@amberngriffinco wrote:

@JASFLALMT wrote:

That's crazy. I have never done a shop where I could not remember what I needed to do. If you are having that problem you should not do those shops.

You can remember the time you entered a, say, restaurant, the name of the host and description. If you were seated within the time allotted per instructions. Remember the name of the bartender, description and if and what he offered you (drink names and menu items). You remember when your beverage arrived, and when you ordered it... when your app or salad arrived after ordering. When your entree arrived and when you ordered it. Describing the restroom is pretty easy to remember, I'll give anyone that. What the host and server recommended. Any small talk with anyone in the restaurant working, including the mgr's name and description. If tables were being cleared and what that person looked like. If you were recommended gift cards .. and, we all know about 50 more things.

This IS HARD to remember it all. Even my 20 year son can't remember all that, including all questions you are supposed to ask.

@sandyf wrote:

By the way do the pics have to the second timings on them?

@sandyf wrote:

And taking pics for timings? I would not be able to remember which picture of my foot was when the bread came and which was when I got water.

Ah, but I am over 60 so that must explain it.

By the way do the pics have to the second timings on them?

@JASFLALMT wrote:

Well, then take a photo of the bread, and then take another one of the water. Plenty of people do that.

And no, but if it's a shop that requires timings to the second, I have a built in stopwatch on my phone and I also have another app called Mystery Shopwatch LITE that I downloaded for free from the Playstore. There are tons of apps out there you can get for free to help you with this kind of stuff. And there are lots of shoppers over 60 who have no problems using technology.


I was responding to the following quote.

@JASFLALMT wrote:

"Yes. And even better than back in the day when I went into a bathroom stall and wrote it down on my paperwork, now I have a handy "notes" feature on my phone. "

Seriously, have you people not figured out that you can take a photo for each timing? It doesn't even have to be aimed at anything in particular and can be shot in a discreet manner (your foot). Each shot has a time stamp imbedded if you have your settings set appropriately.

I for one have not found this to be a better system although I have not tried it. I have taken pics with my camera and I have not tried a stopwatch app although I have real stopwatches. Just sayin that as John said (maybe the only thing he said I agree with him on) each shopper has to use the method best for them. (Not an exact quote).

For me not having seconds and then having to use a stopwatch on top of a photo...and taking a pic right away so i can get the timing to the second or even the minute every time something is put down on my table, even when the servers are close enough to see or stopping by to chat would be very intrusive. They want the exact second and not a guess for some strange reason I cannot fathom ...those are the rules. Yes, people take photos all the time of their food but they do not take a photo of every single thing they ordered immediately after it is put down. I can see this working in a simple shop where you get delivery of your entree only but in a nice place where you need to report the time of the bread, the wine or whatever drink and on and on sometimes to the second it would be very annoying and ruin my whole dinner making the mystery shop not worth it to me. I can simply talk at the table to my guest quietly and record notes to myself only . I am required to go check out the restroom so checking my hand written cheat sheet and recording whatever I need by voice in the stall is not at all an issue for me. If I had a stopwatch I still would not know what each point was for and would have to remember on each indiv shop which things i needed timings for. My way I just mention it all as it arrives and then I have all timings and pick and choose the ones I need for that particular shop. I do have to listen to a recording to find them all but I could index each one if I ever got around to reading the manual and finding out how to do that.

@johnb974 wrote:

I don't understand shops wanting timing down to the second. everyone's timing, on the second hand will be different. There's no seconds on the picture, only the hour and minutes. I wouldn't worry about getting timing down to the exact second.