Not saying I'm doing it but.... not telling the whole truth? {rant}

April 16, 2025 02:44AM

Do you ever kick yourself for telling the "whole truth" and then you get stuck with some run around?

Just got a report sent back to me for not explaining why the original sales person did not complete my transaction. Beats me, no idea why. Someone else just took over. I wrote it exactly as it happened but telling the whole story ends up making it more difficult for me. There was no, "I'm about to take lunch so John will be helping you," etc. It just so happened that one person was there and then someone else was without any explanation made to me.

In this instance, it would have been easier for me just to report my interaction with the second person. Do you end up with situations like this and kick yourself for it?

Other such scenarios that I have regretted have been being comped an item at dinner. Either intentionally or unintentionally at times but it still makes for the check to be weird or appear incorrect.

It seems oftentimes that editors expect that everything will just go as scripted. I have not changed my narratives but I frequently do contemplate omitting certain details that can just get me caught in editing purgatory. So, do you ever kick yourself for spelling out every weird and confusing detail?

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April 16, 2025 04:38AM

Yep! Totally get it. Weird things happen.

April 16, 2025 05:01AM

Yeah, I et what you are saying. It's like when you are in a line and the employee hits all the marks on the three people ahead of you, but when it's your turn, a customer walks up and starts loudly complaining or something, and they don't really have an opportunity to offer such and such or whatever. You can explain what happened in great detail, or you can just give them the credit. It's a dilemma.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/2025 05:04AM by mystery2me.

April 16, 2025 09:18AM

I regret reporting all the issues while I am spending a lot of time writing out the report but once I get it in and it is accepted I am glad that I explained in detail how it happened so it can be corrected. I have thankfully not run into issues with reporting things that have gone strangely.

April 16, 2025 09:39AM

Yes, I get this.
My approach has changed over the years.
I offer up the minimum response to fulfill the requirement.
I used to think I was doing a good thing by offering up more info - that they should want to know.
Only came back to bite me.
So, I've become more robotic.
Of course, longer narratives are different, but they don't generally pay lol.

April 16, 2025 09:40AM

I went through similar on a recent Burlington audit. The store was near perfect. 3 out of 5 categories had zero mis sized items and the other two only had 1 mis sized item. QC emailed and asked if I was doing these correctly in not a nice tone. They said that these numbers are not on par for most shops like this. The shop sat in “pending validation” for almost 3 weeks. It finally was approved and I was paid, but not without hassle. Goodness, forbid that the employees actually did their job!

April 16, 2025 11:50AM

I understand where you are coming from.

Example, I had a shop and took my spouse. I reported on the condition I found in my bathroom and I shared the condition of the bathroom my spouse visited.

I got questioned on the additional info I gained from my spouse. It was not wanted by the editor/MSC.

So I do only the minimum per the guidelines.

April 16, 2025 02:12PM

I absolutely agree with Olympia and all other posters.

April 16, 2025 02:22PM

Yes, the sme thing happened to me the other day. I was talking to the sales person when all of a sudden he left to talk to another customer....and didn't return for over half an hour. I just told the msc that happened. Haven't recieved any complaint....yet.

April 16, 2025 10:31PM

"No good deed goes unpunished"

April 17, 2025 01:49AM

@maverick1 wrote:

"No good deed goes unpunished"

+

Great minds think alike.

April 17, 2025 06:55AM

Yes I leave out details that are not part of the survey.

Case in point. I have done hotel shops with bar portions for them up in NYC. On two occasions as I'm at the bar an escort sat down next to me.

When I had posted about that somewhere else, someone asked if I put that in the report. I said no. There was no questions in the report about such an occurrence.

April 19, 2025 04:53PM

There are so many things I would like to say to some of these companies, but my comments are not within the scope of the surveys and are somewhat subjective. For example, every Freddy's I go to has excellent service and great food but the floors are always greasy, the interior ductwork is covered with dust, and the parking lots need a powerwash and a new striping and curb painting. There is a regionalized Italian restaurant chain where I shop 3 stores. All of them just look "tired". When I was a new restaurant manager many years ago, someone told me, "Yes, you clean all the time but you clean the same things. You need to look outside the box." I learned that if you sit on the floor in your restaurant you will find gum stuck underneath every table. gross. If you stand back and take a hard look, you can see things you will ordinarily miss. I wish there was a general comments box for many of my shops where I could say anything I wanted. Oh, and I was in a restaurant where the female cashier had a heavy beard and bad teeth. It was disturbing to see but I don't want to tell the truth and be blocked from shopping this company as I love their food.

April 19, 2025 10:29PM

I often have gotten bit in the rear reporting accurately. When something is not perfect and reported as such it raises questions. Kinda stinks as for honesty you get hassled.

April 20, 2025 10:47AM

I used to be naive. I used to think the purpose of shops was to help the business improve its operations (and sometimes it is)
But along the way, I've gathered that sometimes - and this is just my observation - they seem to be a way to get an independent source to validate how wonderful your operations are in a 1,000 ways....so that you can stand up in a marketing meeting or with a group of investors and brag about the latest stats from your MSing program that prove your wonderfulness.

April 20, 2025 02:23PM

In 2018, + or - a yr. or 2, I was closing a purchase in my store. The female mentioned I looked familiar and as I have always been in sales, that occasionally occurred. She then proceeded to inquire as to my first name being Bob. As we chatted, she mentioned my last name, the color and make/model of my car. Thankfully, as I was beginning to become concerned, she stated that a district manager of CheckSmart, her place of employment, had sent out a memo outing me as a shopper.

I later learned the primary reason for my visits was not location improvement but that the company was required, due to a lending law, to provide oversight. Once pay day loans were outlawed in Ohio, the shops were discontinued, but the stores remained open.

A few yrs. back, I was visiting my neighborhood Kroger's. As it was built in 1958, there were not any public restrooms. It was necessary, when the need arose, to enter the warehouse and walk through the break room. I noticed management had placed a description of known shoppers on a bulletin board; I was not included.

There have been several occasions where the requirements of the work were such that I was figuratively wearing a sign around my neck.

April 22, 2025 07:40PM

Yep, like many others, I've learned that any oddity that occurs, through no fault or action of your own, throws the editors into a tizzy and your shop can get dragged out for weeks for "clarification".

April 23, 2025 12:08PM

I worked in retail management for 25 years. I always used mystery shop reports to train and develop my team. Employees can fall into bad habits that can go unnoticed. I found the feedback valuable. It’s why I started MS when I couldn’t dedicate time to full time work because I was raising my family. Sure could companies use it as a marketing tool? Sure but if the profits aren’t there it’s a moot point. Investors are not impressed with feedback they invest on profits. Not a great system but it’s what we are working with.

April 23, 2025 04:57PM

Unfortunately, many times editors delete important information and make the comments very generic, so business owners/managers are prevented from receiving information that they would certainly want to have, such as toilets not being properly cleaned for literally months and months. There is a big difference between a toilet being dirty from recent use, as opposed to dried waste that has been there for months, but the editors don't seem to want anything unpleasant in the reports.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/2025 08:51PM by mjt9598.

April 23, 2025 05:50PM

Several yrs. ago, Ardent inadvertently returned my report. It had been so altered, I was very unusually pissed. I respected their right to change what they desired, but the following day, I terminated our agreement.

April 24, 2025 02:47AM

I totally understand.

April 24, 2025 07:29PM

@shopperbob wrote:

Several yrs. ago, Ardent inadvertently returned my report. It had been so altered, I was very unusually pissed. I respected their right to change what they desired, but the following day, I terminated our agreement.

I've had that happen with another MS company. They accidentally sent a report back to me for clarification of something I knew I had already reported. The editors had altered my report so much that it was a recitation of things that didn't happen. I was shocked! I complained. The supervisor entered the conversation and basically said, "Oops!"

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Not saying I'm doing it but.... not telling the whole truth? {rant}

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