Has anyone completed revealed mystery shops? I try to avoid these but have done some in the past. The best ones are the ones where you get to give the employee a gift. Some reactions are funny. One guy didn't pass and tried to bribe me with a slush to change the results! :-)

That sounds like it would be really fun!

I have completed some revealed gas station audits both with and without a mystery shop first. I agree with @Martin_Canad that the shops with a gift to give are the most fun. While you have to follow the guidelines I try to do the mystery part in way that gives the employee as much chance as possible to earn the reward.

As long as you are comfortable with doing the revealed audit part I suggest going for them if new to you. Try it, you might like it! (Note that gas station audits require you to have an orange safety vest,)

Hardest revel mystery shop I did was at an amusement park. I did get free admission and parking but very hard to do as you had to go back and find the manager to reveal the results for five different locations scattered throughout the park. I was very busy for the day.

I have done several gas station shop/reveal jobs. Pay for gas at the pumps, go in and check the washroom and make a small purchase. Then reveal myself and do an inspection of the premises. Never had an issue with these ones. I have also done price audit checks for cigarettes. Go in and ask what the cheapest brand is; as long as the clerk names one of the selected brands they get a gift card, then I get the prices for the client brand and competitor brand. Generally quick and easy, but I had one store where the owner served me, when I revealed myself he would not tell me the prices and told me to leave the store. I did the same store a couple of months later (hoping maybe he just had a bad day the last time) and of course the owner served me again. This time he was a lot more colorful in the language he used and followed me out in the street swearing at me. He said he would be calling the tobacco provider to complain about me. I immediately called the scheduler to give her a heads up, and I told her I would not be going back to this location.

It amazes me that some managers shoot themselves in the foot like this. Who would not want to do well on a Corp. audit? Has not happened to me yet but the friend that got me into doing these has had a couple of nasty experiences.

Russell - I did those tobacco reveal shops once as was paid a bonus. It was so easy to pass and most employees were happy getting a gift card.

I do a LOT of the gas station reveals as well as some that aren't revealed. I've had some I wish I could look at them and inform they are being watched because they were just that out there acting ridiculous! Actually had an assistant manager ignore the fact they had over 10 customers in line, just walk around behind the counter like she owned the place, then kept complaining about how tired she was and how much the job was bs. The VERY few customers she did help with self checkout she was over the top nice. It was crazy. You could tell she was putting on a show when she did interact with a customer.

On a mystery shop then reveal I did a few weeks ago, I had the guy yell at me that he wasn't informed I'd be coming and I could come back in the morning. I tried to nicely explain to him that isn't how it worked, the point was that it was unannounced and if I came back they would know I was coming. Even one of his customers tried to tell him I was just doing what I was asked to do. He started cussing at me. At that point I politely asked him to please don't cuss at me and to call his brand rep so they could explain it to him. At that point he told me to get the F out. The customer then said, he'd been coming in there for x amount of years and would never step foot back in the store or gas pumps due to how he acted towards me, that he was over the top rude for no reason while I was being nice the entire time.

I left, went across the street so I wasn't on his property, took my required pictures and reported it immediately to my scheduler.

I've been doing this over 16 years total. I could seriously tell y'all some stories.

Worst gas reveal shops I stopped doing as managers were awful if they were there on site. I found out later that every "No" answer the station was fined by head office! I had no idea this was done as a mystery shopper.

Martin_Canada @ Mar 17, 2021, 12:36:40 AM

Worst gas reveal shops I stopped doing as managers were awful if they were there on site. I found out later that every "No" answer the station was fined by head office! I had no idea this was done as a mystery shopper.

That was actually the only one I've ever had be flat out nasty to me. The rest are usually like "Ok Cool, go for it" I really like the ones I'm able to talk with them afterwards and share what I've found. 

It's amazing what our findings cause to happen.

I've had a few be fired over the results of the shop. In my defense, they have to be pretty bad for me to give a bad review. I'm always 100% honest, but if they make a small mistake, I'm not going to mark them for it.