itsasecret, you can upload as many receipts you want at the bottom of the page. They might not appear down there right away, but they will eventually. Just use the receipt upload link.

Renaming photos on-site to me is a timewaster. My goal when doing this and any shops is to be as efficient as possible. I also don't see the reason to need to rename the pics at all.

When entering the report I have a split screen up one with the photos and the other with the report so I can just enter as I go without having to flip windows. Never been an issue and it seems to be the fastest way to do it.

Also, when taking pics I don't like having to go back to an island or other exterior part(timewaster) so I take any pics needed as I go along.

Time is money.

Grrrrr....... I've got a feeling I'm going to lose this shop even though I redid it.

I did it Friday afternoon about 2 but had to go somewhere right after I did it. Got back from there about 5:30 and immediately began inputting the report. Finished up about 6:20 but there wasn't a place to input the new receipts. I looked through that report three times looking for the links and thought maybe it was a separate function. So I submitted the report and they system told me I was done and gave me a confirmation number.

I found the "upload receipts" button and clicked it, and it took me to the same confirmation screen I'd just had.

I sent an email to the scheduler and attached copies of the receipts. No response yet.

I got an auto-email later on informing me that my receipts were missing and I had 24 hours to submit them "or else." There was a link to click to upload the pictures. I clicked it. It took me to the home page where the "upload receipts" link was. Still takes me to the confirmation screen.

I noticed a thing at the bottom that showed this job and had a link to "view receipt" and another to "upload receipts." The first showed me the single receipt from the day before; the latter again led to the confirmation screen.

I sent a message to their help desk; their hours are shown as 8 to 5 M-F, no mention of time zone.

This morning I tried all the above again with the same results, sent another message to the help desk.

I don't know what else to do and it ticks me off that they don't work weekends, but they'll send threatening messages on the weekend with no way to contact them for help if their system won't let you do what they are demanding.

I'm afraid the shop will be auto-rejected if I don't remedy the receipt situation within the 24 hours, which will expire this evening.

Anyone have any experience with whether the 24 hours are "business hours" or "clock hours"?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/02/2013 03:55PM by itsasecret.

PROBLEM RESOLVED.

It was a browser problem.

It accepted the original reports and receipts from Chrome without any problem.

I could only get it to accept the new receipts by copying the link into IE.

So I got them submitted, hopefully it will soon show that it accepted them. But at least it SAID it had them.


But.... GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR..........

Whew!

I guess they do work on the weekend. I just got a response to my latest help request telling me to send the pics to a certain person. So I have done that in addition to uploading them. I think maybe I can relax now.....

Never mind. I responded after reading this and didn't see the second page where everything worked out.

itsasecret Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Now I can't upload the new receipts. The reset
> the report but didn't strip out yesterday's
> receipt.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/02/2013 04:52PM by LisaSTL.

It's been a learning experience, for sure!

1. Always get the receipt.

2. Don't stress about names on a reveal where you can later just ask for it.

3. Check camera settings at the site, not the night before.

4. Upload all pictures to one folder all at the same time so you know you have them all in one place.

5. If you can't do something you should be able to do, try another computer or browser.

6. Yes, they do work weekends.


I'm actually looking forward to doing more of these -- they have several bonused shops on the board right now. It was actually easy -- of course part of that was because the place was clean and in order. When I was checking for the CC's at the pay stations inside, the manager told me they had been dinged on that on a prior report and EVERY place that was supposed to have them now had them, in clean holders, and the current brochure.

My "no" pictures had to do with unrepaired damage and a few dirty trash can lids. That was it. Everything else was as it should be. I hope all the others I ever do will be as nice!

itsasecret Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm actually looking forward to doing more of
> these

Once you get your system down, these can be profitable and easy assignments. No narrative. No extensive interactions. No tedious timings.

When you start doing more of these, some can be downright funny. A lot of the associates want to talk to you about all kinds of things after you reveal yourself as the auditor. The stories I've heard could fill a book! Sometimes the hardest part is escaping!

Another tip that I mentioned in the past on a different thread about gas station shops is using the "tag" feature on your camera to label a series at each location. You can keep those tags on your camera for future visits, too. Like TechMan, I don't take the time to rename photos or to spend any more time on site than necessary.

I'll have to look for that. My camera does all sorts of things I never use so it probably can do that. I'll have to look. I just recently set it up to create a new folder for each day and THAT has been a huge help since I have hundreds of pics on the memory card now (I never delete them, they are my backup after I copy to the computer) and it takes forever to load the main folder. Now I just pick the folder for the current day and they load in a couple of seconds.

itsasecret Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My camera does all
> sorts of things I never use so it probably can do
> that. I'll have to look.

Probably all of us - with the exception of TechMan - have yet to discover all of the features available on our array of gadgets. It would make for a great session at one of the mystery shopping conferences to learn more about making the most of our techno tools.

Back them up to the cloud instead of using your memory card. Memory card will fill up eventually. I use box.com to backup my stuff. It's free for account with 5gb of space. If you have an android smartphone, they give you 50gb for free which I have.

janalou, I used to do gas station routes too. When I first got a netbook, I travelled the roads less travelled and picked up all the gas stations no one else would do. I did just what you are doing. By the time I left the shop, all my pictures for that shop were uploaded and named to a folder to make uploading easy when doing the report. I would even pick up a McDonald's shop or some other wifi location along the way and stop and write up a few reports while resting and having lunch or breakfast. It made it nice to come home to not so many reports to write. I got really good at writing the report for McDonald's using their own wifi.

Bless

Itsasecret, you have to becareful with the internet browser. Cori is a stickler for IE. Others here submit in other browsers and don't have problems, but then again some do. You don't want to go through all that trouble and have it rejected because you used Chrome instead of IE.

It took the report fine through Chrome -- it was doing the receipts after the fact that it rejected.

I have another computer that is better with IE. I'll need to make a point to use that computer for CRI reports from now on. I don't know why this Toshiba hates it so much but it just bogs down, errors out, says it has to recover the web page (i.e., refreshes it so I would lose anything I had input there anyway). Sometime I just have to close it and open it again.

This Toshiba does a lot of things I don't like....

I don't know why CRI is so enamored of IE. It's the least secure browser of the top three. Which is another reason why I don't use it for a default browser on ANY of my four computers.