So you are the one that "steals" them! lol, One minute there. the next they are going. I should leave top get coffee! lol

We are performing a valuable service on behalf of for profit companies. Were you expecting us to say we work this hard for altruistic reasons? Do you think the owner of the coffee shop runs their business because they like to provide a great cup of coffee for the public or to make a profit?

@thebeanster wrote:

Does anyone care about the end user of the work you do? It really seems that it is about the money.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/2019 09:02PM by LisaSTL.

Im at a point where I work for a select few companies. Make my specific routes in 2 or 3 days time. Usually 12-15 shops that pay a premium price. Adhere to that schedule every month. Then there are extra gravy jobs that pop up, for considerable amounts that are too good to pass up.
I have shops.falling out of my pockets. I turn away as.many.as I schedule. Seem to be all alone in this territory. Competition is nil.
Keep a spreadsheet updated after every shop.
I dont think I have ever.entered a shop on any device other than my smartphone. Always complete shop onsite. Never bring anything home but receipts. If Im doing a grouping of food shops, will always give the food to the homeless. Doesnt hurt a bit. I had accumulated.a bag of about 40 full size candy bars, and not wanting to go on insulin. Dropped them off at our homeless shelter to be divided up
Pay my Quarterly tax payments but with my deductions should get all of that back. I also.have extra.money withheld from my regular 2day a week job.
My MSCs are happy to have me because.I will pickup.shops that they are desperate to have completed when deadlines are looming.

As far as the end-user goes, I do have a desire to see customer service improve. There are places I have shopped more than once, and upon my return have discovered some of the concerns I had as a shopper previously have been taken care of. I can never know for sure if my reports had anything to do with that, but I do know the customer experience is better. Honestly, I am in it for the cash and the perks, but I write my reports with the desire to share information that will make a difference.

Who ever said you can get rich mystery shopping is nuts. But u can have fun!! I get free oil changes and food that I like. I do not make a lot of cash but I can go to the movies and dinner for free. You can never back out of a shop or let a scheduler down because they won’t call u again! So when u commit follow through. I usually charge $1 a mile to travel distances and I cover about 150 mile radius of my home. I take short notice shops and make money doing it. I do not do $8 shops. Not worth combing your hair for. I tell the Sceduler how much I want and if I do not get the shop oh well. Don’t walk around bashing a company because u did not ask for what u wanted

I go to work at my well paying job with benefits 5x a week. I stay late when necessary (no pay) and work on weekends where I am rewarded a comp day if I put in more than 4 hours. Those days where I can rarely get out for lunch, I will schedule a quick take out or dine in. After work on Fridays or sometimes another week day, we will go out for fine dining. Saturday? I hope we have something scheduled but If not, we are going anyway.

Reasonable retail shops and bonused bank shops have not been happening for me.

I used to teach in a private setting-----low pay and no benefits. I still have the low pay and no benefits as a mystery shopper, but I have learned so much about different industries and what corporations deem important.
Every week, there is a new client with new requirements. I can also enjoy my old favorites that I have been doing for years.

The one part I really love is when you ask for a receipt for a $1 purchase and that look of shock and horror suddenly takes place when they realize who I am and they forgot to upsell, ask for a loyalty card or smile and greet me. GOTCHA!

@Madetoshop wrote:

Reasonable retail shops and bonused bank shops have not been happening for me.

Not sure what you consider reasonable, but I enjoy doing some retail shops for Customer Service Experts. Many don't require a purchase, but the ones that do, I get small stocking stuffers or snacks.

I work full-time but am retiring in 10 weeks. I usually do between 8-20 shops per month. I enjoy restaurant reimbursement since meals out aren't a part of my saving for retirement budget. I am mostly a shopper for 2-3 companies. I earn between 70-300 per month. I expect I will shop for more companies and develop routes. I may branch out into merchandising. I will shop for most any company except the Adult bookstore. Don't want on their mailing list.

@Jenny Cassada wrote:

@Madetoshop wrote:

Reasonable retail shops and bonused bank shops have not been happening for me.

Not sure what you consider reasonable, but I enjoy doing some retail shops for Customer Service Experts. Many don't require a purchase, but the ones that do, I get small stocking stuffers or snacks.

@Madetoshop wrote:

@Jenny Cassada wrote:

@Madetoshop wrote:

Reasonable retail shops and bonused bank shops have not been happening for me.

Not sure what you consider reasonable, but I enjoy doing some retail shops for Customer Service Experts. Many don't require a purchase, but the ones that do, I get small stocking stuffers or snacks.

All the jobs I get for CSE are airport shops. No can do.

@Madetoshop wrote:

@Jenny Cassada wrote:

@Madetoshop wrote:

Reasonable retail shops and bonused bank shops have not been happening for me.

Not sure what you consider reasonable, but I enjoy doing some retail shops for Customer Service Experts. Many don't require a purchase, but the ones that do, I get small stocking stuffers or snacks.

All the shop offerings I get from CSE are airport shops. No can do.

Oh, I get a lot of shops at the casino, I haven't done any of the airport shops, travel never seems to line up with them.

Hey, so you probably wrote about this before somewhere, but how did you find out about mystery shopping, anyway?

@MFJohnston wrote:

So, yes, I am in this for the money. Mystery shopping is a fantastic side gig for me as it gives me incredible schedule flexibility: I work when I want, where I want, as much (or as little) as I want and I only do the jobs I want. I took the month of May off. I worked a lot in June. I plan to work full time in July and August. In September, it will be part time, etc.

I saw an article in Forbes...

I found out through the Matt Lauer show years ago, and we know what happened to him...

Personally I like that my findings, good and bad, make a difference. Some companies reward employees on their great customer service. Companies also learn where further training is needed. Also if the businesses are properly maintained. We have all had WOW experiences as consumers, as well as the I will NEVER come here again. We DO make a difference. Keep in mind that what we report DOES matter. I know for a fact that those customer comment cards on tables at restaurants rarely are sent on to corporate.

I've made quite a lot of ms in sweden Europe. Here the market for cars make most money. I've also made a lot of visits to shops and seen a remarkable change in their crew. When I began in one of these hcains I often wrote that they needed more people on the floor and I saw they where listening and hired more people on the floor. These visits did not pay much but it made me proud of actually doing them a favor. It is also different bosses or instructions for many of them. A lot of new ms shoppings from old east europe are not familiar with the language and that makes the work harder. However, it looks like the market is going down right now. I am not sure why but suspect that some of these ms companies from the east that have been taking over market needs to go for another kind of work.

Well how I got into being a MS is kinda funny or at least I think it is so here's the story. I was going thru my email one day and I opened one email up that said "How would you like to be a Mystery Shopper ?" and it said that they have many shops like Walmart.Sears,Home Depot etc ect. It said I could earn $50 to $300 a shop They asked for all my info ,name ,address ,age and so forth I sent it to them about 3 weeks give or take goes by and here comes FedEx with a envelope.I open it up and there was a check for $1500. it was a postal money order that they sent along with instructions They wanted me to deposit it into my bank pull out $1100 and send it to the next shopper and keep $400 for my pay for the shop I was to perform supposedly was a $300 shop and the rest was for my inconvenience for having to cash and forward money to next shopper.... Well I am not stupid and I have heard about these scams before plus I looked up the serial numbers on the money order and it came back as fake or fraudulent . So then I decided to see what area the scam came from and came up with a place in the U K so by now I am pissed "How dare they " I'm thinking as I pulled up the original email,I searched every inch of it using my mouse . At the top of this email it had a logo and it said they was a member of mspa and as my mouse went across the Mspa it lit up like it would if I was going to click on it so I clicked and I could not believe it one of the first few paragraphs said to be aware of this scam and that if you got one of these to report it to Mspa and they'd forward it to the authority's so I did report it and at that moment I decided that this is what I want to do Become a mystery shopper and sign up to be a Mspa member so I joined and looked up on the Mspa's site of trusted companies . I started with Bare and then I joined Jobslinger and signed up Confero,Customer Impact all together I signed up for over a dozen company's The ones I stated before started calling and emailing me I got my first Check from Bare it was about $50 and I thought Woo-Hoo I have hit the jack pot I started out doing 3-5 shops a week or so in my first few month's I was happy I found a legal way to make extra money. and I was unemployed at the time so at least I could make my own money to buy the things I needed without asking anybody for money I had a knee injury that had me in the hospital for 45 days prior to becoming a ms and had no health insurance.My fiancee and her family took me in to there home and my fiancee helped me out with what ever I needed .and me being a mechanic I took on side jobs so now I had a pretty good clientele for side jobs and my Mystery Shopping increased I was doing 3-7 shops in a day 2-3 days a week by now I had been Mystery Shopping for around 13-14 months and I was playing some games and texting my daughter on FaceBook when a
scheduler contacted me on FaceBook and she asked me if I would be a merchandiser I said sure why not (i did not know what a merchandiser is or does but will find out ! Well in the first four month's of merchandising I get my 1099 and on the 1099 form it said I had made just under $5000 plus when that 1099 came in the mail the rest followed with in a few days each 1099 was more than the next one I had combined all of them and added them up my first year working as a Ms/merchandiser I had made just under $27000.00 I quit my side jobs as a mechanic except for on or two that I became good friends with and I only do Ms/merchandising for about 20 day's of the month and the rest of the month to do what ever I want . I often laugh when I tell my friends and family how this all started from scammed email

As for me, I drive a school bus for a living. It takes care of all my basic needs. NOT wants just needs, LOL. I started with a recommendation from an ex dated person. I am single and have only me myself and I. I work at MS to have a car to drive when mine pooped out. I raised my Mommie for 24 years on my own so as she aged I needed more income. The flexibility MS gives me allowed me to care for her in the very best way. I could do all required Doctor visits Hospitalizations or other health care needs without taking off work. So I loved MS for that reason most of all. The money deposited in my PayPal paid for her over the counter medical needs. Mommie past away in November. I think being able to MS has saved my well being, as well as keeps me from being lonely for long periods of time. I shop whatever is available to me that I don't mind doing. I hate car buying shops and cell phones so I don't do those very often if ever. I don't do bank shops. MSing has allowed me to sample high-end foods and accommodation I would never in a million years be able to afford. It has also helped me realize I don't mind being unable to utilize these things because most of the high-end foods are nasty. I don't find anything better at a Meriot than I do a Red roof inn. So for these things, I don't have to wonder what the richer people are doing. I just assign a shop and find out for myself. Now as far as the reality of does MS help! Heck yes, it does. I have watched Gas stations clean up and fix up because of points taken off during inspections. I hardly (and I do say hardly)ever see those horror movie restrooms anymore. Most stations take pride in having a good grade so the restrooms are clean and well stocked. The landscapes are cleaned up and improved due to auditing. I have seen and been told that the audit was the reason for the improvement. So I have and had many reasons to MS besides just funding. I will retire in two school years and will definitely continue my MS after retirement. I also love the diversity it gives me that I would never have experienced without Mystery Shopping.

My city has super high unemployment and my last job setting was very undesirable and I got the minimum hours. I quit due to poor management and having to work with very poor leadership. I make the same working occasional more, however I only have 3 or 4 days off a month. I can honestly say i spend on average 2 to 3 hours prefoming the shops and 1 to 3 hours writing the reports. I save 99% of my reports so i use the old reports as a my base. In total 3 to 6 hours a day working and the rest is travel/looking for more shops and watching youtube lol

Now, I enjoy this life more I can wake up early or sleep in. Today I am sleeping in and laying in bed until further motivated lol

The worst truely is the payment schedule I write manually and also document on an excell speedsheet my earnings and what days it was made. I use my bank system to ensure my documentation and my income deposites are accurate (i get paid mostly by paypal). It can be painful for some but mandatory of me personally. I make sure i get paid, even if I must be an asshat about it.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/2019 03:44PM by Mysteriousways.

The payment schedule is kind of rough at first but once you get going and keep at it, it works out, just keep track of all of the pay that is owed you 1 day, 2 days, a week, or two, or month, or maybe two or three. As long as I get paid and they consistently pay on the same schedule I am OKAY with it.

I’m retired from retail work where I did a lot of customer service. Mystery shopping appeals to me because I REALLY WANT the client to reward employees who are doing their job and improve the performance of those employees who aren’t doing their best. Also to maintain standards of their franchises and quality of their food. Also I need the money to support my hobby

I do about 20-35 shops a month and make between $400-600 a month. By this Saturday I will have made over $400, so I will be really picky the rest of the month and only take nicely bonused shops.

I usually don’t leave the house for less than $50 worth of shops in a day. Today I will do 4 shops 15 miles from me all within one square mile of each other. I’ll get my dinner paid for plus my bonused fee. It will be one hour of shopping and I’ll make $50. By the time I do the reports add another hour or so, works out to $15/hour. I’m doing one shop this Saturday just 20 minutes away for $40 then I’ll come home and relax.

Emerging from hiatus and anticipating an upcoming half-day of mystery shopping. I even built in time for a cuppa during which I will report the first two shops. Without the personal cuppa, the on-sites would require less than one hour and the reports would bring the whole thing to a whopping ninety minutes. But who's counting. I get some of my fave coffee, the hubby gets a treat and some down time, and, did I mention, I get fave coffee.

Nothing like a "GOOD" cup of java, I'm sitting in SB drinking dark roast and working (kinda) in between talking to my retired buddies. I'm the only one working (kinda) these days. Tuesday I fly to San Francisco and do Mustards restaurant, the original one is in the wine country and a treasure, so looking forward to dinner there at the airport before coming home...sometimes this job is fun..... Get to see my sister, been 3 years, long story.

It is a hobby. Halloween is my favorite holiday. You must dress the part and act the part. Applause is the money you get when the client pays you.

I have always thought evaluations were important.
As a manager i gave alot of thought to evaluations. The stupid thing, to me, is they are only done annually..why wait a year to tell some one how to improve or what your expectations are?
So now I evaluate daily and get paid for it. whether in cash or reimbursement. Its all money to me in the long run.

Doing bar shops helped me learn a lot more about the drinks as I try new stuff every time and apparently most bartenders have a favorite drink that nobody else had heard of.

I would do the adult bookstore just to see the expression as a lil ol lady walks in to look the merchandise, but I have not been offered one in my region.