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BP/Amoco Shops

October 08, 2025 09:12PM
I've always considered the BP/Amoco shops the most difficult - A photo of violations must be a separate, unique photo. They were particular about blemishes or glue substances on the pumps - the smallest amount of stickum was a violation - a separate photo was needed - a blemished bollard - a photo was needed.
I could go on.
"Not a White Glove audit", they said? Pooh! It was always more than that.
Often my files for each pump, each site would be littered with numerous photos for each violation. I often took up to 3 photos for each pump even when there was no apparent problem - just to ensure that when the editor reviewed the report, I would have a photo at the ready. There always seemed to be something.
And I was and have always been very careful of noticing problems.
Now, it appears that perhaps the site managers have complained about all of the "supposed" problem areas noticed by either the shopper or the editor. Maybe they have not. But something has changed.
However, I have noticed that in red for many of the pump questions, there is now a disclaimer (would that be the correct term??) instructing the shopper to ensure that the violation or blemish is at the least 20% of the particular element in question.

Whoever thought to change this for whatever reason - Thank you!
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October 08, 2025 11:17PM
With other brands this MSC uses the word, "Excessive" in many of their guidelines, which leaves much up to the editor's interpretation of the word. It apparently includes two three-inch blades of grass sticking up at the pump island and a one-inch, barely visible scratch on a pump.
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October 08, 2025 11:40PM
It's my experience that some editors don't even consider the word "excessive" if they feel like they see something. I've had many reports sent back for very minor issues that honestly I felt bad that the site was being penalized for. They were in no way excessive, and did not detract from the consumer experience. We are always told that we should look at things from a consumer point of view, and we are told that these are not white glove audits. I've had some editors that have completely ignored those directives.

This might be why some gas station owners get so irate over mystery shopping. They work hard to keep their stations clean and well maintained. Then they get penalized for really trivial things, even if the mystery shopper themselves is not the one that is marking the infraction.

This is not 100%. I've had some really excellent editors that I've worked with over the years, and they have been fair and reasonable just like me as a shopper. However, there have been cases where I have not agreed at all with an editors decision to mark and infraction that I did not feel was warranted.
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October 08, 2025 11:56PM
There were a couple times that an editor "saw" something in my pictures and called me on it. One I remember vividly, was a nice(ish) Citgo station. It was mostly pristine, but one 6 inch section of the curb at one of the pump islands had scuffed paint. I told the editor that it was the ONLY problem with any curb on the property, and it was only scuffed, it wasn't peeling paint or physically damaged, so I didn't it was a problem. I got paid for it, so it must have been ok that I thought a scuff wasn't the end of the world.
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October 11, 2025 04:10AM
I looked into doing these, and the guidelines were 20+ pages. Nope... I've been tracking the various gas station revealed audits in my area (three different brands) and none of them are being taken, while the various concealed audits of gas stations and C-Stores go quickly.

I've already had trouble with this MSC over poorly written guidelines on other concealed shops (for example telling me that "the sun below the horizon" does not mean "after the National Weather Service's posted sunset time") and if 15% of these shops would be rejected for equally silly reasons then they aren't going to be profitable.
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October 11, 2025 11:41AM
So what is their definition of "sun below/above the horizon then?" I've always looked sunrise/sunset times up on the weather app to be sure on those shops.
@nc-retiree wrote:

I looked into doing these, and the guidelines were 20+ pages. Nope... I've been tracking the various gas station revealed audits in my area (three different brands) and none of them are being taken, while the various concealed audits of gas stations and C-Stores go quickly.

I've already had trouble with this MSC over poorly written guidelines on other concealed shops (for example telling me that "the sun below the horizon" does not mean "after the National Weather Service's posted sunset time") and if 15% of these shops would be rejected for equally silly reasons then they aren't going to be profitable.
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October 11, 2025 03:16PM
"the sun below the horizon" means "after the National Weather Service's posted time of LAST LIGHT."

Two different times.
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October 11, 2025 03:27PM
I've never done BP, but over the years many of the other brands have included guidance about such and such having to be the size of a basketball, the size of a softball, the size of an index card, covering 20 percent, etc. Many editors consistently ignore those gauges. They see something in a photo, it gets marked off, regardless of the guidance.
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October 11, 2025 03:37PM
And, yeah, sun below the horizon for EM means about 40 minutes or so after sunset, when you can't even see a glow on the horizon. That actually makes sense, it's just that they don't bother to change one sentence in the guidance to make it clear. It seems like everyone who does these gets burned at least once.

The good news is that now I don't have to worry so much about the pesky question on the regular audits about what lighting elements are not working at night. "Was you inspection completed during hours of darkness?" Nah, there's some kind of glow over there.
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October 11, 2025 05:38PM
@mystery2me wrote:

And, yeah, sun below the horizon for EM means about 40 minutes or so after sunset, when you can't even see a glow on the horizon. That actually makes sense, it's just that they don't bother to change one sentence in the guidance to make it clear. It seems like everyone who does these gets burned at least once.

That's what annoys me the most on various MS survey designs. They don't test the requirements and then most times they substitute non-testable judgement after the fact. But then I spent years eliciting business requirements from clients so I'm probably overly demanding about precision.

I did have a food shop with someone who some people here do not like where it turned out that there was no way to park for the shop without paying unless you did the shop on a Sunday. I saved my receipt from the meter and included it and explained the situation. The QA person reached out to the scheduler who approved it and said that they'd have to change the guidance. I would have eaten the dollar, but it didn't hurt to ask politely.
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