[LeggsRobbins]

Have you ever done mystery shopping? Was it worth your time? Were you satisfied with your experience? Did you look for your own jobs or did you sign up for a service to find them for you? If so, what service? Etc. etc. etc. What kinds of advice/information/feeback can you give to someone who's considering doing this?

[dianegl]

It's okay but can get tediious. Here's a website address that can answer all your questions. BTW, this website is legit, whereas many others that ask for $$$ are not.

http://www.mysteryshop.org/shopper/search.php

HTH

[mshopper]

Originally Posted by gr8mom

The car dealership was probably the worst shop I've done - ick - who wants to be hassled by a car salesman for over an hour and then have to answer followup calls from him?

Your post made me laugh because I get hassled by a car salesman every day...I'm married to one

[ElaineHN]

I was going to post the Volition link, but I see that someone already has It's a GREAT resource and very legit.

From my personal experience ... yes, MSing can be profitable ... but you have to be selective in your shops for it to be worthwhile.

No way am I going to take a revealed FastFood reward shop that requires a 8 page on-line report, several to-the-second timings, measuring the liquid in my soft drink, and revealing my self to either award prizes or give a 'sorry you missed out, review your suggestive selling materials and try again you never know when another shopper will drop by' kind of certificate ... all for reimbursement for a fastfood combo meal and a single digit fee! No way ... ... and I've reached the point of passing on most cell phone shops, fastfood shops, home improvement store shops, office supply store shops and a lot of others that while possibly worthwhile if you have the time and they fit into your daily schedule and aren't too far from home/work ... but they just don't pay enough for me to try to work them into my busy summer schedule or justify a trip across town or to a neighboring town with gas prices as high as they are now.

However, I *WILL* happily take shops that provide me with 6 Orlando area theme park tickets , or Atlanta area professional sporting events, or $100-$150 reimbursment for a fine dining meal (for me & hubby), or even $35 for a local restaurant meal with the family, or just under $20 for grocery store reimbursement & fee for a super simple shop at a store that I'd be going to anyway and that with coupons I ended up with about $54 worth of groceries!

There're all sorts of mystery shops out there and all sorts of different reimbursement/fee schedules. Sometimes starting out it's worthwhile to take some of the lower paying ones just to get your foot in the door with a company ... but what is really 'worth it' for one person may differ from what is worth it for another.

One year I did several local department store shops just in time to buy my kid's back to school clothes. The shops required observing/reporting on 8-10 different associates, but you didn't have to get a lot of info just their names and a little other info ... and I found it worth it for the fee. By shopping sales and clearance, I think I ended up with about $400 worth of clothes (if regular price) over the course of 5 shops which paid $20 each. I may have spent a tiny bit more than the $20 on some of the shops, but I didn't spend a lot more. It took a little more time than if I'd gone to the same store to shop without doing the MS, but it wasn't awful. It was worth it to me because of hubby's job change which had made our budget pretty tight.

However, I've passed on a the shops since then because money isn't as tight and I just dread trying to make contact with 8-10 associates in a store which seems to barely ever be even close to fully staffed. If I needed the money, I'd do them ... but they just aren't that appealing to me and seem like more trouble than they're worth. But I know the year I did them, I was happy to do them. Does that make any sense?

[LeggsRobbins]

This is all great feedback! I knew a bunch of go getters like you guys would have experience here! Keep it comin'!

BTW, what's up with this "self-assigned shop" thing?

[ElaineHN]

Some MS companies allow you to 'self assign' shops just by going to their site and using an automated system to select jobs from a 'job board' or similar area ... you just click that you want the job and then you follow through with whatever scheduling info, etc. might be needed. (usually simpler, basic shops)

Other MS companies use a scheduling system where you 'request' a job and then you wait to be contacted by a scheduler (usually via e-mail) if you are assigned the job. (usually used by the companies with the more 'expensive' and more complicated shops ... though some companies that do low-paying easy shops still use scheduler-assigning.)

And there are a few companies that have some 'self-assign' jobs and others that require a scheduler to assign the job to you. Or they start you out with the 'requesting & scheduler assigning' system, and then once you've done a certain number of high-quality shops for them they 'promote' you to self-assign.

[LeggsRobbins]

Well it sounds like I'd better get registering with multiple companies! I registered with one, got an e-mail about a shop, applied to it, and then found out it was self-assign! (And had already been assigned! .)

[LeggsRobbins]

To some of you beautiful experienced ones, is it necessary to actually CHECK ALL of your myster shopping sites every night, (cause that's a LOT of logging in and logging out) or do pretty much all mystery shopping services e-mail you when there's a job for which you are eligible available?

And did it take long for you to start getting jobs? I'm registered with maybe fifteen companies, and still very little available.

[skyyblonde]

I agree, it is very tedious. I did it for a few months, but found it more of a hassle. One company took forever to pay me and I had to keep cotacting them.

Now I do Focus Groups and Love that. Very easy money. Only problem is that you can not do a group with the same company within a certain time frame. But in the Philly area there are quite a few companies. i find the jobs on CraigsList.com under the ETC. category in the Jobs postings.

[LeggsRobbins]

Thanks for the tip! That's great!