Before you get all gung-ho about entering the secret shopper world, I have to let you know it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.

I’ve applied at a few places because I thought it would be something fun to do on the weekends, but when I saw the terms I politely declined. My main issue was that it required too much effort for very little pay. There were shops that were 10, 20 miles away, you had to go in and buy something (maybe you were reimbursed , maybe not), some wanted digital photos, and then you fill out a long report by 6pm the same day and you get paid a hefty sum of $10.

That’s not my idea of fun. My time (and my gas) is worth more than that.

Shameless Magazine gives an interesting view on Secret Shoppers

“Although I’ve had my share of retail jobs over the years, I’ve never thought very much about secret shoppers — people who are hired to pretend to be shoppers in order to evaluate employees at hotels, restaurants and stores, then report to back to management — other than to hope, as a worker, I wasn’t secret shopped.”

An article on Rabble News questions the fairness of secret shopping practices.

According to Alex Dagg, Canadian Co-Director of UNITE HERE, a union that organizes many workplaces in the hospitality sector, this is an unfair management practice. “As an employee, how do you defend yourself against a secret shopper?” she points out. “You don’t know who they are. You don’t know when it occurred. It’s their word against yours. In a non-union setting, there are no hearings, there’s no opportunity to discuss your side. You’ve got no chance if you’ve gotten a bad rap from one. It’s totally subjective, totally unfair.”

The article goes on to describe a few extreme cases of people losing their jobs over the results of a secret shop. [Source]

So take note all you work at home moms looking to make some extra cash; everything that glitters isn’t gold.