i have not heard anything back from when i filled the details in to be a shopper so i cannot comment on how it went

I've been doing Mystery Shops for maybe half a year now. Unfortunetly there are not alot of them to choose from in this area. I've only done six or seven that were close enough and paid enough for me to profit doing them. I have registered with at least three or four agencies but have only received emails for jobs from two. I enjoy them very much and have been told my evaluations have been very good. I just wish there would be more and I wish they would have shops at our local casino her in Red Wing like most all the casinos up around the Twin Cities have. They pay very well and would be a lot of fun. Well, that's about it and I hope to see many more. Haven't seen any in awhile. Thank you and good night.

Hi Kim,

The trick to mystery shopping is to apply to as many companies as you can, the more you apply to the more chances for jobs. Volitio.com lists about 100 mystery shopping companies that are free to sogn up with. I live in NJ and have been shopping for about 9 months, and I am registered with about 65 companies now. I get many offers daily, but only schedule myself for about 3 to 4 shops a day Monday to Saturday. Some of the shops pay well, some not so well, but if I schedule a couple lower paying shops in the same area it makes it worth doing.

Mike

I have been mystery shopping since Nov. 2006. I have had about 20 jobs. Made 33.00 last year. And 100.00 in Feb. I am finding that you have to apply for a lot of jobs. I really do get tired of getting hints of sign up with this one and find out you have to pay. So you have to be careful.

I have been MSing for over a year now. In the beginning it was very time consuming. I had to register with all the companies. Every shop was a new shop, so I had to print all the endless amounts of paperwork. I spent hours on the computer searching for work.
Since then I have learned which companies I prefer and which shops I prefer. I know ho shops who and how often, ow many shops I can do successfully in a day and when to check who's board for work
Today it is a piece of cake. I only have 8 companies I check regularly because the rest will email me when jobs are available. I shop mostly the same shops so I understand what I need to do. I have the same reports so there are no surprises and I fly through them. I earn between $500 and $900 a month depending on what's out there and what I am willing to do. The first of the month is always busy, the middle wanes and the end can be busy if a lot of shoppers flaked.
For those who are new, don't be discouraged by the amount of work, it will pay off. I mean it will pay off if...there are many shops available in your area and there aren't too many shoppers. Good Luck!

I have been mystery shopping for about 5 years. I have done over two hundred jobs. I enjoy doing them. I work for over twenty companies.

I fund my experiences very pleasant and fun to do. I have been shopp for over 4 years and have had challenging shops. Many of my shops cinsisted of fast foods, but there had been banks, post offices, grocery stores, jewelers, malls, department store shops and so on. I enjoy the experience as well as getting to meet different people.

I recenty saw a list of many mystery shopping websites but am unable to find it again. Could someone please help me with this? Thanks

I would like to ask Linda what size community she is in and how much she thinks she could make mystery shopping if she did it full time. I met a woman who has been supporting herself for 15 years. She does not work all available hours and makes $35,000. That's not enough for me.

I would like to ask Kim what filing system she uses for her mystery shops and the payments. Thanks.

Hi Candy,

Try volition.com a good site that lists about 100 shopping companies, most if not all are free to join. There is also walletbosters.com also a good site, I have not gone throught the whole site listings yet so not sure how many comapnies are there. I hope this information helps you.

Mike

Sandra Sue,

I use excell for my record keeping, I make a new sheet for each month. I list things in this order;

Date, Job location, Shopping company, Miles, Reimbursment, Amount spent, Pay, Date Paid, How paid.

This makes it easier to keep track of the things that I need for taxes, you can write off milage and un-reimbursted items if you itemize.

This also give me the chance to see if a new shopping company is paying as they should. So far I haven't had a problem with any payments.

I hope this information helps.

Mike

I started about two months ago.
I have done movie assignments, serviced DVD in super markets and presently doing part time merchandising which will end in a few weeks from now.
CMS, so far keeps in touch regularly, that is a good thing. I feel a little ashamed when job offers are made to me and I fail to accept. The reason for many of my refusals are I cannot work for under $14 and also I will not do business with PAY-PAL, NEVER AGAIN.

I started mystery shopping in July of 2006, I only did a couple jobs, one was for glasses. I didn't want to get to involved with this until I found it if it was real or not. After a couple jobs I didn't do anything, I got paid as I was told, but it seemed like too much work to sign up with all the companies that are out there. So I stopped for a couple months, During this time I had paid for shadow shoppers and was getting 50 to 100 e-mails a day. I would just delete them and the ones from companies for shops. Around October I really started to look into the shopping services again and I answered a few e-mails from a couple companies and shopped a few more times. Since july 2006 I have completed about 350 shops, and missed a couple because of work, but worked at it. I have applied to about 100 myster shopping companies now and have worked for about 40 of them so far. I complete on average 60 shops a month now and plan to start adding 30 or so starting in April, I have already scheduled 45 shops for the month and am half way to my goal of 90. I have had very good experiences with all the shopping companies that I have delt with so far, the only draw back to shopping are some of the lower paying shops. Most shops that I take average $15.00 each, some pay as high as $75.00 and some only $5.00. When I do the $5.00 shops I alway make sure that I can do more than 1 in the same area, or I combine them into my schedule with some of my $15.00-$20.00 shops.

As it has been said on this board before, the trick to finding shopping jobs is to apply to as many companies as you can and check thier job boards daily. I now check the job boards every 3 days, but I do get about 10 calls a week from schedulers asking me to take a shop that has been cancelled or a no show shopper. These I take if I am going to be in the area for another shop or if it is near my job and I can complete it while on the way home from work.

Shopping is not going to make you rich but it really does help out with making ends meet. You also get a tax break, so keep track of all you business miles and what is spent for a shop.

Mike

It seems to me that one of two things are happening. Either the people who are very successful at mystery shopping are too busy to respond to this forum, or there aren't many of them. It seems that most of the people who write are short-timers and part-timers with questions and/or problems. Where are all the successful ones? I know they exist. I'd just like to know that they are more numerous.

My wife and I have done business reporting for over 14 years. We have done Shopping Malls, Furniture Stores, Drug Stores ,Banks ,Car Dealerships, Drug Stores, Fast Food Out lets, Shoe Stores,Merchandising,Medical Clinics, Doctors ,Hospitals,.Our business name is Quality Assurance International,and C & R Enterprises.You will be lucky if you can find any history on our company as we tried to remain ANONYMOUS as possible.We have used Recording Equipment,Pictures ( Digital Cameras), we are now learning to use Cell Phone Cameras Etc.We love the business but feel the payback is not worth our troubles , Gas prices,Hotels Etc.We use to give bid prices on a group of stores but, costs kept soaring and shop pays were shrinking.
We evaluate the shop by the return, we feel our experience is worth a great deal .We have been in the business world for many years and know what to look for. We cannot believe of the change in the level of service in any Industries.
Cliff

I have been Mystery shopping since January of this year. I registered with 32 companies and I am currently working for 13. I have done over 80 different shops consisting of Retail Stores,Fast Food,Celluar,Grocery Stores and several audits.
I have really enjoyed the people I have met in this positon. I want to thank Jacob for all the great advice he has given thru his newsletters. This has really helped me to get on the fast track and I have been making money and having fun doing it..

Yes, thank you, Jacob. It is nice to have others to compare notes with.

I have been doing these work for a month now and it has been great. Sometimes at the beginning i was having truuble but no mre. it is great.

1. I have been mystery shopping for only a couple months
2. two
3. about 75
4. How do I figure out which companies are in the area I live in, Tampa?
5. For the two I have done I have liked very much.
6. So far none.

I started mystery shopping at the latter part of Feburary,07. I wanted to see if I would actually get a check. Guess what? I did!! I completed the shops assigned and made sure that my feedback was done in a timely manor! This is the most important thing of all when you accept the shops complete the shops as agreed and submit the paperwork correctly. Your mistake cost you money! Since March 3,07 to now April 11, 07 I have now completed over 50 shops for one company and for the other companies I filled in my working area for the day with their shops doing shops in that same area. Making my total of shops in a one month period 64 shops to date. For ex: One work day I made over 100.00 dollars and the next day I made 260.00 in this particular day there were bonuses added simply because someone did not complete their assignment. That's ok by me! The more people mess up the more monies I get to put in my pocket! Good Luck to my fellow shoppers!! Guess what? I have never mystery shopped until now.......and I am currently being approved for more. Just today I was approved for eight additional shops again this for a company who knows that my shops are completed the day I accept and the paperwork is completed before the next business day.

Cynthia Gray

I started mystery shopping at the latter part of Feburary,07. I wanted to see if I would actually get a check. Guess what? I did!! I completed the shops assigned and made sure that my feedback was done in a timely mannor! This is the most important thing of all when you accept the shops complete the shops as agreed and submit the paperwork correctly. Your mistake cost you money! Since March 3,07 I have now completed over 50 shops for one company and for other companies I filled in my working area for the day with different companies doing shops in that same area. For ex: One work day I made over 100.00 dollars and the next day I made 260.00 in this particular day there were bonuses added simply because someone did not complete their assignment. That's ok by me! The more people mess up the more monies I get to put in my pocket! Good Luck to my fellow shoppers!!
Cynthia

I have have 16 jobs all of theses job were from one company. I like working for them because the jobs were different. But I no longer work this company they said that I miss three jobs but i didn't miss any, I wish that I could work for them again.

Stacey, maybe you should brush up on your grammar and spelling. That helps in getting and keeping work.

I have not received any jobs to do

Hi Betty,

How many mystery shopping companies are you signed up with? I have found that the more companies that I sign up with the more jobs I get. If you need a site that lists a few companies try volition.com all the companies that I have signed up with from this site have been free, and I have gotten some work from a few of them.

I hope this helps.
Mike

My mystery shopping experiences have been ok but it seems that most of the jobs don't really pay enough for the time it takes to put them on-line. I wish I could get higher paying jobs.

1. I've been mystery shopping for around 3 years on and off.
2. I've done well over 100 jobs.
3. Over 30
4. The one thing I would like to know about Mystery Shopping is how to get the higher paying jobs.
5. The positive jobs seem to be the audits. You meet some really nice people.
6. When you work for Shop-n-Check it takes alot of time to do the gas station shops.

I just started mystery shopping in March. I've been on three shops and have one coming up tomorrow. I'm signed up with about 30 companies, but plan to do more. I don't like giving out too much of my personal info on the computer, so that eliminates some of them. I live in a small town, so most of the jobs in my area are taken before I get a chance. I like it, so far, but I feel like I spend a lot of time for not so much money (considering time on the computer, etc.) I haven't been making much money, but I'm sure that'll change as I get more experience. I have refused jobs that only pay $4.00. It's a waste of time and not even worth the gas to get there!

Hi Donna,

Have you thought about getting a tax identification number, that way you are not giving out your ss number. It makes it easier to register with some companies, it will keep your info safe.
Mike

have not been able to do any mystery shopping, no one has gotten back to me, except the ones that want you to pay them.