I had an incident recently with an MSC I have worked with since I began mystery shopping, over four years and 300 plus shops. They apparently viewed the tape of a shop on which I claimed no manager was present. It turned out I had spoken to the manager, who was not wearing a manager's badge or proper khaki pants. I was chastised for not recognizing him as the manager and told if I screwed up like that again, they would deactivate me. He WAS wearing a black collared shirt, the only evidence he was a manager, but otherwise, he could have been any other employee. I was hurt and angry, but didn't respond or defend myself. I'm beginning to think we're better off lying and answering YES to "Was a manager present?" rather than tell what we think is the truth and risk making an error like mine. Comments?

Why were you hurt and angry? You made a mistake so neither is the appropriate emotion. You should be feeling contrite rather than suggesting it is better to lie to cover up a simple human error.

You may have to look for hints like a collared shirt from now on when you look for a manager. Some are hard to spot. Usually, the MSC will help you out in the guidelines by giving you clues to look for. If they did not, now you know what to look for in the future.

Why would he want to feel contrite? He thought he did the best job that he did. It sounds, to me anyways, that the constructive criticism/reprimand seems very harsh for this company with very little one can do to defend themselves. I haven't been doing this for this company very long but I have been in the field of installing movie standees for a company in California. Same thing, they give you work, you have to do it, submit it, etc. I've never ever been treated like they ASSUME I am telling a lie. I am respected and treated as such. It seems, after reading this, and this is just my impression, that the company assumes you are a liar or screw up.

I have seen very few shops where identification of a manager was required that did not tell you what to look for in terms of apparel, but these are only a guideline as to what is likely to identify them. In general apparel different from other staff/crew members is just the start. Behaviors will identify a manager. On a recent restaurant shop I recognized the manager from previous visits and she was wearing server garb. BUT she was visiting tables and directing staff in addition to acting as a server. There was no other manager in appropriate garb so I designated her as manager. There was absolutely no blow back because the garb discrepancies were mentioned in the section narrative as well as her activities. It was in a place where no one wears nametags.

While manager 'attire' is key, behaviors are even more telling.

The OP didn't say the MSC accused him of lying. The OP said he wants to lie in the future rather than admit to making a mistake. Personally, if I make a mistake I am not going to feel hurt and my only anger will be at myself. To the MSC it would be a big mea culpa. We all make mistakes. Until the invention of robots for mystery shopping, human error will be part of the equation.

@Flash wrote:

While manager 'attire' is key, behaviors are even more telling.

Boy, is that ever true! I just did a shop on which there was a staff member wearing what's supposed to be a "manager's" shirt, but there was absolutely no way to tell she was a manager. I assumed at first that she just had on the wrong shirt! Another crew member whom I recognized from earlier visits as being the manager was on duty, but not wearing a manager's shirt. She was doing all the checking for needed items and so on, but I was advised to say that the other woman was the manager, although she did absolutely nothing during my 45-minute visit that indicated she was!

As afar as the OP's dilemma, if the guidelines stated the manager would be wearing a collared shirt or khaki pants, then I guess, as in my situation above, that person should be identified as a manager. And if narrative allows, a comment could be added to the effect that the "manager" was only identifiable as such due to the shirt. If the guidelines stated that the manager must wear khaki pants (which he wasn't) and a collared shirt, that changes the situation, at least in my mind. And I think the OP was correct.

Not knowing the full situation, sometimes I decide to take threats from MSCs with a grain of salt. I think they are probably dealing with all kinds of shenanigans all day long and since the only way we mostly communicate with them is via email, their emails tend overall to be IMO unnecessarily dramatic. I just have to remind myself that they probably feel they have to be that way because of the actions of previous independent contractors. That having been said, there have been a couple of times I have gently asked for clarification and received a more human response haha.

I recently did a restaurant shop. There was no way of me knowing who was the manager. I suspected the server that was visiting customers was the manager. She also was wearing a head set. She was and I was correct. Don't be to hard on yourself. I have made many mistakes and they are usually my fault. Don't lie. You could say that you think he was the manager but wasn't sure.

I think OP's point was that she reasonably could have assumed that there was indeed no manager present. The MSC should have commiserated with the OP rather than chastising her and threatening to deactivate her. Sounds like one of those "new" MSC employees... That person was out of line to threaten her.

OP, I do get what you're saying about just clicking the box. There are some companies where the hassle of finding a discrepancy simply isn't worth it. Usually I'll pass on the shop that I know gets challenged every time there is a negative.

We always address these situations as if the only two sides of the equation are the MSC and the shopper while leaving out the client. If that video was being checked there is a good chance the client challenged the report. The MSC now has to apologize to the client because they are at risk of losing them. For all we know that emal to the OP was right in the middle of the s---storm.

Do NOT lie.

Use comments section to explain. If no narrative is possible, e-mail the info to the scheduler or "help desk" equivalent. "I talked to a man in a black shirt, but could not tell if he was a manager."

I can't tell you how many times I've explained "I didn't see XXXX. I looked, but did not see it. It could have been there, in a place I missed, but I did not see it." I have never had that questioned once. For all I know, the various editors delete my comment; but I'll never, ever know. And I feel safer explaining. Some day, I'll probably get an e-mail asking me "how could you miss that? The video shows it right in front of you!"

LOL!!!! Like the gas station shop I did that asked for "misaligned" graphics. Heck, I wouldn't know one of
those if it bit me. Turns out the photo I submitted for "a" dispenser had the dreaded misaligned graphics.
Thank goodness I had taken photos of every pump, back and front, and submitted additional photos.

@shopper8 wrote:

You could say that you think he was the manager but wasn't sure.

This is the way I always handle these situations.

When I cannot identify a manager I pick out a suspect and report that person as "maybe" a manager, along with all details of why I thought that might be possible. So far so good.

I don't advise lying about anything on a report. If you can't identify a manager and you don't want to bother with reporting a "possible" manager, just say you couldn't identify a manager. Better to make a mistake than tell a lie. I think the company was very harsh to threaten deactivation under the conditions you describe. I'd probably keep my distance and look elsewhere for work.

I learned two lessons a long time ago: (1) don't lie to your boss; (2) be the first person to tell your boss when you make a mistake. Having a reputation for not lying may get you the benefit of the doubt if there is ever any question. Making sure your boss hears about a problem from you first gives them an opportunity to defuse the problem so any repercussions are less serious.

In mystery shopping if (when!) I make a mistake I put it in the report. That way there isn't any question about me trying to hide something. I do that to maintain whatever credibility I may have. Sometimes that's all I have to sell to an employer (or mystery shopping company).

I always lie on my reports, don't worry too much about it.

I HOPE this is sarcasm that doesn't come through the screen well...

@DavePi wrote:

I always lie on my reports, don't worry too much about it.

Basically, what you have to offer the company IS your integrity. I would never jeopardize that.

@KathyG wrote:

I HOPE this is sarcasm that doesn't come through the screen well...

@DavePi wrote:

I always lie on my reports, don't worry too much about it.

Read DavePI's other five forum posts and then make your decision. I think we have a T-I-T here.

Try this for future reports where you can not identify a manager:

"I did not observe anyone in a leadership role circulating throughout the restaurant and bar, nor did I observe anyone interacting with guests or the service staff in a way to suggest they were in a leadership role."

Many times they define the manager as "not dressed like the others" If he has a collared shirt or polo on and everyone else has a T-shirt on, then I try to observe his entire look. I always make comments in the report that he was wearing a button down shirt and appeared to be the manager. You can't lose that way. You are saying to the best of your observation skills that he appeared to be dressed like a manager.

I would never say there was no manager present, as your report will get thrown back to you for clarification. Just like the Five Guys place where managers can be wearing from dark gray, to light gray, to almost white (over-bleached shirts) and you must be certain there was no manager was present. (never found a Five Guys where no manager was present.)

Another dilemma was the famous pizza place buffet where the manager was the cashier, the table greeter, the specialty pizza pass-around and cleaning the tables. He did not look any different than anyone else. I acted like I had a question for the manager and asked, "Is that the manager on the register?" They said yes. This was a place where everyone did everything, from register to clean up.

I really appreciate all the excellent feedback you have given me here. I prefer to always tell the truth, because I find that lying inevitably comes back to bite me in the butt. I just had a shop where I was supposed to interact with a lot of store employees, but was only able to interact with one. I was concerned the MSC and client would be angry if I said I only spoke with one employee, but my husband reminded me that was the truth, and I should say so--so I did. Thus far, there has been no feedback. I'm wondering if I will hear from them and if they will check the surveillance tapes?

@Sybil2 wrote:

@KathyG wrote:

I HOPE this is sarcasm that doesn't come through the screen well...

@DavePi wrote:

I always lie on my reports, don't worry too much about it.

Read DavePI's other five forum posts and then make your decision. I think we have a T-I-T here.

Would that be "troll in training"?

@proudlyshopping wrote:

I had an incident recently with an MSC I have worked with since I began mystery shopping, over four years and 300 plus shops. They apparently viewed the tape of a shop on which I claimed no manager was present. It turned out I had spoken to the manager, who was not wearing a manager's badge or proper khaki pants. I was chastised for not recognizing him as the manager and told if I screwed up like that again, they would deactivate me. He WAS wearing a black collared shirt, the only evidence he was a manager, but otherwise, he could have been any other employee. I was hurt and angry, but didn't respond or defend myself. I'm beginning to think we're better off lying and answering YES to "Was a manager present?" rather than tell what we think is the truth and risk making an error like mine. Comments?

I think you should reply and explain exactly why you felt there was not a manager present. The MSC might not have realized the clothing issue when they replied to you. They may have just been responding to feedback from the client. It might help if you explain that there was nobody in the store with the required outfit the manager was supposed to be wearing, so you didn't realize a manager was present. Mention that the manager was not wearing a nametag. Maybe ask what they would suggest you should have done. None of this may help your case, but it could, and at least they will know your reasoning.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/2016 07:31PM by rainy.

Proudly Shopping, you should not question what the MSC company thinks. Do your job and answer truthfully! That is what your job is!

I understand completely. I've been doing the best buy announced audits for about the past year. Now that I'm used to them I love it. But there was a mix up. In the orientation video which they still use it clearly says "you only need to audit your gender's bathroom". On they app for the audit I still have to fill out the questions for the women's restroom to make the report submit and Ihad been doing so with no issues for a good 6 months and always consistently get 10 shopper ratings. Now I understand that every new month technically I'm supposed to read over the entire guidelines. But the thing is this company has a section the beginning that says "new this month" and goes over all the changes in the guidelines from the previous month. These guidelines are like 100 pages long and it's all largely the same material i would probably miss anything new anyway if they didn't do that cause it would just all blur as similar. Anyway apparently they changed it to we need to check both bathrooms but never put that in the "new this month" section so I did the report as i always do and the editor responded back very nastily about how i need to read the entire guidelines every month and I "can't just make up answers". Which for the record I ALWAYS explained in the comments to disregard the answers for the women's restroom.

I completely understand where OP is coming from, you work for the company many times and you feel they must recognize you've done good work then you make a simple but understandable error and they flip out on you like you're stupid. A simple "hey you missed the part that we updated the guidelines, you now have to audit both bathrooms" is ALL I needed and the mistake would never happen again, I don't need to be treated like I'm stupid

I recently did a shop for a beach/surfwear store. The employees are required to wear shirts with the store’s logo [the same shirts that are for sale at the store], along with a nametag. The manager does not have to wear the store merchandise, but must have a nametag. I was able to ID the three employees with no problem, but no manager was readily visible. I identified her, not by nametag [she wasn’t wearing one as far as I could tell], but by the fact that she was using a handheld scanner to verify pricing—logical deduction that a customer would not be doing that task. I included her description, also mentioning that she was under 5 feet tall and that her long hair may have been covering her nametag, all of which was true. The report was accepted without any questions.

Regarding the restaurant shops if I see somebody visiting a table who is not the waiter for that table or a busboy that is probably the manager. You have to watch all the tables.

I can't imagine lying on a report. What if you say you saw a manager and there was no manager on duty for some reason? I will pick out someone who looks or acts different from the other staff and say there was someone who "appeared" to be a manager. I have never had a problem with that.

@SunnyDays2 wrote:

I would never say there was no manager present, as your report will get thrown back to you for clarification. Just like the Five Guys place where managers can be wearing from dark gray, to light gray, to almost white (over-bleached shirts) and you must be certain there was no manager was present. (never found a Five Guys where no manager was present.)

I have the opposite issue with Five Guys - there's usually two people with the grey polos, so I never know which one it is. If I see one of them doing managery things then I include that in the report.