Forum Alias: 57 Carol
How long have you been Mystery Shopping? About 18 years.
Where are you shopping? The greater Seattle area.
What got you started? I first started mystery shopping about 18 years ago when I answered a small advertisement in the newspaper. I remember it was for the New England shopping company. You had to write to them, because they wanted to see how good your handwriting looked, because, after all, you were going to physically use pen and paper to fill out a form, and mail it into them.
I only did a few assignments, and then took a long break, and started back up again with mystery shopping in spring of 2010, about 3 years ago.
What was your first assignment and how did it go? My first assignment when beginning again was for a family type restaurant. I was pretty nervous about getting all the names, timings, etc. I think it took me about 2 hours to fill the survey out.
What is your favorite type of assignment? My absolute favorite assignment is the check cashing shops, very good pay, very little work. You are in and out in less than 5 minutes. I also like Fred Meyer, because it is a good reimbursement.
What kind of assignment haven’t you tried out yet? I have yet to try out a car dealer. Something about that just scares me. A car dealership is not someplace I feel comfortable at anyway, and the thought of doing a shop there makes it even worse. The times I have made calls to inquire about cars are bad enough, as the follow up calls and emails go on for months afterwards.
What have been some of your more unique assignments? My most unusual shops were to the Humane Society to make sure each dog had its own bowl of clean water, and to a facelift consult, where I was very relieved to find out that I only had “mild aging”, which is the lowest category. (smile)
What’s your #1 tip for other shoppers? Have fun, and to enjoy learning new things. I am not a technical person in the slightest, so getting educated on pixels, and screens and apps, etc., is pretty interesting.
What is your biggest pet peeve with mystery shopping?The length of time to receive payment, and some of the ridiculously small payments that are offered.
What’s your favorite MSC? I have a soft spot in my heart for Bestmark, as that was the first company I signed up with. I do like how quickly CORI pays.
MSPA certification: I am Silver certified.