Yeah, always with the questions...

1) I'm wondering if anybody has heard of anybody making a go of MS while RV & seeing the country. As in, retirees who travel all over and don't go "home" anymore.

2) What experience anyone has had with referring a friend to the various companies that do this, and offer a bonus to the referrer.


THX!

There are certainly a lot of RVers and 'snowbirds' who do mystery shop. I am in a very big 'snowbird' area and available work noticeably declines as they arrive. A couple of my schedulers have gotten the message that if I am not continuing to be awarded shops during 'snowbird season' they will also need to find someone to do them once the snowbirds are gone or pay hefty bonuses for summer work. A number of RVer magazines apparently have articles on shopping as a fun hobby to do when you arrive in a new area and have time on your hands.

There have been many discussions of encouraging friends to shop and most of them end with 'I wish I never had'. You don't really know the work ethic of your friend. You don't really want to be their hand holder and job supplier. You don't really want to lose them as a friend because they got shops rejected for not doing what they were supposed to do and getting mad at you for the money and time they lost.

I have never referred any person for a fee. I find mostly the companies that offer fees are not particularly companies I would refer folks to. I do refer fellow shoppers I have come to know on forums when a scheduler asks if I happen to know someone in ____. These are done after contacting the shopper friend to see if they would be interested. I have found that it works well in improving the relationship with the scheduler and if it works for a fellow shopper, that is a bonus in and of itself.

I have also sent a family member to do a shop I was out of rotation for when a desperate scheduler has called. We quickly get them signed up to shop and I coach them and get them set up to go do it. They get paid through their own shopper registration, I get a grateful scheduler and I get more respect from the family member for what I put up with.

When RVing, I didn't do any MSing because we were already working for the company that publishes the most popular magazines Flash referred to. However, I can easily see that it would be a great way to make some money while on the road.

Had I known at the time how mystery shopping worked, I would have done it in a heartbeat. If you're staying in a rural area where there are fewer available local shoppers, you'd probably be able to pick up some good paying assignments from desperate schedulers. If nothing else, you should be able to get reimbursed for restaurant shops. We ate out a lot when we were on the road since even the nicest RV kitchens leave much to be desired.

I'll be traveling throughout Florida for a project beginning mid-November and ending sometime in January. I fully plan on having as many meals paid for as possible by hitting a few shops here and there. Not RV'ing but somewhat related :-)

I think it's a super idea. As long as you have a PayPal account or direct deposit, why not see the states, have a good time....

RVing can be a great platform for MSing, especially video shopping. that's because the rotation is so long on shops where you have 60-90 minute interactions (Typical of videos.) that one needs to travel to fresh locations to get lots of shops. Just be aware that most campground Internet systems will not support uploading video, so you would have to make arrangements with the MSC to mail in your media cards for them to transcribe. Nearly all are happy to do that.