FC Community
Discussion Boards => Off-Topic => Topic started by: ryan9159 on August 10, 2011, 04:54:36 pm
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I was thinking about becoming one soon!
( I know you can't say the name of the company on here)
As a Dad, I like to help my wife food shopping as often as I can because I can see she is stressed with our kids.
What do secret shoppers do?
Can you shop wherever or do they tell you were too?
How much do you make?
Thank you for reading this!
God Bless You All!
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I'm not quite sure what you mean by secret shopper, care to elaborate?
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I am a secret shopper,
Sometimes..........late at night........I head out in the car and go get............A milk shake and do not tell anyone :bootyshake: LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
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I just started doing a few shops, so I can only give you a little advice.
First of all, be careful, there are scam operations out there, any mystery shopping organization that asks for money to join is to be strongly suspected. Check out MSPA for legitimate organizations.
It's easy money, but you won't make a lot of money. For example; I went into a grocery store for an evaluation that took about 10 minutes, of course you also have to count the time and fuel it takes to get to the store. You buy groceries and get reimbursed for a particular amount and then get an additional fee once you have submitted a report. In this case I got reimbursed for up to $13 in groceries and then got another $5 for my report. The report you submit on-line can take about 15 minutes, or more if you're slow.
When you sign up with one of these companies you will be able to access a list of shops within a given radius of the zip code you submit. Different companies offer grocery shops, fast food shops, car dealer shops where you go in and act like you want to buy a car (and the negative part where the car dealer contacts you for 2 more weeks when he doesn't ever hear from you again), or calls you make and report on. I've been offered those but haven't tried them yet. They generally seem to pay $2 or $3 for each call and report. Those are only examples, there are many other types of shops too.
As I said, it's easy money, but you don't make a great deal. I don't go out of my way to do shops, I either do them in my area or find shops to do when I'm going to some other area anyway. In those cases the fast food and restaurant shops are very convenient because you get free food on your trip and then get a few dollars more after you get back and do your report.
Good luck.
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My mother was a secret shopper, many years ago. From what I can remember, they basically told you where you needed to go. Or gave you a list of places. And knowing from working in a place that has secret shoppers come in, you basically have certain things you need to do in each place, and you grade the location. Cleanliness, customer service, help, length of service, and so on.
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Sound interesting, it might be fun. It would not hurt too look into it for more extra money.
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Might be a way to add some money to your wallet, but i doubt your going to make much!
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Do prospective employers of these 'mystery shopping' opportunities require fees to be sent via Western Union via check they send?
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I was a secret shopper a while back and you cant tell them you doing this you just act normal i was sent to many place like a grocery store and they would tell me certain things to do there.
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My sister is a secret shopper!! at first I thought it was a scam, but she actually makes money :wave:
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Do prospective employers of these 'mystery shopping' opportunities require fees to be sent via Western Union via check they send?
That sounds like a check cashing scam. If someone want to send you a check and you're supposed to send part of it back to them don't do it. Report them. You'll send out your money then find out their check bounced and you'll be responsible for it. There are internet cafes in Nigeria where they do this for a living. Their grammar is usually bad their language reveals they're not American and sometimes they ask questions American employers aren't supposed to ask. >:(
I could have had a mystery shopping job once, but they required me to wear a lapel mic and my micro recorder doesn't have a jack for a mic. It involved pretending to be a home buyer. :(
I'm told their are some you can do online or on the phone, like checking out car insurance agencies. :-
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Do prospective employers of these 'mystery shopping' opportunities require fees to be sent via Western Union via check they send?
That sounds like a check cashing scam. If someone want to send you a check and you're supposed to send part of it back to them don't do it. Report them. You'll send out your money then find out their check bounced and you'll be responsible for it. There are internet cafes in Nigeria where they do this for a living. Their grammar is usually bad their language reveals they're not American and sometimes they ask questions American employers aren't supposed to ask. >:(
That Sucks :( i'm going to look around for a good secret shopping place.
I could have had a mystery shopping job once, but they required me to wear a lapel mic and my micro recorder doesn't have a jack for a mic. It involved pretending to be a home buyer. :(
I'm told their are some you can do online or on the phone, like checking out car insurance agencies. :-
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I just joined a secret shopper site and all I receive are emails telling me about jobs I Could receive if I pay the 4.95 to become a gold member.I just can't see that paying for a job is legit.sp? oh well am making a little cash here.
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I have been a "shadow shopper" for about three months now. I am having a ball! Between last Thursday evening and Friday evening, I made $50, had six meals, got $5 of groceries free and paid to donate food to a food bank. Last Saturday I made $25 for going new car shopping. I have gotten paid to get my hair cut, my car serviced and mail packages and was paid for doing the shop as well as the services were paid. I have also made $30 by doing mystery internet shopping. I've made $5 a couple of times by doing telephone mystery shopping. My husband and I have gotten to eat at several nice restaurants that were all free. I did join Shadow Shoppers and they hooked me up with several mystery shopping companies. I have been getting so many assignments that I have to write them down on the calendar to keep from forgetting about them. My daughter's fiance has started mystery shopping and he is enjoying it, also. They live in a large city so he has more opportunities than I do living in a small community.
I do recommend you be very cautious in what you click on while surfing the internet. There are many scams out there. I've been blessed so far and everything has turned out legitimate.
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it sounds like a lot of fun.... id be interested in becoming one
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i do some secret shopping mostly i do restaurants and usually you cant do the same restaurant every 90 days
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I'd like to do it, but since no one can tell here which companies are legit, I have NO WAY of knowing where to go, nor where to even begin.
I hate secrecy.
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I mentioned this in my previous post, you have to check the MSPA (Mystery Shopping Providers Association). Just google MSPA and check the web site, they have a full list of all legitimate organizations.
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I recently just started the mystery shopper business because a good friend of mine referred me. She makes a little extra money a month, maybe enough to fill up two tanks of gas. I did my first shop the other day and it was pretty simple and Ive started to look for my next shop. I dont have very many in my area since it is a small town but I can find quite a bit in the surround areas so I try to schedule it when I will be going in a certain direction. I mostly have fast food like mcdonalds and well really just mcdonalds lol which I am not crazy about so I dont really do those. If you dont have much else to do and running out to earn a few dollars and save a few dollars on purchases go for it. I hope that I can use it while I travel so that way I can save some money between commutes to Texas and CT.
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Good information, thanks everyone.
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I just started Mystery Shopping myself. It is pretty easy work for the most part. The company I go through there is no membership fee. You log onto the site and see which jobs you want to do. Call the representative set up the date and then make sure you go. It helps if you have a printer and scanner and a camera also. Each shop pays differrent and any that you have to purchase from you get reimbursed for.
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I've always wanted to become a mystery shopper, so i did sign up to become one....everytime i check my account to see if i have a job lined up, there was never anything there... not sure what that was about, but it do sound like fun!
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I tried to be one, but the company which contacted me is a scam, cos they sent money orders to me and let me send some back! so I think the money order is not real one!
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Do prospective employers of these 'mystery shopping' opportunities require fees to be sent via Western Union via check they send?
No!! That is a scam! They take checks from other companies and they have you take it to your bank put it in, cash it out in 2 days, then take it to Western Union and wire them the money to some person who doesn't work for the specific company specified. The phone number is also out of the country. Usually Canada.
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I have a friend who I knew used to do this and is doing it again. We live in small towns south of Albuquerque and she says most of the work in in Albuquerque. She goes to restaurants and stores. She's signed up with 4 - 5 companies and can choose her assignments. It involves a bit of acting since you sometimes have to pretend you're interested in things you're not really interested in. She also draws the line at going to the sleazy car dealership and pretending she wants a car. Since I'm not good at acting, don't have a working car and am money challenged I'm not going to try this.
It sounds like a cool thing to do if you live, work or go to school in a big city and would normally eat out, etc. You could get free meals, school / office supplies and the like, plus a little cash. Good luck.