Many mystery shoppers by nature are devoted to the job and will try to make their relationships with mystery shopping providers work despite less than desirable events and details that crop up over the course of the relationship. Not every relationship, however, is meant to work out. Try as you may to make the relationship work, there are times when you simply need to call it quits with one provider and seek out new relationship with other mystery shopping providers. Here are the top three signs it’s time to drop a mystery shopping provider:
You’re Losing Money. You are in mystery shopping to make money, and not to do volunteer work for major corporations. On the surface, a job that pays $15 for your time and efforts may seem like it’s a good deal. However, other factors such as the time and expense of your travel and a required purchase can really eat away at your profits. Other jobs may appear to be paying lower amounts, such as $5 assignment at a grocery store. However, if this assignment is close by with little time and travel expense required, and has a nice expense reimbursement on items you intended to buy anyway, the $5 assignment may be a more profitable venture for you after all. Take time to truly analyze the profitability of all of your assignments, and if you notice a trend with a certain provider that shows you are not making much money for your time and effort, it’s time to move on to greener, more profitable pastures.
You’re Losing Time. In the mystery shopping world, time is money. The more time you spend driving around in your car, typing up reports, corresponding with providers about silly issues, and correcting reports that should have been approved the first time you submitted them, the less money you are making on another assignments. As a mystery shopper, you want to focus your efforts working on assignments with mystery shopping providers who are “user friendly”. You want to be able to knock assignments out with little hassle from the provider. If you have a mystery shopping provider who is a real pain to deal with, and if that pain is costing you valuable time, it is time drop that provider and replace them with a better provider.
No Love Lost. As a mystery shopper, you rarely will get a pat on the back for a job well done. In most cases, the best case scenario is that your report gets accepted as-is, and you get your payment for the work done in a timely manner. However, there are times when mystery shoppers simply feel no love or respect at all. There is really no excuse for a provider to be rude or disrespectful to you, regardless of the circumstances. If you feel that a provider has really been giving you a hard time, regardless of the reason, it is time to move on. There are far too many mystery shopping providers out there who do value your time and efforts, and who will show you the respect you deserve.
Mystery shopping may be a unique job, but it is still a professional job that requires you to look at your relationships from a business standpoint. Consider these aspects of your relationship with your providers on a regular basis to analyze your business relationships.
I did 2 motel shops in July and I have still not been reimbursed.I have written to Support and have not received a response. I invested $160 in these shops not counting gas and food.A company that advertises how reliable they are ,and repitable,leaves me will a bad taste.They say 6 to 8 weeks to get paid which isextreme but we’re going on 4 months with no communication. What can I do before I take legal action?
I have not recieved a job yet from Mystery Shop Maven… it seems to be the only one that isn’t sending me anything.
Thank you. Carolyn Bahosh
I am in a situation also where I did $52 worth of convenience store shops and I have yet to receive payment. I never had a problem with the company in the past and now I have not received my payment five months after I completed the shops. I have contacted the company for the past three months and no one has responded. I do not know what to do to receive my payment.
Mystery Shop Maven is a forum, not a MS company.
Mystery Shopping was fun for me but now it is different. You really do not make enough money and you never can tell when they are going to dislike your work no matter how yu try.
I stopped doing it for a long time because I just could not work for $5.00 and I live in a Rural area and have to travel. In small towns like this one there is not to much to choose from because they have very few stores. I was thinking about getting backinto it I still get emails to do Shopoping Jobs. I hope the prices get better because it was perfect hours for me because I get it done and I can choose what time I can go and do it.
I did some internet product acquisition shops. One company insisted the product be returned within a certain amount of time for the incentive but the company paying me required the trial time to be longer??? I lost time and money. The same company had me submit for information from several businesses on the Internet. The phone calls have not stopped from these companies for over 7 months. It was so bad I had to turn my voicemail off.
Unfortunately, there are certain risks that you take when excepting certain assignments. Any assignment that may cause financial stress should be researched thoroughly. Know when to expect payment. Go so far as to check company solvency. But be wise in whatever you do.
why would a secret shopper com send me 6500.00 and tell me to get it cashed in my bank when infact it was counterfeit,,i have recieved 4 money grams to do the same take my pertion out and send the new money order to someone else
How true it is, when you are treated as if you were senile because of your stated age, or are criticized for minor errors and then paid less.
Kathleen, I have also received those bogus checks. Just out of curiosity, I took one check to the local bank that iT was drawn on. The cashier took a look at the check and sent me to manager. The manager brought up the company’s account which was legitimate. The problem was that the checks had been stolen and the signatures had been forged. Think about it; why would a company take a chance on sending you, someone that they do not know, a check for $6500 and expect you to send them any amount back. The guys had the nerve to call me several days later with an attitude. I told them that I had made a police report because I knew they were scamming. I never received another call or email. IF IT SOUNDS TO GOOD TO BE TRUE!
Beware of a the company Measured Perspectives. I accepted an assignment from them that required me to visit a mall on four (4) different days to audit the foot traffic in a specific area of the mall. The assignment was due at midnight on 10-18. I signed in on 10-18 @ 3:00 p.m. to complete the shop and received a message that the shop had been assigned to someone else. At 11:00 a.m. on the 18th, I received a call from an out of state number but they did not leave a message. When I went to the site to find a phone number for the company, I realized that it was the same number that called at 11:00 a.m. So, I called and the scheduler that answered was very professional. When she repeated my name and info. regarding the shop, someone in the background yelled out, ” I gave the shop to someone else because she did not complete it on time”. I reiterated that the report was not due until midnight. Finally, after I refused to accept that b.s.,because I had done the work, they put the shop back on my log. I ended up receiving a 10 rating and the very next day, they had the audacity to ask me to do another mall audit, which I refused. So just a heads up!
I performed a job for “About Face” Mystery Shopping. My job was to go to the local mall and watch the clerk behind the counter at “Cash For Gold”. I took the requested photos (with my own digitial camera)and completed the report (which was very long) and sent it via email. That night, I received an email from them indicating that the photos were unacceptable, for me to fax them right away if I wanted to get paid for the job ($20.00). I went to the local store who has a fax machine. I had to pay $1.00 for each page and there was a total of 4 pages. A day later, I received an email from them stating that everything was OK. Two days later, I received another email from the same person stating that my report was not acceptable and I would not be paid.
In my opinion, Mystery Shopping is a HUGE rip-off and should be banned by the Labor Board!
Consumer Research Intitution turned out to be costly and time consuming for me. It appears to have good clents and plenty of shops available, however, if you can’t get your reports submitted, you can’t get paid. My first clue should have been when they said they could not use yahoo emails at this time and had to create a seperate email with google. My first assignment was detailed & required a few photos. After being up until 2:00 am still trying to get my report & photos through, I emailed my problems with their web page showing error messages and no capabilities of saving my work. That long report was recreated 3 times because of this. I kept getting automated emails saying I had until noon the next day but I had other shops scheduled the following day, so I tried to reply yet my replying to these emails was to no avail. I finally got through later in the day and sent it because they still wanted my report even though it was late-yet I did not get paid for my time or reimbursed for my purchases.
They require a special download for submitting photos that no other company has needed. I have not had anything like this with any other company. I finally got a shop done with them and decided to give another detailed shop another try. Mistake. I tried submitting this shop that I traveled further for with upfront expenses. I was up until 3 am trying to submit on 2 different computers. I tried this morning on my work computer-no luck. I unassigned myself to any other shops coming up and cut my losses.
Hi
This is good to know so other people will not sign up with these folks. Newbies should not start with a Co like this they will get frustrated and think all is like them. I do want to make sure of the name, because there is another CO.
that pays low but usually has a lot of jobs you said Consumer Research Intitution? I have not seem this Co yet the other one is CRI (Corporate Research International. Thanks for your article Talisa.