Often, when doing a gas station shop, the employee, manager or the person in charge will ask for your ID (Identification). I've always assumed that the LOA that shoppers are supposed to present upon the reveal was enough.
For the BP shops, part of the inspection process is to have your shopper ID badge with you. That should be sufficient. For the Shells, P66, E/M, etc shops, there is nothing to show. and certainly not a driver's license!
For the most part, the LOA is enough. However, there are the smaller independently owned stations where the owner is also the employee working. There have been enough instances of those where I'm beginning to wonder if it would be a better idea to receive some version of an ID Badge.
As an example, since I have been working on the E/M Sticker Removal project, this is becoming more apparent. It was my understanding and confirmed by various site managers that an advisory E-mail had been sent out, informing the site's managers and owners that the project was forthcoming.
So, it comes as a surprise when the site employees, owner, manager and behind the counter seem bewildered and even somewhat upset when I've presented the LOA. Some have asked for an ID, even after reading the LOA (presumably), while others just shrug and say, "Okay".
I once suggested this (ID Badge) to a scheduler of the old MSC - that was shut down immediately.

Just a thought.

On more than one occasion, I've been asked if the LOA has the station's address on it.

I've never been asked for an ID at a gas station. If they just want to look at it and jot down my name, that's okay. I wouldn't let them make a copy.

I'm not sure that any of the employees, managers, or owners I've encountered for the Sticker Removal shops knew someone was coming. Not a single person said they were expecting me, and I am usually asked follow up questions which give me the impression they didn't know about it. But no one has told me I couldn't do it. Three or four times the employee called the owner / manager and put me on the phone with them to explain my purpose there, and they were all cool with it.

I have no reason to suspect Ipsos is gonna do anything different in handling interactions with the stations.

I've never been asked for ID for these types of jobs. I have been scolded because, "Someone just came and completed this job. Why are you here?!"

Mine all recognize me after I hand over the LOA. Never had a problem. It was a mixed bag as to how many stations knew about the program. About half and half. Some even thought they were supposed to have removed the stickers, and did. I thanked them. I'm really expecting reduced pay on those, even though it's not mentioned in the guidelines. But the white dots weren't in the original guidelines either, so...

I noticed this as well. Over the past 6 months I have been asked repeatedly for my ID or a business card. I also get asked to sign in on their vendor log. One P66 did not believe the LOA because it was not in color.

@sestrahelena wrote:

Some even thought they were supposed to have removed the stickers, and did. I thanked them. I'm really expecting reduced pay on those, even though it's not mentioned in the guidelines. But the white dots weren't in the original guidelines either, so...

I received the full fee for the shops I submitted which had no stickers to remove.

Back in the day, Maritz issued ID's. Otherwise, if you want a "mystery shopper" ID to show, you need to shop in NV.

Once upon a time.. We had ID badges that MaritzCX printed for us, and CI did something similar, I think they might still.

I decided, after MaritzCX went away, that I would just make myself an ID badge and put it in the ID pocket in my traffic vest. I took some card stock and used the MS Paint app on my desktop. I put the Ipsos logo, on the top, the gas station logos across the bottom, and my name in large print in the center. It ended up being the size of a driver's license, and it fit perfectly in the ID pocket on my traffic vest. My son washed my traffic vest and it didn't survive, and I don't know where he is hiding my box of card stock, and I don't know if this new printer will even print on card stock.

No gas stations have asked me for ID in a very long time, and the last one that did ended up refusing the audit after they accused me of being a fraud. They said anyone can print up the LOA from "offline" and it could be fake. I got in my car and left, and after I was in the driveway about to pull out onto the street they came running out of the store waving, but I didn't stop. I haven't gone back to that station since.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/2025 03:08AM by Morledzep.

CI has badges with an ID number, no photo, that they give you on a lanyard so you can wear it while working (and maybe not get interrupted by customers thinking you are an employee). RQA gives you a name badge with photo. It's only those companies where things are usually covert but sometimes revealed where there is an issue. I could have sworn the guidelines addressed this, though.

Ou donnez-leur simplement un croissant.

What would a fraudster do with their fake LOA and 30-something pictures of stuff everyone can already see by eye? Those employees must be paranoid. It's not like we're taking pictures of the safe and its combination. Those silly people.

I've been asked for an ID maybe twice, by newbies behind the counter.

A few more asks for business cards. Like that's gonna happen...

You receive full pay even if there are no stickers to remove provided all required pics are included. The guidelines were changed shortly into the project most probably because stickers were removed but not the troublesome white dots. They prob didn’t see the problem of dots being left behind when they wrote the original protocol.

I don't know if the employees are trained to deny without a manager/owner present or if it's their fear of getting in trouble. However, from my experience, as retrodaddy stated, after a call and being connected with the manager/owner, the show can then get started



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/12/2025 02:32PM by paniconmon.