Why is this gig so difficult; or, another episode in A Day In The Life of A Mystery Shopper

ceasesmith · 2019-11-17T05:20:45+00:00

OK, I have scheduled 5 shops (one hardware, one fast food, 3 gas stations). First one 45 miles away, East. Last one, 50 miles away, West. Total route will cover roughly 200 miles. Only one - the fast food - has a "window", the remainder just need to be done before dusk. My friend's gonna pick me up at 8 AM, so we can do the first shop at 9 AM and be home by 4 PM. I am old. I am disabled. Therefore, I set my clock for 5 AM, to give me my normal 3 hours to get functioning and ready to leave. So, of course, I sleep through the alarm. For TWO FULL HOURS. Wake up at 7. OMG. Call my friend, tell her I overslept, OK, she'll come an hour later. Check my e-mails. Nope, still haven't heard from that scheduler. Should I cancel the application, or just leave it open until the last second? Leave it open. Instead of hopping into the shower by 7, I creep into it about 8...do the best I can, and am basically ready by 9. We're still in good shape, plenty of time. Of course, half an hour down the road, I hear from that scheduler...she assigned me the shop. Great. Just in case, I had brought the paperwork with me from last month, when I did a different location of the same shop, so I am prepped. Do my first shop. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. Have to wait a while for the fast food shop, so run over to do a Field Agent. Scored a free ham! Job only pays $4, but the ham was $25. Okay, have time for personal errands, get them all done. Arrive at the fast food at the exactly correct minute for the beginning of the window. They are SLAMMED! First, I can't get the door open; I have to wait for help to open it. Then, there's not an available table or booth in the place. No one in line ordering, but lots of people waiting for orders. And it's a dine-in shop. I had budgeted 15 minutes, because it's a dine in shop. It took 12 of that to get the food. By then, my ride had come in (probably to see what was taking so long!). My 15 minute job takes half an hour. It takes my ride's assistance to open the door to leave. Hit the road for the first gas station. Same town, get the second one done, too -- except the MSC has labeled it as an "unattended" station, 2 quick photos, get gas with credit card, gone. OOOPS. There's a convenience store. And it's open and staffed. So, do the full reveal audit, on the theory that it's better to do the audit and submit too much info, than to perform the shop as an unattended location, and have it kicked back. Because I can't get there again to re-shop the location. Revealed audit takes me 45 minutes. So now we're an hour behind schedule. Hit the road for gas station number 3. Done. On the road to number 4. Done, just in time as now the sun is setting. Hope those photos are acceptable to the MSC, because they state "full daylight". It's only 4 PM, but sun is setting fast. Get home right after 6 PM. I have put $30 in gas in my friend's car; after I also pay her something, I will net about $200 for the day. Not great, but way, way better than nothing coming in next month. Exhausted. Back aches Feet killing me. Hurt all over. Download and sort my 147 photos (yes, one hundred and forty-seven). So exhausted, seeing double. Go to bed, set alarm clock for 2 AM so I can get most of the reports in within ROUGHLY 12 hours of completing the shop. Of course, I sleep through the alarm. FOR TWO WHOLE HOURS AGAIN!!! Wake up at 4 AM. Drag straight to the computer, get the first 3 reports in. Okay, now it's 10 AM. (Yes, I know -- I AM SLOW. Reports are hard! Despite what other shoppers say or think, for me, they are difficult.) Gotta take a nap. Don't set the alarm, it's just a nap, right? Wake up 9:30 PM. Now my reports are late, the final 3. But I gotta get 'em in. So I will be sitting here working on them until probably 1 AM. Maybe 2 AM. On the bright side, that sleep was restorative -- back doesn't hurt as bad, foot swelling somewhat down, don't ache all over everywhere, like I did at 4 AM. Why is this gig just so hard?

Why is this gig so difficult; or, another episode in A Day In The Life of A Mystery Shopper

December 27, 2019 05:58AM

Thanks for the info on compatibility as I have tons of spreadsheets on excel and really want to be able to use them on both my desktop with excel and my laptop with whatever is free.

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Why is this gig so difficult; or, another episode in A Day In The Life of A Mystery Shopper

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