I keep getting the $50 Luxury vehicle shop via their email... I was very tempted to do it, but after reading this post and the other about "Why I fell out of Love with GFK" I'm a little bit scared... how many pages is the guideline for $50???

For $50 it's probably a purchase and return.

I did an appliance shop as well...longest report ever!! Hardest 15 i ever made!

What about getting an email while your are doing an audit and nearly finished and the email has instructions for changes/additions, etc., to the audit. Guidelines never state to be checking your emails while on-site to be ready for changes!

At least with GfK the OP actually got to see the guidelines. But to not be able to see them or ask questions is unacceptable to me !

For instance, the more I read about the
i Secret Shop platform and app, the less I want to have anything to do with it! The rant below is about how messed up iSS truncated "guidelines" are from their app and site. Right now I am chasing down the full guidelines BEFORE I accept a shop. Seems like iSS platform is messed up and says to go to MSC for guidelines as the brief is garbled. However, one or two MSCs are less than forthright in giving Shoppers a look at the true guidelines BEFORE agreeing. It sounds like the OP at least got a look at the guidelines from the MSC before starting. I think it is getting to be a huge problem when important facts are left off the guidelines and hope that MSPA has a statement about ethics for the MSCs who are willfully or even unintentionally doing this.

It is absurd...do they want the shop done right or not? Do they want a qualified person to do it? Who puts in a request or self-assigns not knowing what they are getting into? I know from experience, usually I regret taking such a gamble and that shop ends up on 10 foot pole. What happened to ethics and good business practices? Full disclosure?

I am culling my list of companies with whom I have to chase down the guidelines! Isn't it enough to have to wait so very long for payment for usually underpaid compensation? And now they want to add insult to injury by withholding the guidelines unless we agree to do the shop first? No thanks, Nancy Pelosi...I want to read it first!

We want the guidelines upfront! Anything less is unacceptable. We need to be able to ask questions without repercussions.

@curiousone

You've posted this or a version of it about a half dozen times at this point. I think we get it. I don't know how valuable it is to keep posting duplicate messages.

@curiousone wrote:

At least with GfK the OP actually got to see the guidelines. But to not be able to see them or ask questions is unacceptable to me !

For instance, the more I read about the
i Secret Shop platform and app, the less I want to have anything to do with it! The rant below is about how messed up iSS truncated "guidelines" are from their app and site. Right now I am chasing down the full guidelines BEFORE I accept a shop. Seems like iSS platform is messed up and says to go to MSC for guidelines as the brief is garbled. However, one or two MSCs are less than forthright in giving Shoppers a look at the true guidelines BEFORE agreeing. It sounds like the OP at least got a look at the guidelines from the MSC before starting. I think it is getting to be a huge problem when important facts are left off the guidelines and hope that MSPA has a statement about ethics for the MSCs who are willfully or even unintentionally doing this.

It is absurd...do they want the shop done right or not? Do they want a qualified person to do it? Who puts in a request or self-assigns not knowing what they are getting into? I know from experience, usually I regret taking such a gamble and that shop ends up on 10 foot pole. What happened to ethics and good business practices? Full disclosure?

I am culling my list of companies with whom I have to chase down the guidelines! Isn't it enough to have to wait so very long for payment for usually underpaid compensation? And now they want to add insult to injury by withholding the guidelines unless we agree to do the shop first? No thanks, Nancy Pelosi...I want to read it first!

Well back on topic... I may as well hit myself in the head with a baseball bat as to accept any more audits. I"m finishing these and then no more. They've gone from sensible and doable (not "easy" to convoluted and nightmarish. *trudges back to the reports*

CaliGirl, thanks. I thought my mind was gone this evening. It was déjà vu all over again.

No more assignments for me either. I have happy memories of working with them seamlessly up to 5 years ago. Something changed.