Just wanted to alert shoppers who schedule gas station shops through Kern Scheduling (KSS) for IPSOS. I completed several shops in late February that were scheduled through KSS and all had a $20 bonus per shop. Shops were completed on time and I was paid the base rate only. No bonuses were paid, even though it shows the bonus due in the Sassie platform on the KSS website. I emailed Lorri Kern directly and she has been of no help other than supposedly sending an email to IPSOS on my behalf. Very disappointing. KSS owes me the money if IPSOS does not pay, since they offered the bonus and I accepted the offer and completed the work. I am certain they will both be paid. I am eager to see if either company will do the right thing.

@ATLShopper wrote:

Just wanted to alert shoppers who schedule gas station shops through Kern Scheduling (KSS) for IPSOS. I completed several shops in late February that were scheduled through KSS and all had a $20 bonus per shop. Shops were completed on time and I was paid the base rate only. No bonuses were paid, even though it shows the bonus due in the Sassie platform on the KSS website. I emailed Lorri Kern directly and she has been of no help other than supposedly sending an email to IPSOS on my behalf. Very disappointing. KSS owes me the money if IPSOS does not pay, since they offered the bonus and I accepted the offer and completed the work. I am certain they will both be paid. I am eager to see if either company will do the right thing.

i'm confused. did the bonus not show up on the ipsos site? the one kss shop i did didn't even show up on kss site, only on ipsos's site, and it showed the correct bonus. wouldn't you have seen this before completing the shop?

I had the exact same thing happen in January. I sent the scheduler a copy of the e-mail where she had approved the bonus, and she forwarded it to somebody who fixed it.

They paid the bonus amount through a separate payment.

Good luck.

@ATLShopper wrote:

I emailed Lorri Kern directly and she has been of no help other than supposedly sending an email to IPSOS on my behalf. Very disappointing. KSS owes me the money if IPSOS does not pay, since they offered the bonus and I accepted the offer and completed the work.

I was sympathetic until this. You did the work. You got paid the base rate, which meant IPSOS accepted your shop. You should be paid every cent you were promised.

However, The "supposedly" is uncalled for and offensive unless you have evidence she lied, and I seriously doubt she did. Also, IPSOS, and only IPSOS, owes you the bonus. KSS does not owe you any money. Lorri might do more to help you because she often goes beyond what is required to help shoppers. If I were she, I certainly would not due to your attitude. Why would I wish to encourage/reward this kind of attitude/behavior?

Underpayment and "mistakes" in applying bonuses are a huge red flag. Once a scheduler has done it to me, I keep my eye on them. I always make sure the agreed upon pay is published in the shop information before I complete a shop. I have had to go back and get bonuses "fixed" due to a "mistake" many times.

@BusyBeeBuzzBuzzBuzz wrote:

@ATLShopper wrote:

I emailed Lorri Kern directly and she has been of no help other than supposedly sending an email to IPSOS on my behalf. Very disappointing. KSS owes me the money if IPSOS does not pay, since they offered the bonus and I accepted the offer and completed the work.

I was sympathetic until this. You did the work. You got paid the base rate, which meant IPSOS accepted your shop. You should be paid every cent you were promised.

However, The "supposedly" is uncalled for and offensive unless you have evidence she lied, and I seriously doubt she did. Also, IPSOS, and only IPSOS, owes you the bonus. KSS does not owe you any money. Lorri might do more to help you because she often goes beyond what is required to help shoppers. If I were she, I certainly would not due to your attitude. Why would I wish to encourage/reward this kind of attitude/behavior?

Epistemologically, "supposedly" is the correct word to use. Short of having a forwarded copy of the email, ATLShopper has no proof Ms. Kern acted on their behalf. Until there's evidence for or against the sending of the email, she did just "supposedly" send it. It's the same logic as "innocent until proven guilty" or "Schrodinger's cat"; you cannot make a conclusion without evidence.

I have 17 shops scheduled by KSS for IPSOS right now. I can see the bonus on the IPSOS site.
Was that not the case for you OP?

@Misanthrope wrote:

Epistemologically, "supposedly" is the correct word to use. Short of having a forwarded copy of the email, ATLShopper has no proof Ms. Kern acted on their behalf. Until there's evidence for or against the sending of the email, she did just "supposedly" send it. It's the same logic as "innocent until proven guilty" or "Schrodinger's cat"; you cannot make a conclusion without evidence.

Anyone else have to Google Schrodinger's cat? The things you learn on this forum!

I have offered to do a couple of the gas shops for KSS and Pete told me that there is some sort of restriction on my Ipsos account preventing me from doing these shops.

He said I have to deal with Ipsos to resolve it. So far no response from Ipsos. I did three other shops for Ipsos today, so I'm not sure what type of restriction there might be or how I earned it.

Anyone have any suggestions?

KSS "Lie" ..perish the thought!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/13/2021 02:43PM by salisburync.

Short response:

I am sorry but I'm afraid you'll have to deal with IPSOS directly.

Long response:

I went through a similar situation with Maritz (before IPSOS). It was for a cellular service provider and with a different KSS scheduler. She told me there was a restriction on my Maritz account and I did not understand why. As far as I knew, my account was in good standing. She told me I had to contact Maritz directly to find out why.

The weird thing was the first Maritz person I talked to on the phone could not see any restriction on my account -- for that cellular provider or any other client. I had been doing gas station shops and bank shops all along for Maritz.

I contacted the KSS scheduler again and told her my Maritz contact said I was not restricted. There was nothing the KSS scheduler could do other than tell me to deal with Maritz directly on the restriction issue.

So, I reached out to Maritz again. I talked to someone else at Maritz, who said I was restricted for that client but she did not know why. She referred me to someone else at Maritz, who only interacted with me via email. She said I was restricted because I said I never wanted to shop for that client. Well, I never said that. What happened was, a long time ago, a Maritz (not KSS) scheduler asked me to do a shop for that client and I told her I did not want to participate in that project AT THE TIME.

So, the restriction was lifted, at my request, without Maritz acknowledging that there should never have been a restriction in the first place. I reached out to the KSS scheduler again, who could now, and did, assign me one of the bonused cellular provider shops.

I got paid, including the bonus.

@wrosie wrote:

I have offered to do a couple of the gas shops for KSS and Pete told me that there is some sort of restriction on my Ipsos account preventing me from doing these shops.

He said I have to deal with Ipsos to resolve it. So far no response from Ipsos. I did three other shops for Ipsos today, so I'm not sure what type of restriction there might be or how I earned it.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks, that sounds like what may have happened because I think the gas stations had been with Maritz prior to Ipsos merging/buying out Maritz.

You're welcome. Good luck.

@kenasch wrote:

Anyone else have to Google Schrodinger's cat? The things you learn on this forum!

Yup, never heard of Schrodinger's Cat, either. Here's a link to a somewhat easy-to-understand article about it.
[astronimate.com]

I was stoked to see the word “ Epistemologically” begin a post. Pretty sure that the last time I saw THAT word was on my SAT Verbal Test, several decades ago.

Yes, and then that led me to look up "Copenhagen interpretation." And then THAT led me to recall the good old days when I did not spend my Saturday nights looking up physics information that is way over my head.

@kenasch wrote:

Anyone else have to Google Schrodinger's cat? The things you learn on this forum!

Since it was brought up this reminds me of the time I asked the librarian about a book on Pavlov's dog and Schrodinger's cat. She said it rang a bell but was not sure weather it was there or not.

Fortunately or unfortunately, I have reason to understand Schrodinger's Cat. And why something can be "Doubly Forbidden" (a different topic and a strange epistemological conundrum) and still happen.

I think "The Cat" got the most popular publicity on The Big Bang Theory. It was mentioned in several episodes as Sheldon tried to teach physics to Penny. Of course, Penny was trying to teach Sheldon to act as a social being. Here are two scenes, first Penny and Sheldon and then Penny and Leonard: [www.youtube.com]

I have known many "Sheldon's" during my career as an Analytical Chemist. They frequent the disciplines of Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, and more. If you watched The Big Bang Theory and thought that Sheldon was an exaggerated caricature, he isn't. Only a small fraction of my colleagues were "Sheldons", but they really exist.

BTW (and for laughs), my SO thinks that I am Leonard, particularly since that makes her Penny.

@guysmom wrote:

@kenasch wrote:

Anyone else have to Google Schrodinger's cat? The things you learn on this forum!

Yup, never heard of Schrodinger's Cat, either. Here's a link to a somewhat easy-to-understand article about it.
[astronimate.com]

@Misanthrope wrote:

@BusyBeeBuzzBuzzBuzz wrote:

@ATLShopper wrote:

I emailed Lorri Kern directly and she has been of no help other than supposedly sending an email to IPSOS on my behalf. Very disappointing. KSS owes me the money if IPSOS does not pay, since they offered the bonus and I accepted the offer and completed the work.

I was sympathetic until this. You did the work. You got paid the base rate, which meant IPSOS accepted your shop. You should be paid every cent you were promised.

However, The "supposedly" is uncalled for and offensive unless you have evidence she lied, and I seriously doubt she did. Also, IPSOS, and only IPSOS, owes you the bonus. KSS does not owe you any money. Lorri might do more to help you because she often goes beyond what is required to help shoppers. If I were she, I certainly would not due to your attitude. Why would I wish to encourage/reward this kind of attitude/behavior?

Epistemologically, "supposedly" is the correct word to use. Short of having a forwarded copy of the email, ATLShopper has no proof Ms. Kern acted on their behalf. Until there's evidence for or against the sending of the email, she did just "supposedly" send it. It's the same logic as "innocent until proven guilty" or "Schrodinger's cat"; you cannot make a conclusion without evidence.

While "supposedly" may be epistemologically correct, it was probably not the best word choice, etymologically speaking.

@ATLShopper wrote:

Just wanted to alert shoppers who schedule gas station shops through Kern Scheduling (KSS) for IPSOS. I completed several shops in late February that were scheduled through KSS and all had a $20 bonus per shop. Shops were completed on time and I was paid the base rate only. No bonuses were paid, even though it shows the bonus due in the Sassie platform on the KSS website. I emailed Lorri Kern directly and she has been of no help other than supposedly sending an email to IPSOS on my behalf. Very disappointing. KSS owes me the money if IPSOS does not pay, since they offered the bonus and I accepted the offer and completed the work. I am certain they will both be paid. I am eager to see if either company will do the right thing.

I did in fact get this taken care of on your behalf, and if you don't have it already, you will soon have the payment. KSS does not pay shoppers, but we do stand up for them when there is a problem. I hope you will come back and correct this thread when payment is received from IPSOS.

Thanks for the reply Lorri, but honestly I would have appreciated a response to my email six days ago. To date, I have not been paid, but I certainly will update the thread in the event I receive payment. The condescending email from the manager at IPSOS is typical of most MSC's treatment of shoppers.

I also understand that you do not pay shoppers directly, but if you entice a shopper, with a bonus, to complete a job for which you will be compensated and the bonus is not paid, you may have a liability problem.

Hi @ATLShopper - I did respond to you. I have a copy in my sent box. Perhaps you should check the spam and junk filters. Because KSS sends close to 1 million emails a day, we often get filtered

I've found that since the "Blue" Gas Station Shops, now the province of the new owner and serviced by Kern, only allows rotation to the first 2 weeks of each month rather than the old company's 3 weeks, the shops are often available at a bonused amount.
I've done some, received the bonused amount, yet often losing the third week shops. It seems to be an even swap of accumulated fees while lesser shops performed. It seems crazy on their part to pay bonuses in the third week rather than allowing the rotational shopper to schedule out.

With regard to Schrodinger's Cat Experiment, I read a book a few years with references to the subject. The book was "Dark Matter" by Blake Crouch. Its a good read, dealing with choices and alternate universes.

As for Sheldon on "Big Bang Theory", a child development friend once explained to me that Sheldon is a very good example of someone with Asperger's Syndrome.

A friend once had a cat she named Schrodinger. She pronounced it with an umlaut over the o.

Lorri you did respond to my initial email to you as I noted above, but you did not respond to the email I sent to You and Carrie at IPSOS. I still have not been paid the bonuses that KSS offered me for the shops that I have completed.

Finally paid after a month of emails to IPSOS and KSS. Be cautious in accepting bonuses offered by KSS for IPSOS.

Ms. Kern....Not much of an excuse.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/02/2021 11:10AM by salisburync.

Hey, be glad it was only a month to get paid; I have done shops that have taken up to six months to get paid. One shop I had done back when the lockdown was in effect, and I only got a partial payment because the lockdown stopped us from the meeting was $3 for the phone portion, which showed up this past February. Pretty close to a year. Oh and neither of these companies was KSS!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/02/2021 03:40PM by 2stepps.