Hi. My name is Chris an I am from Greece and I am amystery shopper -evaluator the last three years at Bare International and at Lagom Int.
How I can find a catalogue with companies that are activated in Greece?

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/2020 01:54PM by ponderplan.

Welcome! This forum is mostly North American shoppers. But, we love to hear about experiences from all over the world !

The problem with small European countries is that the US and international mysteries companies usually subcontract to local marketing companies to do the shops and the employees do them themselves. There are rarely any bonuses. You can offer to Bare whenever they do the green color gas stations a bid to drive and do them but the gas there is so expensive that unless you had another job that brought you that way it is too expensive. The best is if you are young and can island hop in the summer to do the shops they have at the islands like the arch hamburger shop, the Danish jewelry. The shops that are being shopped there are always international chains and usually are seasonal. I know that someone shops Exxon Mobil for the last 40 years in Europe but have no idea who the company is each time. Also all the international hotels are shopped by US based mystery companies and they prefer to give them to their shoppers that do them regularly and once you have done a hotel location you wont be able to do it again for at least 2 years for the European locations. Plus, the corporate office is interested how the hotel caters to wealthy tourists and usually they are not the locals. I actually did the money transfer shop in a couple of islands there because Bare had that summer the account and they paid me $100 per island. But they also offered $10 to do the arch hamburger shop at an island. Not worth it. Another problem is that some shops are being shopped by a different mystery company in the USA than overseas. Finally, in small European countries a local franchisee is the local representative for multiple brands, ie same person owns Dior, Chanel, Hugo Boss, etc so they do not bother to do anything and the revenue for the corporate company is too small as the very wealthy residents for that country will actually go to NY or Paris/London etc to make their purchases because they do not want the local people to know how much they spent. Whereas here Dior the company owns all their stores, shops them every month, and also do various special projects.
Try international service check, HS brands, gapbuster, maritzcx, ipsos (they have 2 websites) and marketforce but make sure you sign up for their international branch. I think ISC will be your best choice to find something.

Mrs Kate thank you for your usefull advices. I want to ask and something else. Lagom Int owes me money from evaluations( they have issued Pay Statement but they did not paid me anything and they do not reply to my e-mail, what can I do?

One of the issues might be that it is a very small and young company and they seem to be subcontractors for regional projects so their office functions might not be as well run. What is their payment policy on when they will pay after the project is submitted? To whom have you sent emails? BTW, albatross is another one that has international shops. Do not spent a lot of your own money for any MS company that is not one of the ones I recommended or in the list on this forum with reputable companies. Small European ones are more sketchy as it is difficult, expensive, and takes forever to get your money if they go under.

@ponderplan wrote:

I want to ask and something else. Lagom Int owes me money from evaluations( they have issued Pay Statement but they did not paid me anything and they do not reply to my e-mail, what can I do?

Personally I stay out of regional subcontractors because if you live in Holland or Greece, where are you going to file a lawsuit in Poland or Ukraine?, and in some of these countries you are not allowed to represent yourself but you have to go through an attorney which requires more money layout by the shopper. But I can understand the dilemma of the residents in these areas as the income sources are scarce and they have to do everything to survive and supplement their income.

I had fronted over $1000 in travel expenses for International Service Check in order to do a bundle of shops but I knew it was a well established major multinational company witha healthy balance sheet and market research is only a part of the company and not their basic source of income where the loss of one major client might doom the company, and definitely not a flight by night outfit, and they paid me earlier than scheduled. I would do the same for Ipsos or Maritz CX. Bare up to $500.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2020 04:01PM by KateH.