I've just signed up for CRI, and there's a lot of shops in my area, I would just like for some people to chime in and tell me their experiences working for CRI.

Are their shops easy/hard to deal with?

How fast is their payment after shops are completed?

How long does it take to complete these shops?

What all do I need to do in order to complete these shops successfully?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/17/2011 06:41PM by Larvarious.

It depends on the shop. Debrands are easy. Audits take a lot of photos. They have been paying every 2 weeks. Picking shops with CORI is like playing chicken. I wait until the fees go up. You run the risk of someone else snatching them up.
A fair camera and internet access is about all you need...

@mrcomputer101 thanks, i plan on doing their gas station audits. i have a good camera and internet access. what do i need to take pictures of while i'm doing a gas station audit?

The one audit has a few required pics, overall location and ID sign and then photos of everything they get a no on. The sticking point for those is that you need a photo of both sides of every pump. The two local stations around here only have 2 pumps each, so not a big deal... but if you are going to a larger station with more pumps the effort can go up quickly. You may end up having to wait for people to move out of the way.

One thing to be aware of is that their photos require the time date stamp. Not all cameras include that anymore, but you can often add with editing software. Make sure you know how to do it before you sign up.

Other than the pics, the reports are basic with minimal narrative. The original fee when they start posting them is really small, but they can go up dramatically. You need to figure out what is worth to you.

Larvarious Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> what do i need to take pictures of while
> i'm doing a gas station audit?


Each MSC and client have different requirements. Check your guidelines to see what each audit asks for.

@Shelly the gas station audits around here are at over $40 dollars, so i'm looking into doing these shops tomorrow.

Another question everyone: Are the gas station audits supposed to be done covertly or revealed?

You start out with a purchase which is covert and then announce yourself before taking pictures, typically.

ok, i'm going to do some more research and focus on getting started on this monday.

Shelly Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The one audit has a few required pics, overall
> location and ID sign and then photos of everything
> they get a no on. The sticking point for those is
> that you need a photo of both sides of every pump.
> The two local stations around here only have 2
> pumps each, so not a big deal... but if you are
> going to a larger station with more pumps the
> effort can go up quickly. You may end up having
> to wait for people to move out of the way.
>
> One thing to be aware of is that their photos
> require the time date stamp. Not all cameras
> include that anymore, but you can often add with
> editing software. Make sure you know how to do it
> before you sign up.
>
> Other than the pics, the reports are basic with
> minimal narrative. The original fee when they
> start posting them is really small, but they can
> go up dramatically. You need to figure out what
> is worth to you.


Take my advice and don't take on any with a bunch of pumps if you will have to use photo-editing to add the date & time ... It took a lot longer than anticipated, that's for sure! However, check the camera on your cell phone, I discovered that mine has the option for time/date stamping the photos, and this saved me just recently!! Overall, these are my all-time favorite shops for them. Just be sure to have all photos (esp. when there are a lot of pumps), the LOA, and receipts before leaving the station. Definitely try to hold out on the commission increases, if you can.

These types of shops used to sit untouched in my area, which was great for me. However, now all of a sudden, I have some dang competition going on with another shopper(s) cuz they keep jumping on the shops, usually at 1/2 the commission I'd take them at ... makes my month really slow and sucky, that's for sure!

Can I use my iPhone camera to pictures of the pumps, or a digital camera?