Blaming it on PayPal. My guess is that someone at IPSOS neglected to transfer funds to PayPal. I wouldn't mind if they paid only once per month, but ethical organizations are clear about their guilt. We all know that PayPal transfers can have immediate effect - provided there is money in the account.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2023 03:42AM by Rousseau.

I'm just sitting here trying to figure out how they had a "problem with Paypal on Paypal's end", yet another MSC that pays on Tuesday had no problem at all paying me via Paypal yesterday. I also think that if it were a Paypal issue, Paypal wouldn't respond to them by saying, "we'll get it fixed within 48 hours". Paypal is actually very prompt with customer service and responding to any sort of issue like this. Sounds more like someone in Accounts Payable either called in sick or forget to press a submit button.

It may be a line of credit issue. Being as big as they are, they probably have a line of credit that PayPal extends to them. And probably this payroll period went over the line.

nevermind

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/12/2023 04:17PM by 1forum1.

Finally got the email a few minutes ago that there is a issue with PayPal, up to 48 hrs to resolve. I'm assuming that 48 hours from the email, not from actual payday.

Edited to add after seeing other comments: We can speculate all we want but this could very well be a Paypal issue with only IPSOS, as their collective payroll transfer is much, much larger than other MSC's & weekly. It's not like this happens regularly. I've been doing work for them over 4 years, this is only the 2nd time there has been a problem with payroll transfer. The first time they communicated as soon as possible & the issue was resolved within 2 days. I expect they same will happen this time.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/12/2023 04:28PM by NatureGirl.

I didn’t see where they said that the issue was on PayPal’s end. I read that it was an issue with PayPal beyond their control.

They said “The second we're able to process your payment, we absolutely will”.

To me, if I were to speculate, which I really don’t like doing, there was an issue with the payroll vendor/processor on IPSOS end and it didn’t communicate to PayPal.

Maybe PayPal implemented an additional security feature for verification, maybe the processor didn’t link up, but for whatever reason things didn’t happen for people to get paid which sucks.

My recommendation is to have an “emergency” or a “floater” fund if you can for times like this.

Hope it gets resolved quickly.

@KA047 wrote:

I'm just sitting here trying to figure out how they had a "problem with Paypal on Paypal's end", yet another MSC that pays on Tuesday had no problem at all paying me via Paypal yesterday. I also think that if it were a Paypal issue, Paypal wouldn't respond to them by saying, "we'll get it fixed within 48 hours". Paypal is actually very prompt with customer service and responding to any sort of issue like this. Sounds more like someone in Accounts Payable either called in sick or forget to press a submit button.

The last time the payments were late they said the exact same thing. It's a problem on PayPal's end.

My opinion is that they didn't renew their agreement with PayPal until it was time to make payments. I don't remember the exact dates the last time this happened, but it seems like it was just about a year ago..

You have a great memory. This is from 6/21/2022.

“Due to an issue with PayPal that is beyond our control, we are unable to process payments scheduled to go out today. Our finance teams are working with PayPal to resolve ASAP. As soon as PayPal provides us with an update on when we will have a resolution, we will let you know. The second we're able to process your payment, we absolutely will. We are optimistic that this will be sooner rather than later.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience - we know how important these payments are, and we're doing everything we can to get a quick resolution. If you have additional questions, please contact our shopper support team at mystery.shopping@ipsos.com.”

@Morledzep wrote:

The last time the payments were late they said the exact same thing. It's a problem on PayPal's end.

My opinion is that they didn't renew their agreement with PayPal until it was time to make payments. I don't remember the exact dates the last time this happened, but it seems like it was just about a year ago..

If you live in the same century as I do issues in my personal life dealing with all sorts of entities come up very often where some thing goes haywire and has to be fixed. It seems every week I am on the phone with some company or other, often the same company for several weeks, asking them to fix the issues with my account. I am not sure why so many shoppers doubt reports from companies that have an issue they tell you about based on something in their system or systems they connect to. Even in this thread a shopper is reporting a big glitch in their social security. Our lives being run by computer programs is so much easier in so many ways but these glitches happen and take time to fix.
The larger the company usually the more complicated the software is. Paypal is a huge company. My son gets paid big bucks as one of the people who has to find small bugs in a software program that has layers upon layers of changes made to it by different programmers over time. He does not work for Paypal. Tracing back to the source can be a lengthy process. I know little about that world but issues with software are real and sometimes difficult to fix he has told me. I do not doubt that any msc may be involved at some point in issues that take time to fix just as we are in our much less complicated lives. .

Why is it that I'm totally not surprised that they pass the buck to PayPal....i took a two dispenser red and blue station with the pay cut. All they did was reorder the questions and "consolidate" the pump condition to one question! It still requires a picture for two or more pumps!! Why do they think this is worth a two dollar pay cut??? This is not a new survey its the same exact one just reordered!

@Capurato wrote:

I didn’t see where they said that the issue was on PayPal’s end. I read that it was an issue with PayPal beyond their control.

They said “The second we're able to process your payment, we absolutely will”.

To me, if I were to speculate, which I really don’t like doing, there was an issue with the payroll vendor/processor on IPSOS end and it didn’t communicate to PayPal.

Maybe PayPal implemented an additional security feature for verification, maybe the processor didn’t link up, but for whatever reason things didn’t happen for people to get paid which sucks.

My recommendation is to have an “emergency” or a “floater” fund if you can for times like this.

Hope it gets resolved quickly.

@KA047 wrote:

I'm just sitting here trying to figure out how they had a "problem with Paypal on Paypal's end", yet another MSC that pays on Tuesday had no problem at all paying me via Paypal yesterday. I also think that if it were a Paypal issue, Paypal wouldn't respond to them by saying, "we'll get it fixed within 48 hours". Paypal is actually very prompt with customer service and responding to any sort of issue like this. Sounds more like someone in Accounts Payable either called in sick or forget to press a submit button.

Beyond their control as in beyond PayPal’s control, as opposed to “beyond our control”, which would be Ipsos.

Ipsos has been pulling this nonsense for years.

@F and L TeleComm wrote:

Yes, it's unexpected. However, at least we know that it's not just us. No one else got paid either. Whatever the issue, whatever the complication it should be ok. We will probably know something tomorrow.
Try being in my shoes. I didn't get my social security check this month which pays my rent and my car note. They screwed up putting my paperwork in the computer. I called on the 30th asking. Found out they never uploaded it! They fixed it and told me 3-5 days. Since they didn't do the paperwork and cut my check on time they decided they don't have to give me this month's check. I'm going to request a waiver but the chances of me getting it are slim. Now I have no way to pay my rent or my car note for this month. I'm housebound without my car. There's no way possible I can catch up. And they are cutting next month's check to about 850. The two papers I have to fill out are 14 pages and 8 pages then I have to go to Social Security and try to get my check fixed Friday. I feel like I'm lost in space right now. The hundred dollars IPSOS owes me is just work investment money and a credit card payment. It won't fix anything.

That’s truly horrible. I am sorry you are going through that. Bureaucrats are heartless monsters. I don’t see how a lot of them live without copious amounts of alcohol.

With that said, this isn’t a contest. You don’t know what struggles others are going through with Ipsos being late with payments.

@LIJake wrote:

We are all spoiled. What other MSC pays weekly? Don't panic.

1. Personally, calling the men and women who mystery shop for a living “spoiled” is disrespectful.

2. Ipsos is a large company with resources, unlike other MSCs that are living hand to mouth. It doesn’t help that Ipsos uses said resources to compete with smaller MSCs for contracts.

Maybe they forgot the login for Paypal and got locked out and Paypals mystery security system flagged them. Just kidding i hate Paypal tho but this happened to Presto before. The 48 hour verbage sounds like Paypal. Paypal makes more money every hour than we can even imagine so they dont care holding up peoples pay. Paypal can do almost whatever they want and there is very little anyone can do..they are not a bank.

Okay, I've held my breath long enough.
The former MSC used to mail out checks and then went to depositing the payments into our individual bank accounts.
It is not that difficult.
This MSC needs to be called out for what they are - Cheap and Unprofessional!!
Although I believe that this problem has only happened once before, an international MSC like this one should not be having these problems.
It screams Cheap, Inexperienced and Unprofessional.
Supposedly we should not "panic". But, when we are informed that this is an international company making tons of money, what should we think?
OH well, stuff happens?
No!
To send out an email 24 hours later seems to tell me that there are not business people operating the Mystery Shopping portion part of the business - seems to me they are amateurs.
On top of that, they wish to shift blame is also exceedingly unprofessional.
The smart reasoning would be to just say they are having issues with their payment schedule. Blaming another service is unprofessional and actually childish.
I'm certain we shall all be paid - at some point.
But, (I apologize for the words) WTF!

As Shopperbob might say," fire them"!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2023 01:15PM by NM1962.

Technically, payments are not late. They do not have to pay weekly per our contract. We just usually get paid a lot quicker than the contract states. That being said, they did not have to notify anyone Tuesday. No one really knows what happened, myself included. We are all just guessing. And if they were lying about whatever happened with PayPal, PayPal could easily find out and even have a reason to sever ties for slander. There must be some truth to their statement, but they do not have to tell us the details. All they have to do is communicate with their payees when the payment is actually late. Not when it is late coming early.

My guess, and it is just a guess, but this happened just the same way right at a year ago also. Same sobstory, there is a PayPal problem. It looks to me like Ipsos isn't keeping track of their contract and user agreement with PayPal. If they were doing business and taking care of their business as professionals, like the other mystery shopping companies do, they would have renewed their user agreements with PayPal long before it affected anybody else or caused any payment delays.

I know I said the same thing yesterday a little higher up in the thread but it seems like there are a lot of independent, under paid contactors making excuses for a multi-billion dollar international company. And that doesn't make sense to me.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2023 08:03AM by Morledzep.

I'm curious what the contract says - can you copy and paste the language? I can't seem to find a copy of it - only the UK version is online.

They do have publish FAQs on their US website, that say payment is within 7-10 Days.

[www.ishopforipsos.com]

@pur
pleicee wrote:

Technically, payments are not late. They do not have to pay weekly per our contract. We just usually get paid a lot quicker than the contract states. That being said, they did not have to notify anyone Tuesday. No one really knows what happened, myself included. We are all just guessing. And if they were lying about whatever happened with PayPal, PayPal could easily find out and even have a reason to sever ties for slander. There must be some truth to their statement, but they do not have to tell us the details. All they have to do is communicate with their payees when the payment is actually late. Not when it is late coming early.

@purpleicee wrote:

Technically, payments are not late. They do not have to pay weekly per our contract...

This strikes me as Pavlovian, and I'm guilty of it... :-D

And I definitely am waiting on some over 10 days

@purpleicee wrote:

Technically, payments are not late. They do not have to pay weekly per our contract. We just usually get paid a lot quicker than the contract states. That being said, they did not have to notify anyone Tuesday. No one really knows what happened, myself included. We are all just guessing. And if they were lying about whatever happened with PayPal, PayPal could easily find out and even have a reason to sever ties for slander. There must be some truth to their statement, but they do not have to tell us the details. All they have to do is communicate with their payees when the payment is actually late. Not when it is late coming early.

1. The same ICA that can be changed without notice, meaning that shoppers would unwittingly agree to their terms. A lot of it is not worth the digital space the words take up.

2. If they can pay whenever they want, why even offer an explanation as to why they are late?

JUST GOT PAID.

I still consider it "passing the buck". Apparently, Presto didn't have any problems sending their payroll out today on PayPal. I understand that computers get glitches etc. But let me say this: Why is it that the green and white gas station on Presto (IPSOS) has glitches up the wazoo, but the small gas station we mystery shop on Presto for intellishop doesn't have the same glitches? I think it's because IPSOS doesn't want to fix them....Let me give you an example. I can't start a green and white gas station in the field and upload a few pictures then finish uploading pictures at home or I can't submit my shop I have to waste 45 minutes to an hour switching around devices and fighting to submit it. If one phone dies and I have to pick up; a backup phone or device to take some of the pictures the green and white station acts a living fool. No other shop or app gives me the same trouble even if it's on Presto. (Yes I have backup batteries and backup devices, I am a professional MS-er who travels and does routes. I have two backup phones [my old phone and a cheap minute phone without time or data neither are actually on] and my husband has a backup phone. We also have a digital camera but we don't like to use it because one red, white, and blue gas station with the Indian symbol can suck up a whole set of batteries. No one likes to have to sit in the car not working for an hour while waiting for a device to charge. That being said we rarely use them, Occasionally we have just grabbed the other one's phone...But we never do that with the green and white station because it acts dumb.

PS: this particular week we didn't have a lot to wait for from IPSOS, [77ish on one and about 100 on the other {my husband and I} but we have had hundreds at a time in the past.

MESSAGE TO IPSOS: We NEED our money.

I just got paid by IPSOS, received payment email from paypal few mins ago

July 12 I received an email stating it was an issue with PayPal and hoping to have it resolved in 48 hours.

That being said, thank you IPSOS for paying us. We didn't need the email but I guess that's better than Tuesday's lack of information. This actually doesn't take any stress off for most of us because some of us still have late fees etc to deal with.
Thank you IPSOS for paying weekly and not monthly.
I am still exhausted, stressed, and worried about how to pay my rent this month... We need more high-paying jobs or something...and we can't do any car wash shops because we need a new windshield. (A truck spit a rock at my windshield a couple of weeks back. [Driver refused to stop and said to call the number on the side of the truck which goes to a full mailbox and you can't leave a message...duh duh duh. Tried to file an insurance claim but they are hem hah ing about the deductible. I tried to make the other window I replaced count since that was May but the insurance company is probably going to say the deductible applies to each "occurrence" separately....]

Not wanting to add fat to the fire, but it appears my payment was for shops through 7-2 only. I am missing 5 shops from last week. Anyone else notice this?

Yes. Payment was completed. A message was also received saying so.

@ShopperGirly wrote:

Not wanting to add fat to the fire, but it appears my payment was for shops through 7-2 only. I am missing 5 shops from last week. Anyone else notice this?

Yes, I noticed the same.