NOTE: Please understand this is my opinion. When it is all said and done, it is not worth the effort you have to put in to get paid the miserable low pay the companies are offering you to mystery shop. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who are new to mystery shopping and they will accept the low paying shops. They are not really aware of how much time, effort, cost it takes to complete a shop. The companies want you to complete a profile, thats ok, thats like completing an application. Then you will have many shops emailed to you and then you will have to review the shops and determine if you qualify for a shop. Next you will have to wait to see if they (companies) approve you for the shop. Please keep in mind, some companies want you to view a video, review guidelines, take tests, etc before they even consider you for a shop that probabbly pays $5 – $10. This will also be an additional hour of your time. Please keep in mind some companies, want you to retest every month for job assignments because they will have updates on their guidelines regularly. Next each company have instructions or guidelines that a mystery shopper must follow and per the instructions of the shop, when you complete the shop, there might be certain tools you need to adequately complete a successful shop. For example, digital camera, landline phone, cell phone, scanner, printer, fax, copier, internet access, voice recorder, video recorder, automobile, children, or no children, credit card, debit card, banking account, investment account, etc. The list can continue to grow, I just named a few basics. Please keep in mind that it is taken granted that people have these tools, but keep in mind these tools cost monies. Please note these shops are not paying a lot of money to complete. Know lets look at once you complete a shop, the companies will sell a line and say “its easy to complete online”, this may not be the case. Every companies online system is different. You will have to navigate through there system. Since they want a perfect report, it is recommended that you have microsoft word….Oh by the way, typing the report on their system is suicide because the system can lose the report, the internet can go down, computer can crash, etc. Therefore, you will have to type the report on microsoft word and then transfer it to their system. This process can be time consuming. I can type 65 wpm and this will probably take me about an hour….Please understand I’m experience at this level, before it took me about 2 to 3 hours to complete a report. Now you can do multiple shops in on day and try to earn $100 to $200 a day. But you better believe you will be working your tail off. Which still equates to minimum wage or less and you will be working over a 16 hour work day.

Know I’m going to give you a little bit of my background. I’m a small business owner. Actually, I own a registered investment advisory firm. I have 25 plus years experience in financial analysis, financial reporting, stock, bonds, mutual funds, etc. I opt to do the mystery shopping as a means to earn a little money on the side while we are in this economic crisis. I thought it would allow me the luxury of trying to save my business in this economic crisis and give me spending money to help make ends meets, and provide me with flexibility to jungle the task at hand. Here is my response to this: IT DID NOT HELP….. My top pay was $400 for one month….I worked so hard with this that I realize I spent more hours trying to comply and complete the shop than what the pay was worth. My cost analysis is this, it cost more money to have internet, lights, electricity, ink & paper for printer, than it was worth. Please not, I’m very organized and I don’t care what others say, it is a scam that the schedulers and companies can milk a hard working person to the ground with cheap labor. If mystery shoppers accept low paying shop, they will continue to take advantage of people. I would rather go work at Walmart….at least they pay $10/hr and if I have to work a 40 hr week, at least I’m making 400 per week instead of 400 per month with more working hours.

Good Luck, If anybody knows how to supplement income much easier than mystery shopping please let me know.

Thanks,

mysteryshopperguru@gmail.com

http://www.gfkamerica.com/practice_areas/customer_loyalty/mystery_shopping/index.en.html

I do not know much about mystery shopping but I am very interested. This website helped me to gain a lot of knowledge and excitement about the subject.