Ipsos - Formerly GFK

I would definitely not recommend this company. I work for a dozen or so companies and have never had a shop returned unpaid or incomplete. I did two shops for this company on the same day and completed them. They refuse to pay. I tried to contact them more than 15 times total before leaving a negative BBB review. After that, a week later, I get a response that they refuse to pay. This company is unprofessional and a waste of time. There are so many other companies that respect shoppers and do not take advantage of them. Just a heads up for anyone who is newer and looking at companies.

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More Discussions About Ipsos Mystery Shopping (All Companies)

I love Ipsos and I am a fairly inexperienced shopper. The only time I had a shop rejected was totally my fault and it was too far to drive to get the right picture.

I too love Ipsos.

I love IPSOS as well. I have been doing their assignments for four years and have had two rejected - both entirely my fault. If you are going to point figures, provide some details as to why your assignments were rejected.

My issue is with GFK, which is now Ipsos. So if you have been working with Ipsos and had a good experience, good for you. I have never had any of my hundreds of shops with over a dozen other companies rejected except for these two at GFK with zero explanation. It took months to reach anyone there. That is my experience.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/16/2019 02:34AM by MelAnnEis.

I, too am having trouble with a single unpaid shop with Ipsos. This was an unmanned gas station, where I just had to take two photos. I drove 200 miles to do two unmanned gas stations for them, and was assured that I would be paid the full fee for submitting the two photos each of the two unmanned stations.

One was fine, but the other was listed as "hold pay." I was never contacted or given a reason for this. I have emailed the scheduler, Julia, several times and she said she contacted the project manager and would get back to me. She never got back to me, so I emailed mystery.shopping@ipsos.com. No response.

I also emailed Nicole Charron. As of yet, no response. I have completed hundreds of shops for Ipsos and am shocked at the complete lack of response by three employees. Has anyone else had this problem? It has been a month since the job was completed, and I was not paid for it.

Plus their fees arebway to low.

I too have always been paid and treated well by IPSOS. I have not worked for GFK/IPSOS so cannot speak to that. Perhaps it is a different team or they changed the guidelines somewhat when they took over.
That said I have been having trouble getting in touch with several companies this week. I have been hearing that some of the staff have taken the week off and in many msc all I have is the contact info for a specific person.

For what it is worth, if you find a a MSC's fees too low simply don't shop for them. I have been shopping for Ipsos for a few months and find the schedulers, including Julie, responsive and prompt.

Ipsos tends to be very non-communicative when it comes to excluding shops. I just got an email telling me that a shop i did was excluded because it was done on July 4, and , according to the exclusion email, schedulers had sent out an email informing shoppers not to shop on July 4. Of course, I never got that email, and I am meticulous about keeping all correspondence from MSC's in separate folders. It is also odd that my "inbox" on their Sassie site still shows a range of 7/1 though 7/5 on many other shops......I wrote an email protesting their decision, but I really don't expect much to come from it.

@salisburync wrote:

Ipsos tends to be very non-communicative when it comes to excluding shops. I just got an email telling me that a shop i did was excluded because it was done on July 4, and , according to the exclusion email, schedulers had sent out an email informing shoppers not to shop on July 4. Of course, I never got that email, and I am meticulous about keeping all correspondence from MSC's in separate folders. It is also odd that my "inbox" on their Sassie site still shows a range of 7/1 though 7/5 on many other shops......I wrote an email protesting their decision, but I really don't expect much to come from it.

IPSOS does not use SASSIE.
It’s always a bad idea to shop on a Federal Holiday if you don’t have it in writing that it’s ok.

Ipsos uses both shopmetric and sassie. They also do mention not top ship on holidays in the guidelines I looked at. I have had good luck with them on shops getting paid. I had to fix things once or twice, but generally it had been handled well and quickly.

@mjt9598 wrote:

I drove 200 miles to do two unmanned gas stations for them, and was assured that I would be paid the full fee for submitting the two photos each of the two unmanned stations.

WOW! that must have been one hell of a bonus to drive 200 miles. No way would I drive that far for just full fee plus I would have to be traveling to that area to even consider it with a high 3 figure bonus.

A Dad shopping the Ark-LA-Tex and beyond.

Shopped for GFK for several years without any problems. Did countless P.O. shop for them. Things do change.

A Dad shopping the Ark-LA-Tex and beyond.

Ipsos has been great, with a few exceptions — every year there are a slew of shops I do that require visiting various stores. Usually there are always 2-3 stores that are either permanently closed, or are closed during regular business hours. I mark that the store was closed (there’s an option in the survey), and take pictures — and every time they exclude the shop, then don’t respond... so that’s the downer... that said — I’ve always found them fair with bonuses, they pay quick, and the schedulers are great — but when I’ve reached out re: rejected shops, they have not been able to help.

I did two shops the end of June and just got paid today. That's pretty impressive.

I have been doing a certain type of shop for IPSOS for over a year. I was very confused when I began getting emails from IPSOS (formerly GFK). So who absorbed whom? And since they went from Shopmetrics to Shopmetrics AND SASSIE, I have had nothing but grief with shops on the SASSIE platform. Including a shop advertised as “quick and easy!” that was neither. My report was returned for correction and I was told to clarify why a phone that was the last to be recommended wasn’t listed as the first phone recommended ???? There was no comment box provided. Plus the question was worded “What was the first phone recommended?” The next question said “List the next two phone recommended.” My answer was correct as written. The numbering of the questions were not in numerical order (Q101 was followed by Q341 followed by Q164. Nor were the answers in question highlighted for easy finding. My attempt to self assign a shop for another client doesn’t look promising. I think they’re having programming issues.

I tried to work for IPSOS (formerly GFK) again. This was for a SASSIE shop on the Presto App. I tried for 2 days and 4 emails to the scheduler (including screenshots) explaining how after taking the certification test, I was still not allowed to apply (if I failed the certification I was not informed). The scheduler could not explain the problem nor could she explain the illogical "Did you complete your Mystery Shop visit?" ON THE TAKE THE TEST PAGE. In her final email, she simply said "try again" perhaps thinking the 5th time would be the charge. The good news was that it allowed me to think about the shop (a big box home store for a client that used to belong to one of the Big 5). It is an involved shop. It requires a visit to two departments with a mandatory maximum wait time of 15 minutes in each department. Plus make a purchase, then wait 30 minutes to return the small item. Now I totally get you *could* spend the 30 minutes doing your report, but connectivity, where I am, can be tricky and this shop will have lots of narratives. Plus if it takes more than 30 minutes and you don't save in time, you can kiss your work goodbye. All in all, this shop will take a minimum of 1.5 possibly two, for $17.00 I told the scheduler I was going to pass on it. The universe was talking to me.

When does GFK/Ispsos pay?

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Ipsos - Formerly GFK

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