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What do you think of night time gas station shops

October 18, 2022 08:29PM
I see many night time gas station shops. Shops must be done after the sun goes down. $12 fee and $10 reimbursement. What do you think of the pay and doing it at night? I would think for a night time shop, they would pay more than for a day time shop. How many shoppers would do night time shops.
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More About Gas Station Mystery Shopping
October 18, 2022 08:56PM
If I'm going by, I'll do it whether it's day or night. Not making a special trip for either

When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.
Alexander Den Heijer
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October 18, 2022 09:25PM
I won't do a day or night for $12. If the fee is right, day or night it doesn't matter except that it is harder to make a route of night shops due to the smaller window.
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October 18, 2022 09:50PM
A nighttime does not make sense if it is the company that requires you shop 4 - 10 PM and must have the shops submitted by 10 PM the same night. I mean, you would need a route of at least 5 gas stations to make it worth your time. By the time you finished, you would have no time left to get them submitted by 10 PM. I used to do these with the old company that was not so restrictive on the submission deadline. I would definitely not shop them for $12 though.
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October 18, 2022 09:52PM
I think many shoppers have families and so many cannot or will not do them. with fewer shoppers to do them, I would think they would offer more. I don't have a family,I did one, but will not do another, going there at night. They pay is way too low.
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October 18, 2022 09:54PM
@AZwolfman wrote:

A nighttime does not make sense if it is the company that requires you shop 4 - 10 PM and must have the shops submitted by 10 PM the same night. I mean, you would need a route of at least 5 gas stations to make it worth your time. By the time you finished, you would have no time left to get them submitted by 10 PM. I used to do these with the old company that was not so restrictive on the submission deadline. I would definitely not shop them for $12 though.

I had not thought about that. They do want the shop submitted that day.

I had a different shop rejected because they said I did not submit it on time. I'm on the west coast, they were on the east coast. I submitted my shop at 10pm, my time. They didn't care, it was 1 am their time.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/18/2022 09:57PM by johnb974.
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October 18, 2022 10:01PM
I just did a TON of shops with NO night time restriction, but I had routes on the days I self-assigned them, so night was the only time I could get them done. No issues at all -- nothing special I had to do, unless there was an issue of non-comliance. Got so good to me, I added a different one, different MSC. That last one, will be my LAST one with that client. Last night, it was in a pretty shady area and sat on a VERY small parking lot. It started raining to make it worse, because they didn't want you to take any of the photos from your car. Lots of non-compliance, meant lots of pictures...No doubt I was looking like one of the shady characters, since I was parked in the little lot for so long.
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October 18, 2022 10:05PM
I checked the site, "All reports are due by midnight on the day of your shop." You would have to really rush and job and report. Not worth it.
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October 19, 2022 12:08AM
For me safety is a bigger concern at night. I really need to know the neighborhood and the shop needs to have a extra bonus in consideration of the hours and potential added risk. The one exception to that is when traveling at night on a road trip.

The only real plus is most stations tend to be less crowded in the wee hours. That is good for the big yellow stations. Don't have to wait forever for the pumps to clear.
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October 19, 2022 03:11AM
@johnb974 wrote:

I checked the site, "All reports are due by midnight on the day of your shop." You would have to really rush and job and report. Not worth it.
Midnight to this unnamed company is 10 pm to me. If the location of the shop is in PDT, then the deadline should also be in PDT. However, even a true deadline of midnight gives only 2 hours to get home and submit all the shops on the route. I do not believe there is someone in their office grading our reports until the following morning, so why don't they make the deadline 24 hours or at least the next morning?
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October 19, 2022 08:45AM
@johnb974 wrote:

I think many shoppers have families and so many cannot or will not do them. with fewer shoppers to do them, I would think they would offer more. I don't have a family,I did one, but will not do another, going there at night. They pay is way too low.

But, did you find a gas receipt when you got there? Lol. Just kidding!
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October 19, 2022 11:05PM
I enjoy gas station shops at night, but $12 is not enough.
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October 20, 2022 01:56AM
I did a different type of night time shop. I had to take pictures of the exterior lighting at the gas station. It was $20 with the bonus. There was a gas station sandwich shop down the street and I did that. I took advantage of my insomnia with those shops!

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton
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October 20, 2022 02:10AM
Last time I did a gas station shop I bought a sandwich. I couldn't believe they charged $6 for a tuna sandwich. At least I got $2 off.
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October 20, 2022 12:55PM
@Morledzep wrote:

I enjoy gas station shops at night, but $12 is not enough.

Morledzep REALLY enjoys gas station shops at night - 6 posts worth! Haha! I've had that issue, though. You make a comment, hit reply and it just hangs. So you try again. And again. Next think you know, the comment shows multiple times.
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October 20, 2022 04:02PM
Unless my son is with me and we are doing a dinner shop, I don't take night hour shops. That is even less likely after the night I had an unknown male individual attempt to get in the car while I pumped my gas. The door was locked. Oh well. Yes, I called the police. No, I did not go back to that gas station. Maybe when I was younger, but I am too old for that kind of nonsense, and it wasn't even a bad neighborhood.

How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg?
"Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg."
-- Abraham Lincoln
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October 20, 2022 05:56PM
@AZwolfman wrote:

A nighttime does not make sense if it is the company that requires you shop 4 - 10 PM and must have the shops submitted by 10 PM the same night. I mean, you would need a route of at least 5 gas stations to make it worth your time. By the time you finished, you would have no time left to get them submitted by 10 PM. I used to do these with the old company that was not so restrictive on the submission deadline. I would definitely not shop them for $12 though.

Pity the shoppers who live even further west - Alaska, Hawaii, American Samoa. And then there is Guam which is what, 15 hours ahead of EST.
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October 22, 2022 07:00PM
Check your addresses on Google and look at the location. Some of these are not safe at night. Hell some are not safe during the day. I just did a night route for several brands and I can tell you no more unless they raise the $$$. The crap I had to witness last night was not worth it.
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October 22, 2022 09:22PM
I do night time shops if they offer a bonus. But $10 and $12 shops, no thanks. I watch them sit on the board until bonuses are offered. And I have shopped some pretty sketchy areas. But if they are night time shops, I do them in the early evening.
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October 22, 2022 09:39PM
@medowynd wrote:

I do night time shops if they offer a bonus. But $10 and $12 shops, no thanks. I watch them sit on the board until bonuses are offered. And I have shopped some pretty sketchy areas. But if they are night time shops, I do them in the early evening.

Plus they want the shop submitted the same day. Not worth the $12 fee.
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October 23, 2022 05:29AM
Now I'm getting e-mails about these shops. The fee has not changed. I'm not taking them yet.
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October 23, 2022 01:55PM
Depending on the MSC, if it's on the right platform, you can do the entire shop on the app and complete the report on site.

However, I can no longer drive after dark, so I wait until they remove the restriction. Which they do, eventually, because there's not another shopper within 100 miles of me.

I cannot speak for other locations, however.
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October 25, 2022 03:19PM
I've done several groups of 3 of these. That is about all I can do in the evening to get the reports in on time. One of them closed while I was there (they close at 6:30PM). They were all close to home.
I have no idea how they are going to get those way out in the small towns. They will have to pay me a lot to do those. And they will have to allow me to turn in my report the next day. I've asked for this in the past and didn't have any push back.
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November 01, 2022 12:55PM
Just a suggestion for those who want to perform night shops, yet might experience the deadline problem:
When I've done some night shops, I often would check out the shops that were 24 hour sites. Next, I would do them very early in the am - meaning doing them around 2 am until sunrise.
Finish the report in the morning and take a nap.
Worked for me.
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November 01, 2022 09:49PM
Yes, given that many rural, small town sites are closing so early due to staffing issues, this could be a huge risk to do routes of nighttime shops. Some places close at 5 or 6 out in the country.
@morsteve wrote:

I've done several groups of 3 of these. That is about all I can do in the evening to get the reports in on time. One of them closed while I was there (they close at 6:30PM). They were all close to home.
I have no idea how they are going to get those way out in the small towns. They will have to pay me a lot to do those. And they will have to allow me to turn in my report the next day. I've asked for this in the past and didn't have any push back.
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November 02, 2022 05:33AM
I only do gas stations that I know which insures that the location is actually open and it doesn't have a lot of issues so I can get in and out quickly. I like them this time of year because, since it gets dark so early, I'm not rushing to finish before I lose daylight. I also find that there is less traffic so less chance of having to wait to get pictures or dodge cars. So, I have mixed feelings about them.
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November 02, 2022 06:19AM
@ceasesmith wrote:

Depending on the MSC, if it's on the right platform, you can do the entire shop on the app and complete the report on site.

However, I can no longer drive after dark, so I wait until they remove the restriction. Which they do, eventually, because there's not another shopper within 100 miles of me.

I cannot speak for other locations, however.

There is one station close(ish) to me that closes at 6 pm or when the sun goes down. They were scheduled for a darkness shop this month.. lol.
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November 03, 2022 10:46PM
If you talking about the black and white, and orange shops that used to be on MF, I won't do them for that low of pay. I wait till they bonus them above 30 dollars. Sometimes more depending on the location.
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