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IPSOS cell phone shops. Why are people not doing them?

June 18, 2023 11:38PM
That's what I do too. Unfortunately, some of the younger associates are preprogrammed to ask and cannot handle it if I don't let them look up my account.
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More About Phone Shops
June 18, 2023 11:41PM
Every day I try to sign up for them. Every time, I ge the error message "This shop is not currently available."
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June 20, 2023 12:23PM
Whitman - Yes they do!
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June 20, 2023 08:50PM
@mystery2me wrote:

@wrosie wrote:

@ShopperGirly wrote:

Maybe a dumb question, but I think you may know the answer. If I upload photos from my phone to my laptop, then crop and upload the saved pic, don't I lose the metadata? No one has ever questioned my photos.

I do the same thing and have never had an issue. I do know if I look at a list of my files, in details view, there is a created date and a modified date. The created date usually stays as the time I took the picture and the modified date is when I saved the cropped photo.

I've also cropped and rotated pictures on my phone or tablet before uploading without any problems.

I don't think it changes the metadata but I'm not an expert.


Wrosie is correct. The original metadata remains in almost all cases.

The person who wrote that the original metadata remains is correct. The only way to remove the metadata would be to download a program that will remove it for you. In some cases if you have someone send you a photo to your phone and you upload it, sometimes you lose the metadata that way as well. But for most cases, if you are just cropping or editing a photo, the metadata is still there. You can verify this by going to the photo, right clicking, click on properties, look at the tab that says "details." If the photo comes from my phone it's all there. If it's a photo someone sent me to my phone and I download it, the metadata is limited or gone.

Like I said though there are some programs where you can insert the picture and have the metadata removed, I believe Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop will both do it. I don't remove metadata very often so my memory is foggy as to which program I used to use.
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June 20, 2023 08:53PM
Since I replied to a tangent, I'll reply to the original concerns.

I used to do these shops for Ipsos, but stopped when there started being long wait times at the cell providers. I also am not keen on giving them a "selfie." I don't take selfies for personal use and I'm sure as hell not going to take one for "business." That's just unprofessional in my opinion. If they want to know what I look like, they can ask me to upload a photo to their portal, not a selfie on a shop.
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June 20, 2023 09:16PM
I do not like taking selfies anymore. When I was younger and prettier, maybe.
I also feel embarrassed, and I feel like they could find me out as a shopper.
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June 21, 2023 12:36AM
All the editors can upload their selfie and send it to whomever they edit a report for. And then we can all meet on ZOOM and see each other. NOT!
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June 25, 2023 06:30AM
Removed
Moderator Note:

Post removed for violating a forum guideline "No personal insults".

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June 29, 2023 03:05AM
Because they are awful and don't pay worth a damn?

I thought I had totally sworn off cellphone shops, but booked a slew of them to pin down a route so I could wait for gas station jobs to hit the board.

Went to the first stop and realized within a few seconds of the interaction starting that there was no way I could effectively complete the report given the questions being asked and what did not happen in the store.

An instance where the ISFI program worked out great. 12 shops vanished off my board with no repercussions whatsoever. I halfway expected to be banned by the vendor, but their seemingly endless list of shops still shows up when I do a broad search.

Have synthesizers, will travel...
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June 29, 2023 04:14AM
I do as them as often as I can. I wish there were no restrictions on them.
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June 29, 2023 10:51AM
They take so long to do! At least the store ones do; without an appointment, it’s a 45-60 minute evaluation.
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June 30, 2023 04:26AM
Hey Diana you think everyone is photoshopping the reports, look at the Meta. The time and date stamps overlap. I’m sure there are shoppers in different locations at different times. I don’t think you are aware how much work it is to photoshop something.
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June 30, 2023 06:19AM
I have never experienced any lying or making stuff up coming from Diana. I have had much interaction with her for years and find her nothing but ethical and extremely helpful. The photographs are scrutinized by the editors as part of the scope of their job. They can reject a shop if something does not add up. And as far as Diana goes, she is not sitting there sifting through shopper's reports and looking for ways to get rid of you. She may be in a position to take action when directed or if she was provided with proof of discrepancies as being a Senior Field Manager.
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June 30, 2023 07:00AM
She got rid of me because I had glasses on in a selfie. No warning. I did it this way since the beginning. She honestly does not think it’s a selfie because I had glasses on. People wear glasses don’t take them off just to take a selfie. Its still called a selfie if you have glasses on. I personally couldn’t see to take a selfie if I didn’t have them on.
She and others are lying if they tell you they look at video if their client isn’t the store. Looking at store surveillance requires legal action. So many other lies like how many times has your pay been late due to a glitch with PayPal? Yet no other msc had problems. There’s another lie she says right there.
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June 30, 2023 05:00PM
@Shopsf wrote:

She got rid of me because I had glasses on in a selfie. No warning. I did it this way since the beginning. She honestly does not think it’s a selfie because I had glasses on. People wear glasses don’t take them off just to take a selfie. Its still called a selfie if you have glasses on. I personally couldn’t see to take a selfie if I didn’t have them on.
She and others are lying if they tell you they look at video if their client isn’t the store. Looking at store surveillance requires legal action. So many other lies like how many times has your pay been late due to a glitch with PayPal? Yet no other msc had problems. There’s another lie she says right there.

There’s nothing in the guidelines about taking your glasses off. Glasses aren’t a face covering. They’re glasses!!!

Diana Paone is a joke.

When Ipsos merged with GfK, they brought over GfK’s awful staff. They were notorious for stiffing mystery shoppers out of their pay.

Things have gone downhill since GfK’s former staff started running the show.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/30/2023 05:06PM by AWhitman.
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June 30, 2023 05:06PM
There’s nothing in the guidelines about taking your glasses off. Glasses aren’t a face covering. They’re glasses!!!

Diana Paone is a joke.

When Ipsos merged with GfK, they brought over GfK’s awful staff. They were notorious for stiffing mystery shoppers out of their pay.

Things have gone downhill since GfK’s former staff started running the show.
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June 30, 2023 05:53PM
I only have two comments today.

1-Ipsos paid me $140 in 2022 for a double cell shop; that sum was more than acceptable to me.
2-Intelli-shop has nightly audible, especially in the country, insect cell shops that begin at $20 and increase weekly by $5, until they are gone. I am guessing the average visit and report at 30 minutes. In two yrs., I have completed approx. 50 at various rates.
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June 30, 2023 09:43PM
Well, I am sorry you had that experience @Shopsf - but I only heard sunglasses were not allowed on certain selfie required shops, but regular glasses were. Not all video surveillance requires legal action. A PayPal glitch is on PayPal. But I never had a late payment from IPSOS. I have had many early payments. All I can say with certainty is I never had an issue with said company or said person. I hope your experiences will get better and mine do not change!
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June 30, 2023 11:15PM
@purpleicee wrote:

Well, I am sorry you had that experience @Shopsf - but I only heard sunglasses were not allowed on certain selfie required shops, but regular glasses were. Not all video surveillance requires legal action. A PayPal glitch is on PayPal. But I never had a late payment from IPSOS. I have had many early payments. All I can say with certainty is I never had an issue with said company or said person. I hope your experiences will get better and mine do not change!

You actually believe that? You believe Ipsos is watching hours and hours of surveillance footage to make sure shoppers show up and do their jobs?

If not, and the store owner turns over the footage for the that the shopper reported to be there; if the shopper was truly there, wouldn’t that expose the shopper and the program as well?
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June 30, 2023 11:44PM
Why don't you leave? We only have to wait 20 minutes, then free to go and still get paid.
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July 01, 2023 01:51AM
@Shopsf wrote:

She got rid of me because I had glasses on in a selfie. No warning. I did it this way since the beginning. She honestly does not think it’s a selfie because I had glasses on. People wear glasses don’t take them off just to take a selfie. Its still called a selfie if you have glasses on. I personally couldn’t see to take a selfie if I didn’t have them on.
She and others are lying if they tell you they look at video if their client isn’t the store. Looking at store surveillance requires legal action. So many other lies like how many times has your pay been late due to a glitch with PayPal? Yet no other msc had problems. There’s another lie she says right there.

I never took my glasses off for any of those selfies, its getting a lil bit too ridiculous at this point.
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July 01, 2023 05:14AM
@AWhitman - No, I do not believe they are reviewing footage. I was just making the comment, in general, that legal action is not always required to obtain surveillance.

But what you state about the owner exposing the shopper, whether as you described or other, they have done that many times. Shoppers on this forum have also mentioned seeing photographs in the back room of an establishment, maybe on a bulletin board, etc., when they have been onsite for a different assignment, such as merchandising. Some have also seen descriptions of the shopper posted as well. And many places do share footage with their own employees to point out what happened and/or the shopper.
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July 01, 2023 02:40PM
@purpleicee wrote:

@AWhitman - No, I do not believe they are reviewing footage. I was just making the comment, in general, that legal action is not always required to obtain surveillance.

But what you state about the owner exposing the shopper, whether as you described or other, they have done that many times. Shoppers on this forum have also mentioned seeing photographs in the back room of an establishment, maybe on a bulletin board, etc., when they have been onsite for a different assignment, such as merchandising. Some have also seen descriptions of the shopper posted as well. And many places do share footage with their own employees to point out what happened and/or the shopper.

If a store owner/employees catch a mystery shopper, that’s one thing. It’s another for the MSC to expose a shopper.
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July 01, 2023 04:30PM
@Rho* wrote:

A date time stamp is required and I do not have that App on my phone.

So, add one???

Have synthesizers, will travel...
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July 01, 2023 05:10PM
The worst case scenario for these shops is that you wait 19 of the required 20 minutes, then get assistance. The time limit is approximately 20 minute wait. I believe its 1/2 fee then. I do 10-15 of these a month. I work them into areas I go to. The hardest part is writing up the promotions, or why one or more of the features were not demonstrated.

Do not read so much, look about you and think of what you see there.
Richard Feynman-- letter to Ashok Arora, 4 January 1967, published in Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track (2005) p. 230
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July 01, 2023 05:12PM
@mgoodreau wrote:

That's what I do too. Unfortunately, some of the younger associates are preprogrammed to ask and cannot handle it if I don't let them look up my account.

Usually there is a restaurant nearby so I just explain I had time to kill and just want to look at smart phones, to get a hands on experience with them.

Do not read so much, look about you and think of what you see there.
Richard Feynman-- letter to Ashok Arora, 4 January 1967, published in Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track (2005) p. 230
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July 09, 2023 03:22PM
If the client isn’t the store, they aren’t reviewing any form of video. I think it’s insulting to tell shoppers they are. Do they think we are that dumb?
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July 15, 2023 04:47AM
I went to check on these shops - usually there are many dozens within my shopping area, but there is not even one. What happened to them? Did they lose the contract? There are usually other electronics shops too - but they are not listed either.
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July 15, 2023 04:57AM
@Babsshop wrote:

If the client isn’t the store, they aren’t reviewing any form of video. I think it’s insulting to tell shoppers they are. Do they think we are that dumb?

I would not assume that. There are cell phone reps who visit stores. I know because enough sales reps tell me this. (not in reference to these shops). Who knows if they are sharing the results with them, or at least using the results in training about the phones.

We do not have these shops nor the Tech shops so far this month. I did a search and the Foldables for this company is expected to be released on July 26th. I recall there were some premo shops when the other flagship line was released earlier this year.

Do not read so much, look about you and think of what you see there.
Richard Feynman-- letter to Ashok Arora, 4 January 1967, published in Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track (2005) p. 230
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July 15, 2023 06:53AM
It was my understanding that the electronic shops are over and done. Maybe I misinterpreted what I read, but the scheduler said that this was "the last chance to do these shops ever" in his email and two days later all of the shops were off of the board there were no more.
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