MFJohnston @ Mar 22, 2019 4:52:39 PM
This seems strange. No company wants to reject shops: When they do, they need to seek out another shopper to do them.
You must be new to the world of mystery shopping.
Once they have your report, they can provide it to the client, and then tell YOU that it wasn't done right.
There's a company that specializes in apartment reviews that has been busted for this several times over. One of their defenses is that they also give you a poor rating on a perfect review. I literally have been told that I 'Shopped the wrong targeted leasing agent" when I have screen captures of the original guidelines with her name on it, a copy of her business card, and I even got the woman in question to take a selfie with me!
Cecilia_15004179591972 @ Dec 18, 2018 10:29:45 PM
A lot of people enter their pin number wrong or going to the washrooms. Nothing obvious. But I got some messages now to buy $3.00 of gaz this is obvious and you get paid $4.00 no thank you.
I can do 5+ of these a day, and only have to drive about 10 miles across all the stations.
If I have an empty tank, I buy $5 in gas (because having been a gas station attendant, multiples of 5 are normal, anything else is weird) , use the restroom, take pics, upload pics, answer some yes/no questions, submit. Rinse, lather, and repeat until my tank is full.
I end up filling my tank for $10 out of pocket instead of $25, and get another $20 on top of it. It's not like I don't need gas anyhow.
If you know how to use google maps properly, you can put in all your stops, and move them around so that you have the least amount of driving.
Takes two hours, and I've got $45 worth of value that only cost me $10, so I've made $35 doing something I would have needed to do anyhow.
If you sign up with services like dosh, or any of the fuel rewards programs, you get money back after the fact too.
Best part? Since you're buying gas as part of your job, it's tax deductible.
I've been doing mystery shopping since 1990, when I had to HAND write out information on a survey form and fax it in.
I took a break 4 years ago and started up again in October 2018.
I've made about half a million dollars in mystery shopping in my entire life. I've made almost 30 grand since I started up again.
I've never needed an MSPA certification of any sort. I honestly didn't even know that the MSPA served the evaluators in any way until February of this year, I thought it was only for the shopping companies.
India_15423422221854 @ Mar 4, 2019 8:52:16 PM
Hi all! I just have a quick question. I was told by an MSP scheduler that a certain company that I do shops for all the time "had to watch a video of one of my shops". The email they sent me to tell me this honestly wasn't really nice and made it seem like somehow this was my fault. I have no idea what I could have done wrong,as all I've ever done is fill out the reports honestly and do what I was supposed to do. Does anyone know what could prompt them "having to watch a video of one of my shops?"
I have had restaurants deny I ever visited, saying I was falsifying my report when I made statements like "We were seated at our table by the hostess, and were not greeted by a server for 17 minutes". However, fortunately for me, even when it's not required, I have eye wear spy camera equipment [that can record up to 4 hours] and I always have 1 or 2 voice recorders running on phones at all times. If I'm doing a restaurant shop where I'm supposed to have a guest, I always make my guest run a voice recorder too. I recently did a museum evaluation where I had to have -4- people present, therefore I have 4 audio recordings.
It quickly stops disputes when I send a link to my video capture of me just sitting there looking around waiting for someone, anyone, to show up. It also helps greatly with me doing narratives after I get home, because I can watch my video or listen to my audio and when I'm asked "What was the exact greeting" or other things like that, I don't have to just remember it.
I currently subscribe to the google drive backup cloud service and pay for the 2TB of data option (it's only $10 a month or $100 a year if prepaid) because I backup EVERYTHING on a nightly basis just in case I ever have equipment failure [because it doesn't matter if you spend $50 on a bargain smart phone, or $1500 on a fancy "fruit company" phone, -- you're GOING to have a failure] because with the way some of these companies stall, you might be needing to prove something 2-3 months later.
It's very common that the place you're visiting will DENY what you claim in your evaluations. I once had a car salesman actually swear at me
because I asked for a printed quote. I did an evaluation at the same dealership 2 months later and found out he was no longer employed there. I would say out of 100 evaluations I do, I have to PROVE what I put in my reports 3-5 times. I recently did an apartment evaluation where the leasing agent looked like a prostitute. I didn't use those exact words, but I was asked to give a narrative when I stated "no" to the question "Was the leasing agent dressed professionally?" and I stated 'she looked like she was ready to leave the office and head directly to a nightclub' - The scheduler asked me what I meant by that, so I sent a 10 second excerpt from my video recording.
What is uncommon, and unacceptable, is the reaction you got from the company you were directly working for. I would love to know what mystery shopping company made you feel like you were doing something wrong? These companies should ALL know by now that the locations being shopped are prone to dispute your report. It happens ALL the time.
India_15423422221854 @ Mar 22, 2019 8:41:33 AM
Thanks for the clarification and that's all I ever was; honest in my reports. It turns out that they watched the video because I always shopped one chain of stores (I live in a very small area so almost no jobs are available to me.). At any rate, one of the chain of stores that I shop for I had reported having a more negative exerperience than a previous shopper. They watched the video, which wouldn't have been a problem for me, as I was always 100% honest, but they made me stop being a shopper all together for that chain of stores, "because I had been discovered", so that ended my secret shopping all together. It just doesn't seem right or fair at all to me, as I did nothing wrong, but am being penalized for it anyway.
Thanks so much for your reply....I really appreciate it.
I would also state that with 'such a unique look' - it may be a LOT easier for you to be identified by that store. I've been identified before by a well known "$1 store" but as soon as I shaved my head [not to be a mystery shopper] they no longer recognize me.
Amy_Up_North @ Apr 1, 2019 10:59:26 PM
Hi All,
I'm Amy and I stumbled upon a mystery shopping company in February. I started with a few quick casual dining shops and then accepted an auditor job which led to auditing the other 5 stores in town. I found the MSPA website after that and then signed up with 7 more companies. I'm averaging about 5 shops/audits a week now. I absolutely LOVE doing this! Any tips for organizing when you're working with multiple companies? I have a planner and a calendar so far. Thanks so much!
I orchestrate everything through google drive, google calender, and google maps. I can add my evaluations on into google calendar, and there is a function in the calendar where I can "add a location" [which is a google maps result].
So, lets say for APRIL 10th, I have four different evaluations. When I get up that morning, I can open up google maps, and I will see the pinpoints of the evals I have set for that day.
I can plan out a route with those pinpoints, and even move things around so that they are more convenient. Since the google account is linked to my android phone, tablet, and gmail account on my laptop, any data entry I do through any of these devices is instantly available across all of them.
I can "share" all my media to my google drive account, and when I'm writing a report, I can access all that media on my computer even though I recorded it with my phone or glasses.
THIS IMAGE HERE shows a bunch of blue pinpoints. I DID NOT add them to google maps. They came directly out of my calendar.
I am yet to see any proof that any MSC has submitted a report to a client after having rejected the shopper's report.
I have witnessed this. There's a pretty well known dude from texas that has had this same accusation levied against him dozens of times. I have an email from him saying "well, I submitted it anyway, lets see what happens" after he told me it was unusable. I watch his site to see if the specific evaluation ever got re-posted, and it did not. Yet I was never paid, either. So, either the client changed their mind and didn't have him reassign or they took my "unusable report" and accepted it.
but never one in which there was any evidence that the MSC made the unethical move of trying to get paid for it themselves.
I can say with certainty that it has happened.
Out of thousands of shops I have done, I have had one rejection. And, it was my fault.
So your one unique experience discounts the experiences of many others. GTK
As for your apartment MSC, I have almost certainly shopped for them and have not had that problem.
Since it would be an NDA violation, I can't really provide the proof of who it was. It would also reveal who I am. There's nothing CLOUDY about this information, however.
Providing the documentation publicy to prove this stuff is an NDA agreement violation. You can't post
"I did a toyota test drive at bubba gump toyota for john smith of XYZ mystery shopping and didn't get paid"
There's -3- different instances of breaking the confidentiality agreement there.