Retailing To The Max

Advantages: Paid to shop
Disadvantages: Have to know your own schedule and work out if you can fit jobs in quickly

...After reading review upon review about mystery shopping I decided to take the plunge and apply to a few companies myself. I always wondered whether I?d be convincing enough as a mystery shopper ? I?m not very good at lying and thought I?d go bright red and get flustered. But it appears I?m a better liar than I thought and mystery shopping is my new, paid hobby. I enquired and applied to 8 companies but Retail Maxim stand head and shoulders above the competition for me. Since I was accepted in August I?ve had 10 jobs sent my way which I am very impressed with. At the moment I?m in almost weekly contact with them. ~ ~ ~ Applying ~ ~ ~ From the very beginning Retail Maxim struck me as being a professional outfit. The first stage of the application process is straightforward and can be done online at www.retail...

AnitaM 10.10.2004 · Read review
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Review of Retail Maxim

Retail Maxim - Mystery Shopping !

Advantages: Fun way to earn some extra money, get paid for expenses such as petrol and parking etc
Disadvantages: Work is not guaranteed and you have to have the money to hand and will be reimbursed later.

...OK, for those of you who read my recent review about Retail Eyes - Mystery Shopping, this review is going to be very similar except with different aspects as I believe this company to be slightly better! Again I'll start by telling you what exactly Mystery Shopping entails: What is Mystery Shopping? Being a mystery shopper is all about being paid to eat out/shop/purchase items/evaluate a service very discreetly without the selected company realising what you are doing. For example, you could be paid to go to a shop and evaluate the service you receive and the cleanliness of the store and maybe even purchase something. Then after the visit you have to fill in a questionnaire all about your experience and submit it to the shopper company (in this case retail maxim). How do I register? Registration is dealt with via...

ellebee 02.08.2006 · Read review
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Review of Retail Maxim

Retail Eyes - Mystery Shopping ?

Advantages: Fun, easy way to earn some extra pocket money
Disadvantages: Assignments are not guaranteed and expenses such as petrol not accounted for.

...you have to read which lets you know the basics of mystery shopping other than that its down to you and good old common sense. I didn't find this to be too much of a problem as the questionnaires you have to fill in are pretty self explanatory and are available for you to read before you do the assignment. Disadvantages ? Like I have already mentioned, work is not always available depending on your area. Also, unlike some companies, Retail Eyes does not pay you for expenses such as petrol and parking fees which I think limits you to the work you can accept as you don't want to travel too far or it will not be worth doing the assignment as what you earn will be spent in expenses anyway. Also you have to have the money available to you to carry out an assignment and then they reimburse you for it later on. This I find can be a downfall...

ellebee 01.08.2006 (02.08.2006) · Read review
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Review of Retail Eyes

Retail Eyes Mystery Shopping

Advantages: Friendly staff, interesting assignments
Disadvantages: Work spasmodic, no travel expenses paid

...I have been signed up with Retail Eyes for a couple of months now, one of the many Mystery Shooping agencies I work for. I certainly wouldn't say it's the best one and the work is very spasmodic. The reviewer who said work was available on an almost daily basis obviously doesn't live anywhere near me - I look at the website daily and there were three whole weeks when there was nothing available at all, except, interestingly, in Jerusalem! But the assignments I've done so far have been interesting ones. The fees paid are not very high - £5 for a pub visit, with a varying amount of money allocated for either a drink or a meal, sometimes both, but the maximum amount allowed isn't great and it usually only just covers food/drink for one person. I have done an optician visit though which is better remuneration, £15 for the visit...

anneh1957 30.05.2007 · Read review
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Review of Retail Eyes

I can't recommend Retail Maxim.

Advantages: Money! Potential to be useful to include on CV.
Disadvantages: Assignment briefs not sent; having to chase them up each time; unfriendly people on the end of the phone; told me they could not communicate via email instead of mobile (?); not a lot of jobs to do.

.... On the second visit I obtained the refund and enquired about the service. If a refund is not given, Retail Maxim say to contact them and they will sort this out. I should say that one assignment I was offered required me to spend a lot of money, more than I could afford, and I was not willing to take the risk, as I was new to Retail Maxim, and if the refund had taken some time to come through, this would have left me too low on funds in the meantime. Again the response to me being honest about this was cold ... no surprise there! I should say at this point that the pay isn't great and the jobs, in my area anyway (North East), are a bit sparse. There are potentially assignments that can pay you £20, although I did not experience this. Travel expenses are given though, which is a plus. But, for each assignment, the brief was not sent, so I had to...

mossgreen 10.02.2006 (13.02.2006) · Read review
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Review of Retail Maxim

RETAIL MAXIM - Maximum mystery shopping

Advantages: Good communication, good rates of pay, interesting jobs
Disadvantages: Questions asked on results phonecall are sometimes different to that on questionnaire

...I joined this company as a mystery shopper in June this year. Since that time I have undertaken around 6 mystery shopping jobs for them to various types of businesses, from bakers to shoe shops. Retail Maxim usually tell you about available jobs by sending you a text message - this is good as it allows you to see the message straight away and you just need to give them a call back to find out about the job. They usually give you a choice of dates to undertake the mystery shop, therefore I can usually fit it around my job easily. The rates of pay vary from £7 upwards, Retail Maxim also reimburse mileage at 22p per mile and car parking/travel etc. This is good as some mystery shopping companies do not reimburse for travel. I always find the questionnaires easy to follow and find it even easier when I can enter my results online...

samjane99 04.10.2005 · Read review
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Review of Retail Maxim

I don't recommend Retail Maxim

Advantages: None so far
Disadvantages: No work; poor communication; no expenses

...I have not so far had a positive experience with Retail Maxim and I was surprised to see the good reviews of the company on this site, although some seem to be quite old. It was reassuring that one reviewer said she wouldn't recommend them! I signed up about three months ago, and was accepted, very easy process, although as I have worked for them in the past I was surprised that I had to do another (unpaid) trial visit. Since then, up to last week, I heard absolutely nothing further, then I got a text asking me to call re an urgent assignment - no details in the text. When I phoned, I was asked to go to an opticians 10 miles away 'to make an enquiry about new glasses'. There was no purchase involved and no expenses offered. I said it was nowhere near where I live and she told me they were desperate, so I asked for travel...

anneh1957 30.05.2007 · Read review
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Review of Retail Maxim

  Retail heaven!!

Advantages: Historic location and plenty to do.
Disadvantages: Some stores have false sales!

...and the obligatory Starbucks. The main difference between Gunwharf and say somewhere like Bluewater is the fact that the shops here are mainly retail clearance stores selling end of lines stock. Additionally this means that there are a number of other shops, such as Calvin Klein, Paul Smith, Oakley, Nike and Adidas as well as Levi's, Fred Perry, Whittards, Cotton Traders and surprisingly Marks and Spencer's as well, so there is a veritable mix of brand and designer names, I felt that a genuine attempt had been made to cater for everyone and that was only in Phase 1 of the development!!! Phase 2 included the opening of a Casino, Holiday Inn Express, Molton Brown, Puma, and Vans to name but a few. Personally this surprised me as a number of these companies have premises that are few and far between and have not really been known to have premises based...

Timbo3107 09.08.2008 · Read review
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Review of Gunwharf Quays (Portsmouth)

Retail Therapy

Advantages: Great colleagues, great discount
Disadvantages: lack of communication betwewen management, can be boring

...statement and way of working, from now on all staff would be reffered to as 'colleagues'. In 1999 ASDA planned to merge with the Kingfisher group, days before the deal was due to be appoved by ASDA shareholders, and American company, Wal-Mart ame in with an offer of £6.7 billion and the shareholders just couldn't refuse, ASDA Wal-Mart was born and became the world's biggest retailer. June 2001 and ASDA added Jewellery to it's merchandise. In June 2002 ADSA was named the best company to work for and by September they also began a local sourcing programme in stores so more produce in the stores would made or produced by local farmers or companies. In 2003 ASDA opened it's first George shop in Leeds.In 2006 ASDA began selling Wedding dresses at £60, was named retailer of the year for the 9th year running and the George brand branched out into...

hollywoodmum 14.04.2009 (13.04.2009) · Read review
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Review of Asda Group

What's the mystery all about?

Advantages: Enjoyable, Get paid to shop/eat, Good for extra cash
Disadvantages: Nothing

...***WHY MYSTERY SHOPPING?*** I wanted to eanr some extra cash and I've always been interested in Myster Shopping. Working within the retail trade for over 6 years I have learn how important customer service is. ***RETAIL MAXIM*** I have worked for retail maxim for over a year, and they are by far the best Mystery Shopping company I am signed up with. I came across their site when I typed in mystery shopping into Google when I was looking for jobs. Retail Maxim offers a service to clients which is includes Mystery Visits, Video Mystery Visits, Competitor vists, Telephone Test Calls and Exit Surveys. ***HOW OFTEN DO I GET ASSIGNMENTS?*** I get a call or text at least every 2-3 weeks asking if I am interested in doing a mystery shop which can range from trying something on in-store a clothes shop, getting something to eat...

kiss_me2070 23.10.2008 · Read review
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Review of Retail Maxim