I'm doing my first seashore gas station tomorrow! I'm still in my first year of mystery shopping and the only gas station shops I've done before are station IDs for MF. These are much more involved, any hints or tips? I've got the guide and eval printed out, my vest is ready to go, and my camera battery is charged. The station is only 2 blocks from my house so if I need to go back for something it's not a big deal, but I'd rather get it right the first time. I actually really enjoy driving, and am hoping it goes well and I'm able to get some routes of these in the future.

Double check your guidelines. I think that is one of the clients/projects that do not allow you to go back to fix your mistakes.

Good luck with your first seashore. My best tip is to check all your required pictures before you leave the site. Everybody has a different way of doing each brand of convenience store but here's my system for pictures on that one. First I do all the inside pictures, with the required ones first and then the infractions. I recommend the required pictures first because I've learned that photographing an infraction can be distracting. I think it's best to shoot the required ones and then shoot the infractions, especially important for a beginner. Check off your inside pics before you go outside. LIJake made a recent post that included a very good suggestion -- he shoots the interior of the building from all four corners, just in case. I've started doing this and it's a great idea. I make these shots when I'm making the sweep on infractions, after I've taken the required pictures.

Second, I go outside and shoot the building and the pump. After I shoot the required pump, I move in and shoot a closeup of the middle of the pump in case I need it. Then I shoot the pump infractions on the pump I used and any other infractions present under the canopy. I also shoot two or three additional pumps, being especially careful to shoot a diesel pump if the one I used was a gas pump. Trust me, sometimes you'll find that useful.

When I move to the outside of the lot, I do a sweep that gets the overall, the main id, and the forecourt required pictures. Then I shoot the infractions present outside the canopy and the infractions around the building. Before I leave, I check the required pictures for outside the building.

Maybe this will help, maybe not. Let us know how it goes. Rest assured the first one will be a booger but they get easier with time. Not easy, just easier. The seashore is the toughest one I do but it can be mastered. Best of luck, I'm rooting for you.

What is the rate of pay for all that work? The seashell I see only pay $12.00.

Thank you both! Sybil2 I will definitely check for that. Great ideas MDavisnowell and LIJake! I'm fully prepared for this first one to be frustrating and take forever, but I picked the seashore one first on purpose- everyone keeps saying it's the hardest, so if I can get the hang of this one, I figure I'll have an easier time expanding to other brands.

@COMystery wrote:

What is the rate of pay for all that work? The seashell I see only pay $12.00.

This one only pays $10.50 :/ I've seen some that are bonused up but I wanted to do my first few close by so I took this one at base rate.

I do that particular station at base rate when I need gas. They also pay two gallons of gas and an inside reimbursement so it's a bit better than the base fee alone. Yesterday I did six of them and six more of another brand. Stations are low pay; the twelve I did yesterday were all base and had a value overall of $162 give or take a couple dollars either way. I reported them today in my jammies so it took longer than one day but day two at home is always no stress.

One thing to keep in mind about working at base rate is that when the sugar pie jobs come along you may be in line to get them. They don't call people they don't know. Every once in a while I pick up something really nice.

I make sure to write myself a list of photos and check them off as I go just to make sure I don't forget anything, I also make a note on the evaluation and on my list if I took photos of any infractions. All gas station shops are at least 30 miles from me (I live out in the boonies) so better to take too many photos than too few.

I think it is important to use a detailed work sheet designed for each brand and I set it up in the order that I do the shop. Take advantage of the suggestions offered. MDavis provided some really good ones. Take more pictures than you think you need, particularly inside and of the restroom.

Good luck, they will get easier the more you do.

@Cettie wrote:

I make sure to write myself a list of photos and check them off as I go just to make sure I don't forget anything, I also make a note on the evaluation and on my list if I took photos of any infractions.

The main gas station client that I work for has a "required photo checklist" as a link mixed in with the guidelines and other important paperwork. I also check off each little box AFTER i have taken the required photo. It is easy to get distracted while working since customers will approach you with questions or you have an anxious employee hovering over you.

You can never have enough photos of the inside of the store. I always seem to have fewer than I thought I remembered taking, so take extras and plug them in as need when asked for the inside photos. Great idea, taking a shot from each corner. I try to do that too, but sometimes the store is so small you can get all four corners in one photo. I find the on site visit to be easier than the reporting of the shop. I still don't know the difference between products and food...duh. Haven't had any kicked back in a long time, but I also do less than ever of them. I keep an extra copy of the authorization letter to check required photos....don't forget those forecourt photos!

Be slow and methodical. Make a list and check your shots off as you go. Take lots of extra pictures. Heres something i do both inside and outside. After I've taken all the pics at the required size , i set my camera to the highest possible resolution and take two more sweeping shots. That way I can cut something out if needed. Its come in handy a time or two. You can do this and it gets much easier with a little practice. Good luck.

I just did my first seashore shop, as well. I was on-site an hour. I took 122 photos.

I, too, don't know the difference between "food" offerings and the other stuff.

I did ask the scheduler for any hints. She told me, after you reveal, go back to the front door, turn around, and take a photo to the left, a photo straight ahead, then a photo to the right. Then go left and take closer photos; straight ahead, same thing, then to the right.

Following her suggestion made me not miss the small basket with apples and bananas! Otherwise I would have missed entirely that "fresh food offering", as it was 30 feet away from any other food offerings!

My main problem (as usual with gas stations) was the doggone report. Took 3 hours, and it got sent back
to me for missing photos. Fortunately, I did HAVE the photos, and sent them in.

Do not forget the carwash and service bay(s).



cease

I don't shop any of the gas station shops. Sounds to me that the pay is awful for all the pictures you have to take, upload, download, etc. Am I missing something.

I do gas stations regularly; this was just the first of this particular brand that I did. We do get faster with experience, and some MSC reports are much, much easier than others. Many can be 10 minutes or less,
in and out again, a couple quick photos. They can make great "filler" shops on a route, and at certain times,
can come with very nice bonuses. I did two last month at $125 each.

@shopper8 wrote:

I don't shop any of the gas station shops. Sounds to me that the pay is awful for all the pictures you have to take, upload, download, etc. Am I missing something.

No narrative so it is a preference for some of us. i get most reports in under 12 minutes, not counting upload time.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions! No matter how thorough the guidelines are, it always helps to hear from people who have done it. For any shop, not just gas stations!

It turned out to be a very snowy day on Friday, the day I had planned for the gas station, so I did it today instead. I was onsite for 47 minutes and took 83 photos. There was only one other customer the whole time I was there, so I didn't have to dodge anyone while taking photos. The only car in any of the photos is mine The report took me 2 hours and 20 minutes! Yikes. The majority of that time was figuring out how to download the photos and resize them, and I can see how that will get much easier and faster with more experience. The actual questions in the report took barely any time at all. Now I guess I'm waiting to hear from an editor...

I do have a question- the reimbursement says "2 gallons of gas" but in the debrief they ask you for the price of regular gas specifically. My car takes premium gas, and that's what I bought. I invoiced for regular gas to be safe, but has anyone had success getting reimbursed for 93 octane?

Oops. You are supposed to write the price per gallon right on the receipt. They will reimburse what you paid, no matter what the price per gallon is.

I truly hope it turns out A-OK for you.

I haven't written on the receipts for some time. They haven't been sent back. I usually get the cheap stuff, anyway.

The report asks for the price of regular gas regardless of what you pump in the car. I always pump Plus or Premium, and that is what they reimburse me for. I have never written anything on the receipt except the job ID number.

I have been reimbursed for premium. And i dont write anything on the receipt.
Also there is free software for resizing entire batches of photos at a time.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/06/2016 07:11AM by CoffeeQueen.

I always get premium gas and have been reimbursed the full amount for 2 gallons. I put the price of 1 gallon of regular on the report where it asks that question. On the top of the receipt I put the price of the premium gas and X2 = $...... I circle the reimbursable amount so they are sure to see it.

@ceasesmith wrote:

Oops. You are supposed to write the price per gallon right on the receipt. They will reimburse what you paid, no matter what the price per gallon is.

I truly hope it turns out A-OK for you.

Thanks! I did write the price per gallon for regular, because that's what they asked for. I'll consider it a $1.94/gallon discount on my gas and invoice for the premium next time!

A couple of tips from a newbie:

It took me a while to figure out the difference between food and product offerings (which are mostly food). For food think "fresh food" like packaged sandwiches, hot dogs or fresh fruit. For product offerings think bags of chips, candy, etc. Food offerings can also be in the cooler (DeliFresh, Landshire).

Photo re-sizing - I stumbled on this one by accident. I used to use a wifi-transfer app to get photos from my iPhone to my PC. I would then use Photoshop to re-size them in a batch and then manually rotate the verticals clockwise and then save them back to a different folder, so on and major pain so forth.

Then simply trying to save bandwidth on my data plan, I emailed them to myself job by job and chose to send them Medium instead of Large or Actual Size. They all arrived in 640 x 480 format! I saved them to a folder specific to that site, ctrl-clicked on all the ones that needed rotating, chose rotate clockwise. This little process saves me tons of time. I even email to myself while stopping by any of my favorite free wifi locations during the day just in case something happens to them or they get accidentally deleted. They are waiting for me when I get home after a day of routed station shops.

Someone on the forum suggested using Pixresizer for resizing batches of photos. I can't remember who but thank you. I have been using it for months and it is free to download and very easy to use.

I just did a search of Pixresizer so that I could give credit to the shopper(s) who suggested this app. My thanks to elcarev68, stilllearning, mrcomputer101 and quilter all of whom recommended it.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/2016 01:25AM by LIJake.

The newest thing we have to count is how many cooler doors are there at the location. I make that note at the top of my photo list to remind myself.

I did one of these a week ago. I was on site for an hour and a half. Some of that was waiting for the restroom, but most of it was double and triple checking to make sure I had everything I needed. I don't suspect future ones to take nearly so long on-site, but I was so nervous about missing something.

The part that was the most time consuming to me was the re-sizing and naming photos so that I could figure out what to upload where. Doing this (individually), then actually getting the report done took another hour and a half.

A tip I read here is to take every photo in high-quality, then re-size later. That way if you should need to zoom in and crop a photo you can. This came in handy when a close-up of a pump infraction photo ended up blurry, I was able to get a better quality photo with zoom/crop from my whole pump photo.

I printed the questionnaire out and filled it out there to ensure I got everything, esp since there are questions you're specifically supposed to ask the employee.

I love the batch resize photos tips... I need to figure that out. I'm also interested in how others name photos quickly to ensure you upload the correct one?

Also, how often does the bonus increase? There's a couple in my (longer drive) area that have been sitting for a while. I don't really love the rate yet, though.

katioard, you can always call the "team" for the gas station shops and tell them you're interested in picking up those stations, and ask for a bonus. If they can't do it yet, they'll tell you. I've had schedulers there tell me when to call back in order to get the bonus, if they can't offer them yet. Of course, you do risk another shopper picking them up before then. But I always figure if they find a shopper to do them for less than I'm willing to take them for, they are welcome to them!

As for quickly deciding which photo to use, I take the sheet that lists all the required photos, put the photos up on my computer full-screen, and flip through them and write the photo number for each required photo right on my "cheat sheet". Then when I get to the report, I just click on the photo number I've preselected. I rarely spend more than 10 minutes on it that way.

The problem this time was the connection was timing out before the photos would load to the report. A member of this forum has been kind enough to try to help me, and I have learned my photos are "too big" for successful uploading!

I, too, need to master "batch resizing" -- right now, it's way, way over my head!

I use Image Resizer. [imageresizer.codeplex.com] It couldn't be easier. I select all the photos I want to resize, which is usually all of them. I then right click and select "resize images" from the menu. That brings up a little pop up box that is pretty self explanatory.

I highly recommend downloading one of these resizing applications. It will make your life much easier.