Mystery Shopping Foibles

I have done mystery shopping for a little more than a month, and in some ways the honeymoon is over. I have had a lot of success--I have made about $400 or more during this time. The checks will start coming in next week or the week after, and I will gladly deposit them in my credit union account. I am going to keep on doing mystery shopping as long as it is fun and profitable.

But there have been a few glitches in the past week:

1) A woman from a mystery shopping company called me and asked me to do a couple of bank shops for her. I was excited, because they are easy to do and are good pay. I was supposed to look over the contract and send it back, and then call back the next morning for a quick training. I did all of that, but when I called her back, she told me the job had been assigned to someone else over night. I was astounded, which I think I had a right to be, but I let my astonishment and disappointment show. I think I actually hung up on her (not sure) which is really bad. I couldn't stop myself. I am sure she will never hire me for another shop now.

2) The gas shortage situation was so stressful last week in Nashville that I actually went to the wrong grocery store for a mystery shop. It was the right store, but wrong location. I emailed and apologized and said I had no excuse except the whole city was going crazy, including me, about this gas shortage.

3) I had been hired to do some kind of job. Not sure what to call it, but it wasn't mystery shopping. It might fall under the rubric of merchandising, which mystery shoppers also sometimes do. I was supposed to count the number of certain products in two grocery stores. It sounded like fun and something different, so I agreed. Well, apparently I really stink at this. I counted the way I was told to count, but the scheduler seemed upset and wondered why I hadn't done the job. "But I did the job," I replied in my email. "You can see from my fax." The grocery store didn't carry some of the items, so that might have been part of the confusion. But no more of these kinds of "counting" jobs for me.

Despite these glitches, I am still getting good work. I guess the longer you do it, the easier it gets. And I can use the money, at least until I pay for my cruise and build up my emergency fund. Notice how I put my vacation first!!