Checked by Hidden Camera!?

Before I turn in for the night, this old-school mystery shopper has one more query for his new in crowd...has anyone ever had their shop results contradicted by a hidden camera?

I've noted this warning from a few MSCs: "We can check your report with cameras in the business." Okay, I'm sure they can, and that's fine, though it begs the question of why they need us for some of these things in the first place. (The camera can check the timings; we can check whether they say hello or not. Or do they also have some of Winston Smith's microphones under the table?)

Sure has become Huxley's World since the days when I was using three-color carbons to write reports. Maybe by next year we'll all be replaced by robots!

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The cctv video does not include sound; much of it is poor quality; without the dialogue there would be no telling what might have affected the timings.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.

There are occasional challenges to shops because supposedly the location checked their cameras.

There are the concerns occasionally that we have our pictures on the break room wall because a new-to-us employee seems to know we are the shopper.

But I remember a gal who did a shop that was thrown out because she indicated I think it was that there had been no offer to take her groceries out. The location said her groceries HAD been carried out and they identified her as a brunette with a small child in the basket. She is not a brunette and she has no children. Turned out that the time on the camera and the register were not synchronized so when the receipt read 2:32 on register 2 and they looked at the camera for that time at that register they were seeing someone else. Eventually there was an apology, but until then the shopper was a 'liar' in the eyes of both the client and the MSP.

There are also laws protecting an employee from employers who scan through video to find any reason to terminate.

I read somewhere that surveillance can only be reviewed for certain reasons.

Considering how frequently receipts' times are off by a few minutes, it wouldn't surprise me that camera timings would be off as well. I always act as though I am being recorded and someone may review that recording and look for discrepancies.

I was challenged once. It was very interesting and I did get paid with no problem. I met a friend I don't see often for dinner. We had our first drink in the bar. We were seated at nice table outside on the patio, Mexican Food, served with chips and salsa. We were not greeted for over 20 minutes. After we were greeted, the meal went fine and everything else timed out okay. First call from the editor. Did I really mean 20 minutes, not 2 minutes, Yes 20 minutes. 2nd Call. Client checked film and contests the report, Reason? We didn't look upset or mad! 3rd Call Report was accepted and Client was sending me a coupon for free dinner for 2,

@Documentarian wrote:

Sure has become Huxley's World since the days when I was using three-color carbons to write reports. Maybe by next year we'll all be replaced by robots!

I have no idea who Huxley is or three-color carbons but I have been reviewed on video & I won the challenge. They thought I was the person in front of me buying cigarettes & lottery tickets. I sent a pic of what I look like because I look totally different than the other person, I don't smoke or play lottery either.

Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. An excellent novel about a dystopian society where proletariats are conditioned by their superiors to accept their underprivileged station in life--although I might argue that in this particular discussion, the constant and pervasive surveillance of George Orwell's 1984 would be a more apt comparison.

Both are terribly important works of literature, and ring true in more ways than we might like to admit. Would anyone care to join the Mysteryshopforum.com Book Club?

"The future ain't what it used to be." --Yogi Berra

We studied 1984 in school. Big hair, neon colors, high top white sneakers, Never heard of other one.

Regarding camera or timestamps that are incorrect, I've noted in my reports when a receipt's timestamp does not match the correct time. Sometimes its more than an hour off.

I usually get a thank you email about that later.

I was never challenged but I was criticized for standing in front of the grocery cart instead of behind it.

I was challenged twice. The first time was my first shop with my third MSC. I was a wreck! The clerk said that he had given me a sales flyer when I reported he hadn't. Store video proved me right. Report accepted, full payment.
The second challenge came years later from a manager disputing my length of time in line. I knew I was correct to the second. I had a recording. The MSC didn't want it. The MSC also would not request a review of the store video. They caved in to the lying manager - report rejected, no payment. They lost the client contract at the end of the year. Ha.

The hedgehog has questioned my timing once. The problem was they asked the car I was in about three weeks after the shop was submitted and we have 6! I couldn't tell them which it was that day and the shop was accepted. Had me a little worried though!

Doing what I can to enhance the life of my family! I LOVE what I do

I just had my results confirmed by surveillance cameras. It was a bar and restaurant shop with a huge fee and a no limit reimbursement. The server lied about the sequence of events. She claimed that I took a drink from the table to the bar, and that's why she didn't charge me for the drink there. She claimed to have refilled it or topped it off. I didn't bring a glass to the bar. Luckily, my partner smokes. We stepped outside for 9 minutes after dinner and then returned to get more drinks at the bar.

That's what the MSC confirmed. Funny though. As they were writing this response, the email from the restaurant owner came in just as it was sent saying that I was correct. They had reviewed the video of the entire meal and bar experience. (Must have been fun viewing.)

So, for a week after that, I was skeeved out, wondering if I did anything weird at the table, scratched something, adjusted my cleavage, etc. LOL.

It's a good reminder to be very accurate when reporting even the smallest of details.

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