Should't they say it's a reveal?

I recently took a shop that was described only as a CS survey. It was only after accepting the shop and being able to view the guidelines that I saw it had a reveal "award a prize" segment that had to be done if the employee met certain criteria.
I then had to write the scheduler to cancel as I don't do this kind of shop. It would have been so much easier if they had mentioned it was a reveal in the original description, I wouldn't have taken it in the first place and the scheduler would not now have to find someone else.

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More About Revealed Assignments

Curious as to why some people refuse to do reveal shops.

______________________________________________________________________
Seriously, nobody cares that you're offended.

@Hoju wrote:

Curious as to why some people refuse to do reveal shops.

For me the reason is simple. Some people have great memories and that can out you on a future mystery shop.

Happily shopping Rhode Island and nearby Massachusetts and Connecticut

I don't do them because of a couple of reasons.
1. I'm a retired guy living in Florida who spends 95% of his time in t-shirts, shorts and flip flops. I feel like I have to dress up at least somewhat if I'm going to be "representing" the company and I don't want to do that often.

2. In this particular case it was at a customer service desk for a large mall where I do several mystery shops at the different stores and I don't want to be known as a mystery shopper.

I'm not retired… but do spend a lot of time in a Mommy Uniform of yoga pants, tees and Birkenstocks. Putting on "business casual" is for routes, or really big, high paying shops. I'm not going to throw on "real" shoes for the sake of a single shop.

I hate when the MSC doesn't let the shopper know all of the pertinent information before they accept a shop. To me this is a shady practice in order to trap the shoppers into accepting a shop that they might not necessarily take.

I stopped doing them after reading a post from a shopper who did a TGIF shop and had her car keyed.

My wife and I both prefer to be anonymous. I took a 'mystery shop' for a Gulf shop once. The place was tiny and there was no way the staff wouldn't have noticed if I took pictures of each pump, including the restroom. I ended up leaving and explaining the situation to my scheduler. Due to that, I won't even do 'mystery' gas shops anymore. I don't like to be on display.

The other down size of doing a true reveal is what if the employee/establishment didn't meet the clients requirements? Too much pressure for us! Though again, too each their own. No judgements here.

I'll do reveal shops all day long out of town. Don't do them local though as not many people know what I do and while I live in a decent sized town it's not so big that it would be odd for someone I know to stop in right in the middle of the reveal part and wanna know what I'm doing.

I don't do fast food reveal at all, anywhere. It's just not worth the money they normally offer.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

@ces1948 wrote:

I don't do them because of a couple of reasons.
1. I'm a retired guy living in Florida who spends 95% of his time in t-shirts, shorts and flip flops. I feel like I have to dress up at least somewhat if I'm going to be "representing" the company and I don't want to do that often.

2. In this particular case it was at a customer service desk for a large mall where I do several mystery shops at the different stores and I don't want to be known as a mystery shopper.

Oops, hit reply by mistake--too early in the morning to be doing this. I'm also retired in FL and just accepted the one at the mall but don't shop there regularly for personal needs or msing. The last time I was there was before Christmas. The only reason I even accepted it was because I've got a good coupon for one of the stores and don't want to go for nothing in case I don't find anything I like using the coupon.

I have done this shop before without the reveal but not since last year. What I'm wondering now is how often does the CSR meet all the criteria and actually qualify for the certificate?

I also don't intend to dress up. If the CSR doesn't meet all criteria, it's just another mystery shop and I stay anonymous. Unless the information specifically states a dress code, I wear what any normal mall shopper would so I blend in.

Now I've been informed that there is no reveal even though it says in the instructions that there is. I wonder how I would've known that if I hadn't contacted the scheduler

I know how you feel. I wish schedulers would state in the subject line of emails some pertinent information like age limitations, gender restrictions and "post-airport security". It would save us all a lot of time. Also, I really like it when a scheduler puts the due date in parenthesis at the end.

I am also in FL and have this shop (pretty sure) for Saturday. I also only applied for it because it did not describe it as being a reveal in the original posting where they have in the past...but before that they did not so I figured they were going back to the no reveal. I decided to just suck it up and do it but now am confused as to whether it is reveal or not.

And generally I do not do reveal because I prefer NOT to reveal MYSELF.

My husband is going to retire at the end of the year. He does do some mystery shopping but is going to add reveals and audits in his retirement so we will be a "full service" mystery shopping household. LOL

Liz

The scheduler told me it was not a reveal this round for my shop, you probably should touch base with scheduler to clarify.

@Traveliz wrote:

I am also in FL and have this shop (pretty sure) for Saturday. I also only applied for it because it did not describe it as being a reveal in the original posting where they have in the past...but before that they did not so I figured they were going back to the no reveal. I decided to just suck it up and do it but now am confused as to whether it is reveal or not.

And generally I do not do reveal because I prefer NOT to reveal MYSELF.

My husband is going to retire at the end of the year. He does do some mystery shopping but is going to add reveals and audits in his retirement so we will be a "full service" mystery shopping household. LOL

Liz

Yes I will! Thanks for the heads up on this!

Mine is a reveal.

Liz

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/10/2015 02:44PM by Traveliz.

sadly you should not HAVE to touch base with the scheduler.....

I like reveal shops because it makes both me and the employee happy.

Have done two reveal shops Well one reveal and a gas audit. The reveal failed the so I'm still a mysterious shopper at that mall. On the audit, they kept asking me how they did. This was a little woman at the station not a little man though so he didn't follow me around.

I do 30 reveal shops a month and love doing them. I also go shop at some of these locations that I do reveal shops on, when I am just shopping and enjoy them giving me great customer service when I am in there.

I should mention that I do these in 3 different states on a bi weekly basis.

Several years ago, I used to do reveal shops but now, once in a blue moon. Associates move from one FF to another and some of them have long memories. Once I did an FF and the associate told me I looked like the secret shopper who gave her a prize when she was working somewhere else. She said she was sure I was not because I looked different. So I asked her, "What do you mean secret shopper?" She said, " She went to the restaurant I used to worked for and checked on us. I did everything correct and she gave me a prize." So I asked if she also cooked the pizza. She said, "No, she was a secret shopper. You don't understand." Then she left me abruptly and assisted another customer.
From that time on, I have been avoiding reveal shops.

I too like reveal shops too

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Should't they say it's a reveal?

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