@af517 wrote:

From another thread, but totally off-topic so I brought it here.

@jrossetti wrote:

Im a huge fan of free markets and all, but I can't help but feel some jobs are always dumped on some poor unlucky soul because they thought it was a good idea at the time.

You know, things like that ikea report from hell. How many people actually go back for round two unless they are desperate? Just sayin

I went back for round two because I convinced myself that 50 bucks for walking around IKEA and talking to a few salespeople must be a steal and I must have just done it wrong the first time. Yeah, not so much. It's a horrible report, the shop is ridiculously underpriced for the work involved, and IKEA apparently doesn't care about the results because they have you asking cafeteria checkout clerks their name and let you do the shop every 30 days, and even specifically state you should continue the shop even if you're recognized as a shopper.

My guess is they're wasting money on mystery shopping because they think they're supposed to do it and don't know what it's intended to accomplish, so they don't worry about the results. Or they just think their employees are stupid and can't draw incredibly obvious conclusions. They would rather get meaningless compromised reports from desperate people who need money and don't know better, so they underprice the report and let the same suckers do it over and over and out themselves.

Add to that their MSC has a stupidly long payment cycle and sometimes doesn't bother to pay at all, and I'm officially removing myself from IKEA's list of suckers.

i never noticed an easily accessible emergency exit in the one near me......

Never mind, IKEA is back on my job board. I better grab it while it's hot, I guess.

Good luck, af!

So IKEA is set up like a maze and you have to walk the entire store once you're inside? Is that what I'm reading? Just visiting one sounds like a nightmare to me let alone doing a mystery shop. Although, I guess you couldn't miss anything and chasing down an employee would be pretty easy once you spot them. When you finally get through the store, do you get cheese?

Remember, cheese is used to bait mouse traps.

The interior of an IKEA store is built to force you to look at all the merchandise. They don't want you to escape until you've seen everything. You have to make a conscious effort to find a way out of there without just following the crowd. There are signs promising to lead you to the exit that in fact do not. It's quite brilliant.

@af517 wrote:

I just noticed the IKEA shop has now been removed from my job board. *waves* Hi guys!

So the MSP retaliated and removed an agreed upon contract because you voiced disdain about the report? Am I understanding that correctly?

@LJ wrote:

I've never even been to an Ikea store, but now I feel like I'm not part of the "club". Maybe I should try one of the shops since you have my curiosity piqued.

That's why I took that casino job for chc. I'm a fan of trying anything once. Just don't do it if you need to be more productive financially because there are way better jobs to do...like Spanish phone shops.

Thank you all for the heads up. I was not aware that the shops were 'the shop from hell'. I will most definitely stay away from them.

@jrossetti wrote:

So the MSP retaliated and removed an agreed upon contract because you voiced disdain about the report? Am I understanding that correctly?

It's back up. I don't know what that was about, but it was some bizarre timing.

In IKEA's defense - it is a brilliant marketing design. You don't go there to pick something up in a quick fashion - it is more like an experience.

And OH! how amazing and great your life will be, and your family and friends will envy you with all of your cool IKEA items. And after you get tired of walking the furniture section and have redesigned your entire house in your mind, you grab a bite to eat at their cafe which is inexpensive (and you get a free coffee if you have signed up with their free program). After you have refreshed, then you go down to the next level where they offer all of the items you could possibly want to fill and decorate your house - at extremely reasonable prices. It is fun!

The shop, however, is absolutely not.

IKEA's branding and marketing is indeed brilliant and has made them very successful. They do want you to think of the store and the experience even more than the furniture itself, which is largely forgettable. Trying to sell IKEA furniture at Sears or Macy's would never have worked. But what they did instead worked extremely well.

I know a young couple with a toddler. They go to IKEA and drop the kid off at the free babysitting area of the store and then duck right back out and go eat at a nice restaurant a block away.

They have 90 minutes to get back.

I like that idea and would try it if I had kids, but most of the time there's such a long wait at the IKEA near me that I might not bother.

I need free dog-sitting for my two terrierists. Then I'd go for sure!

When my niece and nephew were little, they loved going to IKEA. They thought it was a treat to walk around looking at all the stuff, especially the rooms set up as a display. They were well behaved, I got to look at all the stuff I will never buy and we all got a cheap and relatively decent meal. What more could you want for a very cheap and entertaining outing with the little rug rats???

Has anyone had an issue getting their payment for the IKEA shop. I did mine in February and still waiting for payment as of July. I have sent several emails and get NO response. I talked to a lawyer friend to see if there is any law being violated by not remitting payment in a reasonable amount of time after completion of a job. There needs to be an effort to warn shopper to not do these shops. Seems this forum is pretty good at doing that. They are scumbags..

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/04/2015 05:00PM by sab1024.

I'm on my fifth month waiting for payment.....talked to a lawyer friend to see if there is some kind of law that requires payment of services within a reasonable amount of time. A nasty letter probably won't work...they seem like nice scumbags.

The question is what are their stated payment terms? Those would either be in your ICA or were in the shop guidelines. If they put it in writing they won't pay you until one year after the shop and you agree by signing the ICA or completing the shop, they can wait a year.

Nope.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/07/2015 06:30PM by af517.

I'm so glad I've never even been tempted. Too many clerks required. The IKEA is pretty far from my home, so it's kept me away anyway. I've done enough shops that have taught me that those quick and easy $15 reports are plenty. The visits may only take 5 to 10 minutes, but I've spent two hours on the reports.

I see the shop in my area. It does not look that bad from the description. Am I missing something?
tnx

For the shop you visit 8 different departments (2 of which you will be purchasing food). The report has 45 questions.
Fee is $30 plus up to $10 reimbursement for food purchase.

I picked up an Ikea shop a few days ago and it only has 18 questions with one purchase and a return if we want to return it and there is no food purchase. The pay is also no where near the $50 fee mentioned in this post. It doesn't sound anything like the Ikea shops mentioned earlier in this post.

The issue in these shops was that you had to receive assistance in each department and report the name of the person who assisted you. If Diane assisted you in window coverings but their list showed Diane as working in children's furnishings, your shop would be rejected. The other thing is when you go to IKEA do you see that many associates on the floor? My most recent (not a shop) visit had associates in the food court, checkout and two in window coverings working on a display who 'don't work this department'.

Thank you, Flash. They were quickly grabbed in my area.

It's listed here for $70 ( $45 fee $25 bonus) in my area. That fee includes your food purchase and it's a purchase and return in my area. There were 4 for the same location, 3 have already been scheduled, one left.

My sense is that some IKEA stores are easier to deal with than others. When I visited my son in Texas there were lots of associates around and they were proactively offering assistance. I do not have an IKEA here and there are 3 in opposite directions from me a little over 100 miles away each. I have only visited one of them and have been there now twice. What immediately became apparent to me was the lack of associates around. You don't get a free pass on the shop if 'after waiting 5 minutes' nobody appears (or at least that was not the case in the past). I noted in the Texas store that all associates wore nametags and they were ordinary names. I noted the cashier and food service folks at the store I visited in my area wore nametags but not the other associates who 'don't work in this department'. I also am not good at remembering long foreign names that I have no clue even as to how to pronounce them.

The shops used to require that you purchase a large bulky item so you would need to go to the loading dock and then say that you changed your mind and you wanted two of them and try to pay the guy on the loading dock for the second one in cash. Hopefully that nonsense has completely been removed. Among other things, how are you going to return the second item if he takes your cash and brings you a second of an item you didn't want in the first place???

Kind of OT but I have been in Ikea once in my life and I had the only Anxiety attack that I have ever had. I couldn't find the way out! The arrows were not helping me it was like a nightmare. I will never go back.

I just want to say "thank you, thank you, thank you" to everyone who's posted on this thread and on other Ikea-shop threads in the past. I have an Ikea about 45 miles from me, and would love to visit it again, and had thought at one time that doing a shop there would be a great way to accomplish that. I so know better now!

I don't think I'm signed up yet with the MSC that has these, or my geographical range is set too narrowly, but regardless, if one ever comes up on one of my job boards, it will be invisible to my eyes.

So glad this forum exists and thank you again for saving me from a nightmare!