Fact Finder?

comicmankev

Not sure if this is the right board, but it is to do with shopping!

Just got a letter through the post asking if I would like to become part of 'Fact Finders household panel' - looks like a sort of market research.

They provide you with a 'wand' (scanner) and you scan all items you buy in your regular shop.

Has anyone had any experience with these, and are they worth it??


Sorry if I'm a bit vague, I don't know too much about them and there are no website details.

quoia

We've been doing it for several years.

It's OK but be prepared for "a lot of work" - at least a fair amount of time in order to do the scanning.

You have to scan just about EVERYTHING you ever buy.
Each item has to be identified with the place you bought it, how much you paid, how many you bought and what offer (BOGOF, extra 25%, price reduction, etc.) applied to the purchase.
If the product doesn't have a barcode, eg a cabbage bought at a market stall, there is a "product manual" provided where barcodes are printed for items like this - in this case you will usually get additional questions - (which ones depend on the product) but along the lines of - fresh or frozen, labelled organic, wrapped before or after purchase, which country of origin, and almost always the weight of the product (so you'll need some scales)

One supermarket that causes problems is Morrisons - all branded items are ok (eg Heinz, Kelloggs etc.) but their own brand items with barcodes WON'T SCAN as identifiable items most of the time! So it's a pain using the product cards each time to, for instance, identify a loaf, large, white, sliced, flour type, not organic, baked on premises etc.
Invariably this method (for Morrisions) fails to ask for QUANTITY - so if you have bought 2 loaves - you have to do it TWICE - annoying problem when you've bought a DOZEN !!!!

comicmankev

Does it benefit you much? And how about the cheap shops (ie Netto, Lidl, Aldi)? We tend to shop around and find ourselves in all of the supermarkets at one time in a month!

And how would they know if you skipped a few items?

pdoff

i personally found it more hassle than it was worth. also if u use vouchers a lot there isn't anywhere to put them sometimes e.g if u have money off a reduced item or something. & if u use vouchers at tesco for things u didn't buy for example there is no way to log that. if u don't do any shopping all week you have to remember to tell them aswell. i had a lot of things i had to look up in the book, & there was no way to log cat food! for some things, such as cheese, you have to put weight, price, where from, prepackaged or not etc. & i thought it was annoying (having a toddler pestering for attention didn't help either i don't suppose!)
i did have problems ending it aswell - i told them i was off on holiday for 2 weeks so would return the equipment when i got back. i came home to find 1 message a day on ansaphone asking to ret them & a letter from collection agency saying they would chase me for cost of equipment!! wouldn't mind if i hadn't told them!
when i joined i thought i could scan the shopping as i put it in the basket but it's not that simple.
anyway, hope if you decide to do it it goes well. it may have improved - i stopped over a year ago.

purplegirluk1

I have been a member for just over two months now and I have to say that it is more work than I had expected and I am not sure what the return will be like as the gifts you can collect seem to be high in points and you only get a flat rate of 100 points a month no matter how many items you scan.

I am still doing it and am getting quicker at it so don't be put off if it takes ages at first, I generally spend about 20 minutes scanning my shopping when I get in from tescos and then put it away after.

You must remember to keep your receipt too as you have to put in weights, total amount spente etc.

--Tony--

As everyone has said a lot of work for not much reward, I have been doing it for a long time now, I do keep it up in the hope of one day getting enough points for a really good gift (you choose from their catalouge).

The phone can be a problem too, you have to plug it into your phone line and they call the unit (no cost to you). Problem being it should pick up B4 it rings but it still made my phone ping at 1AM in the morning! Lucky I have another phone line in my home-office.

Give it a go but be warned its a lot of work for little reward.

purplegirluk1

Well mentioned Tony, I had managed to forget that it makes my phone ring once at 1am every saturday!

narabanekeater

I have just returned my scanner and equipment. I found this a very rude and difficult company to deal with. A piece of my equipment broke so they were unable to dial in and get my info. They left me the most horrible answer phone message. A lot of hard work for very little in my opinion

Ally

I just got the scanner thing the other day (haven't set it up yet) I thought it was 100 points a week!!! O/H isn't keen on doing it, he feels it is far ointrusive .... everything you buy, exactly how much you spend etc etc. I never thought of it like that before, and I have to say, after doing the practise thing, I am not impressed at all!

There is another scanning thing (company) around which is much quicker, smaller (the Fact Finders thing is BIG!), just scan items and plug scanner into your comp (via USB). Today I got a phone call from Fact Finders to arrange delivery, I already have it! Took a while to explain this to them! I will be calling them tomorrow to arrange collection of the unit after realising the actual reward amount and the cost of the products in the catalogue, would take me years to have enough points to actually get something! 1045 points for the cheapest item ... i.e over 10 months for something most people will not need!

Now it seems like they may not be as helpful if you want to opt out!!

bluedog

I've been using them for about 4-5 months now. It took a bit of time to get the hang of all the scanning, but as we are only a 2 person family we don't have a great deal of shopping anyway!
I've just ordered our first gift - a 28 litre cool box ready for the festival season ..!!

Giddytimes

Ally wrote:

I will be calling them tomorrow to arrange collection of the unit after realising the actual reward amount and the cost of the products in the catalogue, would take me years to have enough points to actually get something! 1045 points for the cheapest item ... i.e over 10 months for something most people will not need!

My statements have more reward points than this. I seem to get 75 points a week for every week I am active (i.e scan something) on top of the 100 points a month. So roughly 400-475 points a month.

I agree it is much more work than I expected & there isn't anything I really want in the catalogue but it doesn't take that long really to save up for the smaller items.