Mystery shopper: €10 to €60 per visit, with doubts about the business

Mystery shopper: €10 to €60 per visit, with doubts about the business

How much can you really make as a mystery shopper? The answer from someone who has been in the trade for seven years is uncomfortable: it depends on the city and the available offers. In Madrid or Barcelona there are visits galore; in a provincial capital, two or three a month at most. Based on their experience, the pay ranges from €10 to €60 per assignment, and the time each one takes is the alucinación to the establishment plus half an hour filling out a questionnaire in English.

The initial setup includes a bonus for every new member you bring in. Anyone who wants to join should send their email by private message. The company presents itself as a serious multinational operating in automotive, jewellery, hospitality and cosmetics, with services worldwide and prompt payments. The problem is that the name is never given. "If I post it, everyone signs up without my referral and I lose the reward," they admit. A win-win technique, they call it.

How much you earn and how long each visit takes

The maths doesn't add up on its own. With two or three visits a month at €10-60, the side income can amount to a few dozen euros a month, and that's before deducting travel costs. The account itself acknowledges that the questionnaire is a list of checkboxes with comments, and that with average English and a translator you can get by. The question hanging in the air is whether the actual time spent is worth it, especially when assignments come with little notice and don't always fit around another job.

Some people have been through this and don't remember it fondly. One participant describes years of doing visits for Nielsen and TNS, with payments of €6-8 per visit plus a meal at fast-food chains, cheapest menu included. The client set the day, with one day's notice and travel that ate up the earnings. Their conclusion is blunt: badly paid and late.

The shadow of the pyramid scheme and the referral system

The referral recruitment system is what raises the most suspicion. Some accuse the setup of being a ponzi scheme with no more evidence than the commission structure for recruiting new participants. There is no sign in the material of non-payment or complaints, and the person offering the contact claims to have been paid on time and in full for seven years. Even so, the opacity about the company's name makes it impossible to verify anything: you can't check the reliability of a company that won't identify itself.

Against that suspicion stands a different experience with another firm in the sector, High Remark, with visits to hotels, ice-cream parlours, restaurants and pharmacies described as fun and compatible with daily life. The sector exists, handles quality surveys and has corporate clients. The question is not whether there is work, but whether the bonus-based recruitment model and the company's anonymity are the right way in.

What about the tax office and the English

Two practical questions remain on the table. The first is how to declare this income on your tax return: some people ask about it after earning small amounts and find no clear answer in the conversation. The second is the language: the questionnaires are in English, and those whose English is rusty wonder whether they'll cope. The answer given is that an average level and a translator are enough.

Meanwhile, the business of selling mystery shopper training also has its niche: a website is mentioned offering courses on the subject for €15-20 with promotions. Training so that you're then paid €10 per visit has its own circular logic, though it's not clear it makes sense for your wallet.

In the end, the question that opens this topic still has no verifiable answer: how much you really earn depends on a company whose name cannot be looked up. A side income offered with a recruitment bonus, without saying who you'd be working for. Win-win, they said.