And no, I don't use the app. Cellular data is both expensive and unreliable in rural areas. And no, I am not going back. It's the first run with an old shop with a new company and is even more work than before.

Been there, done that.

Seems to me like it is ALWAYS the one furthest away on a route....like 400 miles from home!

My last one was I missed one side of the main ID/price sign. Got 2 good photos of one side, walked around it, took the photo. Checked the "review" on my camera before leaving, looked fine. Downloaded the photos at home, and the second sign was cut in half vertically. Just half the sign is on the photo. Yet in the "review" view, the whole sign is there. Darn!!!

Hope it works out for you.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/07/2019 03:19PM by ceasesmith.

This one was only about 100 miles from home, but I am still not going back. Let's call this a failed experiment.

Oh,, that feeling. I know it. I hold my breath when I review the photos on my 'puter until I see that last missing pump number...the one I had to wait for because a car was parked there and it was therefore the next to the last photo.

One time, an attendant chatted with me and threw my whole shop off when he told me he could not believe someone my age was doing what I was doing. When I got home I found I had not taken even one pump photo....return. And I'm not that old..geesh.

Yes!
It happened to me on a long route through Wisconsin. I somehow forgot to take a photo of the MID.

That was back when I would take photos with my camera, review them in the camera and then move on to the next stop. Upon getting home, I would download them onto my computer, then name them and then file the reports. It was difficult because I had to discern one shop from another.
Somewhere I missed taking the MID photo of the number 3 shop on a 7 shop route.

After that incident, I began taking my laptop with me. I bought a cigarette lighter AC/DC adapter and a mouse. My computer stayed charged and I was able to download the photos into the computer while at the shop. I reviewed them and named them. It became very handy as I found various details or photos that needed to be retaken or had been skipped.
As the years have gone by, I've started taking additional cameras and batteries to prevent any unwanted incidents. Too bad I forgot my jack this winter when my tire blew out in -8 degree temps. Had to call roadside assistance. $125 gone!

AS for the missed ID on the route, it was the first and last time I ever did that (180 miles round trip for one photo!).

I am so sorry to hear what happened to you.

My very first shop like that was purposely 1.5 miles from my house for that very reason.

Is this the record for the longest title?
I am sorry that happened. I go back when I can, but if I can't I can't.

My craziest example was forgetting to take the employee uniform photo at a blue station on the last station of doing six or so in the day. I usually double check everything but was complacent on this one; probably because it is in walking distance from my house. Anyway I did the other reports, returned the location hoping she was still working, and she was. I would have just take a counter photo if not. Crisis averted!

The one time forgot a pump photo it was at a station 2 miles from my house. So for me, I guess I get complacent in the nearby shops and am more careful to double check everything when further away!

Actually remembered something better; as I have mentioned I was the AGM of a hotel. While during a blue station, when of our regular guests was fueling up (while I was still doing that job and shopping part time). We had a long conversation as it was funny to see him there, and vice versa. Not surprisingly, I never ended up taking the photo of the pump he had fueled on. I did catch it before I went home, though.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/07/2019 11:03PM by KA047.

After doing this for so many years I think I have developed an inner sense of when I'm missing something. I have that funny feeling that I forgot something as I'm walking to my car. I check the camera at that point for each pump and all required photos. I can't tell you how many times my inner sense has been correct...missing no TOP TIER decal photo, missing one pump, missing cashier photo etc. The more I do per day, the more likely I am to become forgetful as they get jumbled.

I don't know about the Maritz app (if that's who this is about) but the MobiAudit app doesn't require that you use cellular data.

As soon as I get to a station, I write down the pump numbers and cross them off as I grab their photos. I take three of each pump, to be sure, and keep moving as the cars come and go. For some reason I crossed off this pump number but have no legit photo. I wonder what that was all about... Its a first.

More than once I have hit the camera's off button instead of shutter, thought I took a picture and didn't. Like MsJudi, it's more likely as the day wears on.

I feel Your Pain been there and done that too, I try to do a routine but always there is one pump that escapes me, for one reason or another. I have clicked record video and not taken a picture before. I always try to review my pictures and I write the numbers down of the pumps to make sure I got them all. Lately companies are not allowing you to enter a picture late.

Done this more than once. Not because I'm necessarily forgetful (and not denying that I might be) ... Sometimes I think the pic just doesn't take. I usually try to take at least 2 shots of each required photo just in case ... but I have noticed before that I have seen the screen flash, indicating a pic was taken, but then not finding any such pic when reviewing them. This was on a Samsung Galaxy S7, possibly on the Note 9, but can't say for sure.

It's always, ALWAYS at the station the farthest away from my house. ALWAYS.

@MsJudi wrote:

One time, an attendant chatted with me and threw my whole shop off when he told me he could not believe someone my age was doing what I was doing. When I got home I found I had not taken even one pump photo....return. And I'm not that old..geesh.

I was once doing a jewelry shop in a large mall where the sales associate thought I was searching for a gift for my 40th anniversary. I was 37 at the time and I promise you, I did not look even close to someone who could be married 40 years. I was so thrown by it that I walked out to my car and was convinced it had been stolen. About 5 seconds before I called the cops I realized that in my wtf was their problem haze I walked out the door at the completely opposite end of the mall from where my car was. lol

That is too funny. It sort of messes with your mind and takes your thoughts elsewhere, (like do I really look too old to be doing this?) completely taking you out of the moment and what you're supposed to be doing.

Please tell me that the 24 pump shops are the ones that start at $60 before any bonuses? That seems like a ton of work.

I'd LOVE to find gas station jobs that start at $60 before bonuses!!!

I did my first and probably last gas station audit. No one told me that most shoppers don't use the app. If you exit the app and go back you have to page through lots of pages. I missed 2 pumps and it took forever to figure out which ones. The app gave me errors. I call in and that's when they tell me that most don't use the app. But once you start, you are stuck. At the end, the app says I took too long. Ya think??? 2 hours, $12. I could have gotten $7 more for a night shop. Glad I didn't do that, I could have been out there all night!

I went back to that shop yesterday. It had been put back on the board with enough of a bonus to justify driving all the way to Council Bluffs for one shop. Dropped the family off to shop at Target, and picked them up for supper. They wanted a trip into civilization, anyway, and this covered supper.

Are you east of Council Bluffs?

South, and a little East

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/2019 08:15PM by heartlandcanuck.

@ceasesmith wrote:

I'd LOVE to find gas station jobs that start at $60 before bonuses!!!

Took me all of 5 minutes to find them at that rate. I checked the obvious MSC's that do gas stations.

I have no desire to do all of that work. Sounds like it would be more than 30 minutes on-site and 30 minutes editing and uploading. Thanks no thanks.

Well, I just have to say maybe we don't have that brand of gas station in Nebraska!

Blue C shops have a cure leave behind form, I drive around while filling it out and check for missed infractions. for the others I make a "cheat sheet" to keep up with names, descriptions, etc, depending on what that particular station calls for.(at the end of a route of 6-8 shops it's hard to remember which store I bought a drink and which one I bought chips or who the cashier was) I add items to it when I see I'm forgetting something on a regular. It makes input a lot easier too because I write the amount spend on gas, the pump number used and same for the instore, amount spent and the item purchased. I have to respond to the cheat sheet, is credit card apps available? are reward cards available yes/no is top tier present etc. Ironically, missed items have become rarer, but it helps when you take double sets of pictures and have cheat sheets to remind you. I also work with my husband. I try to do the daytimes and let him do the night times and we take some outdoor pics like MID's and curbs backups for the other.
For stations with a lot of pumps, it helps to write the pump numbers down when checking your pictures so you know right then if you missed any pictures. I label my pumps on site as I take the pictures but he doesn't he enlarges the pics on his phone to check. But when uploading later if you can't see which pump to add it takes longer to input. I can read what I typed at the end of the picture ID even on the thumbnails so I know immediately which picture is that particular pump.

I print off the first sheet of the evaluation and use that for notes. That way all I have to do is write the start and finish times, data about the cashier, and anything that is amiss. Before I leave for a route I put an authorization letter and a cure sheet with each pump's sheet and put them in order of the route. I clip the receipts to the form after I take their photos.

I write the pump numbers down and cross them off. If I start with the receipt photos it is easy to tell where one shop stops and another begins. Having the leave-behind cure sheet last also gives separation. (For night shops, I start and end each shop with a photo of my dashboard clock. Less writing in the dark.)

I remember there was a song about a town south and east of Council Bluffs. I think it was called "Tarkio Road" by Brewer and Shipley.
We would drive through on our way to Peru, college, Nebraska.

Tarkio, Missouri. We used to live there. (We're in Iowa now.)

Brewer and Shipley had a song about sitting in a railway station. I don't know how it came to be, but seeing "One Toke Over the Line" on the Lawrence Welk Show must have made some people giggle. It's on youtube.

@French Farmer wrote:

I remember there was a song about a town south and east of Council Bluffs. I think it was called "Tarkio Road" by Brewer and Shipley.
We would drive through on our way to Peru, college, Nebraska.

@heartlandcanuck wrote:

Tarkio, Missouri. We used to live there. (We're in Iowa now.)

Brewer and Shipley had a song about sitting in a railway station. I don't know how it came to be, but seeing "One Toke Over the Line" on the Lawrence Welk Show must have made some people giggle. It's on youtube.

@French Farmer wrote:

I remember there was a song about a town south and east of Council Bluffs. I think it was called "Tarkio Road" by Brewer and Shipley.
We would drive through on our way to Peru, college, Nebraska.

So you probably went to the bluegrass festival in Brownville?

A small world for this French person.

I'm not sure that was still a thing when we lived there. If I had heard of it I would have gone.