If you do mystery shopping, what company would you say I should go with?
By dancia2007
@dancia2007 (551)
United States
March 25, 2007 7:28pm CST
Does anyone here do mystery shopping? What companies do you recommend? and do they pay well enough to justify the effort?
Like all the other things I have researched, I have found a list of companies I think are legit when it comes to this. But I want to find out what real people do and succeed with when it comes to this. I've got "analysis paralysis" right now, but need to bring in some extra funds due to changes in my work schedule ... and the two assignments I did once about 10 years ago paid me $40 each for evaluating some banks. I don't remember what the name of that company was, boy, I wish I did, now.
3 people like this
6 responses
@Willowlady (10658)
• United States
26 Mar 07
I belong to one of those mystery shopping things and never had a job and as good as my resume is that was not reasonable. I cancelled it.
I will be paying attention to this discussion in hopes to find one that will give me the opportunity to do them justice. Thanks for starting this discussion.
3 people like this
@dancia2007 (551)
• United States
26 Mar 07
Willowlady and other respondents to this post:
I was on a list for a mystery shopping company for some time but never had time to check it out because I was too busy working. I believe they are legit and will sign up in my newer email account that I actually check.
I nearly signed up for Shadowshopper today but held back, once again. I read some things on it, and sometimes it can be mighty hard to get the trial cancelled on that or any other trial one might do. I am a good enough researcher that really if I pay someone for the names of websites, I am being lazy is all. I decided to ask myLot people what is the best to go with, rather than spending money. Glad I did!
While I was waiting for responses to come in on this discussion, I stumbled across a number of important things. One of them is the volition forum. http://www.volition.com/mystery.html. This discusses who pays and who doesn't, and reasons to be satisfied or dissatisfied with each company there. If you want to be a mystery shopper for a company, you can post it there and ask for feedback from others on how it worked for them. Also, there is a list of companies that have been approved by volition.com forum people http://www.volition.com/mystery.asp.
This is a start, and I hope I won't get in trouble for posting links. I see everyone else do it. Volition is a good forum for work at home stuff, and those direct links appear to be really great links for mystery shopping. I only had two assignments when I was out in the boonies but being in a city should be a boon now to this.
Good luck willowlady and everyone!
2 people like this
@smartmom (826)
• United States
6 Apr 07
Thank you for the links. I have signed up for the Voalition newsletter, and I will make sure to check out the cite in detail.
@story3girl (30)
• United States
26 Mar 07
I have shopped for feedback plus with some success. I also signed up for a free membership at shadow shoppers: they charge for them to send you jobs, but with the free membership, they will list your name for schedulers to contact you. This has happened a few times. I also skim the list of jobs their free site has for my area, and try to catch the names of some of the companies to sign up with.
3 people like this
@dancia2007 (551)
• United States
26 Mar 07
Story3girl, thanks so much for the suggestion of the company Feedback Plus. I will check it out on the Volition site and other sites that list MS companies and see what is said about it. See my long post with reference to Volition for helpful information.
2 people like this
@Patswords (189)
• United States
27 Mar 07
Check out my profile and it gives you a link to my web page. My web page has free information on mystery shopping that I have gained over the past five years. I have my Gold Certification from MSPA and get all the work I want to do even though my town only has a population of about 75,000.
There are lots of tips that you can learn from other shoppers to get good jobs and help you to write good concise reports which will make the company happy and cut down on you time spent. Also organization is the key to succesful Mystery Shopping.
Above all don't pay any one for a list or to shop for them. The legitimant companies tell you that they are in no way associated with such companies. Check out my web site. I will be adding more info soon.
I am late seeing your post because it is the end of the month and that is when you get all the jobs with bonuses so that the companies can meet their commitments to their clients. so. I have been very busy.
One other thing Mystery Shopping is like any other new business that you might start. It takes dedication and a while to build it up to the income level you want. But it is worth the effort to be your own boss. The best of luck to you.
@dancia2007 (551)
• United States
27 Mar 07
Wow, and I just ran into your website a day or two before you wrote this, and had put it on my quality list. Good work!
I had almost signed up for Shadowshopper but wanted to wait longer and see what others said about it. The more I dig, the more I think I don't need to pay someone to give me leads, even. Even $5.99 or whatever per month for their work in compiling them, I don't know about that. I can research, I can find things. Sites like yours helped me to keep the courage that I can find the things that are Free to do.
@Patswords (189)
• United States
28 Mar 07
I'm glad you found my web page informative. I will be adding more information as soon as I can get time. I will also have a News Letter with lots of good information. If you have any questions or anything I can help you with please feel free to contact me.
@easymoney75503 (1702)
• United States
26 Mar 07
i signed up with mysteryshoppers.com then i looked through the list they have of companies that use them and signed up with them on my own. there were about 100 of them. it was alot of filling out stuff but i started getting alot of jobs and all of them paid me too. i wish i could still do it but i moved to the sticks and we dont really have many jobs for it here.
@dancia2007 (551)
• United States
26 Mar 07
Thanks for the link. I wish you still could do it too. I came across some good links while I was waiting for the responses to come in on this post.
2 people like this
@arcadian (930)
• United States
26 Mar 07
why didn't I think to ask this? I'm so glad you did. I am posting because i have been trying to find ways to earn money to augment my pay-I use the term loosely-and I am having trouble understanding alot of what advice people are giving on that. Not here though. Ask the right question, you get the good answers. I will check the places mentioned here, and if I come across further information myself, I will share. I hope you'll forgive me for posting without having the feedback on mys. sprs. you requested.
@dancia2007 (551)
• United States
27 Mar 07
Glad to have helped. I think there are so many people doing exactly what we are doing: searching for things that will free them from the rat race (speaking of which, ratracebellion is a good site with legit $ links!). I came across some great Associated Content articles today and spent some time putting them in my profile. I also want to mention if you can write an article of at least 400 words on a useful topic, then there's a way to put extra money in your profit. I got paid again twice today, for a total of three times. See profile for AC join link.
