Is mystery shopping viable?

Erinnire

Keeping seeing this advert popping up on Directgov :

Mystery Shopper

Job description

This is a self employed vacancy. The company has given an assurance that this vacancy enables workers to achieve a wage equivalent to the National Minimum Wage rate. This is an assignment based position with no set hours, assignments are paid between £5 - £15 per job. You will be working on a call off basis. You must have e-mail, internet / telephone access and excellent observational skills.

Duties include visiting shops, cafes and other service environments posing as a real customer, experiencing service offered by staff, completing a questionnaire that we provide to report on the service experience. On occasion, you are allowed to retain the items you enquire about.


Edited out company details.

Basically I need a 16 hours a week job to fit around University, which leaves me evenings, weekends, 1 morning and 1 afternoon and I am struggling to find something to fit that.

I know (more I think!) with Universal Credit coming in that self employed vacancies have to pay you the minimum wage and will no longer be supported by WTC. But I was thinking in the mean time whilst I am looking for something more permanent?

I've not really looked into self employment before, but know you can claim some stuff back in expenses like electric & phone bills etc..
But not sure how that then keeps you above the NMW?

Has anyone done this before?

Thanks

Brassedoff

Be careful with some of those things, you end up actually paying for the goods and services

Savvy_Sue

There's a long thread about Mystery Shopping on the Up your Income board, so I'd take a look there: my concern would be whether or not you can do the shopping at the times you're free, rather than them being fairly prescriptive about you doing it at times to suit them.

JournalGirl

There are people who make a living at it, but not many. I did MS work for quite a few years, but have now packed it in because it wasn't worth the hassle.

When I started, a well known company who was assessing a pub chain would pay something like £40 to £50 spend allowance for a meal for two, plus mileage, parking, printing costs, and a decent fee on top.

These days more and more companies give you a meal allowance that will only cover one person (So you either sit alone looking like a saddo or a mystery shopper, OR you add money to it to take someone else). On top of that they don't pay a fee. THis has implications, firstly you're not actually generating an income, but worse is the tax position. When you get a fee, you pay tax on the fee, and the meal costs is the expenses which were necessary to complete the work. If the 'fee' is the free meal, as many companies position it, then not only have you not generated an income, but the taxman will see the meal as taxable.

Financial jobs tend to pay better (Banks, FSAs etc) and there are a few nice jobs (short break holiday paid for plus a fee)

So if you really want to give it a try, go for it, but be aware of the drawbacks. On a more positive note, the flexibility is quite high. You would usually get quite a wide window in which to complete the job, so would probably fit around your available time.

phill99

I do MS.

You won't generate enough to get a minimum of 16 hours a week. Its very sporadical. i'll do 2 or 3 one week nothing the next, then one the following week. It's on an as and when basis. Normally get £10 to £15 per assignment. I live very close to a regional shopping centre where most of the assignments are based, so it's no hardship to call in on the way home from work or combine it with a shopping trip.

But it is not viable if you are looking to generate a regular and routine income. It's merely a way of generating another small income stream,but nothing more.

Buzby

Agreed - there are no guarantees. If you live in an area well served by MSers you will have to be quick to get it allocated to you. The flp side is you are in an area where there are minimal jobs - even if there are minimal MSers you will struggle to make a minimum wage.

Add to the mix certain jobs will be blocked to you due to age, or sex - so it remains a risk, and one I believe is not worth taking. You will also fight with those who HAVE jobs, and simply want some pin money. You just cannot compete with that!

Christheuke

Has anybody had any experience with MoneySave franchise?