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IPSOS Rejecting Shop

February 24, 2025 11:17PM
I looked up the status of a recent shop done for an online order/pickup of Asian food. I received a text receipt/confirmation but no email. I took a screenshot of that text and that is what I submitted along with the receipts that were on the bag of food. In my report, I also noted an email receipt was not received.
Yet, I get punished with a 1 score, a rejected report, and no payment. They don't even bother to send me an email notifying me there was a "problem". How do we provide something that was never given to me? I emailed them back, let's see if they respond appropriately.
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More Discussions About Ipsos Mystery Shopping (All Companies)
February 25, 2025 02:14AM
Unfortunately they or their client won't be able to accept the report without the email based on my experience because they do need that confirmation email to show time ordered, ordering detail and quoted ready to pick up time, which are all missing with the ready to pick up text

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/2025 02:14AM by kisekinecro.
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February 25, 2025 02:23AM
Good luck!

Please keep us updated
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February 25, 2025 02:25AM
did you check your spam folder in your email.
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February 25, 2025 03:58PM
Actually, every bit of that detail was shown in the text. Interestingly, there was another issue that I had with the shop regarding an hair in the food.

There were no instructions on what to do if there was a problem with the order—should I bring it to their attention or should I just note it in the report? I emailed for advice about both of these problems before submitting my report so you would think that when my report came through, it would’ve been flagged for that problem. I guess whoever gets the reports to edit are not privy to the information that gets sent when there are questions so…
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February 25, 2025 04:00PM
Yes, I did. I got a confirmation text that contained all of the detail and was time stamped as well and I told them that I was submitting that in lieu of the nonexistent email.
I wonder if some accounts are set to receive texts instead of you are already set up as a customer?
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March 01, 2025 02:23PM
@wanderer wrote:

Yes, I did. I got a confirmation text that contained all of the detail and was time stamped as well and I told them that I was submitting that in lieu of the nonexistent email.
I wonder if some accounts are set to receive texts instead of you are already set up as a customer?
I received both text and email when I did this. Perhaps you have a typo in the email address you supplied the merchant?

BTW, MSCs cannot simply change the merchant requirements for a shop. It might seem horribly unfair at times and I completely understand the frustration. I had a technical glitch cause an entire grocery order to disappear from my account once and had to spend time making phone calls and ultimately ended up needing to call corporate to have them involve their IT folks to get my order to show on my account again. All so I could get a receipt. But the MSC was powerless to accept my order confirmation in lieu of the receipt and so I did what was necessary.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/2025 02:56PM by Deedeezthoughts.
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March 01, 2025 04:33PM
At least for me, on the text messages, I only receive a notification that my order is ready. What kisekinecro had mentioned earlier, a lot of missing pieces of info that's all captured in the email.
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March 01, 2025 11:15PM
Just about all mystery shoppers will end up having to (literally) eat the cost of a rejected shop sooner or later. At least it's $10 and not a higher end dining shop. Double check your email with the restaurant chain in question and hopefully all will go well next time.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/2025 11:16PM by jp43209.
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March 01, 2025 11:48PM
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Moderator Note:

Since the MSC is named in the title, naming the Client is a violation of Forum rules. Feel free to edit out the violation and re-post.

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March 02, 2025 04:45AM
Unfortunately, this company doesn't want to hear the truth. Whenever the report has a negative tone due to their associate's performance or the food not being up to standard, your score will be reduced accordingly. Reporting hair in the food was probably the most offensive issue they couldn’t accept.

@wanderer wrote:

Actually, every bit of that detail was shown in the text. Interestingly, there was another issue that I had with the shop regarding an hair in the food.

There were no instructions on what to do if there was a problem with the order—should I bring it to their attention or should I just note it in the report? I emailed for advice about both of these problems before submitting my report so you would think that when my report came through, it would’ve been flagged for that problem. I guess whoever gets the reports to edit are not privy to the information that gets sent when there are questions so…
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March 04, 2025 02:36AM
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Since the MSC is named in the title, naming the Client is a violation of Forum rules. Feel free to edit out the violation and re-post.

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March 04, 2025 02:38AM
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Since the MSC is named in the title, naming the Client is a violation of Forum rules. Feel free to edit out the violation and re-post.

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March 04, 2025 02:58AM
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Since the MSC is named in the title, naming the Client is a violation of Forum rules. Feel free to edit out the violation and re-post.

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March 04, 2025 07:22AM
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Since the MSC is named in the title, naming the Client is a violation of Forum rules. Feel free to edit out the violation and re-post.

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March 04, 2025 02:27PM
@KV wrote:

Unfortunately, this company doesn't want to hear the truth. Whenever the report has a negative tone due to their associate's performance or the food not being up to standard, your score will be reduced accordingly. Reporting hair in the food was probably the most offensive issue they couldn’t accept.
I've marked them down for food quality issues and have gotten a 10. You need to take care with how you say it, factual description rather than opinion. "The green beans and chicken entree had only two very small pieces of chicken in it" is acceptable while "They didn't put enough chicken in the green beans and chicken entree" is not.
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March 04, 2025 04:36PM
I did the same thing with the same client, who has CHANGED how they respond to their online customers. What you received is what they send you now...in other words, you do NOT get the full page order confirmation, just the short email. I am hoping IPSOS got the memo.....
update 3/7....Ipsos does NOT know of the changes in this restaurant chain's email response. Ipsos incorrectly thinks that the restaurant is sending the full page order confirmation. I had one returned today for this exact reason.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/2025 09:09AM by edithms.
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March 04, 2025 08:16PM
I did one less than two weeks ago and I got a full page confirmation. My shop was accepted. When did that change?

@edithms wrote:

I did the same thing with the same client, who has CHANGED how they respond to their online customers. What you received is what they send you now...in other words, you do NOT get the full page order confirmation, just the short email. I am hoping IPSOS got the memo.....
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March 04, 2025 10:27PM
I had one where the cashier applied a discount without me asking and I had to ask them to remove the discount because discounts aren’t allowed and I have had a shop rejected before on this client for something similar. Nothing says “mystery shopper” like asking them to take off the 10% discount they are giving to everyone. The one I had rejected, the editor said that I was required to check my receipt before leaving and ask them to remove anything not allowed-I would rather loose the shop then go back to the register and ask them to remove a discount if I didn’t catch it while checking out.

I also did two online shops two weeks ago and got the email confirmation from both. Perhaps it is where you are ordering from? I always order from the webpage.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/04/2025 10:32PM by etcardent.
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March 05, 2025 01:22PM
@etcardent wrote:

I had one where the cashier applied a discount without me asking and I had to ask them to remove the discount because discounts aren’t allowed and I have had a shop rejected before on this client for something similar. Nothing says “mystery shopper” like asking them to take off the 10% discount they are giving to everyone. The one I had rejected, the editor said that I was required to check my receipt before leaving and ask them to remove anything not allowed-I would rather loose the shop then go back to the register and ask them to remove a discount if I didn’t catch it while checking out.

I also did two online shops two weeks ago and got the email confirmation from both. Perhaps it is where you are ordering from? I always order from the webpage.



What did they say when you told them you did not want the discount?
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March 05, 2025 03:25PM
I told the cashier that it seemed like the cost was not correct based on the price on the board and asked them to fix it and charge me for the right item. They seemed genuinely confused but I just gently pushed for them to have the correct price until they removed the discount and didn’t really let them get a word in to explain why they were giving me a discount. I just kept pointing to the menu that said the cost and repeating that was not what I was being charged. I could tell they were trying to explain and didn’t understand why I wanted to pay more instead of less but also that they saw I wasn’t going to leave until the price I was being charged matched the price on the menu board. It’s the only thing I could think of that is sort of remotely plausible a situation. I had previously considered telling them that my employer will only reimburse the cost of a non-discounted item but that seemed too odd to me.

I tried to tell IPSOS how ridiculous it is to ask mystery shoppers to do this the last time and how it compromises the shopper when they have not asked for the discount. IPSOS argued that “there is no such thing as an automatic discount” so in their minds this never happens - you only get a discount if you ask for it.

@Isaiah4031a wrote:

@etcardent wrote:

I had one where the cashier applied a discount without me asking and I had to ask them to remove the discount because discounts aren’t allowed and I have had a shop rejected before on this client for something similar. Nothing says “mystery shopper” like asking them to take off the 10% discount they are giving to everyone. The one I had rejected, the editor said that I was required to check my receipt before leaving and ask them to remove anything not allowed-I would rather loose the shop then go back to the register and ask them to remove a discount if I didn’t catch it while checking out.

I also did two online shops two weeks ago and got the email confirmation from both. Perhaps it is where you are ordering from? I always order from the webpage.



What did they say when you told them you did not want the discount?


Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/05/2025 03:27PM by etcardent.
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March 05, 2025 04:03PM
Oh yes, this company will penalize the shopper for things that are beyond your control. Been there, done that. I wound up escalating to the VP and getting paid but it took about 15 attempts at contact to actually get a response and get it overturned.
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March 05, 2025 04:29PM
I've successfully argued that I could not undo something the cashier did as an unrequested "favor" without blowing my cover. I mean, who asks to pay more for the same thing? But, different company, different shop, so not sure what the odds are with this one.

Having had time go think about it, I would go with, "I don't want you to get in trouble for giving me unearned savings! Plus, my employer is paying for this meal anyway and I promise they make plenty to cover it!"
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March 05, 2025 04:41PM
Dee, thank you for an excellent response for the situation. That one has only popped up once in my shopping yrs. and I was not prepared with a logical reply. I did inform the MSC of the situation and they agreed it was beyond my control; I was paid.
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March 05, 2025 05:36PM
@shopperbob wrote:

Dee, thank you for an excellent response for the situation. That one has only popped up once in my shopping yrs. and I was not prepared with a logical reply. I did inform the MSC of the situation and they agreed it was beyond my control; I was paid.

It's always easier to think of these things when you aren't being put on the spot! But, maybe having thought about it now, I will think of this when/if it happens again.

Plus, this gives an opportunity to dig in. If they give any hesitation about removing the discount, then you explain that you actually want the employer to pay full price since they used to cover up to $20 but now only give you (insert dollar amount slightly above what your total should be)! "And, if they see me spending less? They might reduce it again!" At this point, you've flipped the script and they are now helping you by charging full price.
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March 05, 2025 10:56PM
Maybe if they covered the cost of a 2 item plate, then it should not matter if a discount was given or not. You would think the client would want to know if employees are giving out free discounts and hurting the bottom line.

The discounts only matter because the MSC is not covering the entire cost of 2 item plate and shoppers don't want to come out of pocket, so they don't want shoppers trying to get discounts.

So much easier to pay for 2 item plate (no premium entrees) than to have games like this. But then you could argue reimbursing flat $10 is easier because it doesn't require scrutiny if someone was to order shrimp, steak or a different premium side.
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March 07, 2025 12:09AM
Ditto-this company does not care about their shoppers. Things well beyond your control is your issue not theirs. I quit shopping for them. My peace of mind and lack of frustration are worth more than I ever made from this company.
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March 07, 2025 03:59PM
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Moderator Note:

Since the MSC is named in the title, naming the Client, or Client's obvious initials, is a violation of Forum rules. Feel free to edit out the violation and re-post.

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March 07, 2025 04:01PM
deleted
Moderator Note:

Since the MSC is named in the title, naming the Client, or Client's obvious initials, is a violation of Forum rules. Feel free to edit out the violation and re-post.

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March 07, 2025 04:04PM
This is how they know that I am a shopper. But remember you did as they asked by having no discount be applied. It's on them for making such stickler for guideline. They do their part like suddenly cleaning the hell out of the dining and restroom. I pretend that I don't know that they know. We're all actors.
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