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gas station shops: are they worth the money?

February 18, 2012 11:28PM
mrcomputer101 Wrote:
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> The reports for the red and blue locations require
> a minumum of 30 minutes recorded. Vince - Not to
> worry...winking smiley

i'm doing a green.
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More About Gas Station Mystery Shopping
February 22, 2012 02:41AM
I finally finished my shops/audits for "The Yellow People" and I am soooo glad to say that I will not be taking anymore gas station audits. And with the price of gas at almost $5.00 a gallon, I don't think they are worth the aggravation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“I'm the one that's got to die when it's time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to.”
~ Jimi Hendrix

“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.” ~ Mark Twain

“To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.” ~ J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
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February 22, 2012 04:31PM
I posted this over in the other thread but will post it here too since theres a thread going

I have done a few gas station audits in the past that had a simple mystery shopping part, and then an audit with lots of pictures. They required closeups of specifics, and closeups and photos of anything found to be wrong; and when that can be an expired or mising sticker it can take some time.
I found that between taking pictures, fighting the wind on my reference paperwork, and waiting for people to fuel up and get out of the way (lol), it would take me about an hour on location. Then it took a while to resize sort and upload the photos as well as fill out the several page report.
The first two shops I did were $10 + $2 reimbursement, and it wasn't worth all the hassle. The last three were $18+$2 reimbursement and I knew better what I was doing so it was worth it. So if your shops are $20+, even if it takes you 2 hours for the audit and report filing, that is still $10/hour which is good pay in my state. smiling smiley
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February 22, 2012 05:15PM
I find the sudits without the mystery part to be the best. Quick in and out and no money spent at the location. I am offered free drinks and snacks. I do not accept these until after the audit...grinning smiley

Shopping Bama and parts of Georgia.
I'm still learning 24/7.
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February 22, 2012 10:18PM
mrcomputer101 Wrote:
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> I find the sudits without the mystery part to be
> the best. Quick in and out and no money spent at
> the location. I am offered free drinks and snacks.
> I do not accept these until after the audit...grinning smiley


There is one of those that I wind up doing once a year. Is it a blue/orange station done by Ritter? If so, I wish there were more of those. Those are fast, easy money.
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March 16, 2012 01:57AM
I just accepted two red/blue or is it red/white gas shops from Maritz. The scheduler left me a message offering more of the shops in my area, but they only pay $10+reimbursment and I'm afraid that they will take more time than $10 is worth.
Do you find that this particular brand isn't too bad compared to others? Or can I expect these audits to take a while? I have done these type of audits in the past.
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March 16, 2012 01:56PM
I would NEVER consider a gas station assignment without a heavy bonus. In the past, I completed the following:

1-De-branding for $16; 3 pics
2-Shop/audit for $19 to 29; 1 pic plus any problem area.
3-Full audit, with in excess of 1 dozen pics for $11.

A single try of #3 was enough for me to know it would take a minimum of $30 in the future for those jobs.
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August 11, 2012 03:07AM
ctobolsk Wrote:
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I absolutely
> love their bank shops! There's a million of them
> here and shoppers are scarce. It's a guaranteed
> couple hundred every paycheck, especially now that
> I'm on rotation with a bunch of them.

How do you handle the 2 month rotation? I did a few of the combo shops in well to do areas and found that on the second visit, I was sitting down with the very same people. I'm sure that one of them remembered me. If I go back a 3rd time without opening up an account, I know that they will recognize me, especially with the same credit card scenario.

I generally prefer my other bank shops even though the reports are longer.

MSPA Gold
Shopping Long Island
Have Video Camera
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August 11, 2012 03:58AM
I do mainly gas stations, in this area there are many. If you think of the brands I am sure your area is full of them too...Conoco, Shell, Mobil, Valero, Centex, Loves and many many others. The problem is that they do not use the same MSC and I haven't found out all of them yetsad smiley
Not all gas station pay for gas and not all are reveal audits. Some require as many as 11+ pictures and some only 4-5 pictures (plus of course the pictures that show the NO answers like in every audit).
How many you can do in a day? I have been doing an avarage of 50-60 a months since March. I know what I need to look at so I can do them pretty fast, of course depending on the nuber of the pumps. I could knock out a 2 pump station in as short as 15 minutes (of course if there are many NO=many pictures=longer time). However I never do more than 7 stations a day. Reports can be very time consuming.
Suggestion: if you want to do many gas station, bring a laptop with you. Create a folder per each job and download the picture after each audit. And ALWAYS bring extra letter of authorization/validation forms.

PS: IMPORTANT!!!!! Watch out for cars. Above all if you do stations in a highway. They come in fast. Don't get too much distracted by the picture you take. Safety first!!!!

Shopper and auditor since March 2012.
Cover all center/north Oklahoma and south Kansas.


Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/11/2012 04:00AM by charyuop.
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