I signed up with shadow shoppers as my firet step into Mystery shopping. I tok advantage of the free membership,Bronze.My first day I made enough to upgrade and I did. I have since signed up with over 150 companies and have became a silver MSPA. I found Volition with the list they have and another great site is "Frugal Mom". All of these are great RESOURCES. I strongly believe in making use of all the resources available even if you have to pay! Shadow shoppers has saved me a lot of time doing research and job searches. I would strongly recommend a beginner to pay a little to make more. I believe in the Credo that you shouldn't have to pay for a job but This isn't a job. You are a independent contracter and it is definitely true that to make money you have to spend money.
You are in business for yourself and Shadow shoppers is just another business expense well worth the cost when used properly as a RESOURCE.
Happy shopping.
By the way I have been doing this for 2 1/2 monthes and am making enough to live on and I live in a small rural town in far west Texas were I have to travel 52 miles to the closest City.

I would like to join shadowshopper but i am scared. Can someone tell me if i should.

Charmaine,

It's all up to you in what you decide to do. I did join, upgraded to silver and got lots of leads in the month of membership. I used it as a starting point in July 2006. You can choose to not continue, which is what I did. I am not longer a member, as now I'm registered with enough companies that I can self assign shops and get emails for job postings. I now make anywhere from $150 (on a month where I can't fit a lot of jobs in) to $350 per month in shops fees and reimbursements. There are months I've received $545 in payments. I probably won't go back to them, but it sure was a great starting point for me.

There are some good posts in here on whether or not to use it, but ultimately, it's your call.

do u really get jobs for people to do many has said shadowshopping a rip off.

I registered with Shadow Shopper last summer. I started with the Bronze Membership and received no jobs. As soon as I upgraded to a paid membership, I got plenty of jobs. I love mystery shopping and Shadow Shopper definitely opened the door. Think of Shadow Shopper as a virtual temporary/employment agency -- each of those has expenses -- overhead (website), employees. Shadow Shopper is a middleman and they partner the company to the shopper. Sometimes I've even gotten scheduler requests from someone who has seen my profile on Shadow Shopper. If Shadow Shopper gives me such good business, I may go for a lifetime membership and skip the year-to-year billing.

I paid 19.99 as an upgrade to silver it was free for the first month and I am happy with this arrangement because they e-mail a lot of companies which led to referrals, as a result I have a lot of contacts.

For me, ShadowShopper is worth the money. I was away for 3 days, and When I got home there were 18 emails from ShadowShopper. Several of these were for merchandiser jobs or appointment setters, and several more were out of my area, (but not by much). Eleven were lagitimate mystery shopping jobs I could do.

If you do not live in a major metropolitin srea, you may be dissipointed.

if shadowshopping such a bad company that you questions about then. tell me a mystery that you get assignment for. and don't have to pay all that i have seen ask for $19.00 to $24.00 to 34.00. show. me ones that are free.

there is a list of about 200 companies on this website and you have to register with them, some may not be in your area, but the only way to find out is register.

We, too joined Shadow Shopper. Everytime they would have a job in our area they would say it was only available for silver or gold members. I wasted my money and so did my friend. She paid the big money and never got one thing in her area.
However I did search every job Shadow Shopper was showing that we could not access and went to the companies myself and signed up with them directly. Then I got some jobs, but not from Shadow Shopper.

If you want bigger money for no money go to www.survey-platinum.com and join them for free. After you join log in and go to the bottom of the page. Click on Data Base and they have 600 companies yu can register with. All Kinds. Pick what you want and sign up with them. I only do Mock Juries, bank audits,focus groups and phone surveys. They pay the bigget money and there is no paper work to enter and no up loads. Last month I put over $1700 in the bank working a couple days a week.

I joined ShadowShopper about three months ago. I took all the certifications online. I also became MSPA silver certified. I filled out the profile and did all the things asked. I WAS FLOODED WITH EMAIL OFFERS AND EVEN RECEIVED PHONE CALLS AT HOME WITH OFFERS. ShadowShopper is a tool for someone who wants to have many shopper assignments. I have been most pleased and signed up for the one year at $99 program Gold program.

It is true that you should never have to pay a company to be a mystery shopper for them. But since there are over 240 such companies with opprtunities out there, ShadowShopper helps me to make myself known. The companies can also look at my profile and see if I have the background for what they need. That's how I got phone calls at home and offers that have been very profitable as well as interesting assignments.

If you are serious about mystery shopping, Shadow Shopper Gold at $99 is a "best buy." If all you are looking for is a quick buck and no investment, then serious professional mystery shopping is probably not your calling. I would not hesitate in recommending ShadowShopper to friends and family who are looking for more exposure and more assignments.

Remember --- ShadowShopper is not a mystery shopping company. It is simply a vehicle used by those companies to find shoppers and shoppers to find assignments. If you do not receive an assignment, it is the MS company who made that choice and not SS. Good luck.

PS -- I am an independent MS contractor and do not work for or have any interest in ShadowShopper other than as a subscriber at the Gold level.

I also signed up Shadowshopper, I got the first 2 weeks free, and my email address was flooded with offers but the minute I paid them and it went through to my credit card, the only thing I got was demos. I dont do demos. So I havent used then since. By the way if your sign up with the silver and gold, cant cancel your membership and get a refund.

I have signed up for one year with Shadow Shopper (silver) and I landed more jobs than you can think up. My cost for that was $99.00. I had a lot of jobs in my area through them and it paid for it self on one of those jobs. I landed a bank survey that paid me $400.00 for 4 days work that only had taken me 2 hours a day. I also landed a price check job that I do once a month for a company. among other jobs,
Now once you land these jobs I would suggest you book mark these companies and the following year you can give up on using Shaddow Shopper.
Now these companies will email you or call you on the phone once you have completed jobs for them in the past. So go ahead and try Shaddow Shopper for at least one year. You can write off the expence on your taxes like I did through H&R Block.

Shadow Shopper is a tool to get you into Mystery Shopping if you do not have any other means of learning about it. Go for the BRONZE - the free trial. You should begin to receive offers. Then as you register with the actual Mystery Shopping companies themselves, you will receive the information directly into your email. I work as a scheduler and utilize Shadow Shopper's base to help find shoppers for specific tasks. I would suggest, however, that anyone who is really interested in doing mystery shopping that they go to the MSPA website which is a group of mystery shopping companies who want to make sure that people are not scammed. Their website is [www.mysteryshop.org] . Sign up there and then sign up with the different companies that they have in their web base. I've been doing mystery shopping since January and I love it. I've received my silver certification and my gold certification through the MSPA. I did pay a small fee for these certifications, but they have opened up a lot of doors for me. But YES, use Shadow Shopper as a tool - but you do not need to invest in getting jobs. Hope this helps...I may be contacting you some day to do a shop for my scheduling company.

I just started checking out mystery shopping.If anyone can give me some advice i would greatly appreciate it.There are so many shopping companies and of course they say everything is free until you really get into the fine print.I also live in a rural area and also am a single parent so bottom line is I really can't afford to pay these companies.Thank you for your time and help.

I signed up for Shadow Shopper when I first became interested in mystery shopping. They did help me very much with getting started and getting my name out there to some mystery shopping and merchandising companies. The only problem I have had with them is that I worked for a merchandising company that contacted me through Shadow Shopper. I performed the job successfully and on time but I did not receive my payment. I contacted the company several times and the company just kept telling me that the payment was coming but it never arrived. I then contacted Shadow Shopper because they were the go-between in this situation and they said they would look into it but they stopped replying to my emails. The merchandising company no longer replies to my emails or returns my phone calls. I have since cancelled my membership with Shadow Shopper since they don't seem to want to help when you run into a problem with a company that they have allowed to use their service to contact shoppers. I am finding lists of companies for free that I paid to get from Shadow Shopper and also thanks to forums like this one, I have obtained other lists also. Overall, I am doing mystery shopping part time and doing pretty well. One bad experience has not turned me off of continuing with doing shops.

I actually signed up for the free trial in order to get points from another rewards program. I had seen things about them before but never took the leap to try it out. Needless to say, I couldn't see the actual listings either but they had a special membership offer to sign up for the silver level for 30 days at a cost of $4.99. I did that, and got several jobs through them, but what I did do also was copy and paste the entire job company directory which they offer to you with your membership. I haven't used it yet because most of the jobs I am interested in have the site name under them and I go and register. My 30 days has expired but I did renew for an extra 3 months, but that will be all I need I think, till I get myself signed up with enough companies to establish myself. *A Word Of Warning!!!-Remember to go into your account settings after signing up for a trial and uncheck the automatic renewal*! Otherwise, I am satisfied that this service got me started, and I have already made much more than my money back.

I too joined Shadowshopper as a bronze member. Got tons of emails, but everyone
of them had no details unless I paid for the silver membership via pay pal and
discovered that they werent even set up for pay pal which they advertise as an
option. They really push paying by credit card. After several days of waiting
for them to accept my pmt. thru paypal I decided to cancel.What's really confusing is the equally good and bad feedback on them. I think better to stay
away from them.

I signed up for the free membership, never paid anything and then got one phone call from a company who contacted me. On the emails that you get from the free membership, some of the companies are listed in the emails. Go to volition.com and those comapnies listed don't charge any fees to work for them.

I joined Shadow Shopper 3 months ago at a Bronze level. Did not receive one offer so, I upgraded to Silver. I receive offers and have applied for some but have never been assigned a shop through them. My membership will be up the end of July and I will not be extending my membership. The shops I have gotten have been through companies that I found for free on my own. People don't be taken in by them. If people don't join, they will have to go to free membership.

I joined them and have not received one offer. this is the second time i joined the first time i received lots of offers. I am letting my amer express take care of them and I am turning them over to the Houston BBB. They are listed with the BBB as an employment agency.

Hi,

I have found that if you sign up for the Bronze membership they will "break down" and offer you a free 7 day Gold membership, take that and make sure you let them know to cancel the membership in the Gold level before the 7 days. You will get all kinds if referals make sure you go to the shipper site and sign up if you think you might be interested. You do not have to take an assignment right away but you will be signed up and will get offers. I did this and got 14 prospects and now I work 9 of them regularly.
You ALWAYS need to remember you are the contractor, they need you, not the other way around. Some of the companies needed to be reminded that they were asking for more than they were paying for. IE: Lots of photos, heavy detail, requests for you to do a non paying reshop, long drives to shop, not compensating for required purchases.
Run you business like a business not a charity.

They sent me jobs the first time I signed up with them, this time they just took my money. But see they have ripped off the wrong person this time.

I realy like Shadowshopper.com...Nuff said!

I paid for Shadow Shopper and I have not been sorry. I got everything I needed to get started and now I have more offers than I have time to take.

I agree that you should not pay to be a mystery shopper. I signed up for their ofree membership but was unable to see a lot of the details of the shops so I paid for the 30 day membership. After I signed up with about 15 companies I did get 3 jobs with one of them but the distance was too much and the money was not worth it for the drive and time it took. I wanted mostly jobs that for grocery stores and resturants. None of those jobs were available in my area. I would have had to travel more than an hour to get those assignments and with gas prices as they are it was not worth it. I think the merchidising jobs are better for the person that can do it but the whole experience was disappointing to me.

I've tried your membership which was supposed to be silver. The price was not $59.99 as you billed my account AAA please correct this error. I will call AAA & conplian & show proof of your ad. Please cancel any further membersip. I was trying it for 1 month. It's not for me. Thanks. My account # 4264296470638419. Thanks for your time & cooperation in this matter. Ann Cavaliere

Ann,

Contact your credit card company. Thats what I did, they took it off of my credit card because shadow shopper never returned their phone calls

I've never heard if this Shadow Shopper company until today. I have been doing Mystery Shopping for many many years...9, to be exact. When I first started this, I read, and took to heart, the message that you should NEVER pay to do any shops. I have stuck with that bit of advice and have done pretty well, considering this is only part-time work, if that much.

I do some casino shops, and would love to do more, but found one site on Volition a few years ago, that said they only hire casino employees...because they are the only ones who can know what a casino expects! Please!? I also worked for a casino last year, and believe me, I knew exactly the same as I did before I started working there...lol...

The problem I am having now is that clients have changed their procedures and requirements, and it is harder to find any jobs with certain MS companies. So, I just go to the list and start researching and joining some companies, and do more internet searches for secret or mystery shopper sites. It is not worth the money to me to pay to have someone send me shops...or not send any as I have read here.

My time is valuable also...but I enjoy researching and finding new companies to apply to, and having the opportunity to shop new and different types of shops. I am a 69 yr old granma who raised our grandson...and also worked outside the home...just this last year was when I worked in the casino, and plan to go back after the Summer is over.

Its my choice, as it is yours, to pay or not to pay to get secret shopper jobs...but I know I was warned about this by experts in the field, even secret shopper sites, who also advise you that you never should pay to shop. Makes sense to me.

Just my opinion.

When I first began mystery shopping, I registered and paid the membership to Shadow Shopper. If I can remember, I think I got one shop through Shadow Shopper. But I do remember that after I registered and was signing up for shops, I realized that if I had to register with the companies before I could get an assignment, then there HAD to be more companies other than what I found through ShadowShopper. The internet is a wonderful thing! Go 'mystery shopping companies' in a search and the number of companies that come up is unbelievable. I never did renew my membership with ShadowShopper. I have registered with 20 companies but I am a regular with SatisfactionServices, ServiceCheck and Beyond Hello. I have a regular Monday through Friday job so I do mystery shops on the weekends.

ShadowShopper - I think it's great for a beginning mystery shopper to get a foot in.