Is Mystery Shopping for you?

[William Clements]

About the Shopper Force
Join the Shopper Force

Have you ever been somewhere and wished you had received better service? For most of your favorite brands, understanding how well their services are delivered first-hand to their customers can be a challenge. That’s why they need you.

Being a Mystery Shopper (secret shopper) or Certified Field Associate (CFA) is an important job – and it’s part-time, paid, and flexible to your schedule. Many of your favorite stores, restaurants and theatres depend on our mystery shoppers and CFAs to understand more about what is happening in their stores.

If you’d enjoy earning yourself a little extra cash in your spare time, then doing mystery shops as a Market Force mystery shopper and/or theatre checks as a Certified Field Associate can be fun and rewarding. Assignments vary from being reimbursed for a meal at a restaurant to shopping while you wait at the airport to counting heads in a theatre before a show. Ultimately, your paid efforts will improve customer service experiences for everyone.

I have been a Mystery Shopper for a number of years and it may not make you rich but it is a great way to earn some extra spending cash. It is more commonly known as being a secret shopper

Sign up for some to have access to the jobs they each offer:

Learn more about becoming a Mystery Shopper (Secret Shopper) here

Learn more about becoming a Theatre Checker here

Learn more about becoming a Mystery Shopper specifically on scheduling and getting an oil change and tire rotations at dealerships here

Learn more about becoming a Apartment shopper (or pretend you are) as a EPMS mystery shopper here

Learn more about Scams involved in Mystery shops here

Now, if anyone here has been a Mystery Shopper or currently is one and want to share links on where to apply then respond to this post with them.

 

[William Clements]

Here is another Mystery Shopping company at Customer Experience | Mystery Shop | Voice of Customer

 

[dyanmarie25]

I have never tried doing mystery shopping work yet, but I know a lot of freelancers who make good money using sites that offer this kind of online opportunity. I might try this one in the near future. Thanks for sharing information about it.

 

[William Clements]

@dyanmarie25 Your Welcome!

 

[Pop]

I also know there are a lot of scam sites that pretend to by mystery shopper systems. It is up there with drop shipping as something that is more often a scam then real if you just go by the offers online.

If someone here actually does this I would love to here how it actually works, how you make money, and how to pick a real MS service and avoid the scams. A real first person account would help a lot.

 

[William Clements]

I know about the scams and am a Mystery Shopper so thought it was a good thing to share with everyone. You can join with the links I listed and in the first comment with one more than I listed. Those are ones I know are not scams and that I work with as a Mystery Shopper.

 

[Pop]

Yes but what has it actually been like for you? What shopping do you do, how does it work, what sort of pay rate is there?

Because the ability to share things like that, like the last trip they took and what they made from it, is how I separate authentic recommendations from people who really make their money from the back end of the company, backlink creation, or affiliate links. Or are just giving sincere but secondhand information not speaking from experience.

 

[William Clements]

Well, it is true that some people will give a good review just for referral money but above, I never used any. I can tell you that I have shopped at Harris Teeter for food and the o require you to get a meet or something from the deli department and then 4 or 5 things that are cheap. However, they do not have to be cheap but if they aren't you will pay paying for than your getting. They give an flate rate, usually $11 - $15 in reimbursements plus a bonus of $5 - $7. It may not seem like much but can you can virtually just got shopping done for free. It is similar to restaurant as well, I have done a shop for five guys and they are specific. You have to get a hameburger or cheese burger meal of cheapest cost to be within reimbursement amount but if you order and it is over it, you will get the full reimbursement amount they allow and then a bonus. I believe it is $9 reimbursement and it is for a whole meal plus a $8 bonus and while there you have to be alert to see if anyone was not wearing correct outfit, you have to make a trip to the bathroom (even if you do not need to go), looking around in and outside fro cleanliness and then take a survey online with what you needed to do and upload receipt.

You do pay up front with your own money and get paid for the shop after the fact but I have always been paid with the places I use. If there is one that will send you money before hand to cash a check and use, it is a scam. Same as if with Western Union or Money Gram. They are not part of any secrete shopper program.

 

[onepetitemiss]

I've always wanted to become a mystery shopping and I think I would be awesome at it. The thing is, I look like a child (at most, without make up, I can look like I'm 15...and I'm 27 in real life) so people wouldn't really pay any attention to me. In fact, they may actually ignore me because I look like a kid and they wouldn't suspect anything. I think it could be awesome for me. I think I might want to try it out...see how it goes.

 

[missbishi]

Here's a few companies that UK forum members might want to try. I've been paid by all of them at least once over the last few years.

AMBER ARCH

ABAi

BARE INTERNATIONAL

CATALYST

eDIGITAL RESEARCH

REACT

TNS

As I am a newbie, I'm unable to post links just yet. However, all these companies come up as the first result in a Google search.

I don't do mystery shops all that often, there aren't as many opportunities available in the city where I live now. As long as you are able to follow instructions and be thorough in your reviews then you can make a nice little bit of extra cash. Mystery shopping won't make you rich but every little helps on the journey to financial independence.

 

[William Clements]

Just as an update, I forgot to mention the scam in Mystery Shopping when contact to become one via email, without someone referring you to them via email first. Let me tell you, legit & real ones, will not go around emailing people to become a mystery shopper. I just got one of them email I am talking about.

The way these scams via email work, they will send you a check up front to do the shopping and it may will clear with you bank but it will be found to be a fake check for a higher level authorization which can take up to 15 days after it initially clears. So if you have enough money to cover it, you will be down that amount but if not, you will go into the negative balance. Part of the shopping was including sending money to both western union and money gram (this is how the scammers actually make money). I am showing a screenshot of email below as an example of this scam by email:

 

[missbishi]

I think the real giveaway here is the appalling use of grammar. This email is littered with errors that you just wouldn't see from a professional firm. A legitimate company will not need to canvass like this at all.

 

[William Clements]

Agreed, they need to edit before sending scam emails. Also, the way they ask for your contact information is usually similar to above. With somewhere legit, you would of applied already so they would have all this already. Also, it is a dead giveaway when you see you and all others being emailed are Blind Carbon Copy (BCC). This is being sent out to the masses!

 

[Goldstandard89]

I've considered mystery shopping but I've heard to many horror stories of stores that put up fake sites to get customers to buy goods without reimbursing them. So I've been hesitant to try it because every time I research the company I only see bad reviews. All the people I've seen recommend it don't offer pay stubs but a link to make money off referring me to be a shopper. I'm skeptical at this point that anyone has actually made money doing it.

 

[briannagodess]

I have heard of mystery shopping but mostly apps. Unfortunately, not a lot of these apps work for my country. I would still post them though for people living in the UK or the US:

• Field Agent. The good thing about this mystery shopping app is there is no payout minimum! Yay! You can get paid 3 to 12 dollars per task.
• Easy Shift. Available for both Android and IOS users. Again, there's no payout minimum for this app as well.
• Rewardable. There's a minimum payout of 5 dollars with this one. You can test apps, go to locations and do tasks within your area.
• Gigwalk. Seems like a good app for those living in the rural areas. I'm not sure about the minimum payout for this one.

Good luck!

 

[Nancy]

I've worked for a few mystery shopping companies in the past. It worked best for me when I lived in a rural area where no one was taking jobs. If I waited, they would add bonuses to try to get the job done. I would wait and then take a day's worth of jobs near each other that had lots of bonuses (on some jobs the bonus alone was $20). I could make a couple of hundred dollars and some free fast food in the deal. It can be a lot of work and you must have an awesome memory. You are required to time this and that and the other and answer sometimes pages of specific questions (like how wide is a painted line on a pole!) and get all the information without anyone suspecting you are not a normal customer! You sometimes have to take a bunch of specific pictures, also without being noticed, then upload them within the day or at most 24 hours.

I could only do it about once a month, as that was how many and how often the jobs were offered. I live in a more populated area now and the jobs are taken as soon as they are posted. I suppose if you are online and checking constantly you could nab them, but it wasn't as profitable for me here as it was in the sticks! Most of the time they do not want you to bring anyone along with you and that is hard for me as I have a bunch of children

With all that said, be sure it is a legitimate company. You should not have to pay anything. One company actually had me as an employee and I got a normal paycheck.

 

[Slique]

This is always intriguing to me and I think I'd do it but too bad I don't think they do this type of job where I am or at least I don't know of any businesses doing it.