Mystery Shopping

tomsocr

Hi all,
Does anybody know any good websites to sign up for mystery shopping. I can't remember the one mentioned on IPTW and was interested in that.

I already know about Retaileyes and GFK.

Any help appreciated.

Cheers Craig

Chas

The company mentioned as a good place to start was Gapbusters.

There is a massive thread all about Mystery Shopping in the 'up your income' section, with links to two previous massive threads & links to various companies.

Search 'mystery shopping' on MSE & you'll find lots of posts all about it.

Search 'mystery shopping UK' on Google & you can spend hours trawling through all the sites.

Alternatively, go on Ebay & buy an ebook for a couple of quid & all the info is there. The same information is free if you have the time to look for it.

Search 'mystery shopping forums' & you'll find a forum dedicated to mystery shopping.

Mystery Shopping is a great way to earn extra money, but it can be hard work & it's not a 'get rich quick' scheme. It can also involve laying out large amounts of money which might not be reimbursed for several weeks, so not suitable for anyone who has cashflow problems.

Finally, don't pay a fee to join a Mystery Shopping company.

Hope this helps & good luck.

Edinburghlass_2

Latest Mystery Shopping thread on Up Your Income is here...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=614705

full-time-mum

I saw this last night but did think that it made it all sound far too easy.

I know that there are people out there who make a lot of money out of Mystery Shopping but there are also a lot of us who only make pocket money.

As far as I can make out, it depends on your area and how many others are after the same jobs. I've probably made nearly £200 this year but it has been very sporadic and there have been so many assignments that I have been pipped at the post for. That doesn't sound too bad but its only 20 assignments. The best paid was £30 for a house valuation but you can obviously only do that one once!!!! I've only managed to book 2 assignements in the same town once during the 2 years I've been doing it. That figure also includes groceries because it was stuff I would have purchased anyway so I think of it as income and doesn't factor in petrol. Some companies pay and some don't.

The article didn't mention the fact that many companies don't offer you assignments but that you have to logon and grab them before others. The lady interviewed said that if you are accurate and quick with your replies then you will get offered the premium jobs - I have seen none of that.

GapBuster was also mentioned as being good and having loads of assingments - not in my experience unless you want to visit MacDonalds or Pizza hut everyday. I find that they also pay very poorly. TNS, the other company mentioned are much better paid with better assignments but there is still the web lottery to get through. (I guess she wasn't about to tell us who the really really good companies are and get more competition for the assignments!!!!) For obvious reasons, there are time limits and conditions on jobs so you can only visit an establishment every 3 months or so and some companies only allow you to visit so many sites so if there are 10 'MyCoffeeShops' in your vicinity, you may only be able to visit 4 in any given week/month/shopping cycle.

Another thing to be aware of is that many of the foody type assignments treat the food as part of the pay. For example, I did a pub visit and the expenses barely covered the meal and the drinks for the two of us. By the time we factored in petrol, we broke even but I didn't make any additional cash. It was fine for us as we had an evening out for free and I don't pay tax or pay for a babysitter so I didn't loose out. The lady interviewed was able to fit things in around her day job so she probably wasn't paying travelling costs to do the jobs although she would have to pay tax. (You must register as self-employed if you work for a company which doesn't pay tax on your behalf. eg: GapBuster.)

I'm not trying to put people off, I quite enjoy the limited assignments I have managed to get but I just wanted to put the other side of the story. The estate agent job was the best one - relatively easy questionaire and I didn't have to go anywhere. Bank jobs are usually easy too. The worst was my first assignment which was at a low end grocery chain and I got paid £3 + £4 towards shopping which was for specified products, no petrol. During the course of the assignment, I had to speak to a minimum of 3 members of staff and get their names and a detailed description (hair/eye colour, height, distinguishing features etc) it nearly put me off the whole idea - I was actually out of pocket.

Give it a go though - just keep out of my patch:D:rolleyes:.