Goodwin & Associates Mystery Shopping Review

mystery shopping review, Uncategorized / Tuesday, March 27th, 2012

Goodwin and Associates Hospitality Services, LLC is a mystery shopping company that focuses on the hospitality industry. I have completed several mystery shops for this company and their forms are short and easy to complete. The shops vary depending on the client but most of the shops I have completed for Goodwin have only taken about 15 minutes each. They pay a flat rate for shops so you get reimbursed for whatever you spent if it is under the flat rate, plus whatever is left over to get to the flat rate. For example, if you are getting $12 flat rate for a shop and your purchase is only $8, then you are getting reimbursed the $8 plus $4 in a shop fee. Be sure to record the differences in how much you are getting reimbursed and how much your shop fee is because only the shop fee is taxable income.

I have completed shops for quick serve food locations for Goodwin and have had a very positive experience. They also have bars and restaurants available for mystery shops. Their online web portal is easy to use and you can reschedule yourself once if you have a scheduling conflict with shop you signed up for. Goodwin pays 60-90 days after you complete a shop which is a long time by most mystery shopping standards. They pay by Paypal and when I hadn’t received my payment for almost 90 days I emailed their very responsive helpdesk who apologized and sent the payment to my Paypal account the next day.

Overall I am satisfied with Goodwin and enjoy doing shops for them. If you are interested in becoming a mystery shopper for Goodwin & Associates, click here.

8 Replies to “Goodwin & Associates Mystery Shopping Review”

  4. I am an experienced shopper and have worked with dozens of companies over my years of completing shops. I’ve been a shopper for Goodwin and Associates for several years and until now have had good experiences. In the past year Goodwin and Associates has chosen to go with a third party reporting website. Since making this change the company has become irresponsible and they do not conduct themselves professionally. I completed my last shop on January 4th and immediately submitted my report. I was advised this morning, January 6th, that my shop had been declined. The only explanation I was provided with was that my report was not submitted within the 24 hour time frame. I immediately contacted Goodwin and Associates to learn more about my this situation. At that time I was advised that the phone application was undependable and should not be used, even though I received an email from Goodwin and Associates inviting me to join and to download the application. I was further advised that many shoppers have been cheated because of errors in the system. I was instructed to contact the third party reporting site to get their take on what happened and to see if they could offer a resolution. After this contact things are only more confusing for me. In speaking with a support agent I was advised that my report was completed correctly and that they cannot see any reason it would have been declined. They did indicate that some issues happened with the system and that Goodwin and Associates should have been aware of this. The third party reporting site also offered the opinion that Goodwin and Associates should have contacted me before declining the shop. Unfortunately the third party company has no control over shop acceptance or payment. Convenient? I am attempting to save other shoppers from falling victim to Goodwin and Associates policies and procedures. I can attest that there are numerous reputable companies out there who will pay you for your time and who will treat you fairly. Unfortunately Goodwin and Associates is no longer one of those companies. Hopefully I can save other shoppers from being cheated like I have been.

    1. I have had this same thing happen to me with the iSecretShop app. I submitted my shop via the app and it did not submit properly so they canceled my shop and said I had not submitted it at all and became overdue. I emailed back and forth with them and they said that the app is unreliable to submit shops and that you should only submit through the website. And then you should receive a confirmation email confirming that it was submitted. Otherwise they have no idea that you tried to submit and they consider it cancelled/overdue.

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