Did anyone else get this invite? I am in Southern California. I guess they are attending an event in the West Los Angeles area and are "inviting" shoppers to come out and meet with them.

The email was titled "iShopFor Ipsos Hangout - This Friday"

Meet us @ The 3rd Stop anytime from 6 - 9PM on Friday, June 24th:
8636 3rd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90048

Now maybe it was targeted to just Southern California shoppers since that is the area they will be in at this event.

Anyways, here's a chance for those upset with them to come and voice their concerns in person.

I understand expecting to be paid timely and poor communication. But I also understand, this is a large company and seeing what they pay shoppers, they probably don't pay their employees well either meaning their employees might not be the best employees.

So I won't be able to attend this event, but my complaint to them would about their communication or LACK of it. I am not going to complain about a late payment unless it was egregiously late like Bestmark was doing. I find Ipsos pays pretty quick and regularly with a day or 2 hiccup occasionally.

I think it's nice they are willing to try and connect with some local shoppers. Would be nice to see some other companies do this. I know some of the Nevada shopping companies I work for do this occasionally, but I don't live in Vegas so I'm not trekking out there just for that event.

I'm waiting for them to have a meet and greet in NYC!

Hello! Upon reading the balance of the communication, it appears that the purpose of the function may be to recruit new shoppers.

They should have a meet and greet with accounting. IPSOS has serious money problems with PayPal. Perhaps, they should offer direct deposit. To avoid continued issues with PayPal.

So...How much is the cover charge???? Yes, snark. But not unrealistic!

Would be pretty funny if someone was completing a video shop of a client in that area and caught the IPSOS people in their video. I wonder how many of these people in the industry know each other. I'm sure they are aware of the companies they compete with, but it would be funny if the one company was like WTF are they doing in the video because they recognize their competition.

I am in Central California and received this last minute invite as well. It does seem like a recruiting effort, which judging from many of us, wouldn't be in our best interest to bring a friend on board to this MSC.

Of of course it is a recruiting effort. California is a massive issue for them right now. They are having to pay way more than they want due to the high cost of living and few shoppers. It's also extremely expensive to route shop in California due to gas prices and high Hotel costs. This is just like sending the safety vests in the mail with their name plastered on the back of them. It is a feeble attempt to try to hide recruitment efforts in what appears to be a positive gesture. Again, it shows that they think that the average intelligence of the average shopper is somewhere between a sea cucumber and a common cucumber. Please do not go, and please do not fall for this Trojan Horse meet-and-greet. Ipsos is not based in southern california. I believe it's based on the east coast. Consider that they all have the money to travel there to put on this event, yet they have to lower the payment that we received. They also have money to send out safety vests in the mail. Wow when it's time to ask for bonuses, it's all doom and gloom and we can't pay that much. Please don't fall for it.

I live 50 miles east of LA. I'm not going. Friday evening rush hour traffic. No way.

I think it could be two-fold. They could be willing to meet their shoppers in that area and also hope to drum up more shoppers. This event and the area it is in is not where they struggle to fill shops. If they want to run a more effective recruiting effort, why not set up a stand at Dodger Stadium or at the Los Angeles County fair? Why pick some obscure event that is not really going to draw very many people.

They could have even gone to Coachella and recruited. They struggle to fill shops out in that area, so why not try to find some locals and others that are willing to travel out there as potential new shoppers?

I am not going on Friday, but I might go Saturday and stop by their booth. Apparently, if I am correctly understanding their text, they were at this "event" at least one other time, last year. I was in Redondo Beach today, and they are having a similar Summer Festival the same weekend. Maybe I will hit them both up. It will be a nice bike ride from Redondo Beach to Venice Beach!

1forum1, yes I am going too. Whatever the reason is they are coming I am excited to meet some of the people I might have worked with or for. Saturday will be a booth at the Mar Vista street fair and since I live in Mar Vista it could not have been closer to my home. My hope is that they will have to drive through traffic to get from West Hollywood to where I live in Mar Vista . Maybe after they see the lay of the land and how long it takes to get a few miles in this big city they will stop sending me job listings that are "near me" but an hours drive each way plus the time to do the job. All that ,probably three hours in total , for a job near me that pays $12.
So see you there 1forum1. Sandy

What are the money problems?

@Auditor wrote:

They should have a meet and greet with accounting. IPSOS has serious money problems with PayPal. Perhaps, they should offer direct deposit. To avoid continued issues with PayPal.

@sandyf wrote:

1forum1, yes I am going too. Whatever the reason is they are coming I am excited to meet some of the people I might have worked with or for. Saturday will be a booth at the Mar Vista street fair and since I live in Mar Vista it could not have been closer to my home.

Let us know how it goes! I'm really curious about what they do.

wait a minute, what about the NDA? If you go, have you violated it?

No. Thre MSC is inviting you to attend. The NDA is between you and them. They invite you, you can go.

@johnb974 wrote:

wait a minute, what about the NDA? If you go, have you violated it?

Even if an area is not so problematic to get shops completed, they may have a smaller than desired pool of shoppers in that area. So it could be a quest to recruit different shoppers so they get a wider range of perspectives vs. the same ole. Their marketing peeps know who their target audience is.

I also agree with with a comment thunderdecon made; struggling in SoCal. Everytime I do s trip there I can literally pick and choose because there are so many shops on the job boards. Not just Ipsos, many other MSCs too. Virtually every city in SoCal. All I have to do is figure out if I want to be inland for the day, downtown or a week of beach cities (my favorite of course). I am lucky in the sense that I have family and friends that way so I don't have to put out the cost for a hotel.

IPSOS may be utilizing local resources too Not all employees work at the corporate office pre and post COVID. Just depends who is going to be in the booth. I did not read anything that said so-n-so VP will be there.

uote=hbbigdaddy]
I think it could be two-fold. They could be willing to meet their shoppers in that area and also hope to drum up more shoppers. This event and the area it is in is not where they struggle to fill shops. If they want to run a more effective recruiting effort, why not set up a stand at Dodger Stadium or at the Los Angeles County fair? Why pick some obscure event that is not really going to draw very many people.

They could have even gone to Coachella and recruited. They struggle to fill shops out in that area, so why not try to find some locals and others that are willing to travel out there as potential new shoppers?[/quote]

Ok, been to the booth in Mar Vista.. And amazingly enough, as it was open from 12-8, I was there around 3:30 and some guy walks up as I was about to leave and asks if they have any IPSOS swag for him. So I asked if he was a shopper since he sounded like he knew about this booth, and he said, "Are you Sandy?" and I said are you "1forum1?" So my goal, I met another shopper and 2 staff. One of them, Carey said she oversees the entire country. She lives in Florida so zone 8 for us. Anyway I told her all my gripes about shopping in LA and she said she has been hearing about the same issues from everyone this weekend and plans to see what she can do about some of our big city issues....like parking fees, traffic causing time to get places vs miles to drive for other areas of the country, prices going up and reimbursements staying the same etc. I mentioned I did not think it would be easy to make a living in Los Angeles as a mystery shopper and she agreed and said almost all the shoppers here are part time. Not much swag! Missed the food and drinks they had last night.

Nice to meet you Sandy! Yes, they hear our concerns loud and clear. I expect some adjustments in the future. Not only do they hear the concerns that have been expressed, but they have seen and experienced some of them in California. Regarding some other things mentioned in this forum about their visit........ Yes, they are here to recruit..... and to meet us, but primarily to recruit. Why this venue? They applied to many, but were denied because the others required them to sell product. This venue did not. Ipsos is getting bigger. Yep, they are picking up more clients in California, another reason for the visit here. All in all, it was nice to connect. It was beautiful day for my 18 mile round trip bike ride along the shoreline bike paths. They are thoroughly enjoying this So Cal weather!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/2022 07:18AM by 1forum1.

Anyone ask them if they read the board and the complaints about their late payments? Did they comment on that?

They could have had a booth at OC Fair or LA Fair and NOT sell things. But I'm sure those booths are NOT cheap either and they probably can't get away with just 1 or 2 days, but would be expected to be there for the duration of the event.

Maybe they will come out for the Long Beach grand prix next year

I want to respond to the last few comments above.
My first comment is that I personally have no issues with pay being a few days late once in a while. I understand some shoppers have bills to pay that cannot wait but I realize that pay from IPSOS is weeks and for many other msc months earlier. So I choose to give them some slack on this. No matter how late they are they are earlier than any other company I personally work for. Fortunately I am in a position where I can plan for some glitches.
Second, about the visit. It was great to meet them and to meet them in a place where there were only hundreds of people and not thousands. I had a long visit with them and time to express my issues. Had it been a huge venue I doubt I would have had more than a minute or two before they had to turn to the next browser. I was sorry however that 1forum1 arrived just as i was wrapping up. My friends were waiting for me and I had already taken up a lot of the booth time and my friends time so it was time for me to move on. But as 1forum1 said, they did hear us. And this seemed a very relaxed and friendly personal visit unlike what I imagine it would have been at a county fair.

Why would you want them to come to the Long Beach Grand Prix, OC Fair, or LA Fair? Heck, I wasn't thrilled about them coming to this venue...... to recruit. I let them know as much. I don't want anymore competition. They understand. Anyway, the tone, the mood, the entire vibe at this event was friendly, and there was informative dialogue. I am glad I made the connection. I am not necessarily happy they attended this event, but I was happy I attended. Regarding late payments.... I did not bring up that issue. I did not think about it. It is not an issue with me. I will say this in general about late payments..... I have been a member of this forum for about 3 years. I have seen a complaint about every single MSC that I work with, without exception, multiple times. All of them. Complaint after complaint has been registered. The end result is always the same.... I have been been fully paid by everyone. I have noticed that no MSC has a perfect record, not even close. They all say they will pay at such and such a time, but I don't get paid the same "scheduled" payday consistently by anyone. I "generally" know when to expect payment. Market Force, Inteli-shop, The Source, Cirrus, ATH Power, and IPSOS, to name a few that I have worked with, have all received payment complaints. Using this, what I think is a fair sample size, tells me, and should tell all of us, that these payment concerns is not an IPSOS issue, it's an industry issue. You might not like it, but you better expect it. If you work in this industry, based on the numerous complaints about numerous companies, it is apparent payment does not always arrive when it "should." People have good cause to be upset, but I can't get upset about something the industry has already told me multiple times, for years, based on the complaints, and the consistent general fluid scheduled payment dates that have existed my entire experience as a shopper, will occur occasionally. I know I will always get paid, and for me that is the bottom line.

As far as my suggestions of LA County Fair, OC Fair, or Long Beach Grand Prix, I was looking at it from their mission. How many people are they really going to get to join at the event they chose that will be SERIOUS shoppers? A few might give it a try, but so many people are flakey. I have no way to "prove" this, but I doubt less than 25% of any NEW contacts they made would make SERIOUS shoppers in the long run.

I have told friends about what I do and some think it's cool. I have given them companies that I won't work for or assignments that I won't do and all but 2 people have been "lip service." Only 2 have actually signed up and done shops on a regular basis. One is in Fontucky so they are not in my vicinity. Another is in South OC, also not my vicinity.

So my point is, I feel IPSOS picked a lame event to recruit at. Maybe they had a good return and will feel differently, but the amount of people that attended the event is minimal in comparison with the 3 examples of better events/venues that I mentioned.

Unlike any of the others you name, Ipsos uses their fast pay as one of the pluses of their specific projects. Especially on shopmetrics (where ironically pay tends to come later) they say they pay the fastest in the business. And it’s true, like you say. But if it becomes a habit that they pay late (it hasn’t reached that stage at all and hopefully never will) then that plus of the company is moot.
If it is very occasional and they update us then it would be problematic but understandable. The other issue the time before this one was that they didn’t send an update when not everyone got paid on Friday which is when they said we would receive it.

@1forum1 wrote:

Why would you want them to come to the Long Beach Grand Prix, OC Fair, or LA Fair? Heck, I wasn't thrilled about them coming to this venue...... to recruit. I let them know as much. I don't want anymore competition. They understand. Anyway, the tone, the mood, the entire vibe at this event was friendly, and there was informative dialogue. I am glad I made the connection. I am not necessarily happy they attended this event, but I was happy I attended. Regarding late payments.... I did not bring up that issue. I did not think about it. It is not an issue with me. I will say this in general about late payments..... I have been a member of this forum for about 3 years. I have seen a complaint about every single MSC that I work with, without exception, multiple times. All of them. Complaint after complaint has been registered. The end result is always the same.... I have been been fully paid by everyone. I have noticed that no MSC has a perfect record, not even close. They all say they will pay at such and such a time, but I don't get paid the same "scheduled" payday consistently by anyone. I "generally" know when to expect payment. Market Force, Inteli-shop, The Source, Cirrus, ATH Power, and IPSOS, to name a few that I have worked with, have all received payment complaints. Using this, what I think is a fair sample size, tells me, and should tell all of us, that these payment concerns is not an IPSOS issue, it's an industry issue. You might not like it, but you better expect it. If you work in this industry, based on the numerous complaints about numerous companies, it is apparent payment does not always arrive when it "should." People have good cause to be upset, but I can't get upset about something the industry has already told me multiple times, for years, based on the complaints, and the consistent general fluid scheduled payment dates that have existed my entire experience as a shopper, will occur occasionally. I know I will always get paid, and for me that is the bottom line.

Bigdaddy, believe or not, I expressed the same point you just made directly to them regarding "serious" shoppers. I may have used different adjectives like quality and dependable. Who knows why they chose that venue. I will take them at their word. There may be other reasons they chose that venue too. I didn't dwell on the matter. Perhaps return on investment figured into it. Here's is something I know from a previous period of time in my life. During the peak period of sports card and sport memorabilia business, the early 90's, I sold at various venues. Almost every mall in So Cal, some small mom and pop joints, and at convention centers including Anaheim and Los Angeles. The return of investment was small at the convention centers, but I would generally sell the most product. The cost of the booth at the convention center is HUGE! I doubt the return on their investment would be any better at a large event precisely because of the reasons and questions you asked. Are they going to get significantly more "serious" shoppers at the Grand Prix than at the Venice Summerfest? I doubt it. @Bigdaddy "Fontucky" LOL