Greetings Shoppers,

I'm a new Mystery Shop Maven living in the area and I'd like to meet others for friendship & shopping.

Sincerely,

Debbie

Welcome to the forum!

Thanks Flash...So what's it like being a super star member? I admire your commitment 10255 post I bet you've heard it all, are you our veteran shopper and mentor here?

I'm an active participant and have survived longer than a bunch of folks :-) There are a bunch of folks around who have shopped longer than I have and you never will hear it all. Shops, companies and schedulers change, evolve/devolve, and clients come and go. There is always something on the move--one direction or other.

An active participant...how do you do it? I can barely keep my in box cleaned out.

It is what you are doing while you are waiting for the muse to strike so you can get on with a shop narrative :-) In Box gets really simple. You learn which companies you are willing to deal with and generally from the topic line know what you can delete without reading further. I blow them to the trash in groups of 10-12. Once you know that Rachel is not going to send you her URGENT!!! shops to be done tomorrow 3000 miles away for a $5 bonus you will actually bother scanning her email, while Debbie who seems to think Nebraska and New York are close together has her stuff sent to the trash without opening.

I like the muse/muses concept for inspiration. Whats your favorite shop, best tools, best single piece of advice, best company to shop for?

My favorite shop is the one I just got paid for. Getting paid in a timely fashion is always inspiration to do the shop again. Best tool is my DVR with an external microphone so I can control the unit from my pocket while getting great and clear sound from the hidden microphone. Best piece of advice is report the shop immediately, even if you have 24 hrs before it is due. This allows you to make a quick revisit if there was something you outright forgot to check on, get the 'memory dump' done into the report and frees you up to enjoy other things without a report hanging over your head. Reports are the worst part of this business and the longer you procrastinate, the worse they are. Wait until you are running out of time and your muse may decide to amuse herself elsewhere. Best companies are a huge matter of opinion. Probably my best overall company is A Closer Look. I know exactly what they want and it has become second nature. I can enjoy their restaurant shops with only a minimal number of timings on my recorder and otherwise sit back, relax and enjoy the meal with my companion. I know exactly what shops they will have each month and they are shops we look forward to.

I've only done a few shops for the same company and I'm rated 10 by them. I've been getting reimbursed on the 25th of the following month. I do these shops monthly for the needed service not for the $8 shop pay or $5 bonus, but for the $42 reimbursement for the high mileage oil change, it's a little over $50 a month. Its worth it to me.

Recently, I got another shop from a different company and I read on the boards here that the company takes three months to pay and maybe a little nit picky. Its a car shop the pay is only $22, but I'll do my best and see what happens.

Your DVR sounds cool, how does it work? I want one! Which one should I get and with what features? I don't want to pay over $50, but will pay up to $100, if I really like it. I've seen the pen, but it seems like it would be a battery hog. I like the one you have with the volume control in your pocket that sounds good, but how would you know to raise or lower the volume? Key fobs? cameras? sun glasses? I have windows 7 will any DVR kind work?

I've applied for many restaurant shops to no avail are they mostly given to experienced shoppers?

I know there are many shopper in my area because the shops go quickly. So come on Palm Springs area shoppers don't be shy, lets talk!

I have a Sony ICD-MX20 that is old enough they are no longer made. It was relatively expensive and units with similar features are available for much less now. For me the critical aspects are that it plugs into my computer so that I can transfer, save and listen to files from my computer. A DVR with that capability will either come with the software to listen/edit the files on the computer or it can be downloaded. The second critical aspect is that it has a plug for my external microphone. I just got crummy recordings when the unit was in a pocket or purse trying to record what was going on. I don't bother adjusting the volume when I am out. I leave it on its most sensitive level and can raise or lower the volume on playback on my computer. All I care about is being able to find the record and the pause buttons in my pocket without having to look. The third critical thing for me is durability. I drop things. My DVR has a metal case and has survived my klutziness. Although it has various speeds, I keep it on high speed for best fidelity. It uses rechargeable batteries so I change batteries every couple of days. I think this one could hold more than 100 hours of recording, but when I get home from shops I copy the files to the computer and clear the recorder. I understand external microphones are available from Radio Shack. I have a couple of condensor microphones I bought on eBay that are knockoffs of my original $50+ Sony condensor microphone. They work well looped over a bra so they are able to pick up conversations right in front of me while avoiding a lot of other noise.

The one thing you need to be aware of are the laws in your state regarding recording even in public places.

There are several things that are important with companies that have restaurant shops. Obviously they will read your writing sample with your registration. They need to see that you can be observant and not opinionated. I.e. present facts and descriptions, not opinions. Because there is often a short window for a restaurant shop to be done, they want to have some experience working with you and knowing that you indeed do what you have contracted for.

Flash, I'm guessing that I attach the microphone under my shirt and keep the recorder in my back or front pocket. Have you ever got caught using one?

I looked online at the Sony ICD-PX820 Digital Voice Recorder w/ 2GB Flash Memory and Dictation Correction, its $54. I could save my shops on the flash drive to boot!


Thank you for all your help!

Never been caught. I assume you are a guy since obviously the bra notion didn't work. When my gentleman friend does shops he puts the recorder upside down and backwards in his shirt pocket. Many women's blouses do not have pockets. Upside down is so that the microphone head is not visible, backwards because the light that the recorder is on will show through some clothing. It means he cannot start and stop it during a shop but just has it run from beginning to finish.

If I were going to rig him with the external microphone I would put a safety pin in his shirt up near the collar where the shirt is a little loose so the bulge of the mic would not be noticeable and run the cord through the safety pin. He would need to wear his shirt tail out to cover the cord running to his pocket. The ones I have are the less than 1" long lavalier microphones that are slipped out of their plastic clip because you don't want the clip showing, but perhaps even the clip could be attached for a guy in some way that there was no tell tale.

I am right handed and always keep the recorder in my front right pants pocket where I can manipulate it unobtrusively. In fact all of my 'shop pants' and skirts have pockets even though my normal preference is no pockets.

I'm Debbie the one who seems to think Nebraska and New York are close together and has her stuff sent to the trash without opening. :-)

In my search, I came across one with voice recognition that will turn the recording into text and one that had voice activation recording.

I'll try it out before I use it for a shop and I'll go to a garden center for outdoor practice too. So far, my shops have been time observations with limited interaction but I'm worried about an up coming car shop. I read on the boards that reports from this company are often returned for clarification.

Flash which state do you reside in?

I'm in sunny Florida

Mine has a voice activation feature, but it tends to turn on AFTER the initial greeting, when I needed that initial greeting, and if there is a lot of ambient noise it doesn't shut down. I have turned off that feature entirely.

I bought mine specifically because it was the recommended one for the Dragon Naturally Speaking voice recognition software. I never could get it to recognize speech from the recording because you train the software for a specific voice and once it starts getting confused with multiple voices or music from a shop it is all over but the laughs at how far off it is. In fact I had very little luck with the Dragon software, even after spending a great deal of time training it. If you want a more reasonable voice recognition, the one that comes with Win 7 called "Windows Speech Recognition" does a better job but still far from perfection. I've basically given up on the voice recognition stuff and will revisit it in another 5-10 years. I type faster than I correct.

I agree with you its much faster to type a new document then to convert and edit.

I've never typed a document listening to voices. Do you mystery shop full-time?

I am retired and shopping is the only paid employment I have. As for full time, no. For much of this year I have been doing about 50-60 shops per month, which generally are done 3-5 shops per day that I work. In my market it would not be possible to pull together enough quality shops at this time to make this full time. I could do a whole lot more shops if I were grasping at every $10 shop that went through my mailbox, but my preference is to work less, do quality jobs and do a quality job of reporting those jobs.

Happy Halloween!

I am also retired I have rental income and I do a little accounting for a small company. I could not even imagine doing 50/60 shops a month or 3/5 shops a day that would take me years to achieve.

Becoming a mystery shopper was my idea to get me out of the house after retirement and I discovered that I really like it. I like the way it makes me feel sort of empowered. I am more patient with people and I don't get annoyed with bad service anymore.

This morning I drove to Starbucks for lattes and there was a dead mouse in the drive-thru lane. I thought thank goodness it is not a shop.

Hi Flash & DAD1962

I use an Olympus VN2100pc recorder, Very small, and it does not have an external mike. I have recorded hundreds of shops on it and I very rarely have an issue with it. If they still make them, they are at Radio Shack under $50.

I will not tell you where I am as the Mystery Shop people usually read these posts. Through these posts, I try to educate them with the shopper's point of view. If you have happy evaluators it works out great for the Mystery shop schedulers and evaluators. I have 19 shops scheduled for November, and it is only the 1st of November. I do it to keep busy, and I mostly work for food. NOT MICKEYS..Ugh!I I blow from $40 to over $100 of other people's money. I would never do that as often if it were my money.

Hi ShopNflop Thanks for the 411!

I need to get one of those recorders. I cant tell you how many times I have forgotten what an employee EXACTLY said. Or had a surprise question on my report that I never thought would ever be asked. What recorders should I avoid? And which ones should I look into? X,mas is creeping up so I do not want to spend alot of money.Thanks

Dad, I see your in Palm Springs, a hop and jump from L.A. Welcome to the wonderful world of shopping. Flash is the expert, I do about 10 shops per week, (although it varies), that's all I can and want to handle, being retired, I need to take time and smell the roses. This has been a great adventure introducing me to new places and giving me a reason to "shop with purpose". The fun jobs are restaurants and a hotel here and there. I see they have Timeshares in Indio, just applied for one.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/2010 10:27PM by Irene_L.A..