mystery shopping make money?

Question

Has anybody done mystery shopping and actually got paid for it? Do u get to keep the goods that are purchased during assignments?
Thanks.

Answer 1

Yes indeed. I do that to company which they said hired by Sonny to conduct market research for their product line. They paid me equivalent to US$16.94 for each completed valid report from store to store.

Answer 2

Hi i have done mystery shopping before. Don't listen to the first answer above as that is a huge exaggeration. I have worked for 2 different companies. One was Gapbuster and the other is called CBS i think.

The assignments i were given were one for a grocery store (coles in australia) and for McDonald's. Its not so easy. For the McDonald's job i would have to use the drive thru at a certain time of day and time how long it took to go thru, how they handed me the bag, did they say hello, if not what exactly did they say, look and see if the surrounds were clean and litter free, how did the food look and taste etc. You have to remember a lot. You also have to pay with your own money which is reimbursed along with whatever the pay was. A job like that you will probably make about 10 dollars. You then have to fill out an online survey which is very detailed. Sometimes it will ask you what the name of the person was and what did they look like.

I did mystery shopping for about 3 months. I stopped doing it because they pay is hardly worth it and the surveys got longer and more detailed and i just couldnt be bothered with it. Also it took a while for the mystery shopping company to pay you. They would pay me the month after i did the assignment. And assignments are few and far between. I thought it was hardly worth it.

Answer 3

And now for a real answer...



Yes, mystery shopping does exist. HOWEVER, most of what you see are scams. The people who want mystery shoppers are not going to say - earn $44 in 60 seconds or "I earned over $5000 last month and I did nothing". Why not? Because the companies that want mystery shoppers want you to do a good job and don't want every lazy bum who wants a get rich scheme to go in get free stuff and then not report it properly.



I did mystery dining for a large company in Chicago. I got about $100 of free food at a time, but I had to write up a 12 page report within 24hrs.



If you want to know if it is legit, ask to see a copy of the report and ask about the training. If they say there is no training or worse say the training costs money to do then hang up the phone.



Good Luck

Answer 4

I used to do it. And I did mostly restaurants because it was usually always a decent free meal, even tho it was taxable income.



Sometimes you get to keep the merchandise, sometimes it is part of the shop to return it.



It is fun, but making a lot of money - probably won't happen. But you will make more than the scams/spams that have already replied to your message.

Answer 5

Yeah that's right, they don't pay very well.