I don't do a lot of Faux chinese food shops. Maybe one in any given month, I get lucky enough to get two maybe a couple times per year. And I don't do them until they are bonused in any month since they changed the ordering requirements (was that last year or the year before). So when I found that I had been blocked from doing these shops I was baffled.

There have been no schedulers for the faux chinese food shops, and any time I've tried to email the ignore.me.forever@ipsos.com email address, I've been told to just let the shops fall off when I couldn't get there. But then again, I haven't let any of these drop, at least according to my records.

So I asked what was going on, I was told that I'm blocked from these shops because I have 155 citations (I looked on my shop log, I have 5), and because I let one drop in May and another in July. I can verify that I had one scheduled in July, it's in my calendar.

Has anyone else mysteriously been blocked from shops for no relevant reason? I don't know where the person I'm talking to came up with 155 citations from one clients shops. I'm not sure it's possible, there haven't been 155 months since the Ishopfirst nonsense began, nor have there been that many months since they changed the ordering rules for the faux chinese food shops.

Is this happening to anyone else?

I can do without the faux chinese food, I have found a couple "asian cuisine" take out restaurants that have way better food, so I can use up these stupid gift cards and just buy good food elsewhere. I just don't understand this nonsense coming out of left field.

ignore.me.forever@ipsos.com

I literally laughed out loud. Its true!

I had a home improvement retail shop last week that I couldn't get done on the assigned day. I let it fall off. The next day I tried to reclaim it and got the "Shop is Unavailable" message, so I assume I had been banned. The shop was still there the following day (and with a huge bonus) and I was able to grab it.

So...who knows. I'm not sure they even know what their rules are at this point. I do have a total of 3 citations over 6 years.

I was able to self-assign one for today that got bonused. Sorry, I haven't run into any blocks with Ipsos. But since those new rules, I haven't picked up as many shops. I usually only do the retail ones now, with a sit-down restaurant every once in a while.

I searched my records, those dates she gave me are different dates than the days that I actually did the shops.. But I DID do the shops. Her arguments for me being blocked aren't standing up to the light of day, at least not so far.

@Morledzep Give jennifer.novak@ipsos.com a try. One time, she emailed me a reminder about a bonused shop that had to be completed on the last day of the period.

Okie, that's the person that is giving me the numbers I'm having trouble believing.

Oh dear, I remember reading a thread about someone else who got blocked, but I believe this was after the updated rules actually took into effect (not communicated). But this is weird if you didn't do any shops after the updated rules.

I just logged into Sassie, and I only have the initial SurfMerchants Master citation (if this what you all are talking about).

If I were you, I'd send an email to Diana Paone at Diana.Paone@ipsos.com - she is a senior account manager and has always been responsive and pleasant with me..

My thoughts:

1. If shops (regardless of client) that fall off are tracked and counted (and I'm sure they are), they will eventually come back to bite us in the ass.
2. If there's some magic number that is the threshold where punitive action comes into play, when you reach that number, are you banned from the client of your most recent drop that put you over that number?

For example, is 155 across all clients the magic number and morl's last drop of the black and white bear put her at/over that number? Who knows. They aren't going to share that kind of information with us.

And I'm not saying morl has let 155 shops drop - I'm just thinking of potential reasons why Ipshitz would claim she's flaked 155 times.

Something funky going on here.

I've let dozens of conditional reveal and Famous Highway gas station shops drop off my board, and more than a handful of black/white bears.

There are 2 citations on my Ipshitz account, both from Surf Merchants in 2018.

Ipshitz. I die.

That's my point, though - if they consider and count drop-offs as flake citations, we aren't going to see those. It's like they're an internal thing with Ipshitz, so they don't show up in the usual Sassie citations.

Am I concerned enough to start keeping track? Meh. Not really.

I'm not for or against student loan forgiveness, but we need a purge similar to that! With the inception of these new rules.

Editing to add: Also in Morledzep case, it seems like the numbers and records don't add/match up.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/01/2024 01:39PM by Okie.

Question for the mods, from a friend:

If we use Ipshitz moving forward, is it OK to name clients?

@Okie wrote:

... it seems like the numbers and records don't add/match up.

Agreed.

155 flake citations?

I fully game the iShopFirst parameters, and I don't think I've come anywhere close.

I once booked a couple dozen cellphone shops (when I was temporarily insane) to get a route established while I waited for other stuff to roll over to the next date window.

Tried the first one and realized there was no way I could complete the report given the way the interaction went down. Along with being reminded of how much I hate cellphone shops, I bailed on the whole batch.

So, I achieved a 100% flake ratio and I'm still not banned from the vendor.

@CoolMusic wrote:

Question for the mods, from a friend:

If we use Ipshitz moving forward, is it OK to name clients?

Answer from not a mod:

Not in this thread/section of the forum. The MSC has been named, and "Mystery Shopping Company discussion" is where we name MSCs and use (sometimes thinly) veiled references to the clients.

Ipshitz is my pet name for Ipsos. If the client's been named, I don't use it in my posts - it's too close. I'll refer to them as the big eyeball or the blob.

We could always try it and see. My guess is we won't get an answer from The Mods.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/01/2024 02:30PM by drdoggie00.

When you let a shop dropped, it most likely won't show up in your citation box. However, there's a "hidden citation" not shown to us for auditors and clients to review. I have dropped multiple blue and white gas station jobs in the past. I didn't see any citation but I was blocked from performing shops with that client anymore.

@kisekinecro wrote:

When you let a shop dropped, it most likely won't show up in your citation box. However, there's a "hidden citation" not shown to us for auditors and clients to review. I have dropped multiple blue and white gas station jobs in the past. I didn't see any citation but I was blocked from performing shops with that client anymore.

Now you've got me curious.

Can you guesstimate how many of those you dropped?

What kind of percentage of dropped vs. completed?

@CoolMusic wrote:

@kisekinecro wrote:

When you let a shop dropped, it most likely won't show up in your citation box. However, there's a "hidden citation" not shown to us for auditors and clients to review. I have dropped multiple blue and white gas station jobs in the past. I didn't see any citation but I was blocked from performing shops with that client anymore.

Now you've got me curious.

Can you guesstimate how many of those you dropped?

What kind of percentage of dropped vs. completed?

It was when I began doing this hobby. I was testing out different things, and I was stupid and naive. If I remember correctly I only finished 2, decided it was way too much work for 1 gal of free gas and dropped like 6 or 7 of them. Obviously different clients and schedulers could have different standards

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/01/2024 06:32PM by kisekinecro.

I fully own that I have let several shops drop off my shop log when I had no choice. And according to my shop log, I have 5 total citations, only 1 is a flake citation (that I deserved, by the way). 2 are surf merchants, 2 are from someone who can't be named, but carry no weight, and are NOT flake citations.

When Ishopfirst started I emailed MANY times to ask for extensions, or special dispensation for weather events that were out of my control, and sometimes simply because I felt guilty for not getting the shop done on time. I was told EVERY time, that it's no big deal, just let it drop off your shop log and pick it back up when it goes back on the Job Board. And after all of the folks hoarding the shops at base pay and letting them pop back on the board to collect their $5 bonus (they don't add that $5 bonus anymore), I did some minor hoarding too, not like some, but I did. In every instance, as soon as the shop reappeared on the board, at 05:00 my time, I picked the shop back up and did it, with or without said bonus. I never let them drop a second time.

And, because I was begging for a ride to get to my shops for so many months, I did have to let a few drop that I wouldn't normally have let go.

I haven't set up anything to track what I dropped or what I dropped and then picked up again. Maybe I was wrong, but I thought that if I picked up the shop that I had to let drop and got it done that it would be fine.

It's fine, I don't need Faux Chinese food, it's simple, and they have meals I can eat without forking up my diet badly. But I can get real Chinese food, for less money, that is even better. I'll get over it, I'll use up my gift cards and cancel my rewards account and be done.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/01/2024 11:21PM by Morledzep.

From the famous highway job overview, "Shops not submitted on time will automatically fall off your assignment list. These count as flake citations."

@sestrahelena wrote:

From the famous highway job overview, "Shops not submitted on time will automatically fall off your assignment list. These count as flake citations."

Yeah... that blurb showed up later in the program. As long as my percentage of completed vs. dropped locations is high I am not going to sweat it. I have a nice email relationship with the scheduler to fall back on should I run into issues.

On my upcoming route turns out one of my 15 Famous Highways is a daylight shop, at a location I'm not that fond of. Even if I could fit it into my schedule, I'd prefer not to visit.

I went in and changed the due date to yesterday to force it off my board today.

Reading this thread, I'm going to try to be better about this going forward!

1. If a shop falls off your log, it does not show up as a citation. They track it internally and when you have had too many drop off, you are removed from that program.
2. Recently they have added a rule: Once a shop drops off, there is a "24hour cooling off period" similar to Presto. You will need to wait 24 hours to accept it assuming it is still on the board.

Hope this helps.

She's not responding to my email anymore.. it's been days since I told her that I completed both of those shops that she said that I flaked on.

I haven't kept track, because I was told by whoever answered my email questions that I had to let the shops drop, and that it wouldn't be a problem. There is absolutely no possible way that I have let 155 Faux Chinese food shops drop in a year or even 2 years. The most that COULD be possible might be 24.. But I'm sure it's far less, probably less than 10 in the last 2 years in the Ishopfirst program.

It got me thinking a little, maybe you can search for the number of emails where it gave you a cancellation notification. 155 does sound excessive.

@Morledzep wrote:

She's not responding to my email anymore.. it's been days since I told her that I completed both of those shops that she said that I flaked on.

Did you try emailing Diana Paone at Diana.Paone@ipsos.com ?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/05/2024 05:09AM by shopnyc.

Nyc, I guess I'll try her next.

My guess that would be the total number, not just the number for one project, just a guess.

Karen,

I don't have any records for the shops that I let drop then picked back up again. I have no way of knowing what that 155 number is in actual practice. I know it can't be just for the Faux Chinese place, because I don't go there often enough, I doubt I've done a total of 155 Faux Chinese food shops combined between the last two MSC's in total, and I know I couldn't have let that many drop because I was told to with Ishopfirst if I couldn't complete it.

I did two shops this evening that I would normally have dropped and pickup up again in the morning or in a couple weeks when it gets darker earlier. I got there as soon as I could after it got dark, and they were both already closed. I'm familiar with both stations and I know they close earlier than most, but I thought 20:00 wasn't too late.. I don't understand how to do a lighting audit on a closed and dark station.

Yesterday it didn't get dark enough to do the lighting audit until about 19:45, I parked at the station an waited until I thought it was dark enough. They are simple shops, but they still take more than 15 minutes to complete, especially with my knees..

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/09/2024 07:51AM by Morledzep.