Mystery Shoppers

Mystery Shopping - did you know that this is really a job? I know somebody who has been doing this "job" for about 2 months. This person loves this! I am quite amazed at all the different assignments my friend is sent out on. It doesn't just consist of shopping in a store and spying on the customer service reps/cashiers as I previously believed mystery shopping consisted of.

My friend has to schedule appointments to see apartments, check the trailers that show before movies and review the audience's reaction, set up displays in grocery stores or department stores and various other jobs. This friend of mine has been encouraging me to sign up for some of these Mystery Shopping jobs because there are so many of them available in our area and not enough shoppers.
I went and looked at the information and signed up for one of the companies but I just haven't had the time to really fill out my profile and delve into this. Last Thursday I received an email from this company asking me if I could "shop" an apartment complex over the weekend. They really needed this job done and they saw that I lived in the area. They would pay me $35.00 to complete the job by Monday. I agreed and they emailed me the information packet.
After reviewing the information packet I started second guessing my decision to accept this job. Why? Because it required me to lie. I was supposed to contact the apartment complex's manager by phone and schedule an appointment to see one of the apartments with the intent to rent (or so she would be led to believe.) I was to make up a story as to where I worked, how I came across that particular apartment complex, and my yearly income (which couldn't be above a certain income since these apartments accepted "low-income" only.)

By the time Greg got home from work, I had worked myself into such a tizzy over this "job" and was stressed out! He and I went out to dinner that evening and I was telling him about it. He knows how I feel about lying and how I detest lying even in the smallest, minute way. I try each and every day to be an honest person, always telling the truth in every single thing I do. If I don't want to "tell the truth" about something, I will simply say "I don't want to talk about it" or something like that in order to keep from having to be dishonest.

Why did this bother me so much? What if I did this job and as the manager and I were walking around the apartment complex I ran into a friend of mine who KNEW I had just purchased a new house? They would definitely start asking me why I am looking for an apartment?! What if I gave this woman this whole story of lies about myself and then she showed up at my church on Sunday?? Oh heaven forbid! I would feel awful!

Friday morning, I emailed the company and told them I could not complete this job after all and they were going to have to find somebody else. Guess who they found? My friend - guess the "lying game" doesn't bother my friend huh?