I signed up for a company that does focus groups. They call me once or twice a year to give my opinion and make a little money.
They called me yesterday at 8 p.m. They wanted me to do a focus group in my house on Thursday with two other friends. The study was supposed to pay $100 for each of us. I had to think about for a little while because I usually don’t like to give out information about my friends to corporate America. But I’ve worked with these people before and they’ve always been very trustworthy.
And hey a hundred bucks is a hundred bucks we didn’t have before. One of my friends is underemployed and could use the cash.
So I made eight calls and found two friends to come. The first said she could definitely do it and if I needed there was a friend of hers who would also like to come. The second said there was a 90% chance she could do it as long as she could get a babysitter and trade shifts. I gave them the company’s phone number so they could all contact each other.
Tonight I went out to buy some cheese, fruit and crackers for my friends. Jewish mothers do not have people in the house without food.
When I returned home from shopping the company rep called me at 9 p.m. First she tells me that there’s a thirty percent chance that they may cancel on me. When I get mildly upset at this turn of events she then tells me that they need to move the focus group back two hours. When I try to explain that I don’t know if my friends can do it on such short notice she then tells me that the group is cancelled and anyway she couldn’t reach one of my friends despite trying twice so I apparently wasn’t holding my end of bargain either and was obviously trying to cheat them.
When I get even more upset because I hate the thought of jerking my friends around and ask for some compensation for all of us she tells me the company doesn’t do that and threatens to remove me from the database and never call me again. She then launches into a sob story about she had to cancel a date that night and he didn’t get upset so why should I?
So to sum up:
You call me at eight in the evening. You want to know if I can find two friends to come to my house in the morning three days later. You call me back twenty-five hours later and cancel without any compensation whatsoever. You then spend thirty minutes on the phone getting mad at . . . ME!
I spent hours on the phone finding people to come. I chased after a babysitter and then had to cancel on her. I spent over an hour on the phone answering your questions. One of my friends took a very undesirable shift so she could join us. I’m not a slave and neither are they.
Be a professional and compensate us for the collective agita. If you turn three people’s lives upside down for a day you owe them something in return. You certainly have no right to jerk us like yo-yos and then whine when we get mad.
I used to work at a Marketing Research Firm conducting focus groups (I’m sure there’s a pit thread or two floating around about it.)
You will never get compensated, and you’re probably off their list permanantly now. Basically, lots of people want to participate in easy work for $$ - good recruiters have no problems finding people to do the groups - as soon as you start to be a trouble-maker (and sadly, expressing displeasure at the fact that they’re dicking your around makes you a trouble-maker) you’re off the list.
You could try contacting their competition - usually theres more than one firm in a city that conducts the research.
However - if they cancel, you will never, ever get compensation, unless you’ve travelled down to their site on the day of the event. As far as they’re concerned, almost 48 hours notice is an infinite amount of time.
Hey don’t knock it. The last study I did for them all I had to do was go food shopping at the supermarket. Two men from a major company followed me around and asked a few questions afterwards.
BTW,
IRL I do happen to have a part-time telecommuting job.
Alice,
You’re right. They probably DID take me off their list. But the company’s in NYC so they’re not the only game in town.
One of my friends called them today and wasn’t exactly . . . um . . . polite.
Most recruiting companies will allow you to participate every 6 months.
It’s the companies that hire the recruiting company that put the participation restrictions on attendies.
That is, if Coke (for instance) hires Joe Boggs Marketing Research firm, its very usual for Coke to insist that all the participants be research group virgins. Or perhaps have participated in one other group.
Research group junkies aren’t favoured by ANY companies.
A couple phone calls about setting up a meeting turned your lives upside down?
What they did was not very nice, but cancellations and reschedulings are a part of life. I don’t think you’re due any compensation just because you became “agitated.” Or to put it another way, if being agitated entitles one to money, then sign me up brother, because I’ve got a long list to collect from.
It wasn’t just a “couple” of phone calls. Within the space of a day FIVE people including babysitters had to play around with their schedules to acommodate this twit. One of my friends even took a less desirable evening shift for her. She specifically asked me to find women with children. Any mother will tell you how it is to find decent child care, let alone find it quickly.
Not only were none of us were compensated for our troubles but she actually YELLED at me. She also wasn’t exactly very nice to the friend who called her.
Eh. We have her name. She’s officially on five people’s shit list.
Could you please explain this comment? Thanks.
