I made the mistake of responding to an email listing for cell phone shops, from a GFK scheduler. "Easy Shops! Great Pay!" Bull!
GFK cell phone shops pay $11.00 plus a report.
2 other MSC's I shop for pay $15.00 plus, a much easier report.
There other 2 MSC's have decent, responsive schedulers. Apparently, GFK does not.

I arrived on time. It was "Take a number and wait your turn". I did. 25 minutes later, a woman walks in and was waited on immediately. Unwilling to waste any more time, I left. I immediately shot the scheduler an email explaining all of this. I asked for further instructions.
2 days later, I am notified by GFK, My shop has been dropped due to my failure to complete it. I still had not heard back from the scheduler.

Later, I get an email from the same scheduler, offering the same shop plus 2 others.

Folks, I was nice in my response that she had not responded to my request for further instructions and my shop was cancelled. This time I got a quick reply. She stated she was sorry but, she had thousands of shoppers and the job still had to be done.

I am no longer interested in GFK's cell phone shops. If you want to know which scheduler - Shoot me a PM...:p

Wow. She may have worded her response nicely, but what you heard was "scheduling is more important than getting the job done right." Oh how often companies take that attitude. I'm truly sorry to hear this Mr. C because pre-big box audits they had some very nice schedulers who were responsive and treated you like a person rather than a name/potential name on their 'assigned' list.

I agree with mrcomputer101, I also picked up 2 jobs with these guys, and I had a question regarding the shop. I sent an email to the scheduler and did not get a replly. Next thing I get an email saying I failed to complete the job. So I sent another email, and yes another I have sent them 4 emails and still nothing. I dont think I will be doing any more work for these guys as they just seem to want to get the jobs out and no other support.
My personal opinion is stay away from GFK.

a prophet company does cell shops in my area... the one i did i had to request a buisness line... it took about an hour with survey time included...

i dont trust gfk either... mainly cause the extensive work they want for their audits... also i think they have charge on my account saying i have to pay them 10$ for the drug test i went to for the audit and never signed up for it... i think it was in the contract... whatever... they can charge me for whatever they want im not paying...

MrComputer really sorry you had those problems. I appreciate your posting the information here. I am spammed with emails from GFK and was tempted to take one of those cell phones shops. However, I did responde soon enough and the shop was filled. I guess I was lucky.

I'm really mixed on GFK. I do have an issue regarding the anonymous way they operate. The one time I really needed to communicate with someone higher up than a scheduler, the emails I received were not signed, and came from a generic address. As far as I know, they only employ outside schedulers, so ultimately, the communication and problem-solving is up to them, and is a reflection on how much they go to bat for their shoppers and press for answers. The first one I had was okay, but the second one was absolutely terrific. The most recent one, well, not so much!

The other big problem I have is their site, technologically speaking. I've had many problems while inputting. And, talk about adding insult to injury, they seem to acknowledge this, but by putting the onus on shoppers. I was on their website recently, and saw a warning about browsers that work with the site, and ones that don't. Basically, it says that it doesn't work with the newest versions of IE and Firefox, and they instruct shoppers to DOWNGRADE to an older version in order to input the shop. Crazy!

Yes, their telling shoppers to downgrade their browsers is ridiculous. Everyone, go back to an earlier version with gaping security holes, because we're unable or unwilling to make our software WORK.

FWIW, you can set some browsers to run in a mode compatible with sites that are noncompliant with new standards. That might help.

Last time I had a shop, I input using Safari, and it was fine. But regardless, I find the whole thing ridiculous. I sincerely hope that by the time I do another shop from them, or IF I do, the issue is addressed. By THEM.

I have put GFK emails in my spam list. Every day I get 5 e-mails about the same shops.

mrcomputer101 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I made the mistake of responding to an email
> listing for cell phone shops, from a GFK
> scheduler. "Easy Shops! Great Pay!" Bull!
> GFK cell phone shops pay $11.00 plus a report.
> 2 other MSC's I shop for pay $15.00 plus, a much
> easier report.
> There other 2 MSC's have decent, responsive
> schedulers. Apparently, GFK does not.
>
> I arrived on time. It was "Take a number and wait
> your turn". I did. 25 minutes later, a woman walks
> in and was waited on immediately. Unwilling to
> waste any more time, I left. I immediately shot
> the scheduler an email explaining all of this. I
> asked for further instructions.
> 2 days later, I am notified by GFK, My shop has
> been dropped due to my failure to complete it. I
> still had not heard back from the scheduler.
>
> Later, I get an email from the same scheduler,
> offering the same shop plus 2 others.
>
> Folks, I was nice in my response that she had not
> responded to my request for further instructions
> and my shop was cancelled. This time I got a quick
> reply. She stated she was sorry but, she had
> thousands of shoppers and the job still had to be
> done.
>
> I am no longer interested in GFK's cell phone
> shops. If you want to know which scheduler - Shoot
> me a PM...:p


I got so many requests for these shops that I had to shoot them over to a filter. I also had to learn the lesson that, "easy shops, great pay," usually means, "we can't fill these shops because they are cheap, long, soul-sucking detritus that nobody wants to do." Another company that famously does this is Intellishop. Beware GFK's big box shops too. There's plenty of discussion about those on another thread.

> I also had to
> learn the lesson that, "easy shops, great pay,"
> usually means, "we can't fill these shops because
> they are cheap, long, soul-sucking detritus that
> nobody wants to do."

THAT made my day! Great way to put it!

Ahhh yes...I am reminded again why I dropped gfK faster than third period calculus...