Did you know the Federal, State and local Governments are doing shops?
I ran across these shops yesterday. And have signed on to do some really neat shops.
Do a search for Federal mystery shopping, state (what ever state you live in now) and your town or county.

As a retired federal employee I found this to be quite fascinating.

Are they doing it themselves or through an MS co?

Through an MS company for the most part. Some they are doing themselves.
Just do a Google search for mystery shopping in your area. That's how I found them.

The resume'/questionnaire is sorta tricky for the ones not being done by a MS company.

Should be a "snap" for you Sneakers.

Any links you can post for us?

Mod just Google them. Most likely it's different for every state.

I Googled "mysteryshopping/TN" and came up with the sites.

Trust me, Billie.

I have Googled my a@$ off over the last few months. You cannot believe how many are those "We have a list to sell you" sites. I have even used different search engines and up to four different browsers. Incredibly I get a lot of the same scoundrels.

So, any direct links would be helpful and much appreciated.

The post office has used mystery shoppers for years. I started out ten years ago with one company, and now a different MSP has them. Surprisingly, the same branches show up all the time, though.

I didn't know they were doing mystery shopping until the other day and I found it by searching.
Sandra Sue my PO branches do not change in my community. They are always in the same location and by the same name. There are about 10 locations though. Do your branches change from one place to another?

MO do a search of your local, state and Federal government. With mystery shopping. I have no clue where you are located.
Every community has at least one Federal office. Every state has Federal offices scattered all over the state. Every state has state offices and some of these state offices are scattered about the state in different locations. Every city or community has community and city offices. Every County has county offices.

And every one of these offices could be a potential mystery shop. You don't know until you do the search.
Go to the name of your State Office in your community, toggle around and look for shopping opportunities if you can't find them on Google.

This isn't rocket science folks.

Do you know the names of all the city, county, state and Federal offices in your community?

It could be possible and most likely probable there are many more Federal and State offices in my community. We are a highly located military community with a very large population of military men and their families coming and going very frequently.

I don't have a military base/post pass but I friends who do and I can go as a guest and do mystery shops on base/post.

billienicolosi Wrote:
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> Do you know the names of all the city, county,
> state and Federal offices in your community?
>
Yup. And there's either no parking in front, or you have to get into the early AM rush hour to get a metered space. LOL.

I know what you mean!! And a security guard in every location these days!!

I generally try to get out around 10am CT. Between the rush hour and lunch hour. But I can drive 20miles away from home and be in the boonies and still be within the city limits and not a car in sight. I was out that far today and it was beautiful.

We have a population of over 185,000 and growing by the day. But our city and county is so stretched out you wonder where everyone is. And they don't count military in our population. They are transient. If they counted military we would explode. Last count I heard there were 250,000 military. Camp Lejeune closed and Ft Bragg is closing and everyone is coming here so our military population is going to really explode.

We are the 9th fastest growing city in the USA. New Orleans is #1 (boggles my mind who would insure those folks homes?)

If Camp Lejeune closed, where is my niece's husband? She goes there to visit him.

Billie, what I meant is that the shops don't change. I can have three USPS branches within ten miles, and only one of them has ever shown up on a shop list. It is the same one.

In case anyone doesn't know, you can look up your government offices in the "blue pages" in major metropolitan areas. In my area, I have to look up the city, county, state and US government alphabetically because the phone book is so small.

The entire contingent from Camp Lejeune has not arrived here yet. I think it's supposed to close completely in October. At the moment we have the special forces of the Marine Corps.

I'm not well versed on the unit names of the special Marine forces. I do know they are here because I have seen them out and about in their every day uniforms. Their arm patches are not familiar either. I think they call them "elite" forces.

Sorta weird they are just shopping one USPS branch. Looks like they would do them all.

billienicolosi Wrote:
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> Sorta weird they are just shopping one USPS
> branch. Looks like they would do them all.

Maybe that's the one with the worst customer satisfaction record. Meaning the worst goof-offs.

I've done 3 UPS's, and find that the shipping address is always the same. That means UPS clerk knows s/he's being shopped as soon as s/he see the address. Everyone else have a woman in IL as the recipient?

Back to the topic. Often these gov't offices have 10 or 20 phone #. How would you know who to ask about MSing?

sneakers Wrote:
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>
> I've done 3 UPS's, and find that the shipping
> address is always the same. That means UPS clerk
> knows s/he's being shopped as soon as s/he see the
> address. Everyone else have a woman in IL as the
> recipient?

Of course. That is why it was so funny when doing a shop for another MSP that adds a little variety to their shops I found myself waiting in line behind a shopper putting in their rice box. It was all I could do to keep from saying, "Hey, aren't you the gal who works for ***name of MSP***" just to see how far she would freak. I watched the clerk look at the address, look at the shopper and feel for her name tag, so I wouldn't have been revealing anything the clerk didn't know already. And there I am in line behind this chick with a second shop, different MSP, that paid better and allowed me to ship up to 5# to any home address in the country, so I was sending my kid in Texas some stuff.

LOL!! That's funny Flash.

I did my first of of those shops today. They call them WAVE shops. There are several different types of WAVE's and they are pretty unique shops. I have to say they are different and the pay is great!! I sent a little package to my grandsons. :-)

I have to tell ya I was doing a mystery shop over the weekend out of town. I had several in one place to do and was using my "down" time to look around at other stores and do a little private shopping. :-) This weekend was "tax free" weekend everywhere in TN.
Anyway, I'm in a store looking about and I see this gal "sleeneking" around. Bent over like a spy or something. I look closer and notice she has a pad and pencil and moving her head slowly around on her shoulders. Her head was like "beam me up Scotty" LOL!! No other part of her body was moving except her head. She looked Spooky and I'm thinking "what's up with this?"
She must have felt someone was watching her cause she quickly turned her head around and caught me looking. Course I looked away as fast as I could but she knew she had been caught.

She started fumbling with her pad and pencil trying to get them in her purse and out of sight. I stepped behind a rack and would occassionally peek over the rack to see what she was doing. A few minutes passed and she "ran" from the store.

Once that all happened it came to me she was "mystery shopping" and she was sure a "mystery. LOL!!! She thought she had been caught!! And made a fast get away.

I sure hope I don't look like that when I'm mystery shopping!!!

I've never had the same address when I've shipped something. I sometimes wonder why they don't want me to do something to the box to make it look homemade. It would lessen the chance of being caught. I should write all over it, "Happy Birthday!" or something like that.

It's not unusual for the folks to see me shipping something. Hubby ships a lot of CD's and I most often take them to the PO for him. And they are in assorted box types, not necessarily in a CD mailer.
And I am always sending a little trifle to my grandsons. So I'm a familiar at most of the branch offices.

But I noticed on my WAVE list I have several different branches.

I just use the KISS method for all mailing and shipping. The recipient is an eBay buyer. If it is a USPS it is "linens" if they ask contents (which the only occasionally do) and the buyer "paid $50" if that is the amount of insurance I need to purchase. If UPS or FedEx or DHL the package is a feasible object for size and weight (and rattle). That also allows me, when a helpful clerk suggests using a different carrier than the target service, to suggest that the buyer insisted I ship by the target service.

Sandra Sue Wrote:
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> I've never had the same address when I've shipped
> something.

The UPS rice pkgs all go to the same address. You have a diff MSP or you're doing a diff shipper.

I did my third today, and the clerk said "Have you been here before?"
"No, but I've used other UPS stores."
"Here you are in the computer."

So they have me in there, and I always send an $8.17 6x6 box to the org, attn the same woman, and always from a diff store. And it rattles slightly, because of the rice. Mighty suspicious. Bomb-making materials?

Here's one for you, Flash. If they ever ask me what's in the box, knowing the above info, what should I say that sounds reasonable?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/05/2008 07:49PM by sneakers.

I'm not Flash but they are not supposed to ask what is in the box. It's none of their business what's in the box.

They are only allowed to ask if it is flammable, fragile, liquid or explosive. And ask if you want to insure your items.

Everything going through is Xrayed to the max so they have no reason to ask "what's in the package?"

Thanks, I didn't know that. That's a great relief. I like these shops. The clerk never says anything I have to report except "Thank you," all Yes and No Q. Wish there were more.

I had an ol' gal ask me once..LOL!! I told her in no uncertain terms it was NONE of her business. LOL!! Then I filed a complaint with the Treasury Dept, the White House and everyone else I could think of send a complaint.

There were several other things she did that day to me and other customers that required the attention of the powers to be. At one point I thought she was going to jump across the teller station and "beat" on an old woman. Naughty!!!Nasty!!

I've not seen her around in a while...wonder what happened to her? :-))

I didn't get confrontational. I just told them the package had a couple of very collectible beanie babies. Of course you would probably have to change that now that beanie babies are OUT and you find them regularly at garage sales for 10 to 25 cents each just to get rid of them. But I too was found in the computer all too often for comfort so stopped doing the rice ships. There are other MSPs that do shipping shops though my favorite has not been doing them this year probably for economic reasons of the carrier.

I wouldn't have gotten confrontational either if I hadn't stood in line watching the way she was treating customers for a long period of time. And by the time my turn came I was "blowing smoke out my nose" I was like a snake ready to strike at the least provocation.

I've a couple more scheduled but I'm not sending rice. :-)

I don't know about the Beanie Babies. I've sent a few out selling them on Ebay a while back. They went cheap but they went. I've got a bag full of beanie babies in our attic I would just love to get rid of.

All you have to do if they suspect is make some comment about Ebay selling. People who sell Ebay are at these locations every Monday morning in a rush and then off and on throughout the week.

Ebay is also a good excuse to not know whether it is a residence or office address, a good excuse for not having a phone number and definitely a good excuse for the shipper and class of service you want . . . "My buyer told me to ship it by _________"

Yes it is Flash. It's also a good excuse for a no return address on the package.

I had a gal question me about a "no return address". "I'm not doing this without a return address!" Oh so you HAVE to have a return address???? I gave her an address just to keep from "going bonkers" and then she says "this is not your home address" My response.."you got your return address now I want to ship!"

By the way, this is the same person who I've been mentioning in previous threads before the confrontation day. LOL!!

billienicolosi Wrote:
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> I had an ol' gal ask me once..LOL!! I told her in
> no uncertain terms it was NONE of her business.
> LOL!! Then I filed a complaint with the Treasury
> Dept, the White House and everyone else I could
> think of send a complaint.

I think you're talking about USPS, the Post Office. But they're not part of the Treasury Dept. They run independently of the Fed Govt. Wasted your letter.

Flash Wrote:
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> I didn't get confrontational. I just told them
> the package had a couple of very collectible
> beanie babies. Of course you would probably have
> to change that now that beanie babies are OUT and
> you find them regularly at garage sales for 10 to
> 25 cents each just to get rid of them.

Collectible Beanie Babies are still very valuable. Check the net. That's a good one, thanks. When I'm in their computer enough to get uncomfortable, I'll quit. Meanwhile I bundle them with other shops, and they're easy.