Recently I did a shop where the wrong address was listed on the job board and description. The address was 8301 but was listed as 301. I spent two hours trying to find the location using my GPS. The street address matched two nearby cities but not the one listed. I have seen the wrong city listed before so I followed my GPS. But the client I was to shop was not there. So I drove to the other nearby city with the same address. No luck there either. I called the client and asked for their exact location. When I finally found it, was when I discovered that someone neglected to put the 8 in the address.
I commented about it in the report. I got a reply from the editor thanking me for a great report and I got a shop grade of 10. Here was no mention of the wrong address.
Should I contact the scheduler and repeat what I put in the report already asking for a bonus to cover my time and wasted gas? I didn't ask for a specific amount. How much would be a fair bonus for 2 hours of wasted driving and about a1/4 tank of gas?

Forget the gasoline. Lesson: verify addresses prior to setting out on the road. Did you check the shop's website? Did you look at google maps (set to street view) to ensure the building was recently there?

What would be good would be to send a friendly, FYI, not to the scheduler pointing out the error in the hopes of it being fixed the next time the MSC needs this location shopped.

That's the response I expect from them. That it's my own fault for not verifying that the client was indeed at the address listed. In six years of mystery shopping I have never not been able to find the location. So I didn't feel the need to use street view. Good idea though. I will do that in the future.
Also I logged into my job list and see that the address has been corrected.

Google maps is also good enough that I can query it such as 'McDonalds, Main St,, Orlando, FL' and it will give me a location. If I saw there was one at 8301 but none at 301 I could then street view the 301 just to make sure it wasn't there and street view the 8301. Since Google maps also shows zip codes and most shops have the zip code, I would probably quickly see that 301 was not in the correct zip while 8301 was. In most cases Google maps will give the location phone number as well, which can be checked against the phone number in the shop address information. If nothing lines up, call the client at the phone number with the shop address for their location and/or contact the MSC about the discrepancies.

I think, if you have a good relationship with the company you can certainly ask. There have been times were even when using google maps (in remote locations) you don't always get the correct directions. I was given the correct address but it was impossible to find. I spent hours, as it was the end of the month, trying to locate it and when I let her know (requesting an additional fee) she gave it to me gladly. That being said, something similar happened recently and I had to give up or I would have missed my flight, and I was given my first "flake" citation after 5 years of solid work with no cancellations. So yes, long story, ask. You get what you negotiate. I once (maybe I am a fool) spent an extra $500 dollars to get something done that I said I would do, as I did not want to let down the scheduler. Many lessons learned......some good, some not so much.

Yes, I think you are deserving of re-cooping your expenses and should ask for a bonus. Particularly if you have a good relationship with the MSC. It is my suggestion that you not be demanding but politely explain your reasoning and their address mistake. The worst thing that will happen is that they will say sorry but no and you will still be on good terms.

It can't hurt to ask. It will hurt to demand. It will help your standing with them by letting them know what happened, eliciting an appreciation for your dedication. It will pay incredibly well as you are now the lone expert on that location, and assuming the MSC does not correct their records, you'll be the one to command a high price for going to get it done when future shoppers give up on trying to find it after ten minutes of looking.

I did email the scheduler and got a reply that they agreed to give me a bonus. It did not say how much, and it's not showing in my shop log yet. I'll keep checking.
Lesson learned.

Good for you and good for the MSC. In addition to the bonus, and perhaps more important, you have enhanced your reputation with the company.

That is great to read, I think sometimes the companies/schedulers forget that we are only human. We too have emergencies and many things beyond our control, beginning with wrong addresses, bad directions, in addition to family emergencies, traffic situations and the list just goes on and on. Good for you, this email makes me happy and hopeful.

@Reeses200 wrote:

I did email the scheduler and got a reply that they agreed to give me a bonus. It did not say how much, and it's not showing in my shop log yet. I'll keep checking.
Lesson learned.

This sounds like a really nice company. Perhaps you should name them so other shoppers know your experience. Or maybe post something nice about them in the Kudos section.

The bonus may be adjusted internally. If the location was somewhere you would return, I would have asked to be given special consideration to be reassigned the location when it is available again.

@isaiah58 wrote:

The bonus may be adjusted internally. If the location was somewhere you would return, I would have asked to be given special consideration to be reassigned the location when it is available again.

It is already listed again on the job board. But there is a 30 day rotation. Which is understandable since its a service I wouldn't have done more than once a month.

@roflwofl wrote:

@Reeses200 wrote:

I did email the scheduler and got a reply that they agreed to give me a bonus. It did not say how much, and it's not showing in my shop log yet. I'll keep checking.
Lesson learned.

This sounds like a really nice company. Perhaps you should name them so other shoppers know your experience. Or maybe post something nice about them in the Kudos section.

The company is HS Brands. Great company to work with. I have been doing shops for them for years.

I just realized, you asked our opinion at 1:16 and by 3:56 were reporting back. In addition to being a stand up company for taking care of you, the responsiveness is commendable.

So this didn't turn out as rosy as it appeared in the beginning.
The promised bonus never did show up in my shop log. Then I got an email saying that I would not be reimbursed for part of my expenses since I got an "add on" service. The shop instructions did not say what service you could get, it only stated that the reimbursement was up to $25. Which I did not go over.
I emailed them back and forth several times explaining my understanding of what was allowed. I also mentioned and attached the email about the promised travel bonus. After following up three times, I was told to contact someone else, who handles the payments.
So I explained both issues all over again, attaching the supporting emails. In the meantime I got a payment for the lesser amount. Which I mentioned in the email. Her response was WHEN I would be paid.
I replied again saying I was questioning the amount not when.
They still refused to adjust the reimbursement, and made no mention of the promised bonus. When I asked about that again, she asked me to forward the email promising the bonus.
(Hello if you read the original email and every response, you would see that the email was already attached)
Anyway yesterday, two months later, I got an email saying they will give me $5 for the mileage. We shall see if it actually gets paid.
All in all i ended up contacting 4 different employees over a two month period to resolve what seemed to be a nice gesture in the beginning.
Not a happy camper any more.

sounds like my experience with this company too - bounced from person to person