Time/Date Stamp and Location On The Photo

December 04, 2020 04:40PM

Okay, I can understand this requirement to prove you are at a location when taking your pictures and have no problem with it.

I did a shop yesterday and complied with these instructions when taking pictures at the location. When I got home, I inadvertently didn't use the app that put this information on the picture. I took a picture of the DATED store receipt.

The editor put these remarks in my report:

".....This report received an 8 rating, meaning it contained 2-4 minor errors or 1-2 moderate errors. Our top tips for next time:

• Future shops MUST have Geolocation information (time/date stamp and location) on the photo."

Isn't this a little picky? I mean do they need me to geolocate that I was at home doing my report? The receipt had the date and time on it.

Sorry, this just hit me wrong I guess.

Also, be aware, I took pictures of the front of the store from two different angles (from the left and then right) and got two different addresses for the store. One of which wasn't correct or even nearby.

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December 04, 2020 06:11PM

Thanks for the heads up!

I have yet to do these shops.

1. It took days and days for the needed apps to appear on my phone.
2. Meanwhile, the shops were filled.
3. To me, this seems fussy. Fussy = need a long stretch of time for the first gig, just to get acclimated.

At least they accepted your shop. Now, the rest of us know what to look for in order to be paid.

I just need some alternative facts. (Harley Carter)

December 04, 2020 06:49PM

This is why I do not do any jobs for this company anymore. I used to do a lot of them. The date apps don't work on my phone. I do not take any job now because I am afraid it's going to have in the instructions (after taking the job) that I have to use the date apps and then I have to cancel the jobs. Every time I download one of these types of apps, I start getting a lot of spam calls, too.

Shopping Arkansas, Louisiana, & Mississippi.

December 05, 2020 04:51PM

Do you mind saying which MSC this is, OP? I really need to avoid them!

I have run across weird requirement before, date and time stamps. I always take the time to explain that my date/time stamp is set on Jan 1, 2005, and I have no idea how to change it. One MSC walked me through changing it -- but after every single photo session, when I turned the camera back on, it reverted to Jan 1, 2005. No way am I resetting time/date stamp 40 or 50 times in a day! (My camera automatically shuts off a few seconds after taking a photo. )

And I have so MUCH trouble with apps -- almost any app -- in rural areas without cellular network coverage. I live/work in the 1% of the country that lacks coverage! I can't even get GPSVerify to work.

I guess I could take photos with my phone, not my digital camera, but I've never figured out how to get them from the phone to the report.

(Tech dinosaur here! )

December 05, 2020 06:11PM

I am pretty much a tech dinosaur. I get photos from my phone to the report by signing into the website on my phone. (When I am at home on my own internet) I put in the photos, then save report. I can then do the report on my computer.
I don't know how to get photos from a camera to a report? How do you do that?

@ceasesmith wrote:

Do you mind saying which MSC this is, OP? I really need to avoid them!

I have run across weird requirement before, date and time stamps. I always take the time to explain that my date/time stamp is set on Jan 1, 2005, and I have no idea how to change it. One MSC walked me through changing it -- but after every single photo session, when I turned the camera back on, it reverted to Jan 1, 2005. No way am I resetting time/date stamp 40 or 50 times in a day! (My camera automatically shuts off a few seconds after taking a photo. )

And I have so MUCH trouble with apps -- almost any app -- in rural areas without cellular network coverage. I live/work in the 1% of the country that lacks coverage! I can't even get GPSVerify to work.

I guess I could take photos with my phone, not my digital camera, but I've never figured out how to get them from the phone to the report.

(Tech dinosaur here! )

When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.
Alexander Den Heijer

December 05, 2020 09:54PM

Cease,

It's the platform that does the long Best Buy audits...or this is the only one I know that requires the photo app.

@ceasesmith wrote:

Do you mind saying which MSC this is, OP? I really need to avoid them!

I have run across weird requirement before, date and time stamps. I always take the time to explain that my date/time stamp is set on Jan 1, 2005, and I have no idea how to change it. One MSC walked me through changing it -- but after every single photo session, when I turned the camera back on, it reverted to Jan 1, 2005. No way am I resetting time/date stamp 40 or 50 times in a day! (My camera automatically shuts off a few seconds after taking a photo. )

And I have so MUCH trouble with apps -- almost any app -- in rural areas without cellular network coverage. I live/work in the 1% of the country that lacks coverage! I can't even get GPSVerify to work.

I guess I could take photos with my phone, not my digital camera, but I've never figured out how to get them from the phone to the report.

(Tech dinosaur here! )

Shopping Arkansas, Louisiana, & Mississippi.

December 06, 2020 05:07AM

Oh, I have a cord that goes from my digital camera to my PC. Plug it in, turn on the camera, and the rest is sort of automatic. May be it's called a USB cord?

Frankly, pictures on my cell phone are so danged small I can't tell if I have the detail required, like for infractions. And even when the photo looks perfect when I'm looking at it before I hit the "photo" button, sometimes later I see the top or bottom of the photo is cut off.

When I put them on the PC and look at them, the photo is screen sized. I can make sure they are clear, not blurry, show what I want to show, etc.

And I have run across guidelines asking shoppers not to use cell phone photos as they come across as "thumbprint size" and the client won't accept them.

December 06, 2020 02:33PM

@ceasesmith wrote:

And I have run across guidelines asking shoppers not to use cell phone photos as they come across as "thumbprint size" and the client won't accept them.

I believe this is caused when you text or e-mail the photos from your phone. If you upload them directly from your phone to the report or use a USB cord to transfer them to your computer, you shouldn't have this problem.

Your phone changes the size of the picture to make it easier/quicker to transfer via the text. Most phones don't need the large megapixel sized photos to have a viewable picture. However, when you then transfer that picture to a larger screen, it shows up as a small picture.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/2020 02:33PM by wrosie.

December 16, 2020 05:50AM

Sounds like Winco.

December 16, 2020 04:58PM

I just email the photos to my shop email account from my Gmail account. Easy Peasy and a little cheesy.

December 22, 2020 03:57AM

I just did a cell phone shop today that required this. The instructions said to download one of several apps and I used Timestamp Camera Free. Worked fine and put the date/time/location right on the picture.

December 22, 2020 03:59AM

@ceasesmith wrote:

Frankly, pictures on my cell phone are so danged small I can't tell if I have the detail required, like for infractions. And even when the photo looks perfect when I'm looking at it before I hit the "photo" button, sometimes later I see the top or bottom of the photo is cut off.

How old a phone do you have? The camera app should have an option for the default resolution to take the pictures in. Unless you have it set to something incredibly low and have an old phone, it should be fine.

January 02, 2021 12:29AM

I have a free app on my old laptop that uses the hidden meta data to put the time and date on the photos after the fact. It is a small app and is fast and easy to use. I also got a free app from the Google Play Store that will include the time/date on the photo when I take the photo.

January 22, 2021 02:19PM

Seems pretty clear: you did not meet all the shop specifications, so they dinged you on a meaningless score.

Did your lack of time/date stamp cause your pay to be reduced? If not, no harm, no foul.

Complaints about apps not working on phones strikes me as lame. There are multiple apps available that provide time/date stamp functionality. Shouldn't be that hard to find one that will work on just about any fairly recent smartphone.

Have synthesizers, will travel...

February 02, 2021 05:42PM

They are not lame if you are in an area that gets lousy cell service and it needs the cell service to use the GPS which it should not. That should be a separate chip in the phone that does GPS or at least on newer phones. ones less than ten years old. Not to mention that apps can be quirky.

@CoolMusic wrote:

Complaints about apps not working on phones strikes me as lame. There are multiple apps available that provide time/date stamp functionality. Shouldn't be that hard to find one that will work on just about any fairly recent smartphone.

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