Walmart Mystery Shopper
Complaint 128060 Details

I first received the following email:

On Jun 13, 2012, at 7:48 PM, "Team@Walmart Inc"<[email protected]> wrote:
Will you like to Shop and Get Paid? You can earn as much as $2,700 monthly
working while carrying out a mystery shopping survey assignment for our company?
Shop details include dinning out in restaurants, and carrying out secret survey
reports on Financial Institutions, and feeding us back with the activities that
transpires between you and the shop attendants. This is a form of feedback
mechanism to check on the activities of our staffs for job performance
evaluation.

TO PARTICIPATE; KINDLY FILL INFORMATIONS BELOW

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YOUR FULL NAME(s):
FULL RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: Street Number/City/State/Zip Code.
Cell/Home/ Telephone Number:
Alternative Email Address:

We are well registered by the appropriate authorities and we are licensed to
operate under legal and licensed organization of the better business bureau,
Working with our company guarantee's you a safe relationship and licensed
establishment.

Your response would be highly appreciated.


Regards.
Task Co-ordinator
John Harrington.
WALMART SURVEY INC.


I submitted the requested information and then received this email:

Hello,

You have been Accepted as one of our Mystery shopper/Survey Agent. You will be evaluating Walmart Stores and Money gram Services in your neighborhood, Kindly check out for one Walmart store and one Money gram Agent outlet you will like to evaluate, make sure the store and the Money gram outlet you will chose are close to your area as much as possible,You will have to send the name and address of the two location to us as soon as possible, because as you have been accepted, your name and address has been processed to issue you payment to carry out your first assignment at any location you have chosen.

Please note that you are to act Cool, Calm and Confident through out the period which you will be carrying out your survey at the stores, So we can figure how we can serve people better. You will be shopping at Walmart stores and also make a transaction at the Walmart, You will write a report about the customer services and send your report back to us via Email, you will have to use the following pointers to prepare your report after you carry our your first assignment.

1) How long it took you to get services.
2)Ambiance/Outlook of the Shop/Outlet
3)Smartness of the attendant
4)Customer service professionalism
5)Reaction of personnel under pressure
6)Information that you think would be helpful
7)Your comments and impressions.

Note on every assignment you carry out, we pay $200, Which will be about 2-3 times weekly. For now this is a part time job.

A payment will be sent out to you Monday which you will receive Tuesday. I will update you with the payment details later on as it has been sent to a courier company for delivery to your address, Once we received shipment update from the courier, I will send you payment shipment details. This payment is for compensation payment and other funds you will use to carry out your surveying process, you must not use your personal money to complete any of the surveying process and there will be no reimbursement of any kind since we are providing you with all the funds your will need to carry out the survey. An Evaluation Instruction will be given to your through email, this will tell you what to do at the Walmart and the Money gram and how to expend the fund at each location. Please reply this Email and give us the name and address of the Walmart and Money gram location you will be evaluating .

Thank you.
The Hiring Manager.

John Harrington.

and lastly, this email on Tuesday June 19, 2012:


How are you today and how is life with you and the family? Payment for your first assignment would be delivered today via USPS courier service with tracking number EO916 295 109 US. Below is the Instruction guidelines to complete your first assignment task.

As soon as you receive this package, proceed to have the check Deposited into your bank account today (TUESDAY). The issuing bank confirmed that the Check will be cleared and funds paid into your bank within maximum of 24 hours. Funds will be available Wednesday/Thursday. However, depending on your bank , funds maybe available to you immediately. Deduct $200 for your commission and proceed to any Money Gram location to send the balance of funds once funds are available . You are also to deduct Money Gram charges from the remaining funds to be sent to the next secret shopper.

Below are more Instruction guidelines on your assignment task.

1ST ASSIGNMENT:
You will be Evaluating Wal-mart store and Money Gram outlet in your City.

The Payment you received covers all expenditures including evaluation, shopping, transport and your compensation (salary=$200 ) for these surveys .You are to purchase Goods of your Choice for your own Use not more than $100,at any Wal-mart store close to you and also you will be using money gram services(MONEY IN MINUTES) to send the remaining funds to the next shopper.
As a secret shopper, you should go there and study how to send funds and memorize all you see at the outlet. We want you to report back to us with the following information:

GUIDELINES :
-How long it took you to get services.
-Ambiance/Outlook of the Shop/Outlet
-Smartness of the attendant
-Customer service professionalism
-Reaction of personnel under pressure
-Information that you think would be helpful
-Your comments and impressions.

Below is the expenditures breakdown which will be taken out from the total MONEY received:-$2,896.00
First assignment commission=$200
Wal-mart shopping fees= $100
Deduct the Money gram charges from the funds and have the remaining sent to the name and address below:
PLEASE NOTE: YOU MUST BE STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL. WE DO NOT WANT THE ATTENDANTS TO KNOW THAT YOU ARE EVALUATING THEIR SERVICES.
The name of next secret shopper agent to send funds via Money gram is stated below. You must use the Money in Minutes option.

NAME: JO ANN WOODS
CITY: VENICE
STATE: CA.
ZIP CODE: 90291

This are the details required of you once the money gram task is completed:
1. The name of the attendant
2. How long it took you to get services
3. Smartness of the attendant
4. Customer service professionalism
5. Money Gram Details: Senders name, address, 8 digit Reference Number, total amount sent, Secret Question and Answer if needed.

The sooner we receive your Report Details the sooner you will receive your second assignment, up to 3 assignments per week, sometimes more, depending upon your efficiency. Please email back to confirm receipt of this email.

Task Co-ordinator
John Harrington.
WalMart.


I got suspicious when I received a priority mail envelope and the only item in it is a check for $2,896.00. No instructions in the mail no forms to complete. Thank God that I was also suspicious when reading the emails and noted all of the grammatical errors in it. I didn't think that anything so inappropriate would come out of a company such as Wal-Mart. I sent an email requesting answers to some of my questions and concerns. I wanted to know why I needed to send money to this person in Venice, CA. My email insisted that I speak with someone. I then got the following short and sweet email:

Call 214-613-7228 for all questions...

So I did. I was immediately put into a voice mail system. I then did the reverse phone look-up online and the only information I could get on the number is that it is a landline in Dallas, TX. There was no name attached to it.

I'm so glad I listened to my woman's intuition voice which came across loud and clear.

I'm also very sad that there are people out there that are willing to go through such great lengths to steal money from hardworking individuals. I am even more concerned about all of the seniors out there that may be scammed out of their savings. I will certainly keep a closer eye on my elderly parents from now on.

I’ve also sent a complaint to BT.com (the email service provider).