Today was an epic first in mystery shopping for me. What normally should have taken ninety minutes at best to complete took exactly six hours. Though originally given an hour by my targeted employee early in the morning (7:30 AM), the shop concluded at 1:30 PM with only a brief explanation in the final 30 minutes on why the shop took too long. The response that came before the explanation was "We just got really busy today." My scheduler, of whom I kept in constant contact throughout this ordeal, would not allow for me to either leave or prompt the employee for information. I just had to let the shop play out.

For the purposes of ICAs and client confidentiality, I can't reveal the MSC or even the type of shop. For those on this site that have an idea, your suspicions are correct- it is THAT type of shop. I will say that this type of shop is very, VERY high end.

Given that I didn't have a bathroom to use, drank coffee that was ridiculously bad (I spit it out immediately), farted on by two rude & snooty customers (one of which decided to take her shoes off and pick between her toes), witnessing rude customers go off on salesman with colorful language for nearly forty minutes due to what they were entitled to, walking to the nearest bathroom a half a mile away to rid myself of the terrible coffee (and lack of food) despite being pressed by my scheduler not to do anything (or much less leave the premises), upsold by an annoying salesman to spend over $100K for a product replacement, and then finally explained by the original employee from the beginning that within the final hour that I'll have to spend nearly $28K in necessary product refinements and be without the product for several weeks.

After all that, I escaped the 6 hour debacle with my dignity still intact, yet slightly fatigued. There are some good days in mystery shopping, and there are certainly some doozies where you bear witness to customers next to you picking toe jam as if it is strawberry season, employees that ignore you for hours until you are fatigued, schedulers that won't let you talk to the employees (or the employee's customers) unless they talk first, getting asked to spend a ridiculous amount of money, and lack of usable bathrooms to relieve your stomach tempest. And oh, yes, getting farted on.

Yet another day in mystery shopping. It can be great, yet exhausting sometimes. Has anyone ever had a never ending shop?

I hope you got paid well... yuck.

My thoughts exactly!

@MFJohnston wrote:

I hope you got paid well... yuck.

Sounds like the scheduler, having finally lassoed somebody to take the shop, wasn't going to give up easily.

Oh man that sounds awful!! I’ve never had a shop go on anywhere near that long... I hope you don’t have to endure anything like that again!

@Eric in Tampa, I think you are the frontrunner for the "Worst shop of the year" award. Hey, should we make that a thing?

I'm confused. Foot pickers, farters and loud potty mouths don't sound like high end customers. Wouldn't you think they would know how to behave in public? Well, I guess it is the times we are living in.

...one of those night club shops?

That explains the $100k product replacement!

@sestrahelena wrote:

That explains the $100k product replacement!

Is that the "hush money" or the divorce settlement?

Lottery winners?

@sestrahelena wrote:

I'm confused. Foot pickers, farters and loud potty mouths don't sound like high end customers. Wouldn't you think they would know how to behave in public? Well, I guess it is the times we are living in.

I’m guessing it was a Tesla shop. Since the MSC was not mentioned and we were not ther, I guess there is no harm in posting our guesses here.

I'm sorry I farted on you. I didn't know you were the shopper.

I did a Tesla shop. Took 15 minutes.

Not a Tesla shop. I've never done one of those as of yet.

Oh man!. This sounds truly awful! Was this a video shop?

@MMMMMM Yes, indeed it was!

Horrible! Thought maybe it was an apartment or new home shop since it was targeted but now I am not sure.

That's awful! So sorry you went through that. I hope the job pays lots and lots.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/2019 06:24PM by Mum.

I would turn into a hangry 4 year old - not really, but on the INSIDE....

Sounds like the time share shop from hell.

Sounds like IKEA TO ME, ONLY WORSE.....SORRY!!

Did you catch the audio of the fart? For six hours of torture, I would include every frickin' moment of the video.

But it all worked out for the best because you could entertain us with the story! Plus get much-needed support from forum members! Well worth it, I say!

This made my day! I thought I had the worst shops today because I went to "urban" parts of Indianapolis and witnessed customers doing drug deals, selling items out of their vehicles, and asking if I was "working" tonight.

A good story for the grand kids as well!

How much did this shop pay?

@kenasch wrote:

I’m guessing it was a Tesla shop. Since the MSC was not mentioned and we were not ther, I guess there is no harm in posting our guesses here.

They are very gracious at Tesla. I have shopped a number of them. I could not imagine this being Tesla. Also, 7:30 AM?

Timeshare?!?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/2019 12:39AM by Niner.

@jshoppermontjsho At least $2,000 Rupees.

@redink wrote:

This made my day! I thought I had the worst shops today because I went to "urban" parts of Indianapolis and witnessed customers doing drug deals, selling items out of their vehicles, and asking if I was "working" tonight.

You have my empathy...