The Watchword in Watches: Negotiate

It started with an e-mail. Second to None, an Ann Arbor (Mich.) field research company, was looking for people in the New York area who would pretend to shop for a luxury watch, negotiate on the price, then complete an online questionnaire about the experience. Training would be provided, and I was to receive $80 for each negotiation, plus the occasional bonus.

Many companies hire mystery shoppers—just like regular shoppers, except nosier—to find out if their front-line customer service representatives and sales associates comply with corporate guidelines. They hire outfits such as Second to None to oversee the fieldwork; it's a $1 billion industry with more than 250 companies and 1.5 million independent contractors worldwide, according to the Dallas-based Mystery Shopping Providers Assn. I love shopping for watches. And the idea that I might be paid to shop for them trumped my innate fear of e-mails that seem too good to be true—even if I wasn't actually purchasing a watch. (Transactions were ended by, for example, claiming I'd forgotten my credit card.)