scanman1 - do you use your cell phone and check your bank balance BEFORE leaving the bank to ensure that the cash deposit/bank deposit was correctly deposited?

Usually having a receipt for the deposit is enough. I have experienced some people making mistakes or bad judgement calls.

And you betcha I check my credit card receipt against the actual charge from the restaurant. And I definitely will call/go back to the restaurant with proof that the server charged my cc more than authorized. Back in the day I used Amex a lot. The online banking would allow me to see the total charge, and then how much was tip and how much was meal. I caught a server reserving the two amounts...my "meal" was $5 and her "tip" was $25.

Anyways, just gotta watch the transactions and follow up to make sure that they (bank deposits, cc charges) were posted correctly.

I have a question, and would appreciate any comments from you above average folks. I wish you all a Hoppy Spring.

During a mystery shop, I encountered a friendly and compliant employee, who gave perfect customer service. Her breath smelled of alcohol, and I have no way of knowing if she had morning breath (at 4PM, but don't know when her shift began), or if she was drinking.

Would you report it?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/05/2015 07:16PM by Mary Smith xoxoxo.

Mary, I personally could not report on that because I haven't touched alcohol in my entire life. I don't have the knowledge base. I did work with an elderly woman one time who was very upset that some coworkers claimed that she smelled like alcohol. She said her medicine smelled like it. (Again, I have no knowledge base.) She was especially upset that this happened because she was divorced from two alcoholics. After the second one, she realized that she should never get married again. I think her father was also an alcoholic. Anyway, what this post means, Mary, is that you have to know for an absolute fact that it is alcohol.

Agree with Sandra completely. We should never speculate. What you thought was alcohol may have been or it could have been something else.

@ijdk wrote:

scanman1 - do you use your cell phone and check your bank balance BEFORE leaving the bank to ensure that the cash deposit/bank deposit was correctly deposited?

I have a mail account set up just for banking and nothing else and my phone will alert me to the email of the transaction before I make it to the door. I just glance at the email alert and know it is all good. If I hear this ring tone and I'm not shopping, I become unglued until I read the email and find out I received a deposit for over $100 and it was not an outbound fraudulent expense from my account.

Kk. I can let it go now. Thanks so much.

scanman1 - Thank you for your reply.

@jillmarie13 wrote:

The other awkward ones are the fast food drive thru photo audits. As soon as I'm about to approach the signs, a customer will pull up. Sometimes I say"I'm looking for something I dropped" then snap away, and know I must look strange. It's also awful when the order taker realizes someone is there and starts talking to me .I'm never doing those again. I passed on those for years, relented recently, and have my regrets.

I've always found having a DSLR with a nice telephoto zoom lens handy for that sort of thing.

Are you supposed to walk up to them? Maybe we've worked with different MSCs, but I just drive up, and tell the order taker I need a minute to decide. Snap away while they ask me 2 more times if I'm ready to order. Then order $1 fries for the POV receipt. With this MSC, I think it's not a big deal if they figure you out since you get an authorization letter to present if you are questioned. It is still awkward, nevertheless.

MPorter - I haven't done any of these in years, but my recollection is that you get a letter from the MSC explaining what you are doing, but you do not have a letter of authorization from the fast food company permitting you to take photographs or even to be on the property. In my view, the letter you get would hopefully demonstrate to the police that you are not casing the place and would probably keep you from getting arrested for trespassing or something else. I stopped doing these when several of the big gorilla coffee stores locations asked me to leave the premises and told me that I could not stand there and write down all of their prices and that photography was prohibited. I also found it very hard to get the required photographs of drive-through menus from the various burger joints (even with an optical telephoto lense), and felt that having to get both breakfast and lunch/dinner prices was too much more and time for the money.

BUT - maybe things have changed and they have gotten permission from each restaurant to secretly take photographs and capture prices. If they have permission, then why are you supposed to keep this a secret unless confronted? Does your letter say that they have permission from the fast food company and include a contact at the fast food company for the manager to contact if they have questions? I had a letter of authorization from a chicken FF to conduct a photo audit last week, and the manager still refused. I had her sign the form, and took photographs from my car until (none possible inside) until the police car arrived in the lot. Then I left.

@MPorter3112 wrote:

Are you supposed to walk up to them? Maybe we've worked with different MSCs, but I just drive up, and tell the order taker I need a minute to decide. Snap away while they ask me 2 more times if I'm ready to order. Then order $1 fries for the POV receipt. With this MSC, I think it's not a big deal if they figure you out since you get an authorization letter to present if you are questioned. It is still awkward, nevertheless.

I was in a fast food restaurant and there was this little old lady in a veil cutting up French fries with scissors and then putting them into a cup. Then, she would take people's trays from them as they headed for the trash can and take the fries, throw the rest away, sit down, get out her scissors and start cutting fries. I was mesmerized. I took a couple of discreet photos and sat there watching for a long time. Thankfully, the MSC did not question why I spent over an hour in the restaurant... I've been tempted to go hang out at this place every Sunday from now on...

Maybe she was going to feed the pigeons???

That's really crappy that the company would give you the boot over being a good Samaritan.

frugalmommy- I did a shop on BB's DSLR's sales department yesterday! You are right, that would work but I don't have the funds for one. I'm also afraid it would look more obvious than my cellphone.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2015 06:01PM by jillmarie13.

MPorter3112, there are no instructions on walking up to them or taking them in your car. I did both, depending on the sign and time of day. That was key. If I could do one around 3 PM, the restaurant was not as busy. But I did not always have the ability to do that working a full time job. I won't be doing those again unless I know for a fact that one of the locations is closed- at least you get something for those too.

A shop where everyone needs to be professionally groomed. The manager had over the top bad body odor. He took over the transaction. I reported it because he was easily 3 ft away from me and it was all I could do not to mention the smell while I was doing the evaluation..

It was so bad, I sprayed myself with Febreeze when I got back to my car.

I did a shop many years ago for a coffee store. The assignment was to be a little bit indecisive about my order to see if the clerk suggested a type of beverage recently added to the menu, then buy that new beverage.

There were no other customers at the counter. The clerk was also the barista, and he didn't greet me, just waited while I looked at the menu. He seemed quite willing to wait until I made up my mind. He hadn't said anything at all, so I finally said something like, "I usually have xxx, but I think I'd like to try something different. What do you have that's good?"

He made a deep sigh that practically rattled his bones. Then he said, "Lady, I don't know. I just pull the lever and the s**t comes out!"

The report took me about three times longer than normal to complete. It was difficult to type coherently because I was laughing so hard. Yes, I reported his comment with his four-letter word just as I did here, using the asterisks. My report was accepted.

I still chuckle every time I think of that shop.

I wonder if he still works there.

They just really don't follow the scripts sometimes. There have been times I wanted to just scream at them, "You're supposed to do/say THIS so I can do my job!"

You would think they would know they could be shopped but the lack of work ethic in this country is getting truly appalling.

I suppose that is why companies need us, but I wonder if they realize just how much they are fighting a losing battle against the entitlement generation.

I was doing a shop at a seafood restaurant and my chair was covered in urine. I sat down without looking. Pretty gross

@Agent 99 wrote:

They just really don't follow the scripts sometimes. There have been times I wanted to just scream at them, "You're supposed to do/say THIS so I can do my job!"

You would think they would know they could be shopped but the lack of work ethic in this country is getting truly appalling.

I suppose that is why companies need us, but I wonder if they realize just how much they are fighting a losing battle against the entitlement generation.

They know they're being shopped, but if they get a bad review, it's because we were "out to get them." No, couldn't possibly be because of their own actions.

I've read a few employees' posts on forums bashing mystery shoppers. Sometimes I just want to grab them and shake them for it. Upsell me so I can order a combo meal, not just the puny sandwich! Greet me at the register and engage me in small talk so I don't have to justify my 'no' responses with additional narrative! lol

I wish everyone would realize that 9 times out of 10, it's easier to justify a positive report than it is a negative one.

And it's also a *lot* less stressful.

Those FF menu audits, I'll do on occasion when they're bonused. If they're the same ones I'm thinking of, if you're shopping one chain, you have an LOA and can use that LOA if questioned. I remember one time I was at a dine-in location w/ an LOA and nobody was greeting me so I started snapping away. The manager came up, and I asked her for a coffee. She comped it. No, I need a receipt. Charge me for anything, please, I just need a receipt (!)

Should have seen the looks on everyone's faces, they must have thought I was nuts (but didn't say anything about my obvious photography of the signs..)

One trick I liked to use when I was doing a non-LOA location that was dead in a small town. I went through the drive thru, got what I wanted, parked my car, then got up and walked around the parking lot to have a cigarette. As I was enjoying my "smoke break" (or maybe you're just stretching your legs and getting fresh air if you're a non smoker), I was discreetly snapping away at the DT menu board on my phone.

AlexG - this is not the same one. No LOA. You have to somehow get every menu that they restaurant has, and take a readable photo of each and every page. No POV is necessary (beyond all of the photographs). At the casual dining and fine food restaurants, there is no drive-thru.

Oh yes! I know which one you're thinking of now. The one where the MSC suggests you're taking the menu out so someone else can take a look?

I was thinking of the fast food menu audits for the blue folders MSC.

I occasionally shop at a store that always pushes their credit card when you check out. Of course TODAY I am actually doing a shop of their location and the clerk says NOTHING about their card. Why-Why-Why??? I usually hope the employee does what they are supposed to do.

Alex - If there was a single menu, that might work. But you have to somehow learn how many different menus they have (breakfast, childrens, lunch, dinner, senior citizen, drink, dessert, gluten-free, ??) and then convince them to let you take one of each out to your car. And what if you miss a menu because you didn't know it existed?

I would still really like to hear from someone who has figured this out. Of course, maybe they want to keep it as their own secret.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/2015 05:34AM by myst4au.

I haven't done the menu audit you're talking about for that very reason.... I'm sure there's a trick to it we'll someday learn though .

@dspeakes wrote:

I wonder if he still works there.

Nope, I never saw him there again when I would stop at that coffee store for a muffin or sweet roll. Oh well. My job was not to judge, simply to observe and report.

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