MSPA Certification

Hi there! I'm totally new to Mystery Shopping so hang in there with me. My question is, are any of you certified with/by MSPA? If so, what's the benefits of doing so, does it get you preferred treatment or better jobs with companies? How much did you pay for it? Thank you for any help on this.

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To answer your questions:
- I am certified silver
- There have been times where I got job (or better job) offers because I was certified but they have been far less than the job offers which did not require certification. I think having a good track record gets me more good offers than having certification does
- I paid a minimal amount quite a few years ago, I think it was about $10-15. At that time I believe the gold level was costing $75,

One caveat, though. There are many, many posts here by shoppers who have recently paid for gold certification and then found that none of the MS companies sites would accept their certification number.
Can anyone say if this has been resolved recently ???

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.

I became silver certified in 2005, at a cost of $15. As I have zero knowledge that action ever affected my net income, it was either a good investment or a waste of money. Looking back, certification saved me from wondering "what if?" To my manner of thinking, $15 was a small price to pay to avoid that thought, as I would rather try and fail on a dozen occasions than to wonder once. I quickly forget my failures, but remember the "what if" situations for decades.

Thanks for the information.

I am the same as @shopperbob, got my silver in 2005, also $15, not sure if it helped or not.

Orlando - lightly shopping NC

I got my Gold in 2002 or 2003, and it has made a tremendous difference for me.

I did the silver because it was required for a specific shop over 4 years ago. It is the only shop where it was required. In a recent application the certification was not recognized

This could be because I've allowed my membership dues to MSPA to lapse.

Or it could be because MSPA is revamping the certifications and not grandfathering past certifications.

I have no clue..

Live your life in such a way that when your feet hit the floor in the morning; the devil shudders...And yells OH #%*+! SHE'S AWAKE!

I’ve considered getting the Silver Certification just to see if there are any differences. If so, then I’ll get the Gold Certification once they’ve worked out the bugs and it’s accepted by the MSC’s.

Trying to learn from all of these rockstars.

I’m new to shopping, too. I started in June. I’m still learning where to focus my attention to the shops. Sometimes the guidelines don’t match the survey, so I try to cover everything in both the guidelines and the survey. I also document anything that seems out of the ordinary, bad or good.
The ‘personality’ of a company may be good to familiarize yourself with, as I’m learning. I tend to take more shops with companies that I feel are similar to my personality.

Trying to learn from all of these rockstars.

So far, without certification, my schedule is completely full.

Trying to learn from all of these rockstars.

As someone who normally does this as a full time job, let me tell you that you are spot on.

I don't want to admit how many reams of paper & printer ink I go through. Using reward points, thankfully it isn't over the top expensive.

There will be a day, when it clicks.

Good luck and happy shopping.

Live your life in such a way that when your feet hit the floor in the morning; the devil shudders...And yells OH #%*+! SHE'S AWAKE!

This exact same thing happened to me. I am now gold certified, but none of the companies know it. MSPA says that they periodically notify companies of people newly certified- I haven't seen any company update my status, from info received from MSPA. I paid $75 and spent a lot of time on the certification process. Buyer beware

I would warn you not to pay for this, until the issue is resolved, of not being able to update your profile to include this information.

I have the gold certification, but I cannot upload it into my profiles on company sites. This is a major glitch, and it cost me $75., but are you saying that this is not a problem with the silver certificates?

@SoCalMama wrote:

I got my Gold in 2002 or 2003, and it has made a tremendous difference for me.

That was, however, back when the Gold Workshops gave you face-to-face contact with schedulers and owners, right?

"Let me offer you my definition of social justice: I keep what I earn and you keep what you earn. Do you disagree? Well then tell me how much of what I earn belongs to you - and why?” ~Walter Williams

When I first started to explore mystery shopping, I did the Silver Certification, which I believe is the Intro certification now. I have added it, but don't think it has had any real impact. However, the class was actually valuable for me as someone who had no background in mystery shopping. I remember one particular clip from the cartoon that made it clear that mystery shoppers need to be passive, not lead the agent, etc. So it was absolutely worth the money to gain that perspective.

I did look into Gold Certification but it was only available on DVD, which I would have no way to access since I don't have a DVD player and didn't really want to buy one just for this. I don't know if it is now available in a more modern medium (online).

@iShop123 wrote:

@SoCalMama wrote:

I got my Gold in 2002 or 2003, and it has made a tremendous difference for me.
That was, however, back when the Gold Workshops gave you face-to-face contact with schedulers and owners, right?

Yes, but you can get that at MSPA ShopperFest too.

My friend who got me into shopping has been doing shops since the 1980's.

This was when MSCs would mail a manilla envelope with shop instructions/printed out survey and a FedEx slip for the shopper to return the survey...a survey that was filled out by hand. Sometimes they were phoned in.

She has never gotten certification, gets great shops, and has made good money over the years. Because of that, I've never gotten certified. I think I get the jobs that I want fairly often....

Who cares where you can now get the Gold if the cert. number/code is not recognized when you try to add it to your profiles. btw, I took the all day workshop for Gold in 2005 and I learned more from the other shoppers' questions and suggestions than I did from the panelists from the MSCs. The panelists kept saying to shoppers things like, "I never thought of that, but it is a great way to do X (or Y, or Z). The panelists turned me into a believer in shoppers education other shoppers. That's why I am here.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/2018 12:19PM by walesmaven.

None of the sites let me put in my Gold certification number so what good is it? None in my personal opinion, I just helped line the pockets of somebody. I also found out that the DVD information has never been updated since it was created. Does anyone know how long ago that was and would you think the information is still relevant and worth 75 bucks?

They really should discontinue the certification process since it doesn't sound like it benefits anyone much.

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