Secret Shopper

This is a great discussion to start cause I have been interested in doing this too! I will have to keep on checking back to see what people post

I do it part time but you'll never become rich you tend to use your own money then wait for reinbursement. The reports can be long and sometimes handwritten at the moment there are lots of shoppers, so fees are getting lower all the time. Often you have to do test shops before a company takes you on and tax is a nightmare some companies employ you while for others you are self employed and you will need to keep good paperwork on what you have done, luckily i do my own accounts then there are excemption certificates if you don't earn enough you'll never get rich thats for certain. You can search online for companies who do it but you do need to be very organised as there are deadlines briefs to read and it can be a lot of work.

My sister-in-law does this type of thing Bel, and seems to do okay too. They live in a small town but that doesn't seem to be any sort of problem, as she works for a few different companies. She gets different jobs quite regularly and sometimes they ask her to go to a nearby town. The thing is that she said she was available to go to other places, other than her own town that is. It means she gets that bit more work and a bit more money. She was telling me recently that they had to go to Dinner at a nice restaurant. In addition to being paid for dining out, she also had to send in the receipt and they would reimburse for the meal. The catch was that they had to pay for the meal first and were told what the entire one meal had to be, although of course the other meal was a personal choice. At the same time she had also had to go to places like Maccas, Pizza Hut and KFC and each time she has had one of them, she has been on a diet. LOL It is hard work but at the same time, not the end of the world and for her it is a bit of a bonus in that she earns a little bit extra money. Generally they give her the notice that she has to shop at a certain place, between certain hours and between certain dates. Then she has so long to forward the report to the company and she is paid fairly soon after that. You have been given a couple of sites that might be suitable, so check them out. Don't be afraid to choose and register with more than one of the sites as this is what my sister-in-law did.

I have done a bit of mystery shopping for the past few years and don't make a llot out of it. It usually pays for the odd pizza or some groceries if you are doing a coles shop. Also there are cars to test drive and that pays abour $50. These are the sites I'm with and they are always looking for new shoppers. Good luck. It is good if you are in a larger scity as there are more places to deal with. www.ciao.com.au (I think thats the site. It is called ciao anyway) and http://www.cheersbusinesssolutions.com.au/ http://www.gapbuster.com.au/ There's also a site that has a lot of company names to choose from http://www.australianfreepaidsurveys.com/mystery_shopper.htm Have fun.

My partner is a secret shopper and gets the jobs from time to time. She is registered with a couple of different places and sometimes it is a long time between assignments. Other times they arrive rather fast and she needs to do them in a hurry, which can be a bit of an inconvenience. She is told where she has to go, that is which shop. What she is to buy or ask for and various other things. Then she has to send in the report to them. Sometimes they will reimburse her for what she has bought and other times, they just pay for the report she has done. She has had to buy things from the fast food outlets, the chemist, supermarkets, dress shops, hardware shops, go to dinner at a pub and another time at a restaurant and so on it goes. She has always had to pay unfront herself for the things that they tell her to buy. So far she has only had to buy a couple of things that we cannot use ourselves, and the payment has more than covered the cost. So, even if she doesn't get the cost of the item refunded, then she has enough profit from it to be worth doing the job. Sometimes she has been paid only $20 and the most she has ever received was $60 but that was a big report.

I've been doing mysteryshopping on and off for a few years now. The best site i've found for Australia is http://www.mysteryshopper.com.au/ ... You sign up [they do require a copy of a drivers licence or something for ID] and just select what suburbs you are able to do ... then when a job becomes available the email you and you just email them back if you can do it [they'll let you know if you are selected]. They give you a varied time to get there ... like they might say between 9am and 1pm which i find handy as it can work around what i'm already doing. From there you get emailed whole stack of questions that you need to fill out and return via email after you've been to the stores. You do need to pay for items but they let you know - sometimes you just have to buy a drink and then when you've completed the task they'll pay you. The most ever i've had to purchase was something that was $20 ... but the payment for the job was $50 so it was well worth it. Good luck!! =)

I've only done it through EMC and that was though a survey. I would be interested in doing more I think they are fun.

In regards to secret shopping it involves a lot of work and time to do this. Yes you need to fit in to their time but some of these you can do it in your own time. I have not done it myself but I have read information on it as I thought about doing this myself. So I think that you had best read up on it to find one suitable for yourself, as everywhere is different.

I have been a mystery shopper for about 4 years now. It is good because you get to choose what jobs you want to do. You really don't get paid a lot for doing them though, but with some you get goods out of it too. Like if you do a supermarket job then you will be asked to by things like fresh food, cleaning goods and maybe a large item and a few items of your choice. You get paid a certain amount for the things you have to buy and then a bit on top extra. If you do a restuarant, they pay for your meal and a bit on top extra. You have to fill out a report on what type of service you got, was the store clean and tidy etc. It is definitely a good job for when you have kids too because you can pick the jobs when they are going to be at school.

I tried Jancyn.com but they never gave me anything to test. I just gave up with it.

I'm currently looking into possibly doing some stuff like this that I found on a website-- so thanks for this post because I'm curious about other people's ideas!