I just got an email that GFK was bought by Ipsos and Ipsos is expected to take full control on October 1st. I'm genuinely concerned!!! I absolutely LOVE GFK and have worked for them for years but I have not had great experiences with IPSOS. The email basically said that our accounts will transfer over automatically but failed to mention what this would mean for payment or anything else! I think Ipsos pays by the month.....is that right? One of the reasons I loved GFK was I would get my cash directly deposited 10-14 days after I completed the shop it was great. I also prefer my announced audits (I know many of you don't and this thread is not meant to debate that, I actually liked them to each is own) and I'm concerned they're going to change all of that. Anyone have more details on this like payment schedule and if they plan to keep the announced audits

No, Ipsos pays twice a month. I just started shopping with them this year with no problems.

deleted

I have worked for many a msc that was absorbed by another msc. For the most part the report has stayed the same when it moved over. Since I have never signed up with GFK it gives me access to a whole new list of jobs! And since I like IPSOS that is a good thing.

deleted

I just emailed the point of contact. Hopefully I will get a reply.

Well that was quick. Yes the BB audits will transfer over to Ipsos. The point of contacts will stay the same.

I received an email that GFK has been acquired by Ipsos, thoughts.....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/27/2018 12:34AM by Irene_L.A..

Ipsos.

[www.mysteryshopforum.com]

deleted

I'm hoping Ipsos can provide some stability to remedy GfK's gross mismanagement, which has been evident for quite some time.

Any bumps in the road yet after the 10/1 changeover? Have you gotten the first post changeover direct deposit yet?

That is fantastic news as far as I'm concerned. I keep hoping that IPSOS takes over some of my favorite shops from MF and Maritz. I think IPSOS is the best of the mega-MSCs to deal with and one of the most stable.

I gave up on GfK a long time ago. I still get the emails and am tempted from time to time but then remember the crazy editor that insisted I drive 700 miles round trip to take a photo of a cell phone that the store did not carry. (I had photographed every model and brand along with overall photographs of every display but that wasn't "proof" they did not carry the phone in question.)

whiterosie, looks like you might be getting your wish. IPSOS seems to have taken over one of Martiz's big accounts. The pay for me has dropped about $5 per job since IPSOS rarely offers bonuses in my area. I enjoy working with IPSOS but they don't often allow self-assigning, don't have an easy way to request routs and worse they rarely bonus jobs.

Maritz still has some of the banks listed on their website in my area. They are different locations/branches of the same bank that Ipsos now has. I did a ton of those for Maritz last year. Wwin is right about the ability to self-assign. My area has a boatload of that bank’s branches, so I self-assigned routes monthly. The base fee was $15, and they only took 10-15 minutes each inside the branches. IPSOS is great to work for also, but is only offering $12 for them here. However, like someone pointed out, the reporting will be less cumbersome.

This explains it — I took my first GSK assignments in a long time (used to do the audio audits for the red store but my store stopped being audited a year or so ago) this weekend (the high paying auto dealer ones that had to be done within 3 days) — and I thought it was interesting that the guidelines had Ipsos plastered all over them.

I figured it was just GSK doing some sub-contracting for Ipsos... but also thought it was weird because I’ve never seen auto dealer shops on GSK before — it’s pretty much always m the big box audio audit training and occasional cell phones... These were awesome with no narrative and paid 75 bucks but had to be done this weekend (they made this clear many times). I usually check the Ipsos ShopMetrics every few days or so but I’m firmly entrenched with Sassie and JobSlinger Plus which I’m on multiple times a day — so I’m wondering if this was a weird GSK-division project, or if they just put it on their Sassie to get some extra exposure since the project was so urgent. I’d just finished a slew of shops for Ipsos directly, and had been in their site, but didn’t see these ones at any point or I’d probably have jumped on them there as well lol

I wonder if Ipsos will start sharing some of their stuff on the GSK Sassie... I hope so because it makes it so much more visible for me.