Mystery Shopper Experiences—Honesty Is The Best Policy

Well, they did it again. I get lots of car dealer-related work from one mystery shopping company scheduler I hooked up with way back. But my pet peeve is that they are the slowest to pay--45 days after the month the shop is done! Yet they are very reliable--usually. I just had to call to check on a payment that was overdue for my December work. I got an apologetic voicemail and a promise that my check would be sent out immediately that day. Fair enough. And they did.

The funny thing was, two weeks later a second check showed up in the mail covering the same assignments. Hmm--what to do? Well, I decided it was best to be honest, so I called the company and left a message about the duplicate check. At the same time, I mentioned that I did have a March oil change shop that would be the exact same amount as the duplicate check, and asked if there any chance I could just keep the check as advance payment for that work? A couple of days later I not only got a phone call saying that as one of their top shoppers they would be glad to let me keep the check as payment for the upcoming shop, I was offered four more shops! It's nice to know honesty and good work are noticed and rewarded!

Do you have an amusing mystery shopper experience or anecdote that you would like to share? You are welcome to submit your own stories, and the best will be published in this blog and feed with full credit given to you. You'll be featured as a "Guest Coach".

Those submissions can be made by e-mail to me at mysteryshopcoach@aol.com. Please include your name, city and state and contact e-mail address with your submission (your e-mail address will not be published and we can either use your first name and last initial or vice-versa).

Have a great day and happy shopping!

“Taking the mystery out of professional mystery shopping”—Melanie Jordan
http://www.mysteryshoppercoach.com

Copyright 2004 Melanie R. Jordan E-Publishing