Maritz (MaritzCX) has a ton of these Mystery Shops with Reveal for two national companies in my area but the pay does not seem very much. Do you get to fill up your tank with gas at least? The regular Mystery Shops (without reveal) get picked up pretty quick and with gas reimbursement is about the same as the advertised rate for the revealed shops ($6 pay + $5 gas for unreveal vs $12 and $10.50 for the reveals). The revealed ones sit there and the incentive slowly goes up but still do not move.

So what exactly is involved with these revealed shops? If I can fill up my tank with gas I would consider them but otherwise I don't get it.

If I recall, you get about $5 for gas and another dollar or two for an inside purchase. Then you reveal, get permission, and spend up to an hour taking up to 100 photos (I'm not kidding -- in some big stations, where I take a photo of EVERY pump/dispenser, plus closeups, I go over 100), 10 minutes to review the guide to make absolutely 100% sure you didn't miss a photo (because you'll have to go back and get it!). Then an hour to download the photos and do the report. I have found that if I hit "submit" after 4 or 5 photos have uploaded, it goes faster than downloading all photos at once...the connection often times out, and you lose all your work.

Then you submit the report...and wait for an e-mail asking for clarification.

Pluses: they are uniformly dolls to work with, helpful and courteous. If they don't know the answer, they'll find out what the right answer is. Pay twice a month. Pray they don't ask for clarifications! I did 6 locations last
month, and 2 had closed their stores -- pumps were available, but no convenience store. Even though I took extra pictures (like of the "the store is no longer here" sign on the front door), I just couldn't get them to understand that I couldn't give the employee's name, because there weren't any employees...I couldn't provide a photo of the sales counter, because there was NO sales counter...etc., etc., etc.

Most shops go through without a hitch, though, in my opinion.

You can always e-mail the team and make an offer to do a route...they have been known to bonus routes.

Personally, I'd love to get 6 assignments with them every month.

@ceasesmith wrote:

If I recall, you get about $5 for gas and another dollar or two for an inside purchase. Then you reveal, get permission, and spend up to an hour taking up to 100 photos (I'm not kidding -- in some big stations, where I take a photo of EVERY pump/dispenser, plus closeups, I go over 100), 10 minutes to review the guide to make absolutely 100% sure you didn't miss a photo (because you'll have to go back and get it!). Then an hour to download the photos and do the report. I have found that if I hit "submit" after 4 or 5 photos have uploaded, it goes faster than downloading all photos at once...the connection often times out, and you lose all your work.

You need to streamline your process big time. Many of my stations have 20-something pumps. I get all my required photos and any violations done rather quickly unless there is a vehicle camped out in front of a pump for a long time. Then I track down the owner and ask them to move their vehicle. They are usually camped out somewhere stuffing their face, chain smoking or checking their Facebook account.

The paperwork includes a required photo checklist (or you can make your own) so there is no need to review the guide for 10 minutes on site, The guidelines should have been reviewed ahead of time.

As far as uploading photos, I do not need to resize them because I take the photos with a camera or my cell photo already set with the proper settings. Renaming the images is a breeze. I upload everything all at once at the end of the report and it only takes 2-3 minutes at most. I do not understand what you mean by "submit after 4 or 5 photos." How can you submit an incomplete report?

If you hit submit, it comes back with "you have the following photos missing". Then you can download 4 or 5 more, and hit submit. I'm just saying that's what I run into. I am definitely tech challenged. I use a digital camera.

You go ahead and streamline all you want. For me, I do so many gas stations for so many different companies that if I don't review the guidelines on site, I might meet all the requirements for an entirely different MSC!

We each must do how it best works for us. Me, with failing brain power -- well, I'd rather spend the 10 minutes reviewing before I leave. The way I do it wouldn't necessarily work for another shopper, but it suits me just fine.

You do NOT know what I need in order to do my work correctly. You do not know my limitations and physical disabilities. What's it to you if I am required to rest after taking just a few photos? I still get the job done. So what if you can do a fine job in 20 minutes and it takes me an hour? So very, very what.

I did a Maritz gas/store reveal and don't think I will do it again without a sizable bonus. The number of pictures was truely awful as was the report. I had trouble uploading the large number of required photos within the report. I spent way more time than I should have trying to make a good report AND I had to purchase a safety vest.

@mamx44 wrote:

I did a Maritz gas/store reveal and don't think I will do it again without a sizable bonus. The number of pictures was truely awful as was the report. I had trouble uploading the large number of required photos within the report. I spent way more time than I should have trying to make a good report AND I had to purchase a safety vest.

A safety vest is required for all MCX gas station mystery/reveal. They can be purchase for under $3, at Walmart, OddLot, or Ollies. Anywhere else you may pay more. How do you make a good report? Just report the facts.

@Frugal.Lee wrote:

So what exactly is involved with these revealed shops? If I can fill up my tank with gas I would consider them but otherwise I don't get it.

"Fill up your gas tank",-------->I hope the size of your tank is smaller than a lawn mower. The shopper;s fee is usually $10-12, with $2-5 on gas, and $1 purchase, plus 4 requirement location photos and any non compliance photos, and receipts. Also photos of the number of fuel pumps, the employee chest photo and inside the C-store.

If you do more than one, try to have more than one credit/debit card. Because you will need to Pay at the pump, to check the credit card reader.

Your not going to make a bundle on gas station audits (reveals) unless you do routes of them. I have trouble keeping my tank empty enough to pump more gas into it. But I do routes. After a little practice you will get fast, even a station with a lot of violations doesn't take me more than 45 minutes anymore, and stations in good condition take me 20-25 on average. I set my camera to the required size which is quite small. That also reduces the upload time into the report considerably. So I save time by not resizing photos, by uploading as quickly as possible, and by doing enough of them that I know what I'm doing and don't spend a lot of time taking unnecessary photos. I do review my photos before I leave each location and review the checklist. That takes me 3 minutes tops.
The learning curve for me on these was big but I kept at it because I like them and there is pretty good money in them. I'm doing a smallish route of them tomorrow, 120 miles round trip, 4 stations, 125 dollars for one fun day of work NOT in an office or building.

Coffee, sounds like a good day to me, too. I've never had any MSC kick my photos back (well, the infamous no-name pizza shop...they kept telling me my photos were too little!), and I never reset anything on my camera.
Perhaps I'm still on the learning curve. I do know the first thing I learned was do ONE brand at a time! Even though they are all for the same MSC, the requirements differ wildly. Also,it's better to take too many pictures than to not take the one you need, LOL! I ran into my very first ever "misaligned graphics", and it threw me for a loop! Good thing I had taken front and back photos of every dispenser, with closeups! And the last one I did had my very first ever "alternative fuel dispenser". And I had to learn the jargon - bezel, skirt, valence. Clear Gas. E-10, E-15, right on up. Just stuff I had never seen or needed that were just new to me. Now I can do more than one brand on a route without getting flustered, but it did take a while. And I do probably overthink, and I may work too hard at this. But I would happily do several routes a month for this MSC.

Ceases, I still won't do the one that makes you take a picture of every pump. It just seems a waste to me to learn a whole new set of guidelines when there is only one of those within 50 miles of me. Like you, I learned one brand at a time. Now I can do 3 of them, alone, or together. And yes, learning the jargon and the requirements for each brand was challenging for me. And yes, when I was still not sure of myself I took way too many pictures. I definitely recommend doing that for anyone who is new to them. I just want people to know that like most things, they get much easier with practice. The great thing about this type of work is that we can learn and work at our own pace. I worked too hard at it in the beginning probably, but I knew I was working towards a goal. That goal was to be really good at it and to be the one in my area they called when they had an emergency and were willing to throw money at it. There are some benefits along the way, like cementing in some profitable routes for myself.
I prefer auditing to most other mystery shops. I prefer uploading pictures to spending hours perfecting narratives. I prefer driving around in the countryside to malls. I like getting outside and not spending hours in a building. I can see how it's not for everyone but I think a lot of people would be pleasantly surprised.

While taking the pictures with the right size (smaller than the pizza shop!) is nice for uploading, I find if I take them as more resolution and batch size them down, it gives me more options. I can easily copy and crop the overall station into a building exterior, for example, and still be within the small resolution needed for Maritz.

For Market Force revealed ones, I kept forgetting to do the picture for the close up of the pump buttons. However, since I had taken the pictures at the higher resolution, I just took the picture for the regular pump, copied and cropped it, then re-sized and it met the requirements for the close up one I needed.

I just hate when my valence and skirt are misaligned, It turns my swoosh into a squiggle.
And Helios? For realios? What useful fact was forced out of my brain to make room for that term?

So which one is better for the budding shopper - the $12 shop for the one with red letters (still haven't figured out their lingo name) or the $10.50 plus fuel and purchase shop for the yellow one? I see conflicting posts of lots of photos required versus a few photos plus non-compliance items. Do the non-compliance items often add up to almost 100 photos?

Try three of each. One may appeal to you more.
Sure you can take 100 photos, but that's all about redundancy. You only need to upload one per required and one per violation.

@sojo917 wrote:

A safety vest is required for all MCX gas station mystery/reveal. They can be purchase for under $3, at Walmart, OddLot, or Ollies. Anywhere else you may pay more. How do you make a good report? Just report the facts.

Not true. They have at least 1 brand that does not require it.

I'll see your single vestless client and raise it to two.

Oh. Yeah. You're right I forgot about the new one.

I haven't shop the new one yet

I prefer wearing the vest at all GS evauals.

@lbw1000 wrote:

While taking the pictures with the right size (smaller than the pizza shop!) is nice for uploading, I find if I take them as more resolution and batch size them down, it gives me more options. I can easily copy and crop the overall station into a building exterior, for example, and still be within the small resolution needed for Maritz.

For Market Force revealed ones, I kept forgetting to do the picture for the close up of the pump buttons. However, since I had taken the pictures at the higher resolution, I just took the picture for the regular pump, copied and cropped it, then re-sized and it met the requirements for the close up one I needed.

Oh, too cool. But that's for all you cool cats, savvy with tech. I do not know how to "copy and crop" a photo. I do not know how to resize or edit a photo. What I see in my camera's little window is what I send the MSC,
whether it's a bezel or a pizza.

And I wish I could learn...but right now all my learning in concentrating on learning how to use my cell phone. I took the huge step last month. The first time it rang, I had it in my hand (I had it on to do a mystery shop, of course!) -- I'm quite afraid I let out a little squeak, jumped, and dropped the dang thing! Then I picked it up, looked around, and asked the closest stranger "do you know what I'm supposed to do with it NOW?"

@sojo917 wrote:

I haven't shop the new one yet

I prefer wearing the vest at all GS evauals.

I do too. Customers are a little more respectful of you when you wear it, I have learned. As in, they won't drive right in front of you while you are trying to take a picture of a pump.

Yes, I think a good report is reporting the facts. It also needs to be clearly written, error free and with all the appropriate documentation. I've only been doing this for a few months but believe quality work demands more than just reporting the facts.

Most gas stations, if not all, do not require commentaries. Maybe the occasional sentence or two explaining something unusual during the shop but for gas stations, the photos are the facts. There is no need to make these more complicated.

I think the key to gas station shops, in fact the key to any shop, is organization. After you have done 5 or 6 you should be able to make a work sheet (or cheat sheet). My suggestion is to set it up in the order you do the shop and consistency in the shop is important. I do 5 brands for Maritz and I have a second print out that I call "procedure" which is a 1, 2, 3 outline for each brand which I use as a memory jogger if I haven't done a brand for a while. If doing just gas stations I like to do 5 per day. I have my google map and documentation on my desk for tomorrow's shops. I will be doing 3 stations and 3 banks for a total of 69 miles and just under 2 hours travel time. I can leave at 9 and return by 1 or 2 and earn just under $95. The gas stations take 20 to 30 minutes and the banks 10 minutes (unless I have to wait for a banker).

As someone said, gas stations (and banks) are not for everyone but they fit into my comfort zone and personality.

Cease, I am not a techie but here is how to resize a photo (at least in Windows 7):
1. Right click on photo document.
2. Left click on edit.
3. Left click on resize
4. Left click pixels (the current size will be displayed).
5. Click on the larger number which is horizontal and delete the numbers. Enter 640 in its place.
6. Click OK.
7. Close and save.

Your photo will now be in 640 x 480 which is what Maritz wants.

This is really easier then it looks. After you are successful with this try batch resizing with a program like PIXresizer. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Give it a try and let me know how you make out.

Hey, that worked! Just what I needed, a 1-2-3 "do this" explanation! So kind of you to take the time to explain.

Current size is 3072x2304. Sounds like a lot of pixels to me!

ceasesmith - there should be a way to reset the size of your photos on your digital camera that will save you time. I'm not very techy, and it took me a while to find it on my camera. Play around with your settings and you might find it or if you have techy person you know they will be happy to show you.

I have never had a photo kicked back to me (except for that one pizza shop). So if it ain't broke, I ain't gonna try to fix it. Bad as I am at tech, I'd probably REALLY break it!

You can not break the photo size setting in your camera unless you drop the camera while changing the settings. Yes, it was nice of LIJake to post the how-tos on resizing in Windows 7 but cjbstar makes a valid point also. If you already have your camera set to the proper size, it will save you time in the long run. And you won't accidentally have a large file slip through the cracks,

What kind of camera do you have, Ceases? I"ll bet someone else has one and could give you pointers.

Kodak EasyShare.

Thanks.