Telephone Mystery Shops for ARC Consulting

I just wanted to let you all know about another company that frequently has phone mystery shops — ARC Consulting. I have seen enough comments and forum posts online from people who have actually done shops for this company that I believe it to be completely legit.

What is phone mystery shopping?

Before I get into the review, I will explain phone mystery shopping for anyone not familiar with it. Phone mystery shopping is similar to regular mystery shopping, but you don’t have to leave your house. You generally just call different businesses pretending to be interested in their products or services for the purpose of gathering information. I have written about several different well-known companies you can do this for here, and ARC is another to add to that list.
I should also point out that many, many mystery shopping companies occasionally have phone shops in addition to in-person shops, but there are some — like ARC — that are best known for their phone shops.
And another bonus — background noise is not an issue since you are posing as a consumer interested in the products/services of the business you are contacting.

About ARC

While many people work from home doing phone mystery shopping for ARC, there are also some people who do call performance monitoring and analysis for them. These are also work from home positions, but I don’t have as much information about how those work. However, Miranda at Work at Home Adventures has written about ARC and the call performance position here if you’d like more details. I did read at WPLH that there is very low turnover at ARC for the call performance monitoring positions and that they only hire in-house for that (people who are already doing phone mystery shopping for them), so that may be why there’s not much info posted online about it.
In addition to phone mystery shops, I’ve read that ARC may also have some online mystery shops you can do.

Pay

You are paid per call. The amount per call varies with most starting at around $3.50 per call and going up from there. Some pay as much as $12 per call. Pay is monthly via direct deposit.
This is actually part-time, extra income. I’ve seen a lot of varying reports online regarding how much you can make per month with some people saying over $100 and sometimes less than that. It probably all comes down to how much work they have available and how much time you can spend working on it.

Getting Started

When you apply, you’ll either be invited to a training meeting which will take place online — a group session where a lot of people are listening in on one call — or you’ll receive their standard “we’re not hiring” email. I don’t know if they are hiring right now or not, but I have read that they keep people on file so if they don’t need you now, they may at a later date.
ARC may also ask you to apply online via their application. There is a field here for your social security number, but many people decline to enter this information because they don’t feel comfortable giving it out unless they get the job. While I do believe ARC to be completely legit, I don’t blame anyone for withholding that info until it’s necessary to provide. Note that I am not sure if the application will let you proceed if you do not enter your SS#. If that is holding you up, you may want to email them to ask how to proceed and explain that you don’t want to give them your SS# until they actually need it.

Eligible Countries

The application lists the United States, Australia, Barbados, Canada, Ireland, Malaysia, Virgin Islands, United Kingdom, and United Arab Emirates, so I assume people from all of those countries can work here.

Feedback

The best feedback I’ve found online about ARC comes from Work Place Like Home. Below, I’ve linked the two most helpful threads you should read through if you want more info. Much of the info I’ve provided above is thanks to the information in these threads. Note that if you are not a member of the Work Place Like Home forum, you will need to register with them in order to view the threads below, but registration is free and only takes a few seconds:

If you don’t feel like registering, all reports indicate that they pay on time and the work is flexible. As mentioned above, it can’t replace your day job, but it will provide some extra money. And if you stick with it long enough and do a good job, there is a chance you could get one of their work from home call performance monitoring jobs.

Want to apply?

Go here to read the ARC employment page or begin filling out the application here.
As always, please share if you’ve ever done any work for this company and report on your experience. Good luck!