I have for a number of years worked with Mystery Researchers, now See Level HX. They will send out requests for two visit car negotiation shops. Lately, if they do not receive every piece of paper needed to complete their shops they will not pay me as the shopper. I just finished a new shop in Souuthern Californa, and again they have said you did not neogotiate the shop on the second vist. I did negotiate the shop as best as possible. They will send continuous e-mails to let me know as the shopper that the negotiation is not done. I have in other cases gone back three and four times. I am writing to let other shoppers know that this is what you are up against with See Level HX. I believe that bullying of the shopper stops here. If you have suggestions, please write to this discussion. I plan to take this further because I have lost money from other shops because of the demand of continuous paper work and more visits to the dealership. Recommendations would be helpful to this long time professional shopper.

Their "pro from Dover" re" auto shops is named Rich, and he is tough, and does not allow anything outside of his own interpretation of what is right. SeeLevel execs just go along with his judgment. I just don't do those shops anymore. He is rigid (as in unbending) as well as rude.

I've done 4 of these shops with no issue. For my last shop, the Sales Manager sent me the second visit lowest price by email. Rich accepted it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/07/2016 12:49PM by HonnyBrown.

HonnyBrown you need to edit your post. The MSC was named, so you can not list the client, as you have. It is against the rules around here and probably an ICA violation.

Those shops require a tough negotiator who doesn't take no for an answer. They're not for everyone, however, and my experience with Rich has been a positive one. If you're not up to some serious negotiating with seasoned pro's, you may decide to pass on these shops.

I wish I had read this earlier. I did the first part of the car negotiation yesterday and have to go back tomorrow. The first part did not go well and took about 90 minutes. The salesman was giving me a real runaround and first tried saying that they did not have the model I wanted on the lot and the only dealerships that still had that model was in another state. Then there was the whole song and dance about his needing to speak with a manager and then saying the manager was not there and then saying the printer was broken and he could not print out a list of all the details related to the car I want. All this after a mandatory one hour telephone conference with Rich. I will complete the job to the best of my ability tomorrow but I have a bad feeling about whether it will get accepted.

You need to get tough w/the dealer salesperson. They could email you the info...if their printer is out of service.

Pretty soon it won't be against the rules as their are bills that are in the House of Senate regarding comments or reviews and if passed which one house has, there will be no stating can't review such and such.

I went back to the dealership for the third time and obtained some printed material regarding a cash sale and a leasing scenario. After several telephone calls and emails with the sales associate, it became evident that I would never have all the necessary documents. I won't pursue this shop any further and will just accept the loss but I don't see any more auto dealerships in my future.

I had a sales associate at a dealer ship try to play games with me, until I came right out and said to him " do you want to sell a car today or not " Take control.

@Itsybitsy1 wrote:

Pretty soon it won't be against the rules as their are bills that are in the House of Senate regarding comments or reviews and if passed which one house has, there will be no stating can't review such and such.

What rules are you talking about?

If you are referring to the Independent Contractor Agreements (ICA), which usually contain a confidentiality clause prohibiting mystery shoppers from revealing an MSC's clients or proprietary details, there is no legislation pending that would release a mystery shopper from his contractual agreements.

I deactivated my shop with See Level as there were other issues with schedulers with wrong directions attached. Another one was verbally insulting. Thank you but no thank you.. Merchandising pays much better!

Freedom of speech

I had one company that was an issue and I stated I would contact the BBB (Better Business Bureau) I was paid. My husband had one too and we stated the BBB would be contacted. It was involving an investment company

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/2016 04:48PM by Itsybitsy1.

I stopped doing the car negotiation shops after a bonus issue. I was called and verbally asked to accept the two more negotiations shops, with bonus. I said yes. The scheduler did NOT attach the bonuses to the shops. When I sent an email, showing that there was a bonus being offered on both shops, it was ignored. I thought ya know, if you are going to be like that, then forget it. I did complete the two shops and submitted because I had verbally agreed to do the work and I do my best to keep my word. After that, and with no acknowledgement or response regarding the bonuses not paid, I have turned down every single request to do these shops.

I am sorry that you are having such rough time with the company regarding the shops.

Something that helped me when I did the shops - I claimed my son or my brother was an accountant or a CPA and told me to specifically ask for x, y, or z. I said I have no idea what that means, but I am suppose to give it to him to look at with the all the numbers. That worked really well for me! And the guy in charge of the program was happy that he received the stuff he required.

I did several car shops recently, but not for a msc...for my own car. I really wanted to buy a car so I did not even have to act and even knew which car I wanted..make, model, even color. Not one of the dealers I went to did a thorough job and some pulled the cr..p you are mentioning above. Several never offered a test drive and some showed me cars that were locked. I had to request to see the inside of the car. And then wait and wait for them to find the keys. I spent 4 hours at the local dealer I really was hoping to get my car from. Some I went into with a purchase number and agreement from the Costco website. Costco specifically said they need to give you a printout that says on it it's the Costco agreed price. I never got one of those. For those reasons I will not even attempt to do one of these shops and expect to get out of the place in a decent amt of time with everything required. I felt the pain but I was doing it for myself. I cannot imagine going car shopping as a mystery shopper and feeling it was worth it. I hope you get paid your due as I am sure you spent a good chunk of time and angst performing the shop you did.

I did these shops for two years and yes Rich is tough. Honestly he probably was a little rude a couple of times but he knows how to coach you into becoming a very shrewd shopper. A shark. What do you expect? This type of business is very tough. I didn't even complete my shop and the first time and rich gave me You just have to mutli task, act compute numbers and watch EVERY little thing they do. I am grateful for the work. One time I couldn't complete one of these shops, I explained I am being stalked to Rich and scheduler which is whole other story and Rich got irritated but they paid me in full for work not completed which is UNHEARD OF in this business. It is a very demanding and brutal game this job. You have to totally manipulate the sales person take them for a ride and disappear and hope they don't really figure out what you're doing. It is a messed up job but it does provide the company with a little assurance that their sales people are truly on the tip of their toes and that they are not giving too good of deals also they want to monitor their salespeople and we are low paid spies. It's a dirty job no doubt. To review thousands of those reports and make sure they are all perfect is too hard a job for anyone but Rich bears that cross of his own will. He is meticulous that is a good thing I think for the company because it IS very easy to screw up on this job and have to go back and re-do.

Sometimes guys we have to push the sales people around. Some are easier than other and many are difficult and many are nice.