Medievalass, please come back and post the resolution after speaking with Carey and Dorita. I find the non-answers worrisome. It totally perplexes me that the name of an area restaurant should be such a heavily-guarded secret. If the restaurant is indeed open for business, there would be no reason not to release the name. Since the restaurant itself appears not to be the client, I see no reason for the high level of confidentiality. What I got from Carey's answer is that a restaurant was audited and reported to the client in 2015. And she added that there were several other hole--the-wall locations, also secret. She did not say if the reported audit data was before October 2015 or after.

This kind of puts me off GfK. When something doesn't make sense, there is is usually a reason it doesn't make sense.

Not my dog, not my fight, but based on this thread I would exercise caution. This is too hinky for me.

I wonder how many excellent shoppers will not be applying for any work with GFK due to this posting?

You're right I am still happy to have a conversation. 407-508-6475 - My personal cell phone. Still happy to compromise.

Carey Medina

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/2016 11:17PM by Carey4GfKMysteryShops.

O-KAY. Way more information than I think anyone on a public internet forum wants to hear from a MSC. Communicating directly with the shopper and allowing her to return and report the resolution to us seems key, and that seems not to be happening. I think it might be time for GfK to drop this. My skepticism with GfK results from the posts GfK has made, not the posts Medievallass has made. I barely noticed Medievallass's post or problem. When GfK posted, it totally caught my attention ..... in a bad way. GfK is doing nothing at this point except hurting itself IMHO.

I find it very confusing in that the facts seem to fluctuate from one post to another. In a previous post "When our client reaches out with concerns on completion, we are able to review past data and see that, in fact, there were several 'hole in the wall' locations on your route that were missed." In the most recent post, "the new auditor found a BBQ restaurant attached to a gas station within the boundaries of that segment." Was it several hole-in-the-walls or was it one? And your initial post told us you e-mailed back and forth with Medievallass several times although she says you did not. And the current post notes "My scheduler reached out to me, and I invited this auditor to contact me on October 25, 2015. She did not." So are you now saying you did not have an e-mail communication back and forth with Medievallass?

Perhaps I'm just dense and slow to understand, but most of what GfK has said does not make sense to me, and I am keeping my distance. As I read more and more GfK posts, I am less and less likely to consider working with them.

Medievallass, please return and let us know the resolution.

This is the information I was looking for, "The new auditor found a BBQ restaurant attached to a gas station within the boundaries of that segment." Yes it has been confusing between one and several. I don't see why it took months for medievalas to get this answer and I don't blame her one bit for wanting to know.

I find this to be absurd, "The map was not great but used in previous years for this project when it had been conducted." When working at regular employment one of my pet peeves was to ask why something was being done a certain way and be told, "We've always done it that way." It was at that point I would start changing processes to something more efficient. How in the world could your company acknowledge the maps were so poorly done and not improve them?

1JJ, they're great until they're not. Don't put all your eggs in this basket.

At first it sounded as if the MSC were using past data to say that there was indeed a location that the OP missed. Now it was a location the auditor who went after the OP found. As many others have pointed out, was it one or many locations that were missed? Sounds as if it was actually just one, when plural was used before.

I appreciate that Carey came here to try and explain, but I don't understand the circuitous responses to this point. There didn't seem to be a confidentiality issue involved, as no client, product, or specific location was named. All the pussy-footing around seems unnecessary. If an issue can't be addressed in a forthright manner, it would probably be better to just not try addressing it at all. At this point, it all sounds more suspect than it may be.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/2016 12:49AM by BirdyC.

.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/2016 10:51PM by Colonel1966.

Okay, here's the updarte, and I can't thank you all enough for helping me get at least SOMETHING for my past work.

I still hadn't contacted Carey directly because I hadn't figured out what to say that wouldn't come off as snarky; I had to get rid of that energy first. Then, Dorita came into the discussion and asked me to please contact her. I really liked working with Dorita prior to this incident; I found her to be professional, but also just plain nice! We'd talked on the phone several times while she helped me figure out the whole SassieRover app that I was too inept to understand in my own. LOL

Life's been crazy the past two dayys, though, and before I had a chance to contact her, I received an email from Carey. I will cut and paste for you:

FROM CAREY MEDINA:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi there,
Since I haven’t heard from you, I thought I’d reach out. I still stand by the fact that I could not accept your assignment and had to fill it again; however, I want you to know, there are truly no hard feelings, and I know you made the trip and incurred costs.

I’m happy to compromise and pay you half of the bonus you were expecting. I will be issuing a payment of $125.00.
Let me know if you want to chat. I will be traveling next week, but email me and we can set something up.

Carey Medina
Senior Field Coordinator | Mystery Shopping
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I accepted her offer. .. I figure half is better than zero! ;-)

Quick note re: the "BBQ restaurant attached to a gas station" claim:
I think some of the earlier questions you all raised about GFK using old stats might be something. As I said in my very first post, there was "a tire repair store" on this route. It lay on the corner of two major streets and was so run down that I had to walk up to the windows to see if they were even still in business! I remember that my first impression was that it was a gas station; there were no pumps, but it's probable that at one point, there were. The demographics of the area had clearly been depressed in recent years.
At any rate, there isn't currently gas, nor a hole-in-wall BBQ place attached.

Thank you again, all of you! I believe that, save for the public pressure, I'd never have gotten any kind of compensation from them. Whoot! I should hopefully have a check soon as we all know how fast GFK pays! HAHA

Namaste!

Half payment = not good at all.

Congratulations on getting some remuneration, medievallass. And kudos to GFK for finally stepping up to the plate and being fair (at least I think it's fair at this point in time, being it was so long ago, and they initally were adamant about not paying; full payment would be better, of course, but half of something is better than all of nothing). It was nice of Dorita to reach out to you as well.

Whatever the intricacies of the original issue were, I simply don't understand, as Lisa has alluded to, why auditors on this particular job aren't just provided with better and updated information! If the maps need updating, then update them! If there are locations within the map area that were previously in existence and audited, give those to the current auditor so that person at least has some base point of reference and can cross out locations no longer open as well as find new ones.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/2016 03:00AM by BirdyC.

medievallass, you did the right thing to take $125 as offered. However, let's keep in mind the contract was $250.

I'm a bit late to the party, but I came on the website just to see what had happened to GFK's cell phone shops.

I've read through the thread and we don't really need anyone from GFK to tell us if there is a BBQ restaurant there or not. If the shopper is willing to share such information with us, then I'm sure that we can locate this establishment if we know the city and neighborhood where GFK claims that this place is located. I'm pretty good at finding these things. I'm not sure if this would violate any IC rules but we aren't being given the client name or what the project was. I just would like to know the general area where this restaurant is so that I can locate it.

I'd be willing to call the local city hall and say that I am going to be there on business and would like to know where the BBQ restaurants in town are so that I can pick some food up for my meeting.

I thought about doing some audits (name of merchant removed) because of how fast I can nail them but I think that's a bad idea. Seeing how Med got nailed, payment was dragged and Med needed our "All Stars Shoppers" to get the wheel moving, why should it have gone this far originally? I am heading up to Montana and Wyoming during March and thought I would do those audits sitting all alone to help GFK get them off their plate but why should I bother?


I will stick to playing with my horses and cows as opposed to doing a few store audits because there will always be opportunities popping up on my i Phone. Med I feel like you helped me avoid getting hit by a bullet, so will you please more picky from your lists of jobs? Every other shopper will now have to think if its a crap-shoot or good chance to make money.

Mod note: Name of merchant removed by moderator as linking the MSC with its clientele violates the Forum rules and is probably also a breach of your ICA)

Pennies, I agree about exercising caution in view of this thread, but naming the client violates the ICA we all signed with GfK. Please edit your post and remove the references to GfK's client.

I personally have never had an issue with GFK and like working for the company. This reply is generally speaking towards this type of issue with any MSC. I agree it is not acceptable for a company to tell you that you missed something but that they won't tell you what, especially when it is in their best interest not to pay you. With any MSC there is always the option of contacting the Better Business Bureau. if you are nearby, court is a not so fun but possible option if you feel they rendered your services and did not pay. I find it to be unprofessional when people won't reply to your e-mails privately but as soon as you put them on blast on a forum or facebook, suddenly they care. How you treat people when no one is looking is what matters. Good for you for standing up for yourself. There is no legit reason why you could not be told what places you supposedly missed, public businesses. You are absolutely owed that much after they used your time and cost you money. Shame on any company for thinking that is an acceptable business practice. I don't think because we said so would hold up in court when being sued for nonpayment.

I respect Carey and Dorita both. I have been an independent scheduler for GfK in the past and worked with both Dorita and Carey. Dorita is awesome and really tries to understand the shoppers point of view (I hope that part of me rubbed off on her). Carey can be amazing to work with when she's not being pulled in several thousand different directions.

I can honestly say I was not treated very well by GfK. There were several months where I helped fill extra assignments and projects that were out of my area, and it didn't seem appreciated. There were months when the app failed and I was asked to enter reports, which I always did.

There was one month (before Carey was with GfK), that I had an appendectomy and the scheduling coordinator (Ann Hager at the time), expected me to schedule from the hospital.

This is truly a heartless company in my eyes. They may claim differently, but they decided not to renew my contracts the same month when my wife was in intensive care for emergency surgery. I scheduled from the hospital while my wife was in ICU (I was distracted, but most people would have been distracted), but that wasn't good enough for GfK.

It's sad when a MSC goes from several clients, to one client. When I was only a shopper, I loved GfK. For part of the time when I was a scheduler, I loved GfK. The reason I loved GfK as a scheduler had very little to do with GfK; I loved communicating with the shoppers and honestly, that was what kept me going as long as I was there. Most of the shoppers were amazing and some of them are still in regular contact with me, despite the fact that I have taken an extended break from scheduling.

GfK does not truly respect the contractors; we don't matter to them, as they seem to believe that we are easily replaced and expendable.

I will return to scheduling when I find a company that treats EVERYONE with respect. (I know there are a few of them out there) Until then, I will continue being a shopper with many companies, and helping out schedulers that I know have the same views as I do.

Dantes a good man.

File a complaint with the New York Attorney Generals Office for Consumer Affairs. If they get enough complaints against GFK then they will take action. New York does not tolerate this type of business practice.

Stopped shopping for GFK a long time ago. When you are in this business long enough you know when the fish really smells.

I will continue to accept shops from any MSC that demonstrates a positive working relationship. The same goes for me to them. When I first started mystery shopping the jobs were low paying. After three years of proving myself schedulers began to refer me which makes me want even more to do the best job that I can. Occasionally I goof up or overextend myself. It is rare and I have become more proficient at time management. Over the years, I am grateful to those who gave me a second chance to prove myself. I try not to do any finger pointing, especially when I am very disappointed because then I know that it is my emotions speaking. I just focus on what I can change and leave behind what I cannot change. The latter brings in negativity that I can not afford to allow into my life. I really appreciate and respect the schedulers. I imagine it is a very hectic and stressful job. The Magazine has proved helpful also in helping me to decide if I want to apply with a new company or not. I'm really glad for this forum also and the objectivity I frequently observe.

I have not had a problem with GFK either. In fact, I would like to give a shout out to Amber Moreland who is helping me to get acclimated to changing states.

Dante I look forward to reading your posts, I was heart broken after reading your comments :

"There was one month (before Carey was with GfK), that I had an appendectomy and the scheduling coordinator (Ann Hager at the time), expected me to schedule from the hospital."

Dante




This is not as uncommon as people think, there are people who use to get fired for getting cancer or having a baby until the Progressive's finally rebelled against Big Business. It sicken's me to think people get sick and their employers were heart dead ghouls demanding they work while plugs, wires and monitors are evaluating your body's condition from the Hospital. They should have plugged you in to the GFK Matrix so you could perform all these jobs between your Morphine doses. I bet you could have did ten jobs before your pain got so bad you had to call the nurse in for another drip button to kill your pain. It sadden's me seeing good people treated like dirt, having people go to a conference call without pay don't stand right with people who have self esteem or value their time.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/29/2016 08:25AM by Pennies4Shops.

I used to shop for GFK but stopped because their smartphone shops took too long to fill out. I thought the information that they wanted was fine for the pay, but the webpage had too many scripts that would freeze the page up every time I clicked on a bubble when filling out the questionnaire. I contact them about this multiple times and told that that the sassie platform really wasn't the best for filling out their jobs. They continued to use that platform so I parted ways because my total payment for one shop was in the $7 per hour range when factoring in the drive, visit, and time submitting the report. I loved their [client name deleted] shops because I was able to go through the form without it freezing up on me. I tried this on every major web browser and had the same issue with the smartphone shops.

Mod note: It is against forum rules and an ICA violation to link the client with the MSC. Please refer to the posting guidelines when posting.

GFK needs to take some advice from crisis management companies and learn how to deal with/defuse situations that have the potential to damage their business as this has definitely done. their trying to parse and/or explain their side of this ongoing saga is nothing more than pouring gasoline on a fire. they have done nothing more than dance around the firestorm that they have contributed to having started. foolish they are.

Am I the only one who feels bad for Carey? It seems she is trying hard to help, even giving out her phone number, but is getting attacked anyway.

@Msaddict wrote:

Am I the only one who feels bad for Carey? It seems she is trying hard to help, even giving out her phone number, but is getting attacked anyway.

so sorry your wittle feewings have been hurt but they/she couldn't refrain from planting shoe(s) firmly in mouth

Why would pointing out holes in the story or the MSCs lack of reasonable answers be considered attacking? We are not employees expected to blindly toe the line. Business people have the right to know why the company that contracted them is trying not to pay for their hard work.

I have only done three jobs for gfk, yes one was the uugghhh cell phone shop but two others were appliance .I had scheduled one for the next day, but that evening I received a call at 7:30 in the evening asking if I could do one for the same store chain across town, I could not make it but told the scheduler I could possibly do it the next day and he offered a bonus it had a due time for the report to be in and I missed that, but kept in touch with the scheduler and got the report submitted, though late I still received a decent grade.

The schedulers even worked together to help me rearrange the first shops. NOT ONLY did I do both shops and enjoyed both of them, I got paid within a week....I have nothing to say for this company other than KUDO'S