Mystery Shopping

[kimashley]

Has anyone tried mystery shopping? I just started signing up (free) 2 days ago, and I already have 10 jobs lined up in the next 2 weeks!

Tomorrow I will go to a bank(which I was going to do anyway!) and eat 2 meals, and make $50 for 3 hours work, plus the meals will be paid for.

In a month of surveys amd paid email I haven't made that much.

But DO NOT pay one of those mystery shopping sites. You can find all the companies you want for free at the Mystery Shopper Providers Assoc.
www.mysteryshop.org/join

(This is not a referral link - I'm just passing on the info)
You can also get certified there(optional) for a very low fee.

Good Luck

[FreePaidSurveys]

If everyone is interested in mystery shopping, I will add a section to the site. Please provide me with your HONEST feedback. If there is enough interest, I will definately add a Mystery Shopping section.

[SorryNewbie]

These guys provide a free list of paid survey and mystery shopping companies a few at a time in their newsletter: http://completelistofpaidsurveysites.com

One thing I like to do is the movie checking, particularly the "blind checks" where you evaluate their service anonymously. I don't much care for other types of movie checks such as "patron counts"... that's a pain.

Later,
SorryNewbie.

[kayaker]

I haven't had much luck with this so far, however I live in a rural area and usually some distance is involved.

My take on this process is that the fee offered Mustat least cover the cost involved. Therefore I go to Street Atlas and determine the distance involved and figure $0.25/mile or so. I then also determine the travel time and what that time is worth when added to the time that the shop is expected to take. I then compare it to the fee which usually doesn't measure up and advise the source accordingly.

The last one I received yesterday resulted in a milage cost of $14.00 and the offered a fee of $15.00.[/u]

[Guest]

Don't waste the money getting certified. A real mystery shop does not rely on those ratings. Everyone starts out at a open listing. but as you spend more time and file a detail report for that company, they will reserve the slot for you months ahead.

As for OP, you can say that you're lucky as no one in your area does the the shop since it's very unlikely for a newbie to get into some many assigments in a short period of time.

Anyway. mystery shop is great although the pay is low, but you will get free meal, service or freebies that you can auction on ebay later on.

And if you plan thing right you can have a free lunch, free gas, a shopping spreed and a pizza deliver to you for dinner at a same day.

Excluding all these easy freebies you will get a low pay of $5-10 per case. However, if you are not able to file a detail report with effort. 30-60 min per case online, you may not able to get pay.