I had a lunch shop at a restaurant that was reimbursement only. You also had to take pictures of any menu boards, etc. Okay.
I got there and it was a fast food place, similar to a Subway. There were two employees there and no other customers.
Somehow I was supposed to get photos of all the menu boards AND do a mystery lunch shop, all for only reimbursement.
There was no way I could have gotten good pictures of all the menu boards without being seen. I do menu board shops sometimes but for those I bring my good camera, not my cell phone, and don't have to do a lunch shop at the same time.

I didn't do it since I would have been out the money.
What are they thinking?

Why did you schedule it then?

You kind of lost me on this. What was different when you arrived from the instructions? These days you can easily take menu pictures and if asked you can say its for a review site such as Yelp . If you tell them you liked the place and want others to know about, they will surely not object.

Other suggestions for taking pictures--
1. I am sending them to my friend to see what they want.
2. I am taking them for my restaurant management class or my Photography class.

Thanks BuffaloNY and kenasch! I have been wondering how you are supposed to get photos of menu boards for those jobs. Maybe I will try one if it comes around with a decent fee.

Here is my waste of time for today:

Had a brake inspection shop - these are free anyway at my local shop, so that wasn't the incentive. I figured for about an hour, I could make a decent fee with the little incentive they were offering. WRONG! These guys were the slowest mechanics I've ever seen. Took me 2.5 hours before I pulled out of there! Utter waste of my afternoon. I was going to go home and get some reports done from my morning shops this afternoon, but spent it in the auto repair shop waiting room instead. Maybe I need to get a tablet, so I can do reports while I wait. I think I will pass next time the oil change shop for this place rolls around.

I can guess that it is one of 2 places InPlainSight and have had a similar experience. I also will avoid those 2 shops like the plague.

I just got a $60 check in the mail for my oil change, and I was at a place I swore I'd never step foot in again. They had me out in a little over an hour, but they put my car on the allignment rack and gave me printouts showing that it is in near perfect allignment. (One upsell miss.)

They also correctly identified that I have a small leak on my valve cover gasket. They then bring up the fact that my Honda is near 120,000 and ask me if I have changed the timing belt yet?

They end up printing up an estinate to change the timing belt, and water pump (since it's right there and 95% of the labor is done.) I assumed they were padding the bill with an insane upsell.

Sure enough, I go home and blow the dust off the owners manual and read the 90,000 mile suggested maintanence requirement. Go online and read about the horror stories of what happens of the belt breaks on this type of engine as it is whats called an "interferance engine". This means that if the belt breaks, parts that are moving inside the engine will collide with other parts that cannot be in the same space at the same time causing extreme engine damage up to and including totaling the engine.

This is not something I'd ever let this shop do to my Honda, but they were very accurate in pointing out my ticking time bomb of an engine.

I have only done one of those menu board shops and will never do another. It was a busier location but they spotted me taking photos and told me to stop. I said I was preparing for a church camp and we wanted to see what was on the menu board so the kids could order. They told me no. I thought it was a good story but oh well...

The menu shops are probably competitor shops getting pricing information. And the stores that are shopped probably know they are being shopped and have been told to interfere whenever possible. And a church camp probably would have gone inside to try to negotiate a discount.