Can anyone please explain to me how to do these shops/audits? I will be doing them this week for the first time and really want to make sure I get them done right.

melisha82 Wrote:
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> Can anyone please explain to me how to do these
> shops/audits? I will be doing them this week for
> the first time and really want to make sure I get
> them done right.


There are a bunch of posts around about them. If you look under your post you can find some. I've never done BP, but I know Shell comes with a huge booklet to read. I would suggest reading that first and if you have specific questions to post those or ask the schedulers at with the MSC. The basic idea is that you do the mystery shop portion, and then go reveal yourself for the audit. You take a bunch of pictures and look for any violations. Take extra pictures because you may need them.

I have done one BP basically you have to get pictures of everything that you checked as unsatisfactory in the checklist plus a few basic shots. All this after putting on an orange vest to be visible, and do the shop in daylight. You have to do a mystery shop for gas at the pump with a credit card and with cash in the store first. You even have to check out the restroom and take photos inside if there is an issue.

It is time consuming, but I am hoping that I will get faster as I go along. I did mine near dusk and ran out of time because the sun was going down, so I had to go back and re-do a few of the photos.

I saw a video about Shell and it was very informative. I also had to take a test to qualify for the shop which you get a few chances at. You really have to take a lot of pictures and inspect undercover and then reveal yourself with an introduction letter. Great for good weather not so great for snow or ice...!!

I'm doing a 76 tomorrow. I haven't done very many gas station audits, I just haven't gotten into the swing of them, and haven't found a company who does them regularly. There are so many 76's right where I live, but the company I've done 76's for, rarely if ever list them. I know Maritz does various gas stations, but after having to cancel the first one I took for them (long story) and then reading about others' experiences here, I've never checked them out again... although I am considering it now that I'm a bit more experienced myself.

Anyway, the one tomorrow is in a tiny little town. I googled them and looked at the street view before accepting, after having done one that was in *horrible* condition in another little town. If the google street view revealed a dump, I was going to make my offer higher. Heh. But it looks like a very well-kept, very tiny station. My reasonable offer (higher than what the MSC was offering, though) was accepted. My ever-practical Dad, seeing the google street view, says, "Well, there's your location photo right there!" Ha. Silly Dad. But the google image is so clear, you almost could just use that -- zooming in for the two pumps, the front door, everything. It's kinda funny, really ~ the company itself could see the condition using google maps street view! Of course they couldn't evaluate customer service that way, but google will probably fix that soon. Ha!

LOL...your Google street view could be from 2009 and the station may be a dump by now. But hope not for you.

That's true... and that did cross my mind... but in this particular little tiny town, I strongly suspected the gas station would be in at least reasonably good shape anyway... so google street view just confirmed it. And... when I went today... it was indeed a nice neat clean little station! Yay!

This tiny little town is a German settlement from over 100 years ago, and has a regionally famous Abbey and Monastery, and hosts a gigantic Oktoberfest, and has all sorts of tourist-y stuff like a big Glockenspiel (clock tower), and just about everything in the town has cute little German floral paintings all over it. I don't think I've ever seen anything in that town that is *truly* a dump... some places a bit less well-cared-for than others, but no true dumps.

So I got a good idea of the size of the gas station, it's condition, and landmarks nearby to make sure I went to the right place. Although with that last one... I realized later, that in this teeny-weeny little place, it would be HIGHLY unlikely to have two gas stations of the same brand. I think they only have two gas stations period!

But I really like Google maps & street view for, if nothing else, to show me landmarks to look out for, and what the location basically looks like, if it's a ways off the road or behind something else so I don't drive right by, and stuff like that. I just wish I had a SmartPhone so I could re-look while on the road sometimes! Hee!

I was doing a few different brands of the gas station audits. I backed off for a while after having a terrible time with some photos that were submitted by me. The photo of the canopy in the 480 x 640 pixel size didn't show the pitting and dirty spots that was under the gas pump canopy. It was actually the worst canopy that I had seen while doing those type of audits. It seemed to be a conflict with my answer to the question about the cleanliness of the canopy. The editor could not see what was clearly visible to me. Rusty pitting and dirty waterspots. I had to drive 50 plus miles, one way, to re-take the canopy photos. I did make it worth my while and schedule other shops in the town while reshooting the canopy. The editor still could not see the infraction on the re-take!

I re-submitted the photos and received another email from the editor about the overall photo of the canopy not being taken from the front to show the brand logo. I took the shot from across the street, but across the wrong street. Looking at the front door of the store was not the same as looking at the front face of the canopy. Oh? Of course it was pointed out to me that it was clearly stated in the guideline and I needed to pay attention to that fact.

Needless to say, I wasn't going to now make it a 300 mile trip to correct this issue. It was going to cost me too much! I took the loss, and asked if the company if they could send someone else. Naturally it was my fault about not following the guidelines specifically. That one shop was enough to make me look in another direction and at other ways to make a few bucks. If take the list of the photos you are required submit with you, be sure to check them off as you go, and you will do fine. Do not take any chances of missing a shot. I made sure I took extra photos. Unfortunately for me, I took the wrong angle, and the small pixel size was not adequate enough for the infraction to be clearly visible. I am sure the next person that was sent to the location will note the same condition of the canopy. It was dirty, and pitted. Hopefully they do not mistake the front of the store for the front of the canopy when they take the overall canopy photo.

you mention Google streetview... Has anyone used Google Earth?.. you have to pay a small fee for it. I have seen it on someone else's account. The photos are more current from the satellites, not from old photos taken who knows when....but you only get a bird's eye view that can be zoomed in.

I never take my pictures at 640x480 -- and the only company I resize them for is CoRI (because I have to imprint the time/date from the EXIF -- my dslr does not do that), everyone else doesn't complain when they get them full size.

This company requires them to be that dimension.

Just as a follow up. The shell gas stations now require pictures of the employees if they are not wearing approved shirts or name badges plus you must also take a picture of them if they rea not wearing approved pants.

I feel very uncomfortable as a man taking covert pictures of a womans lower half.

Its often very tricky as most employees are behind a counter.

The shell stations are the only gas station audits that I know of that require pictures of employees.

I don't make the pics covert. I say that the MS company would like a photo of the employee. The employee is allowed to say, "No," and in that case, I report that.

Karen IL Wrote:
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> This company requires them to be that dimension.

I've uploaded hundreds of photos in various resolutions with various names to this company. I've never received any negative feedback or returned shops for it.

They frequently kvetch about endless other issues, but photo sizing is not one of them.

My shop of this type did not require a photo of any person except myself in the mirror with my orange safety vest on.....

no need to ask permission to take photos of the stuff....
If I get a photo of a car, I black out the license plate or I black out a person if they get in the photo by mistake.....

Irfran view is the program I use to crop and you can crop things out of the middle of the photo....

Karen, the company "wants" it at that resolution. They never get them at that. I never had an issue with it. Could I do it just for fun? Yes... but am I going to? No. For as much BS as these are.... time is money.

IDK, everytime I forget to change my resolution to their requested, the stupid website won't allow the pics to go through, or they take FOREVER! I use fotosizer to resizer as a whole file so it really only takes me 2 mintues. However, I don't do the whole job id on each picture thing. That takes waaaay to long for the money.

I also have 25/5 meg internet. pictures are nice and fast

I am still a rookie at these audits, but somewhere in the instructions I read, if the picture does not show a problem, there is no problem. If I cannot see the problem in my pictures, my answer goes from negative to affirmative. I set my camera for 640 x 480, the resolution required in the guidelines.. At the IMSC Conference, I asked others how long it takes them - my goal now is 12-minutes on site, 10-minutes for the report. One shopper told me, "By the time I get to the pump, I know every picture I need, but I've done hundreds of them."

I'm doing my first BP on the 27th. Got my safety vest yesterday, green instead of orange, but was the only "approved" one I could find. I think the green shows up better too.

As long as it's a DOT vest, they don't care: I used a really old orange one of mine. I don't even know if it reflects because it's been washed and soaked in antifreeze and other random car fluids for years.


Examples:
[www.awdirect.com]

The shopper who said, "By the time I get to the pump, I know every picture I need" is truly spectacular. I'm impressed. I'm hoping that I, too, can learn to see through walls and do detailed inspections as I speed through the lot with my camera set on burst. Wow.
Or maybe I could just hold up the local 7/11. Pretty much the same thing.

Joan_InDE Wrote:
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> At the IMSC Conference, I asked
> others how long it takes them - my goal now is
> 12-minutes on site, 10-minutes for the report.
> One shopper told me, "By the time I get to the
> pump, I know every picture I need, but I've done
> hundreds of them."

Good luck, I've done hundreds announced audits and I'm happily at 20-30 minutes shop, 15 minutes input.

Now, there's a certain triangle logo that only requires 6 photographs and you're not even supposed to reveal yourself, those I could see being done in 12/10 if nothing is wrong. Heck, I have one of those stations right next door that I swear they just give them passing grades to not have to do any work.

Other companies shop the BP's; one requires a photo of the attendant inside of the pay area. Regardless, I grab as many gas stations as possible, take my cheat sheet with me and check it off for which photo's are mandated. This way, I won't leave with out those. I've created my personal sheets so that they are limited to a one-page print out, thus eliminating print & paper waste. This can not be done for an audit which is sent in the mail by the MSP.

The thing about audits combined with a mystery shop is the attendants will remember you due to the audits, so they seldom mess up the mystery shop. I know, the companies are saving money this way, but the report is often not accurate as you have been spotted the moment you walk into the door.

One other thing about taking a pic of yourself in your safety vest; one BP did not have a mirror so I asked a customer to take the photo. I, for one, always wear my vest at each and every gas station which requires photo's. It's called, self-preservation