I have been a GFK shopper until today. I completed one of their Insurance shops. I spent hours doing the work, writing detailed responses, etc. I received a denial for all my hard work. I'm told the hours were incorrect. However, I know my work is correct. They conveniently removed the guidelines so I cannot prove this inconsistency to them. Aside from this, they simply will not respond to my inquiries. I probably spent 3 hours working and disclosed my personal information to insurance companies on their behalf. As a result, they have benefited from my work and paid me nothing for it. Where else can a company get away with asking you to work and then refuse to pay you for your services? No where. All other companies would be out of business in a minute.

I've learned this type of behavior is the norm for GKF. They lure shoppers to do mystery shop work then look for any small, infraction perceived or contrived and then go on to disqualify the shop. They accrue your data for absolutely nothing! This is intentional.

I will never do another shop for GFK. I'd also like others to know they employ these types of tactics in order to deny you payment for your hard work. This is highly unethical and unprofessional. I hope others will be saved from having GFK take your work and deny your payment.

OH!!! Not again.... Why don't you just switch to another type of work? Apparently you are not cut our for mystery shopping.

You know, this same thing happened to my SO. He was upset about it too. Then he realized that no matter how mad he got, there was nothing that he could do. It did not cost him anything but time. So he put on his big boy pants, and he got on with his life.

@sillysister74 So did your SO actually perform the job correctly and follow the guidelines yet the shop was rejected? IF so then GFK is at fault.

At this point it is hard to say if OP followed the guidelines since s/he said GFK removed it and it seems that OP probably didn't save a copy or download it !?

They say that he called after hours too for one of the insurance companies. He didn't as far as the guidelines. It is the Law of Midas. He who has all of the gold makes the rules.

Those call center guidelines were a little difficult to follow. They had hours to call, but these were not necessarily the hours the providers were open or had agents to give quotes. I had to call one company back two times to get someone who could help me. I was afraid I was going to be denied, but I just reported everything I experienced. I made sure to call back at times that were listed in the guidelines.

I feel bad for the OP; nobody likes to have a shop rejected. But who goes through all of the trouble to do these assignments without keeping a copy of the guidelines? All of their posts are just bashing GFK. I will admit that over a year ago, I did a popular restaurant shop that got denied over a difference in opinion with what qualified for the required purchase. I was mad at first, but changed what I ordered the next time. I have done over a dozen shops for them since then for hundreds in fees and bonuses without any problems. They may have their moments being picky about requirements, but I certainly don't think there is anything malicious intended. For my rejected shop last year, they had it offered on the board the next day for $5 more than the ridiculous bonus I should have gotten, so I know they didn't use the report they rejected.

Manya88, could there have been a mix-up due to time-zone differences? The agent-call scenario doesn't specify "what" time zone, but the call-center one does state, "local time." (Another example of less-than-clear instructions.) So I assume that's true for the agent calls. The call timeframes were different for agent calls and call-center calls. Is it possible you made an agent call during the call-center timeframe, which was wider?

Or did you inadvertently post the wrong times in your shop report? Forgetting to select a.m. and p.m., for example.

And, don't you download your shop guidelines and save on your computer? I guess I don't understand how you can do a shop without those saved for reference. Or do you just keep your browser open while doing it and not save them? If you had saved them, you could reference the exact timeframe, and if you're correct that you did the shop within the proper times, you might be better able to back yourself up.

As I've posted here before, many companies' guidelines are often vague, confusing,or contradictory. ASK for clarification if there's anything, no matter how minor it may seem at the time, that's not crystal clear.

And, regardless of what MSCs you continue to shop for, DOWNLOAD shop guidelines.Then you can't complain that they've been removed; you'll have them!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/2015 12:51PM by BirdyC.

I did that shop with some difficulties regarding the companies and some State Laws.. even with all that didn't spend anything near 3 hours. I believe the total amount of time spent was about 1 or 1 hour 15 minutes...and I was paid in about 10 days after it was accepted (which took about 2 days). . . so, embellishments galore on someone's part.

@sillysister74 wrote:

They say that he called after hours too for one of the insurance companies. He didn't as far as the guidelines. It is the Law of Midas. He who has all of the gold makes the rules.

If the guidelines stated a certain time frame for the scenario, and your husband called within those time frames, I don't understand how GFK could reject the shop for that reason? Are they saying that their guidelines were wrong (if so, how could one know what times were correct?), or that he didn't call when he said he did? How can they check on this? Are they saying that he lied on the form? Or that, even though he called when the shop guidelines said to, the one insurance company's hours didn't align with their shop instructions? That's not your DH's fault!

If you follow instructions to the letter, and the MSC hasn't stated an exception or verified the shopped company's hours, the shopper shouldn't be held responsible! Some shop instructions say to verify the hours via a phone call or a website before doing a shop, but I don't recall that on this shop (I did the online shop, though, so didn't read the call scenarios very thoroughly).

This is why I think most, if not all, MSCs need to review all of their shop guidelines and questionnaires to make absolutely sure they're clear. In fact, I think they should pay "outsiders" (qualified professionals, of course) to do these reviews. Because if you helped write these materials, or you've seen them hundreds of times, or you're so familiar with the shop requirements that you don't look at them anymore, chances are you can't look at them from a shopper's perspective. You just can't, in many cases, look at them objectively enough to realize they're vague, confusing, contradictory, etc. You know what they're SUPPOSED to say, but you're too close to the process to realize it when they don't.

@Manya88 wrote:

I have been a GFK shopper until today. I completed one of their Insurance shops. I spent hours doing the work, writing detailed responses, etc. I received a denial for all my hard work. I'm told the hours were incorrect. However, I know my work is correct. They conveniently removed the guidelines so I cannot prove this inconsistency to them. Aside from this, they simply will not respond to my inquiries. I probably spent 3 hours working and disclosed my personal information to insurance companies on their behalf. As a result, they have benefited from my work and paid me nothing for it. Where else can a company get away with asking you to work and then refuse to pay you for your services? No where. All other companies would be out of business in a minute.

I've learned this type of behavior is the norm for GKF. They lure shoppers to do mystery shop work then look for any small, infraction perceived or contrived and then go on to disqualify the shop. They accrue your data for absolutely nothing! This is intentional.

I will never do another shop for GFK. I'd also like others to know they employ these types of tactics in order to deny you payment for your hard work. This is highly unethical and unprofessional. I hope others will be saved from having GFK take your work and deny your payment.

My suggestion is a very simple solution for your anger issues...find another type of endeavor because mystery shopping is not suitable for a person of your demeanor. No offense meant, of course.

@parkcitybrian wrote:

@Manya88 wrote:

I have been a GFK shopper until today. I completed one of their Insurance shops. I spent hours doing the work, writing detailed responses, etc. I received a denial for all my hard work. I'm told the hours were incorrect. However, I know my work is correct. They conveniently removed the guidelines so I cannot prove this inconsistency to them. Aside from this, they simply will not respond to my inquiries. I probably spent 3 hours working and disclosed my personal information to insurance companies on their behalf. As a result, they have benefited from my work and paid me nothing for it. Where else can a company get away with asking you to work and then refuse to pay you for your services? No where. All other companies would be out of business in a minute.

I've learned this type of behavior is the norm for GKF. They lure shoppers to do mystery shop work then look for any small, infraction perceived or contrived and then go on to disqualify the shop. They accrue your data for absolutely nothing! This is intentional.

I will never do another shop for GFK. I'd also like others to know they employ these types of tactics in order to deny you payment for your hard work. This is highly unethical and unprofessional. I hope others will be saved from having GFK take your work and deny your payment.

My suggestion is a very simple solution for your anger issues...find another type of endeavor because mystery shopping is not suitable for a person of your demeanor. No offense meant, of course.

I have to agree with Parkcitybrian on this.

Mistakes happen all the time. Sometimes it is the shopper's fault. I have needed to be contacted for clarification from GFK and got paid (which is good because expenses and fees for one job were over $2,000.)

I don't think that a company this huge would be able to operate with the tactics you describe.

@BirdyC wrote:

@sillysister74 wrote:

They say that he called after hours too for one of the insurance companies. He didn't as far as the guidelines. It is the Law of Midas. He who has all of the gold makes the rules.

If the guidelines stated a certain time frame for the scenario, and your husband called within those time frames, I don't understand how GFK could reject the shop for that reason? Are they saying that their guidelines were wrong (if so, how could one know what times were correct?), or that he didn't call when he said he did? How can they check on this? Are they saying that he lied on the form? Or that, even though he called when the shop guidelines said to, the one insurance company's hours didn't align with their shop instructions? That's not your DH's fault!

If you follow instructions to the letter, and the MSC hasn't stated an exception or verified the shopped company's hours, the shopper shouldn't be held responsible! Some shop instructions say to verify the hours via a phone call or a website before doing a shop, but I don't recall that on this shop (I did the online shop, though, so didn't read the call scenarios very thoroughly).

This is why I think most, if not all, MSCs need to review all of their shop guidelines and questionnaires to make absolutely sure they're clear. In fact, I think they should pay "outsiders" (qualified professionals, of course) to do these reviews. Because if you helped write these materials, or you've seen them hundreds of times, or you're so familiar with the shop requirements that you don't look at them anymore, chances are you can't look at them from a shopper's perspective. You just can't, in many cases, look at them objectively enough to realize they're vague, confusing, contradictory, etc. You know what they're SUPPOSED to say, but you're too close to the process to realize it when they don't.

It didn't seem that big of a deal. This was his first and only shop.

Hold on.

When we take a job, don't we at least temporarily save the instructions?

They are known to reject Shops! Personally I wouldn't be surprised at all if they use the report and bill the Client anyway. I had the same Scenario with them. And, They're Rude.

Sure looks like a pattern to me!

OP: The first thing about your post that stood out to me: Don't you keep a copy of your guidelines? I do for every shop. If you had, you could send a copy of the guidelines back to them, if needed.