HI

HOW ABOUT SHARING CUTE STORIES THAT HAVE HAPPENED WHILE MS.

As an example I had just begun doing a 90 minute bar integrity shop one time when a sort of attractive "lady"in her early 20's approached the bar and sat down next to a gentleman. She asked him where his wife was and he said back in Tennessee. This was in Los Angeles. I overheard her say to him , I sell exotic flowers, perhaps you would like to send her some. A bouquet of floral roses (with an emphasis on the word ORAL is $75.00, 50-50 with roses and carnations is $100.00, and a round the world bouquet is $125.00. We can go right now and send some if you would like. She called the bartender by name, gave him $20.00 and off the two left to send his wife flowers. Lo and behold 35 minutes later she returned to tr y and sell some flowers to another gentleman. I laughed so hard i was crying

paid2peek

LOL. There used to be a bar integrity shop at a high-end hotel in NYC where one of the things you had to look for was bartenders taking kickbacks from instances like mentioned above.

I have a story that comes with a cautionary tale....

Years ago, my GF & I were on a resort shop in Key West. Since the drinking all had to be controlled on the shop, we decided on our last night, head to the other side of island and find an affordable bar where we could enjoy ourselves, away from the hotel cameras ad expensive part of town. After a few rounds, we struck up a conversation with another couple at the bar and spent a few hours talking and drinking with them. We had mentioned at one point that we were on a tight budget. They asked how we could afford to be staying on the island and my drunken GF blurted out that we were mystery shopping a hotel there. The conversation was quickly dropped and we exchanged emails with the couple at the end of the night.

The next morning, all we had left to do for the report was have breakfast at the hotel restaurant and then check out. We were seated for breakfast and lo & behold, when our server comes over it's the female from the couple we met the previous evening. Not a word gets spoken about meeting the night before and needles to say, the server scored 100% on the breakfast service. We felt very uncomfortable and ate quickly, then headed back to the room to pack and check out, since we were so embarrassed about having blown our cover.

I then call a bellman to collect the bags and 5 minutes later when there's a knock and I answer, I find.....the guy from the couple we met the previous evening, dressed in his bellman's uniform. Thus ensues the most uncomfortable elevator ride of my life down to the lobby for check-out.

In the end, the couple emailed us when we got back home and apologized for not mentioning they were hotel employees in advance. They were a little drunk as well and freaked out when we admitted being shoppers, apparently. Remember...NEVER tell anyone why you are at the hotel!!!

Oh, Steve, that's rich! You're right -- you never know!

Who could beat Steve's experience, rich and richer!!

Whenever something goes wrong on a shop, it usually takes place at a bar. I know there's another lesson in there somewhere, but just don't want to face it.....

Hmmm.....you want some Cettie adventures?

Once bright and sunny day I was off on a shop to a zoo in a nearby city. I was supposed to interact with staff, visit the gift shop and look at various things while there. On my way out of the gift shop I noticed some kind of excitement and people looking around or watching something. It was a loose goat from the petting zoo section of the zoo (No, animal lovers, nothing got hurt or eaten in my story.) It trotted this way and that until it caught sight of me. For some reason it decided I was it's beloved and made a mad dash straight for me. I did some mad dashing of my own and there for all the world to behold was me running pell-mell down a path while being chased by a love-starved goat. Finally I spied a bench and thought to get some kind of barrier between me and Romeo and with a mighty leap managed to scale the bench in a bound. My old basketball team days came back to me in a flash and for one brief moment I was 16 again. In the meantime staff members were flying down the path after Mr. Goat and soon had him leashed up and away to his enclosure.

Can't deny chemistry.....

My Hotel experience.

Since I was tired and not feeling up to dining out, I ordered Room Service to include coffee. Afterwards, I realized that the coffee included cream, but no sugar. I politely called back and they graciously apologized and indicated they would send some up right away.

After five minutes there was a knock on my door. When I asked who it was, a female voice replied, "Sugar!"

When I opened the door I discovered a humorous sight of several doors down the hallway opened a crack all curiously wanting to see just who "Sugar" was.

Perhaps another tale or two would amuse you.....

I was doing a post office shop and on the way to the location I thought it was rather odd that there was a police road block up ahead and one by one each driver was removed from their car while the car was being searched. When my turn came they had a field day with my station wagon, even shining flashlights UNDER the seats. I asked politely what they were looking for and I was told that they didn't have to tell me.

I then was able to drive on to the post office and do my shop. I noticed that people weren't leaving the post office after doing their business but were milling quietly around in the small lobby. A few minutes later a state police officer came in and announced that no one was to leave the building and upon looking out the windows we saw that heavily armed police officers were surrounding the building with guns drawn. It turns out that there was an escape from a prison about two hours from here and they believed that the man was heading in our direction. He'd broken out of a maximum security prison by going through the ceiling and roof with a can opener.

My real question of the day was how in the world could they think I was hiding this dude under my car seat?

Cettie Wrote:
> My real question of the day was how in the world
> could they think I was hiding this dude under my
> car seat?

Judging from your signature, I think they were just trying to get your goat.

Love you guys...guess I'll share: doing a Bar Intgrity in my town, did them a zillion times, and there is an obvious he/she (Ruel Paul) type two seats down, and had the cutest platimun bob haircut and wearing quite a costume looking outfit.
I order and he/she starts talking to little ole me...."darling, love your scarf", thank you, "darling, where did you get your jacket", San Francisco many years ago, well, that started a conversation about a famous club up there in the day(Bimbo's).

My appetizer comes and he/she is getting smashed. "Darling, can I have some of your dish, it looks devine",reaches over to help self, no, I don't believe in sharing. The female Bartender is watching all this, no one does a thing. I'm a little nervous and spot the Manager who comes over and quietly tells me, he/she comes in every couple of weeks and is harmless and a great tipper. This person is now not able to stand and finally goes to leave, giving the Bartender a huge tip.

I write my report, tell it all, and get a call from the client, who are pissed off because I wasn't treated better or offered a free meal or something. He/she has been banned from the establishment. Having been born in San Francisco, yes I could handle it, but from a distance, not in my face, thank you!!

This little encounter got me aggravation, a drink and an appetizer, no fee...geez!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/2011 04:00PM by Irene_L.A..

It was a pleasant June day when I ventured off to do my first shop of the day--a landfill. Yes, all manner of places get shopped. I was to bring a bag of trash and see how they interacted with me, charged the correct fee etc etc. All went well until a vehicle pulled in next to be and began to dump its load, unfortunatley for me it was a garbage truck which had some fine white powdery substance as part of its load. It looked like they were dumping asbestos and building materials as well as household garbage, maybe some kind of renegade was moonlighting or something. Anyway, a wind gust made things even more interesting and I ended up getting liberally covered with this powdery stuff. My next shop was a restaurant and after being greeted at my table I vanished off to ther estroom to clean up as well as I could. That's where part two of that adventure kicked in--when my wedding ring slipped off my soapy hand and went down the drain. It had gone as far as the U-bend under the sink and the staff was about as useful as hooters on a door knob, telling me that it was gone and they couldn't care less. I wasn't about to take that lying down and scrunched myself under the sink where I proceeded to take the plumbing apart to retrieve my ring. A waitress flipped out and called the manager who was elsewhere at the time and a busboy came to my aid, handing me tools as I asked for them like a surgeon in the OR. I got my ring back and put their drain back together but the manager who came hustling back to the restaurant was less than happy. I told him where to stick that attitude, shop or no shop. Interestingly enough that particular place didn't stay open too long after that, was closed maybe 2-3 months later by the health department and Dept of Taxation and Finance.

You guys have some funny stories,im over here cracking up.

I guess I do have a funny story. I did a route of shops in a town about 45 minutes from mine and made a long day of it. It was a bunch of little shops, so a lot of stops and paperwork. Like most of us, I did my paperwork in the car. After one shop at a tenant space inside a megamart with falling prices, I pulled my car into a space far from the store to work on my paperwork and check my email on my phone.

My phone was running low on juice, so I plugged it into the power inverter I keep in the car. It was cloudy and dark, but the car still got a little warm, so here and there I put the fan on to circulate the air. Oh, and I had the radio on, though the volume was way down and I didn't realize it. The capper was, my headlights were still on.

Yup, when I turned the key, I got the dreaded click-click-click. I was wearing a walking boot and using a cane...Really, really didn't want to have to hoof it clear across that expanse of parking lot back to the store to see if someone could give my car a jump. So, I got out and put the hood up on the car. I thought surely, with the number of people passing right by me, there'd be some good Samaritan who'd stop and ask if I needed help.

Nope! Moms in minivans, big guys in pick-up trucks, seniors in sedans...They didn't bat an eye.

I called a friend who lived in my town, but worked near the store. I knew she'd come give my car a jump.

"What're ya doin'? Are ya busy?", I asked.

"No, I'm home sick today", she croaked.

After a few choice words of frustration, with her alternately laughing and sympathizing, I told her I was going to try the ignition one more time. It caught and fired! My car started!

I said I needed to ask forgiveness for my words, take some of them back. We laughed about how you would say certain swear words backwards, rewinding what I said. LOL

And, no, it honestly didn't occur to me to call the store and see if someone could help. Really didn't!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/06/2011 07:26AM by TechSavvy.

I was at a truck stop shop and found enough issues to write a book about in my report, even managed to get food poisoning from tainted potato soup and THEN the excitement began when we heard sounds like gunshots out in the parking lot. A small herd of Japanese tourists came flocking inside and the manager started shouting at people NOT to call police. It seems that some bozo tried to shoot a trucker outside and the idiot manager didn't want bad publicity drawn to his location, hence not wanting the police to know about gunfire. Well, since this wan't a reveal at any point and I didn't want to get plugged for going to my car, nor did I want my car full of bullet holes, I slipped away real quiet to the payphone near the ladies' restroom door. (No cell phones back in 1994) State police came whirling into the lot from the nearby interstate exit with their lights flashing and ready for action. The manager nearly had a stroke right then and there and the tourists whipped out their cameras and began taking pictures of everything and anything. As for publicity, it made the 6:00 tv news that night and front paged two local papers the enxt day.

TechSavvy, if all your stars were nicely aligned with Jupiter and Mars, your next shop would have been AAA, dead battery scenario.