I took a short route and am very glad I did not put in a counter offer on the other one I considered. Since I teach, I only have weekends and this ended up being a little more interesting than I expected.

There were a couple of shops close to home that I just plan on doing as I am nearby and a group further out that made a nice circular route so wanted to do them all in one day. Unfortunately when I actually was awarded the route I noticed a number of the locations were listed as needing to be done after dark while others could be done anytime. At first I wasn't worried about it and was thinking it would just be a late night, but the realized that there were a number of locations that closed early (six or seven pm), so in order to get to the different locations a lot of zig zagging on the route had to happen which really cut into the profitability. Does anybody know with those routes if when you make the original offer list whether they are evening or anytime shops? I personally don't recall seeing that until I was awarded the shops, but can't go back and see any of that now. This is a route for the company known to be behind in technology.


Twice today, the request for receipt generated the person recognizing me as a shopper. Once the person who had been very uninvolved in the sale suddenly smiled and complemented my sweater. The second time I got very prolonged thank you coming to our location blah blah blah. At this spot when I went back to my car to get the LOA, she apparently had told the customers that I was the shopper, so on my way back in they are pointing at me as I come in. She laughs and says it's always so obvious when you guys do that. No one gets a receipt for a candy bar. Especially after getting just a few dollars of gas in the car.

At another location the cashier was a little grumpy with me when I came back in with the LOA. She asked why I did it different than the regular shopper. She said he always walks in the door and before he even picks ups his item for purchase he says remember to be nice and give me that my receipt because I'm the mystery shopper today. She said that she thought that was the way mystery shops were supposed to go. She said she would have thanked me if I told her ahead of time I was the shopper. Really???? Wouldn't that make me an obvious shopper, not a mystery shopper?

At another location as I was getting close to finishing up employee came out and said I was just looking at the register noticed you ordered purchased 10 gallons of gas. When you get 10 gallons of gas we have a promotion so you get a free coffee or cup of cappuccino, why don't you come and get your free cappuccino. I said got a couple dollars in gas not 10 gallons. She then winked at me and said, "oh sure you got 10 gallons come on in and get your free cappuccino."


Then, I get to a location that is closed when it should have been open. I get out of my car and see a police officer cruising by he keeps going. So I proceed across the street, so I can get a picture of the street signs and overall location. I approached the store to get a close-up so you can see that it's closed and I'm looking for an hours sign on the door. Take the picture and suddenly see blue and red lights reflected the glass. Lots of questions about who I am and what I'm doing. He lets me go but demands I leave the premises with no further pictures. Thankfully I had what I needed. Hoping the station doesn't get robbed anytime soon as I am sure I will be a prime suspect.

Shelly, I took one station from that company that was the brand new to them. My station did not specify evening in the offer, but when I got the instructions it did specify evening. I called the company and told them I couldn't do the shop because I'd just had eye surgery and didn't see well at night. They told me evening was preferred but not required. I suggest you call them and explain the situation. I think what they're trying to do is get some of these done in the evening and they would perhaps be happy if you picked up any portion of them after dark. Wouldn't hurt to try. I ended up doing my shop in the daylight and it was accepted without a hitch.

Good post, you two.

The police officer encounter makes a good point for printing out one copy of the instructions, even if you're doing massive paper and printer-saver measures.

I always bring my contract or something that proves I am allowed to do this...

Shelly's post is also testament to having a DVR to record the shops [assuming you're in a single party consent state]. Any one of those could be contested and the recording could become essential.

I was on the phone with the scheduler the other day about a potential add on shop. He said that when it get closer to the deadline, they are given the option to change some of them from evening to day, but are not allowed to do that yet.

That is correct on the "old" stations, but it is not correct on the "new" stations. Not according to the person I spoke with, and I know that I got correct information because I audited an "evening" location as a "day" location and it went right through. Suggest you make another call and see what you can find out. On this first go round, where they listed them as "anytime" and then some of them came through as "evening", you should be able to get someone to make a notation that you took them with the "anytime" understanding.

Good note for the future. Definitely would have made life easier if the backtracking was not involved. I did not get the closer to home ones that I planned on doing in this route, so will have to get them later.

why do you go back to you car to get the LOA.
Just bring it in with you and present it after
the purchase. Why waste that time? Time is money.

Mary, I assigned 4 of those the other day and didn't notice that 3 them were in the evening. I called and they didn't mention me doing them in the daytime. Just took them off. I know it is a big company and the state you are in may make a difference. I always get a lot of the yellow ones when they change them to daytime.

I am glad ya'll have brought this up. I thought maybe I over looked the day part because I didn't see it either until I accepted them. I am going to ask about doing them during the day. I don't mind doing the ones close to at night, but I have some that are pretty far away that I would prefer to do during the day.

techman01 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> why do you go back to you car to get the LOA.
> Just bring it in with you and present it after
> the purchase. Why waste that time? Time is money.


Don't you have to also put on a vest?

(heart)

I haven't seen a vest requirement on these. Anybody seen a vest requirement? Maybe I overlooked it.

The yellow one you do have to wear a vest. The new blue ones, you do not.

No vest requirement on the new client shops.

I did see the daytime/nighttime requirements when I was offered a route and chose not to accept the route because it was not set up well. I can't go to location A in the day and the next door location B at night. It didn't make sense financially. The shop requirements are on the jobs when you see them on the board. It is hard to get used to looking for it.

Client: ABC123 Type Of Shop: Mystery Shop with Reveal Shop Pay:MONEY Purchase Required: Yes
Visit Type: Evening Shop
Shopping Days In Window: 7

I think I probably was just looking at the locations and missed that. I would not have picked it up if I had.

I was fooled once...not twice. Lol.

I got harassed by a cop last week while taking pictures at a station where I had already announced myself and got the LOA signed. While I was doing my thing, an ambulance driver came in to get gas, thought I looked suspicious taking pictures of gas pumps, and called the cops. They came, checked me out, talked to the attendant, looked at my paperwork, then wanted to search my car. I drew the line there, 4th amendment and all. It happens, I finished up and moved on. Never had those problems while doing these during the day.

A lot of the smaller independent station owners are a bit more resistant to us being there at night also. I still have one pending where I was asked to leave, and the new requirements for refused audits are impossible once you are asked to leave the property. I haven't decided how I'm going to handle it if the MSC rejects that shop for not getting a picture of the front door. I enjoy doing these, and I do a lot of them, but the pay isn't the greatest, and if they start not paying because of refusals after I have driven into the middle of nowhere, well, it may suddenly not be worth the hassle anymore.

Also, I did run into two closed stations, and just went back earlier the next night. This after dark thing really limits you when it comes to that because 3-4 hours after the sun goes down, people close up shop, especially in rural areas. I had a couple that I couldn't get to in the window because of that, and instead of rescheduling them, they just took them from me and gave them to someone else. I was pretty pissed about that. I asked to move them to the next window, which I could have scheduled them for originally, and they said no, they couldn't do that, they would just have to take them off my account and get someone else to do them, presumably in the next window because it was the last day of the current one.

With all the issues I've had with the old MSC, I've gotta say, I'm really starting to miss them.

That is my big problem. Many of these locations are 20 or so miles from each other. If you can't start until close to 6 and there are places closing at 9 pm with the requirements to get there 45 minutes before closing, not much can get accomplished.

That the problem with all those after dark audits. The window is too short to get much done.