On a lark, I took a drive-in movie job where pretty much all I had to do was count cars as they entered the lot. The MSC has a spreadsheet of allowable movies to pick from. I looked on the sheet and there were lots of good choices, so I assumed (ASS out of ME!) that the location I was going to had lots of screens and I could see something I would like.

But nooooooo.... the location had only two screens, each with a double feature. One of the screens had two movies I really wanted to see, but they weren't on the approved list.

So what did I have to sit through? "Jackass Forever"!!!!

Full-frontal nudity of guys willingly submitting to having bees or bears lured to their private parts, or allowing themselves to be punched repeatedly (yes, there!) in increasingly stupid ways. Probably the most offensive movie I had ever come across in my life. And the lead jackass was stupid enough to get hit so hard by a bull that he had a brain hemorrhage. And they laugh about it. (I'm not going to feel at all sorry for these guys when they get CTE and sexual dysfunction.)

Fortunately, actually *watching* the movie wasn't really required, so I turned the sound off and entertained myself on my phone while counting cars.

I would do this easy job again. But next time, I'll be a lot more careful to research what the location is playing ahead of time!

You didn't mention what the shop paid and why you chose to go thru with it instead of abandoning the assignment and letting someone else do it instead. I guess to me, there are many shops out there that just aren't worth doing.

It paid $40 to arrive 30 minutes before the show and stay 15 minutes into the second feature to count any cars arriving for that. So it was approximately 3 hours of my time there. Plus they fully reimbursed the admission, so that didn't come out of the $40.

I went through with it because I'd committed and it wasn't their fault I didn't confirm what was playing at the location before agreeing to the job.

I lived and learned.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/2022 10:17PM by amyann2.

Yes, that is honorable you stuck with your commitment. I used to do that in the beginning. I still do stick with what I sign up for, but I just am much more selective in what I commit to. I ask the scheduler how many questions on the report and how much narrative. That way I know what I'm getting into before I commit.

Maybe next time as an alternative, you can ask them to extend due date by a week so you can see something else. I think most schedulers are willing to have a reliable shopper do it the next week (provided there is not a hard cut-off on dates) than to risk having to post again and getting maybe someone who isn't reliable the next time.

Good suggestion, thank you!

Asking about questions and narrative is good advice! There have been many times I have regretted taking a shop when I am still working on the report after 30 minutes. If I take a job I feel obligated to complete it even when I know, half way through the report, it’s not worth the time. Sometimes I look at it as training and know it will be faster the next time. Other times I say “10 foot pole!”

Yep, I used to take anything and everything back in the beginning. My buddy would take shops and flake on them if he felt they were ridiculous. I would suck it up and do the right thing and complete what I signed up for.

Now I just ask ahead so that I don't hose the scheduler and know whether it's worth it or not.

One of my rules is "the longer the job stays on the board, the more sucky it is. I say this because I live in Southern California where there is no shortage of shoppers. So if others are staying away...then maybe I need to as well. Certain shops fly off the board with a low fee because it's an easy shop or a highly-desireable client that people tolerate a lower fee than others.