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Red Pins and Editing...

May 20, 2025 09:23PM
I like doing the red pins, I like trying new restaurants, finding hidden gems, like that wing shack up in TN. And last week we found a great greek/italian place in GA, right across the street from a Kroger.. (sure was easy doing 3 red pins all within a block of my last Kroger shop for this round).

One of the places was a Mexican restaurant that looked like it had potential. It didn't, they wouldn't know Mexican food if it walked up and slapped them across the face. We found an A La Carte item that was under reimbursement and actually sounded edible. They charged us for the burrito, a to-go fee, a CC fee and sales tax on both the debit card and the cash purchase. Now in the narrative on the shop I thought I had spelled it out in plain English, but I think my editor might not have strong reading comprehension. She has sent the shop back to me twice to change the narrative so she can understand it. And each time I've dumbed it down a little more and added more words. Maybe she'll finger it out this time.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/2025 09:27PM by Morledzep.
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More About Mystery Shopping Editors
May 21, 2025 01:42AM
Finger it out this time? smiling smiley
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May 21, 2025 03:28AM
It's an old math (or pooping) joke.
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May 21, 2025 10:02AM
I love the red pins too. I was out of state last week and picked up 2 Mexican restaurants very close to one another. I had no issues with the editor, but I feel like one of the restaurant workers thought my husband and I were special agents. We ordered ala carte burritos to go and I was caught taking a picture of the menu near the entrance. I feel like they were very suspicious of us.
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May 21, 2025 06:05PM
what are red pins?
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May 21, 2025 06:07PM
Insight,

the red pins on Presto, the Visa Debit shops.
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May 22, 2025 06:02AM
And now the Liquor store.. The store clearly had prices posted.. all 4 digits or more. All for $15 or more, I bought 2 sodas from the soda cooler near the front door that had no prices posted anywhere, but seemed to be the only thing that I could be sure was under $8. I thought the price picture was supposed to be of the items I purchased, not the $35 bottles of booze.

shop excluded because I didn't post pictures of the prices in the rest of the store.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/2025 06:06AM by Morledzep.
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May 22, 2025 12:21PM
Is there a way to question the editor? That is not what the guidelines state. I had a similar situation and I submitted a photo of the sodas as they were in the store (and showing absence of pricetag).

@Morledzep wrote:

And now the Liquor store.. The store clearly had prices posted.. all 4 digits or more. All for $15 or more, I bought 2 sodas from the soda cooler near the front door that had no prices posted anywhere, but seemed to be the only thing that I could be sure was under $8. I thought the price picture was supposed to be of the items I purchased, not the $35 bottles of booze.

shop excluded because I didn't post pictures of the prices in the rest of the store.
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May 23, 2025 04:04PM
does anyone know if the items HAVE to be under $8, or can we just buy what we want and get reimbursed $8. At restaurants it's really hard to find those lower priced items, which I why I avoid them.
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May 23, 2025 04:13PM
You get reimbursed what you spend up to $8. If you buy something that is $5 for the debit and cash purchase, you will be reimbursed $10 not $16. If you have to buy something that costs more than $8, you will only get reimbursed the max of $16.


@nellybean212 wrote:

does anyone know if the items HAVE to be under $8, or can we just buy what we want and get reimbursed $8. At restaurants it's really hard to find those lower priced items, which I why I avoid them.
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May 23, 2025 08:02PM
@Morledzep wrote:

And now the Liquor store.. The store clearly had prices posted.. all 4 digits or more. All for $15 or more, I bought 2 sodas from the soda cooler near the front door that had no prices posted anywhere, but seemed to be the only thing that I could be sure was under $8. I thought the price picture was supposed to be of the items I purchased, not the $35 bottles of booze.

shop excluded because I didn't post pictures of the prices in the rest of the store.

Don't most liquor stores have a rack of airline (shot sized) bottles near the register? Never paid a lot of attention since I buy the big bottles.

And if theyre at the register, have fun taking the picture.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/23/2025 08:03PM by wrosie.
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May 23, 2025 10:39PM
Well, they had lots of those star/exploding signs for alcohol that were all much higher prices than the reimbursement, no prices on the shelves at all. And the pic my son took of the counter by the cash register shows a couple of those signs. So they excluded my shop because there were priced items and I chose an item that didn't have a price.
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May 24, 2025 02:19AM
That's right. If a store has a thousand cheap items that do not have a visible price tag or price label, and one single item that has a visible price of $1,000, you are required to buy the $1,000 item. Twice! So you need to go $2,000 out of pocket or the shop will be rejected.

It's my understanding that the credit card company client has an agreement with vendors that they are not allowed to charge additional credit card fees or provide a cash discount if they accept their credit card. Therefore, the purpose of this shop is to catch the business breaking the contract red-handed. There can be no disputing the evidence that the location is charging more for credit cards. I suppose that's why they're so strict about it, and I imagine the client requires all of those things to be in order for the shop to be accepted.

Is that fair to the shopper? That's debatable. A lot of these have been rejected on technicalities. My frame of mind when doing these is that there is always a chance that it could be rejected. Therefore, I have used my own experience and my knowledge I've picked up from this forum to try to eliminate rejections. I also only do these when they get up to $25 or more and the business seems like it should be relatively easy too fulfill the requirements.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/2025 02:22AM by thunderdeacon.
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May 24, 2025 10:04PM
Thunder, you're absolutely right. It was my mistake, and I know it. I read the guidelines, and I showed that the entire cooler with the sodas had absolutely no price tags on the doors or the shelves. But there was one of those star things near the cash register that they saw.. for like $18 or something.. I don't need to buy alcohol for it to take up space in my freezer for no apparent reason.
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May 29, 2025 12:02PM
Seems like all these have disapeared over night.
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May 29, 2025 12:08PM
I made the same mistake on 2 shops. Instructions stated if no price you must ask. The whole small market was without prices. I asked how much the Oreos were and told $8.99
I bought 2 packs and apparently something in my counter photo showed an item priced behind the counter. Both shops declined.
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