Spectos/Royal Mail Monitoring and Posting Panel

Nautical_Nick

Not impressed with the new MailAgent App version 1.8.6

It's trying to force you to scan the barcodes for your letters at the postbox.

I've pointed out the problems with this to Spectos:

1. Personal Security - Standing in a dark space outdoors, next to the postbox, concentrating on scanning bits of paper, not dropping your reading glasses etc. instead of concentrating on who is around puts you in danger of having your phone stolen.

2. Confidentiality - Mail Agents are supposed to remain unknown, but standing by the postbox scanning bits of paper is pretty overt.

3. When weather is windy or wet, the bits of paper will get soggy or blown away and might be difficult to scan in the dark.

4. Glasses will be steamed up or have water on the lenses in inclement weather.

5. The new App prevents you from recording the correct time of mailing if I go to the safe and convenient place in my home that I've always used and report it (68 steps from the postbox in my case) because it refuses to accept a time earlier than the current time.

Furthermore, I'm not sure if it's deliberate, but it ended up with the spinning wheel for a FULL FIVE MINUTES before it returened the message to say I'd received the 35 points, after I'd accepted that I wouldn't be entered into the draw, and explained that there was a discrepancy between the time it was actually posted and the time the App would allow me to report.

savergrant

SirTainly said:

And at 4.30am too dark to see what your doing and in the pouring rain with the sodden paper. Think I'll stick to going home to do the report and forget about the prize draw.

I had the opposite problem, the sun was so bright I had no chance to read the phone screen and had to wait until I got back indoors. We will see whether panellists who don't use it (or can't get it to work) get dropped

quoia

Nautical_Nick said:

Not impressed with the new MailAgent App version 1.8.6

It's trying to force you to scan the barcodes for your letters at the postbox.

I've pointed out the problems with this to Spectos:

1. Personal Security - Standing in a dark space outdoors, next to the postbox, concentrating on scanning bits of paper, not dropping your reading glasses etc. instead of concentrating on who is around puts you in danger of having your phone stolen.

2. Confidentiality - Mail Agents are supposed to remain unknown, but standing by the postbox scanning bits of paper is pretty overt.

3. When weather is windy or wet, the bits of paper will get soggy or blown away and might be difficult to scan in the dark.

4. Glasses will be steamed up or have water on the lenses in inclement weather.

5. The new App prevents you from recording the correct time of mailing if I go to the safe and convenient place in my home that I've always used and report it (68 steps from the postbox in my case) because it refuses to accept a time earlier than the current time.

Furthermore, I'm not sure if it's deliberate, but it ended up with the spinning wheel for a FULL FIVE MINUTES before it returened the message to say I'd received the 35 points, after I'd accepted that I wouldn't be entered into the draw, and explained that there was a discrepancy between the time it was actually posted and the time the App would allow me to report.

I suggest you DEACTIVATE your account immediately, after all nobody is holding a gun to your head 

2 clicks in the app
Menu option 5

I've always done it at the posting location 
Indeed I did it with Kantar for several survey cycles 

Recently I was invited to participate in a very new Spectos (beta trial) project that has yet to be rolled out for which I did next to nothing but was rewarded VERY handsomely.

My invite apparently came about because of my reliability, accuracy of posting location and timing details, promptness of recording received items and the returning of RFIDs

Personally I don't think I have done anything out of the ordinary or have gone out of my way to facilitate my participation in the survey that I volunteered to do.

quoia

savergrant said:

SirTainly said:

And at 4.30am too dark to see what your doing and in the pouring rain with the sodden paper. Think I'll stick to going home to do the report and forget about the prize draw.

I had the opposite problem, the sun was so bright I had no chance to read the phone screen and had to wait until I got back indoors. We will see whether panellists who don't use it (or can't get it to work) get dropped

Agreed.
Very difficult to see any mobile screen in bright sunshine and without a bit of shade close by it poses a problem but fortunately I know how or where to stand to overcome these issues to successfully use my phone and complete these tasks.
Never had a problem when it's between sunset and sunrise 

HonestJohn

quoia said:

I suggest you DEACTIVATE your account immediately, after all nobody is holding a gun to your head 

2 clicks in the app
Menu option 5

I've always done it at the posting location 
Indeed I did it with Kantar for several survey cycles 

Recently I was invited to participate in a very new Spectos (beta trial) project that has yet to be rolled out for which I did next to nothing but was rewarded VERY handsomely.

My invite apparently came about because of my reliability, accuracy of posting location and timing details, promptness of recording received items and the returning of RFIDs

Personally I don't think I have done anything out of the ordinary or have gone out of my way to facilitate my participation in the survey that I volunteered to do.

Agreed. I see a lot of posts from people who are reluctant to do what is requested of them and which they get rewarded for. I also do as you do but, sadly, never got the beta trial invite. If it was for the home collection of parcels then maybe I was lucky.

savergrant

quoia said:

savergrant said:

SirTainly said:

And at 4.30am too dark to see what your doing and in the pouring rain with the sodden paper. Think I'll stick to going home to do the report and forget about the prize draw.

I had the opposite problem, the sun was so bright I had no chance to read the phone screen and had to wait until I got back indoors. We will see whether panellists who don't use it (or can't get it to work) get dropped

Agreed.
Very difficult to see any mobile screen in bright sunshine and without a bit of shade close by it poses a problem but fortunately I know how or where to stand to overcome these issues to successfully use my phone and complete these tasks.
Never had a problem when it's between sunset and sunrise 

I'd be happy to do it after sunset if you didn't get the annoying posting on wrong day dialogue. If I'm active in the winter months before sunrise will be a lot easier.

MikeyPGT

I was doing an Unaddressed Mail survey before the latest upgrade which is complete and I've been credited with the points, however I am still getting prompts for 'open daily item volumes' and 'today's daily item volumes'. Is anyone else getting similar and does it eventually stop?

madflower

MikeyPGT said:

I was doing an Unaddressed Mail survey before the latest upgrade which is complete and I've been credited with the points, however I am still getting prompts for 'open daily item volumes' and 'today's daily item volumes'. Is anyone else getting similar and does it eventually stop?

I had that for the last UA. It went after 1.5 weeks. I raised a ticket but the reply was that it would go eventually and to ignore it!

HomingPigeon

I posted a sack of parcels this morning and realised I didn't have the paperwork we scan to confirm posting details. Couldn't find it at home and I usually keep it with the sack, so how I've lost it, I don't know.

Unless it was omitted from the posting pack in error - do you think that's possible? If that's the case, I would hope that I'd notice it missing on receipt of the posting pack, but clearly I didn't.

Anyway, after pondering about what I should do, I went ahead and posted the sack but can't report its dispatch. Any advice please? TIA. x

HonestJohn

HomingPigeon said:

I posted a sack of parcels this morning and realised I didn't have the paperwork we scan to confirm posting details. Couldn't find it at home and I usually keep it with the sack, so how I've lost it, I don't know.

Unless it was omitted from the posting pack in error - do you think that's possible? If that's the case, I would hope that I'd notice it missing on receipt of the posting pack, but clearly I didn't.

Anyway, after pondering about what I should do, I went ahead and posted the sack but can't report its dispatch. Any advice please? TIA. x

You must have received the paperwork otherwise you would not have been able to confirm it's receipt for your 25 points. The despatch code would have been on the reverse of this document.