Has mystery shopping given you a laugh this week?

I had two funny experiences yesterday. First, I shopped a gas station that had a sign on the door saying "We accept money only from pockets, wallets or purses. We do not accept it from your bra, shoe, or other place." I was curious, so asked about the sign. The cashier said they had a problem with people pulling bills from their underwear or shoes and she doesn't want to touch that stinky money. Next I shopped a coffee shop where I was required to ask what the specified drink was like. The barista said, "I have no idea. I don't like coffee." Do your shops ever make you laugh?

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Laugh, I have to think about it, cry, definitely, when the Bartender told me about his wife who had mental illness, screwed up the timings and didn't charge me for a drink...I cried all the way home for fear I wouldn't be paid, but I was.....

Live consciously....

I have had a few "palm-to-forehead" moments.....

A at a retail store, a sales associate told me that the advertised item I was seeking was "discontinued." A minute later he told me, "We'll be getting more in next week."

A cashier told me that I was incorrect about the advertised price of an item. He asked me to go take a picture of the sign for him.

Hard work builds character and homework is good for your soul.

The salesman told me the mattress (expensive mattress brand--$4-5,000*) was an awful mattress, he did not own one and did not recommend the mattress. He walked me over to the cheaper mattresses saying the expensive mattress was over-rated. The next time I did that shop, he was gone.

I have seen the "Boob or sock money" sign in a few places.

I was shopping Sharky’s for dinner and ordered the Stacked Chicken Enchilada plate. She asked if I wanted a drink and I accepted. I waited to see if she offered an up sell to my food order which she did not. I then added the Chicken Tortilla Soup (a soup or other side was allowed in the shop instructions).

She tried to talk me out of it saying the Chicken Enchalada plate was a lot of food, which it was. I guess you could call this a negative up sell. I felt bad because she was just trying to be nice and helpful. I did bring a lot of food home.

I was thinking that reading this forum is funnier than any funny mystery shops I had. I read Irene's post and laughed out loud! My story is not funny but tonight I did a pizza mystery shop. I had a gift card that I thought had $12.68 left on it. I paid my $12.60 bill with the gift card. The cashier said I still owed .08 on the bill after she swiped the gift card. So I thought I must have remembered the leftover incorrectly. Then I sat down and looked at my receipt. My gift card said I still had 8 cents left on it. The not so funny part was that the person who could not figure out how to read a balance on the receipt for a gift card purchase was a manager. I know we have full employment and it is hard to attract folks who know math to a restaurant job but I am thinking a restaurant manager should at least know how to work a gift card purchase.

I discretely took a picture of an employee not wearing a name tag. When I got home and looked at the pictures from the shop, he was discretely giving me the finger.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

This was not a shop assignment: I was at __zzler ordering an item advertised on a banner attached to the front of their building. When I ordered it, I was told they didn't have it. When I stated they had it plastered across the front of the building, I was told it's an old sign. We ended up leaving. Thank goodness for MS'ing!

@SunnyDays2 wrote:

The next time I did that shop, he was gone.

With those amazing sales skills? Shocking! LOL

Happily shopping the Pacific Northwest. Shopping since 2013

I finally laughed at myself while doing my high end watch shop. I was so good at it, I almost pulled out my credit card to buy it, then I remembered, it was a job...ooops!!

Live consciously....

Didn't happen recently, but once in doing a gas shop (Blue), the employee recognized me and told the guy behind the counter (who was not wearing a nametag). He quickly rummaged through his coat pocket and put on a nametag.

It was a McDonalds tag.

I took the photo and told him to have a good day.

There are so many good sales people out there. My taste has definitely gotten more expensive from this job.

@Irene_L.A. wrote:

I finally laughed at myself while doing my high end watch shop. I was so good at it, I almost pulled out my credit card to buy it, then I remembered, it was a job...ooops!!

Back in the day, Nordstrom had the very best shoe sales people. Not so great, since they slashed their wages.

Grocery store shop where you have to place a large item, like a case of bottled water under the cart. Cashier missed it, so off to customer service I go to pay for it. As I was leaving I over heard the CSR person telling the cashier, "You better pray she's not the shopper."

An employee at a gas station once asked for a few minutes to pump himself up for the required photo. After some bicep curls with large bottles of oil, he rolled up his shirt and posed. He was disappointed when I asked him to roll down the shirt enough to see the company logo.

@HonnyBrown wrote:

I discretely took a picture of an employee not wearing a name tag. When I got home and looked at the pictures from the shop, he was discretely giving me the finger.

That is tooooo funny!! I laughed out loud. Woke up my 7 year old who asked why I was laughing.

@1cent wrote:

There are so many good sales people out there. My taste has definitely gotten more expensive from this job.

@Irene_L.A. wrote:

I finally laughed at myself while doing my high end watch shop. I was so good at it, I almost pulled out my credit card to buy it, then I remembered, it was a job...ooops!!

Mine too. I have ended up with a collection of expensive sunglasses from all my Sunglass Hut shops where I couldn't resist....also Michael Kors. But...being a shopper, you find sales and learn more about when the things do go on sale, etc.

@redink wrote:

An employee at a gas station once asked for a few minutes to pump himself up for the required photo. After some bicep curls with large bottles of oil, he rolled up his shirt and posed. He was disappointed when I asked him to roll down the shirt enough to see the company logo.

Haha...also very funny!

Thanks for the laughs, gang

True. Like when I found Ray Bans I liked on sale during a shop for $20 with the extra discount on clearance. Actually sold some for a profit.

I guess that's a different topic. I did a game bar shop and got enough tickets for a cartoon shot glass. Sold it on eBay for $50 to someone in Japan. Went back for another shot glass and this one got $15.

I had a phone shop with a company that I work a lot with and have a relationship with the schedulers. It went soooo bad. I felt like the target knew I was a shopper from the get-go. She grilled me. I could hear her passive aggressiveness through the line. Afterward, I felt so stressed. But I called my scheduler, gave her a heads up and we had a laugh about how bad it went. It made me feel immediately better.

I finally got my laugh today.

Sent the scheduler an e-mail with this subject line: USPS shops in North Platte, NE, and McCook, NE

Her answer?

"Please write back and include the type of shop and the city and state the shop is in."

Um.

I wrote her back and thanked her for the giggle.

I asked a meat department associate what the difference between the organic chicken and natural chicken was. He said that the organic chicken wasn't fed any chemicals and the natural chicken got to live on a farm with a family and run around with the other farm animals in a big field right next to the farmhouse. He was quite enthusiastic about telling all this and seemed very confident in his answer, lol. I said, "Wow, sounds like a great life" and he answered, "Yeah, it sure does!"

I asked a young meat department associate what the difference between the organic chicken and natural chicken was. He said that the organic chicken wasn't fed any chemicals and the natural chicken got to live on a farm with a family and run around with the other farm animals in a big field right next to the farmhouse. He was quite enthusiastic about telling all this and seemed very confident in his answer, lol. I said, "Wow, sounds like a great life" and he answered, "Yeah, it sure does!"

@ceasesmith wrote:

I finally got my laugh today.

Sent the scheduler an e-mail with this subject line: USPS shops in North Platte, NE, and McCook, NE

Her answer?

"Please write back and include the type of shop and the city and state the shop is in."

Um.

I wrote her back and thanked her for the giggle.

Considering that there is more than one type of shop available at every Post Office, she was correct in making you clarify.

I did a Post Office shop at 12:30 PM in one city. My last Post Office shop of the day was at 3:00 PM in another city. Same clerk was there. Holy crud. I locked eyes with him and prayed I did not get him again. I didn't. Lucky me.

On a video new home shop, I walked in, was greeted and asked my name. For the life of me, I could not remember. She asked twice, and I finally blurted out "Steve." Of course, that was neither my real name nor the alias I was supposed to use... oops.

Hard work builds character and homework is good for your soul.

Sometimes your brain just locks up.

@MFJohnston wrote:

On a video new home shop, I walked in, was greeted and asked my name. For the life of me, I could not remember. She asked twice, and I finally blurted out "Steve." Of course, that was neither my real name nor the alias I was supposed to use... oops.

So, my husband was doing a blood draw shop.

The orders were supposed to be sent in so they could look up the orders/insurance on their computer.

When the clerk couldn’t find his name, she asked what company he worked for so she could look it up that way. The only problem was he wasn’t given a company name.

He kept saying, “ Um, um, um.” He finally said he didn’t know, it was through his wife’s work.

She then asked what company it was, and he said he didn’t know.

She said, “You don’t know where your wife works?”

He then explained she does a lot of freelance work and couldn’t remember which company it was for.

Thankfully, he did get paid.

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