If you know other mystery shoppers personally and talk to them about their experiences on the job, or if you visit the mystery shopping online forums to hear what others are experiencing in the field, you may hear some pretty mixed results. Some mystery shoppers absolutely love their job and couldn’t be more pleased with how exciting and unique it is while others are ready to throw in the towel and quit. If you personally fall into that latter group of mystery shoppers, the fact is that you may be picking some bad mystery shopping assignments. Here are a few tips to follow to ensure you pick the best assignments possible:
The Money. While mystery shopping is certainly a fun way to spend a few hours, the fact is that most of us are doing this job for the money. If the money isn’t good and you feel like your time and efforts aren’t being well-rewarded, it’s pretty easy to feel jaded about the job very quickly. When you pick out assignments pay attention to all of the components that go into total pay rather than just the base pay. This includes income like base pay, bonus pay, travel reimbursements, and expense reimbursements, as well as job-related expenses like travel costs and the cost of the item you are likely to purchase there. Some assignments will end up netting just a few bucks, some may put you in the hole, and some may be truly lucrative.
The Time. If you have things you’d rather be doing with your time, you can also feel jaded and resentful about the job. This is particularly true if you thought an assignment could be knocked out with just thirty minutes of your time and it ends up taking three times as long to complete. Take a careful look at factors that could contribute to the time it takes to complete the assignment, such as the time of day you are required to complete the assignment, how much traffic you’d have to fight through to make it to the job site location, the assignment requirements, the length of the report, and other such factors.
The Provider. Now if you are unhappy with your job as a mystery shopping assignments, a word does need to be said about the providers you are working with. Not all providers are created equal, and some are a real nightmare to work with. Some providers generally offer lower pay on assignments than others, and some may ask you to constantly make revisions to your reports or may be inflexible in some aspects where others may be more flexible. You can also find other assignments to work on with other providers, so if you aren’t happy with your providers, look elsewhere and see if the grass is greener somewhere else.
Mystery shopping really is a great job that many different people love to do every day, but it is not for everyone. Before you give up and throw in the towel, take time to consider these factors and see if making some adjustments here and there may help you to find a greater level of job satisfaction as a mystery shopper.
Brain lsurance of myster shopper,s wants me to elvauate western unioin, will send me money to make a transfer to some name I do not know yet,hould get 200.00 for doing is this ok to do this?
I have come across quite a few that have been sending me fradulent postal money orders as well as fake checks. I cannnot believe that they just look so real and that you cannot tell the difference in them. I did not get in trouble with these but I had to turn in quite a few to the police as well as some of them just took them and confiscated them and then let me know that they were not real. Beware as I have had at least 5 or 6 of them and they were from some of the companies that I was given a list of by someone else and I just don’t know how people do this where they look so real and you don’t know it until you try to cash it. In answer to jack long, don’t try to cash it, check it out first as I had some of those western union ones and they were the ones that sent me fradulent checks and I want to help you out, it won’t get you anything, you will not get the money. Go and make sure that it is not a fradulent check or money order. Please do yourself that favor and at least find out if it is real. They will let you know whereever you try to cash it, if they will let you, some people won’t even cash them. Donna
I wouldn’t do that shop on checking out Westen Union. Sending you $200. That is definitely a scam. They’ll probably tell you to cash the check and return some money stating they wrote the incorrect amt. That happened with my husband when a guy in “England” wanted to rent our timeshare. Oh my “secretary” wrote it out for expenses plus the rental cost,etc. Please deposit and send the difference to so and so. It went on and on. Bank in SC. Company in another location and the person to send it to in another state. Our bank looked at it (we were not going to deposit) and said to turn it in to the police and/or FBI.
I received one of those checks. It was sent to a deceased parent.
Has anyone shopped the Glass Gallery at Christmas time in the Mall. They have booths all over the east coast?