I've been doing mystery shopping for about 6 months now. I've done 28 jobs with 5 different mystery shopping companies and about 20 different companies. They have varied quite a lot from really good customer service to really hopeless ones. Most of my work has been approved without amendments and about 1 in 4 comes back with a question about something that I didn't explain very well. But in 1 of the companies they do a lot more than that, and every single time she has complained about my work not being good enough.

So I thought to share the first one and I wanted to see what everyone thinks of this.

My first job saw me do 2 parts: first I was to make a phone call, then I was to make a visit and try on some clothes, with the phone call content unrelated to the visit, and they had to be done on separate days. In total, I was paid $16 for this 2-day job.

I went to the store, and I was greeted immediately, and given impeccable service throughout. There were a few issues with the staff member not knowing the product well enough and being a bit pushy but generally it was pretty good service. The issue came when I asked her what her name was. My wife, who was with me, asked her her name, and the staff member snapped and started using some foul language and rudeness. But then, when I asked her, she was nice to me. It was quite weird, to say the least.

So when I did my evaluation and was asked to say how good she was to me, I gave her 8/10, but when I was asked to describe what happened I did.

The evaluator responded by asking me why I gave 8/10 when I went on and on about how bad she was. I explained that, for the most part, she was pretty good to me, but was rude to my wife. As it said that I was meant to note how the staff member behaved towards other customers in the store, that was where it was relevant.

The evaluator then made me change it. She told me to change it immediately, and gave me a 10-minute deadline, or else I wouldn't be paid and I'd be removed from their system and not offered any further mystery shopping jobs.

So I did it immediately, clarifying that this was me commenting on another customer, not me.

All good.

But then the evaluator didn't like it, and made me redo it again, with the same threats, only I was give 5 minutes to do it, then 2, then 1.

She then made me redo my phone message to use proper grammar instead of dot points.

Then ultimately she forced me to delete the whole thing where I complained about the treatment that my wife received.

And then she issued me with a formal warning.

It said that I was not to take my wife along with me to shopping trips, and she is not to interact with the staff member, and if I were to do that again I would be banned.

My payment was then frozen, and it was also frozen for the other shop I did on the same day, which had included a $10 out of pocket expense that they refused to reimburse.

For almost 3 months they froze my payments.

I eventually talked to someone else there to ask if I would ever be paid, and they told me that the evaluator had no power to issue me with warnings or to make threats, and that my payments were not on hold.

It then turned out that they were on hold, as the note where I had signed my offer, or some form or other, had gone missing, mysteriously disappearing off the system, which meant that I couldn't be paid. It wasn't flagged as missing, but was just mysteriously not there.

They fixed it and paid me, 3 months after the job was completed.

Was this reasonable behaviour by an evaluator?

Did I do the wrong thing by bringing my wife?

The job said that I could bring someone along.

Did my wife do the wrong thing by asking the staff member her name?

Or should I not have mentioned how the staff member behaved towards my wife?

Note that the job explicitly said that I was to note how the staff member behaved towards other customers, not just me.

It sounds like the person evaluating your shop has a screw loose. Unless the MSC confirms that person is no longer there, I would avoid them.

Regardless of what your wife said or did, my feeling is that when you take a guest on a shop, they should not interact as part of the shop.

Good luck.

I don't think I have ever had an editor do such a thing to me and I certainly would report that behavior higher up the chain because it is completely unacceptable. You were not in the wrong, you are reporting what happened, that is what the client wants to know. To edit and tone things down, does not do a shop justice. Also, if the guidelines say it is ok to bring someone, then an editor has no right at all to say those things.

$16 for that type of job is way too low of a fee for that type of a job and then to be harrassed on top of it is horrible.

Sounds unreasonable.

If I report on what someone said to my husband (restaurant shops, generally) I just say my guest.

If I was commenting on how someone responded to him in a retail setting, I would just say another customer.

If a guest is permitted, unless the guidelines tell you they can’t interact, then they can. But you should still take the lead as much as you can. I signed up for a restaurant shop that explicitly said that the guest was not to interact. So I ordered for both of us which was fine. It was odd, but I knew what we had to do. I often like having a guest to help with “playing dumb” to get responses and I report on my guest’s interactions. This week, we did dinner and the bartender never asked her if she wanted a drink (she showed up 10 min after me). He brought her water, then ignored her. You bet that became part of the report.

I agree that the fee was too low. The demands that you rewrite sections in minutes was BS. Was this done by text to share with the company? Always see if the MSC has a sample report to see what type of formatting they like. I always use paragraph form in my narratives.

Good luck!

Heck no!

The comment about not bringing your wife is reasonable IF the guidelines state you are to do the shop solo. If a solo shop, then what your wife experienced is not applicable. But if on a restaurant shop where you are to bring a guest, the service she receives, the food quality, etc. Is applicable.

If a staff member uses foul language and is rude, I would certainly mention it in the report. It is below the standard any store, restaurant, etc. expects of its employees. I probably would not of given the staff member 8/10 because the use of inappropriate language can weigh heavier than (in my opinion) the service received. For example, if not a shop, it may have triggered me to leave the store.

She should have given you all the corrections at the same time. Making the corrections and then coming back later to ask you to change the phone portion is ridiculous. I have had editors give me a timeline for corrections, generally 12-24 hours, but never a threat of being banned. Maybe boarderline NPD.

I think there's more to this story. I have questions. Too many.

A lot of this is an over the top reaction by the editor, but since you are just beginning to get rolling with shopping, do know that the MSC's will take it very seriously about not having someone with you if they explicitly say not too. The end client/location can dispute the entire report if they want a solo shopper on that basis alone. Judging by what is posted, I am under the impression that it is supposed to be a solo job. It's weird for a person to be so great with their service towards one person, then snap at the person they were with. Looking at it from their standpoint, they may have become concerned that a person that they were not interacting with before all of the sudden asked for their name. In their mind, why would the other person be so concerned with their name, but nothing before that? That clearly put her on the defensive. I'm not condoning, whatsoever, her behavior towards your wife at that point, just that from her standpoint, that's an odd question for someone else to just ask unless they were also asking a bunch of questions about the products.

Because of that, I can understand why the MSC wanted that part deleted. However, alot of the MSC's treatment towards you afterwards sounds downright ridiculous and is not the norm.

I would like to be able to read what you wrote to see why the evaluator has gotten so upset.

Sure. So here are the explicit details:

Job: Go to a clothing store and make a phone call inquiry about a certain product, then, a day later, attend in person to try some specific clothing on. The two parts should not be related and you should not identify yourself in the job.

Details:

Part 1: You must ask what product they have that can give appropriate protection at a work site as a new carpenter at a building site for the first time. You are to say that your boss asked you to get appropriate protection and to ask what it is.

Part 2: A day later, you must attend the clothing store and ask for SPF 50 protection in a work shirt, not a vest, which is appropriate for outdoor work. You are to present yourself as a cleaner in an outdoor environment.

You are to note if you are greeted on entering the store with eye contact and a friendly greeting, and if not how long it takes for them to interact with you. Are there any other customers? Also note how they interact with other customers in the store. Are they friendly to them as well? Are other customers being ignored?

>>>

Note that it didn't say if it was a solo shop but nor did it say that I could bring anyone, and left it ambiguous.

This is what I wrote:

The staff member greeted me immediately upon entering the store and was friendly and thorough throughout. She found me the work shirt immediately and then, while I was in the fitting room trying it on, my wife asked for her name, and she refused to give it and began swearing and using abusive language. When I returned, she was polite to me, and when I asked her for her name, she happily gave it to me.

She was very rude to other customers, swearing at my wife who was there. There were no other customers present.

Another staff member was there at the counter, and a third was stacking shelves.

This was the evaluator's response:

Why did you rate it as 8/10 if she swore at other customers and was so rude? You should rate her as 2/10 or 3/10 with that. Either change it to a lower score or adjust the response to better reflect an 8/10 score.

My response:

I rated it as 8/10 for how she responded to me. My comments were about how she behaved towards other customers. I was told to rate my score for how she responded to me.

We then had a number of back and forths, with demands to change things, followed by a formal written warning, as follows:

Formal Warning of Violation of Our Contract:

You were not to bring someone else along with you in the shop, and, while a companion was allowed, they were not to interact with the staff, and when your wife asked the staff member for her name, this was in direct violation of your contract with us and changes the shop. While you eventually deleted the report of her swearing at your wife, the fact that you put it in at any stage makes you in violation. You will not be paid for this shop, but in order to be paid for any future shops, you must agree not to do this again. Type I AGREE below.

Now, perhaps my wife shouldn't have asked the staff member her name, but it's not like I can control my wife's behaviour of what she does while I am in the dressing room. And it wasn't specified as either a solo shop or not. So she was allowed to be there. She was just another customer. I felt like his was a bit much. And her swearing at my wife was relevant. I felt like this customer service operator deserved to have that mentioned, and having it deleted felt a bit wrong.

Since you haven't named the client (store), can you tell us the MSC? It would be interesting to hear if other people have had this same kind of interaction.

Do you think all of this was worth $16? The answer should determine whether you shop for this MSC again.

Realise. They went by The Realise Group and Realise Online. This is their website: [www.realiseonline.com]

Was it worth $16? Well, another place had me do a 2-part shop with a phone call and visit (to a gym) and paid $70, and that mystery shopping company were really nice to me. The $70 job was harder, as the gym spammed me, and I had to do a mandatory mystery shop training program before completing the shop (I had to watch a video then fill out an evaluation form prior to doing the shop to make sure that I had understood the video) but to suggest that one was worth $70 and the other only $16 when they both took roughly the same amount of time is silly. And then, beyond the money, there was how rude the evaluator was, and, most crucially, she gave me a formal warning and froze my payments over it. I mean, sure, I accept that maybe my wife shouldn't have said that, and maybe it was wrong to mention it, but the reason I mentioned it was because I was told in the instructions to report on how the staff members dealt with other customers, and her swearing and carrying on to my wife was relevant. This was their interaction:

My wife: Hey, thanks for helping my husband with finding a good shirt for his new job as a cleaner.
Customer service operator: That's okay. I'm glad to help. Hopefully this will help him in his new job.
My wife: I'm just wondering, though, if we could grab your name, just for any future follow-up questions.
Customer service operator: What the hell? No, I will not give you my name! What kind of a question is that? Do you want to report me to head office? I have done nothing wrong! You can get effed with that kind of question! I am not giving you my name! And I have been impeccable throughout so you have no right to report me! I am not going to get in trouble just because you think I am flirting with your husband! I am not flirting with him! I am not having another one of these unfair sexual harassment claims. If you can't satisfy your husband, that's not my problem.
My wife: Okay, okay, sorry.
Customer service operator: Good! You can keep your trap shut, you stupid bleep.

Me: Hey, so thanks for all of that, now, just for some follow-up, in case I need to order something else, and to praise you, is it okay if we grab your name?
Customer service operator: Certainly. It's [her name].

According to the instructions, that was relevant to the job, as it was how she dealt with other customers.

It indicated that she was someone who other customers had complained about previously, for what she said was sexual harassment.

She wasn't hitting on me at all, but perhaps she had in the past.

I don't recognize that scenario. And I don't really do clothing shops anymore. But I'm willing to bet that the guidelines weren't read completely, or weren't understood. And the editor has a chip on their shoulder. But that's just my opinion formed by reading the OP's explanations of why they think they were cheated.

Yeah, that's a sad situation. Off-topic, I haven't understood why MSCs want the stores to always score so highly. Who would want to pay for their stores to be shopped if they are always doing well? It doesn't make sense to me.

That MSC seems to be in Australia, from what I'm finding on Google. Is that right?

Reading all of this has left me with these impressions...I agree that the salesperson was very rude to your wife based on your reporting, however you report that your wife had this interaction while you were in the dressing room making your report of what happened to her third party reporting.
You say:
"Now, perhaps my wife shouldn't have asked the staff member her name, but it's not like I can control my wife's behaviour of what she does while I am in the dressing room."
You did not witness this interaction and only have the report of your wife. So, as Judge Judy would say, it is hearsay.
The other issue I see is this...You have not been shopping very long and it seems you made an assumption it is okay to bring your wife along as they did not say you could not bring her. As a long term shopper I would assume the opposite for this type of shop., Yes for a restaurant shop you are often required to bring a guest but for retail shops, unless specified, my assumption is I am going alone. You really do need to read the guidelines carefully and ask if you are not sure about some detail.
By the way, I do think you have a good grasp of how to report these shops and have a rosy future in this business once you get the "assumptions" out of the way.

I would have given the employee a 2/10 for being rude and using foul language. The reviewer was completely in the wrong in many ways. If you have to come back a second day to complete a shop, it should pay as much as two shops. I would also do my best to report the reviewer's behavior to their employer, and I would never accept another shop for that reviewer. As for your report, I would have downplayed the service to you and emphasized the rudeness shown toward your wife. When two people are together, they are both potential customers and should be treated equally with respect.

I presume that you have learned from this shop that you should coach your companion better before the shop. I have taken my wife on many fine dining shops, new home video shops, casino resort shops, etc., and she knows what she should and should not do and say,

Thanks for all of the feedback.

Just to clarify:

1) They did not say that I couldn't bring my wife, and even when they were criticising this, they were not criticising that she was there, only that she asked the staff member their name when it was supposed to be me who asked it.

2) The feedback was overruled by management as being incorrect, and the evaluator lacked the authority to give that feedback.

3) The requirements explicitly stated that I was to report on how the staff member interacted with other shoppers, which is the section where I mentioned her swearing and abusing my wife.

4) 3 months after this, I got the punishment undone, and was paid for this shop, with apologies from the company.

5) A month after that, she did it again, this time in quite ridiculous circumstances that had even less justification (at least in this one technically I did something wrong, or at least my wife did, but not in the more recent one).

6) After the more recent issue, I quit the mystery shopping company.

7) The mystery shopping company promised to pay me my 3 outstanding amounts, but did not criticise the evaluator, even though they had criticised her for this one.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2026 12:50AM by ozshopper.