Last month, I applied for some shops. Working out routes. I didn't get any notification that my applications were accepted until AFTER I had completed every route! Not possible to reschedule (I won't drive 120 mile round trip for a $12-$27 shop!). Actually, I won't drive 120 miles round trip for even a $50 shop. Because of distances, I MUST develop routes. I ended up e-mailing everybody I could think of, and the shops eventually disappeared from my shop log without any notification or any contact.

Now, I can do one of these shops tomorrow. I find I don't want to apply, because I KNOW I won't get an answer until after tomorrow. All the shops have been bonused now, but none of the e-mails have "reply to" e-mail addresses or phone numbers.

These shops are for small towns in rural western Nebraska, where there are no other shoppers available.

Now that the roads are clear again (I was snowed in for a full three weeks!), I would be happy to schedule some routes and get these shops done!

But I feel helpless and frustrated, because I have no direct contact information. Maybe I'm spoiled, working with all the great schedulers at so many MSCs; schedulers who call me, or e-mail me, and answer the phone when I call them back, and immediately assign me shops on the spot, so I can do a route right NOW.

What's a shopper to do?

Search your email for messages from IPSOS. Some of the more recent ones are listing the scheduler to contact. I've gotten email replies this weekend to a semi-urgent message I sent to a summit scheduler Friday evening.

cease, I had a similar problem on the first roll out of their shops. I applied for several I hoped to work into routes. Eventually they got around to assigning (after weeks) a few of the many I requested and I was able to handle the ones they assigned but it was dumb luck. Since then I haven't applied. I'm like you, I need to know right away and not some distant time in an unpredictable future. I'm hoping all that gets resolved over time. I miss the day when we could get a response back immediately on whether our application was accepted on any given shop. I run the rural roads now and then but I've quit asking.

Thank you, MDavis. It's reassuring to find I'm not alone in needing a "now" answer. It sometimes takes a lot of cooperation from schedulers to route-shop; and I don't want a reputation of being difficult.

I have checked all the e-mails, and my records I personally keep on every company/scheduler, with e-mail addresses and phone numbers. No joy.

I am not taking anymore of their shops because of the problems listed here. To be fair I was paid per their agreement so that is not the problem. I have to have some idea of what shops I am to do on a certain days and cannot wait forever to find out if I have been assigned. Sad because I actually like the shop.

I'm in the opposite situation. I don't do routes (yet) and am often able to do a shop with only a half-day's notice, or even same-day notice. But I can't seem to get assigned to an IPSOS shop to save my life, and I haven't bothered applying for any recently. I will when one pops up that interests me or that's somewhere I'm going to be anyway (many of their shops are out of my close-in shopping area).

They have shoppers who are flexible and don't assign shops to them. And they have shoppers who don't have as much flexibility due to routes, and assign shops to them post facto. Never the twain shall meet?

Yes, I miss the days when another company who had one of their clients would allow me to self-assign. Those were the good old days.

Me too, same problem.

This is terrible. How long can IPSOS continue with this terrible communication? Why in the world would they not allow some system of self assignment? I can't get shops assigned in a timely manner. I can't get in touch with anyone when I have a question. I'm frustrated because they have many shops that I want to do, but it's just not working out.

1) There are many companies which do not allow self-assignment. 2) Some of my requests are assigned quickly, some are not. When the timing becomes an issue, I delete my applications with IPSOS as I do with other companies. 3) I had an issue with a shop yesterday, sent an email, got a response withing an hour. 4) I have completed 28 shops for IPSOS already in January, and have 9 scheduled already. Seems to be working for me.

@Snuffycuts99 wrote:

This is terrible. How long can IPSOS continue with this terrible communication? Why in the world would they not allow some system of self assignment? I can't get shops assigned in a timely manner. I can't get in touch with anyone when I have a question. I'm frustrated because they have many shops that I want to do, but it's just not working out.

Congrats. It definitely is not working for me and it seems many others. I've been waiting days for email responses.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2016 03:24PM by Snuffycuts99.

I'll post this yet again. If you have issues and haven't gotten a response, please EMAIL me (don't PM me here) and I will look into it. judith@summitscheduling.com

Thanks for all the replies. At least I have found the "cancel application" function, and Judith was kind enough to re-post her e-mail address!

Updating to say that Judith is very helpful. She was able to provide immediate assistance with a strange pay issue that I was having. I'm hopeful that my correspondence with all summit schedulers will improve in the near future.

Update, and a thank you to Judith, who responded quickly to my e-mail. I picked up one shop for tomorrow!
Yay!