LOL! That is just about the Murphy's Law of mystery shopping.

Fortunately, we all find different things in this business. Some may have gone off to find the wizard and ended up back in Kansas, or at least in this useful forum. Others found new and different career paths. I never found a camera in a toilet, but Cettie found a dead body. Oh, the places you'll go....

@bcriado wrote:

Thanks for your helpful remarks!

sounds like u need yo read the New Members part of forum. read, read, read.

I have been a MS for 7 months now. The area I live in is rural. I have a full time job and do MS on my days off. I bring in a little less than $300 after my reimbursements. I do not have any certifications and I still find jobs. I always find jobs but I do have to travel about 30 miles to do them so I make sure I put in for several jobs for one travel trip. When I think things are slowing down and having a hard time finding shops more pop up. You do have to make a reputation because now I have schedulers calling me. I told my husband when I first started out that I wanted to get really good at it so I would be scheduled more shops. I also prefer email over phone calls but I make the sacrifice when I get a phone call from a scheduler to do a shop for them, and most the time they are offering more pay because they need it done.

You've gotten some really good advice, well, and perhaps some mediocre too. All I can add is to tell you that mystery shopping is so variable that most of us can make it whatever we want it to be, given the limits of our particular shopping areas. Be flexible, try lots of things, take it easy at first. Before you know it, if you turn your reports in on time, you will have schedulers calling and emailing you and just possibly, keeping you however busy you want to be.

Here is my 2 cents as a somewhat new shopper. Start with what you know... it will make things easier.

Since you are a tech guy, sign up with Technology Store shopper. They are nice, grade easy, pay fast, and have shops having to do with cell phones and computers.

I am a sales guy with a background in finance and real estate. I found banking / investment job, retail jobs, and car shops easy from Day 1. That is what I look for first.

Yeah, several years ago Technology Store had stuff in my area, but not lately

Go to IRS website and get a free EIN (some MSC only use SSN). Sign up with many, many MSCs. Only schedule one shop a day at first. Start with MarketForce and BestMark. Accept low-paying jobs at first to get experience and learn what type of shops you like. Keep excellent records of every MSC you register with including your login info. Keep records of every shop - date, MSC, location, date payment expected, form of payment, mileage, expenses. Silver MSPA certification costs $25 and opens the door to some MSCs. I found it was worth the expense. Make sure your reports are accurate and well-written. Use Grammarly (free online version). Good luck.

Great advice and tips here. I am not paying for certification, the codes don't even work. I am getting plenty of jobs by reading this board and following the tips.

That EIN has been a subject of debate in the forum for several years. I've been a shopper for about 16 years and have done thousands of shops, but do not have an EIN and will not get one. I work for one MSC that wanted all shoppers to get an EIN and I said no. At first they tried to say no one could get shops anymore without one, but they relented because of the amount of backlash from shoppers who don't want to get the EIN and I still shop for them pretty regularly without it. I am not saying "don't get one" but research it carefully before you make that decision.

May I ask the MS co that required and EIN & also from your view point why not to get one?

It was Trendsource in particular, but I think a few others were trying to get shoppers to get EINs as well. Read the posts at the following link:

[www.mysteryshopforum.com]

Thank you...that's who I thought it was!

@Shop-et-al wrote:

You didn't say much about health, and I won't ask for specifics about that. I would only suggest that you be gentle with yourself. You will find out as you go along what is best for you. You will know when or if it is okay to add challenges to your unique life and shopping career.
Enjoy!
p.s. Have you considered merchandising, auditing, and other jobs in this industry?

@Shop-et-al, I have Fibromyalgia and multiple back issues. I can't stand for very long, can't lift much and sometimes suffer from what is known as "fibro fog". Overall, I do fine most days -- just not enough for the majority of full-time jobs. A few days here & there (the very worst fibro days), I can barely get out of bed.

I'm not aware of any merchandising, auditing or other jobs in this industry. However, I would like to know more. I'll do some research on that topic. Thank you for the advice and asking about my health, as it relates to the job.

@Monk-N-Nut wrote:

Hi CharlieJ - As an IT person, have you considered OnForce or FieldNation as you slide into (semi)retirement? It gives you the opportunity to pick and choose.

@Monk-N-Nut, I will check both of them out. Thank you!

@ChrisCooper wrote:

You didn't ask, but...
Don't over-analyze it. As another poster mentioned, just get started. Take some straightforward shops, such as cell phone, fast food, and jump in. I would recommend starting with MarketForce because their shops are pretty basic.

@ChrisCooper, this seems to be the prevailing advice -- go slow, but get started. THANK YOU for the wise words. I appreciate ALL the replies so far.

Someone mentioned Uber/Lyft. The closest area for those is Wilmington, NC. That's an hour away, so probably not something that would be beneficial to me. But, I do thank you for the idea.

*UPDATE* I did my first shop! It was a auto shop web inquiry through BestMark. I'm awaiting the results or some feedback now.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/2017 11:13AM by CharlieJ.

I hate to follow a post with another post, but I do have a question I feel is important...
In my research and joining some MSCs, I have run across specific names & email addresses for some schedulers.

Question #9 - Should I write to those schedulers and introduce myself? Give them a little "me" background, etc? Or would that be frowned upon?

I ask this because I have 14 years retail sales & sale management experience, in addition to my I.T. and photography experience. And, quite frankly, I'd like for the schedulers to know I'm a well-established adult with professional skills & experience -- not just Joe Schmoe who signed up to be a shopper.

I would wait until I have done a coupe of successful shops for an MSC that the person schedules for and only then start marketing myself to individual schedulers. Also, be sure to create a personal signature line to attach to every email that you send to any MSC rep.

In the beginning, Something like:

Joe Smith
Reliable shopper specializing in the (area name)
phone number

Later you can add things like "since 2017" or, "I love last minute shops," or some other promotional info.

Hey, I use an AOL email address and have since 2001, for mystery shopping and everything else. It's caused no problems. However, if I had known that the Internet was going to expand and my mystery shopping was going to turn into more than just a hobby, I would have created a separate email account just for shopping. i had no idea.

As far as making money goes, I easily make $1,000 or more a month shopping, though some months it's less. My hours vary too. It's hard to predict. Payment is varied from company to company, different types of shops, and from region to region.

I am MSPA gold certified from a workshop I attended back in 2003. I think the workshop was great. Now they certify online and I have read other shoppers having difficulty registering with some companies and getting their certifications entered and recognized. I don't think the online certification is a good value like it was with the hands-on workshop, which was "gold" with the networking of company reps and other shoppers I met.

I don't really like jobslinger and mystery shopper job board much. I just look on the websites of companies with which I am registered or by applying via email links, or by direct contact via email and phone from schedulers. I like email better too, but there are company reps who I will pick up the phone for because I know they are going to offer me a bonus. I personally don't like MSCs to text me, and the few times a scheduler has done so it wasn't anything I was interested in and I had already seen the email they had sent eariler.

@CharlieJ wrote:

I hate to follow a post with another post, but I do have a question I feel is important...
In my research and joining some MSCs, I have run across specific names & email addresses for some schedulers.

Question #9 - Should I write to those schedulers and introduce myself? Give them a little "me" background, etc? Or would that be frowned upon?

I ask this because I have 14 years retail sales & sale management experience, in addition to my I.T. and photography experience. And, quite frankly, I'd like for the schedulers to know I'm a well-established adult with professional skills & experience -- not just Joe Schmoe who signed up to be a shopper.

Wales is correct -- wait til you have some shops under your belt. Find out what you like and dislike -- you sure don't need to waste time writing a scheduler only to find 3 months from now that you just cannot BEAR to perform the type of shop that scheduler handles.

However, meanwhile, note the scheduler's name, phone #, e-mail, etc. I also add a note about the shop offer, so that if I'm ever interested in that type of shop, I'll know who to contact.

You'll show your professionalism and skills by doing some shops, getting the reports in on time and correct....

@walesmaven, @JASFLALMT & @ceasesmith,
Thank you for the quick replies to #9. I will take your advice and keep quiet until I have some experience and decide what areas I want to focus on. Man, I have sooooo many questions and want to get ahead of the curve in learning. LOL! Can I add two more?

#10 - How often have you had a shop rejected and, actually lost money (reimbursement, not mileage gas, etc)? When this happened, what was the typical cause of the rejection?

#11 - The "end all, be all" of questions (LOL) -- WHAT have I forgotten to ask that I should know before I go further?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/2017 02:35PM by CharlieJ.

I actually didn't reply to your last question about introducing yourself to schedulers, but I concur with wales and cease.

Out of thousands of shops in the past 17 years, I've had two shops rejected. Both were my fault. Once I failed to shop within the required hours--I was supposed to visit before 2 PM and I went at 2:30, because I had done the shop before and not paid attention that the guidelines had changed slightly. That's why it's important that no matter how many times you do a shop, you always need to reread the guidelines. The second time I was supposed to spend 20 minutes inside of a store that sold sunglasses, but the associate greeted me immediately, I was the only customer in the store, and our interaction only took 10 minutes, so I was in the store for 12. I should have lingered and browsed for an extra 8 minutes, which isn't always easy to do when you have seen everything they have and the speedy speaking sales associate has run through their presenation thoroughly but very quickly. Still, my fault because I didn't follow a guideline correctly.

As for your last question: go do some shops and then come back if you have questions. You are so much further ahead than most people are when they first start doing this. You will be fine!!!!

Lost reimbursement? 2 times since 2005. Both my errors. In one case it was for a $3.00 food item and $10 in gas that I would have purchased anyway. In the other, I bought a key chain for about $2.00, which I later gave as a holiday stocking stuffer. Reasons for fails? Forgetting and/or ignoring the shop guideline in my case.

In other cases posted here: often the shopper decides that the guidelines "don't make sense" or make it obvious that they are the shopper, so they change how they do the shop. They report exactly what they did and then scream bloody murder about how unfair the editor/MSC was. Or, the shopper misses one essential action/step/guideline and then screams that it was "just one little mistake." Missing a non-essential step may be repaired; but what the client sees as essential is just not going to go the shopper's way.

Of course, there have been some rather spectacular cases where the refusal to pay a large reimbursement was questionable at best, and mean at worst. If the shopper maintains a professional, but firm, position, we have seen some of those resolved to the credit of both parties. Where the shopper rants, not so much. And, in still other cases, we never hear what the final outcome was.

AS ALWAYS, if you feel you need to challenge an editor or scheduler's decision, escalate in a professional manner. The more that you read, read, read, shoppers' complaints here about MSCs, the better you will get at spotting the one-time wonder posters who rant but never tell us why the MSC denied their shop pay and/or reimbursement. You will also get to see how other problems get worked out.

In 10 years, I've had some spectacular failures. I did a McDonald's shop that was rejected by the client. The MSC paid me in full. I do not know why -- because of my "perfect" record with them over several years (according to the scheduler), because the guidelines did NOT address what happened (my timing was off because of heavy traffic in the McDonald's parking lot -- in the drive thru, I wasn't able to get to the window until 14 minutes after giving my order. I explained in the report and in an additional e-mail to the MSC.); I just don't know. Since the fee was $125, I was quite happy they paid me. Evidently, the client said I should NOT have waited for the other cars to "get in front of my car". Huh?

A few months ago, my photo of a gas station wasn't clear enough. It was rejected, and not paid. Another $125 fee, plus reimbursement -- and the gas station was more than 400 miles from home. Oh, my. Fortunately, I had done a route of 8 gas stations, so the non-pay wasn't the disaster it could have been.

I did one shop, and screwed it up so badly that I could not file a report. I wrote the scheduler, told her what happened, and she cancelled the shop. That was merely $25.

I have failed other shops, too, but have always succeeded in rescheduling and reshopping the assignment, with a successful conclusion.

I don't recall any other instances.

My stance is if I screw up, I'll do what I need to do to make it right -- reschedule, reshop, etc.

I do personally know other shoppers who quit shopping because "I did all that work but didn't get paid for it!"
In both cases, they failed miserably. One girl told me "I don't like ketchup, and I don't eat onions, so I ordered my burger without ketchup and onions" -- and the guidelines clearly state to not ask for any alterations. And the screening questions included one asking "Do you have any reason you cannot order and taste the entree
exactly as it is normally prepared?" and she had answered that she could order it as normally prepared -- but then she did NOT. She asked for no ketchup and no onions! The other case, the shopper admitted she didn't read the guidelines. She failed to stay inside the required 15 minutes after receiving her order. She did the drive-thru part correctly, then went inside to complete the shop. She got her order, and just left. Neither admitted it was their own screwup that caused them to not be paid.

In answer to your question, what other questions should you ask -- read the guidelines! I use a "cheat sheet", even on shops I've done over and over and over. If I have to get a name and description, that's on my cheat sheet. In a big box store, I'll dash to the restroom (often part of the questionnaire, anyway!), and review
my cheat sheet before I leave the location. How detailed a description is required -- and sometimes, I have to go back through the store and find the associate again and see if they are wearing glasses, because I did not note it first time through!

For timings, I use "shopwatch" on my cell phone. Absolutely crucial.

READ the guidelines. If something is not clear, or is confusing, clear it up with the scheduler or MSC BEFORE you go to do the shop. I once got some very confusing guidelines, and e-mailed the scheduler. I got back a perfectly horrid e-mail "I don't have time to answer your questions!" I wrote her that if she didn't have time to answer my questions, I certainly did not have the time to do her shop. I asked her to cancel it, and she did -- and gave me THIRTY flake citations!!!! I have done plenty of shops for that MSC since then, but never another one for that scheduler.

To clarify my post, I was referring ONLY to unreimbursed cash purchases. I have also screwed up several video shops over 11 years. It really hurts when you are doing a long route with highly bonused shops and have TWO go sideways. The bonuses would have paid for the costs of a night on the road, and so it really hurts when that happens.

EVERYONE who does a lot of shops will have some that cannot be accepted for one reason or another. So, walk before you try to tun. If you do dining shops, be sure to do a few moderately priced restaurants to get comfortable with all of the timing requirements and numerous details required in the reports, before trying the high end fine dining shops where you have much more reimbursement at risk. Before planning a long MS roadtrip, get comfortable with every kind of shop that you will do on the trip. Before moving to video apartment, new home or auto sales shops, get comfortable with non-recorded ones.

@ OP, fibro is ... unprintable! However, you have a wonderful attitude. I applaud you for getting additional information about this industry and for allowing us to share expected and unexpected information with you.

My personal take is that it's a good way to pay for meals or small purchases and make some extra pocket money, but a few factors would prevent me from even *trying* to make this a serious gig to live on. Sorry, I won't use your numbers because I don't know most of the answers, but here are the downsides of mystery shopping:

1. You have to join dozens and dozens of companies.
2. You spend hours scanning dozens and dozens of job boards.
3. The best jobs are scooped up within minutes.
4a. Even when they're available, you have to wait 30-60-90 days or more between visits.
4b. Even when they're available, you might not be the right sex or age or drive the right car, etc.
5. Fees are going down all the time.
6. You can spend hours entering shops, especially when they're new to you.
7. You can spend hours reading lengthy and confusing guidelines, and taking qualification tests.
8. The slightest error can mean you are stuck with a $40 restaurant bill.
9. Your carefully planned routes can reel into chaos when a coordinator needs to make a change.
10. You need to carefully track promised fees and bonuses across numerous payment methods.

That's just the first 10 I could think of. This is why I only work with maybe five or six companies (I'd rather stick with just one or two honestly) and only do a handful of shops per month, sometimes none at all. (I vow to quit every few months because it doesn't seem worth it, but then I see emails for my favorites and I go back.)

Now, I have made some good money doing mortgage shops ($150 for a few phone calls), but I also had to use my own name and credit report. And of course I had to wait at least a month in between shops. There are a lot easier ways to make $1000 per month. Good luck to you!

That's great. I had not considered that.

@walesmaven wrote:

I would wait until I have done a coupe of successful shops for an MSC that the person schedules for and only then start marketing myself to individual schedulers. Also, be sure to create a personal signature line to attach to every email that you send to any MSC rep.

In the beginning, Something like:

Joe Smith
Reliable shopper specializing in the (area name)
phone number

Later you can add things like "since 2017" or, "I love last minute shops," or some other promotional info.

Can you give me names of good MSCs that do apartment shops, especially senior housing? Thanks.

I guess replies don't show up under the message being replied to. Bluegirl, can you give me some good MSCs for apartment shops, especially senior housing? Thanks.

@CharlieJ wrote:

Question #9 - Should I write to those schedulers and introduce myself? Give them a little "me" background, etc? Or would that be frowned upon?

What I've found that schedulers love is asking questions about the guidelines. Of course, legit questions, not nonsense. Read the whole thing first before asking. If they want you to identify the manager, for example, they should at some point tell you how, such as different shirts or name tags. Or, often, you can find inconsistencies and contradictions within and between documents because of multiple changes over the years. Showing that you read and understood the guidelines scores big points.

Congrats on your first shop!

@CharlieJ wrote:

#10 - How often have you had a shop rejected and, actually lost money (reimbursement, not mileage gas, etc)? When this happened, what was the typical cause of the rejection?

The first one that comes to mind is Sonic. They have a list of 6-8 items you can order. At least half of these are not even on the menu. I was unfamiliar with this place so took me forever to compare the ok list with their menu. Is Chicken Salad the same as Sonic Chickity Garden Salad? (made that up, they don't allow salad) Hot dogs are okay but only certain buns, not the one I ordered. Most drinks are okay but not iced coffee. I have ordered the wrong thing there several times, and they have no mercy.

The worst tho was a Sonic breakfast shop where I ordered outside and NEVER got my meal. I had just re-read the guidelines before I left, and luckily saw what to do if that happens, which involves waiting for like 20 minutes and still going to check the bathroom. Then I tried entering the shop in the system and it took over three hours because they would ask about the food and not take "I didn't get any" for an answer. For all that trouble, I got $3, maybe $5, and of course I was left starving with no breakfast. I ended up trying another place nearby and spent a fortune.

Quite a loss of time and money, and to add insult to injury, they didn't believe me, and asked me several weird questions about my car. Realizing they wanted to check the CCTV, I told them exactly where I parked and what time I came and went, what I wore, etc, and all that for a lousy $3.

When you do a lot of the fast and casual food shops, you forget which ones require a drink and which are optional. I've neglected to order a drink and the whole thing is rejected, even when they don't ask a single question about your drink. I don't order soda to save $2 and I end up stuck with a $10 bill for an overpriced burger and fries.

So for me, the biggest reason is ordering the wrong things, followed by not knowing what to do when the guidelines literally cannot be followed.

I've had to redo a cafe shop because it required food AND drink. Get there and they aren't serving hot food, refrigerator is broken. Being Sunday morning I couldn't call for advice. So I evaluate everything else and write it up.

No dice. They say I could have ordered a dessert (oh yeah great breakfast idea) so I didn't get paid, but at least I got to go again to this cafe, which I do like.

I"m on track to make 1000 this month. It's not a sure thing but it's looking likely. I plan to work 13 days to make that amount of money, but in my area I have to do quite a bit of driving. And if you're wondering if I could make 2000 by working double that amount, the answer is probably not. This is me scooping up all the good paying shops I can find and there are several that are highly bonused due to someone either screwing them up or flaking.