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Sunoco's are a freaking mess!

March 06, 2024 12:47PM
And involve the most inconsistent editing I've yet to experience.

The locations I've done over the past week are some of the nastiest gas stations I've yet to encounter.

I've had reports accepted with photos matching the required list (and the prompts in the report form), despite reporting infractions.

I've had reports kicked back because I posted photos matching the required list and not photos of indicated infractions.

I just re-did two where the editor asked for a full pump photo instead of the infraction photo I posted, but they didn't say anything about the other photos of infractions that are present instead of the related required photo.

What an absolute joke!

Have synthesizers, will travel...
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March 06, 2024 01:03PM
When Sunoco was with the now defunct MSC I encountered mostly nasty stations, too. In iffy areas with suspicious clientele and staff. Garbage everywhere, damage, neglect, etc. They were scary but the pay often rose to the level of "Gotta do it." Since then most Sunocos I did have closed or debranded. There are only about 3 in 200 miles of me. They don't seem to get to a doable fee, for me, with the current MSC.
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March 07, 2024 01:56PM
I picked up 3 of these simply because i was already going to be in the town and going near them. All 3 rundown. But I took extra photos of everything in case what I turned in wasnt good enough. And i discovered i could park on the road side of the pump and get most of my pics hiding behind the pump or from the edge of the parking lot.

Will i do them again? Probably only if they are very convenient.

What i didn't account for was that one of these was in a really bad area of an already rough town. I had some guy approach me to buy him a drink and apparently when i refused it REALLY pissed him off. Before i knew it, he had pulled a gun out of his pants and was heading toward my car! I jumped in and gassed it out of there!!!! That was a first for me!!!! I won't be back to that one!!!!
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March 11, 2024 04:19PM
There are now 2 Sunocos in my area. One look at what work was required for the pay was all it took for me to avoid these shops.
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March 11, 2024 06:05PM
Alas, they were a necessary evil on my 12-day 3800-mile roadtrip. I spent maybe $100 out of pocket on gas for the whole shebang. Promptly deleted the Sunoco app from my phone, but it still feels dirty.

Have synthesizers, will travel...
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March 15, 2024 02:06PM
There aren't a ton by me. The ones that are in a 50 mile radius are actually off a toll road, which is a very high priced toll road so I haven't done them. They're newer, so probably not as run down and nasty as the ones you all have encountered, but after a long road trip with my family earlier this year and stopping at some of the smaller gas stations for potty breaks, I can imagine the condition of most of these.
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March 15, 2024 09:16PM
@joanna81 wrote:

There aren't a ton by me. The ones that are in a 50 mile radius are actually off a toll road, which is a very high priced toll road so I haven't done them. They're newer, so probably not as run down and nasty as the ones you all have encountered, but after a long road trip with my family earlier this year and stopping at some of the smaller gas stations for potty breaks, I can imagine the condition of most of these.

The ones near me are on the NY Thruway. Several years ago with the old MSC I would do them and they were in good shape. Guessing government oversight on their contract with the state. Then they tore down all the rest stops to rebuild them and put out portapotties.

My sister said the whole rest stop went to @#$%&, literally.

They've reopened most of the rest stops now. And if you want a quick potty break, you could be in and out of the one stall convenience store restroom faster than you could walk through the rest stop to get to the rest room.

They never said there was a restroom available, but never turned me away if I asked to use it.

Don't know how clean they are now since I don't travel. But I won't do them without reimbursement for tolls and time spent traveling to the toll booths you have to get on and off the toll roads at.
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March 29, 2024 02:59PM
My state opened a beautiful new rest area near me, best thing is that it doesn't have any stores or gas stations attached (those can be found at an exit a few miles away). If we stop in one of the smaller gas stations they are gonna ask me for a bag of doritoes or some other overpriced snack lol
The rest area does have vending machines, with a local company. My hubs and I used to own a vending business so I occasionally let the kiddos pick something out to support a small business owner.

@wrosie wrote:

@joanna81 wrote:

There aren't a ton by me. The ones that are in a 50 mile radius are actually off a toll road, which is a very high priced toll road so I haven't done them. They're newer, so probably not as run down and nasty as the ones you all have encountered, but after a long road trip with my family earlier this year and stopping at some of the smaller gas stations for potty breaks, I can imagine the condition of most of these.

The ones near me are on the NY Thruway. Several years ago with the old MSC I would do them and they were in good shape. Guessing government oversight on their contract with the state. Then they tore down all the rest stops to rebuild them and put out portapotties.

My sister said the whole rest stop went to @#$%&, literally.

They've reopened most of the rest stops now. And if you want a quick potty break, you could be in and out of the one stall convenience store restroom faster than you could walk through the rest stop to get to the rest room.

They never said there was a restroom available, but never turned me away if I asked to use it.

Don't know how clean they are now since I don't travel. But I won't do them without reimbursement for tolls and time spent traveling to the toll booths you have to get on and off the toll roads at.
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April 01, 2024 07:00PM
i did a bunch of them and most were a big mess. I think this should be a revealed shop as I found it awkward to take the photos in some cases.
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April 18, 2024 02:30PM
I did one this past weekend that was bonused. Super small rural town. I wouldn't have even known it was a gas station if the GPS didn't direct me there. It was formerly a car wash, so that was the sign out front, and the car wash was defunct. The gas station had ONE pump, in the back of the store. The only branding was on the actual pump itself.
The bathroom was a single stall. There was no canopy. The report asked about marketing materials which were not present. I marked that as a No, that they weren't in good condition and the editor sent it back to me. I'm not sure why they don't have an N/A option there. My report was accepted and it wasn't that bad for the pay.
I grew up outside Chicago so I never saw a one pump station before! I would probably have a hard time going back to that location since its off the beaten path and they probably know all their customers.
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April 18, 2024 08:21PM
I have done some small, rural gas stations too...it's clear from the questions I got back from the editors that they've only seen suburban or urban gas stations...took me several go arounds to explain that some of these are barely more than a hole in the wall.

Life was passing like a hand waving from a train I wanted to be on
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April 19, 2024 11:10PM
@CoolMusic wrote:

And involve the most inconsistent editing I've yet to experience.

The locations I've done over the past week are some of the nastiest gas stations I've yet to encounter.

I've had reports accepted with photos matching the required list (and the prompts in the report form), despite reporting infractions.

I've had reports kicked back because I posted photos matching the required list and not photos of indicated infractions.

I just re-did two where the editor asked for a full pump photo instead of the infraction photo I posted, but they didn't say anything about the other photos of infractions that are present instead of the related required photo.

What an absolute joke!

Ya know, I ran into the same vagueness. If there is a light out under a canopy or graffiti on the side of the gas pump...what do you submit? The general picture of the canopy or a picture of the light out, the broad picture of the pump or the shot of the graffiti. I “grew up” in mystery shopping using the SASSIE system but if a report is dependent on taking six photographs (minimum)...perhaps they need to utilize another platform for reporting or have 10-20 picture slots for the infractions at the bottom.

I didn’t find the report or the shop to be hard to perform. I think I was there 17 minutes for $27. I’ll take it. But the reporting and going 3 rounds with the editor made the experience very poor.
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April 20, 2024 12:52PM
@metro25782 wrote:

But the reporting and going 3 rounds with the editor made the experience very poor.

Agreed. WAY too much back and forth with the editors, and all because of a poorly designed report form.

The other brand reports don't seem to have a problem with photo spaces opening up when a criteria is marked down.

Have synthesizers, will travel...
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April 20, 2024 02:02PM
60 Days or more to get paid from these folks is what is a mess, in my opinion.
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