1. Forums
  2. Mystery Shopping Company Discussion

Reliable ms companies

December 28, 2015 10:28PM
How can i be sure i am with a reliably company? New doing this.
Reply
Log In
x

Create an Account or Log In

Membership is free. Simply choose your username, type in your email address, and choose a password. You immediately get full access to the forum.

Already a member? Log In.

December 28, 2015 10:35PM
Check and see if they are listed with the MSPA: Mystery Shop Providers Association. Click on Independent Contractors, then on Member Companies. It will give you a list.

Do not read so much, look about you and think of what you see there.
Richard Feynman-- letter to Ashok Arora, 4 January 1967, published in Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track (2005) p. 230
Reply
December 28, 2015 10:53PM
Being a member of the MSPA has absolutely no guarantees of being reliable! It does mean that the company is a legitimate company, however many excellent companies have not chosen to join the MSPA for both political and other reasons. (The Mystery Shopping world is not all peaches, cream and lollipops.) On the bottom of each page of the forum is a link to the forum's "Official List of Mystery Shopping Companies". These are companies that shoppers have discussed on the forum and the list is reasonably up to date. With each company on that list is a link to discussions about the company where the good, the bad and the truly ugly generally are discussed. That will give you a heads up as to whether you think the company is 'reliable' to work with.
Reply
December 28, 2015 11:37PM
Which ones who are members of the MSPA are not reliable?

Do not read so much, look about you and think of what you see there.
Richard Feynman-- letter to Ashok Arora, 4 January 1967, published in Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track (2005) p. 230
Reply
December 29, 2015 12:24AM
"Not reliable" is a judgement call. Some people on this Forum consider any company which needs to be reminded to pay to be unreliable. Some think that any MSC that takes more than 60 days to pay to be unreliable, and some apply a 45 or even a 30 day test. Some would extend "unreliable" to companies which pay what they consider to be too little for the amount of work required. Any list posted here is going to be jumped upon by people who disagree. "Not reliable" could also mean an MSC with guidelines which are not clear, or an MSC which does not assign jobs in a timely manner. "Not reliable" is in the eyes of the beholder. A current thread discusses a company which is apparently an MPSA member and which allows anyone (including scammers) to use their job board. I consider that "not reliable," but there are some who disagree with even that. For any MSC which is new to you, I suggest that you read about them on this Forum (applying the greatest weight to newer threads and reliable Forum members) and form your own opinion. Oh yes, "reliable Forum members" requires yet another judgement call. I am not going there.

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008


Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/29/2015 12:26AM by myst4au.
Reply
December 29, 2015 12:28AM
@whosear wrote:

Which ones who are members of the MSPA are not reliable?

Being a member of MSPA does not automatically mean a company is reliable. Several companies who were members of MSPA closed their businesses leaving shoppers unpaid. Freeman, a long-time MSPA member, who was at one time defended by the MSPA, had a long-time record of very, very late payment for years, which I call unreliable. Suddenly, Freeman went to NO payment, then closed their doors, leaving many unpaid shoppers, some of whom were out thousands of dollars. JC & Associates was another who closed his doors leaving unpaid shoppers, although he apparently was able to fund a new business. Nationwide Services Group, another MSPA member company, was the only company (so far, knock on wood!) to ever stiff me. They were good as gold -- until they weren't. They went out of business owing shoppers, including me, money. I'm sure there are others.

Being an MSPA member does not automatically mean that a MS company is reliable. And, just because a company is reliable today does not mean they will be reliable next month or next year. Stay aware and watch for trends that might mean a change in reliability.
Reply
December 29, 2015 01:08AM
How about the list at the bottom of the main page?

Kim
Reply
December 29, 2015 01:12AM
I recommend using the list at the bottom of the page and signing up with all of them. Then, before actually taking the first assignment, I recommend research here on the forum. And I advocate keeping up with current reports about the companies I work with.
Reply
December 29, 2015 02:01AM
But from your post they were reliable for a long time. I turned down Grass Roots because they wanted to pay in Gift Cards and that was a warning sign to me.

So it does not negate starting with MSPA which is what I did to sign up quickly. then there is the Recruitinator on jobslinger.com which gives you Sassie companies. Or Mystery Shop Job Board which covers Shopmetrics.

Do not read so much, look about you and think of what you see there.
Richard Feynman-- letter to Ashok Arora, 4 January 1967, published in Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track (2005) p. 230
Reply
December 29, 2015 02:08AM
@whosear wrote:

But from your post they were reliable for a long time.
[/quote

That's exactly the reason you need to stay aware and watch for trends that might mean a change in reliability. Before Nationwide went downhill, there were signs. I missed them. And it cost me. In a few other cases, I've seen the shift and not taken shops so I only got burned by one.
Reply
December 29, 2015 02:33AM
@AustinMom wrote:

I recommend using the list at the bottom of the page and signing up with all of them. Then, before actually taking the first assignment, I recommend research here on the forum. And I advocate keeping up with current reports about the companies I work with.
I partially agree with this philosophy. When I was signing up with new companies, I did my research ahead of time BEFORE deciding to register with them or not. For instance, after reading the many threads about a "S" company and reading the owner's many negative replies, I chose to not even consider working for them. I was never registered with Freeman or Grassroots either so I guess my radar skills have worked in my favor.
Reply
Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.

Click here to login