I have completed a large number of gas station audit recently because I was offered a bonus on them.

The one thing that is strange is that every single one of these gas stations has the wrong time on the registers.....(25+ stations so far)

We are not talking insignificant differences.
Most are between 5 mins and 45 mins

Had one recently that was 1 hour 22 mins wrong

Now I have never been pulled up on this by the MSC as I always explain that the time on the receipt is off from the real time.

Anyone else have this experience?

I haven't seen that kind of discrepacy except around time changes and certainly not in such a high percentage of shops. Are you in a very rural area where perhaps they are using really old registers? A whole lot of the newer registers get their time controlled by a remote atomic clock. When I go into places with older registers the register time can get squirrely because of power outages due to summer storms.

Yes, times will be off at stations, and also DQs.

I have found many Aldi's are different too - and at odd times (like 22 minutes off). It just must be something that is not important to the companies.

Liz

These are mostly modern new gas stations. (most arnt even on 2008 google earth)

It has to be faulty equipment as the employees cant change the time (I asked!)

Few things that spring to mind.

It make me look bad because I am reporting one time and the receipt is reporting another.

What if some kind of crime took place and they were basing the evidence off the time of a receipt?

Also business people hand in receipts all the time and the company may question what they were doing if the times dont match.

As an example a guy could say to his boss, I was stuck in a meeting till three......then hands in a reciept which says he pumped gas at 2:20 !

Boss might think the guy is a liar.


Flash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I haven't seen that kind of discrepacy except
> around time changes and certainly not in such a
> high percentage of shops. Are you in a very rural
> area where perhaps they are using really old
> registers? A whole lot of the newer registers get
> their time controlled by a remote atomic clock.
> When I go into places with older registers the
> register time can get squirrely because of power
> outages due to summer storms.

dwater Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> These are mostly modern new gas stations. (most
> arnt even on 2008 google earth)
>
> It has to be faulty equipment as the employees
> cant change the time (I asked!)
>
> Few things that spring to mind.
>
> It make me look bad because I am reporting one
> time and the receipt is reporting another.
>
> What if some kind of crime took place and they
> were basing the evidence off the time of a
> receipt?
>
> Also business people hand in receipts all the time
> and the company may question what they were doing
> if the times dont match.
>
> As an example a guy could say to his boss, I was
> stuck in a meeting till three......then hands in a
> reciept which says he pumped gas at 2:20 !
>
> Boss might think the guy is a liar.
>
>
> Flash Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I haven't seen that kind of discrepacy except
> > around time changes and certainly not in such a
> > high percentage of shops. Are you in a very
> rural
> > area where perhaps they are using really old
> > registers? A whole lot of the newer registers
> get
> > their time controlled by a remote atomic clock.
>
> > When I go into places with older registers the
> > register time can get squirrely because of
> power
> > outages due to summer storms.

Nah, Having done this as long as I have you will find that many receipts are not sychronized. I can't tell you how many time I have forgotten to mention the discrepancy in my reports (because there is no real narrative spot) for different places and I have never been questioned about it once.

I think big business realizes it too (as in the case of the guy and a meeting) and honestly if you company doesn't trust you to be in a meeting and needs a receipt to prove it that doesn't seem like a good relationship.

And finally for the guy and a crime...again a detective will figure out real quick if registers are off.

Finally, I can't imagine a regular customer even mentioning to a clerk that the time is off on their register. I suppose if it was revealed shop and you were doing an audit it would be ok but the typical customer mentioning the time on a receipt seems red flag to me.

Liz

I do few gas station shops these days but I do experience it from time to time. I just make a note of it on the report that the receipt time is wrong. Usually, only one of the receipts would be wrong, either the pump or the inside one.

There is one company that likes to flag a report no matter what you say. My solution? if the receipt time doesn't match the actual time, I use the receipt time as the time I was there. They prefer it that way.

On a non gas related shop I do, it big letters in the instructions, it says enter the time on the receipt, not the time you were actually there.

One problem with using the reciept time is I had two jobs recently that would have overlapped times.
Might be hard to explain how you did two jobs at once!

Now its true I have never been pulled up on the receipt time thing probably because its so common but that doesn't mean its not going to happen in the future.

techman01 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I do few gas station shops these days but I do
> experience it from time to time. I just make a
> note of it on the report that the receipt time is
> wrong. Usually, only one of the receipts would be
> wrong, either the pump or the inside one.
>
> There is one company that likes to flag a report
> no matter what you say. My solution? if the
> receipt time doesn't match the actual time, I use
> the receipt time as the time I was there. They
> prefer it that way.
>
> On a non gas related shop I do, it big letters in
> the instructions, it says enter the time on the
> receipt, not the time you were actually there.

It is odd, indeed, if the employees can't correct the time. Of course that can mean that they aren't allowed to, don't know how or that it is physically impossible. I was doing some shops last year that required I use a cell phone for timings because they needed to go to my precise register transaction without benefit of a receipt. Since their register time was automatic off satellite atomic clock and cell phones are off an atomic clock, using time from the cell phone they could find the entry for my transaction pretty accurately.

My guess is that every location you are visiting is breaking the law with every transaction because most states require that an 'accurate receipt be provided'. Not that anybody is going to be out there writing citations for the time being off.

I am assuming your transactions are cash transactions because when a credit card is run the credit card receipt time appears to be controlled by the card company clock and I personally have not seen one that was off. Where I have been given a register receipt plus a credit card receipt there frequently is time discrepancy.

The time being off could indeed create some problems for customers, though I suspect few people except shoppers even look at the receipt, much less the time on the receipt. But next time you need a alibi, choose your gas station carefully.