Secret shopping - anyone ever done it?

[NuclearNed]

My wife is looking into being a "secret shopper"

This is where a company pays you to go to a store, buy some stuff, and rate the store on different attributes like courtesy of employees, cleanliness, etc. There are tons of companies on the web that do this sort of thing, but I'm a little uneasy about it. It seems to me like a get-rich-quick scam. She read a book that claims that many of these actually are legit.

Has anyone ever done this? Are there any of these companies that you would recommend / avoid? How much money did you make and did you get to keep the stuff you bought? Anything else we need to know?

 

[StageLeft]

I'd do it for fun and heck you can end up with something.

 

[TooOne21]

My friend's sister did that for an Airline. She got like 4 free round trip flights.

Tell me where I can sign up!

 

[FuZoR]

I been secret shopped!! and got a ok rating I knew who it was to... the lady was asking way too many things to be a normal customer lol.

 

[NuclearNed]

This all started with something my Mom got in the mail claiming you could make $7000 a month doing this. Realistically, this isn't going to happen. But we eat out a lot, and if we could get a few of these meals covered by this thing it would be worth it.

 

[LuNoTiCK]

Sounds cool. Try it for a bit see how it is.

 

[crumpet19]

I like to sneak around stores at night.
Sometimes I take things...

 

[nageov3t]

back when I worked Customer Service, I used to do similar things... I'd call up the hotline and pretend to be a hostile customer to see how the agent reacted, and I'd also ride around on our boats and busses (transportation company) to see how the field agents interacted with the customers.

the only point of advice I'd make is not to write stuff out on a clipboard in front of the person you're writing about

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

my parents were secret shoppers for Dominoes back int the 80s.....the pizza was so bad they quit.

 

[allisolm]

This all started with something my Mom got in the mail claiming you could make $7000 a month doing this. Realistically, this isn't going to happen. But we eat out a lot, and if we could get a few of these meals covered by this thing it would be worth it.

I would take that $7000 a month thing with a LARGE grain of salt.

I did several restaurants for one company for a couple of years. Then they lost the contract or the restaurants went to some other method of evaluation. Rats! I had to take one person with and pay my own bill then got reimbursed up to $25 for lunch or $40 for dinner for both of us. We could spend more, but only got that much back. It was fun but you earned the money, having to evaluate all areas of the restaurant from the lighting in the parking lot to the cleanliness of the rest room to the amount of time elapsed between ordering and getting drinks. So, for that particular company, you didn't make any money, but you got to eat for free, which was fine with me. We did Tia's, Ruby Tuesday, American Cafe all locations in town. Company is here. It looks like they are currently doing shops in Michigan and Florida.

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
my parents were secret shoppers for Dominoes back int the 80s.....the pizza was so bad they quit.

haha

They can't even pay people to eat their pizza.

 

[NuclearNed]

allisolm,

Thanks for the information. Did you have any problems getting paid (or any other hassles with the employing company)?

 

[AnyMal]

Originally posted by: crumpet19
I like to sneak around stores at night.
Sometimes I take things...

That's secret shoplifter, not quite the same thing

 

[rh71]

good for people with nothing to do (housewives, etc.) - can't hurt.

 

[dagnytaggart]

My aunt just started doing it yesterday. She has to do 2 trial stores and then they are going to evaluate her on how she did.

 

[NuclearNed]

bump for after lunch crowd.

 

[azazyel]

I remember working at a job where they warned us of secret shoppers but I have never actually been one. One of my friends though does surveys and product testing. It is only on occasion but he usually makes about $50 - $100 trying food, candy even beer once. hmmm beer

 

[minendo]

Originally posted by: FuZoR
I been secret shopped!! and got a ok rating I knew who it was to... the lady was asking way too many things to be a normal customer lol.

I got secret shopped by Intel once. Won a $100 gift certificate for myself and $1000 towards a department party.

 

[ivol07]

I read in Budget Living magazine (which I got for free from Hot Deals) that there are not many legit companies. They said this one was one of the legit places. If any company asks you to pay for anything then they are probably not legit.

 

Originally posted by: AnyMal

Originally posted by: crumpet19
I like to sneak around stores at night.
Sometimes I take things...

That's secret shoplifter, not quite the same thing

Hahah

 

[Fritzo]

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
my parents were secret shoppers for Dominoes back int the 80s.....the pizza was so bad they quit.

haha

They can't even pay people to eat their pizza.

Something about that was on the Simpsons last week (paraphrased):

Chief Wiggum: Uhoh...looks like a motorcyle gang is in town...can't be too careful. :uts a PIZZA sign on top of police lights on squad car::

Partner: But Chief...what if they like pizza?

Chief Wiggum: I got that covered too! :uts Dominos sign on side of car::

heheheh

 

[gistech1978]

i got secret shopped when i worked the drive thru at taco bell in HS.
i got marked off for not 'upselling' those cinnamon crisp things or something.
i hate the process of 'upselling'
me at the drive i thru: 'yeah i want this and this and thats all.'
employee: 'would you like some extreme fajitas or jalapeno poppers with that?'

if someone says thier order and 'thats all'. thats all they want, dammit.

 

[Ness]

Originally posted by: gistech1978
i got secret shopped when i worked the drive thru at taco bell in HS.
i got marked off for not 'upselling' those cinnamon crisp things or something.
i hate the process of 'upselling'
me at the drive i thru: 'yeah i want this and this and thats all.'
employee: 'would you like some extreme fajitas or jalapeno poppers with that?'

if someone says thier order and 'thats all'. thats all they want, dammit.

Agreed. That's one thing that pissed me off about working fast food.


First you ask people if they want to turn the sandwhich into the combo, and then they want you to sucker them into upsizing it? You look like the bad guy and they make a couple extra dollars... whoppdie do.

 

[jjones]

I did a few restaurants for my sister-in-law when she ran that kind of business about 10 years ago. Pretty much identical to what allisolm said. I don't really see how anyone would be making any real money off this kind of thing unless the business has changed dramatically since then.