What is the most unusual thing you ever had to put in a report?

I haven't had too many crazy things happen while mystery shopping, but I would love to hear some of the "war stories"!

My three highlights were:

1) I did a grocery store shop, and when I arrived at the location the automatic entry door would not open. I tried to get in through the exit door, but the door started closing on me before I could squeeze through with my cart. I stood there looking stupid and trying to get the attention of someone inside, but no luck. Finally, I had to pry the door open with my fingers to get inside. One of the report questions was if the store created a welcoming environment. Had to answer that one 'NO' since they wouldn't even let me in. LOL.

2) I did a convenience store shop. Went to the ladies room, as required, and the ceiling had collapsed from two days of heavy rain!! Shattered ceiling tiles and debris all over the sink/counter area, along with water all over the floor. Luckily it didn't happen with me IN it, but I assume it must have happened right before I got there. At least I HOPE they would have closed off the restroom if they had known. Answering the question about the sink and floor being clean was fun.

3) This one is gross. At a fast food place someone had managed to take a crap on the floor. Enough said...

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A meth addict was shooting up in one of the aisles and I couldn't check to see if an item was in stock so I said "%^#& it" and left.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/2016 08:40PM by DavePi.

I was completing a wings shop during "March Madness". The dining room was empty, but there were no employees anywhere to be seen. I peeked into the dining room and observed all of the employees sitting at tables and watching the games. It took over 10 minutes to be seated in an empty dining room.

On this same shop, the employees were playing the claw machine and using foul language in the restaurant within earshot of a couple of customers. That report was one I spoke with the scheduler before completing!

Arguing with fools is like playing chess with a pigeon...
...No matter how good you are, the pigeon will s@^t on the board and strut around like it won anyway.

Not scheduling for ANY company.

I also had time-stamped pictures of the events. Normally, I wouldn't care, but the old MSC who had these shops, the report was mainly focused on timings and customer service. I observed sub-standard customer service and employees being paid to play games, which is a waste of the client's time and money.

Arguing with fools is like playing chess with a pigeon...
...No matter how good you are, the pigeon will s@^t on the board and strut around like it won anyway.

Not scheduling for ANY company.

Before it started being kept behind a counter, I was shopping a drug store where I observed a tweaker putting all the Zyrtek (?) from the shelf into a basket. I notified security in the store and obviously had to reshop another time.

Another time, the server spilled a coke all over my lap, as in soaked. Instead of apologizing, she said, "F me" and left, not to be seen again during the shop.

Now scheduling travel shops for the day after Christmas through mid-January.

Bar/dinner shop at an Irish pub. Irish bartender asks me if I would like something to drink and I, being the good little passive customer I am playing (they were supposed to suggest high end whiskeys), gesture toward the menu and go hmmm.... I don't know....

She says to me "Well, get your sh[t together and decide!"

WOW! This person definitely doesn't belong in any customer service position... lol

@CeciliaM wrote:

Bar/dinner shop at an Irish pub. Irish bartender asks me if I would like something to drink and I, being the good little passive customer I am playing (they were supposed to suggest high end whiskeys), gesture toward the menu and go hmmm.... I don't know....

She says to me "Well, get your sh[t together and decide!"

Arguing with fools is like playing chess with a pigeon...
...No matter how good you are, the pigeon will s@^t on the board and strut around like it won anyway.

Not scheduling for ANY company.

I will share one of my wife's stories as well. My wife was doing a loan inquiry shop for a bank in PA (It was rural Western PA, my wife and I were the rotation for the entire account). This bank was small; like one of those tiny house type of banks. The loan officer was next to impossible to get an appointment with, and she was rude. She told my wife that she should close her checking account with the bank and find a different bank closer to where she lives. This was reported as extra information to the MSC.

I had the rotation for the same shop on the next cycle, and wouldn't you know the lady was extremely sweet and kind to me... lol

Arguing with fools is like playing chess with a pigeon...
...No matter how good you are, the pigeon will s@^t on the board and strut around like it won anyway.

Not scheduling for ANY company.

Once I got rear-ended sitting in the drive through lane at a fast food restaurant. There was only a scuff mark on my bumper and it didn't effect my timing so I did not report it. I also had the situation where somehow the doors got locked to the grocery store and no one could get in. There were five of us banging on the door until someone finally heard us. I did report that situation in my report.

This happened just recently- don't know if I was right to put it in but: "I could see that she was wearing a nametag but she had a large chest and this caused the nametag be counter-levered to an angle that I could not see her name." This was in a drive through food shop where I had to try and see her nametag through the drive through window. Normally it is not good to comment on body features - but in this case a large chest can really affect readability of a name tag (REALLY!)

I did a shop recently where the cashier did not speak. Like, said nothing. Just stared at me. Then handed me my receipt. Then continued to say nothing. So all of those questions like, "Did the cashier greet you pleasantly? What items were suggested? Did you receive a pleasant closing statement?" were interesting to write up. I know it's not a glamorous story but it was super awkward trying to convey in my report that this person actually said no words at all. So bizarre.

"Gas station attendant initially gave me $3.02 instead of $8.02 in change. When I showed him the three singles and told him I gave him a $10, then pointed to that on the receipt, he sighed, opened up the drawer and pulled out a $5, without even having an interest in double checking his drawer. I was given the $5 without an apology. His actions and lack of attempting to double check his drawer convinced me that he deliberately attempted to short change me."

@WillShopForFood wrote:

I did a shop recently where the cashier did not speak. Like, said nothing. Just stared at me. Then handed me my receipt. Then continued to say nothing. So all of those questions like, "Did the cashier greet you pleasantly? What items were suggested? Did you receive a pleasant closing statement?" were interesting to write up. I know it's not a glamorous story but it was super awkward trying to convey in my report that this person actually said no words at all. So bizarre.

One of the USPS shops I do has an employee who is a deaf-mute. The first time I did a transaction with him I was confused on how to report things. Now he has a keyboard and you type back and forth--it is great. For the "other services and products", he has a list and points to it. For him, a greeting is a head nod and he usually signs thank you.

I had to explain in a report why I was inside the post office for six hours while doing a simple shop. The "anything unique or unusual" comment box came in handy. There was an escaped convict loose in our area for some time and someone though he'd been spotted near that particular post office. While I stood in line a man in full swat team attire came in and said they had the building surrounded and no one could leave until further notice. Six hours later they found out the guy was about 200 miles away and we could finally get out of there.

Her Serene Majesty, Cettie - Goat Queen of Zoltar, Sublime Empress of Her Caprine Domain

Amazing. I know that I can not be shopping the same employee, but there is a similar employee at a USPS I have shopped for years. There is a sign on the counter saying that the employee is hearing impaired. The employee speaks a little, but is hard to understand and reads lips. "My" employee also has cards and typed statements to point to, and does.

@siamese5555 wrote:

One of the USPS shops I do has an employee who is a deaf-mute. The first time I did a transaction with him I was confused on how to report things. Now he has a keyboard and you type back and forth--it is great. For the "other services and products", he has a list and points to it. For him, a greeting is a head nod and he usually signs thank you.

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

@DavePi wrote:

A meth addict was shooting up in one of the aisles and I couldn't check to see if an item was in stock so I said "%^#& it" and left.

The same thing happened to me. But then I realized that it was a bridge dweller so I said @#$%& it and left.

I got offered a 'Happy Ending' on a massage shop. Called the MSC before submitting the report to give them a heads-up, and they had me leave it in...

@SteveSoCal wrote:

I got offered a 'Happy Ending' on a massage shop. Called the MSC before submitting the report to give them a heads-up, and they had me leave it in...

Heads-up? Pun intended?

Now was the happy ending reimbursed?

Shopping Western NY, Northeast and Central PA, and parts of Ohio and West Virginia. Have car will travel anywhere if the monies right.

Automotive sales shop. I inquired about a truck, (online ahead of time, and multiple times during the shop), yet I was shown only cars, and the guys never tried to initiate a sale. I was there for over an hour, and gave him every oppritunity to offer a sale of show me trucks, but nothing.

Then right before I was going to ask for his card, he left me standing alone in the middle of th sales floor to take a lengthy personal call. No other customers in the store, the other sales men were standing together less than 10 ft from me, saw the frustration on my face and glances to check the time while being left alone, and none of them said a word to me. I get the concept of not "stealing a sale," from a co-worker, but not even a "hi" or smile from any of them?

A gas station cashier only charged me for one bottle of pop, despite suggesting I take advantage of the promotion. I didn't realize this until a little later, but I wanted to note it in the report. So I returned to the location so that he could charge me properly; he rang the second one in as bulk candy.

@BuffaloNY101 wrote:

Now was the happy ending reimbursed?

And did you have to pay in cash to see how she handled it?

@BuffaloNY101 wrote:

Now was the happy ending reimbursed?

@STL_shopper wrote:

And did you have to pay in cash to see how she handled it?

Fortunately for me there was no temptation because there were no female therapists available and my therapist was male....and it wasn't specifically offered as "Happy ending". He simply said, "Would you like me to finish you off?" It took a minute to register what was even being offered and I declined at that point.

The punch line to the story is that I was really concerned about it causing an uproar if I reported it, as it was an exclusive upscale hotel in New York, so I called the MSC and asked how I should handle it. They were equally concerned and called the hotel manager, effectively blowing my cover, to warn that they were planning to report on the incident. As it was told to me, the manager calmly replied, "Glad to know our guests are being well taken care of..."

@SteveSoCal wrote:

@BuffaloNY101 wrote:

Now was the happy ending reimbursed?

@STL_shopper wrote:

And did you have to pay in cash to see how she handled it?

Fortunately for me there was no temptation because there were no female therapists available and my therapist was male....and it wasn't specifically offered as "Happy ending". He simply said, "Would you like me to finish you off?" It took a minute to register what was even being offered and I declined at that point.

The punch line to the story is that I was really concerned about it causing an uproar if I reported it, as it was an exclusive upscale hotel in New York, so I called the MSC and asked how I should handle it. They were equally concerned and called the hotel manager, effectively blowing my cover, to warn that they were planning to report on the incident. As it was told to me, the manager calmly replied, "Glad to know our guests are being well taken care of..."

Dial back the juju.

I have had similar offers in Vegas and in South Beach.

She said it in such a way like it was supposed to be funny, and it didn't bother me as much as it sounds bad on paper. It kind of annoyed my husband though. She said a bunch more weird stuff but I didn't feel like typing it all out haha. I wrote a thread about it at the time: [www.mysteryshopforum.com]

@DanteScheduler wrote:

WOW! This person definitely doesn't belong in any customer service position... lol

@CeciliaM wrote:

Bar/dinner shop at an Irish pub. Irish bartender asks me if I would like something to drink and I, being the good little passive customer I am playing (they were supposed to suggest high end whiskeys), gesture toward the menu and go hmmm.... I don't know....

She says to me "Well, get your sh[t together and decide!"

I oftentimes treat my mom to nice dinners when doing fine dining shops.

I once had my server ask me if my mother was my mom or a "cougar."

I think the comment to Cecilia about getting her @#$%& together was way more appropriate.

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.

I can't think of any really crazy ones for me, other than the time I walked into a new home shop 600 miles from home and there the salesperson sat with a couple from my home town. And the time I did an audit at a petroleum filling station and the attendant had on a shirt from a different brand and there were credit card apps on the pumps for yet another brand.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

I haven't had any truly crazy things either. Watched a drunk homeless man berate and threaten a motorist... was aggressively approached for money by another drunk homeless man... took pictures of a bartender stuffing cash into her pockets... took pictures of giant cockroaches in a restaurant... snuck around in the off-limits employee areas of a fancy hotel to get pictures of ongoing renovations... watched a woman slip and fall in a restaurant, claiming the floor was wet when it wasn't...

What happened to SteveSoCal is rougher than a night in jail, though. I would have been mortified.

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

Nothing too exciting for me. Had to report about a trail of feces leading from the stall to the exit, and reported that I found roaches at a fast food place.

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