Lisa, like you, I'm shopping Central Florida, have been doing so since May so I'm a newbie. I'm learning so much, having recently stumbled on this forum. Last week, I tried something I'll never do again. I've been intrigued by shopping routes, and LisaSTL suggested trying a mini-route close to home. My mistake wasn't in trying out a mini-route, but was the type of shop. Or just the particular client. I found a string of 8 Sunoco shops in a big loop around S Orlando. It was a day from hell.
The first location was in a really sketchy neighborhood. Glass partition for the cashier, bars on the windows, the whole works. The Sunoco shops require you to go across the street and take a photo of the entire station. I was lightning-quick, and glad it was a 2-lane road I could quickly run across.
The second location went pretty well, although I had to drive around the block and circle back to end up across the street to take the photo of the entire station.
The shop guidelines warn you that Sunoco's credit card processing is set up to alert if the same card is used at multiple stations in one day. They recommend you purchase a Sunoco gift card and use it for evaluating the card reader at the pump. Neither of the first two stations was able to sell me a gift card. At the third station, I got a message at the pump saying I had to see a cashier and I figured my credit card had been flagged. So I completed all portions of the shop at that station except for pumping gas. And of course they couldn't sell me a gift card, either.
Went ahead and drove to station #4, taking forever because there was a landscaping crew that had blocked off a lane of traffic. My card worked fine at the pump, so now I'm mystified. That station couldn't sell me a gift card, either. And when I drove across the street to take the obligatory photo, there were two huge landscaping trucks that almost totally blocked the view of the station. I waited about 10 minutes, and gave up.
Now at this point, I'm still thinking that my credit card has been flagged. So I drove to Publix and bought a VISA gift card, hoping this might solve the problem. Drove back to station #3 (cussing out the landscaping crew blocking the road) and got the same message at the pump to see the cashier. So this time I went inside and they said that the pump wasn't working. Duh.
Finally finished station #3 and drove BACK to station #4 (again with the landscaping crew) to take the across-the-street photo. Lo and behold, there are two very unsavory looking people loitering right where I need to take the photo. Again, I waited awhile and finally gave up. No piddly little shop fee is worth my safety.
Around this time, I noticed that, even though I've bought $3 in gas at 4 different stations, my gas gauge reads the same as when I left home that morning. And here I thought I'd have a problem since my car only holds 10 gallons!
The rest of the day went along those same lines. Not a single one of the Sunoco stations I visited that day could sell me a gift card. I guess I was lucky that my card never got flagged. After completing the last station on my route (by this time, I'm dealing with rush hour traffic), I drove back across town to station #4 and took the photo from across the street. It was nearly dark by the time I got home. I was tired, hungry, and had a headache. And still had 8 shop reports to do. I finished the last one at 3:30am.
Bottom line: I won't do a route of gas station shops again. At least not Sunoco stations. The report is long, lots of photos are required, I was a bit worried about my safety a few times during the day, and the (non-bonused) pay was pitiful. Just not worth it. And even though I was diligent about taking a photo of the assignment ID before each location, it was still a huge headache to sort through the 171 photos I took to upload the required ones.
Never. Again.