At least they are paying according to their stated payment schedule and hopefully they will get their sh!t together
as pertains to confusing, contradictory guidelines and MOST IMPORTANTLY perhaps, just perhaps raising their fee structure to fairly compensate for what they're asking for and that is well-written and comprehensive reporting.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/05/2015 02:09PM by parkcitybrian.

Who is owed money and hasn't been paid? I saw a thread with a post from a scheduler saying he was owed money, but is there anyone else? Are there shoppers on this forum who are owed money? I ask because I did some shops a few weeks ago and was paid on time. But if that's changing I'd be interested to know. Thanks

I don't think it is the same at all. My sense was that Grass Roots was a deliberate take the money and run and GFK seems to just be in chaos. They might end up going down, but I doubt it.

Edited to add: This thread was titled "GFK and Grass Roots...It looks like an identical situation is brewing" Subsequently both the thread title and OP have been edited such that comments to the original post may now appear to be odd.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/05/2015 03:55PM by Flash.

I have been paid for all shops for which I should have been paid. I have never had a problem being paid by GfK. I have accumulated some other issues with them, but payment is NOT an issue. I have not seen anything to support Brian's claim. I am dealing with closed and not yet opened phone audit sites (which I feel they should have known about) for which I was paid the ludicrous closed location fee of $3 and required to go to a location which I could prove in advance was closed (newspaper articles and TV news stories) for $3 to avoid a citation by declining to do any further phone audit assignments for them. BUT - they indeed followed their payment guidelines. I see no evidence that this company is nearing bankruptcy. Of course no one suspected that Grass Roots would go bankrupt. You might as well issue a blanket warning that any MSC could go bankrupt. Grass Roots was not the first....

Are you seriously making a point of comparison as being America and Not America?

Honestly, I don't think GfK is on it's way out and even though I have my issues with this company, I would not like to see this happen.

With that being said, there are several issues that need to be addressed (I'm only mentioning a few here, don't want to write a thesis):

- Disorganization within this company. For being the "4th Largest" mystery shopping company in the world, they sure are disorganized. From what I understand, they didn't release the August guidelines for the retail store audits until this morning. The fire drill mentality was common when I was scheduling there and that disorganization starts from the top.

- An overall lack of respect for their contractors. The high turnover for schedulers is because they don't treat them with a general respect. Shoppers are often ignored and schedulers refuse to answer their phone for a shopper 9 times out of 10, unless they are desperate to fill a shop. (I will post more about this topic at a later time, as I can point out several examples)

- Apathy. Schedulers don't really care about the shoppers and are insensitive to the shoppers needs. This practice is encouraged by the entire company. Shops are excluded without any explanation to a scheduler, yet the scheduler is supposed to field the inquiries from the upset shoppers of why the shop was excluded.

- Shoppers are expendable and treated as being a "dime a dozen". They don't believe in working with a new shopper to help them gain a general understanding of what is being asked of them. Sure, they do hold training calls, but the training calls are basically an admin reading the guidelines over the phone.

- The quizzes are a joke. There are always questions that are not worded properly and misleading to shoppers.

- No creative direction for recruiting new shoppers. I brought this subject and ideas up several times, but was blown off. They wonder why they only have 3 qualified auditors in a state where they have to fill 4 retail store audits monthly; this is why.

- As a general rule, they do not promote from within. The only field coordinator with them that was promoted from within was Christy Ensley; all of the other current field coordinators were cherry picked from other companies.



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They owe me $195 and it shows payment pending. I don't think they are in the same position.

Who knows what will happen down the line? I don't think the issues now lead to speculation on them going under. Yes they are incredibly flawed in the way the do business with us, that doesn't mean the same is true for dealings with their clients or they are not financially solvent.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2015 02:24PM by LisaSTL.

I just reviewed my "shop log" and noticed that all my recent assignments are labeled "payment pending" which does lead me to believe that they are indeed staying around, which is good news. It is disappointing, though, that they are not addressing the myriad issues that have been brought up about their tone-deafness and their unwillingness to address issues.

@LisaSTL wrote:

Who knows what will happen down the line? I don't think the issues now lead to speculation on them going under. Yes they are incredibly flawed in the way the do business with us, that doesn't mean the same is true for dealings with their clients or they are not financially solvent.

yep

Dante said they owed him money from June but did not say they are late. My understanding is that money is due in August and Sept. My concern now is they may say he has violated confidentiality. Owing money is not the same as being in arrears.

@MDavisnowell wrote:

Dante said they owed him money from June but did not say they are late. My understanding is that money is due in August and Sept. My concern now is they may say he has violated confidentiality. Owing money is not the same as being in arrears.

very true

I just reviewed the ICA I signed and there are no confidentiality clauses in it regarding this situation. The only clause I am bound by is not mentioning the client name and MSC in the same breath basically.

@MDavisnowell wrote:

Dante said they owed him money from June but did not say they are late. My understanding is that money is due in August and Sept. My concern now is they may say he has violated confidentiality. Owing money is not the same as being in arrears.

Thanks. Good to know.

PCB, I'm really not trying to be snarky, but it is beginning to appear that you have a vendetta against GfK along the lines of (but not as bad as) billbryanaggiejimtruthfrank and MF.

@bgriffin wrote:

PCB, I'm really not trying to be snarky, but it is beginning to appear that you have a vendetta against GfK along the lines of (but not as bad as) billbryanaggiejimtruthfrank and MF.

nope, just was verrry frustrated because of some questions i needed answered re 2 shops and confusing, contradictory guidelines & i spent 3 days emailing the scheduler + christy + carlos & others with zero replies. i did them & all was ok but still.....although I've received huge bonuses but still it was frustrating & certainly not professional or confidence instilling but I'm done venting (takes too much energy & is counter-productive)

Nothing like a good vent. And I certainly have my favorite MSCs to vent about *cough*Intellishop*cough*, I just don't go making threads about them. Now if someone else brings them up.......lol

The great thing is that we are all ICs so we can choose not to work for this MSC in the future. I have not worked for them in years. That is my choice.

@Sybil2 wrote:

The great thing is that we are all ICs so we can choose not to work for this MSC in the future. I have not worked for them in years. That is my choice.

how true and despite the personal negativity that i've demonstrated toward this particular MSC they continue to value my contributions, pay me bonuses and reach out to me to do assignments...and I complete those assignments with the same degree of professionalism that I would for any of the MSCs that I work with. Strange bedfellows, eh?

Is GFK going the way of the great departed?

The problem is it is hard to know until it happens. How many people were surprised by the demise of Grass Roots, Freeman and the others? Enough to keep their shops filled to some degree. Many of use shied away from them for different reasons, some having nothing to do with payment schedule or concern about going under.

I would be most concerned about later than normal payments. Since I have not worked for them in some time, I have nothing to add from first hand-experience. If I was a shopper for them, or considering working for them, I would like to see folds post their payment times, late or not. If we get enough information, then we might be able to see if it is business as usual or a change for the worse.

Anyone else?

Update...Received substantial $$$ from GFK (up-to-date and in accordance with their stated payment schedule) into PayPal this morning so all seems to be good.

@parkcitybrian wrote:

Update...Received substantial $$$ from GFK (up-to-date and in accordance with their stated payment schedule) into PayPal this morning so all seems to be good.

Me too.

PCB, you should revise the title of your thread AND update your first post. You have proven that it is all speculation and in this case, an incorrect assumption,

Thank you for taking my suggestion. It is much appreciated.

PBC, are you still going to get into bed with GFK?

@Sybil2 wrote:

Thank you for taking my suggestion. It is much appreciated.

PBC, are you still going to get into bed with GFK?

only figuratively

Update- My wife was paid what was showing as payment pending.