I read a lot of your posts and despite some of our previous disagreements, I find your writing to be eloquent and right on target. You do an excellent job of getting your point across, regardless of whether I agree with it or not.

I know when I see a post with your name on it, I'm not going to be reading mindless drivel.

LisaSTL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It is obvious you do not often read my posts. I
> predominantly use monosyllabic words only when
> writing mystery shopping reports.

Aw shucks.

Wait, you've disagreed with me? How is that possible?

Disagreements happen, but unlike some other people, I put it behind me. I respect most people's posts on here, unless they are out just to pick fights.

LisaSTL - I read what you write however this was the first time I didn't know the word you used.

jackaroe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ahhh,
> But you miss the kicker if you do not do
> it........
> After you submit the survey it is sent back a few
> days later with the following instruction...
> "There were questions that were not visible to you
> the first time you submitted the survey, please
> answer the additional questions within the next 4
> hours or you will not be paid for this shop"

Yup! Received that too. But when you have done one, the next ones are not bad. Just be sure
to remember your scenario. And ask the associate to write some of the offers. When
you make the report, it'll jolt some of the details. The schedulers are cool.

I will never work for this company.... thank you all!!!

I've dealt with some nice GFK schedulers in the past, but the present ones in my area don't last too long and they are ditzes. I think the last decent one was Donna Goodwin.
And one does not have to wonder why companies like GFK do not change how they do things when one reads the posts on this forum.

If everything is documentable, I wouls suggest filing a complaint with MSPA and see if they can get it resolved. If enough people do this, MSPA could dump them if they don't make good on the shops. I have heard that Sassie drops mscs too, but I haven't ever actually seen it happen.

There should be a place to report problems shoppers have with MSC's that will rate them on the number of complaints and the way they handle complaints from shoppers. One thing to remember though, part of the problem is not with the mystery shopping company but with the company that is being shopped. The MSC has to be paid so you can be paid. If they ask for more information they need to get it before they will get paid for the shop and then ultimately you get paid for the shop. So don't blame the auditor or the scheduler until you know what is going on. They are in the same boat you are.

Hello all!

Sorry I was off on a 3 day weekend and I just saw this. We have several programs like this going on and each of you are being so great and careful that I actually cannot tell which program this is! Great job on that!

So if someone would please message me which one, then I will check into what's going on here. I know we had some issues with one that starts with H but we emailed everyone about those issues and were very upfront about them including telling people not to enter their reports for several days. However, it does not sound like that is the right one.

And for the bonus issue, I'll be messaging you to find out what happened there. I want to get the details on that.

As for the questionnaire entry, we actually have spoken internally about the way people like to see questionnaires so this is a helpful discussion. However, I hope everyone is always clicking on the link for the printable questionnaire that is found when you click on view/submit. And I'm not talking about the Sassie generated questionnaire, but instead the one that shows up in area where you answer the questions. Each question you could potentially answer should be on the printable questionnaire that we provide to you. The reason we only reveal the questions in the question list is that most of the time 30-40% of the questionnaire is not answered by everyone but only in certain situations so as you fill out the questionnaire the parts of the assignment that apply to you appear and the ones that don't stay "hidden". We do this for two reasons: 1. so that questions that should not be answered are not (this is actually really important) 2. so that you do not have to skip over questions you should not be answering which we think would be confusing.

Anyway, if someone would not mind letting me know which program this is, then I can look into the issue and help get this resolved.

Thanks everyone for reporting the issue!
Donna


PS. I have checked for the system to send me replies to this topic but I find that sometimes that does not work so if you post something and you are not hearing from me, then just message me through the system as I always do get those.


Donna Goodwin
Operations Manager
GfK Mystery Shopping
GfK | 200 Liberty Street | 4th Fl | New York | NY | 10281 | United States
Donna.Goodwin@gfk.com
www.gfkmysteryshops.com

Donna,
This has become common place for not only H but also B. All of the shops now have these multiplying surveys. I do not mind questions, narratives and the like. I mind that I have to begin doing the survey to find out it is a 500 word quiz.

This happened to me on the very first job I did with GFK. The initial survey was surprisingly short, and then I clicked yes to something, and the rest of the survey popped up. I just forged through it because I figured I had initially missed something in the instructions, but also resigned myself to not doing any more shops for them because if this. I disabled all email from them. Occasionally I check their job board, but even if I see something interesting, I have to ask myself, "What aren't they telling me". It's sad that we have to be paranoid about taking jobs from some MSC's.

jonchance Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This happened to me on the very first job I did
> with GFK. The initial survey was surprisingly
> short, and then I clicked yes to something, and
> the rest of the survey popped up. I just forged
> through it because I figured I had initially
> missed something in the instructions, but also
> resigned myself to not doing any more shops for
> them because if this. I disabled all email from
> them. Occasionally I check their job board, but
> even if I see something interesting, I have to ask
> myself, "What aren't they telling me". It's sad
> that we have to be paranoid about taking jobs from
> some MSC's.

Thanks for letting me know this. We assumed that everyone was clicking on the "download the printable questionnaire here" so they could see the actual whole questionnaire and have that for their shop. It does not sound like people are actually doing that and so I can understand your surprise. It actually never crossed our minds that someone would not actually download the questionnaire and would assume what they were seeing was the whole thing on their screen (especially since sometimes you are only seeing 4-5 questions). We will update our materials!


Thanks,
Donna

Donna Goodwin
Operations Manager
GfK Mystery Shopping
GfK | 200 Liberty Street | 4th Fl | New York | NY | 10281 | United States
Donna.Goodwin@gfk.com
www.gfkmysteryshops.com

Hey Donna, I did click on the printable survey, and unfortunately I had this issue for a shop for a very large software company here in the US. Each question I clicked on seemed to ask for more and more specific information, which I answered to the best of my ability. But considering the shop was 30 miles away from me by the point I began filling out the survey, and most likely to be closed before I could return, doing my best was about all I could do.

Whoa! That would be a hard one for me to take!

bkr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hey Donna, I did click on the printable survey,
> and unfortunately I had this issue for a shop for
> a very large software company here in the US. Each
> question I clicked on seemed to ask for more and
> more specific information, which I answered to the
> best of my ability. But considering the shop was
> 30 miles away from me by the point I began filling
> out the survey, and most likely to be closed
> before I could return, doing my best was about all
> I could do.


BKR, could you message me which program this was? Unfortunately we're doing so many similiar programs for so many different clients that I cannot tell which one this is so I can investigate!

Donna Goodwin
Operations Manager
GfK Mystery Shopping
GfK | 200 Liberty Street | 4th Fl | New York | NY | 10281 | United States
Donna.Goodwin@gfk.com
www.gfkmysteryshops.com

DonnaforGfK Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> jonchance Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > This happened to me on the very first job I did
> > with GFK. The initial survey was surprisingly
> > short, and then I clicked yes to something, and
> > the rest of the survey popped up. I just forged
> > through it because I figured I had initially
> > missed something in the instructions, but also
> > resigned myself to not doing any more shops for
> > them because if this. I disabled all email from
> > them. Occasionally I check their job board, but
> > even if I see something interesting, I have to
> ask
> > myself, "What aren't they telling me". It's sad
> > that we have to be paranoid about taking jobs
> from
> > some MSC's.
>
> Thanks for letting me know this. We assumed that
> everyone was clicking on the "download the
> printable questionnaire here" so they could see
> the actual whole questionnaire and have that for
> their shop. It does not sound like people are
> actually doing that and so I can understand your
> surprise. It actually never crossed our minds
> that someone would not actually download the
> questionnaire and would assume what they were
> seeing was the whole thing on their screen
> (especially since sometimes you are only seeing
> 4-5 questions). We will update our materials!
>
>
> Thanks,
> Donna
>
> Donna Goodwin
> Operations Manager
> GfK Mystery Shopping
> GfK | 200 Liberty Street | 4th Fl | New York | NY
> | 10281 | United States
> Donna.Goodwin@gfk.com
> www.gfkmysteryshops.com

When this happened, I was new to Sassie companies and didn't know about the Print shop form, and there was nothing in the instructions about it, so I was just kind of winging it. At that point, I had only worked with two other MSC's who both use a proprietary interface. MSCs assume, mistakenly, that most shoppers have been doing this for awhile. When something like this happens with their first experience at a new company, it often becomes the last shop they take for that company.

All, thanks for your comments on this. We are working on putting a very descriptive warning on all of our programs that you cannot print out what shows up on the Sassie screen. AND that you MUST print out the printable questionnaire link we have always provided in order to know all of the questions that you will be required to answer for your assignment.

Thank you all for posting this as we had no idea that our printable questionnaire links were not being used!!! These are the types of things that are so helpful to us!!!

Donna Goodwin
Operations Manager
GfK Mystery Shopping
GfK | 200 Liberty Street | 4th Fl | New York | NY | 10281 | United States
Donna.Goodwin@gfk.com
www.gfkmysteryshops.com

Well, this thread enabled me to pick up a heavily bonused last minute flaked audit 100 miles from here and actually do it right the first time because I knew I had to look for that link. I also know that I would have done exactly what other shoppers have done -- print that little bit that shows up and not realize there was a whole bunch more questions in a different place.

Made for a nice lucrative day and five hours with a good audio book driving there and back.

Glad we had this discussion. Once we had some communication about it, I felt comfortable putting down my ten foot pole and moving a couple other shops to tomorrow so I could do this on its deadline today.

Dspeakes.... and I have to say you were my FAVORITE PERSON that day!! Probably this WEEK!!! this MONTH!!! Can you believe two different people had flaked on that audit in 3 days??? When you picked it up, my boss was wondering "are you sure this one will do it????" And it was really neat to tell him, "Oh yeah, if this person took a shop from us -- they really will do it!"

Thanks again for saving our hide!
Donna



dspeakes Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well, this thread enabled me to pick up a heavily
> bonused last minute flaked audit 100 miles from
> here and actually do it right the first time
> because I knew I had to look for that link. I
> also know that I would have done exactly what
> other shoppers have done -- print that little bit
> that shows up and not realize there was a whole
> bunch more questions in a different place.
>
> Made for a nice lucrative day and five hours with
> a good audio book driving there and back.
>
> Glad we had this discussion. Once we had some
> communication about it, I felt comfortable putting
> down my ten foot pole and moving a couple other
> shops to tomorrow so I could do this on its
> deadline today.

BTW, I still have to go through this one. Hopefully I will get that done tomorrow!


bkr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hey Donna, I did click on the printable survey,
> and unfortunately I had this issue for a shop for
> a very large software company here in the US. Each
> question I clicked on seemed to ask for more and
> more specific information, which I answered to the
> best of my ability. But considering the shop was
> 30 miles away from me by the point I began filling
> out the survey, and most likely to be closed
> before I could return, doing my best was about all
> I could do.

And sorry one last thing... I am cross posting info here...

We have updated the text that tells you that you must click on the printable questionnaire in order to have all of the questions you will need for the shop. It's on the wings program at least. However, we may have gone a bit overboard. Just a bit. Let me know one way or the other.

Donna Goodwin
Operations Manager
GfK Mystery Shopping
GfK | 200 Liberty Street | 4th Fl | New York | NY | 10281 | United States
Donna.Goodwin@gfk.com
www.gfkmysteryshops.com

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/2014 03:20AM by DonnaforGfK.

Donna, glad I could help you out with that. I'd been eyeballing that shop for three days, wishing you had one more day to do it, and then suddenly something else forced me to decide to move three of the five shops off my Wednesday route and all of a sudden that job came back up with the exact amount of money I had decided was the least I could justify the trip for and I realized I had the time to do it when I hadn't been expecting to. Sometimes things just fall into place.

Sorry two people flaked but glad I was able to slip in there and git 'er dun for you.

I work northern Arizona and will go anywhere for the right price.