what do you do when the mystery shop goes in the wrong direction?

I just had a mystery shop where I am supposed to pretend to want to join a gym, but not to actually join, and I'm supposed to just go along with it, but this gym just tried to sign me up sneakily, like so that if I wasn't paying attention I would have actually signed up for them. I was just like hang on what? LOL. Like if that was a real thing, I'd be running away and maybe even reporting them for such sneaky behaviour. It just made it difficult because the rules of the mystery shop were to go along with whatever they wanted, but I am also not allowed to sign up. It was just so sneaky. Has anyone ever had something like this happen to them? What do you do when the rules of the mystery shop contradict the rules of the mystery shop because of bad behaviour by the customer service operator?

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I would report what happened.

Shopping Arkansas, Louisiana, & Mississippi.
@ArkLaMissshopping wrote:

I would report what happened.
Me too! Back in the day, there were a LOT of problems with Wells Fargo signing people up without their knowledge. I'm sure the Client would like to know what happened to you. Even if there's no space in the report to tell what happened, send someone in the Company an email!
You are not breaking rules by not signing up. It is the place of the salesperson to try to get you to purchase whatever it is. If they are using sneaky tactics that is one of the things the company wants to know in your report. Glad you caught it on time so you wont have the hassle of trying to back out of it or explain to the msc why you actually signed up.
I just had one with a gas station debrand, where the new owner did not care about the old owner listed on the LOA. Now the directions say to only use the LOA if someone complains and that is what I did. They should try to source the LOA from the new owner giving permission, as I think the new owner would understand the reasoning for the old owner wanting to confirm the debrand. The gas station employee doesn't care.

I only took it because I thought the station was permanently closed and I was driving by it while working.
I think a huge factor in how well you do at this stuff is the ability to think on your feet and improvise. They can't cover every what if in the guidelines. I was in a liquor store yesterday choosing two of something when a new employee accidentally set off the robbery alarm. What a scene! I was thrilled, though, because 1) there wasn't an actual robbery and 2) I could take all my photos and ask weird questions without a care because they were very preoccupied!
@ozshopper wrote:

I just had a mystery shop where I am supposed to pretend to want to join a gym, but not to actually join, and I'm supposed to just go along with it, but this gym just tried to sign me up sneakily, like so that if I wasn't paying attention I would have actually signed up for them. I was just like hang on what? LOL. Like if that was a real thing, I'd be running away and maybe even reporting them for such sneaky behaviour. It just made it difficult because the rules of the mystery shop were to go along with whatever they wanted, but I am also not allowed to sign up. It was just so sneaky. Has anyone ever had something like this happen to them? What do you do when the rules of the mystery shop contradict the rules of the mystery shop because of bad behaviour by the customer service operator?

In general, abort.

Like if, for some reason, my audio recording equipment stopped recording. Get out of there as quick as possible.

In your case, it didn’t go sideways. Its an event that happened. I had a restaurant the other day; the waitress used profanity (this was fine dining)...I was a bit shocked at the graphic nature but I just reported it.

So just report it.

As for the “sneaky” nature....OH YEAH IT HAS HAPPENED FOR ME. The rubber ducky carwash greeters must get a commission on selling memberships. I was signed up for one. If you haven’t done these shops, you audio record the whole interaction. So I had it on tape--me saying, “I don’t want a membership” like 3 times. Yet I was signed up. Had a favorable outcome. They gave me 3 months of washes and immediatlely cancelled my membership. There was a sign-up fee they kept-- $17.76(it was over the 4th of july). I was driving UBER at the time and it came in handy.
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