I was banned for doing one group of cell phone shops. Who can I send an e-mail to, to get the ban overturned? I have a feeling it was the scheduler who placed the ban and not the cell phone company.

You are a contractor for the mystery shop company, not the cell phone provider. So if you want to appeal you need to appeal to the mystery shop company. Be careful on what you do as they may black ball you from all their shops depending on what and how you ask. If I am correct we, as shoppers for them, are not supposed to contact the client (in this case the cell phone company). We signed an annual contract with them to that affect so you may want to read through the contract you signed with this msc first before proceeding.

@sandyf wrote:

You are a contractor for the mystery shop company, not the cell phone provider. So if you want to appeal you need to appeal to the mystery shop company. Be careful on what you do as they may black ball you from all their shops depending on what and how you ask. If I am correct we, as shoppers for them, are not supposed to contact the client (in this case the cell phone company). We signed an annual contract with them to that affect so you may want to read through the contract you signed with this msc first before proceeding.

I would never contact the cell phone company, only the MSC. All I'm asking for is for the ban to be lifted. I do believe this was done by a scheduler. Out of many cell phone shops I have done, I was told because I was spotted by one manager I was outed from this line of shops. I had even told the scheduler about what happened. That may have been my mistake.

Sorry I misread what you wrote and thought you were thinking you perhaps should contact the cell phone company. I generally deal with the scheduler but if you have already done that perhaps someone else has a name for you.

Go to the Shopmetrics website and find the Program Manager for the project from which you were banned. Send an email to them.

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It depends on where the ban came from.

If it is internal to IPSOS you might get it overturned by reaching out to the program manager. Thankfully I was able to do this for the conditional reveal gas station shops after an editor banned me for being "argumentative" about an ambiguous address supplied in SASSIE.

If the ban is from the client you are out of luck. I got banned by the green dinosaur because of a couple of card lock shops that only took 20 minutes, falling short of their expected time on site. A bogus reason, but one that I cannot get overturned.

When I was banned from Ipsos, they told me to reach out to Carey Medina to appeal. It was the scheduler who blocked my account who had given me her email. She never answered my appeal, but it's worth a try. The email I was given was : carey.medina@ipsos.com

FWIW, I'd welcome being banned from doing cellphone shops. It would keep the massive amount of listings from polluting my board when I do an extended search when planning road trips.

Unfortunately that wold require me actually doing one and screwing it up first...

@CoolMusic wrote:

FWIW, I'd welcome being banned from doing cellphone shops. It would keep the massive amount of listings from polluting my board when I do an extended search when planning road trips.

Unfortunately that wold require me actually doing one and screwing it up first...

no such luck Cool. They can't make it so that you can't see shops you're not eligible to do. You just can't sign up for them.

Thinking of holding off on contacting them. I use to take the shops as soon as they appeared on the board, at the lowest pay. I'm waiting to see how quick the shops are picked up and if they get bonused, since I'm not grabbing them.

@johnb974 wrote:

I had even told the scheduler about what happened. That may have been my mistake.

I hate to say it, but you likely shot yourself in the foot. The cell phone manufacturer is the client, not any of the five (now six) retailers these shops take place at. The retailer (manager) may have "made" you as a shopper, but what could they possibly have done with that knowledge besides tell you you were no longer welcome in that store? Would a busy manager have made it a priority to attempt to report you to either a behemoth phone manufacturer or an unknown (but equally behemoth) MSC?

Company S and Company G are continuously spying on each other (as well as Company A) - you can tell by the types of questions that are asked on the surveys that customer service isn't the focus. Company G wants ZERO identifying information about the associate who helped you, so that's a big indicator of who gets the reports. To the best of my knowledge, the retailers don't see them - they're sent to the client (the manufacturer) only. (I can't imagine S & G would share this data with retailers out of the kindness of their hearts.) If anybody personally knows a store manager, perhaps they can ask and verify if that's the case.

I know this is eating at you - it would me as well - but if you've raised the issue with the scheduler, you're skating on thin ice already. I'd take into consideration the volume of work you do for Ipsos on other projects and weigh that against the possibility of being blackballed entirely.

I think one of the big rules in mystery shopping is "don't volunteer anything." That goes for during a shop, and sometimes afterward.

@morledzep wrote:

no such luck Cool. They can't make it so that you can't see shops you're not eligible to do. You just can't sign up for them.

They can certainly do it on the Shopmetrics side. I haven't seen a post office shop in over two years.

@drdoggie00 wrote:

@johnb974 wrote:

I had even told the scheduler about what happened. That may have been my mistake.

I hate to say it, but you likely shot yourself in the foot. The cell phone manufacturer is the client, not any of the five (now six) retailers these shops take place at. The retailer (manager) may have "made" you as a shopper, but what could they possibly have done with that knowledge besides tell you you were no longer welcome in that store? Would a busy manager have made it a priority to attempt to report you to either a behemoth phone manufacturer or an unknown (but equally behemoth) MSC?

Company S and Company G are continuously spying on each other (as well as Company A) - you can tell by the types of questions that are asked on the surveys that customer service isn't the focus. Company G wants ZERO identifying information about the associate who helped you, so that's a big indicator of who gets the reports. To the best of my knowledge, the retailers don't see them - they're sent to the client (the manufacturer) only. (I can't imagine S & G would share this data with retailers out of the kindness of their hearts.) If anybody personally knows a store manager, perhaps they can ask and verify if that's the case.

I know this is eating at you - it would me as well - but if you've raised the issue with the scheduler, you're skating on thin ice already. I'd take into consideration the volume of work you do for Ipsos on other projects and weigh that against the possibility of being blackballed entirely.

I think one of the big rules in mystery shopping is "don't volunteer anything." That goes for during a shop, and sometimes afterward.

@morledzep wrote:

no such luck Cool. They can't make it so that you can't see shops you're not eligible to do. You just can't sign up for them.

They can certainly do it on the Shopmetrics side. I haven't seen a post office shop in over two years.

I think what cost me was being honest with the MSC and telling them I was outed. The store manager actually asked me to wait a month before returning. The lesson here, never be honest with this MSC.

not just that one John.. never let on that the folks at any given location suspect that you're a shopper. Not to anyone, not the folks in the store, not the MSC, not to the client. NEVER admit that you are a shopper for any reason.

@Morledzep wrote:

no such luck Cool. They can't make it so that you can't see shops you're not eligible to do. You just can't sign up for them.

Not in my experience. I haven't seen a green dinosaur assignment on my boards in years after being banned.

@CoolMusic wrote:

@Morledzep wrote:

no such luck Cool. They can't make it so that you can't see shops you're not eligible to do. You just can't sign up for them.

Not in my experience. I haven't seen a green dinosaur assignment on my boards in years after being banned.

You got banned? Why?

John, hopefully for you, you now understand the error of notifying any MSC that you may have been outed. Going forward, I suggest you cease typing or uttering that you were just being HONEST, as that word could affect your attitude toward the MSC. If this were a small boutique company, the situation might be different, BUT, it is my opinion Ipsos does not give a damn about any one shopper.

You can try filling out the contact us form they have or emailing some schedulers you know from there. Then you know you've done all you could have done to remove the ban. I've had no luck appealing to Ipsos on a rejected shop. Shoppers like us are a dime a dozen.

@CoolMusic wrote:

@Morledzep wrote:

no such luck Cool. They can't make it so that you can't see shops you're not eligible to do. You just can't sign up for them.

Not in my experience. I haven't seen a green dinosaur assignment on my boards in years after being banned.

The green dinosaurs are on Shopmetrics. The Sassie platform does not allow for blocking the job list. You can see all the jobs, you can look at the info for the job, but if you try to apply for it or self assign it'll say that the job isn't available.

@johnb974 wrote:

@CoolMusic wrote:

Not in my experience. I haven't seen a green dinosaur assignment on my boards in years after being banned.

You got banned? Why?

Too little time spent onsite. Only deal was, the locations were card locks, so no store purchase/evaluation. A bogus banning, but it came from the client, and cannot be appealed.

They also seemed to have issues with one negative report where the employee said absolutely NOTHING during the mystery shop portion of the visit.

I've never heard of IPSOS banning folks until now. I thought Market Force was the only company that banned people.

I've gotten bans overturned by other companies. I self-exclude myself from stores and locations if I had even the slightest suspicion that I was ID'd as a mystery shopper. There was a sales rep at one location that would remember every detail about the last interaction she had with you. After this was obvious during a second visit, I avoided that location only to run into her at another one. Then I self-excluded from that cell phone provider. Until they merged.

If I've understood OP correctly you shop the same stores over and over and over, month after month after month. If one store figures out that you're a shopper then it's reasonable to think that the others have figured it out or soon will. If so, that's why they banned you from all when you were outed at only one. Maybe a self-imposed rotation is appropriate if you can get reinstated. Good luck in any case. Hope you get it sorted out.

@panama18 wrote:

If I've understood OP correctly you shop the same stores over and over and over, month after month after month. If one store figures out that you're a shopper then it's reasonable to think that the others have figured it out or soon will. If so, that's why they banned you from all when you were outed at only one. Maybe a self-imposed rotation is appropriate if you can get reinstated. Good luck in any case. Hope you get it sorted out.

Some of the shops I would have done, are now sitting on the board weeks later. I would have done them by now. It's their loss from banning me. There was no rotation. They could have asked me to wait a month or two, but they didn't.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/2024 02:40AM by johnb974.

I started to state the obvious, as panama did. But changed my mind. I was also going to offer some similar advice, or at least explain how I do cell phone shops. So that's what I'll do now.

I only do cell phone shops at the company that I use for my cell service. And I only do corporate owned stores, never contract stores. I have some issues with my current phone, a Google Pixel 7 Pro, and my Samsung Tablet Galaxy Tab S7+. I only do current customer scenarios, and only android. I don't do Apple anything for any reason. I don't know who the client is, so I'm hoping I don't get in trouble for naming the products that I personally own.

I go to the store and I tell them about the issues I'm having with my phone. And I let them try to fix it, they can't, it's a Google thing. And I ask what other phones are available to replace it when the time comes or when I can come up with cash to buy something better. This will get me a demonstration most of the time, and every time I go in the representative will grab their personal phone out of their pocket to check something, and I simply ask what phone it is. I don't ask a lot of questions, I don't need to. It's all normal conversation, and me complaining about this phone that I hate. If they ask me what I do for a living I mostly tell them that I'm retired and I take a LOT of pictures. Or I do photo audits at gas stations for compliance issues.

I can do 4 shops easily for each of my devices, in any given month. But I also never do them at the same places 2 months in a row. There are 5 easily accessible Company stores within 45 miles. And a couple more if I want to drive more than 60 miles (which I try to avoid when I can). It says, or used to say, to change the details of the scenarios to fit your situation so the shops flows naturally in the guidelines.

@Morledzep wrote:

I started to state the obvious, as panama did. But changed my mind. I was also going to offer some similar advice, or at least explain how I do cell phone shops. So that's what I'll do now.

I only do cell phone shops at the company that I use for my cell service. And I only do corporate owned stores, never contract stores. I have some issues with my current phone, a Google Pixel 7 Pro, and my Samsung Tablet Galaxy Tab S7+. I only do current customer scenarios, and only android. I don't do Apple anything for any reason. I don't know who the client is, so I'm hoping I don't get in trouble for naming the products that I personally own.

I go to the store and I tell them about the issues I'm having with my phone. And I let them try to fix it, they can't, it's a Google thing. And I ask what other phones are available to replace it when the time comes or when I can come up with cash to buy something better. This will get me a demonstration most of the time, and every time I go in the representative will grab their personal phone out of their pocket to check something, and I simply ask what phone it is. I don't ask a lot of questions, I don't need to. It's all normal conversation, and me complaining about this phone that I hate. If they ask me what I do for a living I mostly tell them that I'm retired and I take a LOT of pictures. Or I do photo audits at gas stations for compliance issues.

I can do 4 shops easily for each of my devices, in any given month. But I also never do them at the same places 2 months in a row. There are 5 easily accessible Company stores within 45 miles. And a couple more if I want to drive more than 60 miles (which I try to avoid when I can). It says, or used to say, to change the details of the scenarios to fit your situation so the shops flows naturally in the guidelines.

You really limit your income by placing these restrictions on your own shops.

Years ago shoppers wore disguises and changed their wardrobes. Blonde wig and blue blouse in one store, brown wig and green shirt at the next one. They kept track of what they wore when and where.
I remember some would wear hats, but with increases in security, that can't be done anymore. (Banks and some stores have signs at the door denying entry to anyone wearing a hat, since security cameras have trouble seeing faces when a hat is worn.

These days, we have to maintain our own rotation for some shops. The MS company may say 3 month rotation, but you may personally have decided to stay away at least a year. That's why you sign up with 50 MS companies: So you always have work no matter how far out your rotations are.

@Susan L. wrote:

Years ago shoppers wore disguises and changed their wardrobes. Blonde wig and blue blouse in one store, brown wig and green shirt at the next one. They kept track of what they wore when and where.
I remember some would wear hats, but with increases in security, that can't be done anymore. (Banks and some stores have signs at the door denying entry to anyone wearing a hat, since security cameras have trouble seeing faces when a hat is worn.

These days, we have to maintain our own rotation for some shops. The MS company may say 3 month rotation, but you may personally have decided to stay away at least a year. That's why you sign up with 50 MS companies: So you always have work no matter how far out your rotations are.

They don't pay enough to go through the trouble of wearing disguises. We don't work for the CIA, FBI, KGB....we're not really spies.

Actually John, I don't. I make it so that I can continue shopping. I'm not banned from cell phone shops. Sometimes thinking about the long game, and knowing that you need steady income is worth making a little less money in the short term.

@Morledzep wrote:

Actually John, I don't. I make it so that I can continue shopping. I'm not banned from cell phone shops. Sometimes thinking about the long game, and knowing that you need steady income is worth making a little less money in the short term.

I'm picking up more shops from other MSC's. It's just disappointing to see a MSC leave shops on the board that could have been done, all because someone was outed over one shop. They could have put in a rotation but didn't.