Mystery Shopping for Cash: Is it Worth Your Time?

During a recent six month stint in the world of unemployment, I began to seek out new ways to make a little bit of extra money on the internet. I found a mystery shopping Website where you can network with current mystery shoppers as well as find companies to sign up with to receive mystery shopping positions. This site is entirely free and you do not have to create an account to view postings, you only have to register in order to post items yourself. The best part I found about this website was that it has many postings on what companies to work for and which companies to avoid. Since you are a contract worker and many of the companies you will be working for are in different states, non-payment issues are more trouble than they're worth. Trying to recover on a $15 non-payment job isn't worth it when it costs a $150 just to file a complaint in small claims court.

After researching the best companies to work for on the website I eagerly signed up for the ones with the best reviews and my e-mail account started pouring in with offers to mystery shop. The first job I took was mystery shopping a child daycare chain locally. The client was having trouble finding mystery shoppers and thus offered a bonus in order to have the daycare shopped and the review posted online in a certain time period. I visited the daycare center and told the director the appropriate story that the company concocted (which was far fetched considering I don't have a boyfriend, let alone a child) and the tour and meeting of the facilities took approximately an hour. I felt incredibly guilty for the director of the facilities as I felt I was wasting in her time in efforts in making her conduct this phony tour when she could have concentrated her efforts on something more productive. However, I remained composed and submitted my average in length report on the facilities, the director, and what I viewed online. I later received payment for this job within 30 days through PayPal and it was all rather simple.

Since that job I have declined all future offers for a mystery shopping positions for one reason: minus to "bonus" cash incentive they are all so poorly paid it is not worth your time or efforts in conducting them. More than half of the time they expect you to use your own cash to purchase products, and when there are many companies that do not pay it is unsettling to wonder if you will actually be reimbursed for this item. I have been e-mailed various mystery shopping jobs for as little as $4 or $5 dollars. The only one that seemed appealing to me 1.) wasn't located within my area and 2.) I did not need the product that I would have to purchase. The first one was to mystery shop an oil changing facility and they would reimburse you up to $39 dollars, which is a great deal, but unfortunately there were none in my area. The second was mystery shopping Lens Crafters eye care wear, and they would reimburse up to $150, which is fantastic, but, unfortunately, I do not wear glasses. There have even been seemingly ridiculous mystery shopping items that have been proposed to me like sitting through every showing (or at least the first portion of it) and counting how many theatre goers enter a movie theatre for new movie releases. Not only did it require you to purchase tickets with your own money for every single showing, but it paid a mere $10 per show (for a total for maybe as little as $30 depending on the theatre and the film).

I read a housewife on the volition message board that said she makes $800 a month doing mystery shopping, but other than conducting various shops all day I am baffled at how you can make this much when the jobs pay so little. At that rate you may as well just return to regular full time employment. In summary, I would not recommend mystery shipping as an efficient and effective way to bring home a little extra cash or even as a sole means of income if you are a stay at home mother.