Experiment: The Secret Shopper

Philip

There have been a few discussions lately of not only where people shop but the cost and quality of those services. I've decided to do a little experiment. Now I'll admit right from the start this isn't the most scientific, or maybe even fairest, way to do it, but it's something I can use other than just going by my impressions. Sort of a secret shopper kind of thing which I will be able to report the results. I want to basically compare apples to apples. I may expand, but for now I'm starting small so I can iron out a good way to do this. My main goal is to find a useful way to compare and to be fair.

I've put in three identical orders with different online suppliers. I did not throw them any curve balls because I wanted to get a baseline for my test. In the future I want to place orders for hard to get items and also really throw them, but that would involve being somewhat of a jerk. Something like changing my order after I have put it in, stuff like that. But for now I wanted to make it an easy order. I will not give any specifics since it is supposed to be secret and I wouldn't want someone to read this and treat my order any different. I will report what I ordered and why after the fact. As far as any of the suppliers are concerned any of the orders they received may be my little experiment. I will say for now that the cost totals only differed by $1.10 between all three. That's pretty good since the orders are over fifty bucks (won't give an exact figure right now) so the difference is almost nothing. 

By the way, I'm not trying to pick winners or losers. I suspect I'm still going to use various retailers because I like to shop around. Sales pop up and what not so you never know. I'm just trying to see if any of them stand out, for good or bad and plus it was a pretty sneaky way to triple my order! 

2b1ask1

Very interesting!  I can't wait to see the results.

motie2

@Philip -- This is an effort of real value to our community. Thanks for undertaking this on our behalf. We look forward to hearing from you....

Philip

To be honest I thought this first round would be boring since it was sort of a soft ball. If they can't get this order right something is wrong. But what popped out right away is that despite the fact that I ordered over the weekend one of the suppliers has already shipped! It was only a matter of hours before it was on it's way. 

I may end up with a sort of "consumers report" type of thing in the end. The most important thing to me is to be fair. The worst thing that could happen is to give someone a poor rap if it is undeserved. Things like this are people livelihoods. Of course the ones that go above and beyond really should get credit, so there has to be some integrity to it.

By the way I already have secret ideas to keep it fair. I don't want any order that comes in with the name Phil on it to be suspect. Now if your name is Phil that might be a great problem, but that could compromise my experiment.

Philip

Updating anyone who cares, all the packages arrived safe and sound. All orders were filled quickly and accurately. I only used three vendors to get a sense of what I was doing. Because over the past week I have developed many ideas that I want to follow through on and even expand so I'm not going to give exact details. I'll explain in another post to this thread but for now I should give you all a summary of what I did.

Made three identical orders to Pipes & Cigar, Smoking Pipes and 4 Noggins. The order had an across the board content. I ordered a few different tins, from different manufacturers. I put a Dunhill on there thinking it should be in stock but might not as people are stocking up. A bulk order, which I went with Lane 1-Q because Lane so graciously sponsors this website and I wanted one of their products and you know everyone will have that in stock. I got some pipe cleaners. Also got a pipe. Went with a Missouri Meerschaum Country Gentleman because it's a scientific fact that you can never have too many cobs. I did not order anything hard, or anything they all didn't carry because I wanted the orders identical. I chose the cheapest shipping option each site offered. Two came UPS and 4 noggins came USPS. 

I had all three orders ready to go on three different browser windows and clicked them all within about 15 seconds. Of course they were all acknowledged and went through in a few minutes. The first one that was actually filled and put out for shipment was from Smoking Pipes, that same day despite being a Sunday. The other two were processed on Monday and both were on the way. Now that's what probably matters most because depending on where you live and the shipper depends on when you actually get it (to an extent). For some reason Pipes and Cigar split the order putting the pipe cleaners in a separate box. Since it didn't cost me anything extra I didn't care, but it was sort of odd. I won't speculate. 

The order from Pipes & Cigar was the first to come in, and also the last! So you know, they are the closest to me. Got their first box on Tuesday. Both Smoking Pipes and 4 Noggins came on Wed. Then on Thurs. the pipe cleaners came from Pipes & Cigars. All the orders were complete, in perfect order. There are some particulars about the order that are not important  but will keep them until I can collect more data. 

What does one order mean? Nothing really but I'm very happy to say that at least for my orders all three provided a service exactly as they promised and I would do business with all again.

Stay tuned for more info.

jim102864

Excellent idea and great experiment.  I'll stay tuned to see how they fair as you go along.

motie2

@Philip -- Once again, thank you for doing this!!!