I did a test drive on the new IPSOS gas station. No patronizing please for accepting a single shop for the current fee. I wanted to understand what is the same and/or different, to determine what shop fee will make sense for me and my business, and to share what I learned here on the forum.
1. There are some discrepancies between what the guidelines, shop email notifications and actual shop report. Imagine this will get worked out in the ramp up with the client. I have already received a positive reply on two that I communicated.
2. Minimum of $3 in gas, up to $7, with $3 in store (not $2 as some docs read). We do loose some flexibility here. For example, if I really needed gas, I would purchase $9 if at a location I knew sold bottled water for $1. On the flip side, if the shop fee was too good to pass, I’d put in $3 - $4 and then spend the rest in the store to still get to the $10 reimbursement.
3. If you take pictures in the order of the shop report, there will be some adjustments. For example, the overall station picture is #1 now then gas + product receipt. PID is now at the very end.
4. In the report, there is a line to upload secondary signage. I was able to bypass, but the point being not discovered until the report. Guidelines only talks to the primary.
5. As before, there is a Flex Fuel question, but only a “yes” or “no” answer. I suggested they add a “N/A” when there are no Flex Fuel pumps as neither “yes” nor “no” are correct in that case.
6. The photo upload for the “fuel choices” is the same as previously taken of the bezel.
7. The current hours are 8 am – 6 pm NOT 6 am - 8 pm as some documents read.
8. New photo requirements are: Cash/Credit pricing (same photo as PID), Restroom and Inside the Store. Exterior of the store only if an infraction and secondary signage if present.
9. If the store is not open 24-hours, still need to input the daily hours. It is simplified though as the opening hours are set at AM and there is a pull down menu vs. having to tab and type the hours in.
10. In my area, sometimes we did not have to fully evaluate the canopy. In these cases, there was a flag to change to “yes” (if infraction noted) with a note that the station was not responsible for the canopy. Not the case now.
11. As much as I thought the former MSCs report was easy and quick, I actually like the IPSOS format better. No paging thru a ton of pages that only has 1 or 2 questions on it, or having to tab back thru the whole dang report again if you need to change something. Just page up or down.
12. No reschedules are permitted. This may change, but for now its pick the date and keep it.
13. All in all, fewer questions and/or click-thru. For example, no answering of q's like the highway sign, who approved the audit, was the cashier wearing an apron, cashier description only if you can't get their name.
For those who will elect to complete these shops, I hope you find this helpful.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/06/2022 05:05AM by Zek.