Become a mystery shopper... official MoneySavingExpert.com discussion

robokoder

Thanks so much Chas!! I'm based in London (which has more of that chain than Manhatten now ) so it's kinda perfect.

Minxtress, I'd advise doing a board search for Mystery Shopping- there's a long thread with lots of links and tips which you should read. I'm a student so I don't do it full-time but as much as I can. Pay is very poor though, but I quite enjoy it and (naturally) free food is a huge bonus.

Chas

minxtress wrote: »

can i ask how you got into mystery shopping? Any companys you could reccomend I apply to? Is it your full time job?
Thanks:beer:

I saw an advert in a magazine, applied, did a test assignment, was accepted & went from there.

Try googling mystery shopping, but make sure you google on google uk or you'll end up with information about American companies.

Try searching 'mystery shopping' on this site - there are loads of threads all about mystery shopping.

If you want to cut out hours of searching go on Ebay and buy an e-book for about £2. All the info is available freely on the internet, depends if you have the time to search.

Don't pay registration fees to any mystery shopping company.

Don't expect to get rich quick.

Be prepared to pay out for good/services & wait several weeks (in some cases) before you are reimbursed.

Have fun & good luck.

hulltiger_2

I get regular work from one of the better paying companies and have regualr visits to Supermarkets, DIY,Book stores etc, to make money though you have to be prepared to travel, I cover Yorkshire, Lincs, and sometimes Derbyshire & the North East. You have to maintain high standards of reports and be flexible & relaible and you can do okay.

D4WNO

NigeWick wrote: »

My personal view is that mystery shopping is now not worthwhile. Have a look at http://mysteryshoppersuk.com for more information. It is a forum for people who are involved.

Nigel.

Thank you for the site NigeWick but it says membership to the forum is now by referral or invite only, doh

NigeWick

D4WNO wrote: »

Thank you for the site NigeWick but it says membership to the forum is now by referral or invite only, doh

Sorry about that. It was quite "open" when I joined it.

Nigel.

hornetgirl

In addition to giving a clear description of what mystery shopping involves and the qualities you need, the post by Becles above is also an excellent illustration of how you need to be able to write.
Her post is clear, well written in grammatically correct English with no spelling mistakes.
If you are able to write to this standard, you shouldn't have trouble writing mystery shopping reports.

destiny_star2006

http://www.ternconsultancy.co.uk/vacancies.html
http://www.smbs.co.uk/shopper_1.htm
http://www.retail-maxim.co.uk/
https://cybershop.gfk.com/Cybershop2Web/Public/Welcome.aspx
Hello kelly
Thank you for your application for Mystery Shopper assignments with
MarketChecker/SMBS.

As we said when you filled out the form, it might be some time before
we have an
assignment suitable for you in your area, but we will keep your
application in our
shopper database and will contact you as soon as we have anything which
appears
to be appropriate.

Kind regards

Ian Sturtivant
SMBS


Dear kelly,Thank you for application your information has been stored on our server. Once we have processed the information we will be in touch.Please note that during busy periods it can take upto two weeks process applications.Retail Maxim.

barbiegirl1

I've been trying to apply to become a mystery shopper on the GAPbuster website. Everytime I finish and press submit the page takes an age, then finally times out and says the page isn't available or may not exist! Has anyone else had this problem or do you know how to help me?!:cool:

kaznelson

barbiegirl1 wrote: »

I've been trying to apply to become a mystery shopper on the GAPbuster website. Everytime I finish and press submit the page takes an age, then finally times out and says the page isn't available or may not exist! Has anyone else had this problem or do you know how to help me?!:cool:

I think there is a problem with the GAP website, I've been trying to log on all afternoon

Quasar

As an allocator for a mystery shopping company, I often have to remind my shoppers that we require lots of comments on our questionnaires. This is where many reports fall short: lack of substantial comments that help us understand the visit.

Another point to bear in mind is that this sort of job as a whole is not as good as it used to be: fees haven't gone up a lot in the last few years and in some cases they have actually dropped. The freebies may or may not make the visits worthwhile, and we (companies in general, I mean) want the reports back soon and fully completed. So the shopper may have to do quite a bit of work for a small return. There is no way around it because the more shoppers there are out there, the more choice companies have and the less they will pay because this field of business is very competitive.

It is not a nice situation, and as a mystery shopper myself as well as an allocator, I do feel I'm working more hours for less money than I did 5 or 6 years ago. But this is how it's going... I don't mean to sound all doom and gloom, but I've seen far too many starry eyed MS newbies who thought they could give up their day job after a month or two. In most cases they can't.