part of me
> resents it as well. Hey, I'm only human. I told
> her if she wanted more companies she would have to
> read the forum here, go to Jobslinger, Volition or
> do some google searches. Guess what? She has not
> done any of the searching or signed up with any
> new companies on her own! Soon she will find
> herself with fewer shops available because she's
> done most of the available shops from the MSCs she
> already signed up with.
>
> MS is a sink or swim business. Anyone who tries to
> rely on others too much when they can find the
> opportunities for themselves doesn't deserve to
> succeed, IMO. A little reliance is fine. The
> sooner we find our own way the better off we will
> be.
>
> If I wanted to know what were the biggest 10 MSCs
> in the U.S., I would do a Google search for
> "mystery shopping companies." I have done that and
> found work in my area. It isn't rocket science,
> and it's not much work. The biggest MSCs in the
> U.S. have been named on this thread already.
>
> To IShop4You904: You are young, which I could see
> right away from your writing style. Nothing wrong
> with being young. I can guarantee as you get older
> you will realize you knew much less at 25 than you
> believed at the time. I am absolutely not trying
> to dump on you, but it is extremely important to
> use the language correctly in business
> communications. Slang words do find their way into
> the dictionary eventually, but they're not
> acceptable in business communications and they
> never will be. If we want to be taken seriously,
> we need to present ourselves seriously. If people
> won't make the effort to spell correctly or use
> correct grammar because they can't be bothered,
> guess what? People whose business depends on
> accuracy and professionalism won't bother with
> them. There is always someone else available who
> will get the job because they will make the effort
> to play the part. The Internet has created a
> culture of young (and some older) people who are
> always looking for short cuts in communications,
> and this carries over into other things as well. I
> love the language in its pure form and I
> personally cringe at a lot of what I see online
> and hear in real time. One of my Facebook friends
> posted last week that he was going to scream if
> one more person said "prolly!" Just a little
> synchronicity ...


LOL thanks for your response. You know I don't blame anyone for not wanting to post their list either. I think I've said that, and just stated that if you didn't want to you shouldn't of posted in this thread. That's what the conversation topic was about. That's all I was saying.

I did make a point that I don't think it will make much of a difference. In your scenario not having a car that makes a bit of difference. I was planning on renting a car for my trips. As I get free insurance on a rental car if I use my credit card. There is a 200$ deposit on most rentals. However if you shop around usually you can get them for less than 15$ a day. So one shop should pay for the rental. Obviously you wouldn't rent a car for a just a few shops.

I find it ironic that you found companies because other people shared. So it seems like if no one wrote about mystery shopping or the forums you most likely would only be signed up for that one company. Plus maybe a few from google. I'd also say there are tons of subjects aside from mystery shopping where people share secrets to help other people. I couldn't believe more that helping people comes back to you 10 fold.

We need to be glad people like to share information. So much of technology is all about speeding up a process. How many free apps have you downloaded that you use? Someone made that, most likely for them self and decided to share it. Harvard and Stanford put their college courses for computer technology online for FREE. There's tons of people that help. Money in general is a competition of course mystery shopping is as well. I just find it hard to agree with the logic behind all of this.

There's a forum for Mystery shopping discussion. This is a mystery shop forum. Yes there's a general chat section as well. Seems like the common sense logic would be to keep the jokes in such there. However that's only if you use common sense which the cool kids clique here doesn't seem to have.

As far as using slang in business. I agree that's true. I pride myself on being the best I can and I work very hard. I have dark circles under my eyes and will most likely die an early age from all the stress. Which is find by me because both my parents had cancer and odds say I'm screwed. So I'm trying to accelerate my retirement. I'd like to retire with a hundred million in the bank around 40. Then live the rest of my life how Steve Jobs said he lives his. In his commencement speech he said this and ever since I read it I've envy'd him.

"I wake up everyday and look at the mirror, I ask myself 1 question. Steve are you going to be happy doing whatever it is you're doing today? If I wake up too many days in a row and the answer to that question is no, I stop doing it. Life is too short to be doing things that don't make you happy".

Like OMG how that changed my life. I watched my father work his ass off to die at a young 55. He spent so much time busting his ass and never had anything to show for it. I'll die rich or I'll die trying. I will not ever revert back to that. Statistics say I wasn't suppose to be much more than what my parents were. Both were drug addicts. I've already achieved past my expectations before I was 21. I've already won. It just wasn't good enough for me.

This isn't a job and this isn't a business. There's a red squiggly line under each misspelled word. I have an app that provides grammar. I also have an extension that with a double click of any word I instantly get a definition. Why in the world would I ever take the time to remember something I can know in a few seconds. The joke is on them. No you can't use slang at work, unless you're like me and you work for yourself. I write hip hop music. I literally get paid to write in slang.

Also that was the culture I was raised in. I literally grew up in "The hood". That's not a brag it sucked. It was not glorious but that was what I was raised around and my culture. I've had to adapt to the business like culture. When I'm talking to someone who will judge me on spelling/grammar I think 2 things. "Is it worth changing who I am and acting like someone I'm not to impress this person? Or "Gtfo". If people are going to judge me by the words I speak or type I don't need them in my life. There's billions of people and I'll care about the opinions of those people I love and will be there for me. Everyone else is simply a pawn in this game of life.

Hopefully that gives you and others a bit of perspective and understand why I'm like this and how I see the world.

ishoparound Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> <snipped> you are instead lashing out at the
> poster <snipped> I just don't get the hostility


I will never understand why the posts explaining why:
* giving a top ten list is almost impossible,
*it's not even very helpful to any given individual,
*it's not the most productive thing to even worry about in the first place,
*it's best to do one's own work, for many reasons;

are so often labeled this way, or as being "unhelpful". :/ If some want to come up with some arbitrary list, fine. And I say "arbitrary", because that list is only meaningful to the person who made it. If others want to point out the folly of such a pursuit, fine. And I say "folly", because it has no real helpfulness ~ it's something that would mostly be done for fun, much like any other top ten list is.

ishoparound Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> WOW What a thread... Interesting enough I found an
> article on pennypincher.com about the top 10
> Mystery Shopping Companies. Are any of you
> Seasoned shoppers open to the fact that Maybe just
> Maybe you are seeing posts from
> people trying to gather factual information from
> those of you in the "know"?

Because if you look at the posting history of the OP, he started by asking what companies had work in Phoenix. When that didn't work he asked what the top 10 companies in Arizona were. When that didn't work he asked what the top 10 companies in the US were. When that didn't work he asked what the largest MSC was. He is very, very obviously not gathering research for a project, he is trying to take shortcuts at the expense of the other shoppers in the Phoenix area. If he had stopped at the first thread I doubt you would have seen the backlash to this thread, but he did not.

The OP is convinced that she will get an answer and get the info she wants if she just continues to re-word and re-state her question. If greerdeer posts her request again, we might ask her:

1. Which companies in Phoenix are you signed up with? Post your list.
2. Which companies have posted the most jobs in your area?
3. What are your favorite companies and why?
4. Which companies do you do most of your work for?

What I've noticed is that most of those who request lists and special information from others provide nothing themselves. Ain't it funny how that works.

@ Stormcloud- thanks for your post. in re to the "unhelpful" take I agree with you and appreciate healthy debates for and against any topic. Personally my issue is the sometimes negative tone that comes through in replying to seemingly honest questions here. It just reminds me of the pack mentality kids had in elementary school. I never agreed that just because you were in school longer that it was ok to constantly hit the new kid with the dodgeball at recess....

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/04/2014 04:47PM by ishoparound.

@bgriffin thanks for your post! I just figured out how to see all of someones post. And I now can see where you might come to this conclusion. For you it sounds like you feel that Greerdeer is trying to cheat off your homework.

that being said

Dear Greerdeer----Why do you ask?

ishoparound Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> @bgriffin thanks for your post! I just figured out
> how to see all of someones post. And I now can see
> where you might come to this conclusion. For you
> it sounds like you feel that Greerdeer is trying
> to cheat off your homework.
.....

I'll refine the analogy a little more. When people ask this sort of question, it feels as though they are asking us to write out their homework for them. And, it is perfectly reasonable, and not at all going off topic, to point out that we don't even know if our homework assignment was the same as theirs.

Edited after writing below as i just realized that after reading pages and pages of this thread over time I lost complete track of who the op was....so I shop 4 you I apologize to you if I am not representing your sentiment correctly since you were not the original poster. But still, to whoever (or whomever) it is that my comment applies (those of you who support telling all and feeling you can earn tons of money in this field) I am eagerly awaiting the list of companies where I can sock away all that money in a relatively short period of time. I will take the list even from someone on the forum I earlier disagreed with. Just make sure they are legit companies.


Ishop4you904
>
> LOL thanks for your response. You know I don't
> blame anyone for not wanting to post their list
> either. I think I've said that, and just stated
> that if you didn't want to you shouldn't of posted
> in this thread. That's what the conversation topic
> was about. That's all I was saying.
>
I shop for you...I shortened your response to make room. I was happy to read your explanation that is referenced above. What I cannot fathom is why you are choosing mystery shopping as a way to get to your goal of saving $100 million before you are 40. I really think this is the completely wrong field for coming even close to doing that unless you are planning to spin off mystery shopping yourself into some other business and if so then I think being truthful about what you are searching out would help you a lot. If you are just doing research for an article it would be ethical to tell us that. If you are doing your own research to start your own mystery shopping company then tell us that too. Perhaps some of us would help with information we feel comfortable sharing on the basis of a truthful question and the reason for it. I doubt there are many mystery shoppers who end the year with any savings at all unless they are living off some other source of income. Most are happy to just pay off their monthly bills. If you find the mystery shopping company that pays you well enough and is legit to come out that far ahead that you can bank 100 mil excess profit beyond living expenses in 15 years or so in this business I am assuming you will come back and tell us all about it soon. We are eagerly awaiting this new and profitable information.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/04/2014 08:53PM by sandyf.

I really read the post as saying they are starting off with nothing at the moment and the money made from MSing will be the seed money for whatever the next thing is. There is a bigger and grander plan than just MSing. This is from combining info from a couple of different posts.