Evaluator FAQ.

Please be aware of possible email scams pretending to be BARE International. All evaluators for BARE International must be registered and would never receive prepayment for services. All payments are via PayPal, live check, or direct deposit; Cashier Checks appearing to come from BARE are a sign of a scam. Further, all legitimate BARE International emails end with @bareinternational.com. We appreciate you alerting us to any possible scam so we can take action immediately!

If you encounter a scammer impersonating a mystery shopping company, please help to stop them by reporting to the following agencies:

  • If you have received a check in the mail, report to the Post Office
  • For Internet & email scams, report to FBI
  • If you are contacted by Facebook, LinkedIn or other social media, report the scammer directly to the social media outlet so they will remove them.

These agencies have successfully caught and prosecuted scammers performing this scam before, so reporting them does help!

A mystery shopper, or mystery evaluator, is an independent contractor who gathers data to assist our clients with making important decisions to move their business. A typical project involves the evaluation of one of our clients’ businesses through in-person visits, telephone calls, web-based inquiries, or other means by serving as a typical customer or guest. Typically, the evaluator provides his or her objective feedback about the service provided and the overall customer experience. Information may be gathered around knowledge of products and services, the location’s overall cleanliness and condition, and product selection availability. Each project is different because BARE International’s clients all have different needs and design unique programs to meet them. When given a specific project, the evaluator receives a briefing on that particular client’s goals and objectives, including any special requirements the client has communicated to us.

You must be 18 years of age or older. To get started, complete the online registration with BARE International and agree to our working relationship terms and conditions. Once registered, you’ll receive notices about upcoming opportunities in your area. Each year, we provide evaluators with a summary of their work with us to help with tax reporting.

No. There are no fees to register your services with BARE.

In fact, if you see offers from other organizations stating that there is a fee to sign up before you are able to get mystery shopping assignments, BEWARE. You and your services are valuable, and you should be compensated for providing them, not the other way around. This is not an accepted or standard practice for legitimate companies like BARE. We encourage you to sign up for and to work with companies that are part of the  Mystery Shopping Providers Association (MSPA).

As soon as your registration is complete, you can log in to our online portal, APOLLO, to complete BARE basics testing and to check the Job Board for any available projects. Be aware that projects usually have firm deadlines, so be sure to read all the details before applying or registering to do projects that interest you.

Be sure to keep your address, banking information (if receiving electronic payment), and contact information up-to-date in your shopper profile. Not doing so may cause a delay in your receiving payment or prevent us from being able to contact you regarding shop report questions. DO NOT make updates to details such as birthdate and gender. This will deactivate your account.

Our clients represent a wide range of industries and locations around the world. It is likely you will find opportunities near you. As a BARE evaluator, you control where and how often you complete assignments.

You can search the Job Board in APOLLO by zip code, state, and country to find the most up-to-date listing of opportunities all over the world. You may also elect to receive Project Offer Emails in your Evaluator Profile to receive email alerts about available projects in your area.  Do consider whitelisting emails from @bareinternational.com as they are sometimes blocked as spam.

We process offers for projects on a daily basis. You should receive a confirmation via email within 48 hours or so if your bid was accepted. Check your email often! Additionally, make sure to check your Shop Log and My Apps to confirm which shops have been allocated to you.

As an independent contractor, this is really up to you. We always communicate to you what our clients expect in terms of the quality of reports and project timeliness. It is your responsibility to estimate workloads and assess the amount of work that is feasible for you to perform. Please remember that if your performance does not meet the client’s expectations for a particular project, we reserve the right to enlist another evaluator. This can affect your compensation, so only taking on projects with standards that you can reasonably perform is key. Some clients are limiting the number of shops an evaluator can complete for a project.

Contact the Resource Manager in charge of that project as soon as possible so that BARE can locate another evaluator to take your place.

How do I know who my Resource Manager is?

The Resource Manager’s name and contact details can be found on the email notification received when a shop has been assigned. Their contact details are important as you may need to reach out to them for clarification of expectations or to revise a shop date. These details are also found on the shop comments in your shop log and in the project briefing document attached to your assignment. Be aware that Resource Managers work Monday through Friday regular business hours.

What do I do to prepare for an evaluation?

You will receive an acceptance email once a shop has been assigned telling you the shop report is in your log.  Log in to review guidelines the project briefing document and to take any project specific quiz and to review the form.  If required, enter a shop planning date. If you have any questions, or need further clarification, reach out right away to the project manager to get answers.  Project managers reply during regular business hours in your region, Monday through Friday.

What do I do if I have a problem off hours, or on the weekend?

Read the Guidelines in full and review the form itself as soon as you get an assignment, so you can contact the Resource Manager with questions during business hours. If the unforeseen happens, however, during non-business hours, leave the Resource Manager a voicemail or send an email to ensure they can address the situation right away. Do your best to make decisions that do not compromise your identity as a mystery shopper.

Who do I contact in off hours?

Email your Resource Manager, who will get back to you as soon as possible during the next business day.

We rate your work on each project as it comes in on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest, against the expectations of the client and BARE. Items such as timeliness, completeness, accuracy of information, responsiveness, and grammar, among other things, determine which evaluators we can count on to deliver the best product for our clients. Evaluators who consistently produce high-quality work are in the highest demand and will be chosen to participate in projects more frequently than evaluators whose work receives average or below-average ratings.

BARE pays out a wide range of fees for projects performed by evaluators. Fees vary per project depending on the scope, difficulty, and time commitment involved. Fees are communicated to the evaluator community via the job board before an evaluator offers to complete a project. Earnings are therefore under the control of the individual evaluator. Additionally, some projects allow for a purchase reimbursement.  If this is the case, the maximum reimbursement amount allowable will be part of the job posting. Fees and reimbursements are listed in the currency shown on the job posting for your region.

Payment timing and method depend on the region in which you’re registered.

Evaluators in the US and Canada are paid through Tipalti. See the Tipalti FAQ for registration, payment methods, and fees.

Evaluators in Europe and other regions are paid by bank transfer, PayPal, or Wise by the end of the month following the month in which the project was completed and accepted. Unless otherwise stated, fees for these regions are paid in EUR. If your bank account is outside the EU, transfers may incur additional transaction or exchange fees; PayPal and Wise let you choose your currency.

For all regions: keep the payment details in your evaluator profile complete and current, and provide only one payment method. A payment notification is sent to your email on file showing the projects paid and the amounts — review it carefully and report any discrepancy promptly. You have 90 days from the payment date to report a problem. For questions about a specific project’s payment, contact your Project Manager; for questions about the transaction itself, contact the Finance team member named in the notification.

If you see this message, we can no longer email you shop offers:

Your email address has been placed on our “DO NOT EMAIL” list because your email provider has repeatedly rejected our emails (or has sent us a demand to stop sending you emails). As a result, you are no longer receiving shop email offers.

What happened?

Your email provider told our system to stop sending to your address, and we are legally required to comply. Shop offers from every company on the same platform are sent from sassieshop.com, so one block applies to all of them.

Why?

Providers don’t tell us the reason. The most common cause is that a shop offer email was marked as spam, possibly one from a different company. A full mailbox or an address that hasn’t been checked in a long time can also cause it.

How do I fix it?

First unblock the sender with your email provider, using the steps below. Then let us know so we can remove your address from the list. If the block isn’t cleared first, your address goes straight back on the list the next time we email you.

Instructions for unblocking a sender:

Outlook/Hotmail/Microsoft

  1. Log in to the Outlook Web App
  2. Click the Settings cogwheel in the top right corner
  3. Type “blocked senders and domains” into the search field
  4. Open the “Blocked senders and domains” options
  5. Click the Trash icon next to the contact(s) you want to unblock
  6. Click Save

Gmail

  1. Log in to your inbox
  2. Click the Gear icon and choose the “See all settings” option
  3. Navigate to the “Filters and Blocked Addresses” tab
  4. You should see all addresses that are blocked
  5. Select the sender you want to unblock and click Unblock selected addresses

Yahoo Mail

  1. Log in to your Yahoo Mail account
  2. Click the Settings gear icon
  3. Click More Settings
  4. Click Security and Privacy in the left-hand column
  5. Under Blocked addresses, hover over the email address you want to unblock
  6. Click the Trash icon

AOL

  1. Click the Settings icon
  2. Click More Settings
  3. Click Security and Privacy
  4. Mouse over an email address, then click the Delete icon

Mail.com

  1. Click Settings
  2. Select “Blocklist”
  3. Enter the email address or domain you want to unblock
  4. Click Save

iCloud.com

  1. In the Mail app on your Mac, select a message from the sender you want to unblock
  2. Move the pointer next to their name in the message header, click the arrow, then select Unblock Contact
  3. You can also remove senders directly from the list of blocked senders
  4. Choose Mail > Settings
  5. click Junk Mail
  6. click Blocked