Met with Hostility
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It's not common, but it happens. I would say that out of 100 gas stations I do, two or three of the attendants are uncooperative. It's usually because they have something to hide. For example, I did one earlier this week where the customer in front of me asked to use the restroom, and she was given a key. After I revealed myself and said I needed to take a picture of the restroom, they told me they didn't have a public restroom. I told them that the customer in front of me was able to use the restroom, and they insisted that wasn't true. I said I saw it with my own eyes, and I said you can either let me take a picture of the restroom or I'm going to put in the report exactly what happened. Eventually, they let me take a picture of the restroom, and it was filthy.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2021 02:02PM by thunderdeacon.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2021 02:02PM by thunderdeacon.
Not at a gas station but in a office supply store. After an audit I was shopping for myself and an employee kept sighing and then saying "Oh it doesn't matter, it's too late now". He never told me what was bothering him but I could feel the tension in the air.
Yeah, definitely weird. It's rare. But if they don't want photos, too bad for them. We still get paid and they fail the audit. Just make sure you document exactly how it went down.
I've done this for over 3 years, this was my first encounter. I do a lot of gas station jobs, I hope he gets shut down.
Yes. Every now and then over the years. Usually it's an employee that has not been told about the program and does not want to be responsible. They might make a call to a manager and get no answer. Or an employee who tells me to come back later when the manager is there. I don't.
Although I am usually allowed to do the evaluation with no problem, it is still amazing how many gas station employees have no idea that there is a mystery shopping program in place. I almost always hear them say to me that nobody told them that a mystery shopper might come at some point. Sometimes they are actually really interested in knowing what the expectations are.
I had an employee, I presume the owner run after my car when he saw me taking pictures from my car. This was a mystery shop. I had already been inside the store, which as almost bare. They had one grade of gas available. It looked like they were almost surely going out of business. I kept driving when he came out yelling for me to stop. He was not really hostile, I don’t think but almost scared. maybe he knew this would get his franchise pulled. I almost felt sorry for him.
Damn near assaulted @MSF, he was violating my personal space.
@Logansmom04 wrote:
I had an employee, I presume the owner run after my car when he saw me taking pictures from my car. This was a mystery shop. I had already been inside the store, which as almost bare. They had one grade of gas available. It looked like they were almost surely going out of business. I kept driving when he came out yelling for me to stop. He was not really hostile, I don’t think but almost scared. maybe he knew this would get his franchise pulled. I almost felt sorry for him.
Had this exact thing happen years ago. 2 months later the station was closed.
My favorite was one I did and after employee gave okay owner came out and said you get of my property or I kill you. Funny thing is I needed one more picture and it was needed no matter if I did audit as normal or it was refused. I had to leave go across street and get photo. It was a mobil with one pump that got debranded.
Shopping Western NY, Northeast and Central PA, and parts of Ohio and West Virginia. Have car will travel anywhere if the monies right.
Reason 685,257 why I don't do revealed gas stations.
98% of gas stations go off without a hitch, and they make up over half of my salary as a full time shopper. I put up with the occasional interesting situation.
I have had employees say no to the audit and i leave. I have never had any hostility though.
A specific business has not been mentioned, so I presume I can mention the MSC.
I had one owner who kicked me off the property, told me to never come back, that he would have my job, and would not allow me to complete the audit, because I refused to falsify his audit report. I immediately left the property and told Maritz exactly what happened. The result was that Maritz banned me from the program for that client. So I guess he got my job. That always made me think that the shoppers who audited his business in the months and years that followed, probably succumbed to his threats and falsified their audits with good scores.
I had one owner who kicked me off the property, told me to never come back, that he would have my job, and would not allow me to complete the audit, because I refused to falsify his audit report. I immediately left the property and told Maritz exactly what happened. The result was that Maritz banned me from the program for that client. So I guess he got my job. That always made me think that the shoppers who audited his business in the months and years that followed, probably succumbed to his threats and falsified their audits with good scores.
I had a cashier tell me to leave and that mystery shopping was a scam. I tried to explain that I had just shopped another station, same owners and she shouted for me to leave! Hope that the manager enjoyed missing out on their $xxx bonus, since they failed to mention the three times a year, mystery shop and inspection.
@medowynd wrote:
I had a cashier tell me to leave and that mystery shopping was a scam. I tried to explain that I had just shopped another station, same owners and she shouted for me to leave! Hope that the manager enjoyed missing out on their $xxx bonus, since they failed to mention the three times a year, mystery shop and inspection.
Not only the bonus ..they can lose their branding agreement if they perpetually refuse. It scores a zero if they refuse for most stations.
Sometimes I think schedulers know if you're going to have problems or if it's a bad location by the bonus they have to offer you to take a shop, this was one of those shops.
I had a horrible experience at a gas station shop once, the cashier refused to acknowledge me after I presented my letter of authorization. I stepped aside when a customer came to the counter, then after waiting several minutes the cashier began yelling at me that I was dressed like a ______, because I was not wearing a head covering. I left the location and called my scheduler, a few minutes later, a second person approached my car and apologized, telling me I could do my audit, his dad was in the office now. I quickly took my photos, and left. I gave a very detailed report and a month later the station was rebranded something else.
I had a horrible experience at a gas station shop once, the cashier refused to acknowledge me after I presented my letter of authorization. I stepped aside when a customer came to the counter, then after waiting several minutes the cashier began yelling at me that I was dressed like a ______, because I was not wearing a head covering. I left the location and called my scheduler, a few minutes later, a second person approached my car and apologized, telling me I could do my audit, his dad was in the office now. I quickly took my photos, and left. I gave a very detailed report and a month later the station was rebranded something else.
@Lassie12 wrote:
Has anyone every encountered hostility by an attendant while doing gas station jobs? The attendant try to push me out the store because he didn't want interior pictures taken, weird right.
I had one refuse to let me take photos for a debranding audit. I got some photos anyway from across the street (in a competing c-store/gas station parking lot, no less; if called on it I was pretty sure they wouldn't mind).
Hey, Google 911 the cops. I have it set up to call the nonemergency number.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/11/2021 08:42PM by 2stepps.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/11/2021 08:42PM by 2stepps.
I had an arrogant "manager" follow me around when doing a photo audit. He was rude and condescending and I could not wait to get outta there! The next month it sat on the board for a long time. No one wanted to go out there and it was a rural area. They could not pay me enough to ever return to that location.
I am in the short term need to make shopping my full time income. How many of these shops can you do in one day? For some reason I have always been kind of scared of these but as I really would like to make some money I think I might give them a go.
Even limited your question to gas station jobs, some shops take 5 minutes, some take over an hour. Some are located 5 minutes away, some are an hour away. Your question is so broad that it is impossible to provide a correct answer other than "it depends". That is really the only correct answer IMHO to your question.
@jrj76 wrote:
I am in the short term need to make shopping my full time income. How many of these shops can you do in one day? For some reason I have always been kind of scared of these but as I really would like to make some money I think I might give them a go.
Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008
Once you get the hang of doing the shops, it can take 20 minutes to over an hour. Depending on which brand and if they need pictures of all of the pumps, those are the ones that take the longest. I feel for the people in Texas now that Casey's has bought up some Buckee's. Those will take a couple of hours, what with the mega lots and 50 or so pumps.
I have had owners refuse, but most are nice about it. If they refuse I ask are you sure and encourage them by letting them know that I am a good shopper and will note anything they ask. For instance one shop had a driver take out a pump with his truck the day before and he wanted me to take a photo of the police report to attach, which I did. Most of the time I have more issues with customers asking why I’m taking photos of their vehicle. Like they are so awesome I stopped to take a photo of them and their car. ???????????? I love gas station audits and I am proud of the work we all do to get the bad ones debranded. For most of the brands it’s a 3 strikes your out. So three really bad reports would get you debranded. They know this so most keep things up.
As for how many I can do I average 3 per hour including report if I do a good job on my route. I also do all brands and travel all over Texas. Large 24-34 pump shops take more time, but honestly not that much more. Most of those locations follow the rules and everything is perfect anyway. Texas is big and I go to places most people won’t. Headed to the border this week.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/2021 01:42PM by mmsackett.
As for how many I can do I average 3 per hour including report if I do a good job on my route. I also do all brands and travel all over Texas. Large 24-34 pump shops take more time, but honestly not that much more. Most of those locations follow the rules and everything is perfect anyway. Texas is big and I go to places most people won’t. Headed to the border this week.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/2021 01:42PM by mmsackett.
@mmsackett wrote:
Most of the time I have more issues with customers asking why I’m taking photos of their vehicle. Like they are so awesome I stopped to take a photo of them and their car. ????????????
Too funny. A couple of times I have had paranoid customers start taking pictures of me. I just smile and wave.
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