I have heard many people here talk about doing multiple gas station mystery shops and getting their gas reimbursed that way. I finally saw one but the reimbursement is way below what I would be paying.

For 2 gallons of gas (minimum required amount) and an in-store purchase I'll be reimbursed $5. Where I am shopping though, just 1 gallon of gas is $5 or close to it. So that means ~$6 won't be reimbursed. Is a low reimbursement like that normal for these gas station shops? I mean shouldn't they at least give you enough to cover the cost of two gallons of gas since they are requiring you to purchase two gallons of gas? The shop fee is $9 so I guess overall I'll be covered, but that won't leave me with much of an income from that shop..

It depends on the MSC. I regularly do gas station shops where the MSC pays $12 or so for a gas purchase or an in store purchase. Their philosophy is that they want shoppers who are already going to buy gas, not pay for the shoppers gas.

The report is extremely easy and the $12 works out to more than $25 an hour for the shop and report, including any drive time for a store that is slightly out of my way.

I have no issue with that.

Keep searching - you will find MSC's that reimburse for $5.00 worth of gas or for 2 gallons plus $1.00 in the store. Plus the fee for shopping, of course.

js232, there are threads on the forum about companies that have gas stations. Read, read, read.

My favorite MSC has lots of gas shops available.

For the blue/red stations they offer $14.50 for a straight audit (no gas/in-store purchase) and a mystery shop that pays $6 and reimburses you for $5 of gas and $1 in-store purchase (no lottery tickets). However, you can only do one or the other of these--not both.

For the yellow stations they offer $10 for a mystery shop/audit with a required purchase of 2 gallons of gas (up to $10) and $2.00 in-store. This last period they offered mostly night shops for $12 but when few of them were being picked up they switched them to day shops and then offered an incentive of $5 extra if you did them after dark.

For the green stations they offer $11 for a mystery shop/audit with reimbursement for $5 worth of gas and $1 in-store purchase.

For the red, white and blue stations they offer $11 for a mystery shop/audit with reimbursement for $5 worth of gas and $1 in-store purchase.

For the V stations they offer $10 for a mystery shop/audit with only a $1 in-store purchase. But the audits are super easy, require few photos and debrief in short order, too.

...just play by the rules. if they state 6, then get six. To have a reasonable expectation of someone to change the rules is...unreasonable. Do several of them, but follow the rules.

Don

Easy report but why 2 gallons? I take them if I need gas but otherwise why would I work pretty much for free?

agreed, the V shops sure were the simpliest of any gas shop I have encountered.

One of the audits requires you to pump 2 gallons and time how long it takes to pump it as part of the audit. I don't know if that's what's going on with OP's shop.

It's possible that only pumping $5 might flag you as a shopper. I always run a random amount over what I'm required to pump (how much over will depend on if the gas price is about what I would normally pay at home; some places I shop are so remote it could be 25 to 50 cents higher so I'll only pump what I have to pump) just in case they can watch the purchase inside and think, $5 purchase, must be a mystery shopper.

I have 6 gas station shops coming up on Wednesday where I need to pump 2 gallons and time it. I'm going to have to be careful about not going over too much. My car has a 12 gallon tank and gets 30 mpg.

dmp777 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> agreed, the V shops sure were the simpliest of any
> gas shop I have encountered.

When the station is clean and well-maintained, yes, those audits are the simplest. Unfortunately, I had one with many, many "no" answers that took a little under an hour on-site and quite a while to debrief due to numerous photo uploads. The next time I was contacted to audit that particular station, I made sure to ask for a significant bonus.

James Bond 007.5 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have 6 gas station shops coming up on Wednesday
> where I need to pump 2 gallons and time it. I'm
> going to have to be careful about not going over
> too much. My car has a 12 gallon tank and gets 30
> mpg.

I'm pretty sure you've done these before and have a system down already, but just in case, here's what works for me: stopwatch in one hand, fuel pump in the other. When you hit two gallons, push the stopwatch button and let go of the fuel pump right at the same time. I usually get within .05 gallons of that two-gallon mark, which is good because I have a similar situation with my vehicle and can't afford to go over. I really wish they would allow us to use fuel containers on those shops!

Speaking of fuel timings, I usually record audio as a backup, so I can listen to the fuel pump run and get my time from that if I mess up the stopwatch part.

dspeakes Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It's possible that only pumping $5 might flag you
> as a shopper. I always run a random amount over
> what I'm required to pump (how much over will
> depend on if the gas price is about what I would
> normally pay at home; some places I shop are so
> remote it could be 25 to 50 cents higher so I'll
> only pump what I have to pump) just in case they
> can watch the purchase inside and think, $5
> purchase, must be a mystery shopper.

I always do my gas purchase after my inside evaluation. That way if buying $5 worth a gas triggers their suspicion, it's already too late.