IShopForIpsos question

UPDATE: they finally replied by email 4 days after I first inquired. But why not tell the shopper on an email why it’s being placed on hold when you place it on hold? That’s just nuts to reject it and never say why.

Has anyone else been having issues with ishopforipsos not responding to inquiries and not letting you know why a shop’s pay is in “on hold” status? I’ve recently started shopping their shops again and I used to get notified if there was any problem with a shop but no longer. 2 of my last 4 are shown as being on hold and I’ve gotten no response when I ask why. 2 are shown as being in review but those are the more recent ones. I’ve asked numerous times by email about the shops shown as being on hold and attempted to use chat to talk to them do I could find out what’s going on but am not being successful. I can’t even get a chat started…

Any input? I’m not too fond of their new app platform either…

Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 07/12/2022 07:22PM by TexGmn.

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There are many complaints on the forum about Ipsos lack of responsiveness to shoppers. You are not the only one. This has been going on for a long time. They must be understaffed and have more work than they can handle.
Well…it’s not a good thing at all. One of the reasons I used to shop often for them is their responsiveness and fast pay turnaround. I’m sorry to see that is no longer true.
Yes. This is the price one pays for working for Ipsos, unfortunately. They do not respond to emails, and there is no other way to contact them. The only possibility is getting lucky and having a nice scheduler that might be willing to help.
They posted a phone number on facebook.

We're so happy that we're able to connect with our mystery shoppers in-person again. Our time in LA taught us a lot - but mostly that we need to get better at communicating with you and getting you in-field support. Our first step? Getting you a phone number to call when you've got questions. So here it is: 833-782-0500. We're here Monday - Friday 9AM - 5PM EST to answer your questions. We're working on expanding to the weekend, but we have to ramp up our teams first. Thanks for your patience and for partnering with #iShopForIpsos.

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#mysteryshopping #ipsos #LA #Venice #flexibleschedule
I saw that and laughed! It took them to travel to LA to realize this? They should MS themselves, and would be amazed by the data collected.
They do polls and surveys on thousands of topics, from political to financial to social, worldwide but can’t be bothered to survey their shoppers. About all sorts of matters that would make our lives easier and therefore their bottom line better. And/or would make the shops more beneficial for their clients. They must have awesome salespeople if they think our opinions are worthless yet sell our opinion-giving to various multinationals every day.
@Auditor wrote:

I saw that and laughed! It took them to travel to LA to realize this? They should MS themselves, and would be amazed by the data collected.
@pegleg2000 wrote:

They posted a phone number on facebook.

We're so happy that we're able to connect with our mystery shoppers in-person again. Our time in LA taught us a lot - but mostly that we need to get better at communicating with you and getting you in-field support. Our first step? Getting you a phone number to call when you've got questions. So here it is: 833-782-0500. We're here Monday - Friday 9AM - 5PM EST to answer your questions. We're working on expanding to the weekend, but we have to ramp up our teams first. Thanks for your patience and for partnering with #iShopForIpsos.

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#mysteryshopping #ipsos #LA #Venice #flexibleschedule

Why not post this message on their website? Not all shoppers are on Facebook.
I just took a look, and this number is now posted under the "news" section of the ShopMetrics site. If they actually answer it, and the person on the other end is actually able to help, then this will be a huge improvement. However, it remains to be seen how useful this will be. Of course, if they answered their emails in a timely manner, then this wouldn't be needed. Almost all of the emails I have sent to the general email address over the past couple of years have been completely ignored, and I only emailed when I had a significant issue.







@Susan L. wrote:

@pegleg2000 wrote:

They posted a phone number on facebook.

We're so happy that we're able to connect with our mystery shoppers in-person again. Our time in LA taught us a lot - but mostly that we need to get better at communicating with you and getting you in-field support. Our first step? Getting you a phone number to call when you've got questions. So here it is: 833-782-0500. We're here Monday - Friday 9AM - 5PM EST to answer your questions. We're working on expanding to the weekend, but we have to ramp up our teams first. Thanks for your patience and for partnering with #iShopForIpsos.

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.
.

#mysteryshopping #ipsos #LA #Venice #flexibleschedule

Why not post this message on their website? Not all shoppers are on Facebook.
I tried doing a Stars audit today. Station had major problem ( AC out in So Calif). They asked to poatpone audit to next week. I called the number and got voicemail. That was 4 1/2 hours ago and I havent heard anything yet.
It just seems so inefficient to have one main mailbox to cover tech issues with Sassie or Shopmetrics, payroll, and a multitude of mystery shopping questions for dozens of projects. Or they have an intern or a temp or whoever (not) answer everything based on a script? I do sometimes get a reply a couple of days later, but it’s often not at all helpful. And always hit or miss whether I get a reply at all. I don’t know whether the phone number is under announcements in Sassie because the menu of shop log doesn’t render correctly on my iPhone, which I would point out if they had a tech support button, but isn’t worth clogging up the main email box for.
@thunderdeacon wrote:

I just took a look, and this number is now posted under the "news" section of the ShopMetrics site. If they actually answer it, and the person on the other end is actually able to help, then this will be a huge improvement. However, it remains to be seen how useful this will be. Of course, if they answered their emails in a timely manner, then this wouldn't be needed. Almost all of the emails I have sent to the general email address over the past couple of years have been completely ignored, and I only emailed when I had a significant issue.







@Susan L. wrote:

@pegleg2000 wrote:

They posted a phone number on facebook.

We're so happy that we're able to connect with our mystery shoppers in-person again. Our time in LA taught us a lot - but mostly that we need to get better at communicating with you and getting you in-field support. Our first step? Getting you a phone number to call when you've got questions. So here it is: 833-782-0500. We're here Monday - Friday 9AM - 5PM EST to answer your questions. We're working on expanding to the weekend, but we have to ramp up our teams first. Thanks for your patience and for partnering with #iShopForIpsos.

.
.
.

#mysteryshopping #ipsos #LA #Venice #flexibleschedule

Why not post this message on their website? Not all shoppers are on Facebook.
Every time they have not paid me it has been for not reporting the shop within their stated time frame. Example: submitting same day as the shop but at 11PM when the deadline was 10PM. They are very serious about their rules and they owe you no explanation if you didn't pay attention. I learned that the hard way on several occasions.
@pegleg2000 wrote:

I tried doing a Stars audit today. Station had major problem ( AC out in So Calif). They asked to poatpone audit to next week. I called the number and got voicemail. That was 4 1/2 hours ago and I havent heard anything yet.

I got a call this morning and was able to change shop date.
Agreed. I emailed at least times about a Helios route, as I did them in the last. I decided it’s not worth pursuing if they are getting this bad at communication
I recently did a shop for IPSOS and it got rejected as well (though it was unclear to me - "pay held" means i'm not getting paid? Or it means it hasn't been processed? Or held up for some reason? Now I know it definitely means I'm not getting paid and it was rejected for some reason. But I received no notification, no word until I emailed asking if it was just on hold or if it had been rejected. At least they responded rather quickly and gave me the reason why it had been rejected.

The other issue I had was that I was unable to enter any notes or submit the shop until 1 hr before it was due. I think they had accidentally set the wrong time on it - the evaluation was performed on 7/9, and on the site, I could not enter the shop until 7/9 23:00.

Oh well.
Called their "New" number today. Ten rings and no answer on the first try. A voice mail picked up the call on the second try after five rings. Left a message that was urgent five hours ago. No call back yet. Hmmm....
It's very embarrassing for them to post a phone number on Facebook and their website and then not even answer it. You would think that when they rolled it out they would at least have a few people sitting there available to answer the phones. Sometimes I wonder if they're just clueless or if they really are stretched way too thin and in dire straits. I know that ipsos is a profitable, multinational company that makes most of its money through activities other than the mystery shopping. I wonder if they're the red-headed stepchild and they don't get many resources. I have no idea to be honest. They definitely have the resources to create a fancy looking website with lots of cartoons. And they have the resources to send out postcards and other types of swag. But they can't answer the phone.
You can always try chatting with the "Fred Bot" on the home page. I have no idea where those messages go... tongue sticking out smiley
If it doesn't load for you, the browser could be the problem. I just tried it with MS Edge and did not have any trouble, but no agents were available (of course, it's after midnight...)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/20/2022 06:23AM by patman9760.
No Live Agents are ever available. There is Fred the chatbot set up, which is really just an interface to their published Shopper FAQs. After a while, Fred will state that he is transferring you to a Live Agent, but they don't actually have that set up correctly so you'll just there waiting forever.

The new phone number is never live answered. You can leave a voicemail and they will likely call you back the next day. If its super urgent, you can message them through Facebook where they do respond almost immediately, ask them to have someone call you, and they will.

Should it be this hard? Absolutely not!
As I need to travel 62 miles north of my house on non-shopping business tomorrow, I accessed several sites in search of work. At Ipsos, they were offering $18 for a blue bank inquiry; I was paid $35 in 2005 for the same job, so I decided to pass.
That is what's called growing pains after they bought a large company last year and then let everyone go that was associated with it.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/20/2022 07:37PM by 2stepps.
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