Shopper Services

Have you seen those newspaper ads claiming you can make over $100 per hour by participating in mystery shopper services? The treatment you get when answering this ad should serve as your first hint that this opportunity is too good to be true. The company starts by offering you a 30 day trial membership for a small fee of $1.95. A representative will then go down a laundry list of add-ons in an attempt to get you to spend more money. For an extra dollar you can have access to a free trial for "Value Plus Online." Another dollar will buy you a 30 day free trial to "iExplore." Another fee of $1.95 will get you a seven day trial at "Surplus Supplies." How on earth are you supposed to keep track of all of these free trial end dates in order to cancel them and avoid additional charges?

I took a look at Value Plus and iExplore and hesitate to say that both products might have some potential. The Surplus Supplies program, on the other hand, is a complete joke. Your payment gives you access to a website which will send you to another website. It's like entering an online store only to find you've stumbled into some sort of obscure search engine nightmare. Shopper Services, the initial draw, is a complete and utter SCAM. Shopper Services claims to have the tools necessary to teach you how to become a top-notch mystery shopper, thus enabling you to get high paying mystery shopping jobs that only they can give you access to.

Your training program consists of you going out to a fast food restaurant, making a purchase, and writing a report. A representative from the Shopper Services will review your report to determine if you have passed or failed your training program. If you pass, you will receive access to their list of mystery shopping jobs.

I'm not a stupid person, so I was surprised to find that I had failed my training test. When I inquired as to why, I was told that I failed because I used punctuation in my report. Color me confused - I learned to punctuate sentences in the first grade. Apparently, the system that Shopper Services uses is relatively antiquated and does not know how to process punctuation. That shouldn't be my problem.

I called customer service again a few days later and really wasn't too shocked at the unprofessional and rude attitude I encountered on the other end of the phone. I complained. Her response was that, "ShopperServices.com is a member of the Better Business Bureau." I suppose she thought that piece of information would solve my problems.

I proceeded to inquire as to the status of the responses to emails I had sent the company. She told me Shopper Services has responded. When I told her that all I had received was an automated reply telling me that someone would get back to me with an answer, she rudely replied that the automatic reply WAS an answer and that no additional emails would be sent.

Needless to say, the Shopper Services program is a SCAM. I did a quick search of the boards and forums on Yahoo and saw several complaints of a similar nature. A few people claimed they never got access to the websites at all. One or two said that their training reports were magically approved right before the free trial ended and the new billing cycle began. I don't think that purchasing a burger at a local fast food joint constitutes any type of training, and it certainly hasn't prepared me for any elite job that I couldn't have handled before lunch.

Don't fall victim to the promises or look of the website. The sad reality is that mystery shoppers do not make anywhere near $100 for an hours worth of work. The vast majority of secret shopping companies will pay you a very small fee and will reimburse you for the product you purchased during your shopping adventure. It might take you 20 minutes to make your purchase and another 20-60 minutes to write your report. You might, if you are lucky, find a company willing to occasionally pay you $25 - $75 for a secret shopping job, but most do not and you'll have to send them your purchase. Unless, that is, you purchase food, which you'll likely be allowed to keep.

Do NOT waste your time or money with ShopperServicdes.com. It is a complete SCAM.

After examining and testing hundreds of money-making opportunities and work at home programs, ONLY ONE brought in a paycheck that covered all my monthly expenses. Click here to go to this website.

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