Teahot

This week, based on comments at moneysavingexpert.com, I signed up with a couple of “mystery shopping” agencies and had my first experience the very next day.

To earn my £5 payment I had to travel into town to a well known cafe chain, buy breakfast and a coffee (I claimed back the food, £4.75) while covertly making a note of the time, tidiness of the cafe, how the staff were dressed and how they served me. Okay, considering how long it took to set up my account, work out how to use the on-line system, read the brief, fill in the on-line questionnaire and scan in my receipt, I doubt this is minimum wage, but a fiver and free food for something you were going to do anyway isn’t too bad. Pleasingly my payments were confirmed the next day and I’m to be paid in about a week (they pay out twice a month, no minimum payment).

I’m signed up to retaileyes.co.uk and baidata.com both of whom come with reasonable reputations.

I really like the idea of getting the odd freebie and a fiver when going out into town on my regular shopping but I also found that reading the assignment brief and accurately assessing the shop’s customer service quite satisfying. Makes a nice change from only complaining when I get appallingly bad service.

NOTE: If you are thinking of trying mystery shopping, take care not to fall for an online scam. I suggest doing a bit of research first to double check they are legitimate as you will have to give them your bank details plus quite a lot of personal identity information (birth date etc.) before you can be assigned any work. It’s also unnecessary to part with any money, so don’t!