Years ago, I did regularly a route of gas stations for the lovely- little- ole- ladies- that- you- could- reach- by- phone. And I mean YEARS ago, possibly 7 or 8. Definitely did that route several times a year from 2012 through 2015.

New MSC gave me the same route this month, 14 rural stations in Nebraska, Colorado, and Kansas. Walked into a tiny station in rural Kansas and the clerk/cashier/secretary says, my lord, haven't seen you in years! How ya been? And just to prove that she really recognized me, she walks back to the employee fridge and comes back with an ice cold bottle of water, which she hands me with a huge smile. "You'll need this, too, right?"

* * * * *

Was in a Sinclair gas station in a small town getting gas. Not mystery shopping, just getting gas. As she rang up my purchase, the clerk says, "You're our mystery shopper, aren't you?" I said, no, I'm not. She then asked wasn't I at such and such a Sinclair station 2 days ago as the mystery shopper. Well, I had never shopped this station where I was getting the gas -- and never will -- so I didn't see a problem with admitting that yes, indeed, I had mystery shopped the other station two days earlier.

I asked her why she asked. She said she was talking to the clerk at the other store on the phone, as they are BFF. When the other clerk said, "gotta go, our mystery shopper just drove up", this clerk got her to tell her what car I drove and what I looked like.



How about you? Got any entertaining stories for this hot and miserable holiday weekend?

I did a Sperry shoe store in a local mall years ago that has gone out of business at that location. I did it once a month. It was always the same associate. I would go thru the spiel try on and buy shoes and then wait 30 minutes and return. After a few months of doing it, as I finished my purchase, the associate would say see you in 30 minutes with a wink wink. We both knew that I was the shopper, and she knew I was the shopper. No words were ever exchanged on me being the shopper. This went on for over a year until the location closed. She did a great job every time and got a great report every time. She was also smart enough not to let her boss know I was the mystery shopper as it was beneficial to just keep it a secret between the both of us. I do miss the shop and the location closed due to renovating in the mall.
Same mall different shop, a candle store. I shop it occasionally but regularly enough. Just through what is done by the again one or two associates always working we both know and play are parts.
This is the only two shops for me I do or have done where it is like that.

i had a shop about year ago where i was to inquire about a wall oven at an appliance store. during the interaction, the salesman brought me over to his terminal to get a quote and lead time for delivery; he wanted to put me in the system so he asked for my name, phone number, address, etc.

the msc for this shop has a note in the instructions saying not to give out your personal info; however this seemed to be the salesman’s way of closing the sale, so i played along. i gave him a fake last name, fake phone number and gave a family member’s home address versus my own.

as our interaction ended, i thanked him for the quote and left saying i would have to think about it. later that evening i wrote up the report, gave him good marks, explained giving out fake info - and the shop was accepted 10/10.

about a month later, i got a text from the family member whose address i used asking if i had ordered a wall oven? because there were delivery men wanting to unload one off the truck. the salesman had put the quote in as a sale for COD, and had it delivered on the random date i chose a month earlier. oops!

OMG! That's hilarious!

But wonder if the salesman got fired? Or if your family was really ticked off at you!

Agree, that is hilarious. After I stopped laughing, I realized how surprising it is that COD still exists. Would younger generations even know what COD is?

I had just approached the bar and started my mystery shop at a local nightclub many years ago. The bartender served my drink and thanked me for the mystery shopping report that I had submitted a few months ago at her other job. I was surprised and asked where she worked. I did not recognize her and was sure I had never before seen her working at this nightclub. She explained that I had mystery shopped her at D&G, and her boss complimented her on generating a good report.

The bartender looked quite different in her bartender outfit and hair style than she did while working at D&G, but I could see that she was the same person once she told me about the D&G mystery shop. I figured that her boss had apparently either showed her my report or had revealed enough details about the shop that she easily figured out which customer mystery shopped her.

I stayed at the bar a couple hours and continued to mystery shop her as a bartender. She knew I mystery shopped that high-end clothing store, but she gave no indication that she thought I also shopped bars. I truly believe that she never once suspected that I was mystery shopping her while I was at the bar that night.

I shopped a mattress store. The associate was so good that I went back a few days to purchase the bed that I have been looking at. He was asking me if I was a mystery shop when I told him I had no idea what he was talking about. There were other people in the store at the same time as the shop so I just pushed it off.

A month later I bought a second bed from him. He didn't say anything the second time. I spent $10,000, he got a good report and a nice commission check after buying two high end beds.

my family thought it was funny, but they more or less requested i pick a different address for my mystery shopping endeavors. it was the only legitimate second address i could think of spur of the moment!

it’d be unfortunate if the salesman was let go over that mistake - it was one of those shops where he did everything correct (well, maybe not everything haha) and was an easy report to write.

COD had me and my family laughing too! no one does that anymore, we had to wonder how/why that was even an option in the system.

it seems like one of those neat instances in mystery shopping where the company wanted to learn one thing about their processes, and learned a completely different thing in the end.

When I walked into a Market Force mattress shop the associate was the same one that had been there on my last visit. She said I looked familiar, but it wasn't until halfway through the visit I saw her put two and two together. As I left she said with a wink "See you next time".

I don't know what the normal rotation period for these shops is, but my personal rotation is now much longer.

I was at a location where I wrote the clerk's name down from her name tag; later when she walked by me I thought how could I have gotten her name so completely wrong. I hung around to get another look at her name tag and just as I thought I was losing my mind I saw her sister. They are identical twins who are both clerks at the same location and they wear identical uniforms.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/06/2022 03:47PM by 724PM.

This is hilarious!!!!!

@charleybuddy wrote:

about a month later, i got a text from the family member whose address i used asking if i had ordered a wall oven? because there were delivery men wanting to unload one off the truck. the salesman had put the quote in as a sale for COD, and had it delivered on the random date i chose a month earlier. oops!

Few years back a Rita's Italian Ice I had the clerk lean out the window and directly ask "Are you mystery shopping us?"

deleted

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/06/2022 06:08AM by shopnyc.

I love every one of these stories. I shared one of mine the other day on another discussion. We could almost have a mystery shopping reality show. It'd be fun, but our anonymity would go down the tubes real fast, and that would be the end of our hustle.

I do mostly gas stations of several different brands typically doing locations within an hour each direction of my house. I live in a large Metro Area so there is a lot of work available. Occasionally, when I have to travel further afield or I need to kill some time, I'll take locations further away. Every once in a while I will run across an employee who works at a location a very long distance away from there if the station is owned by the same owners. We typically laugh that neither of us can avoid the other no matter how far we go! The other funny one was a Manager from one brand who had been at his location for a very long time. He tried to buy the station but it ended up being sold to someone else. Imagine my surprise when I found him working at a completely different brand about 45 minutes away. He made me swear not to tell the other station that I had seen him working for another brand because he never told them where he was leaving for.

I did a gas station in South Jersey one day in winter. The drive paths were covered in ice and my car is terrible in ice/snow. I was complaining about it loudly I guess as I was slipping and sliding my way out of there. Well, a few years later I did a station right near my town, 100 miles away and the guy from the ice station was there and, of course remembered my ranting about the ice. He was like, "I remember you. You were complaining about the ice." We laughed about it. All was good. I guess that's one way to make yourself memorable. I've also ran across attendants moving from brand to brand. Some know me by name now. I adore those guys. They are so hardworking and proud of their jobs.

@KathyG wrote:

When I walked into a Market Force mattress shop the associate was the same one that had been there on my last visit. She said I looked familiar, but it wasn't until halfway through the visit I saw her put two and two together. As I left she said with a wink "See you next time".

I don't know what the normal rotation period for these shops is, but my personal rotation is now much longer.

The scheduler who called me most recently doesn't seem to have paid much attention to repeats. He requested that I do a mattress shop where I had been less than 2 weeks earlier. Although when I pointed it out he did agree that was too soon.

However, I was talked into doing some repeats after only 3 months. Which I've scheduled for tomorrow and Monday. But hey, the guidelines only say that *I* can't reveal it. There's no rule against them figuring it out on their own.

Speaking of which, Ipsos (Shop) has a "Grocery PLU" shop that will absolutely burn you. The routine is so completely obvious that even someone who doesn't know Mystery Shopping exists would recognize it a mile out. I don't know to what extent the client really cares anyway because they also provide a Letter of Authorization in case you're questioned. But I won't do it at a location I personally visit because I don't need attention every time I go grocery shopping.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/2022 07:04AM by Amarsir.

@Amarsir wrote:

@KathyG wrote:

When I walked into a Market Force mattress shop the associate was the same one that had been there on my last visit. She said I looked familiar, but it wasn't until halfway through the visit I saw her put two and two together. As I left she said with a wink "See you next time".

I don't know what the normal rotation period for these shops is, but my personal rotation is now much longer.

The scheduler who called me most recently doesn't seem to have paid much attention to repeats. He requested that I do a mattress shop where I had been less than 2 weeks earlier. Although when I pointed it out he did agree that was too soon.

However, I was talked into doing some repeats after only 3 months. Which I've scheduled for tomorrow and Monday. But hey, the guidelines only say that *I* can't reveal it. There's no rule against them figuring it out on their own.

Speaking of which, Ipsos (Shop) has a "Grocery PLU" shop that will absolutely burn you. The routine is so completely obvious that even someone who doesn't know Mystery Shopping exists would recognize it a mile out. I don't know to what extent the client really cares anyway because they also provide a Letter of Authorization in case you're questioned. But I won't do it at a location I personally visit because I don't need attention every time I go grocery shopping.

The grocery PLU shop. I have done six times already at the same location and they still have no idea who I am. I do regularly shop that store as a customer. I don't think they care or pay attention to what you're buying.

@weatherman2111 wrote:

Few years back a Rita's Italian Ice I had the clerk lean out the window and directly ask "Are you mystery shopping us?"

To be fair to everyone involved, the requirements for the shops were so bizarre and onerous with the pictures that being outted was inevitable. I did say something like "No, I not?"

I rather regularly do the TX restaurant shop, but this one time I was travelling out of town and went to pay like a regular person on my own dime (UGH!) for a dinner out with family at the same named restaurant in an area no where near me. I happened to be the one to check us in, and the Hostess was SUPER EXTRA nice to me. As we were walking to the table she said, "Nice to see you again!!" *wink wink* I said I had not recently been here - and she said, "Oh, I'm sure I saw you here last week *wink wink*. I 'know' all about it!" I thought this was rather humorous, and then just allowed her to think that I was the mystery shopper so we would get perfect service. And we did! Was a great visit!! LOLOLOL

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/10/2022 08:23PM by Chix.

If you used the call ahead seating, maybe they had you marked in their computer system as the mystery shopper by your phone number. I know that some places do "mark" the mystery shopper in the computer, so that it shows up at all locations that person visits.

@Chix wrote:

I rather regularly do the TX restaurant shop, but this one time I was travelling out of town and went to pay like a regular person on my own dime (UGH!) for a dinner out with family at the same named restaurant in an area no where near me. I happened to be the one to check us in, and the Hostess was SUPER EXTRA nice to me. As we were walking to the table she said, "Nice to see you again!!" *wink wink* I said I had not recently been here - and she said, "Oh, I'm sure I saw you here last week *wink wink*. I 'know' all about it!" I thought this was rather humorous, and then just allowed her to think that I was the mystery shopper so we would get perfect service. And we did! Was a great visit!! LOLOLOL

Loved your story and miss those ladies over at the former company!

@foodluvr wrote:

The grocery PLU shop. I have done six times already at the same location and they still have no idea who I am. I do regularly shop that store as a customer. I don't think they care or pay attention to what you're buying.

It's not the buying that's obvious. (Although 1 each of 3 similar bakery items is probably distinctive. And a 12-pack of soda you leave under the cart would be a good verification.) It's coming back in 5 minutes and returning them all.

I mean I bother them enough for returns as a real customer. Because these discount grocery stores tend to be missing price tags or putting things in the wrong slot, leading to a ring-up I didn't expect at checkout. And equally frequently they miss a discount I should have gotten. But I check the receipt and only fix that one thing. I don't need to be memorable for a pattern on top of it.

The new rule seems to be you can keep $4 worth as reimbursement. So if it's "buy 6 things and return 2" that is more plausible, sure.

They must have my picture at one of the 5 guys in the back. as soon as I walk in someone starts cleaning the tables and doors. My food gets delivered to my table and I never tell them who I am and they never ask. I get super service.

On one of my candle store shops, the employees started chatting about their mystery shop scores. They said their store got the lowest mystery shop rating but the highest sales figures. Apparently, the shop scores matter quite a bit despite sales, and they weren't thrilled about it.

@Amarsir wrote:

@foodluvr wrote:

The grocery PLU shop. I have done six times already at the same location and they still have no idea who I am. I do regularly shop that store as a customer. I don't think they care or pay attention to what you're buying.

It's not the buying that's obvious. (Although 1 each of 3 similar bakery items is probably distinctive. And a 12-pack of soda you leave under the cart would be a good verification.) It's coming back in 5 minutes and returning them all.

I mean I bother them enough for returns as a real customer. Because these discount grocery stores tend to be missing price tags or putting things in the wrong slot, leading to a ring-up I didn't expect at checkout. And equally frequently they miss a discount I should have gotten. But I check the receipt and only fix that one thing. I don't need to be memorable for a pattern on top of it.

The new rule seems to be you can keep $4 worth as reimbursement. So if it's "buy 6 things and return 2" that is more plausible, sure.

This grocery chain uses Instacart and Shipt. People come in and return things all the time and shoppers return entire orders all the time. Never got a second glance returning the order.

I was shopping a series of gas station shops where I had to buy a hot dog and ask for a receipt. There were four stations in the town. I walked into the third station where the cashier was speaking Hindu except for the phrase "mystery shopper." He looked rather embarrassed but did offer an upsell.