I had one on my calendar for tomorrow. I went to the site to get the guidelines, and the shops were gone. Does anyone know what happened?

Ipsos....geesh!

lol What's wrong with IPSOS winemaker? I like shopping with them.

I'm wondering whether there was an issue with how these shops were designed.

The shops required the shopper to have an account with the bank but they also said that you would be assigned a credit status. I have an account with this particular bank and I know they do soft pulls of my credit because I am frequently offered credit cards and loans. I emailed the scheduler explaining this, and I said that for me at least, some assigned credit statuses would be impossible to act out if they pull up my account while I am at the branch. The scheduler emailed me back and said that because of this I wouldn't qualify for these shops.

From my experience with banks, any time a current customer comes in with a question the first thing the banker does is look up the customers information. Because of this, I'm not sure how you could be a current customer and have and an assigned credit status that is significantly different from your true credit status. I asked the scheduler for clarification but I haven't heard back.

I hope they get them figured out because I would love to be able to complete the shop I applied for. I live rurally and I usually have to drive a ways for my shops this would have been one of the few shops in the town nearest to where I live (still a 10 minute drive one way lol).

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/2016 03:16PM by Spanishtulip.

I did these and because the first location was so 'sloppy' they only got a first name, they had no way to look me up, make notes on bank records of my inquiry etc. That made me eligible to do a second location, which was equally sloppy. The first location sort of did what they were supposed to do, the second location was about 99% deficient. Neither location asked about my credit standing. I frankly expected a lot more time spent with me as well as a lot more questions, 'assistance' and interest, especially since in one case I was the only customer in the bank and in the other case the only other customer was in with the banker I subsequently spoke with.

Spanish, I did one of the shops in the last round. I was assigned a scenario that was believable (sending my parents on an anniversary vacation). I looked at some of the other scenarios, and they would not have worked for me. I think you get assigned something that you could work with.

No, you get assigned what is available and it is up to you to make it work. Cute to drive up to the bank in a 17 year old truck with a scenario that you still have an outstanding loan on the vehicle that is greater than its Kelly Blue Book value has been in close to a decade. Or preparing what you will say if your scenario about credit card debt is responded to by looking at your accounts and asking why you don't just pay it out of your savings account. Or in your late 60s talking about purchasing your first home . . .

I'd be willing to just go with the scenario and see what happens but the scheduler I emailed with said that my circumstances would disqualify me.

My point is that if I am disqualified, then I would think that many other shoppers would be too.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/2016 02:14AM by Spanishtulip.

Flash, my shop went really well. I even learned something. Since they stressed "YOU CAN ONLY DO ONE OF THESE," I closed the account. The next day, they asked me to do another.

Spanish, they had a wide range of scenarios to assign to shoppers. I think there were 9, ranging from recent grad with no credit history to out of work with debt to anniversary cruise.

These bank shops were posted again, and again they disappeared. Does anyone know what's going on with these shops?

I know they are valid, because I did one in the past.

Oh, man, I got assigned one -- 2 hours away! Made a route, picked up enough to make it worth my while. Got to the bank, asked to speak to a banker, and was told that she was available only by appointment! And the first available appointment was 2:30 that afternoon. I left, re-read the guidelines, and this possibility was not mentioned. When I got home, I e-mailed the scheduler. And again about 8 hours later, and again the next morning. I know it was my fault, a "catastrophic" fail on my part, but no way was I gonna sit in the lobby and wait 4 hours!

It worked out. She cancelled that one, assigned me one much closer to home.

I wish the guidelines covered this. There's no guarantee the one closer to home won't have the same policy, by appt. only.!

Has anyone else run into "available by appointment only"?

I'm confused. How was this some sort of catastrophic fail on your part?

Oh, I was to speak with the banker. I failed to do so. I also stated I had no intention of driving another 4 hours roundtrip to re-do the shop. I said it nicely, but clearly.

Has anyone had the shops disappear after applying? Does anyone know who the scheduler is for the bank shops?

ceasesmith, you are missing the point. The guidelines did not instruct you to call to make an appointment. You said they did not even address the issue you encountered. The failure was on the client and MSC.

@LisaSTL wrote:

ceasesmith, you are missing the point. The guidelines did not instruct you to call to make an appointment. You said they did not even address the issue you encountered. The failure was on the client and MSC.

Oh, was there a point? My instructions said to speak to a banker. I failed to do so. To me, that's a failure on my part. I CHOSE to leave. Someone else might have chosen to sit in the lobby for hours to complete the shop.

Of course there wasn't a point. I sit around and make comments because I don't have anything better to do. If you choose to let a MSC take advantage of you, more power to you. I doubt many of us would have sat around a bank lobby for hours to make a few bucks.

I said this was a fail on my part. You said why did I consider it a fail. I explained. I didn't see that your comment MADE any point. How did the MSC take advantage of me? They cancelled the shop and gave me
one much closer to home. And I don't consider $50 "a few bucks" -- if you do, then you're much wealthier than I am. But stretched over drive time and adding hours in the lobby -- no, thanks. Now, I could see that I would be letting myself be taken advantage of if I had agreed to re-do the shop, but I firmly and politely refused to do that.

Sorry we seem to be butting heads, because I have always liked your tag line.

Ceasesmith - I think that what you did was somewhat similar to a closed shop than to a failure on your part. My advice would be to argue for a partial fee since the circumstance was not covered in the guidelines. I did a storage audit two weeks ago. It had to be unannounced. No one was there, and no sign to say when they would return and the generic phone message said that they were on site with a customer and would be right back. After 5 minutes I took a photo of the door and did a GeoVerify. Tried again after 20 minutes and after 45 minutes. I submitted the outdoor photos and screenshots of my phone log and the GeoVerify map (the MSC is not a Sassie company). I expected feedback and a demand that I go back. I got neither. I think that the storage company learned something very valuable. So, in your case, I would have taken a photo of the exterior, done a GeoVerify, gotten someone's business card, and said, "enough." I would have hoped for partial pay, and accepted that I might just have to eat the cost of going there, but time is money and lost opportunity time is exactly that.

Thank you, myst4au, for a well-reasoned reply. I did take the photo, I did pick up a brochure in the lobby. The scheduler will do right by me, I'm sure. I do not think I have the ability to GeoVerify. I did offer to file the report, stating exactly what happened, but the scheduler chose to cancel the shop.

Thanks again.

cease, what brand phone do you have? GeoVerify is available on most platforms, even BlackBerry (via Amazon Apps).

I've wanted to do shops with GeoVerify, but my smartphone has the Windows 8.1 Denim OS, and believe me, there's a WHOLE LOT NOT AVAILABLE if you have a Windows smartphone!! Got it about 6 months before I started back up doing mystery shopping last year...not feasible to get another one...I miss out on a few shops, but that's the way it is with a Windows smartphone!

I forgot about Windows! The apps for GV are Android and Apple. BlackBerry uses Android apps.

Honny-Ipsos still hasn't paid me for shops done correctly last year - but there is more......Ipsos is so full of operational errors and glitches (as detailed above) that working for or with them is really taking a risk...And, they don't reply to emails or phone calls, at leat promptly - I did get one reply five weeks after I sent the email!

@LisaSTL wrote:

ceasesmith, you are missing the point. The guidelines did not instruct you to call to make an appointment. You said they did not even address the issue you encountered. The failure was on the client and MSC.

I'm with Lisa on this. I'm tired of guidelines that nobody from the client or MSC has bothered to look at objectively and ask, "What if?" There should have been some sort of contingency plan in the guidelines--a note stating that an appointment might be necessary and what to do if that happened, or a limit on how long you were to wait, or something. Nobody can reasonably be expected to sit and wait ad infinitum, or to make an appointment to go back the next day and incur another four-hour round trip. You should be paid at least a partial fee, or given a generous bonus on the re-scheduled shop. I hope they do right by you. It's not your fault!

(I'm also "with" other shoppers here who have experienced similar situations. Yours is proof that, yes, sometimes guidelines don't cover what to do if you can't have an interaction with someone.)

On a related note, I went to do a shop a couple of months ago, and the store was closed. It had been open the last time I'd driven by it, and the shop guidelines didn't require a phone call first. It was about a half-hour round trip, and I hadn't scheduled any other jobs around it. The instructions had no place to report a closed location. I took the photos of the vacant storefront and the empty parking lot and e-mailed the scheduler. Apparently neither the client or the MSC had allowed for a closed store. I asked for something to cover my time and mileage, and was paid the full fee. Now, there's an MSC that went above and beyond... I don't know if they got paid by the client or not, but I felt like they did a really stand-up thing. I hope your MSC does something good for you, Cease. You deserve it!

@HonnyBrown wrote:

cease, what brand phone do you have? GeoVerify is available on most platforms, even BlackBerry (via Amazon Apps).

I have an Android (Razr, I think).

But I can't afford the service. It's about $40 a month (no contract), so when I don't have the $40, I don't have the cell phone. I'm just now getting back to work, and have to dig myself out of a very, very deep hole! Still looking at surgery and little/no income for a while. I have a "GoFundMe" link under "Can You help" in General Chat. And when I do get a month, I only have apps that are totally free.

Winemaker, that's horrible! No wonder you feel that way. My experience with them is the polar opposite.

@winemaker wrote:

Honny-Ipsos still hasn't paid me for shops done correctly last year - but there is more......Ipsos is so full of operational errors and glitches (as detailed above) that working for or with them is really taking a risk...And, they don't reply to emails or phone calls, at leat promptly - I did get one reply five weeks after I sent the email!

Yeah, not only do you have to have a data plan, you have to have your location set to "On."

@ceasesmith wrote:

@HonnyBrown wrote:

cease, what brand phone do you have? GeoVerify is available on most platforms, even BlackBerry (via Amazon Apps).

I have an Android (Razr, I think).

But I can't afford the service. It's about $40 a month (no contract), so when I don't have the $40, I don't have the cell phone. I'm just now getting back to work, and have to dig myself out of a very, very deep hole! Still looking at surgery and little/no income for a while. I have a "GoFundMe" link under "Can You help" in General Chat. And when I do get a month, I only have apps that are totally free.

They were posted again today.