I haven't. I'm sure you've thought of this yourself but if I had run into that scenario and if I had googled the address before I left home and was still unable to determine it was a 'no go' shop, then I'd be writing a nice letter to the scheduler explaining the situation and asking for some financial help to cover my expenses.
Good luck.

I've used google earth to take a look at some locations that were in the boonies.

I do a street view and a satellite view for every new-to-me location. However, depending on how long its been since those views have been updated, it can still happen that a new location wouldn't show up on either, in which case you're stuck with finding out by going there. Ditto for changed brands or closed locations, particularly if the phone doesn't get answered. In these situations it's just our bad luck if the MSC has a low closed-location fee.

I would call it getting screwed over rather than bad luck. If the MSC has a drastically reduced closed location fee and I can't verify the store is open, I don't go.

Bill, I wouldn't go under those circumstances. I would wait until I could contact or hear from the MSC about whether they can verify the station. They should be willing to research this with the client and reschedule the job for you if the station does exist. I would not consider this my monkey at this point.

Is there another business anywhere near it? maybe you could call something nearby and ask "I heard there's a new Acme gas station near you. Is it open yet?"

I wouldn't make the drive if i had reason to believe there was nothing there to shop.

I agree...no verify, no go.

I would not waste my time on this one. I had a similar experience and did not do the shop. I told the scheduler to remove it and explained why.

The problem was the client bought a business but did not change the signs. If I had done this shop, I would've been at the wrong business.

It was eventually fixed. The building and signs now reflect the client. I did the shop.

Bill,

Any update? I must admit, I very interested in what happens! I feel like I'm reading a scary novel, and I don't know if the main character is about to end up abducted by aliens at an empty field or if he is being chosen by the CIA to be an agent because his shopping skills are so superb that he is willing to risk going to a place that does not exist just to fulfill the mission.

Ok, back to reality: I hope everything works out in your favor.

I once shopped a cell phone store that turned out to be out of business. I emailed the scheduler and she told me to go ahead and do the shop anyway and report what was (not) there. Thankfully, I was paid the full amount.

Yes.. There was a gas station in Orangeville that had the same location as another that had a completely different address and postal code. The second gas station was actually in a place called Shelburne which isn't exactly down the street. I would have definitely thought twice about taking the second gas shop if I knew it was in Shelburne. It wasn't exactly part of the route I made...

I could have demanded money having had to drive much farther to get to the shop but honestly, I just did the shop anyway told the MSC to speak with the client about changing the address. The shop address should have been listed on a local Highway not as a street address in a main city. Hopefully the next round that come up, another Shopper won't have to go through it unsuspectingly.

@dixiewhiskey -
I encounter a LOT of such circumstances. 'Round me there many little villes and burgs covered by a main post office, making addresses very deceptive, 30 miles or more from each other, even with the same city and zip for mailing purposes. On top of that, many locations still use a Rural Route number, which has no real connection to any mapping program's street address. I used to report each instance, but every MSC I work with seems solely interested in the address on the receipt regardless of physical location. The address is "correct" to them as long as the receipt matches their records.
Every month I see the same locations get scheduled and reappear on the board, and I wind up getting last minute desperate phone call to go to these elusive sites with big bonuses attached. I've stopped trying to report where places actually are, partly because I don't like spitting into the wind, but also because I like the big bucks that my nearly proprietary familiarity with remote geography consistently yields.

The first time I shopped for Maritz the joke was on me. They asked if I could do a couple of stations in a little town nineteen miles north and I said of course. When I mapped them, one was about twenty miles east and the other about twenty miles west of the little town. It ended up around 100 miles and I was too ignorant to ask for a bonus. That was a learning experience -- had a bunch more since then and the curve continues upward.

elcarev68 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> @dixiewhiskey -
> I encounter a LOT of such circumstances. 'Round
> me there many little villes and burgs covered by a
> main post office, making addresses very deceptive,
> 30 miles or more from each other, even with the
> same city and zip for mailing purposes. On top of
> that, many locations still use a Rural Route
> number, which has no real connection to any
> mapping program's street address. I used to
> report each instance, but every MSC I work with
> seems solely interested in the address on the
> receipt regardless of physical location. The
> address is "correct" to them as long as the
> receipt matches their records.
> Every month I see the same locations get scheduled
> and reappear on the board, and I wind up getting
> last minute desperate phone call to go to these
> elusive sites with big bonuses attached. I've
> stopped trying to report where places actually
> are, partly because I don't like spitting into the
> wind, but also because I like the big bucks that
> my nearly proprietary familiarity with remote
> geography consistently yields.

Maybe if I lived in the US and there was no rotational limits then I would be more secretive. Here though, the shops go very quick and are never bonused even on the last day. I am pretty sure the specific stations mentioned are only shopped by me and someone else who lives in the middle of nowhere Someone who was not from the area would probably be driving around for hours trying to find the place. It's great being married to a country man, he always knows where everything is

Sometimes the MSC has the wrong address. Maritz had one gas station shop which was addressed as being about 3 miles from me. When I clicked on street view, it was an empty lot. When I however changed the "S" to "N" in front of the street number and name, kept the same town and zip, Google showed the little red arrow directly over a gas station. This was about 15 miles from me though and I would not have been able to squeeze it in during daylight hours. So maybe it was just an error when they put in the address?

I just have to ask this question. If half the fee was not enough to cover gas, how could the entire fee justify the assignment?