The agreement process for our shoppers is threefold:

First, our shoppers are independent contractors. Training and other multi-purpose material may state the word "employee," but at no time should any shopper be under the impression that he or she is an employee of Howard Services/Service Sleuth. Although we consider our shoppers to be part of our family and have specific guidelines for them to follow, they ultimately work for themselves and must comply with all state and federal tax laws regarding fees. When a shopper's fees exceed $600 in a given calendar year, we are required to report to the IRS the total paid to the shopper as income. When that occurs, we will request the shopper's Social Security number and will provide the shopper with a Tax Form 1099.

Second, our screening process is in place to protect the confidentiality of our company, clients and auditors. We go above and beyond the industry norm by using a thorough application process, and we reserve the right to perform a complete background check (including criminal and/or credit history) on any shopper. We require all shoppers to agree to our terms on confidentiality, non-competitiveness and other prerequisites before we will schedule them any assignments.

Finally, as an independent contractor, it is your responsibility to know the relevant laws of your state and/or town or city regarding their definitions of mystery shopping and private investigation. For more information about the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, click here.

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Confidentiality

All of the information contained herein about Howard Services/Service Sleuth is strictly confidential and proprietary. It is not appropriate or permissible to discuss with others any details about your services to our clients or us. Any information (written or oral) supplied to you is exclusive and should not be discussed with anyone. We have spent a considerable amount of time and research perfecting our services. Our competitors may not put the same value on screening and training as we do. For this reason, we must state that if your current or future intent is to use this material and auditing experience for your own behalf, or another's, in competing against us, you will be in violation of state and local laws governing trade secrets. We consider this to be very serious and will take legal steps to stop you and to recover our losses. Any dispute you may have with our firm must be handled via our confidentiality policy. If we find that you have broken this agreement we reserve the right to take this incident to a court of law in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and to take no action on your dispute until these confidentiality issues are resolved. If you cannot agree to these terms, there is no need to read further.

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Client Contact

Unless our Profile for a shop or our instructions to you specifically indicate that you are to contact the client, this must NEVER occur. Whether or not you have issues with the client’s business, Service Sleuth or any other situation, it is never appropriate that you contact the client directly. If we find that you have done this, we will permanently remove you from active shopping. Even in the case of a payment dispute, you may not contact the client. If you do we will automatically cancel payments to you and resolve the matter via a neutral mediator in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. If you, the shopper, is found to be at fault we will require you to reimburse all of our applicable legal expenses.

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Pay and Compensation

The fees paid to our shoppers depend in part upon what our clients pay us, on the complexity of the survey, and on the project itself. The fees paid for each job will vary, and we pride ourselves on paying some of the highest fees and expenses in the industry. However, we caution new shoppers that to plan mystery shopping as a full-time career is extremely difficult..

Fees depend upon the type of audit. It may be an individual audit or one that is part of several performed on the same trip. It may be a special audit, with little or no advance notice, or one with weeks of notice. In most instances, our shoppers will receive a total of $10 to $20 for shops, although special shops may pay more, or pay nothing except expenses. All expenses for pre-authorized items that cannot be used by the shopper or items that are not returnable (such as meals and admission fees) will be reimbursed to the shopper. There are strict limits to reimbursement of approved expenses. Once a shopper is assigned an "audit," s/he must not expect to receive any money exceeding the expense caps given. Expenses beyond this limit will not be reimbursed. It is up the shopper to be certain of these approved expense amounts.

In most cases, our clients do not require two "paid" auditors but will pay the expenses of two. That would be the case with most restaurant shops or shops that include some sort of admission fees. It is permissible in such circumstances to bring another person with you. It is advisable, however, that your companion does not know the purpose of the visit. If, by chance, your companion finds out the purpose of the visit, they must also be aware of the confidentiality agreement you signed, since it is your responsibility. Details of the audit, client, or Howard Services should not be discussed with the guest. Should our client ever hear from a third party that an auditor or guest was talking about the confidential nature of what they do, we cannot use that auditor again. This has happened before, so please respect this confidentiality.

The shopper retains the right to refuse any assignment for any reason. If you have not been told the rate for an assignment, please ask us before accepting it. If you do not feel our rate is fair, please let us know. We will evaluate whether your service to us requires a higher fee according to the industry norm. As an independent contractor, you have the right to name your own fees. As your client, we have the prerogative to use someone else asking for a lower rate, and in most cases will do so. Extra money may be earned by referring us to prospective businesses that ultimately turn into clients.

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When You Will Not Be Paid

Your work has a unique "shelf life", just like milk. The information you provide must be quickly turned around to the client for optimal usefulness. Therefore, a shopper has 24 HOURS to get a complete report entered into our Sherlock site. If we are made aware of an emergency in advance, assistance may be available. Otherwise, any report that is not entered into the Sherlock site within 24 hours will not be accepted and the work will be rescheduled. Fees and expenses cannot be paid for these late reports. We only pay for on-time, acceptable quality work. If the results of an assignment do not meet the expectations of our clients or Howard Services, we cannot compensate you for the expenses or fees associated with the audit. This rarely happens; however, when it does occur, it is mainly due to the poor quality of a report. For example, a failure to follow instructions, a lack of critical information, failure to perform the shop at the correct time, or a delay in sending the required reports or documents all nullify the usefulness of the audit. Since we have been in business this has occurred less than 1/10 of 1% of the time.

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Disputes

Should you have a dispute it must be dealt with confidentially and directly with our firm as stated above and below in these instructions.


Damage

Periodically, shoppers are asked to put themselves or their property in situations from which a dispute may result, for example: an auto repair that may have not been done correctly, body damage to one's car in a parking lot, a bad haircut, food poisoning, etc. These random, unforeseeable situations are very rare, but even when they occur in connection with an audit, are not our responsibility. Your recourse is to contact the establishment (only after you receive permission from us) to resolve the issue just as you would with any other consumer complaint. We will attempt to assist you as well. Ultimately, as an independent contractor, the risk you undertake is your own. You should contact your insurance company with any questions.

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Following Through

Reports must be done immediately after an audit. Names and descriptions are essential, as well as attention to detail regarding both positive and negative findings. If you are not certain about the details required to complete a report, please contact us immediately and ask. All of our shoppers must complete assigned shops as soon as possible. Once a shop is assigned, we expect it to be completed within a the time frame assigned to you by the scheduler. The exception to this rule is if you have notified us of a personal limitation and we agree to the new due date. If you are not certain you can complete an assignment, please do not accept it. Shoppers who cancel assignments after they have been accepted will no longer be offered choice assignments for a probationary period or may not be used at all for future shops.

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Identity

On occasion, something may occur to you in the course of a shop that may cause a staff member to remember or identify you as a shopper when your report is read by the client. Receipt numbers, video systems, unusual occurrences, and simple recognition may all play a part in this identification. When a serious situation occurs that may put your identity at risk, you may write this part of the report in the “third person”, i.e., write the report as if you had observed yourself, by saying "The customer in front of me...", etc... Should you choose this method, mention it as a special note in your report to the editor, either in the comments field or in another appropriate place.

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How You Are Paid

Service Sleuth pays ALL shoppers via PayPal. If you do not accept payments via PayPal, you are not eligible to shop for Service Sleuth. Shoppers must set up their own PayPal account at www.Paypal.com. Shoppers must be 18 years of age or older to sign up for PayPal. Payments are submitted to PayPal approximately 60 days after the last day of the month in which the shop was completed. Please note that it then takes PayPal up to 5 business days to process this transaction and clear the money for disbursement. If you do not receive payment by this time, please notify us after confirming that both your shopper email address and PayPal accounts were correct and active. You are responsible for updating your email address in our Sherlock system and in your PayPal account (email addresses must be EXACTLY the same) to ensure prompt payment. Your Shop Log will provide a description of your payment, so there is no need to call us unless your log does not match what you were emailed when you accepted the shop and were scheduled.

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Drinking Alcohol

If an audit involves the drinking of alcohol, you may refuse it. If you take a job that requires the drinking of alcohol, you need to have a designated driver with you and/or minimize your intake so that you can be sure of driving legally and safely. As an auditor under contract, it is YOUR responsibility to ensure that you do not drive while impaired. If you find yourself in an intoxicated state where you can not safely and legally drive and have no one to assist you, we will pay for a taxi or for lodging but must remove you from our database as a result.

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Insurance

As an independent contractor, you are responsible for having your own insurance for whatever type of activity you might be involved with while performing shops. Contact us for more information on this item if you require it.

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Honesty and Procedural Audits

At times we are asked by our clients to perform "Honesty" or "Integrity" audits. These involve presenting a situation to an employee where he or she will have the choice of being honest or not. You may have to directly say, "Here is $10 for this item; I do not need a receipt" and leave. Honesty test audits are infrequent, but our auditors are expected to perform them when necessary. We realize it may make you uncomfortable, but integrity shops are important to a client attempting to discover dishonesty within his or her business. Honesty shops are legal and the employee should always get the benefit of the doubt. Do not accept this type of assignment if you are not comfortable with meeting the requirements.

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Scheduling

Your jobs or "shops" as a mystery shopper will be scheduled in one of two ways. Once you are signed up in Sherlock, you will receive postings from the schedulers about mystery shopping opportunities in your state. Respond as quickly as possible. In some instances, the scheduler will assign the shop within a matter of hours, and at other times, they may wait as long as 24 hours to assign the shops. Occasionally, one of Howard Services’ schedulers may email you or telephone you with an offer.

Most assignments are scheduled days (5-6 days is the norm) in advance, giving you plenty of time to arrange your schedule. However, in some cases, we are running with a short deadline and we are unable to give that amount of notice. Some may require day, night, weekend and even late night auditing.

If you are unable to perform the shop for any reason, you MUST contact the scheduler before the due date. Failure to contact the scheduler about a shop that cannot be completed by the due date may result in a termination of our relationship. Schedulers in your shopper information note cancellations and postponements.

We attempt to incorporate as many new shoppers as possible at the very beginning of each month. New shoppers are notorious for not completing shops; however, it’s important that we always enlarge our shopper database and give new shoppers an opportunity. (If you are a new shopper, it’s imperative that you complete your shop on time and that the report contains all the necessary information. You will not get another chance if you fail to complete that first shop on time.) Later in the month, the shoppers are assigned on a first-come/first-response basis and shoppers with the highest SPR’s (Shopper Performance Rating) often have first choice. In order to be in this group, your work must be consistently on time and of high quality. If you do not receive postings regularly, it probably just means we do not have any shops in your state/area. If you frequently respond to postings but do not receive jobs, please be patient. It probably means you are in an area where there are many shoppers.

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A Fun Job

Mystery Shopping is exciting and interesting. Most of our shoppers love what they do. In many cases they obtain free or discounted products and services they often would have purchased anyway, and may get paid a fee on top of that. If you think you are interested in being a Mystery Shopper for Service Sleuth, please fill out the Shopper Application. Part of the application is a questionnaire. This questionnaire not only provides us with pertinent personal information, but it also helps us evaluate your skills as a potential shopper. This questionnaire will require you to provide a sample of your writing.

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Go To Application Page (attn shoppers: You will need to read the entire "What You Need to Know" instructions before applying.)