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Mystery Shopping without the Internet

© Tina Helm

Two months ago, I changed ISP (Internet Service Providers) in order to better spend my web time and dollars. Basically, I subscribed to the cable internet service provided by my cable company and cancelled my online service accounts. My online services stopped responding before my cable access started, then my cable modem didn't work properly, and most recently my cable modem wouldn't access my old online services. So, now that everything is working as it should be, my first article will be how to mystery shop without easy access to the internet.

The first thing you will need to do is find out which companies use regular mail, fax, and phone to do their assignments. Here are a few sites that list companies.

http://surfree.homestead.com/surf4cash/f...

http://www.mysteryshopsupdate.com/online...

http://members.aol.com/mafixit/mysterysh...

http://members.aol.com/jmoreau1/privatei...

http://members.aol.com/msshopnews/

I know one company that does almost all of their reports using regular mail, fax, and phone calls. Shop'n Chek http://www.shopnchek.com/ will mail you the forms needed to do an assignment, they ask that you call in after the assignment is complete, and then you mail back the paperwork. My only complaint about Shop'n Chek is that sometimes they will send out an assignment without actually verifying with the shopper whether it can be fit into a schedule or not. This is easy to remedy with a phone call if you can not do an assignment sent to you though.

When you sign up with various companies, you should say on the application in an additional comments section that you do not have regular access to the internet and state what you DO have access to currently. ie. regular mail, fax, phone, computer, etc.

If your situation changes, and you are able to spend more time online, you should contact each company you have worked with in the past and let them know you have more ways to get assignments.

Another company that has always had assignments available through regular mail and fax is BestMark. http://www.bestmark.com

Both of the companies mentioned are great. The websites listed where you can find lists of companies are also good. There are an increasing number of sites that deal with mystery shopping. The trick is finding them all.

I must say again that it is not beneficial to buy lists of companies. There are sites listed above that will provide you with mystery shopping company information for free.

If you can not get online much, here are my suggestions.

When you can get online, fill out as many mystery shopper applications as you can.