Hi all, I have done this in the past, and it is great way to increase your income. Do not worry I will not be sharing any links for referrals. I am only going to share the company names that actually pay you to mystery shop, and you can google it. It is defiantly not easy money or free lunch, it involves a lot of preparation and proper work. Once you get used to the assignments, you do not have to spend much preparing. There are different companies with all sort of assignments. It involves visiting the client in question with particular scenario, they are very particular in the scenario, miss something out and they might refuse to pay you. I have done bank assignments to give a feedback as new customer trying to change an account or buying a products. Lunch visits and pub visits, you start with going alone then they offer you the chance to bring someone but you have to stick to guidelines, if they say do not take anyone then DO NOT, there are incidents of people getting sacked for it. The fee varies some pay decent amount and some just a fiver if that with the free meal you get, it might sound a good deal but when you start filling the questionnaire with reparative questions it will drive you mad. Now to the companies I have used, they are mostly UK based but some international. You can sign up to as many companies as you like. The more you sign up with the more choice of jobs you will have. The companies do not deduct tax so you have to register self employed. 1. Bare international 2. GAP BUSTER 3. GFK 4. Grass roots 5. Retail eyes If anyone need further information please let me know. The best way to do mystery shopping if you have about easy 3 assignments in a day, I normally do two bank jobs for example then a free lunch or dinner. You decide the day you want to make a visit but once you chose a day you have to stick to it otherwise you might not be offered more jobs. If you are very reliable you get more jobs, and even bigger fee.
People do make money doing this type of work. Not many people actually want to do the work necessary to succeed in this. Good post. Tal
talfighel: People do make money doing this type of work. Not many people actually want to do the work necessary to succeed in this. I did Mystery shopping but it was not worth my time, it is fun and you can get free stuff but, the amount spent not worth the effort , although a lot of people find Mystery shopping exciting . Also some people do prefer paid jobs, and it is viable option for stay at home mums, as they can do all the mystery shopping while the kids at school, and write the report in the evening.
I've heard of people successfully doing this as well, but was also told that many times the money is not worth it based on some of the places you have to travel to. However anyone making it work, awesome.
FreeCashMan: I've heard of people successfully doing this as well, but was also told that many times the money is not worth it based on some of the places you have to travel to. However anyone Normally, they do not pay for travel, because you should apply to jobs that are local to you. The pay is not bad for some companies, one client paid me $80 to pretend to be a cash buyer for a car. I needed to convince them that I have the cash ready to sign the form if they give me the best price! That was fun to do, now I know if a sale person says they need to check with their manger before they say yes for discount, I know it is big fat lie. They probably watch the football score or just pretend to ask someone, I did two of theses and both, gave me the price I was looking for in my assignment sheet in the their third attempt. The funniest ones are fast food restaurants, as soon as you ask for a receipt, it is mystery shopping alert, they start over cleaning, and been extra friendly, in one occasion, the manger came to ask if I like my burger looool it always crack me up, it makes you feel kind of special. Overall it is good as second income option, for people looking for a job but is not reliable options, as some days you get jobs and many other days, you might not.
I've done mystery shopping and from my experience it is not worth the time or effort you put into it. Especially, when you are comparing it with the compensation the companies are offering to pay you to shop an assignment. Average pay range is $10 - $20. Please keep in mind, there are cost associated with completing a shop, a time span associated with completing a mystery shop assignment, and the time spent in completing the report for the assignment. You will realize that the compensation is not worth its wait and gold. It can take you up to 2 to 3 hours from start to finish to do a mystery shop and complete a report. Even if you get creative and due multiple assignments in one day and the total compensation is $100 dollar. It still isn't worth the time and effort. You would have put in a 16 hour day to complete all of those assignments. If you did the math on that it will be $6.25 per hour. that is below minimum wage. I am a very organized person and I worked my butt off for $500 a month. I was drained and when I did a cost analysis to see if this was feasible. I realize it wasn't. You need internet access, computer, 4-in-one-printer (which include fax, copy, scanner, printer) cell phone, supplies for the printer like paper, ink, etc. video recorder, tape recorder, etc...these are just the basic tools to complete a shop. Some mystery shops require you to purchase a product with a credit card and the mystery shopping companies will reimburse you....It can take them up to 2 weeks to 60 days or 90 days to reimburse your the money. Some people do the shops because it can allow them to be reimburse for something they were going to do anyway. A good example of a mystery shop would be restuarants. This I think is great. If you were going to a restaurant to eat, why not do a mystery shop at that restaurant and eat for free. This will be a great reimbursement. However, if you are mystery shopping to earn extra cash, I would recommend finding a more feasible option. I have worked for many companies. Thru my experience, I do not work for companies that issue checks for payment. It takes too long to get them in the mail. I don't particularly care to work with companies that want to direct deposit the checks into my checking account. I prefer to work with companies that pay via paypal. However, I wish good luck to anyone who wants to try it for extra income. PM if you want additional information.. Jen
A guy that I work with has made some decent income with mystery shopping. Not enough to quit his dayjob though. It's not bad for some spending cash or maybe to build up an advertising budget for another opportunity.
I know this is an old topic, but I thought I would chime in with my experience as a Mystery Shopper. I have worked for the same company for 3 years now. I am not sure if I am allowed to give the name here, so will hold off until I know otherwise. Anyway, I am considered an independant contractor for them. I get to pick and choose the jobs I take. I often will pick jobs based on where they are located..either close to my work or home. I will not drive too far unless they offer higher compensation for the job. Many of the shops I do are in grocery stores, where I am evaluating the store and the associates for the Parent Company. I get reimbursed for my purchase, as long as it is a minimum of $10.50. I understand that for some it is not worth the time or money, but I will only do jobs that are worth it for me. There are some months where I only bring in $40 or so...but I have brought in $150 to $200 in a month. I use the money for my grocery and gas budget.
If you're in Canada, you can try Mystery Shopping Canada Ltd. When I needed an extra $100-$400 a month, these guys would be the place to be. I mainly mystery shopped TD (a bank in Canada) and I also did a laser eye exam for free and got paid $85 to do that.
I have done the mystery shopping too. Still do on occasion. It is kinda neat to get paid for things you normally would do anyway. I have done restaurants, gas stations, stores. They can be fun. If you work for a couple of the companies that do them you can make a little extra cash. Two of the ones that I worked for, Maritz Research and MarketForce are US based. I would only take the ones I wanted. Sometimes if they were close to a deadline and the shop wasn't done they would offer bonuses to get them done within the next day or two. It's not bad, can be fun. Just be careful which assignments you sign up for.
I work for Marketforce. While one of the original posters is correct, they do not pay for gas, they will pay for tolls and parking fees. Also, I have occasionally gotten calls from them to do a shop that is further away than I prefer to go and given me , say, an extra bonus of $20 to $25 to do the shop. Usually it is in an area where they do not have any workers.
I got sent something in the mail about this once. It turned out to be a scam, I tried to cash the "check" they sent me and the bank said it was fake.
I have heard of people doing reasonably well by doing this type of work, but it seems there are a lot of fly-by-night scam companies out there. Some, I've found, charge a fee in order for them to send you work. Call me crazy, but I have a problem with a company charging me a monthly fee in order to work for them. They should be paying me -- not the other way around.
