Mystery Shopper Magazine

Company Overview: Research Services Group has offices in the US, Asia, and Europe. They cover a smorgasbord or industries including clothing, department stores, convenience stores, and real estate. Visit their website to see the full list.
The company was founded in 2008 as Research Services Group in Atlanta, Georgia. They changed their name in September of 2012 to Mystery Researchers. On www.mysteryshopforum.com, they are still listed as Research Services Group.

Personal Experience: I do shops for them several times each year. Most of what they have in my area are credit card checks where you go into a store, express interest in an expensive product and, after raising an objection to the cost, wait to see if the salesperson mentions any available credit options. Yes, these are the same shops where you must have a second interaction with the cashier and you have a shopping cart with somewhere around $300 of product and you don’t have your credit card to see if you’re offered any credit options.

What Others Have to Say: There have been comments on www.mysteryshopforum.com from shoppers who complain about the above scenario, making what I assume are sarcastic comments about not wanting to go to a register with a shopping cart full of light bulbs. The home improvement store shops I’ve seen have never said a certain product needs to be brought to the register, only a given dollar amount. Two or three ceiling fans will let you reach the required price point.

Within the past several months, there have been reports of late or missing payments from MR. In reviewing the posts on www.mysteryshopforum.com, it appears that many of the payment problems have been resolved after contacting the company. At about this same time, the company gained a new client and the project has apparently stretched the resources of MR to the limit. This includes instances of locations that physically do not conform to the description supplied by the client, i.e. the client says the building has 3 doors and it actually has 7.

Overall: I have found MR to be a good company to work for. My payments have always arrived as advertised or, as in this week’s case because of the holiday, early. While there are shoppers who have justifiable concerns due to late payments, there are also those who find payments to occur as advertised.

While my experiences with MR has them on my “A” list, I am cognizant of the concerns expressed by shoppers on MysteryShopForum Because of those concerns, and because it seems to be recent and has the potential to be a trend, for this review I feel I need to give MR a grade of B.