I am leery about trying this because I can't afford to get scammed. I received an email from ascent research associates. Has anyone worked with them that can tell me about them? Thanks

Not right off the top of my head. Generally if someone approaches you it is very likely to be a scam. The exception to that is when you are contacted about a new or new-to-you company by a scheduler or company for whom you are already working or if you have bought an MSPA certification, by a company that is a member of the MSPA.

You cannot be scammed if you are attentive to details: No company with whom you do not have a long term relationship will ever send you a check or anything of value BEFORE you do a job, and even then it usually takes an extraordinary situation and substantial negotiation before they agree to it. Almost all companies have a legitimate website for you to register with them, so emailing private information is rarely if ever necessary (and should never be done by a new shopper). Shops for new shoppers generally pay a fee in the $5-15 range and require the shopper make a small purchase for which they will be reimbursed (generally $1-5).

A common thread of scams is that you go purchase an item over $100 at Walmart and/or Home Depot to keep and then wire transfer money away by Western Union. They send you a check to do all of this, but the check is bogus and simply a way to part the sucker from their own money which they wire transferred off to the con artist.

Would you send money at random to folks hoping they would do something for you? Why would someone do that to you?

The way to avoid scams is being proactive. There is a list of legitimate companies here. Proactively look through the forum for shopper experience with them. Are they paying as scheduled? Are they being difficult to deal with? Then sign up with those who seem interesting to you and check their job boards for available work in your area.

Mystery shopping can be good for you or bad for you depending on your situation. If you are out of a job, this can be a good way for you to get something to say on your job application other than "out of work for ___ months". The problem is the pay generally is bad. In many cases, most of what you get is "benefits" like a free meal or a free oil change for your car. Pay can be as low as $5 a shop and this rate can be more common than the $25 shops. And companies can take a month or more to reimburse and/or pay you. This can be a problem if you need money now. Also, you need a computer with a scanner/printer attached to it. And a working car that you don't mind driving all over creation.
What this means is that if you are really desperate for cash, you might as well not bother with this job opp, It's likely to be a real dud for you. But if you are in a more financially stable situation, (lets say your husband works and you just need extra money), mystery shopping can be a fun way to get it while you're waiting for that better paying job to show up.

Stay away from all credit card applications. You will be told a "soft" hit will not make a notation on your credit. NOT SO, all hits are noticed.

I would like to let people who are new to this work which companies to stay away from.

Get in touch with me if interested. Email: Nypartycrasher@aol.com

How about just share them in the forum. It really is no secret who the companies to absolutely stay away from because they are not paying without begging for what you have earned. Otherwise it is mostly a matter of opinion and those are readily shared here. You may have a 'worst company' that someone else will have no issues with because they have a different scheduler, editor or see different shops in their area entirely.

Flash: Anyway to develop a rating system?

It has been tried a few times with rather amusing results. So much of it is subjective. I have 3 companies I would accept jobs from even if they failed to post the fee because I trust them so implicitly to be fair and easy to work with. Yet other shoppers hate them, find them ever so picky and seem to have no end of problems with them. There are two companies I can think of right off that other shoppers find to be the cat's meow that I will NEVER work for again because they are, in my opinion, the royalty of rip off and never ending idiocy. Thus when a rating system was tried a few years ago, it was not at all surprising to me to find that my favorite companies were not to be found and the companies whose emails I routinely delete without opening were at the top of the list. My company for whom I perform the most jobs per year never shows up on anybody's list of good or bad, the company that makes me the most money per year similarly never shows up on anybody's list. So what objective criteria could be brought to construction of a rating system?

Flash: That may very well be the case. However, if a proper matrix is developed and if the voting population is large the results would be pretty accurate. Anecdotal evidence or one person's experience would always skew the results.

Like the way Nypartycrasher responded! My guess is there was no real issue after all!

Unfortunately I do not see Measure Customer (consumer) Perspective listed. Is this company really legitimate or has my shopping with them been in vain??

Roberta Beard Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Unfortunately I do not see Measure Customer
> (consumer) Perspective listed. Is this company
> really legitimate or has my shopping with them
> been in vain??


I am assuming this is just an oversite as they are a legit MSC and I have done work for them recently and been paid.

Thanks Brak. I am so glad to hear that, because I have really enjoyed doing shops Measurecp's shops.

Ive read some of the posts on here about how people make money from mystery shopping trust me they are scammers and most of these posts saying how much money you can make and how great these companies are, are the scammers themselves making the posts. Dont get caught up. If it sounds too good to be true, it is. NO LIGIT company that you never heard of before or they never heard of you is going to send you money right up front before you even do your shopping. Dont let your desperation for money/quick job get the best of you. Oh and they do go under alot of different company names.

DeeJaie before you atart making these unfounded statemants you need to check out the facts first. There are over 250 MSC that you can work for and they don't use scam to get you to work for them. You fill out an application, agree nto to give away the companies clients and do the shop by the guidelines and you will get paid usually in 30 days or at the worst 60 days. The companies you are talking about arenot the ones listed here we tell other shoppers to watch out for the SCAMMERS and what to do if you receive money orders or checks from them. SO PLEASE QUIT DOWNING THE LEGITAMENT MYSTERY SHOPPING COMPANIES.

Deejaie, if there was not legitimate mystery shopping out there and available, there would be no potential for scammers to represent their scams as indeed being secret shopping. Unfortunately the scammers use the names of legitimate companies sometimes for their frauds, and indeed this forum is full of warnings that when you receive money up front before you do the work, it's likely to be a scam. You can earn a decent amount of money in this business by doing lots of jobs. And personally I resent enormously being categorized by someone who obviously has not done their homework as being a scammer.

Deejaie - You are wrong when you state people do not make money mystery shopping. Certainly, we make money mystery shopping. There are a lot of good companies. It is true there are scammers, but it is not true that nobody makes money or that the whole business is a scam. It sounds like you had a bad experience, and I regret that. However, that does not mean you can't get signed up with some good companies and make some money in this business. It takes effort and organization, along with a lot of hard work, but it can be done.

Lottttttttttssssssssssss of hard work is involved getting started and continued hard worl to build your business. None of us that make our living mystery shopping had an easy time of it. I've ridden on some coat tails os some of those seasoned shoppers who have posted to this forum, giving tips and advice, thus am obligated to do the same for those following us in this field. As every newcomer finding their way to this forum is told....read,read,read,read and the read some more. Read about our bad experiences and our good ones, or funny ones and our scary ones and about the easy shops and the very,very frustrating ones. No job in the world is all good. Ours is riddled with special pitfalls created by scammers and MSCs that pay slow or editors that are unreasonable. New shoppers have us to fall back on for encouragement and mentoring. Usde the forum for a valuable, treasured resource and add to that the elbow grease necessary to get anything worth while up and running.

If you just want to eat out once in a while and get reimbursed for it, you can do that without much effort, but you'll have to dig to find the MSCs that do your restaurants. If you want real income for your household, it won't be easy. Those of us that do this "full time" have paid our dues with sleepless nights getting reports written on time, fighting with MSC's for our pay, scouring the job boards to create routes, answering emails and arguing with unreasonable editors.

I've been doing this for over three years now and make good money when I'm able to work that tides me over during chronic illness when I'm unable to work. And by the way, I still read the forum every day to gain insight and wisdom and to respond to newbies or anyone who needs help. Passing it forward is a requirement in my book. It always pays off.

Blessings to Yah!

Deejaie, I for one am a MS and have been for over 25 years, which the majority of the time I was only doing it once in a while. But since I lost my job 9 years ago because of a work-related issue, I have been doing it regularly to help supplement my income. True some of the companies pay minimal at best, but I don't complain about because I usually get a "free" meal out of it or a "free" coffee, which I normally would not have been able to do with the amount of money I receive being on disability, and their reports are quick and easy. I'll lump several of them in one trip and it saves me gas, wear-and-tear on my car, and keeps me from having to cook.

Don't knock something that others enjoy doing and, like some of the posts state, you can make money from with time, organization and energy put into it.

Deejai,
If you persist in insulting the people who post here, it will be clear that you are nothing but a troll. The folks who post here are serious about what we do, and we do not foster anyone's illusions that this is an easy way to make money.

Put up or shut up.

You need to open your mind, so you got scammed once, your fault for not doing your reserch before cashing the check (if you did). The sites we work on tells us how to avoid scams, there is so much information on this, do your homework. We do not get paid before doing the work, we do the evaluations, send in our receipts and get back our reimbursements and fee. This is a thriving business. We work, make money and your post does nothing but put a whole industry down....grow up girl!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/11/2011 03:36PM by Irene_L.A..

I would like to know what to do when a scheduler continues to give wrong information and also declines a pay because she couldn't get caught up on her emails. I have a large issue going right now. I won't mention the company here as I think this is a personal issue. Should I write directly to the home office? I did this once but no one has answered me. We are out there and they don't know who we are but in the same token we don't know them either. I try very hard to get my work done in a timely manner and this irks me when I have a scheduler that won't bend. My answer is to not take work from her anymore. That's simple but she won't pay for a couple of jobs. First she said she would pay but then, I assume, to cover her butt she has declined my pay.

Not knowing really what the situation is (you have hinted but not been specific), if she failed to get back to you in a timely fashion in response to a question and therefore you did not get a report in on time, that one usually bites the shopper. The problem with that is that the shoper becomes the 'flake' as far as the company is concerned where the real flakiness is the scheduler. Sometimes you can't win for losing. Where schedulers are not responsive, if they are outside schedulers I have sometimes contacted the company. Where they are inside schedulers you are just banging your head against the wall. In either case, if the report was not submitted in a timely fashion you may not have a leg to stand on.

Overall I find that when a company and its schedulers (either inside or outside) can't work well as colleagues with me to get the work done, I need to find another company to work with.

Because many companies have chosen to use outside schedulers, if I cannot self assign or request the job directly from the company's website I will not play. There are just too many issues with intermediates.

GrandGran Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I would like to know what to do when a scheduler
> continues to give wrong information and also
> declines a pay because she couldn't get caught up
> on her emails. I have a large issue going right
> now. I won't mention the company here as I think
> this is a personal issue. Should I write directly
> to the home office? I did this once but no one has
> answered me. We are out there and they don't know
> who we are but in the same token we don't know
> them either. I try very hard to get my work done
> in a timely manner and this irks me when I have a
> scheduler that won't bend. My answer is to not
> take work from her anymore. That's simple but she
> won't pay for a couple of jobs. First she said
> she would pay but then, I assume, to cover her
> butt she has declined my pay.


The scheduler is a dead end. You aren't getting paid. My next step would be to escalate the issue. As a professional courtesy, I would notify the scheduler of my intention. If you don't know the hierarchy, it may take some digging to get a name. I would press on until I got paid - or realized the relationship was over.

Thanks for the list of shops and the comments made by other shoppers. This info is very helpful, as I just got started in Mystery Shopping. I wonder if anyone is signed up with Shadow Shopper? I paid a small fee to get a certain status, which is supposed to bring me more shopping opportunities. If I choose to renew this status, after 30 days, I will have to pay about $25.00. I'm not sure I did the right thing.

I would cancel it before your trial period runs out. If you wait until the last few days, it will be too late and your credit card will already have been hit with the non-refundable charges. I'm surprised at the $25 because most folks who don't get cancelled in time get whacked with $99 for a year's subscription.

I have been a mystery shopper and i have done 3 assignments. So far so good.And its a good learning accperience.

They need because in the US if you make over 600 in a year tey must send you a 1099. You keep track of the legit expenses and run it as a business. Make 10 spend 9 in legit expenses.

Don in Vegas


SusanB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This is AWESOME thank you so much. I am just
> starting MS (have done 4) in the last month and
> haven't been paid yet. Do they all want your SSI#
> and bank account numbers? I would rather not
> provide those items until I have the job. This is
> the only thing I'm not crazy about because ID
> theft.

Hi---I had a terrible job with Trendsource. They paid only $17 to start. This job was horrible. It took $5 in gas to get to the car dealership. I spent at least 35 minutes in there. When I got home I had to fill out a detailed questionaire in which I critiqued it every three questions. It took well over two and one halfhours. There were more than 100 questions. HORRIBLE!


-------------------------------------------------------
> Has anyone shopped for Pacific Research?
> One of their clients is Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. I
> signed up and because I really don't care for KK I
> wasn't going to do the jobs. They called me and
> talked me into it and even offered me a bonus for
> the driving distance. The report is 114 questions
> long and requires detail comments for any no
> answer, plus 21-30 photographs.
> The first assignment I did took me around 2 hours
> to complete on site with another hour at least
> submitting the report online and photographs. My
> pay was to be $30 plus $10.71 for the required
> purchase. My total invoice $40.71. It takes 6-8
> weeks to be paid.
> I checked the online status of my invoice and they
> have deducted points for the report and have
> reduced my pay to a total of $23.71.
> I shopped for them again in July but that report
> is still in editing so no telling what they will
> do to it.
> I submitted photographs required plus every NO
> response photograph and then one month later they
> deduct from what they owe me.
> I would NOT recommend anyone shop for Pacific
> Research.

Can anyone suggest good companies to work for that offer shops in Canada? Particularly Vancouver BC?