I'm really not a legal expert, but here's my understanding of how/why it's ok to take photos or recordings in such situations: If you were just a regular, random customer - the law would apply, and you wouldn't be able to take photos/recordings in those areas (and/or public spaces, recordings of people without their consent, etc). However, in this case, you are performing a task as a contractor, on behalf of an MSP, which was hired by that client to evaluate their facilities/employees. In that capacity, your photos/recordings wouldn't be much different from a security camera footage. The client would have had to give permission to the MSP to take photos/recordings, and this permission then extends to you during a shop. The trick is - not getting caught, since you can't really reveal your identity as a shopper in order to explain why you were taking photos.

Again, this is all just my understanding of things, and there is a chance I could be wrong - so your safest bet would be to check with the MSP.

Hi Maria,

There could be various reasons for that - the MSP might have reduced the number of shops posted, some projects (or parts of projects) can get cancelled, other shoppers may have picked them up as soon as they were launched, or you may have even been restricted from seeing/doing those shops for any reason. The best way to know for sure would be to email the MSP and ask them.

As far as I'm aware - the only MSPA certification related thing that can be reflected in iSS is the video certification - if you have a video certification from MSPA, you can enter the certification number on your Extended Profile on iSecretShop. As for iSS certifications, they only apply to iSS.

Hi Sylvia,

There are only a couple of cases in which the shop payment is reduced, which I have encountered so far.

In one case, the shop consists of two visits to a location - the shopper is supposed to purchase a specific item on the first visit, and then return the item on a different day for a refund. However, it sometimes happens that the item is not available - in that case, there is no second visit, so the shop payment is reduced accordingly.

In another case, if the shop has a payment and a reimbursement, and the report requires a photo of the receipt to be provided (among other photos), and the shopper does not provide it, does not respond to the editor's requests to provide it, etc. - but the MSP still wants to accept the shop, I've seen them approve it with the payment only, and no reimbursement, since they have no way of confirming what the actual expense was.

Lastly, there may be shops (although I haven't encountered them myself) in which the guidelines have very specific requirements, with, for example, some portions of the shop that can be optionally skipped, where it's called out that if some of those portions are not completed, the total payment would be reduced. Again, I haven't seen shops like that, but it's not unimaginable.

Wow that's an amazing shop.

Here's something to help with the confidence to pull it off: Just think to yourself - at the end of the day, the way those people at Lamborghini treat you will have more of an impact on their jobs than they way they treat ANY random millionaire that walks in. So, you go there knowing that you should be treated like royalty. And if they don't treat you like such, just give them the look. You know, look at them like you're gonna buy the entire dealership just so you could fire them :)

I've never heard of these "bids." Is that on the Available Shops page?

You only need to do it once for each Mystery Shopping Provider - it needs to be done in order for you to be able to request/self-assign their shops, and receive payment for doing them.

You're welcome!

Welcome everyone!

That should not affect your ability to get paid for your shops, at all. However, it's important to have accurate info on your profile regardless, so I suggest opening a support ticket to iSecretShop, so your Date of Birth can updated.

The reason shoppers can't update that info themselves is that there were some shoppers who would abuse this functionality, submitting fraudulent/false reports and then changing their date of birth and name constantly to avoid being caught. To counter this, the folks at iSecretShop decided to make it impossible to change the basic info such as name or DOB without uploading an ID photo as proof of the correct information, and/or reaching out via a support ticket.

I hope this helps!