Who is this masked shopper?
Thursday 19th June, 2008 - £8,920.19 in debt…
Are you a mystery shopper? Are you fed up of the shopping company you work for? Or are you absolutely crazy about them? Have you tried becoming a mystery shopper without success, having been turned down or frustrated by the application process? Whatever your experience with mystery shopping companies, I want to hear from you.
After learning (from www.moneysavingexpert.com) that mystery shopping is something that people do when they’re trying to pay off their debts, I signed up with a single company to test the waters. This was about three weeks ago and I’ve had three assignments. So far, I haven’t been ‘discovered’, I haven’t been asked to mysteriously shop at an abattoir or brothel, and I haven’t gone mad with power and had anyone fired.
The way it works is:
(1) You sign up on a mystery shopping website.
(2) The site offers you various shopping assignments in your area.
(3) You accept an assignment, carry it out, and then report back.
It can be time- and petrol-consuming, but the trick is not to accept anything too far out of your way.
Most of the jobs seem to pay about £5 to £10, and you’ll be reimbursed for anything you have to spend as part of the assignment (up to a certain budget). It’s not a proper job, and you couldn’t possibly use it to pay the bills, but it’s a bit of extra pocket money and you can end up with some good free stuff.
I’ve started signing up with more companies, after getting advice from this mystery shopping blog. Although I haven’t yet been given any assignments from anyone but Retail Eyes, my complete list of employers is:
Retail Eyes
Quality Eye (these people also recruit for focus groups)
JKS
TNS
GFK
Optimum Contact
Bare International (yes, this is a mystery shopping company. You won’t be required to shop in the nude).
Before long, I’ll be compiling a guide to all these sites and sticking it on this blog. That’s where I need your help.
If you’ve got anything to tell me about your mystery shopping experiences, please email me at OliviaBuck@live.com or post a comment. Are there any sites I’ve missed? Or any I should avoid like the plague? Over to you…
Now Now Grumpypants…
Friday 6th June, 2008 - £8,920.19 in debt…
As I said in my monthly update extravaganza, I’ve discovered Consumer Pulse and it’s turning out to be a nice little pocket-money-spinner.
If you’re after money-making tips, please beware: You can only sign up if you get an invitation in the post. You might say this is rubbish and elitist (is it? …Probably not), but it makes me feel like a VIP so I don’t care what you think.
The site is run by TNS, which is apparently the UK’s leading market information group. “What’s a market information group?” I hear you ask. Well, apparently it’s something that provides “market measurement, analysis, insight and advice to national and multi-national companies”. Right-oh.
Anyway, I don’t really care who runs Consumer Pulse. It gives me money to spend on shiny things.
The set-up is this:
(1) You register
(2) You answer a few questions about your household
(3) You get some points
(4) Whenever you buy stuff, you answer questions about your purchases
(5) You get more points
(6) And what do points mean? Prizes! Yes, you then browse through the vouchers available (for high street shops like Waterstone’s and Next, holidays, restraurant meals, days out, etc), send off for one, and spend it. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Luckily, you can build up points really quickly. Register 20 purchases and you get £10 in vouchers. You also get the equivalent of £5 when you sign up, and more when you update your details. Every step is simple and clearly laid-out, and registering a purchase takes about 30 seconds.
This, along with the fact that I’m not getting paid for two weeks, has encouraged me to budget. If I can restrict myself to buying treats using vouchers from Consumer Pulse, surely I can seriously reduce my outgoings…?
In the style of Spendaholics, I’m giving myself £20 a week for the next two weeks. This is just for day-to-day things – my direct debits will still leave my bank account, but I’ll withdraw £20 today and next Friday, and that will be all my disposable cash.
If I find something I want to buy myself as a treat, I’ll try to cover it with a voucher. If that’s not possible, I won’t buy it.
This is going to be HORRIBLE.
