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Has this happened to you? What is the solution?

August 02, 2018 04:25AM
I am very new to mystery shopping and I have no idea how to handle these type situations.
I had to take a photo of a business that included the businesses on each side, that did not include people. I went across the street to get the shot and a family was sort of hanging out in front of the store. They moved so I tried to get a pic. Kid in the shot so I deleted and waited. The mother started getting upset because she thought I was trying to photograph her children! I told her no, I’m simply photographing the store so that my husband knows where I need him to go. She threatened to call the police if I didn’t leave. I left. I don’t want to attract attention. I went back an hour later. Still a lot of people entering and exiting. So I waited a couple of more hours and went back to take the photo. Will this cause my shop to be rejected? What should I do in those type situations?

Trying to learn from all of these rockstars.
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August 02, 2018 04:53AM
Apparently it's a busy store, with lots of customers entering and leaving. Do the best you can to leave people out of the photo, but if someone walks by, you can't help that. Take a few photos, and turn in the one with either no people or the fewest people, that also shows the store and its neighbors. Explain what happened in your shop narrative.

Be sure to take at least two or three pictures of the store; you never know which one you'll have to use. For that reason, don't delete any until you get home and actually inspect your pictures. One problem with returning hours later is that a digital camera will encode "invisible" time information on the picture when it is made. (This is not the same as time-stamping, which is visible on the image.) It will look like you forgot to take the picture and returned later to do it, and the company may not (or may) accept it.

Whatever you do, NEVER use pictures you found online, and never re-use pictures you took from a previous visit to the store.

Hope this helps.
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August 02, 2018 06:19AM
I definitely would never submit photos that I did not personally take. I sure hope my shop is not rejected.

Trying to learn from all of these rockstars.


Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/2018 06:19AM by Rhondabryant.
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August 02, 2018 03:00PM
Did you email your scheduler and explain the situation, or was there a place on the form to make a note of this?
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August 02, 2018 03:57PM
The signage for commercial buildings is usually high enough that you can photograph the signage without people.
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August 02, 2018 04:47PM
Usually they just want you to avoid people if possible. If they insist on no people you could edit your photo in MS Paint and paint over any faces. Sort of what is down in Google maps street view. As suggested above always check with your scheduler first though
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August 02, 2018 05:59PM
That woman who threatened to call the police sounds crazy. She can't keep you from taking photos in a public location....

It's too bad you deleted the photo you took at the time; as someone else said, never delete photos taken for a shop until long after the fact. It's just about impossible to get a photo of a business and adjacent ones without any people in it! I'm guessing your photo would have been accepted. It may definitely be a problem that the photo you submitted was taken so long after the shop, because the MSC can see in embedded data when the shot was taken. They might assume you forgot at the time and are trying to "put one over on them." (Sadly, there are dishonest shoppers in this business, and MSCs can sometimes appear to not trust us.)

Hopefully, as JASFLAMT notes, you've e-mailed your scheduler and explained the situation. Good luck, and please let us know how this turns out. Sorry you encountered such a bizarre situation.

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.


Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/2018 12:19AM by BirdyC.
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August 02, 2018 07:20PM
I have submitted many many photos that had people that said no people allowed. Generally when that happens I write the scheduler to let them know it was impossible to get the pic without people...It has always been accepted but of course it is all dependent on the msc and the scheduler. That woman was really rude. If she was nice she would have moved out of the way for you! Some people!
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August 02, 2018 08:06PM
At least on an iPhone, deleted photos are still there and can be recovered either from the Cloud or the deleted photos album.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/2018 09:06PM by kenasch.
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August 02, 2018 08:41PM
I haven’t heard anything back yet, so I’m hoping it all went well. If they reject it, I suppose I’ll have learned a lesson. From now on, I’ll take the photo with people in it if that’s my only option. I hope they don’t cancel me.

Trying to learn from all of these rockstars.
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August 03, 2018 04:20AM
When this happens, and it happens a lot, I try my very best to get the pic when people's backs are to the camera.
It seems like there's not one moment when someone isn't coming in or leaving my local Costco. I will set my timer for 5 minutes because it can seem like you are standing there for a long time. I never, ever, ever take photos with children in them. If someone is staring at me like they are going to eat my face, and that happens a lot also, I point to my phone and mouth "picture" and point to the top of the building. I've never waited more than a couple of minutes though and I've never had a tiger of a mother say she was going to call the police. I probably would have made a scene so I don't have any advice for that particular situation except to make it clear, though body language, that you are taking a photo of the building. You could yell that it is for your grandma who's house used to be there, or some other tear-jerking lie, so she would feel like a pos for making a scene.
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August 04, 2018 08:50AM
Another way around that is to stage a smile or funny expression, as if you were taking a selfie. Since the camera faces you, they wouldn't know any different.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2018 08:51AM by Chix.
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August 06, 2018 12:10AM
@Chix wrote:

Another way around that is to stage a smile or funny expression, as if you were taking a selfie. Since the camera faces you, they wouldn't know any different.

Just as long as the flash is turned off.
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August 06, 2018 12:17AM
Think it is a no win deal. But I would be like call the cops and we will see. Would not be the first time.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/06/2018 12:17AM by 2stepps.
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August 06, 2018 12:21AM
I like the stage a smile selfie idea. It will work with my next shops, I'm sure of it.
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August 06, 2018 05:29PM
You don't know the history of the woman and her child - maybe the kid's been approached by PedoJoe before or she's going through a nasty divorce, etc. I would have shown her the photos I was taking and made a comment along the lines of, "Good for you; you can never be too careful these days."

I do what Ken does; just blur the face.

"Let me offer you my definition of social justice: I keep what I earn and you keep what you earn. Do you disagree? Well then tell me how much of what I earn belongs to you - and why?” ~Walter Williams
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August 06, 2018 05:45PM
The more you hang around and try to do it quietly, the more noticeable you are. Just get to the right spot, click at least three pictures, then walk away to check them and walk by one more time if they weren't good.

This is a unique solution, but I try to park in a manner that makes it easy to poke my phone through the sunroof and have a good angle for exterior photos. I don't think anyone has ever noticed me doing that.
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August 06, 2018 05:50PM
Oh, I want a sun roof!
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