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Mystery Shopping

Cinnamon

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The McDonald's lawsuit thread reminded me of this.



Are there any other mystery shoppers out there? For those who may not know what that is, it's a part-time job where you pretend to be a customer and provide a survey to the quality control company that hired you.



I did this in college and it was a so-so job, easy money, flexible schedule. I eventually quit the job but it's something you can pick up whenever you want a few more bucks. To start with, they sent me to various fast food chains and told me what I was to order, whether drive-thru or inside. I got sick of the food and asked them to reassign me to different types of 'shops.' I ended up with gas stations, banks, retail stores. It's not big money, but I made up to $40 per shop.



One of the best shops I did was at Lowes. I was to buy something and return it to see how friendly customer service was. Well, I got to the return desk and here was a manager just tearing some poor kid apart - loudly and very unprofessionally. He was obviously in training and turning red in front of customers with that verbal lashing he was receiving. I memorized the name of the manager (from her tag) and wrote in my survey how horrible she was. Hopefully, she got the same kind of lashing when the higher ups received my survey form.



Are there any other mystery shoppers here or anyone interested in it?



PS - don't be scammed. There are many companies out there who ask you for money up front. No, no - there are some who don't ask you for anything, they pay you for the work you do.
 
Could you please provide some links for us to review? Is this restricted to just the US?
 
I'm not sure if it's restricted to the US. I've been out of the loop for some years and don't know what new companies are reputable. If you want, I can name the company I worked for.



Here's a link to provide more detailed information on the job itself.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_shopping





*edit to add: I just re-read the post here about the McDonald's case where the guy used mystery shoppers as his excuse for gaining weight. That case is from Brazil ... so it's not limited to the US. Sorry I didn't pick up on that the first time around.
 
PS: The best assignment I received was for eyeglasses. I wear them only when I drive and was assigned to go get an eye exam and purchase a pair of glasses. I paid up front for the exam and the glasses, and they reimbursed me 100% plus $10 for gas.
 
Thank you very much for the link you provided Cinnamon.
 
we get that in the uk too....often thought about giving it a go



i do do a market research thing where i use a barcode scanner to do my weekly shopping and once a week dounload the data...........in return i get vouchers for big name shops .........im finding its worth anywhere tween £120/$190 to £240/$380 a year.........might not sound much but its about 10 minutes work a week (i scan as i put the shopping away.....downloading from the scanner takes a few minutes) and it comes in very handy come xmas time
 
This happens at the store I work at. Not sure how regularly it is though either.
 
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