I haven't been getting the usual deluge of e-mails from GFK, and was wondering if I got on somebody's poop list. I went to the job board and the only things there are the audits. Nothing else for miles and miles around me. Is anyone else finding this, or maybe it's just in my geographical area?

I checked within 100 miles of St. Louis, Kansas City and Chicago. Audits, audits and more audits. Nothing else.

The infamous smart phones shops with the "hidden" questions and low pay has switched to a much nicer MSC. The reports are so much easier now. This month, the new MSC added shops for tablets. Also straight forward. And now it looks like they landed a more reasonable version of the appliance shops in one of the Big Box home improvement stores as well (only two types of appliances instead of every appliance in your house). I haven't done one of those yet (never did one when GfK had them). I wonder if this is another example of a shop returning to the mother ship (rather than being sub-contracted to another MSC)?

I saw the smartphone shops and wondered if they were the ones GFK had. The pay seems awfully low for those, though, unless the guidelines and questionnaire have been greatly clarified, simplified, and reorganized. I did one for GFK, and it was the worst shop I ever did. I'd be interested in the tablet shop, but I still am not sure if $12 is worth it.

Birdy - The brand of the phone is the same. I think this is the new, improved version. The report has gotten so much easier, it is now worthwhile doing for $12. No essays. Just check boxes. I suggest that you try one. As with other shops that that MSC schedules, they can be very slow to actually assign them once you apply. So, my advice is to keep track of what you apply for, and delete the applications when / if they no longer make sense for you.

@myst4au wrote:

I think this is the new, improved version. The report has gotten so much easier, it is now worthwhile doing for $12. No essays. Just check boxes. I suggest that you try one.

Thanks for the info! There are several posted near me--both the smartphones and tablets. I'm getting tired of phones; I think I'll see if I can get a tablet shop! Actually, I did one tablet shop for GFK, and it was one of the "better" shops I had with them--pretty straightforward and the report wasn't excruciating. If they're easier through the new MSC, they're definitely worth the $12!

Normally I would never celebrate a msp losing business but I will with GFK losing it. May they lose their final client and close shop. As far as the new msp they are with the $12 phone and tablet shops are worth it if in the area or as route filler. Report takes 10 minutes.

I couldn't disagree with you guys more.

While I know exactly what smartphone shops with the forever reports you're all talking about are, I always very much appreciated GFK's friendly schedulers, flexibility, and quick payment (there was an auto project last year in which I got paid for a couple of them in less than a week of submission).

The new client that seems to have gotten their smartphone visits has schedulers that take forever to respond, are unpredictable between leaving your application hanging or approving it within the hour, then are much less flexible with dates.

Hopefully they aren't gone for good.

I used to like working with GFK very much and did many shops for them when I first started mystery shopping. Most of the schedulers were very responsive. But over the last several months, their shop instructions and questionnaires were a nightmare. Loaded with conflicting information, ambiguous wording, and questions that didn't match the guidelines. Not to mention full of grammar errors, which made it difficult to read some of the material. (I know other MSCs have poorly written materials, but GFK's were the worst.)

I did an appliance shop once, and the guidelines in one section were so ambiguous and confusing they were nearly incomprehensible! I contacted the scheduler for clarification well in advance of the shop, and she simply couldn't understand the problem. After several back-and-forth e-mails, she finally "got it" and she gave me an answer; as I found out while doing the report, my initial interpretation was correct and hers was wrong. But it shouldn't have taken getting to that point to figure out what the he!! they wanted!

Then there was that horrific cellphone shop. I cringe thinking about it. I'm not exaggerating when I say the guidelines and survey were the worst I've ever seen. They must have been in a hurry to get this shop out of the starting blocks and never looked at their materials with a critical eye.

I haven't done a phone shop for the new company yet. Yes, they're slow to respond and schedule. I have a tablet shop scheduled next week, and I'm crossing my fingers it'll be easier than the GFK phone shops. Their tablet shop was "easier," but but none of theirs are "easy and fun." LOL....



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/15/2016 01:28PM by BirdyC.