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Chipotle Shops

July 11, 2017 03:35AM
@sarahshopper wrote:

My reports were approved without issue even with all the negative remarks.
I wish I could only spend $7. Since I am not a big taco fan; with required items and city prices I can't get out of there for under $11 and that's without a drink. So my profit comes out to a lot less, especially if the food I am being reimbursed for is of such poor quality that I won't eat most of it.
I guess I just remember the food as tasting better in the past. I may also be spoiled by a great local burrito chain and I tried a new burrito place in my area last week and their shrimp & steak burrito may have been one of the best burritos I have ever had.

Sarah shopper...if you really think the food is not good then why not order a taco..at the very least you could order just one taco in the locations where you have found them to have poor food by your standards. My check usually comes to $4.00+ with the chips and one taco...I put the same ingredients in my soft shell taco as in a burrito so the only diff is it is smaller and it does not completely close up. Then if you find a location where you think the food is good you can order the whole meal. Not sure where you live...I understand that Hawaii might be more costly but I think I live in a high cost city and the total for an entree and chips is under $10 here.
Otherwise if it is not worth it for food you are not eating and the leftover money perhaps this is not the job for you.
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July 12, 2017 01:53AM
sandy, I'm amazed at how many shoppers think the food and pay are horrible, but continue to do the shops.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton
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July 12, 2017 05:30PM
I had the biggest one taco yesterday. It was so big there was no way the tortilla could be wrapped around it. I think it was equal to almost one bowl of food. My oop for the job was $3.97. I am not one of those people who can stretch a meal for two or three days but I was full after eating that.....I am telling all my friends who have to pay for their food to just try the one taco meal in the future. And the side of salsa was a huge cup...much more then they would have put on the taco itself so now i have leftovers of that. The msc did me a favor by changing the rules to be able to order one taco and opened up my eyes to a full meal for under $4.
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July 12, 2017 06:39PM
@sandyf wrote:

I had the biggest one taco yesterday. It was so big there was no way the tortilla could be wrapped around it. I think it was equal to almost one bowl of food. My oop for the job was $3.97. I am not one of those people who can stretch a meal for two or three days but I was full after eating that.....I am telling all my friends who have to pay for their food to just try the one taco meal in the future. And the side of salsa was a huge cup...much more then they would have put on the taco itself so now i have leftovers of that. The msc did me a favor by changing the rules to be able to order one taco and opened up my eyes to a full meal for under $4.

Sounds like a ROFL taco.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/12/2017 06:41PM by kenasch.
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July 12, 2017 10:55PM
My shop on Sunday was rejected due to my arriving early. I told the scheduler I would redo the shop. I'm going to try another rofl taco.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton
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July 12, 2017 11:31PM
@HonnyBrown wrote:

My shop on Sunday was rejected due to my arriving early. I told the scheduler I would redo the shop. I'm going to try another rofl taco.

I was a bit concerned about the 5-10 minute early rule as I am never sure which clocks have the same time on them... If the restaurant timepiece is off (which looking at receipt times since becoming a mystery shopper has enlightened me to as an issue) then how do you determine if you are 5 or 6 or, horrors, maybe 4 minutes before what they think is your order time? Fortunately on yesterday's order my watch was synced with theirs!
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July 12, 2017 11:48PM
sandy, that's exactly what happened. My phone and FitBit both said it was 11:20, but the receipt said 11:14am. Rejected.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton
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July 13, 2017 02:48PM
So you were rejected for something that really was not your fault. How are you to know THEIR clocks are not correct?
Seems super unfair.

@HonnyBrown wrote:

sandy, that's exactly what happened. My phone and FitBit both said it was 11:20, but the receipt said 11:14am. Rejected.
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July 13, 2017 03:06PM
@HonnyBrown wrote:

sandy, that's exactly what happened. My phone and FitBit both said it was 11:20, but the receipt said 11:14am. Rejected.

Bummer. That's where CanadaMommy's previous suggestion of having your credit card send you a text would come in handy as independent corroboration of the actual time of purchase. Provided you used a credit card and not cash. At least you enjoy the food and get several meals from it. Wish I could stretch it out like that. I got my first rofl taco last week!
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July 13, 2017 04:33PM
So was 11:20 within the acceptable time frame? If so, there is no reason for them to reject the shop. I'm not aware of phones ever having the wrong time anymore since they are not set manually.

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.
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July 13, 2017 04:48PM
I think that might still be outside of lunch time since you are supposed to allow a specific time lapse.

@HonnyBrown wrote:

sandy, that's exactly what happened. My phone and FitBit both said it was 11:20, but the receipt said 11:14am. Rejected.
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July 14, 2017 01:42AM
My devices said it was 11:20am, so I proceeded with the shop per the guidelines. The receipt, however, said I made the purchase at 11:14am. I can't prove that I shopped at the correct time.

I won't fight it. As Chris said, I got several lunches from it!

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton
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July 14, 2017 01:49AM
Next time take a time stamped photo of the front of the location right before you walk in--and I don't think you'd have to fight it, this MSC is very forgiiving and they tend to give shoppers the benefit of the doubt in most cases.
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July 14, 2017 01:53AM
I would fight the denial. What you have as proof is two different devices, at least one of which is not set manually, along with your reputation. It is odd the MSC cannot acknowledge discrepancies like this are common.

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.
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July 14, 2017 02:00AM
@sarahshopper wrote:

Sounds like there is no consensus on if this is normal. It seems like this just isn't the right shop for me both with date flexibility and pay. Ideally I would like if I could grab one every few months if there was a location near where I already planned to be for other shops.
As for the food being mediocre, the first shop I did the entire restaurant was filthy, the food had clearly been sitting out for a while and I was left with a pool of grease at the bottom of my salad. The second restaurant also had cleanliness issues and the food was adequate except for chips being over-salted to the point of not being edible. My reports were approved without issue even with all the negative remarks.
I wish I could only spend $7. Since I am not a big taco fan; with required items and city prices I can't get out of there for under $11 and that's without a drink. So my profit comes out to a lot less, especially if the food I am being reimbursed for is of such poor quality that I won't eat most of it.
I guess I just remember the food as tasting better in the past. I may also be spoiled by a great local burrito chain and I tried a new burrito place in my area last week and their shrimp & steak burrito may have been one of the best burritos I have ever had.

You say you don't like tacos but you like burritos--you do realize that you can get 1 soft taco and put burrito ingredients in it? Basically the same thing but not a ginormous amount of food. I'd never be able to eat a whole burrito.
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July 14, 2017 05:07AM
So it sounds like you (Honey) put in your order for 11:30 which is the earliest time for lunch and if you arrived at what your phone thought was 11:20 you should be alright...I did once ask them if the time frame started at 11:30 could I get there earlier to pick up an order ordered for 11:30 and they said yes. But your pick up time based on the receipt then was not within the time frame..not your problem if their register has the wrong time. The bigger issue here for the company is that if you are correct and their clock is off by 16 minutes they will be closing down 16 minutes early which they should not do. Perhaps the msc would like to know about that huge discrepancy. This happens so often that a receipt has the wrong time on it and even sometimes the wrong location (I once got a receipt for South Dakota in a store in Los Angeles) or the wrong day. These discrepancies on receipts have never been an issue with any msc I have worked for when I mention them in the report...so I think you should appeal to them this time too.
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July 14, 2017 11:37AM
I would think it would not be a problem to explain the time discrepancy except that there were time issues last month. After shopping outside the time frame and ordering for 15 minute pickup instead of the required 30+ minutes, they accepted the shop without issue and gave a warning. Having a time issue again the next month becomes a lot harder to argue, I agree with Honny, Given the history with last month, i would just redo the shop.
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July 14, 2017 01:18PM
I would dispute the msc's rejection. It's not your fault that the receipt clock is inaccurate. Can't Chipotle pull the video if need be? I once did a Chipotle shop and the time listed on the receipt didn't jive with the time I performed the shop. The editor asked me about it, and I simply stated that Chipotle's clock was wrong. My shop was accepted with no issue.
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July 15, 2017 02:17AM
You all make valid points, but this is not a battle I want to to fight. I need to save that venom for other things.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton
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July 15, 2017 02:26AM
I don't think it would have been a battle. All you would have needed was a simple email explanation and I'm pretty sure your shop would have been accepted.
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July 15, 2017 02:29AM
In many cases like that I am doing simple picture shot before entering to the store and picking point form GeoVerify (even they did not ask for it)

Shopping Eastern Pennsylvania since 2009
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July 15, 2017 02:37AM
I'll admit to forgetting about the real time issue from last month until the reminder from roffle taco. It leaves me torn. I understand why you are inclined to feel you owe them, you do. OTOH, as far as the MSC knows you made timing mistakes twice. It seems to shame.

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.
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July 15, 2017 02:56AM
I just remember being told often when I was an editor for this MSC to overlook things frequently. I especially remember the owner telling me to be especially kind to the shoppers when giving feedback. She said, "We need them more than they need us." I thought then and still do that this was an awesome philosophy from an MSC.
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July 15, 2017 09:18PM
That time requirement is very tight. I don't think I will do them after this month is over. There are too many variables that can affect the time.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton
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July 15, 2017 09:30PM
I think you'll change your mind, LOL. You have been accustomed to "free" lunches and from what I read, you usually get 3 lunches out of one bowl. Paying for lunch is hard to do after that.
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July 15, 2017 09:53PM
LOL JAS! Yes, I have a nice system for my work lunches. On my off days or weeks, I gladly pay for California Tortilla though.

This was the first shop that was rejected with this MSC. It hurt my feelings!

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton
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July 15, 2017 09:58PM
It's not the norm, and I bet it never happens to you again.
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July 15, 2017 10:52PM
California Tortilla actually much better than Chipotle..I did California Tortilla shops few times..

Shopping Eastern Pennsylvania since 2009
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July 15, 2017 10:57PM
JAS, I hope not! I did send the editor a note about my timing issues. She said to make sure I document the timing in the report.

@JASFLALMT wrote:

It's not the norm, and I bet it never happens to you again.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton
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July 15, 2017 10:59PM
Yes, I am sure if you would have made note of the time discrepancy in the report your shop would have been accepted.
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