I did these in late December and now, early January. I was practically 'begged' to take on a bunch more of them....promised prompt payroll turnaround, which has been a feather in Ipsos' cap....until...now I have 15 of them that are still in editing but the payment is "late". I have told told by my scheduler that 'editing' is 'behind' on these.....is anyone getting paid for these shops? No bonuses for faraway sites or winter travel, according to my scheduler. These shops require a curbside order and pickup this year, in addtion to the purchase and return. Also, "N/A" comments are NOT allowed, even though everthing may be perfect in a bay and a photo is required! In short, the shops are harder to do (they take just under two hours to complete), IPSOS is paying late, and no bonuses are available. Is it time to put IPSOS on hold? Expand my day job? ***UPDATE....Ipsos was very behind, but I am now paid for all, save for last week, which makes Ipsos one week behind.....they have not responded to queries at all lately, and toss every question off to the scheduler, who shrugs....

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/20/2021 10:05AM by salisburync.

Editing has been behind on a HUGE number of IPSOS shops, across the board. I posted about this quite a bit (out of frustration) in December. I have about 40 shops built up, again, waiting for editing. I think they may have taken on a little more than their infrastructure can handle with the merger...

I did two of these shops on the 29th and got paid on the 5th.

Perhaps they have different editors for different parts of the country? I'm in NY.

I need to start another thread about the problems with this MSCs cell phone shops and the problems I'm having with a certain company.

Mousegal, I agree with you...they have bitten off more than they can chew....I have about 20 reports done between 12/21 and 1/6; none are paid, but some say, at least, "OK to pay". The editing and processing of the reports is WAY behind schedule! The Home Improvement Store shops have become a nightmare for them, and I keep getting my submissions back (often 2-3 weeks later) for further comments or questions. An email dated 1/4 told me to make sure that absolutely no "N/A" comments are included, so I have become the master of the brief, means nothing, statement! What concerns me is the "hold Pay" status, without any explanation or clue......

@salisburync wrote:

What concerns me is the "hold Pay" status, without any explanation or clue......

Hold Pay means you won't be getting paid for it, ever. If you have concerns, you will want to email your scheduler....

Just and opinion, but I think the sub-contractor doing these shops can't hand the load and Ipsos is trying to do everything as cheap as the can so they can survive. Market Force was the same way if you remember back in 2018

Mousegal...the scheduler is no help, and refers me to the mystery.shopping@Ipsos.com mail box.....where I don't get an answer. ....frustrating...

Yep...I got the same thing and most of mine finally processed. I can guarantee you Im not doing any of those shops again under $100, because its too much. Plus one of mine is saying "Hold Pay" when I did it the same was as the other 22 I did.

For the ones that say "ok to pay" you should get paid for those via PayPal today, Jan 12, 2021.

I did one (without the return) last week and it was quickly approved. I’m also in the Northeast.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/12/2021 04:03PM by NinS.

Last year the shops included in store purchase and return , 50.00 payment. This year I have noticed curbside pick-up has been added , with no increase in the payment. Did I miss something?

@AMORASMOM wrote:

Last year the shops included in store purchase and return , 50.00 payment. This year I have noticed curbside pick-up has been added , with no increase in the payment. Did I miss something?

This MSC has "OSA" shops at one big box home improvement store in my area that pays $50. It is on their Shopmetrics platform. I applied for this one and heard nothing from them until the due date passed and it just disappeared from my requested shops and the available shops.

The same MSC also has purchase and return and curbside shops (2 different shops) at the other major big box home improvement store in my area. These pay $10-14 plus up to $5 reimbursement depending on the type of shop. These are on their Sassie platform. These are the ones I've done and been paid for.

I dislike purchase and return shops. So, I will pick up the curbside shop and leave the purchase and return shop on the board. In the rural area where my parents live, the fee starts at $25, and I've seen it go up to $60. Even higher for more rural locations.

@AMORASMOM wrote:

Last year the shops included in store purchase and return , 50.00 payment. This year I have noticed curbside pick-up has been added , with no increase in the payment. Did I miss something?

Update....still have one "Hold Pay" OSA shop...and for the life of me, I cannot see anything wrong with the shop. It looks perfect! Still no contact from IPSOS regarding this shop despite numerous emails and scheduler contact.

Regarding other OSA shops....I have two outstanding from December that have not been paid but now say "OK for Pay", and eight others from early January, five of which are "OK for Pay"....this is an IPSOS nightmare!!!

***UPDATE 1/19/21...Paid for all but one week.....Ipsos is up to date on all but OSA shops...one week behind on those.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/20/2021 10:07AM by salisburync.

Thanks for the update. I do hope the other one gets resolved.

@wrosie wrote:

This MSC has "OSA" shops at one big box home improvement store in my area that pays $50. It is on their Shopmetrics platform. I applied for this one and heard nothing from them until the due date passed and it just disappeared from my requested shops and the available shops.

The same MSC also has purchase and return and curbside shops (2 different shops) at the other major big box home improvement store in my area. These pay $10-14 plus up to $5 reimbursement depending on the type of shop. These are on their Sassie platform. These are the ones I've done and been paid for.

I've been wondering about those OSA shops, since they have plenty listed in my area. I thought that no one was interested in them (I know that I'm not) but maybe they're just not assigning them.

I never understood the payment on the other shops, where the purchase-return pays the same as the curbside that comes with reimbursement (albeit not a lot, but it pays for a furnace filter). Ridiculous that they don't pay more for the non-reumbursement shop.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/20/2021 08:52PM by MisterBill.

As one of the schedulers of these shops, we started with 2342 shops and there are now 602. So plenty of shoppers are doing these. Editing has caught up and editing shops that have been done in the last week. We have tried to modify guidelines to be more clear and shoppers who have done a couple are now coming back for additional shops because they have gotten the gist of it and have a system to complete them faster after their first one or two they did.

With all things, there is a learning curve. For the client, the mystery shopping company, the schedulers/editors and the shoppers. Of course you are free to vent here (that's what forums are for), but it is much more helpful when we receive constructive feedback instead of automatic negativity. I'm not saying that is anyone here as I don't even know your identities, but just in general.

Thank you all for your hard work.

Thank you for the information. I think the frustration is with not receiving a response from the company and no explanation as to why shops are getting low grades. Most shoppers are submitting reports per the guidelines and receiving low scores. They just want to know why. I don't think anyone has an issue doing shops the way a company wants them done, but we need to know what is now wanted compared to the current guidelines and the way we have been doing these shops (some of us for years).

I did a large number of the home improvement shops when it was a pilot program. I have not done any of the purchase/return ones lately, but have done the curbside. I do not know if there has been a change to the first ones, but I do like the curbside, very quick and easy.

krattner - if YOU want constructive feedback, then respond to emails. I would disagree that you are getting "automatic negativity"...what YOU are getting is deserved negativity after ignoring communication.

WOW @salisburync! I am not sure how warranted this message is, as I reply to my emails every day, usually within a couple of hours. If I don't respond right away, it is because I need to check something with the client or the account manager, especially when a project is new. There are plenty of seasoned shoppers on here I have worked with who I'm sure would be more than willing to agree.

That said, with this specific project, I don't even schedule North Carolina, which based on your user name is where you are located, so I have no why you would resort to libel and slander. In fact, based on your previous posts I have a good idea of who you might be and I checked my inbox and have never received a single email from you.

Constructive criticism is providing feedback in a manner that acknowledges both the positives and where there is room for improvement instead of solely focusing on the negatives. Simply stating "respond to emails" is NOT constructive.

What I am referring to in terms of automatic negativity is when a shopper complains and gets angry about the amount of work involved or something unclear in the guidelines rather than explaining this calmly so we can look into it.

I looked at your previous posts and it seems you have a real issue with IPSOS in general as you must have at least 30-40 posts complaining. Why are you still working with them then?

If you are upset that it takes longer than a week to get you paid, I would be happy to provide feedback to the client that we should change payment schedule to 60 days, this way if it takes 3-4 weeks shoppers are pleased instead of getting angry that it is taking an extra week or two.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2021 05:55AM by krattner.

mm

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2021 12:02AM by lgamble.

@lgamble I can't speak to your specific shop but some shops require more validation. Maybe the client has a question, something isn't lining up, etc. Were you paid the next round?

I did a couple of these today. For $95 each the pay was appropriate, but I wouldn't do them for much less than that. I used to be a big-time shopper for Maritz-CX. At the time of the merger, I was not even signed up with Ipsos. It has been quite an adventure trying to figure out who to contact for different clients and learning the way they click. I have met some very nice and helpful schedulers at Ipsos. I have also struggled to get in touch with someone at times. For example, I am trying to figure out who to contact about the gas station client that used to put Techron in their fuel. I absolutely cleaned house on a couple of other gas station clients. The thing I liked about Maritz was that you could build reasonable routes with bonuses based on past payment early in the shopping period. With ipsos I have to wait until the last minute, and then I am working 15 hour days to get shops done that I could have done earlier with less stress had they been able to bonus them before the last two weeks of the shopping window.

I saw some of these posted today in my area, $12 for IN STORE purchase and return. Um NO. That won't even get me out of the car one time to go inside. Bully for yall getting high fees for them. NOT here in Virginia, that is for sure. I am amazed at how low fees are and how they are getting lower, esp for shops like this that Maritz used to have and pay a lot more for. Now that ISPOS has them, they are bargain basement pay, must be scheduled (remember self scheduling with maritz?) and no bonuses here.

@thunderdeacon wrote:

The thing I liked about Maritz was that you could build reasonable routes with bonuses based on past payment early in the shopping period. With ipsos I have to wait until the last minute, and then I am working 15 hour days to get shops done that I could have done earlier with less stress had they been able to bonus them before the last two weeks of the shopping window.

I totally agree not only with these shops but also Martiz old contract for the NATIONAL bank chain. I used to be able to do 20 teller shops in a DAY, build a route with them. Now between COVID and the branches being closed and IPSOS dropping the pay, they are hardly worth it if you can find them. Also, too many IPSOS schedulers working at different paces so I can't work out a good route with a variety of shops (shipping, home improvement, gas station, bank) because I am working with and waiting on too many schedulers. This merger has really messed that up.

I agree that it is much more challenging to put a route together that involves more than one client.

@MavenMom wrote:

I totally agree not only with these shops but also Martiz old contract for the NATIONAL bank chain. I used to be able to do 20 teller shops in a DAY, build a route with them. Now between COVID and the branches being closed and IPSOS dropping the pay, they are hardly worth it if you can find them. Also, too many IPSOS schedulers working at different paces so I can't work out a good route with a variety of shops (shipping, home improvement, gas station, bank) because I am working with and waiting on too many schedulers. This merger has really messed that up.