I have some hotel and restaurant assignments in Las Vegas starting this Friday April 24, 2015. The person I was supposed to travel with just flaked out on me so if anyone wants to join me for a nice steak house dinner, and or a great breakfast let me know. It would be sometime between April 24 and 28.

Does it include airfare???

It's possible I might be, actually. Sending you a PM.

uhmm I could head that way and then go north...

How do you have assignments in Las Vegas? I live part of the year out there and I thought that you couldn't mystery shop in Nevada. It's the only state in the US that has pretty strict regulations on that.

I was under the impression you have to have a Nevada PI license to mystery shop in Nevada. Are you an NV PI or was I I misinformed?

@MW wrote:

I was under the impression you have to have a Nevada PI license to mystery shop in Nevada. Are you an NV PI or was I I misinformed?

No. You must be employed by a licensed private investigator. You need a work card in that state. This will run you about $128.00 (work card, photos and fingerprinting).

I thought you just needed to be employed by an Nevada PI.

I'm sure they wouldn't have assigned him the shop if he couldn't legally do it.

I got a Nevada work card a couple years ago and tend to go to Vegas once or twice a year. I schedule 1 large shop and then a bunch of smaller shops. The main one I schedule usually pays for all or most of my travel and lodging.

@dspeakes wrote:

I thought you just needed to be employed by an Nevada PI.

I'm sure they wouldn't have assigned him the shop if he couldn't legally do it.

Yes. But if you get caught without your work card, it's $2,500 fine per shop, if you don't keep the card on you.

I'm sure carlsbadguy knows what he's doing. It's not his first time.

@SunnyDays2 wrote:

@dspeakes wrote:

I thought you just needed to be employed by an Nevada PI.

I'm sure they wouldn't have assigned him the shop if he couldn't legally do it.

Yes. But if you get caught without your work card, it's $2,500 fine per shop, if you don't keep the card on you.

....but isn't that one of the most ridiculous rules ever for shoppers? You are supposed to deny being the shopper and are there covertly, so who is going to possibly pull you aside and levy a fine on you for not having your work card?

LOL. Of course it's ridiculous. Until he sits down in the privacy of his hotel room and inputs the shop, he's just another diner like I am. And I certainly don't have any Nevada work card, but I'm also not going to be filling out any report afterward.

so is it carls badguy or Carlsbad guy?

I assumed carslbad(CA)guy

I think his name is Carl and he's a badguy.

But then his name would have to be Carls not Carl. Or he could be Carl's bad guy.

@carlsbadguy wrote:

I have some hotel and restaurant assignments in Las Vegas starting this Friday April 24, 2015. The person I was supposed to travel with just flaked out on me so if anyone wants to join me for a nice steak house dinner, and or a great breakfast let me know. It would be sometime between April 24 and 28.

That really bites. I hope you found somebody to help you. I am heading north to shop this weekend, but I'd be happy to meet you when you are back home 20 miles +/- from Carlsbad.

I was originally planning to be in Vegas this weekend, except airfare was ridiculous.

Yes, he found someone.

It turned out my friend in Vegas's birthday is Saturday so I was planning to come up to see her this weekend anyway so I'll just delay getting to her place a couple hours to help CBG out with this shop. It will be a good experience since I've never done this level of fine dining shop before.

Great dinner, BTW. And I may not be quite so afraid of fine dining shops after this.

Good for you, dspeakes. A win-win situation: not having to write a report, after having a 'great dinner' for free.
I've done many fine dining shops, but never like yours.

...<<<.but isn't that one of the most ridiculous rules ever for shoppers? You are supposed to deny being the shopper and are there covertly, so who is going to possibly pull you aside and levy a fine on you for not having your work card?>>

```````````````

This is taken very seriously in the state of Nevada and the PILB (Nevada Private Investigators Licensing Board) does care and does monitor all shoppers, and private investigative firms must notify the PILB if you are no longer employed with them.

When you ask "who" is going to pull you aside, you should know that not only are you in trouble, (for not having a work card) but the mystery shopping company is in trouble for not verifying your work card. The work card in Nevada consists of a background check of you, and fingerprints, to make sure you have no prior criminal history.

When you ask who cares? The Nevada PILB cares: (Nevada Private Investigators Licensing Board)

Their job:

The purpose of the Private Investigators Licensing Board is to license private investigators and if they are properly licensed, they can hire mystery shoppers.

Chapter 648 of Nevada Revised Statutes mandates the Board to regulate the standards of conduct for these professions in order to protect the public safety and general welfare of the people of the state.

The agency is responsible for conducting background investigations on applicants, administering compliance audits of licensees, preparing disciplinary matters for Board review and investigating various complaints of misconduct of a licensee or unlicensed activity

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/2015 01:57AM by SunnyDays2.

Still no mention of who is going to come up to you, either at your table or as you're leaving and say, "I think you're a mystery shopper. Let's see your card" or even "I know you're a mystery shopper. Let's see the card or you're going to jail" because it would be up to them to prove you were on a shop and how could they know such a thing?

And if you then denied being a mystery shopper, or admitted being a shopper but said you weren't on a shop at the time, what are they going to do? Strip search you for evidence? We're not carrying in our paperwork. We didn't charge the meal to the MSC. We're just another customer at that moment. How are they going to prove we were shopping?

I don't think it falls on the shopper to prove they have the card; I suspect it probably falls on the MSC to prove you proved *to them* that you had the card and it was still valid at the time you did the shop. I'm guessing the MSCs who contract in Nevada probably get audited and have to prove all their employees/contractors were legally authorized to do their jobs.

Dspeakes, I agree with you. I think the burden is on the MSC doing business in Nevada. That is who they are going to look at, not the individual. But the fines for non-compliance are high. Plus, it is to the advantage of the MSC who are licenced to operate in Nevada to maintain their status. You need to be an employee of the licensed MSC, not an independent contractor.

@dspeakes wrote:

Still no mention of who is going to come up to you, either at your table or as you're leaving and say, "I think you're a mystery shopper. Let's see your card" or even "I know you're a mystery shopper. Let's see the card or you're going to jail" because it would be up to them to prove you were on a shop and how could they know such a thing?

And if you then denied being a mystery shopper, or admitted being a shopper but said you weren't on a shop at the time, what are they going to do? Strip search you for evidence? We're not carrying in our paperwork. We didn't charge the meal to the MSC. We're just another customer at that moment. How are they going to prove we were shopping?

I don't think it falls on the shopper to prove they have the card; I suspect it probably falls on the MSC to prove you proved *to them* that you had the card and it was still valid at the time you did the shop. I'm guessing the MSCs who contract in Nevada probably get audited and have to prove all their employees/contractors were legally authorized to do their jobs.

It was just not in my mind-set to wonder "if" I would get caught by not having a work card but rather, it was the right thing to do, having a work card because it is the law in that state.

That's like trying to shoplift in a store and wonder "who" was going to catch you?

The consequence of performing mystery shopping jobs in Nevada without this work card is a $2500.00 fine for both the shopper and company, per event.

I have always lived by the philosophy "Do the right thing."

I'm not suggesting anyone shop in Vegas without the card. I'm just saying that nobody is going to be asking the *shopper* for the card, they will be asking the *MSC* for proof that the shops were done by properly credentialed shoppers.

Until the report is submitted, we have simply been having a nice meal. We're not being paid to eat; we're being paid for the report. *That* is our work product. *That* is what we are paid for. And *that* happens long after we leave the premises. And *that* is the point where we break a law if we don't have the card -- when we hit "submit" on the report. Not when we chow down on a hunk of prime rib in a nice restaurant.

I could have gone to that dinner the other night, made my own notes, gone home, written up an evaluation of what happened, and even mailed it in to the client and that does not make me a mystery shopper. I write letters to companies all the time telling them in great detail what their CS reps did or said or didn't do or didn't say and they don't send me so much as a dime in return. So I haven't mystery shopped them. The "shop" occurs when the report is submitted under an agreement that the shopper will be paid for it.

The difference in Nevada is that when you do have the card and are working for a PI firm to do the shop, you are an employee, you are "on the clock" so to speak, you're probably covered by worker's comp. The difference between carlsbadguy and myself that night was that this applied to him, but did not apply to me, even though we were "doing" the same thing -- eating a meal at that restaurant. And nobody had the right to ask either of us for a card because eating a meal is not against the law. If the law is broken it is broken far away from where the meal was eaten.

SunnyDays, the absurdity is not the requirement of having have the card. I understand that point. It is the requirement to have it in your possession during the shop that's ridiculous.

Our enrollment in the program is verifiable over the internet and that's how employers check each month to see about shopper status. I don't think there has even been a shopper called out to produce their work card during a shop. I keep a picture of it in my phone and send out out to companies in NV when I sign up with them.