I recently did a shop for amusement advantage, they stated on their site that the report will take 2 to 3 hours and the actual shop about 2 hours. Hahaha, that is NOT true the shop took 6 hours to complete and the report to 5 hours to finish. I'm a fast typer, my speed is 56 WPM. They required me to purchase items that added up to $34 ($24 for tickets and $10 for food) and the total pay of the assignment is $70. These numbers are the numbers that they stated on their directions, but the actual ticket price was $30, $6 is not a big deal but it shows how disorganized and how unprofessional they are. They required crazy amounts of details, such as the names of every single one of the 30+ staff members and also their face pictures. All of this must be done without anyone noticing that you are a secret shopper and the pictures must be high quality and must show the faces. After all this effort and time, they refused the shop because they thought that the pictures are not showing the faces of a few people. I really encourage everyone to avoid dealing with them, they are really slow ans they require phone calls prior to every assignment.

I've done a couple of shops for them, but I don't feel they're worth it. I spent almost 7 hours at the amusement park in 95 degree weather and with all the interactions I ended up not spending quality time with my son. I would rather simply spend the $30 admission and food costs and not have to deal with the stress.

I love them. ... i have done a few shops for them including water/roller coaster and bowling. I don't do these for the pay, I do them so my family (5 kids) can enjoy the fun. Never had a shop rejected & all my shops required pictures. I used my Samsung Galaxy S6 for all pics. I always stay as long as my kids want to. The reports have never taken me longer than 4hrs. I don't think it's just about typing speed but rather the ability to quickly organize your thoughts/impressions/notes.

I have found them MORE responsive/available than 90% of the other companies I have done work for.

I've done only one shop for them; it was not an amusement park. It paid around $60 and took me between 3 and 4 hours total (on-site and report together). My pictures were mostly from the side and didn't all include clear shots of the faces; nothing was said about this. The report was graded in less than 24 hours; I was given a 94% and some very kind feedback, and a small bonus as an additional 'thank you.' I found them to be very polite and easy to work with.

I have not done a shop for them for about 2 years and the picture requirement must be new so I cannot speak to that, however, there are numerous different shops available in my market and they varied a lot as to how long or difficult they were to do. After I had done one of each I found my favorites and stuck with those. The ones I liked were very reasonable to me as far as time and pay goes. I did not find these shops to be worth it if all you were interested in is making a fee, but if you or your family enjoy the venue then it could be a great shop to do.
I am glad I saw this heads up on pics required now as that changes the whole dynamic for me. I cannot imagine that would be easy to sneak in.

I've only done a couple of shops for them, the bowling ones. I did them so that my family and I could enjoy an activity we like to do, and get reimbursed most of the cost. My kids are old enough to help with the observations, and my husband helps out, too. Easy to get the necessary photos and interactions in that scenario. However, there are some shops near me that I wouldn't touch with the proverbial 10-ft pole, including the amusement park ones.

The only problem I had with them was when I had to cancel and re-schedule one of those shops due to bad winter weather conditions here. I called and spoke to one of the principals; he was somewhat understanding about the weather, but very condescending when re-scheduling. Basically treated me like a child, telling me I'd better make sure I did the shop on the re-scheduled date and that they don't look favorably on people not living up to their obligations, etc. I'm a professional and don't need to be spoken to as if I don't understand my obligations. And I wasn't going to risk getting in a car accident to do this shop. So I was not happy at that attitude.

That being said, I received excellent scores and very nice feedback on my shops. The second one I did, the input took only about three-quarters of the time the first one did. So I think they must become easier the more you do them.

I wouldn't do a shop for them unless it was something I planned to, or wanted to, do anyway. And I'd be careful about which shops I did, because it would be easy to get yourself into a situation in which you had no time at all to enjoy the shop.

I'd like to do one of their waterfront no-purchase "walk-around" shops, but they're quite a drive for me. But it'd be a nice way to spend an afternoon in good weather. And you at least make a fee on those.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/29/2015 01:24AM by BirdyC.

I do agree sometimes their explanations or information is outdated, specifically for the cost of items. I noticed when purchasing tickets that the price was higher than quoted. I also noticed the directives and information never changed, for years. I have found most of the folks there to be friendly and responsive. I do not recall having to take pictures of employees, so perhaps this is a new requirement. Based on my experience with these assignments, I do not think these are assignments you should do for your enjoyment, but for the pleasure of those with you on the assignment, just my two cents.

I've been shopping for them for years, and have found them to be wonderful. Just be picky with what you choose. I know that there are people who complete the reports in the amount of time they state -- I'm not one of them. It usually takes at least twice what they estimate and often more. Robin has the right idea -- you're shopping so that your companion can enjoy herself.

ETA: I have never run into a shop with them that required photos. I can see how the compensation would need to be greatly increased for that.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/29/2015 05:28AM by PasswordNotFound.

FWIW the people who work for them are generally pretty good. I do agree that their assignments are among the hardest to get right.

@PasswordNotFound wrote:

ETA: I have never run into a shop with them that required photos. I can see how the compensation would need to be greatly increased for that.

You must have different types of shops in your area! Every shop that comes up on my board requires photos. Not near as many as the OP had to get, but several. I might take more from them if they didn't all require surreptitious photos. Although it's easy to get photos of the food and general pics of the lanes during the bowling shops, it's kind of hard to sneak pictures of the debris outside on the front steps when the counter is right there at the door!

How on earth are we supposed to take clear photos of someone's face without being obvious? Good grief.

Sounds like a PITA to do jobs like that.

Take a picture of your child standing about 5ft in front of them. ..... i take LOTS of pictures of my kids! !!! Standing next to what the MSC wants a pic of!

@DareWright wrote:

How on earth are we supposed to take clear photos of someone's face without being obvious? Good grief.

@DareWright wrote:

How on earth are we supposed to take clear photos of someone's face without being obvious? Good grief.

Practice! It's not as hard as you think. I stand off to the side and pretend to text, and take pics while the target is focused on helping another customer. Nobody ever notices or cares about what you're doing as long as you act natural! With a good photo editor, you can zoom in quite a bit and get a good quality picture after it's been taken. When I'm sitting at a bar, the "Spy Image" app is very useful, too--it prevents the people around you from knowing that you're taking photos.

@pinchers81 wrote:

@DareWright wrote:

How on earth are we supposed to take clear photos of someone's face without being obvious? Good grief.

When I'm sitting at a bar, the "Spy Image" app is very useful, too--it prevents the people around you from knowing that you're taking photos.

Is Spy Image an apple app? I can't find it in the play store.

@reneeturner wrote:

Is Spy Image an apple app? I can't find it in the play store.

Hmm, I don't know--I'm a diehard Android user. I suppose not. :-(

@BirdyC wrote:

You must have different types of shops in your area! Every shop that comes up on my board requires photos.

I do zoos, animal parks, and amusement parks for them. Thanks for the heads-up on bowling. The compensation for the above is barely adequate; it would not be so with photos required.

@PasswordNotFound wrote:

@BirdyC wrote:

You must have different types of shops in your area! Every shop that comes up on my board requires photos.

I do zoos, animal parks, and amusement parks for them. Thanks for the heads-up on bowling. The compensation for the above is barely adequate; it would not be so with photos required.

The bowling photos aren't really too difficult to get, if you bring your family with you. You have to take a picture of the food, so you can just have everyone pose in front of the pizza and pretend you're taking their photo. And you can get shots of the conditions of the lanes and seating areas while ostensibly taking pictures of each person bowling. It can be tricky when you're trying to get a shot of an example of something in poor condition, but I've really only had trouble with getting one shot and not being seen by the staff. I think these are probably some of the "easier" shops to do for Amusement Advantage. The fee covers almost the entire visit because we go on Sundays when there are discounted rates. Our family of four gets a couple hours of bowling, some arcade games, lunch, and a couple of drinks at the bar for almost no cash out of pocket (in the end). We enjoy the outing, so it's worth it for me to do the shop.

There is an amusement park shop near me that's done regularly during the summer, but it does require photos, along with numerous interactions. I think people have posted here before about how time consuming these are and how little time the shopper has to enjoy the experience. The report takes hours and hours, I understand. That's not for me!

That was my experience as well. I had no time to enjoy the exhibits and that was why I had taken the assignment to begin with.

I have nothing but good things to say about AA.

The schedulers and editors have all been easy to work with and they always pay promptly.

I usually stay below the budget and make a few bucks when I do shops for them. If it costs me a few extra dollars, I view it as I received a giant subsidy for my night out.

@moonlight wrote:

I recently did a shop for amusement advantage, they stated on their site that the report will take 2 to 3 hours and the actual shop about 2 hours. Hahaha, that is NOT true the shop took 6 hours to complete and the report to 5 hours to finish. I'm a fast typer, my speed is 56 WPM. They required me to purchase items that added up to $34 ($24 for tickets and $10 for food) and the total pay of the assignment is $70. These numbers are the numbers that they stated on their directions, but the actual ticket price was $30, $6 is not a big deal but it shows how disorganized and how unprofessional they are. They required crazy amounts of details, such as the names of every single one of the 30+ staff members and also their face pictures. All of this must be done without anyone noticing that you are a secret shopper and the pictures must be high quality and must show the faces. After all this effort and time, they refused the shop because they thought that the pictures are not showing the faces of a few people. I really encourage everyone to avoid dealing with them, they are really slow ans they require phone calls prior to every assignment.

@Moonlight - Thanks for sharing your feedback. I am sorry you had a negative experience with our company. I am not sure what shop you are referring to since the details provided don't match any shop that we are currently conducting or have ever conducted in the last 20 years. We actually don't currently and have never had any shops where you are required to interact with anywhere near 30 staff members and certainly don't ask for pictures of 30 staff members either. We limit most shops to less than 20 staff members in terms of interactions and rarely ask for more than 10 pictures of any kind. I can only speculate that perhaps you misunderstood the assignment instructions. To clarify, although we try to provide average projected times for conducing the shop and completing the report in our instructions, the times provided are only estimates and we cannot accurately predict how long any shop will take to conduct or report for any specific individual. Based upon feedback from shoppers we adjust these times as appropriate to best represent the time commitment needed for most shoppers. Certainly the first shop any shopper conducts for our company typically takes longer to complete since they are unfamiliar with our requirements, system and evaluation form.

We apologize that the ticket price listed wasn't accurate. Please understand we do rely upon our clients and shoppers to advise us if there is any change in prices etc. so we can update our instructions. Unfortunately it would be cost prohibitive to check the prices for the over 400 attractions we work with every month to see if there have been any changes. We do however work to promptly verify and account for price changes when they are brought to our attention.

We also don't ever reject shops due to pictures not being of the faces of the individuals evaluated. We do in very rare circumstances have to reject a shop if the employees evaluated were the wrong type of employee on shops where very specific types of employees must be evaluated for a client. In these cases this requirement is very clearly outlined in the instructions and further clarified by providing sample pictures of those individuals as well.

We also do not require a phone call prior to every assignment. Due to client requirements in some cases on approximately 20% of our shops, we require a pre-shop review call when a shopper hasn't completed that particular shop before. This enables the shopper to be sure they understand any unique or challenging requirements of the shop and help ensure they complete it correctly to receive payment.

Lastly, we take great expense and effort to provide extremely fast service both in terms of communication and payments. We actually provide phone support for urgent and technical issues, 7 days a week from 9am-midnight (Eastern time) 360 days a year. We also average a 2-4 hour response time for non-urgent email during business hours (7 days a week). Payments are processed within 10-17 days via PayQuicker or 21-28 days via PayPal.

I encourage you to get in touch with us regarding your rejected shop so we can clarify and hopefully resolve the situation.

Regards,

Scot Carson
Amusement Advantage

@BirdyC wrote:

I've only done a couple of shops for them, the bowling ones. I did them so that my family and I could enjoy an activity we like to do, and get reimbursed most of the cost. My kids are old enough to help with the observations, and my husband helps out, too. Easy to get the necessary photos and interactions in that scenario. However, there are some shops near me that I wouldn't touch with the proverbial 10-ft pole, including the amusement park ones.

The only problem I had with them was when I had to cancel and re-schedule one of those shops due to bad winter weather conditions here. I called and spoke to one of the principals; he was somewhat understanding about the weather, but very condescending when re-scheduling. Basically treated me like a child, telling me I'd better make sure I did the shop on the re-scheduled date and that they don't look favorably on people not living up to their obligations, etc. I'm a professional and don't need to be spoken to as if I don't understand my obligations. And I wasn't going to risk getting in a car accident to do this shop. So I was not happy at that attitude.

That being said, I received excellent scores and very nice feedback on my shops. The second one I did, the input took only about three-quarters of the time the first one did. So I think they must become easier the more you do them.

I wouldn't do a shop for them unless it was something I planned to, or wanted to, do anyway. And I'd be careful about which shops I did, because it would be easy to get yourself into a situation in which you had no time at all to enjoy the shop.

I'd like to do one of their waterfront no-purchase "walk-around" shops, but they're quite a drive for me. But it'd be a nice way to spend an afternoon in good weather. And you at least make a fee on those.

@BirdyC - Thanks for sharing your feedback. I am very sorry you had a poor experience when rescheduling a shop. We strive to always treat everyone with respect and professionalism so I am disappointed to hear this occurred. We certainly understand weather can be an issue and wouldn't expect you to conduct a shop when you are not comfortable doing so.

We recognize not all our shops are a good fit for everyone and readily advertise that our shops are predominantly meant to only provide reimbursement for a fun outing. In some cases the fun outing is a return trip to the attraction with post shop tickets, etc.

Again I apologize for this experience and appreciate you continuing to work with us.

Scot, thanks for reading and responding to my post!

I think I've gotten a good idea over the past couple of years about which jobs are a good fit for me and/or my family. We've not been disappointed. (In fact, my family's been asking me when we can do another bowling shop!) But it does seem as if some shoppers go into these with unrealistic expectations or unprepared for the level of observation necessary. If I'd been a new shopper when I signed up with AA and did my first shop, I probably would have experienced some disappointment and frustration.

As you say, not all of your shops are a good fit for everyone, and it may take a discerning shopper to know which are and which aren't! Shoppers who have families that enjoy many of the experiences you offer, such as the amusement parks, and who would plan on returning to the venues may find those "perfect" for them. As long as there is another adult along (or a teen/older child) who can help with the observations and/or watch the kids while the shopper is performing necessary interactions.

Unfortunately, there aren't many "suitable-for-me" shops in my immediate geographic area, but I continue to check the job board. There are some I'd do in a heartbeat, but the distance and time involved in traveling are prohibitive.

Well that was pretty awesome of Scot to pop in and address the post in such a professional manner. Kudos to AA.

I actually just did a shop for laser tag and it took me much longer to do the report but they were easy to work with and would do the shop again.

Sorry that you had a bad shop. I love AA and the scheduler that I have worked with for a couple of years now. I do agree that the reports and shops can be lengthy. That is why I only take the shops a couple of times a year. The schedulers know how difficult the shops can be. Do write and ask about the shop. If you never ask, the answer will always be "no".

I am very happy with this company; they have a 24 hr help number.

I did one shop for these folks a few years back. I found the report to be extremely detailed and time consuming for the pay. However, the reason I stopped shopping for them was the barrage of "shop reminder" emails I received (a few even after the shop had been submitted well before the deadline). The utter sense of urgency and use of bold typeface in the "reminders" was laughable. The scheduler came across as a very difficult Type-A nut. I know that some people flake, but by and large, most of us know how to meet a deadline. I simply don't like being treated like an irresponsible person.