After not shopping for the former GFK for while, I took two shops, hoping the increased pay would finally be worth what one used to have to go through for one of their shops. Not.

I'm doing a technology shop today and can't access the entire survey in printable form so I can study that in addition to the guidelines. And, as many of us have discovered, there are sometimes contradictions between the guidelines and the survey and/or the survey has questions on it not covered in the guidelines. It's why I stopped shopping for them to begin with (and when you asked a question, the odds of getting a direct or clear response were 50/50 at best). So I'm waiting to find out if I can access the survey; if any of you have done one of these recently, am I doing something wrong? I took and passed the quiz, but still can't see the entire survey.

And I took a two-part shop, a phone call and in-person visit. I need to be about 3 minutes from the store tomorrow, so I thought I'd stop off and do it. Then I find that's it's far more involved than others of this type I've done for other companies. Pay's not bad on its face, but the amount of work drags it down to slave wages. Sigh.

My fault, but I'm kicking myself. I may cancel the tech shop if I can't see the survey ahead of time.

I hate, hate, HATE when I can't review the survey before a shop. It's really the one and ONLY way to spot huge contradictions between the guidelines and the reports.

You have my utmost and total sympathy.

@ceasesmith wrote:

I hate, hate, HATE when I can't review the survey before a shop. It's really the one and ONLY way to spot huge contradictions between the guidelines and the reports..

Ha! Especially with this particular company. Almost every shop I ever did for them in their former incarnation had ambiguities, contradictions, and missing guidelines in the instructions. Reviewing the survey was the only way to be sure I knew what to ask or what proofs of visit I needed. (Sometimes they forgot to tell you in the guidelines!)

I've been waiting hours for the scheduler to get back to me, having e-mailed her and messaged through the Sassie system. I'm not doing it if I can't see the full survey. I suspect some MSCs do this on purpose so shoppers won't cancel on a shop that's not as "easy and fun" as they claimed! LOL.

Yeh, no that's flyin' in blind - possibly with yer britches down.

Birdy posts-- I suspect some MSCs do this on purpose so shoppers won't cancel on a shop that's not as "easy and fun" as they claimed! LOL.

Bob comments--A few years ago, I noticed that offers with several pages of content, but excluding the fee, were never of interest to me. I began accessing and tracking, but stopped when it was obvious I had not the slightest interest in any of that work. Now, if the fee is missing from the initial offer, I quickly delete. The lone exception would be one where I have a relationship with the company, but, to my knowledge, all with whom I work list the pay.

I'm currently involved in a route of FF shops. The guidelines say to time from when you get to the counter until you receive your order.

Printing out the questionnaire, they want the time from when you complete your order ("receive your change and receipt" ) until you get your order.

Knowing this beforehand, I knew to time both sections. If I hadn't been able to print out the survey, I wouldn't have known.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/26/2019 01:45AM by ceasesmith.

I'm glad I'm not the only one. One big box location the sales people with red vests don't have business cards so you could be helped by any person. I sweated on a tablet shop yesterday because there are tablets spread out in several areas on the sales floor. It makes it so hard to complete also when you ask one of the questions and the person doesn't answer but just stares at you. LOL. The pay is low but I just try to do my best to muddle through those tech shops. Sheesh. They should have separate guidelines for the big box non tech locations.

Just call them, I usually get someone on the phone first try.

If I don't get the full questionnaire, I don't do the shop. After many years of Mystery Shopping, no shop is worth doing without the full report. All of the good companies will give this to you if you request it and have a good rapport with them.

So.... I wrote to the scheduler cancelling the shop because I never heard back from her. I also offered to do the shop over the weekend. The next day (the day after the shop was due), I got an e-mail notice of an overdue shop. I replied, explaining that I'd tried several times to reach her the previous day, etc., etc. It was only then that she told me how to access the full survey.

If any of you take a tech shop at the Big Big box store, you can see the full survey by typing in the first few responses, then the survey opens up. Would be nice if there were a note to that effect somewhere. I can't imagine why they won't let you see it ahead of time (well, actually I can) or why shoppers are doing these without seeing it (I really can't).

Anyway, she cancelled the shop from my log, but didn't take me up on my offer to do it on the weekend. She also didn't give me a citation, although I figured she would. But it's not my fault she didn't check her incoming emails!

As of now there's still one shop left open at the location, at a bonus higher than what I would have done it at on the weekend. It's self assign, but I'm thinking she might cancel it out if I do. And I want the new bonus! With the base fee and bonus, this shop is finally worth doing. Probably. Maybe. LOL.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/30/2019 02:53PM by BirdyC.

The saga continues.... It's very long and involved, so I'll try to abbreviate it. I re-assigned myself this shop for today. Once again, I couldn't open the survey, even when I followed the scheduler's instructions from last week. At that point, the shop showed as "incomplete." I emailed the scheduler directly and through the Sassie system; no reply. The next time I opened my shop log, the shop showed as "completed," although I haven't completed it. When I closed it earlier, I didn't get the "oops" error. How could I complete the shop when I couldn't even access the full survey?

So I email the scheduler again and ask her to re-set the shop to "new." Next thing I know, it's showing as "received." Which is impossible.

In response to eyelove2shop, who suggests to call them, I've tried. They apparently don't want anybody to call them. There's no number on the "contact" page, but I found a number on another page on their website. I called, was told that wasn't the right number, and was given another number. I called that, pressed the "other" option since none of the choices were what I needed, and got a voice message stating that the mailbox wasn't accepting messages. I called back and chose an option I knew would get me to a live person. It did, and she told me there was no phone number for shoppers to call, only an e-mail address. So I've emailed again.

Does anyone have a phone number for IPSOS that will actually get you to a live person who can help?

BTW, this seems an increasingly widespread problem: Businesses aren't putting their phone numbers on their websites. IMO, every page of every business's website should have its phone number on it. You want to make it EASY for customers and others to call you, not difficult. Sigh....

P.S. I tried opening the survey in two different browsers; no luck in either.