Mystery Shopper is a bitch

[Lace Neil Singer]

If I was going to be a mystery shopper, I'd approach someone who wasn't busy to ask for help; plus while going thru checkouts, I'd act normal and neutral so that the cashier would feel comfortable talking to me. In my opinion, any shopper who breaks these rules should be fired with prejudice and never allowed to mystery shop again.

[LadyAndreca]

My store gets mystery shopped fairly regularly. We usually get failed on the very last item on their list - "cashier offers store card". Any cashier that DOESN'T fail that part gets a free soda and candy bar (sometimes a $5 gift card) when we get the report.

The one I got was pretty quiet, no-nonsense. She wasn't chatty, but she wasn't unapproachable either. And when my manager found out we'd passed the shop, she nearly RAN to my register to see who it'd been, because we hadn't passed at the check lanes in months. (I was a backup cashier that day...guest service was slow but the check lanes were busy so I'd hopped on.)

[KellyHabersham]

I never dealt with a mystery shopper while I was at Macy's, but one of my then-coworkers had a nasty encounter with one. I wasn't working that day and don't remember exactly what I was told happened, but apparently this woman went off on "Deena" for being "rude and unhelpful" (she was NOT that kind of person), and made comments along the lines of "Do you know who I am? - I'm a mystery shopper from the corporate offices."
Unfortunately, it did turn out that this woman was what she claimed to be, and it was probably one of the things which influenced Deena's decision to leave the job not long afterwards.

[Nekojin]

...apparently this woman went off on "Deena" for being "rude and unhelpful" (she was NOT that kind of person), and made comments along the lines of "Do you know who I am? - I'm a mystery shopper from the corporate offices."

This is a large part of the reason that many companies now hire outside companies to do the mystery shopping. If a mystery shopper is doing their job right, you shouldn't be able to remember them from the crowd of customers you had, regardless of whether it's a Perfect Shop or the place is a total wreck and nobody's doing their job right.

[KellyHabersham]

Well, from what I understand, the mystery shopper was acting like any other customer......said "Thanks, but I'm just looking for now" when Deena greeted her/asked if she needed help with anything. Then a customer came up who wanted to look at something in a display case, when Deena was finished with that transaction, she checked back in with the mystery shopper.....who greeted her with "Oh, I'm so glad you're here - that other lady in this department was really rude." Then when Deena explained that she was the only one in the department at that time, that's when the mystery shopper started going off on her.

[TryNotToBeThatOne]

Whenever someone mentions secret shoppers I snicker, because I remember when BF worked at Taco ***L and the reports that they got.

'Mike on the drive through was rude.'
'The parking lot was a mess and all the trash cans were overflowing
etc'

No one by that name worked in the store & never had (for the past 5 years at least). The TB in question was an odd one, not in a mall but not precisely freestanding either. It was in a shopfront in a row of shops. Not only was there not a parking lot (unless you count the 2 spaces hidden in an alley behind the store), there's a town ordinance against drive-through windows, except for banks (& grandfathered locations).

Every time they got one of those reports the SM had to call corporate and explain the situation again. And again. And again. And again.

[DesignFox]

Because of the nature of our business, it was always soooo obvious who the shoppers were.

I always knew about 2 mins into the conversation that I was being shopped and acted accordingly.

Talk about pointless.

[Bella_Vixen]

The most memorable Secret Shopper story is a good one.

As far as I remember, we passed...but barely.

Among the points made:

--no one helped at the bakery counter. Ummm, it is a self serve counter, but the friendly cashiers will be willing to help you with any question/comment/concern.

--sidewalks were dirty. No they weren't. I'm the one that cleaned them.

--popcorn/fountain soda area was messy. I'll give them this one.

--cashier wasn't wearing a nametag. Maybe.

And the kicker:

--they described aforementioned cashier as being blond haired. Small problem. NONE of us are blond. A couple MIGHT be described as such, but they most definately were NOT working at the time.

Nice try.

Everyone, including the DM thought it was funny.

[JLRodgers]

Based on everyone's comments here it sure seems that mystery shoppers spend less time in a store than a normal customer -- or at the least sure don't do their job or pay attention! Sad to think they all get paid (they do right?)

Commenting on drive throughs when the place doesn't have one and all the other stuff that's obvious that they couldn't.

[anotherroundplease]

I am... a mystery shopper. It's not a full time thing, just every once in a while go to a restaurant/store and check it out. I don't get paid per se, but the item/meal is reimbursed to me after my report is done.

I love doing it, because my regular job is being a waitress. I have always tried to go easy on them, because karma is an even bigger bitch than me. I gave bad marks once, but he did deserve it (another waitress apologized for him while we were still there, can't go back to that store). As long as you try and do your job, I'll be nice when I do mine.

If I went in acting like a SC, I'd also expect to be treated like one.

[real people person]

I also do mystery shopping. I would never lie on a shop, exactly because it's too easy to check with cameras, duh. I noticed on of the places i frequently shop has several "100% mystery shop" plaques on the wall, so i guess i'm nice to them? but it's rare that i have bad service, or slow service. i felt really bad once because a certain service station ( rhymes with i won't go) has me reveal and give out certificates that either say "100%" and come with a $10 reward, or a certificate that sez basically, " you could have gotten a bonus if you'd done everything right" bleh.

I've pretty much stopped doing shops because of the high gas prices, but i'll take them if they are really close to my house. last month i made $120 doing a theme park credit card booth-they reimbursed me entry and parking even though i told them i have a season pass/parking pass. because it was in the budget. yay!

[Mordecai]

I don't really hate them, but I know some co-workers who've been f-cked over a few times. One of them was marked down because she didn't suggest an upsell for the MSs' drink. The problem? She didn't order one.

[tropicsgoddess]

My mom's cousin R is younger than my mom and he started going gray pretty early. I haven't seen him in a while, but I can bet that he does have way more than he did before. I've yet to see a mystery shopper or have any experiences with one and if I do, I'll pray that person isn't an ass.

[sld72382]

When I worked at Staples, the only time I seemed to fail the mystery shop was just before it came to to ask for a raise. Convenient huh?

Oh, and I noticed one thing about the mystery shoppers: They never seem to come in when you're slow or dead. They always seem to come in when you're swamped.
According to a manager, they want to see if you're going to perform the same when you're busy as when you're slow, when you're more than likely going to spend extra time with the customer and make sure everything is covered on your end.

[blas]

I got mystery shopped at the gas station once, and got 100%. But this guy was not stealth, at all.

He asked where the bathrooms were. Normal enough question, but he asked it in a way which made me think he was keeping a mental checklist.

He asked something about how old the lights outside were, or if any of them were out. Then he went outside to look at them? Ok, dead give away.

Then he asked if we sold magazines or catalogues. I said no, only local newspapers and the Trading Post. He asked "So you obviously don't sell anything pornographic?" and I said "Nope." (I guess part of BP's secret shops was to make sure we weren't selling Hustler???!)

There were a few more questions and whatnot, but I got 100%...and it was just that easy.