Secret Shoppers? Fact or Fiction?

Question

I have read the reviews about secret shoppers, good and bad. I was wondering if anyone out there in Yahoo Answers has tried Secret Shoppers as a source of income and if it pays off....

Answer 1

I can tell you that in most cases, it does not pay.  Most companies will only pay around $10 per visit and in most cases you have to return any goods.  A 30 minute visit can take you up to one hour to get to the store and a further hour to return.  A 30 minute visit will be followed by another 30 minutes doing paperwork.  Therefore, you will earn a whopping $10 for three hours of your time.  Even if you are lucky enough to have a number of visits on the same day, you will only make around $60 in a full day.  This is taxed at the basic rate of tax and you will need to claim any overpayment of taxes back at the end of the year.  Now, we have dealt with "secret (Mystery in the UK) shoppers".  There are another breed of people and these can make a good living.  They are known as Quality Assessors or Quality Auditors.  There are very few and they are select.  They can easily get $30 a visit for a store and up to a couple of hundred dollars for an Airline.  These few people get to travel and assess holidays, in-flight service, even cruises as well as hotels and theme parks etc.  They get regular, all expenses paid holidays and other perks.  To get to that stage can take a few years and you have to be willing to take all the sh*t jobs that nobody else will take, for some time.  If you want to make a bit of holiday money, pocket money etc. this work is fine.  Work hard and be honest, even if your reports could cause people to lose their jobs or force them into being retrained, demoted etc. and you will get a chance at the best work, eventually.  I know of some women that never put bad reports in.  This is dishonest as if there are problems, the client pays good money to discover those problems.  I know of one that even boasted, "I couldn't report him as I felt sorry for him.  He might have a family".  Basically, she said the guy was rude, unprofessional, unpresentable and unhelpful.  Therefore, that person should not be in that job.  This woman explained that if she reported the events that occurred, he "might have lost his job".  That is not the sort of person that should be doing Mystery Shopping.  Not only should the Assistant have lost his job but she should have lost hers as well as she was dishonest.  Have a go at it and see if you like it, it can be fun but be honest with your reports.  Finally, one big downside, you will need a cash reserve for your expenses as your expenses are usually paid with your fees.  It can take close to two months to recover your expenses and be paid.

Answer 2

My wife has done it off and on, for years.

You can make some money, sometimes,  . . . but not a lot. You also can get free meals, but you have to pay for them first, write about it EXTENSIVELY, and then get reimbursed afterwards.

So, it’s mostly for fun, and a little bit of money. You could probably make more money per hour digging aluminum cans out of garbage cans behind fraternity houses.

Answer 3

you have think and start the secrect shoppers

because some problem is there or not there

pls send the email id pls