I was originally going to title this topic funny vehicle shop stories but thought a broader topic might be more fun. My very first motorcycle shop I had to shop a specific make of motorcycle (at a shop that carried every brand except Harley's) and limited choice of model type. I am pretty short and I didn't realize that every one of this brand and model type were too tall for me even if they dropped the seat. So they kept trying to convince me to change to a different make that made motorcycles that would actually fit me. I had to keep insisting on that particular brand because "my husband rides that brand so I want to ride the same kind." They finally came up with one that wasn't in stock that met the requirements. I was able to complete the report with explanations. They scored well so I'm sure everyone was happy.
I also had a car shop (one of my earliest ones) where on the test drive the salesman seemed to have taken a vow of silence. He didn't say a word including giving any kind of suggested ending time. I felt like I probably could have driven 60 miles and he wouldn't have said anything unless we ran out of gas. He didn't have his own business card so he was probably new. He didn't do so well on his evaluation surprise surprise. The editor came back to me insisting that I tell her what he did and said on the test drive. I told her that he didn't do or say anything, he just sat there. I told her I could make stuff up but I didn't think she'd want me to do that. She finally accepted my report as is.

I was bowed out of the store by the manager and his staff all of them waving good-bye. Being a somewhat intelligent person, I figured out that perhaps they had figured out just what or who I was. another time I was doing a cellphone shop and was told that for a person who said she knew nothing about cellphones I actually had a great deal of knowledge.

I was doing a revealed service station audit, and after I completed the audit, I realized I had locked my keys in my car. I went back inside and pretended to be getting more information for 20 minutes while I waited for AAA to show up and unlock my car.

OK, you asked for it:

A Day In The Life....


of a mystery shopper:

Up at 5. It's gonna be over 100 degrees today, and with my car overheating so that I can't run the a/c, decided to leave for my shops by 7. So up at 5.

By the time I hit the road, it's 11 AM, not 7 AM. Car did fine the first 20 miles. Then overheated. Stopped at McDonald's, got a cup of ice water (free!), and poured it over my head. Noon, reach my shop. Get gas, using my card -- check. Go inside, buy a little something -- check. Go back to the car to grab my paperwork -- MY PAPERWORK? WHERE IS IT? Oh, damn, it's sitting on the table at home.

However, I'm a "seasoned shopper" (they tell me so!!!)....and I've done enough of these to do them in my sleep! Sit in the car and draw up a "cheat sheet" from memory -- oil display, photo of each pump, photos of interior of restrooms, photo of clerk, of porn material, of drug devices, etc., etc., etc. And price sign, and canopy, and building front, and every pump, both at a distance and up close.

Go in, introduce myself, give the manager my letter of authorization, and the first thing she says is "our credit card display is out here", and walks me to it.

Geesh. I had forgotten all about that!

I make up for it by taking 106 photos. I want to make sure I don't miss A THING, and I no longer trust my memory, LOL!!!!

It's 103 degrees. I walk around and around and around the gas station, searching for anything that might nudge my memory: "take a photo of me!!! me, me, me!!!!". I'm lucky -- this station has only 4 pumps.

Go back inside, shake the manager's hand, thank her for her time, ask her if there's anything she'd LIKE me to report She did, I made some notes, thanked her again, and left.

Leaving the parking lot, my car immediately overheats. I stop, go back inside, ask how much is a cup of ice, give her a quarter, and leave again. The shop took 40 minutes. My car has been sitting in direct sunlight for 40 minutes. It's 103 outside, probably 140 inside. Head west, to my next shop.

This one is a major station, major brand, right off I-80 -- lots of pumps. Get my gas with card -- check. Go inside. The sole employee is chatting. And chatting. And chatting. My pump failed to print my receipt, so I HAVE to get his attention. Grab an ice cream, get back in line. Finally get waited on, get my gas receipt, and pay for the ice cream (which has now melted).

No use, really, going to the car for my paperwork -- it's sitting right beside the paperwork for the first shop, comfortably awaiting my return. But I need my safety vest, camera, etc. Fetch it all, go back in, introduce myself, blah, blah, blah.

This is a BIG station, with a restaurant and a nice, cool indoors sitting area. So I sit there, and try to reconstruct what I'm supposed to do. (Different brand, different requirements.)

Surprise, surprise -- there's graffiti all over the inside of the men's room. So I have to go in and take photos. Ugh. Worst part of the job, EVER!!

An hour and 138 photos later, I'm back on the road. One hundred miles to home. I pour another cup of ice water over my head and in my lap (it's now 106 outside, about 140 in my car). Two hours later, home!!!

Phone rings. Will I do a shop tomorrow, 100 miles from my home, for $30? ROTFLMFAO!!!! (The REPORT for that shop takes
FOUR HOURS!!!) For $75? Nope, sorry. Not enough hours in a month to make a living making less than minimum wage. No thanks. Well, how about one 170 miles away for $150....well, I'll think about that one....I would do it for $200.....

So, sit down to work on reports. Due 9 PM Eastern, no ifs, ands, or buts.

First gas station: arrive time, 1:07 PM. Wait a sec -- I got there at 7 minutes after NOON!!!

No, I didn't -- I unknowingly crossed a time zone line! DANG.

Depart first station, 2:10 PM.

Arrival time at 2nd gas station: 1:17 PM.

Depart 2nd station: 2:11 PM.

OMG -- where's Einstein? Or Schrodinger? (Or his cat) -- because I was just in two places at the same time!!!

The MSC will never, EVER grasp this.

And I'm too embarrassed by the paltry amount all this earned me that I will not say how little it was. Well WELL below
minimum wage.

And I will be "fired" by this company, for submitting two shops with overlapping times.





(And what exactly did you do today for fun?)

Maybe in your comment section, you could mention that to do shop #2, you had to cross the time line zone. It is the weekend and the may not look at the report until Monday so it is best to let then know ASAP. Overlapping times is only on your receipt. What the time date on your camera?

What about getting a portable fan for your car? or get your car fix? Driving around in a car that overheat frequently makes your car a hazard on the road. Sounds like you are at least 100 hundred miles or more from home. There is nothing funny about getting into a motor vehicle accident.

Maybe renting a wreck would be a better vehicle. If money is tight. That agency will pay for repairs until your car is fixed.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/2017 04:13AM by sojo917.

LOL!!! The time date on my camera remains July 1, 2007, when I first turned it on! I have no idea how to change it.

I DID put it in the comments -- and I called them, and spoke to a live person. She admitted they had never run across this before; she was quite entertained by it.

When I'm watching my kids waiting patiently for me to take pictures of their food. Such sweeties. I tell them I'm hurrying. <3

Here's one. I think I included it on another topic. I had a dinner shop at Texas Roadhouse. I write down all of the requirements that I needed to look for. This place is only less than 10 minutes away from me. In my head, I'm thinking of arriving sometime after 5 PM to beat the dinner crowd. Performed all of the requirements. Getting ready to write report. The guidelines stated that I needed to arrive after 6 PM. Oops. I email scheduler of my goof and offered for a redo. Scheduler emails back and instructed me to go ahead to do report. Got a 10 by the way. A couple of days after the shop, a coworker from my regular job, asked me if I was at Texas Roadhouse for dinner on so and so day. I replied that I was and explained that I was on a MS assignment. My coworker knew I did MS on the side. My coworker told me that she was there with her family. A friend of her daughter's had join my coworker's family for dinner. The girlfriend took a photo of the family because she was excited that they got a table quickly. Girlfriend sent a copy of photo to my coworker. Coworker looks at photo and saw me in the background. The coworkers' family were seated at a lower level table.

I cannot really think of anything too funny on my end. Most of my shops have gone according to plan or either issues presented weren't too bizarre. I guess I could say my 4 year old almost outing me as I wait to be helped on a child friendly shop by politley asking me if I was doing a mystery shop in a not so quiet voice -_-. He even asks when I'm NOT doing them.

On a similar note, I think the most funny/bizarre story I have read on this forum was the one about the police, snake bite, and hospital stay.

For a bank shop, I had to make an appt with an FSR. The earliest appt was for a week later. When I arrived at the bank, I forgot that I used an alias to set the appt. The FSR says "I thought your name was Smith?" and I replied that I was going through a divorce. The FSR says, "And you changed your first name, too?"

Listening to the young female cashier who was ignoring me at checkout tell the other cashier that she wanted to join the military so she could be a vet because she loves animals.

Ceasesmith, I don't think I've ever laughed so hard before at a tale of woe. After all that, I expected you to say that even with all the photos you took you still forgot something and had to go back or you didn't get paid because you forgot something. I live in Arizona so even with car AC that works my car can still get plenty hot during the summer. So I totally empathize with the heat part of your story. Glad you still find it funny despite all the problems.

@ChrisCooper wrote:

For a bank shop, I had to make an appt with an FSR. The earliest appt was for a week later. When I arrived at the bank, I forgot that I used an alias to set the appt. The FSR says "I thought your name was Smith?" and I replied that I was going through a divorce. The FSR says, "And you changed your first name, too?"

I've come close to giving the wrong name so I get it. What happened? Were you able to complete the shop and get paid? Just curious.

sassy, yes, the shop went well and I was paid. My personal information wasn't needed for anything other than setting the appt, so no problem other than appearing not to know my own name.

Thank you, sassymmm. I MEANT it to be humorous and entertaining.

I'm still giggling over the clerk who wanted to join the armed forces so she could be a vet "because she loves animals".

I did a burger shop recently. Wrapped the receipt in a napkin. Ate my food and threw trash away in the garbage can outside. I walked about 7 blocks away and realized i didn't have the receipt! I hightailed it back and peeked in the trash. My trash wasn't on the top. So i took the trash can cover off and started rifling through the trash. After going through a couple of dirty bags and napkins i found my receipt. It was a bit crumpled but it was legible. Good thing i didn't throw it away originally in the store. You can bet i won't make this mistake again.

I have to ask, why didn't you have the store reprint the receipt?

Many shops won't accept "reprint" or "duplicate" receipts.

I haven't heard of any that won't accept a reprint. There are reasons other than shopper error a reprint would be necessary.

Instructions only say ask once if the cashier did not give a receipt and do not involve mgr. If i didn't find receipt i may have tried to ask for a reprint but didn't want to take the chance to reveal myself, given cameras in the place. I probably would have redone the shop again right away and eat the cost.

I have another story that I think is mostly funny to me and my family but thought I'd share anyway. Years ago I had a dining shop that I took my husband and teenage kids to. My husband knew it was a shop but my kids didn't. I was required to order a non-specific beer and see if the waiter recommended one. So I ordered a beer and waited. My kids went into stunned silence because everyone in my family knows that I don't like beer. I explained later what was going on but it's still a family joke about me drinking beer every time we get together.

I have had too many weird things happen on a shop. Perhaps the classic is when I had to mystery shop a zoo and when I came out of the gift shop I saw people looking off in one direction, some pointing their fingers. It seems a goat had gotten loose from the petting zoo section and was coming our way . Suddenly it spotted me and was mesmerized on the spot, it took off running at the speed of light directly for me and of course I took off running too (he really wasn't my kind of guy), suddenly old memories flooded in of my former glory days on our high school basketball team and my feet had a mind of their own. I never knew that even at my age I was still capable of leaping over a park bench in a single bound.

Fortunately someone was able to capture the beast and hold it until a zoo employee was able to grab it and escort it back to it's area.

Fortunately I have not had to repeat any shop in which I was chased by a love-starved goat.

I was hoping you'd chime in, Cettie!!!

That story certainly proves the origin of the term "horny" is accurate!

I love it when Cettie shops!

I shopped my bank with the scheduler's approval. Chic was very condescending, talking
to me as a potential customer. She assumed that I would not qualify for a tiered account, and kept recommending a low end account for me. I actually have the high end account at 2 banks.

I did a trifecta at a bank. During the first part, a customer walked in and asked the greeter who their mystery shopping company was. The greeter told him one of the MSCs I was working for!

I had a weird bank shop like that just last week. The kid was not condescending. Instead of asking if I had an account with them or where I bank currently, he asked if I had a bank account. He tried to close by asking if I could afford the $50 to open. They were the kind of questions I might expect at 20, just not my age. I am also confident it had nothing to do with the way I was dressed, black polo and jeans, since I shopped another branch of the same bank about an hour before.

Well, let's see..yesterday I did two gas station revealed audits. At the first one, Conoco, I announced that I was there to do the BP audit. Duh

One time when I was shopping a blue bank, all the lights went out because, unbeknownst to me, a fire was happening outside on the roof (electrical) I remained seated and focused on the banker as he continued telling me all the boring stuff he was supposed to. I needed his card, so I sat there, acting like nothing was wrong, trying to keep a straight face in the bank lit only by the dim security lamps. The manager finally announced there was a fire and everyone had to leave pronto. I got his card and pulled out of the lot before the fire engines got there.

I have had a few that were interesting to say the least.

The first, I was doing transportation shops for the taxi companies in my area. One of the cab drivers noticed me taking photos (one of which was of his cab that was required for the report) and he very aggressively asked me what I was doing with my camera. I played it off and told him I was a photographer, it was my job, I take pictures of everything. He totally bought it. Then he raised his fist and practically yelled at me (I'm a petite woman, mind you, alone in this cab),"Good! Because if you were one of those secret shoppers I was going to punch you!" I laughed it off but then e-mailed the scheduler to ask if I should put that in the report. I haven't seen him driving since....

Secondly, I was doing a cell phone shop and the girl asked what kind of phone I have. I told her the Google Pixel, which is true. So then she tries to tell me that a $200 Samsung will take better photographs than it and it's a "real bargain." I played it off and tried to lure her into presenting me with the more high end phone options. Needless to say, she didn't get the hint that I was unimpressed with the bargain phones she was presenting me until her manager came over and tried to save the sale. By that time, even if I had been a real customer I probably would have left, but I finished the shop and reported it. It's sad when you know more about the product the salesperson is trying to sell you than they do.

Lastly, I was doing one of those famous grocery shops where you ask stupid questions. Luckily for me, the question of the month was,"What's on sale?" So that's a fairly normal question. When I was chatting with the associate about the sales and what not, she suddenly got wide eyes and pointed behind me to a woman and said,"Do you see that lady over there? She's our mystery shopper! We have to be on really good behavior when she's around!" I turned and looked at the lady she was pointing at (laughing in my head because I was the mystery shopper). I played dumb and asked her what a mystery shopper is and blah blah blah. Funnily enough, she was convinced that the shopper had to look for all these requirements and they were very specific and I can tell you, none of them were asked for in the shop I was doing so unless the store was being shopped by another company (which is doubtful, this is one of the grocery stores we all do here with the same MSC but you never know).....Anyways, I got a good laugh at that and wrote it up as a note to the scheduler that an employee talked my ear off about their supposed mystery shopper that wasn't really their shopper.

Mine a few minutes ago was not on a shop, but definitely related to one. I'm working on a project involving bids for a home improvement project. After seeing vehicles with company logos, my neighbor just texted. One of the companies had done work for them and she wanted to warn me