Hello! I am new to secret shopping and have a few random questions here. I appreciate anyone who can chip in some commentary.

I am in an older demographic and I was wondering if there’s any other seniors out there? I definitely have what it takes to do this job but I was wondering if anyone has ever felt they got turned down for something because of their age? Maybe I’m being a little sensitive because I got turned down for a local restaurant shop that was reimbursing at a pretty good rate. But I also got denied for a simple phone call to an event planner. I can’t even count the number of events I’ve planned in my life lol, that one was a real head scratcher.

My account says I am able to self assign 2 shops. I’m not quite sure what this means. Does this mean I can have two shops where I do not have to wait for someone to approve me? Do you get to the point where you are able to self assign a greater number of shops?

My account says that my shopper score is zero. I have one successful shop under my belt here; it was a phone call to a fitness center that went fabulously well. Got immediate approval for payment on that one so I’m assuming the client was satisfied. I have done one other shop here that did not go well. It was for a Walmart. I must have a crummy Walmart because my store absolutely did not carry many of the items I was supposed to find and that situation went downhill pretty fast. The company kicked it back to me and said I will need to go and find the items. It was very frustrating because the items do not exist at that store so it was a bit of a stalemate. The shop was still sitting on my list of active assignments and I was going to unassigned myself but they wound up taking me off it just by declining me. So in this case, it just seems like I was declined and maybe that whole situation didn’t affect my shoppers score? I was exchanging emails with the scheduler and I politely said I’ll bow out (because I could see it was going nowhere and I honestly didn’t want to spend anymore time on it). You know, cut your losses. Can anyone explain how the shoppers score works? Maybe you need several shops under your belt before you even will get a score?

Im a senior and you should look at the actual shop. Maybe your opinion or knowledge does not fit the shop. I used to do HOT TOPICS. They did not want me to do them but no one in the demo wanted them. Hence I did them and got bonused.

At one point, there was mystery shopping company just for seniors but long gone now. I have been a mystery shopper for over 20 years. Start off slow, follow instructions carefully and you will be fine. Happy shopping!