IPSOS

Is anyone else frustrated with the scheduling process for IPSOS? I apply for shops and then wait, wait, wait for an answer. I was told that the [client name deleted] shops have monthly quotas, and that they sometimes have to wait to assign you during specific date ranges. But the thing is...those date ranges don't seem to match up with the dates listed on the IPSOS website.

I guess that works fine for shoppers who plan their months out ahead of time. I'm not one of those shoppers. With my family schedule, I really need to plan my shopping days a day or two, maybe three days in advance. I don't have problems with any of the other MSCs that I work with. It's frustrating to me because IPSOS does have a lot of jobs that I'd like to do. Uggghhh

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More Discussions About Ipsos Mystery Shopping (All Companies)

The only way I've gotten it to work is email Judith @ Summit Scheduling...she's very good about having the right scheduler get in touch with me. It took a while to develop a relationship with the scheduler, but now I feel she really goes to bat for me! If I e-mail her on Tuesday and tell her I'll be in such-and-such Thursday, and MUST have an answer, she's very good at getting back to me. I always put the shop name, city, and date I
need right in the "subject" line.

When I wrote Judith the first time, I told her the geographic area I'm willing/able to shop, and just told her I had no idea who the scheduler would be, and asked her to have the correct scheduler write me back.

I hope this helps a little.

It does help...thank you for the advice. I'll give it a shot.

They are an odd company.... It took me forever to finally get assigned to a shop, and this month they assigned me to more than I applied for! The scheduler e-mailed me after I applied for one and said they didn't need more shoppers for this half of the month, but would need them for the second half. So I applied for two more, for a total of three. I did tell her that there were more area locations I could do if needed. But I was thinking along the lines of waiting and applying for them later in the month if I needed more shops. Lo and behold, she scheduled me for six. It's going to be tough to get them all in, but there are four I can do in two days. None of the others are close enough to each other to bundle into one day, so I'm looking at three days. That's hard for me to figure out this far in advance.... But I'll make it work.

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

I'd never done but one shop for IPSOS, but I've known Judith and her crew for years. In CA, the scheduler sent an email to everyone explaining how she was going to assign this round. Super considerate. I had one issue months ago, and Judith fixed it within 3 minutes.

The problem is that the shops are remaining in pending. Are they being assigned or not? At the same time, more emails go out asking folks to sign up for these shops that may or may not be assigned It's a bad system. I don't know that going to Judith would solve this issue. I wanted the shops I applied for because they matched out almost perfectly with a similar set of locations for another shop for another company. It would make that 30 minute wait between visits a snap. Yet, the shops are still in pending, folks are still being asked to apply (the last time I checked anyway), and we're getting this odd story about quotas. Odd and odder.

The ones that are assigned are removed, at least in my area. I requested a route of five and was assigned them. They no longer show on the available list.

What they are doing is posting 100% of the shops when they only need for example 35% completed this week. Until they have the 35% they want, they will leave them all posted. As soon as they schedule 35%, the remaining shops will either be removed or the dates moved out to the next round.

So if you have applications pending, the quota for this time frame has not been met yet and you may still get it.

Last month I applied for one mid-month and didn't get it. It disappeared so I assumed someone else was assigned to it. Nope - the quota got met and the shop was pulled. It was relisted with a new date that I unfortunately was not available for.

I signed up for over 20 in 3 different cities and got 3. All the others shops are still pending and the rest of the list within 20 miles are still available to apply for.

Their really good about scheduling routes, maybe its a software glitch because I like IPSOS and Laura is so cool(she is the electronics scheduler, a good lady).

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/03/2016 05:01AM by GrosMichel.

Regarding shop status, I've learned to be patient. I just checked today and all of my shops are ok to pay. Previously an editor contacted me via email and said they were unable to pay me for a shop as I shopped on the wrong date. I had taken a date stamped photo and replied with the correct date and the time stamp to prove it. It took awhile but I was paid. I presume that with 1000's of shops listed open that they are busy. Eventually everything gets corrected.

Do not read so much, look about you and think of what you see there.
Richard Feynman-- letter to Ashok Arora, 4 January 1967, published in Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track (2005) p. 230

i've done hundreds of assignments for Ipsos and their scheduling company and thousands of assignments for various MSCs (some who do their own scheduling and others who utilize scheduling companies) and Judith the owner of Summit Scheduling is far-and-away the most proactive person i have met in this wacky business. as is the schedulers that work for her. Marcie, Amber, Jennifer, Cindy and others have been accessible and timely in their communication and respond quickly whenever there has been an issue. also the few issues that I have had in regard to payment(s) have been addressed directly from Ipsos with minimal delay. a lot of MSCs and schedulers could learn the about customer service and how to value and appreciate the "boots on the ground" aka us. yep, i mean you MF; GFK; IS and others.

I work with them and these new shops are taking forever to get approved. My problem is that I like to sign up for a few shops in the same area then I have to wait for an approval. Since I like having my shops assigned the week before, I usually have to go in after 48 hours, delete their shops, then go to another MSC to schedule shops in the same area. I find it frustrating.

@deelitefullyme wrote:

I work with them and these new shops are taking forever to get approved. My problem is that I like to sign up for a few shops in the same area then I have to wait for an approval. Since I like having my shops assigned the week before, I usually have to go in after 48 hours, delete their shops, then go to another MSC to schedule shops in the same area. I find it frustrating.

yep and i feel your pain because i'm in the same kinda/sorta boat but i might be able to shed a little light on the situation, altho i'm not a scheduler or connected with Ipsos. each of these locations have 3 or maybe 4 different scenarios that need to be shopped, all within a certain time frame during the month/quarter, etc. and their schedulers need to assign shops to cover all the possible scenarios within that time frame with any overlapping. if it sounds confusing...it is. i think they are trying to overcome this issue, btw.

That happens quite a bit. I do a store for Sinclair Customer Metrics and several times, my scheduler has mentioned on the phone that a shopper was doing the location on such-and-such day and he needed to allow for that so could I do it one of such-and-such days. A scheduler at GBW said they have different people shopping each of a client's dealership weekly. Again, they have to be mindful of overlaps.

Frustrating, but it looks like I'm going to have to cancel two (edited - whoops) shops for next week. When the jobs got spread out from the originally posted one week window to 2+ months I ended up with 2 jobs 30 miles away from me for next week. I immediately applied for 2 hazmat jobs in the area for that week (with the same scheduler) that sat in limbo until today, when I found out I didn't get either. I can't make 2 $12 shops pay when I need to drive 60 miles in LA traffic. I just really wish they would have scheduled or rejected the hazmats last week instead of having them sit in limbo.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/2016 03:22PM by wwin.

I may have to cancel one of their shops next week. They had two in towns right next to each other. I was assigned to one, but not the other. These are several miles from me, and if I can't find another shop in the same area, it's not worthwhile for me to drive there for a one-off shop. I would hate to cancel, but it's just not worth the time.

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

When you apply for several shops, send the scheduler(s) a separate email with some other subject line than the one they sent out. Let them know the only way you can do the shops is as a route.

@TechSavvy wrote:

Let them know the only way you can do the shops is as a route.

Thank you; I'll have to try that next time!

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

@BirdyC wrote:

@TechSavvy wrote:

Let them know the only way you can do the shops is as a route.

Thank you; I'll have to try that next time!

sure try that but...the different scenarios have different schedulers which further complicates the issue(s).

I'll have to try that too. I found 4 that were all near one another. I applied for all 4 but only got one. The jobs had the same scenario and same scheduler. The one job is not worth the travel time or the gas. Oh well.

Send your route to whichever Summit scheduler is handling your area. Let her know the minimum you'll accept and which one must grouped with another (for instance, I can only do Timbuktu with Egypt). Don't forget the minimum time requirement between the jobs and the maximums per day. Good luck!

Now scheduling travel shops for the day after Christmas through mid-January.

@parkcitybrian wrote:

sure try that but...the different scenarios have different schedulers which further complicates the issue(s).

True, but you can CC the schedulers. If you don't know who they are, let the scheduler know and request your email be forwarded to the appropriate schedulers. In the email, list all the locations and scenarios for which you applied. The more helpful info you offer them, the easier it will be for your request to be handled.

Until my conversation with one of the schedulers a few days ago, I assumed that when you selected a group of shops on the site and applied for them together, that the site showed the requests to the schedulers as a group (since in order to request them at the same time they have to have days in common) but apparently the schedulers don't see that or maybe don't pay attention to it. I applied for a group of Hazmat (corrected) for next week and a scheduler wrote back saying she could give me one of the jobs but on a different week. I replied another week was fine if I could do all 4 jobs applied for in the group that week. She had no idea what other 3 jobs I was referring to. I listed them and she scheduled the 4 jobs but from now on I'll email when I apply.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/2016 11:44PM by wwin.

@parkcitybrian wrote:

@BirdyC wrote:

@TechSavvy wrote:

Let them know the only way you can do the shops is as a route.

Thank you; I'll have to try that next time!

sure try that but...the different scenarios have different schedulers which further complicates the issue(s).

In this case, all the shops were with the same scheduler, same scenario. And the scheduling was done via direct e-mail, not through the website. I gave her a list of locations I could potentially shop for that scenario. I kind of expected her to write back before she assigned the shops, but she went ahead and made the assignments. She did e-mail me back to let me know that she scheduled them, but I didn't know that the one hadn't been assigned till I checked the list. I didn't want to cancel and am still hoping to find another shop I can tag onto this one.

I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/2016 09:14PM by BirdyC.

I have just been in contact with 2 schedulers in my area. They both indicated that the company is in the process of making program changes to the way these shops are handled. Hopefully these changes make it easier for all concerned (schedulers and shoppers)!

I appreciate the updates and explanations of what is happening. It's worse when you haven't a clue and things seem more arbitrary. In this case, it's the client contributing to the madness. We'll get through it.

I can't live like that. I mostly schedule day to day because that is how I like it. I want to work when I feel like it and stay home if I need to. If I apply for shops I need them approved at least by the next day. Also I never know what direction I'll be headed on a particular day, because I choose a well bonused shop and then get more shops to make it worthwhile. I'd love to do a route of these but unless I can assign myself like I did with the previous company its never going to happen.

I prefer self-assigns so I can create a route. That said, with many, I don't have a choice. One MSC constantly goes back and forth with a favorite shop. One time I can self-assign, the next time I have to apply. It's a little crazy, but all I can do is go with the flow.

BirdyC just to add in to scheduling routes. I always ask them not to schedule me, just let me know if the route I gave will work. If I get what I requested than I tell them to schedule me. If you have a good scheduler who knows you and can schedule ahead she/he will.

A slew of shops just appeared. Within 30 minutes, I was assigned to over a dozen of them.

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

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