Mystery Shopping is a great way to make some extra money. No bosses or set hours, just a short assignment and a deadline from a mystery shopping provider. All you do is perform your assigned task, file a report, and get paid. Occasionally, your job comes with a meal or item reimbursement, which means you get to eat or shop for free. Just remember that with this very nice flexibility and fringe benefits package come some very real responsibilities.

The person who hired you has a contract with the company that hired them and must meet their contract requirements and a deadline. Therefore, you're expected to perform as they ask on the jobs you accept. While you can accept or decline jobs as you see fit, once you get one, it's your responsibility to do it properly.

Failure to perform your job is what is called 'flaking' in the Mystery Shopping industry. If you flake, it's all but certain the company you let down won't hire you again. Plus, Mystery Shopping has it's own forums (like the MSPA site), so if you really screw up, they can tell anyone else who might have hired you in the future about it.

Mystery shopping is a nice way to go, but it's very real. You'll face consequences if you treat it like a game or a something-for-nothing freebie. If you can't do a shop, don't take it. If you accept a shop and something happens that prevents you from doing it, inform the company that hired you immediately so they can get someone else. But whatever you do, don't flake, or any future job options in this field may be closed to you someday.

Ryan Ambrose is the webmaster for Financial Self-Reliance, a site about how to actually make money with your computer. The Paid Opinions section which deals with taking surveys and mystery shopping can be reached directly from here. Copyright 2006 Ryan Ambrose