Kantar - Royal Mail Monitoring and Posting Panel

Baileys_Babe

General_Grant said:

I've got yet another reminder wanting me to download the app to be able to verify my postings.  Though, in a conversation with one of their staff some time ago, I said I don't have a smart phone and therefore can't do this and the member of staff said they would make a note of this, they still send them as obviously don't have a marker for "dinosaur".  Perhaps they'll never invite me back once my current 6-month stint is completed.

I also received the reminder. I do have a smartphone but I don't feel the need to have data. Unless they are going to reimburse me for my data I have no intention of getting the app.

beanielou

Baileys_Babe said:

General_Grant said:

I've got yet another reminder wanting me to download the app to be able to verify my postings.  Though, in a conversation with one of their staff some time ago, I said I don't have a smart phone and therefore can't do this and the member of staff said they would make a note of this, they still send them as obviously don't have a marker for "dinosaur".  Perhaps they'll never invite me back once my current 6-month stint is completed.

I also received the remainder. I do have a smartphone but I don't feel the need to have data. Unless they are going to reimburse me for my data I have no intention of getting the app.

My thoughts exactly.
I am sure that it sometimes costs me to do the survey as it is.

tomvox

Chocmonster7 said:

From today when logging your received items you will find that we no longer ask you for postmark information or the condition the item arrived in.

Won't be much left to ask us then!

I suspect that may be something to do with the fact that around 50% of my deliveries (and about 90% of Jiffy Bags) have either no postmark or an illegible blob. If others are finding the same then its fairly meaningless.

joeyjimbles

I got the reminder but I do use the app, though I haven't gone live this time round yet so perhaps it hasn't counted.

littlemoney

Baileys_Babe said:

General_Grant said:

I've got yet another reminder wanting me to download the app to be able to verify my postings.  Though, in a conversation with one of their staff some time ago, I said I don't have a smart phone and therefore can't do this and the member of staff said they would make a note of this, they still send them as obviously don't have a marker for "dinosaur".  Perhaps they'll never invite me back once my current 6-month stint is completed.

I also received the reminder. I do have a smartphone but I don't feel the need to have data. Unless they are going to reimburse me for my data I have no intention of getting the app.

They could redesign the app so it would save the posting location and time for uploading later when you get home using your broadband.  I have apps that do this for logging exercise so it should be possible. They are trying to increase app usage from 30% to 40% according to something I read on their web site.

Schnurrbart

Looks like you're going to be spared my ramblings from now on, in this forum at least!

Kantar sent me a message saying: "We understand from your responses that you receive your post from Royal Mail via a shared letterbox. As this could affect the accuracy of the receiver data you provide us with, unfortunately, this means that we have had to remove you from our postal surveys panel.”

I finally managed to speak to someone at Kantar yesterday. They told me that Royal Mail have directed them to remove any panellist with a shared letterbox from the postal surveys (all types), and that therefore several panellists would have received the same message (which they admitted was worded badly, did not explain why having a shared letterbox is now deemed to be something that can affect data integrity, and did not even mention that Royal Mail were behind the decision). They also promised to send me an email going into more detail about the decision, although I haven’t received this yet.

I am still sceptical despite the conversation. It wouldn’t be the first time that someone at Kantar had been ‘economical with the truth’ (shortly before being removed from the main survey and barred from future participation in all postal surveys I had a call from the Data Analysis team at Kantar specifically to ask me about the shared letterbox – when I asked if having one presented any issue I was assured that it did not). There is no mention of the change on the news feed, which seems odd given that it would – I would imagine – affect quite a number of panellists. And nobody until now has posted on here to say that they have been removed due to having a shared letterbox, so I was wondering: has anybody else reading this received this message? As it stands, and until I see some indication that other panellists have been removed because they have a shared letterbox,  the paranoid part of me is thinking that I have been removed for some other reason which Kantar don’t wish to disclose (my posts on here, perhaps?), and that the ‘shared letterbox’ is a pretext.

I have mixed feelings about being removed. I would rather have left the main survey on my own terms, but there are certainly aspects of it which I won’t miss (especially collecting cubes from the sorting office). No longer being able to earn an easy fiver for doing the CD and UM surveys stings a bit.

By the way - and this is odd, too - the Kantar person I spoke to told me that Royal Mail may well change back to allowing people with a shared letterbox to do surveys in the future, and that Kantar would communicate this through the portal (which will remain accessible to those who have been removed / barred from the surveys) and/or by emailing registered but inactive panellists (hmm). Was this a well-intentioned, but baseless, attempt at giving me some hope that I may be able to re-join at some point? If it wasn’t, then it certainly begs the question why Royal Mail now consider that having a shared letterbox “could affect the accuracy of the receiver data” after having previously – for years - allowed people with one to take part, and when there is a possibility that in future they might consider it to not have an effect on data accuracy!

In the absence of any explanation, I could only surmise – and the Kantar person agreed with me – that Royal Mail were concerned about other users of a shared letterbox taking survey items addressed to a panellist (i.e. stealing mail not addressed to them). But this is an ongoing possibility, and if it really is the reason then why would Royal Mail have allowed panellists with a shared letterbox to take part for so long up until now (they could have just gotten Kantar to screen out those applicants so that – unless some people fibbed about it – everybody on the survey had their own letterbox, and that particular threat to data integrity would not exist)? And why would there be a possibility that Royal Mail would change their mind on this (again)?

The whole thing smells fishy to me, so if anyone else here has had the same message, I’d be glad to know that I’m not the only one.

Take care, everybody, especially with the current situation.

molerat

I suspect shared letterboxes can increase the non receipt rate and delay the logged delivery times, a negative impact on the survey results.  They do not want accuracy, they want to be seen to be providing accurate results as long as they are positive.

On another note, I think they should be stopping "handed over at the counter" items as this will help with social distancing at both ends of the chain.

Schnurrbart

molerat said:

I suspect shared letterboxes can increase the non receipt rate and delay the logged delivery times, a negative impact on the survey results.  They do not want accuracy, they want to be seen to be providing accurate results as long as they are positive.

Quite possibly, molerat, but by "they" I can only assume that you mean Kantar TNS ("they want to be seen [by Royal Mail] to be providing accurate results [to Royal Mail]..."). However, the decision to remove panellists with a shared letterbox was made by RM themselves, not by Kantar (unless I've been lied to again!).

I still haven't received Kantar's explanatory email, and in the current situation I probably won't get it anytime soon (if at all). I'd still be very interested to know if any other panellist reading this forum receives their mail from a shared letterbox (and has been declaring the fact on their survey responses) and has received the 'Leaving the survey' email. Obviously, not all panellists participate in this forum, but surely I am not the only one within the subset of those who do read it, and have a shared letterbox, and declare it in survey responses!

I totally agree with you about items handed over the counter; I imagine that Kantar will make an announcement about this next week (if they have any sense).

Wishing everyone a pleasant and safe Sunday.

beanielou

Have emailed Kantar to say will not be handling every items over the counter in the current difficult circumstances. 

molerat

By "they" I mean Royal Mail.  RM have to present the survey data to the regulator and there are obviously ways to manipulate the scope of that data to eliminate any negative factors whilst still being seen to be doing.