Mystery Shopper

[LuLu Rogers]

Legit or just another scam to get your money?

[Zoneboy]

Depends on who is doing the hiring. Some companies hire their own and others do so through an outside agency. If any of them ask for money up front then it's probably a scam. Mystery shoppers are hired to evaluate places such as restaurants, grocery stores, etc... They're usually reimbursed for their purchases plus paid a fee of some sort.

[BarneyFife]

Legit or just another scam to get your money?

I've did Mystery shopping a few times in the past. Most jobs are really not worth the time. I did luck up once and got 5 Dollar General Stores to Mystery Shop. I thought I would give it a try an accepted one store at $8. They sent me an email saying if I agreed to take more stores they would pay me $25 each per store, so I jumped on that. They were having problems getting people to do them and were running out of time on the deadline to get the stores done, so thats why they offered me more money for more store I did. So I went and did all five store in one day and made $125. It took about 5 or 6 weeks to get my check but I did get payed for it. I went into each store and made sure it was clean and that they had certain merchandise on the floor for customers to buy. I think it was like 30 items in all that i had to check for. the first store I did that day, because I was new at doing this work, took me about 40 minutes to find evey item and mark off of my check list. But as i did each store it got easier and alot quicker to do. I think the last store I did that day i was only in there for 10 minutes or so. I also did a couple of Sonic Restaurants as well. There was alot more to check for at sonic, and the pay was only $5, but i got my meal for free.
There are companies that charge you a fee to find you Companies in you're area that will pay you to Mystery Shop for them, but do not pay any fee. There is a web site called "It's Free. com", that will hook you up with alot of Mystery shop Companies and you don't have to pay one single dime to join. All you have to do is sign up for each company to get started.
One more thing about this type of work is if you don't do what they tell you to do when you Mystery Shop a store, they wil not pay you, so you decided to do this, make sure you do an accurate job.

[InspectorExstead]

like zoneboy said, it depends on who you're working for. and beware of those companies who ask you for money. secret shopping could be a lot of fun, especially if you evaluate a food or drink place. focus groups are another great way to make money in a day. they don't contact you on a regular basis, but when they do, you can make some good money in one day.

[Brieannas21]

I tried it after I graduated college, it just doesn't pay enough. But I ate out at different restaurants for free :lol:

[Jude The Obscure]

I've done it for over 11 years......lots of good companies, but you have to be smart and don't EVER pay to be a mystery shopper! However with gas prices sky high, the industry will either have to cough up higher fees or continue to face the lack of shoppers who refuse to work for small fees. If the shops are in your hometown, that's one thing.......when they are in other towns more than 20 miles from you, don't do a job until bonus money is offered to pay back for the gas!

[LuLu Rogers]

I've done it for over 11 years......lots of good companies, but you have to be smart and don't EVER pay to be a mystery shopper! However with gas prices sky high, the industry will either have to cough up higher fees or continue to face the lack of shoppers who refuse to work for small fees. If the shops are in your hometown, that's one thing.......when they are in other towns more than 20 miles from you, don't do a job until bonus money is offered to pay back for the gas!


How did you get started?

[BarneyFife]

How did you get started?
LuLu, Type in "It's Free! Home" in google search. It's a free to join site and it will tell you all you need to know about Mystery Shopping. It has dozens of Companies you can sign up for, all for free. Just sign up with as many companies as you like, and you"ll start recieving emails about jobs very soon. You don't have to except any job, just pick the ones you might be interested in and that is near your home. You want get excepted for every job you sign up for, but they will send you an email if you do with the details about the job they chose you for.

[ponytail]

My mom wanted to try Mystery Shopping but one company wanted her bank account so they can put the money she earned in her account. She said no.

[BarneyFife]

My mom wanted to try Mystery Shopping but one company wanted her bank account so they can put the money she earned in her account. She said no.
My friend tried Mystery Shopping back in 06 to pick up a few extra dollare and she gave a couple of the Companies her Bank account Info and had no problem with it. Whenever she was paid for a job it went straight into her Bank Account. She had no problems what so ever. All it is is Direct Deposit, instead of waiting for weeks to get you're money in snail mail, it will go into you're Bank Account in half that time or less. But I can see why some people would be scared to give they're account info out, you just don't know who to trust these days.
All the MS Companies on the website, "It's Free.com" have been checked out and are legit, and you will have no problems giving then you're Account Info.

[Jude The Obscure]

How did you get started?


I actually got started the old fashioned way.....met another shopper and they gave me a list of companies, to which I all sent handwritten letters! This was before the big internet explosion, which makes the process a whole lot simpler.

[KissMyGrits]

I've done "mystery" shopping for about 9 years. Never paid to get leads. There are plenty of places online that you can sign up for free. I've gotten free dinners from Outback. Money for just going into a grocery store and seeing how the service is and free oil changes.

I will never sign up with a company that wants me to "pay" them for leads. To me that's a scam when I can do it myself for free online.....