Licensed to Shop and Get Paid For It (NOP)

Member Name: DavidJWest

Product:	NOP
Date:	28/10/03 (304 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Earn reasonable money, Flexible, Enjoyable

Disadvantages: Not enough work, Minor problems with website

I have now been paid so time for me to spill the beans on this company and their activities. No doubt my fellow Dooyoosers will want to know more about this money-making opportunity.

I've been mystery shopping for NOP for around 3 months now and feel I have enough experience to comment with some authority on this activity.

As you may expect I decided to start working for them as I needed a little extra cash and I thought this would be quite an easy and interesting way to do so. I found out about the site from a message board on the net and after registering I was away.

NOP (National Opinion Polls) is a market research company (no surprises there then) who are paid by their clients to provide feedback from mystery shoppers who pretend to be bonafide customers. Clients vary from large government agencies such as Jobcentres through large private companies like Argos and down to small firms like O'Briens coffee shops (well I'd never heard of them before I mystery shopped them!) The company is a well-respected international organisation which was launched in 1993, you can find out more about them from their website - http://cybershoppers.nop.co.uk/

The registration process is fairly easy but not all that quick. You have to take part in an online test which is fairly easy and then you provide an example of a business, of your choice which you have visited and mystery shopped. I chose the local PC World where I bought my father-in-law a mouse for his birthday and all I did was note down my experience and ask a few extra questions of the staff, which I wouldn't normally such as product information questions.

After filling in all this information online I had to wait a few days (after receiving an e-mail confirmation advising I had been accepted) for a contract through the post which I had to sign and return, with my P60. If you are working then NOP need your P60 if not then your last P45, they pay a basic r
ate of tax (10%) on my earnings as I am already working. I am not sure what rate of tax if any they deduct in other cases but you need to bear this in mind as you may need to submit a tax return at the end of the tax year. You also need to sign a declaration saying you wont disclose information to third parties which may be sensitive, which is why this opinion doesn't have much detail about the actual jobs themselves.

I can't say exactly how NOP decide whether or not to accept new people as mystery shoppers, just do the best you can with your test and sample mystery shop and keep your fingers crossed. For more personal advice I'd be happy if anybody emailed me for details, pointers etc. I think anyone using this kind of consumer website would stand a better than average chance of getting through as you probably have the correct frame of mind for mystery shopping (objective not subjective)and will hopefully have a good standard of English. I suspect that your geographical location has a large part to play in being accepted as the jobs are allocated to people local to the offices/shops which need visiting so if there is a lack of mystery shoppers in your vicinity you may be more likely to succeed and vice versa.

Once I was finally accepted and all paperwork signed and returned I had to wait a few more days for that e-mail giving me my sign on details for the website. In total I would say it took 3 weeks from first applying for work to being finally given log-on details.

Then it was simply a case for waiting for the work to roll in. Whenever a suitable job comes up, NOP send e-mails to everyone in the locality of that particular asignment, all the jobs I have completed have been within 20 miles of where I live. As soon as you get the email you need to log on to the site to check the details of the job before deciding whether or not to accept it. You need to bear in mind that it's first come first served when accepting
jobs so if you aren't quick enough someone else will take the work on. In my experience if you log on within a couple of hours of receiving he notification e-mail you have a very good chance of the job still being open, much longer and it tends to be the case that someone else has beaten you to it.

Deciding whether or not to take the job is quite easy, in fact so far I have hardly turned down a single one as I am greedy! To help you decide whether to take the job, you get to know the rate of pay, when it needs doing (usually there is a range of times available, you choose which day is best for you and then whether it is going to be a morning, lunchtime or afternoon visit) and other relevant details. You do find occasionally that jobs have certain criteria, ie you must already be a customer of a certain bank to apply for a loan etc. You can take on as many jobs are available and if you don't want to you can take a few weeks off, there is no pressure to accept any jobs at all.

The availablity of work does vary, I was getting about 6 jobs a week to start with and this has gradually fallen to only about 2 a week, I suspect this is purely seasonal and hope to get more work as things pick-up again. I haven't received any communication from NOP to say my work isn't up to scratch anyway!

Before going on a job you need to read your briefing notes which tell you what to expect and what to do. You can print out training notes to take with you and also a questionairre which lets you fill in the relevant details you need to record - you can claim back the money it costs to print this out, typically around 20-60 pence depending on the number of sheets. It's important to remember you are a mystery shopper when doing the deed so don't write stuff down in front of your victims, make sure you do this when a safe distance out of sight. Typically you need to make notes of the times of visits, what shops are next to the one vis
ited, how long you were queuing, repsonses from staff and appearances etc.

You do feel a bit like a special agent (hence the title of this rant) sometimes as you need to surreptitiously make notes and even give false names from time to time as you go about your task incognito.

Once you have completed the assignment, you need to enter the details on the website. This is fairly easy and the site quite simple to use, but there are some mildly annoying idiosyncrasies such as sometimes it claims you have entered inconsistent answers when in fact you haven't. These minor problems can be overcome however and NOP do seem to be improving the system quickly as it happens less now than of old. One other moan is the site seems to crash at weekends fairly regularly, but all I do is wait until Monday if entering details etc - no great hardship. They are good when dealing with e-mails I have sent them as well, not quite so good when trying to telephone them as they seem to be slow replying to answerphone messages. I'd recommend using e-mail if you need to contact someone in the NOP offices.

So what about the money I hear you ask? Well, you aren't going to get rich overnight, in fact you probably wont earn enough to pay for a good night out every week (depends on how you define a good night I suppose!). I find that I earn around £30 a week all told on average, but that is for not very much effort and not much time, around 3-4 assignments. For example the worst paid job I have taken is for Post Office visits, only £5 a time but you do get paid mileage allowance of around 25 p per mile as well as other costs incurred such as car park fees etc. I once earned £120 in a fortnight when there was a lot of work available, but that's not a normal occurence.

Some visits (Post Offices) are very simple, queue up and ask some questions and that's all, 5 minutes usually is enough which is quite a nice rate of pay. If you take in
to account the time taken to read the briefing/training notes and then enter the questionairre details (all done online) I suppose you might take half an hour at a push which makes the earnings more modest. The best paid job I have had to date was £15 for completing two credit card applications online, yes you do get some jobs which don't actually involve visiting anywhere from time to time.

But once you get used to doing mystery shopping you find the training notes and entering the questionairre details becomes more like second nature it does work out luctrative, if only you could get enough work! I'd say if broken down into an hourly rate I get paid about what I get in my normal 9-5 job overtime rate. But it's much less hassle and much less of a grind getting out into the wide world and not having a boss as such watching every move. There is a lot of flexibility as well as you can decide what to do and when to do it to a large extent.

You need to bear in mind when applying for this type of work that you have to "lie" from time to time, I call it role playing to save my conscience! For example giving false names and making up false stories such as the reason I want this credit card is for a ski-ing holiday this winter. I find this quite easy, being a devious person (I'm only obeying orders after all) but some might not take to it or may be find they blow their cover getting flustered etc.

At first you may find the work a little daunting, clutching your 5 page questionairre as you stand outside a shop, but you soon get the hang of it and realise many of the questions are things you would normally take for granted, such as did the member of staff wear a uniform etc.

It helps if you are observant and a good memory is also an asset as you need to memorise a lot of information without being to write it down straight away depending on the job involved. You do find that your memory improves as you get
more experience which is a little bonus.

I have heard from the latest NOP Newsletter (they just started sending out these e-mails every so often with information) that there is soon going to be a recruitment ban for new mystery shoppers as some of the existing ones have complained about a lack of jobs (not me honest!) So it would be good to get your application in sooner rather than later I suspect, but the ban isn't going to be permanent from what the newlsetter said and some areas where they are short-staffed aren't affected.

You get paid every other Friday and they are prompt and reliable in this respect, I have never had to wait more than around 3 weeks for my money. I'm saving the money I earn from this "job" in a separate savings account and I expect to have enough for spending money for my holiday next year, in fact enough to make it a holiday to remember even more than usual. Of course if there are any mystery shopping jobs to do in Cyprus, I am up for that expenses paid!

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