I woke up with a sore throat on Friday. In addition, I did not sleep well. I thought I should cancel my shops. However, with reluctance, I did all my shops (six) and entered the reports by the end of the day.

At 6:30 PM, the same day, a Mystery Shop Company called to let me know I was spotted at one of the banks. I, therefore, had to be removed from that particular project.

If I would have canceled out, the above would not have happened.

Sorry. There are days when you don't feel good and days when you realize you have bitten off more than you can chew. I've always found that the worst days are the ones just after there has been some baloney with a shop that made me feel it was no longer worthwhile.

My worst shopping day was several years, when I was just starting out and the shop did not go anything at all like it was supposed to go. I ended up walking out of the store with 3 (yes 3) new cellphones complete with contracts! There were supposed to be checks that would stop the transaction at several points along the way, but the sales person ignored or over ruled them. When I got to the car and realized what I did I completely lost it. I started shaking, and crying and rushed back into the store and the CSR dept thought I was having a breakdown, but did cancel the transactions. The saga did not end there. One of the stoppers was to be that I gave an address that was not correct for me. If the address I gave did not match my Drivers license, the it was to make me non eligible for the purchase. I used my sister's address and she got mail addressed to me at her house for months. it almost ended my shopping career before it got off the ground good.

Eeek, Barbage. That would do a number on you. And I bet that report was just awful to write as well since it would require reliving the day.

I once did a Mercedes shop where I was supposed to pretend I want to make the deal. Supposedly the amount I had to say that I wanted to buy the car for was so low that the dealer would not accept it. Well, with my luck they accepted the price. I had to think fast so that I could get out of it without comming home with a $55,000 Mercedes and also not blow my cover. I had not signed anything and was able to get out of it and the shop was accepted. I felt bad for the salesman who thought he had sold a car.

I think probably my overall worst was when I had to take a very early morning flight to an airport where I was "batting cleanup". Every vendor and service in the airport needed to be shopped in an airport. Other shoppers had been in already and had done the bulk of the shops, but somebody needed to pick up the ones they couldn't find or that didn't work out for some reason or other in addition to ones that nobody had attempted. I had stuff before and after security in addition to a few other oddments. I must have walked 10-15 miles around the hard floors of that airport and while I was making good progress, by mid afternoon, I was exhausted. I took a required cab ride only to find myself in an area where no cab would stop to return me to the airport. I finally hooked a ride with the airport limo from a hotel that mistakenly thought I was one of their guests. Back at the airport I had three meals in a row to get some of the restaurant components taken care of and that only made me more tired and grumpy, but at least I was off my feet for a while. I had two locations left and when I went out to one of them, it was on a closed concourse where only outbound passengers were allowed. I did my shop only to discover there was no way back to the main terminal except for airport employees. I learned the finer points of reversing the direction on escalators to get down to the main level, where airport security was surprised to see me and put me on a bus to be met by the TSA guys at the main terminal. I was easily able to pull off a tired old confused lady, and they escorted me to my departure gate in a wheelchair with orders to the gate personnel to keep an eye on me and make sure I got on my flight. I got everything done except one shop. It was a very lucrative day at about $425 plus more than $100 in reimbursements but certainly not a day I would be anxious to repeat.

ouch...Flash, glad you lived to tell the story. I don't have anything near that, maybe the time I was doing a hotel restaurant and almost chocked on the bone in the fish, but I lived, got paid and all was well. I'm "almost" embarassed to put that on this thread, must be more lulu stories out there.

OMG Flash...I am impressed ...I couldn't do that in a million years!! What an experience. So glad you made out with the $$$$s. Congratulations

One of the important things in shopping is rising to the challenge. The notion of some companies that there is a script for you to memorize and go in and present is just nonsense. No shop ever goes that perfectly unless the other side has memorized their part of the dialogue as well. You do need to problem solve your way out of any kind of mess up on your part, on the part of the instructions or on the part of the location you are evaluating. And frequently you need to do things that are pure nonsense just to get things done. Being a little nuts helps!

You certainly rose to the occasion, I couldn't do that much ever. The MSC should have given you a "shopper of the year" award. I am glad you made more than the piddily amount they normally give to do an airport shop. There are times when you try to make a situation work, and the MSC doesn't see it your way. Being "out of the box" does help, but don't worry, you'll get there after shopping for awhile, comes with the territory.

Flash, I don't know how you could do that all in one day. I am exhausted just reading what happened to you at the airport.

Flash, you got to fly for a shop? I would love to do those shops, are they common and I just have not found the MSC yet?

Not at all common except with some of the upscale hotel work and even then sometimes they don't fly you. This was a special project and they needed someone to go spend the day in the airport doing the leftovers. The bad part was that I still had to leave one undone because of TSA.

I was telling my husband today that I had seen an assignment that asked a shopper to buy an airline ticket, get behind security, do the assignment, then cancel the ticket. There was a $25 bonus for buying the ticket. He said it didn't sound very lucrative. We are more than 50 miles from an airport. I don't fly much, so I don't know how a person can get behind security, then cancel the ticket. Wouldn't there be questions?

What you would do would be to purchase a refundable ticket. Go through security with your boarding pass, do your shops and then come out to the ticket counter indicating that something had come up and you couldn't fly today so needed a refund. I suspect that if the plane has left the ground there might be issues so I would certainly purchase for a flight I knew I could get everything done behind security and turn in before the flight finished boarding.

I have done the airport shops, gaining post-security access by buying a refundable ticket. The airline I happened to use was Delta, because they had the lowest priced refundable fare. Cancellation for mine could occur either at the ticket counter on my way of the airport, or within 24 hours. Time the charge and credit to occur in the same billing cycle to avoid interest charges.

Make sure the ticket is a refundable ticket. If you can build a route in the airport, it can be lucrative. Different MSPs, and chances are, one of them will pay for parking; another may help with mileage.

I am so *mind boggeled* you guys do so much in one day...buying tickets, doing shops...traveling...canceling tickets. If I do one shop a day, that's enough for me and you guys do several....I am impressed to say the least!!!

It's got to be this one. The shop involved visiting a jeweler which sold very expensive, high end jewelry. I was to purchase something that cost over one hundred dollars with the option of returing it if I so desired. All went well until it came time to pay. The cashier was having a problem because they had run out the register tape and could not replace the roll because they had purchased the wrong size. Someone had gone out to buy a roll, she explained. She processed the purchase anyway and wrote out a handwritten receipt. She packaged the bracelet I was buying beautifully, gave me the handwritten receipt and thanked me for coming.

A few weeks later, I came back to return the bracelet. They wouldn't take it back for two reasons! I was a few days too late bringing it back, and they refused to take their own handwritten receipt! They would not take the receipt because the sales associate had not written her employee number on it or her name. They gave me a gift card which could only be used at their store. Great, I now had a giftcard that I did not want.

I considered trying to sell the card, but what I really wanted was my money back. I contacted someone at the market research firm that assigned this job and asked them what I should do. They gave me permission to return to the store and reveal myself in order to get my money back. They cleared it with the store management first so that I would be expected. I went back to the store with the gift card and got my money refunded with no problem.

The funny thing is that about two weeks ago,the same market research firm called me and asked me if I could go to the same location to do a shop again. I told them no because I think they would probably remember me.

For some reason the airport near me, which bills itself as international, never has these shops. Or maybe I just haven't found the market research firm that does them

Yesterday, I was being a good shopper and had to do a couple shops in the same location (hope I'm not boring you), I have a consignment shop in that area on the 8th., so, I decided to check it out, and the address is wrong. I walk up and down and find a consignment store (different name and address), go in and chat. I am supposed to bring in 3 items, they only accept the most upscale clothes, Chanel (you get the pic).....she won't accept my clothes, they are high quality, but not that level. I wrote my scheduler and she's checking this out...I spent 45 minutes trying to track this shop. Guess the ole saying, love my job so much, I'd work for nothing happens more than you think!!

Kittybrat, I do a lot of banks, can you tell us how you were spotted?

I have done the alert shops,gaining post-security accident by buying a refundable ticket The airline I happened to use was Delta, since they had the lowest determined repay fare.

Prettygul, I worked for a major bank for about 30 years and now retired. We ALWAYS knew we were being shopped. The questions and actions were just not like a real customer. Very seldom did one get by us. Also, we never let on to the shopper or company/management; we only giggled about it between us. We also had to shop our sister branches to get everyone doing what they should.

SPAM

I hope that the *SPAM* Wasn't intended for me????

The SPAM Irene posted was intended to mark the spam links posted by the idiot thundyharwell who posted ahead of you. When we are "spammed" whoever gets to it first marks "SPAM" ... it enables the Forum Administrator to do a quick search and delete all spam posts quickly. No sense wasting much time on useless spam.

Thanks for clearing it up....I am new to this as you can tell....Thanks again! I get it now...

AM...you tookthe words right out of my mouth....that guy is an idiot.

lbarlbar, your comments are interesting. I did a load of bank shops last month (and got really really tired of the same sales pitch and acting interested in the brochure I had memorized and could probably recite in my sleep). It felt a bit like a Warren Buffet had just arrived base on the royal treatment I received. And amazingly the MSC wants me to go back two months later with a slightly different interest. I don't have that many different fake mustaches and beards.

And I think that I heard faint giggling as I walked out.

ShopUntilYouDrop Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> lbarlbar, your comments are interesting. I did a
> load of bank shops last month (and got really
> really tired of the same sales pitch and acting
> interested in the brochure I had memorized and
> could probably recite in my sleep). It felt a bit
> like a Warren Buffet had just arrived base on the
> royal treatment I received. And amazingly the MSC
> wants me to go back two months later with a
> slightly different interest. I don't have that
> many different fake mustaches and beards.
>
> And I think that I heard faint giggling as I
> walked out.

This is why I cannot do bank shops very well. If I do one, I do a lot of improvising and end up talking wayyyy to much. I feel somewhat guilty doing them and always wonder if I convinced them .....But I do give them every opportunity to do a good job because I know what it's like to be on the receiving end of shoppings. It's taken very seriously by higher management...