GFK employees with attitude

I signed up for a GFK shop and printed out all the paperwork that was accessible to me. I completed the shop and spent upwards of $50 with the expectation of receiving $35 in pay, which included a nice bonus. My shop was rejected because I sat in the wrong area. The paperwork that I was able to look at DID NOT show that I had to sit in a particular area. The GFK employee appeared pissed off and had an attitude when I told her I could not access the paperwork and promptly slapped the Reject on my shop. After being confused about what occurred and how I missed the information, I discovered that the web site allowed me to complete the shop without requiring me to complete the quiz. I was not given access to the full paperwork because I slipped through the cracks of the quiz. I took the quiz for a previous shop less than a month before, so I assumed that since the web site was allowing me to enter my shop info that everything was good to go. I have removed myself from this company's mystery shoppers and will not do business with them again. The shops I did previously were interesting and I enjoyed them, however, GFK was very stingy on the amount given for pay and reimbursement. The attitude of the GFK employee I dealt with was very unprofessional, snippy, and uncalled for. Oh well. Onward I go!

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elke,
If you passed the quiz for that shop the month before, obviously you had to know that there was a requirement to sit in a specific area, no? I am confused as to why you think that you should have been routed through the training and quiz sequence every time that you do a shop. That would be highly unusual.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.
The reason elke thinks a shopper should be routed through the quiz is because that is the way GFK has it set up in Sassie. Unfortunately, they do not always make that clear either before or after accepting a shop. I have completed cell phone shops for them about 9 of the last 12 months and have had to deal with quizzes every single time.

Honestly, they are not a bad company, but they have failed to utilize the Sassie system in the way most companies do and it causes a lot of confusion. On my most recent shop I downloaded the "guidelines" attached to the shop only to find they had absolutely nothing to do with that shop. Instead they contained a list of FAQs and a breakdown of their new scoring system. While those details are appreciated, having them in the area a shopper would expect to find details for their shop is not a good use of anyone's time.

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.
I would ask the employee to review your completed quiz (that does not include the requirement to sit in a certain area-- I would assume, anyway) and say that since the shop allowed you to pass through to the survey (instead of first requiring the quiz to complete) and since it didn't say so anywhere else in the shop instructions, that you followed through and completed the shop to the best of your abilities. I would tell them, though, that as a professional, I would consider redoing the shop (in order to complete it), as long as all expenses were reimbursed. I would not ask for payment, but the food/drink, whatever else covered (again). Honestly, if this was me, I'd fight for it (payment, that is). It sounds like, as Lisa said, that the requirement wasn't set up correctly in Sassie. If the employee can see the questions and answers you had for the first test, and can go back and re-review their instructions showing no seating requirement, that should suffice (I would think).

Best of luck to you!
nanabelle, I did the test yesterday, had 94 %, and they said I need to have 100% score, hope they will show me wish answer is not correct..
@yaya76 GFK does allow you to see the question that you missed with their "passthrough" function. I think that you are allowed up to 2 or 3 passthroughs. Once you see the wrong answer highlighted in red, just change it to what you think the correct answer is and then submit the entire test once again.

Also, to the OP, why did you spend $50 just to make $35?
I've only been shopping for a few months now and every company has accepted my reports, bonused me and given me a very good rating...until I met GFK. IMO, they are not worth it for me to worry about passing their tests. Something is very wrong and I know it's not me.

I won't do business with them. I'm doing ok with my other companies.

smiling smiley
ive never had problems with gfk and their shops are great
filler on routes...

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There are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of inquisitive idiots
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When you try to please everybody, you end up pleasing nobody
Please explain what you mean by spam like emails. I get emails from them about jobs just like I do from many other MSC's.
I'm about to change my setting on them. They are just ridiculous with the number of emails they send each day.

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I pray it does not occur that the last thing I did before I died was vacuum the house or eat broccoli.
I often get more than 20+ emails from them in one day. IMO, the two main causes are:

1. GfK uses a lot of independent schedulers that are not necessarily well trained and
2. GfK is still too new to SASSIE.
I got tired of their spam and turned off email notifications from them. There is no reason for them to send a separate email for every variation of the gender and age requirements for certain shops, especially considering that they should know from my profile that my demographics don't fit the vast majority of those shops. Why not summarize them into one email like everyone else? And don't send them out again (and again and again) unless you are adding bonuses to them or changing (loosening) the requirements.
It is not uncommon for me to get 7-8 emails PER DAY for the exact same shop. Every day for weeks until the shop is filled. It is entirely possible that I am missing some opportunities from them because I pretty much delete everything they send me now.
Personally I find it offensive that some of these MSC's expect you to remember the things in the qualifying quizzes and don't reiterate them in the shop instructions. Anything I am to do, remember, and report on should be in the instructions. I might "qualify" with a Market Force quiz on the first of the month but not pick up that particular shop until the end of the month. They expect me to remember that picky little detail? Market Force tried to short me on a reimbursement once on the grounds that "when you took the qualifying quiz you agreed to blah blah blah." If I agreed to something on the quiz it had better ALSO be in the instructions because we get told right and left that the instructions are God here. If you want me to do it, it better be in the instructions. It's the instructions we review just before walking in to do the shop. We can't even print those quizzes (unless we take a screen shot) to even know what we agreed to.

IF GFK pulls the same thing (put stuff in the quiz that isn't in the instructions) then I may never work for them. Why would they even do that? It just sets a shopper up for a failure.

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I pray it does not occur that the last thing I did before I died was vacuum the house or eat broccoli.
I did their quiz this week, I had 94 % score.
I had to re do it today, .... I had something like 74 % lolll , I'm tired of that, specially that they don't show you where you did wrong and they initialize all the answers sad smiley, I will not do it anymore pfff wasting time :/

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/2013 06:26PM by yaya76.
Eric in Tampa Wrote:
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> @yaya76 GFK does allow you to see the question
> that you missed with their "passthrough" function.
> I think that you are allowed up to 2 or 3
> passthroughs. Once you see the wrong answer
> highlighted in red, just change it to what you
> think the correct answer is and then submit the
> entire test once again.
>
> Also, to the OP, why did you spend $50 just to
> make $35?


Hi Eric, no unfortunately they don't show the wrong answer and I had to dooo again all the questions, it's just ridiculous!

and yes I can try 3 time, but I don't want to do it anymore because I sow what they offer in my area, not very interesting .
Eric is correct. They do show the wrong answer. You must use the passthrough function, (at least I think that is what it is called). It will show you what you missed.
When you go to grade the test, don't. There is a button called pass-through, or something similar use it instead. It will show any missed questions. If you don't see any go to grade test. You will have 100 percent.
I have two scheduled with them right now. Under shop info, both state the scenario required, where to sit, what to order to drink, and the age/gender requirement. Unfortunately, it may just be one of those live and learn moments where you have to rack it up as a loss and move on.
If you have all the info, what is the problem? I am trying to understand live/learn.
I'm a bit disappointed with GFK. I did one of their underpaid phone shops a months ago. It was not a big deal of a report at that time so I took a few more on a light week. These were totally different shops. They were billed as fast and easy. They were not fast nor easy. GFK has a view/submit that does not allow you to see the reports before you fill some of them in. I will avoid them from now on. I felt pretty ripped off.
I intensely dislike GfK's view/submit forms. I am also aggravated by their SASSIE errors, such as a follow-up question popping up when it should not.

I have done GfK phone shops for different wireless carriers. Although the base fees are the same or about the same, the requirements and levels of difficulty are quite different. Additionally, I had to take a different test for each carrier.

I would not do any of them for the base fee only.

The thing I dislike most so far shopping for GfK is dealing with some of their independent schedulers. In my experience, GfK's independent schedulers are usually not as good as those working for KSS International or Summit Scheduling.

Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 05/30/2013 05:15AM by BusyBeeBuzzBuzzBuzz.
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