Community Chat

[Carolm]

Has anyone ever been employed as a Mystery Shopper?  Was it a good experience?

[Annabellethecat66]

I've never been a mystery shopper but I have been (my husband and I and 3 children) people who at at a very nice restaurant and then later filled out a form about our meal, service, etc.

No one knew we were doing it and I don't know how man other people were also doing it.

We could order anything we wanted, paid for it and got reimbursed for everything  (if I remember, at the end of the month) when we submitted the questionnaire.

I think we did it about 3 times a month for maybe 6 months!  

It was a good deal.  It was so long ago I don't remember much about it.  Just the restaurant and a few other things.

[Carolm]

@Annabellethecat66 Sounds like it was a good experience for you and your family.  I wouldn't mind being able to take a friend or family member out for dinner and being reimbursed for it. 

[CLHS68]

I have not but have been on the other end. I wotked in a store & a bank & both places had people come in & rate how well we did our job. We never knew who they were & I do not know if they were compensated but probably were in some way.

[VenturaHighway]

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@Carolm wrote:

Has anyone ever been employed as a Mystery Shopper?  Was it a good experience?

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@CarolmYes, I was for several months at our local grocery store. I was paid $25.00 a week. That was many many years ago but I enjoyed it.

[jannabelle1]

Before I retired I worked in the Marketing department of a bank. We hired a company to do Mystery Shopping at our branches - the company hired the mystery shoppers. Mystery shoppers don't exactly have an easy job. The good ones have to be very fair, take their job seriously and be willing to complete some detailed reviews of their shops. They need to be very conscious of everything around them at the locations they're assigned to shop, e.g., lighting, surroundings, staff, parking, how the staff treats them, etc. The good ones earn their pay - the ones that are looking for easy money don't last long.

[Annabellethecat66]

@Carolm In 2001 lightning hit a tree and bounced and hit our roof.  The roof caught on fire.  Not much burned but the house was badly damaged because the firemen pulled down the ceilings and got everything wet.  Hence, we lived in a hotel for 5 full months!  During that time I had 2 daughters get married (3 months apart), Sept 11 happened.

We could live anywhere we wanted to (insurance paid the full bill).  We got an entirely new kitchen and all upstairs new furniture.  The entire house was repainted and on and on.

Anyway, It cost the insurance company (I think I remember over $250,000.  The hotel alone was $1,000 A WEEK!

I'm mentioning this because we could eat anything we wanted anywhere we wanted to eat, every meal.  Sometimes it was a pain (washing clothes).

You'd be surprised how after awhile you got to where you'd kill for a peanut butter/jelly sandwich and a glass of very cold milk.  There are just some things/foods that a person only likes the way they make it.

I'm not complaining and I actually lost weight (not many junk cookies, etc).  

My husband would pay as we went and at the end of 2 weeks he'd submit the bill (and the receipts) to the gentlemen who was handling our account and he wrote out a check for reimbursement.

My husband kept meticulous records (always did) and there was never any problem.  He owned his own companies so we set up an office in the garage and worked from there every day.  It went pretty quickly.

[henderson]

Yes, I was one for several years, restaurants, grocery stores, retail businesses, etc.  I now do timeshare mystery shopping.  Do not ever pay anyone to become a mystery shopper.  Those are scams.  Legitimate companies do not charge you. 

[chrystaltree]

No but about 30 or 35 years ago; my mom was a "mystery renter".  Racial descrimination in rental housing was rampant and to root it out; they would send two people to a complex to apply for an apartment.  They gave them different names but everything else about the "renters"  was identical.  Income, credit scores, employment.  The mystery renters even dressed in a similar manner.  The only difference was that one was white and one was African American or Hispanic.  I think the goal was for the state to have reliable statistics about descrimination in rental housing.  Prior to that, they only had complaints and anecdotal stories.  My mom never worked a day in her life after she married my dad, so it was quite a shock when she suddenly told us about her "job".  She was paid a small stipend and she did it for about two years.