I have had it with that company. I had accepted two assignments with them that were not too far apart, but they were paying with bonuses. Since they do not pay for mileage, accepting something with a bonus is the only way I will go farther than 20 miles. I have actually talked to a representative every day this week, and I was asking them when I was going to be paid for my completed assignments, they said before the end of the week. So I told them that I would complete that assignment when I got some gas money from them. Every time, they said that would be fine. Now, I got an e-mail saying there were some assignments close to me that were available. (I currently have 25 assignments in my list) but I wanted to find out more about them, When I read more into it, I discovered it was the same assignments that I have already be assigned to. Whats up with this I thought. So I went back to my assignment list and have been pulled from the two assignments because they said they were not able to get a hold of me and the assignment closed. I'm the one that looks like an @$$ here because I did not complete it to their liking. When I called back to get the assignment, obviously it was not there or available for me to pick up and the Scheduler asked "Were you doing this for $8" I said "NO, it was supposed to be $25" or else I would not have accepted something so far away from me. Round trip mileage would have been 116 miles.

So, are you awaiting payment for August shops, or were you wanting pay for September's early? Did you give them a shop date and not complete it on that date?

I'm a little confused too.

I only shopped with them a short time and they will NEVER work with you. I heard if you do too many shops or if too many shoppers are starting to shop too many times in one area, they kick people off for life. I know someone who worked with them for 8 years and told me they get short changed all the time. I just had an issue with my ss# with them. They also use a webpage system that can easly be hacked by learning to change the URL and JAVAscript under view all.

That has not been my experience with them. I have found them relatively easy to work with when there was an issue, though if it is not directly shop related you will get non-answer talk. They do terminate shoppers without explaining why, though it would appear that this is due to some algorithm they use that 'identifies' shoppers who may no longer be observing as carefully as they need to. I have NEVER been short changed. I have been overpaid a little bit from time to time and when I reported it was told to 'just keep it'. I am currently 'on mandatory leave of absence' from some shops I love because evidently I met my quota of them. I thoroughly expect them to return in time. Truth be told, I had done enough of them that I can't say I really came to them with a 'fresh, new experience' perspective every time I walked in the door.

NOTE: This is related to working with the Blue Portal, not the Purple one.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/30/2011 09:15PM by Flash.

The experience I have had that has been negative has been with the purple portal. I have had good experience with the blue portal, so far. The payment I am waiting for is through the purple portal and it is for assignments that I did in early August. I was told that if it was longer than 6 weeks, then I need to fill out a payment inquiry. I did that and they said it would be 2 weeks before I would get a reply. The next thing I know is they are putting the assignment back on my list. I called and asked why, they said that there was a problem with the photos. When I asked to be more specific they could not give me an answer. Today when I went to log in to fill in a report, it said my login was not valid. I called back to tell them and they said that I requested it. I know I have been angry with them, but I had over 25 upcoming assignments and I told them that there was no way I would have canceled myself with having that many assignments. She was able to get me logged back in and would you know that all 25 of my assignments were lost. She said she would do what she could to get them back and to check back in an hour. I did and only 16 of them are back and some of them are not even the locations I agreed to, they are much farther away. This whole week has been nothing but a nightmare and I have not cried this much in a long time. I am not normally an emotional person but they have really upset me to a large degree.

Purple Portal does indeed have a reputation for terminating shoppers who question them.

They seem to have several people that work from them that do not speak English well. I wonder if some of the calls that I get are "off-shore"

I have done many shops (not including FF) for the Blue Portal and have not experienced any problems. I even was given the phone number of my scheduler when I had a problem situation. That was quickly and pleasantly resolved, and I was paid promtly.

Why is there such a difference in each of the portals? You would think since they are basically the same company that they would do things consistently the same, but it is like working for a totally different company.

They were separate, free standing entities that were purchased by Market Force. CFA (Purple portal) had their own 'culture', as did Shop 'n Chek (Blue portal). They each had their own reporting systems. So now they are subsidiaries of Market Force but have retained their old 'personalities'. Other companies have also been bought and were just merged into these two.

I was deactivated by the Purple portal a over two years ago, and it was peaceful. I was frustrated that I simply "could not log in" one fine day, a day that I had outstanding assignments scheduled. The issue was over an $8 assignment where some gum was not present to put out and I told the store I would come back. That was not a choice, as the data entry screen assumed that product would be there. Maybe I should have lied? I asked to speak to a supervisor at CMS and was denied... I was mad, mad mad!

Then you know what happened? I stopped getting phone calls bugging me to drive 20+ miles to rotate some movies, or drive 80 mile round trip for a trailer check. Nope, I don't miss them.

If you like merchandising, check out NARMS. There are better merchandising companies with less hassle to work with.

DO NOT WORK FOR THIS COMPANY..............

I love Market Force. They have plenty of shops, (albeit, not high paying) but it's steady filler work, along with your other shops. And they always pay fast. And it's direct deposit to boot!

I have never had a problem with them.

I suspect that once again we are discussing Purple Portal vs Blue Portal. I too am perfectly happy to work for Blue Portal but will not work Purple Portal.

Exactly Flash, It is as different as night and day.

Hmm, I haven't had any trouble with purple portal, yet! But I don't take alot of jobs with them anyway. Couldn't figure out how to get to the blue portal so am not sign up there yet.
I love to do the movies and this is the only MC that I found that offers them. Any suggestions who else does movies?

Thanks!

i love doing stuff for the purple portal folks

ArizonaShopper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hmm, I haven't had any trouble with purple portal,
> yet! But I don't take alot of jobs with them
> anyway. Couldn't figure out how to get to the
> blue portal so am not sign up there yet.
> I love to do the movies and this is the only MC
> that I found that offers them. Any suggestions
> who else does movies?
>
> Thanks!


I noticed ICC/DS is doing a few in my area right now.

To: ArizonaShopper

When they had the name Theatrical Entertainment Services, they were the leader in all sorts of theater checks. Their name now is veriTES and their website is [www.verites.com]. When they were Theatrical Entertainment Services I worked for them a lot! I was the favorite of the scheduler for my area, and did tons of checks. I haven't worked for them in a long time, so I don't have any current info about how they are to work for. Their site looks much the same as years ago, though.

I've been fired by the purple portal...twice!

The first time was when I was doing a special assignment for them that was going on in my city only. A national movie chain was piloting an unlimited movie pass. I had to buy several movie tickets over a 3 month period of time. During one of the shops, I misplaced the ticket stubs. I immediately called my contact at the company, explained the situation, and I was told not to worry because I would be going back in a couple of days anyway. Then about 6 months later when I was legitimately ill and had to bail out of an open check, they deactivated me. I actually was able to communicate with a supervisor, and she brought up the lost ticket stubs as an added reason that I couldn't be trusted anymore.

A few years later, I went back to the website, reapplied as a new contractor, and got back into the system. I ended up getting fired again when I signed up for a merchandising job where I was to meet a product rep at a store before merchandising the product. I was told that the rep would call me, but they never did. I contacted my scheduler and explained that since I never heard from the rep that I couldn't sit around waiting because I had other jobs to do, and that I would be happy to reschedule the merchandising visit. The next day (the scheduled day of the visit), the scheduler called me, yelled at me, called me unprofessional and a liar. It ended up that the product rep lied to the scheduler about never calling me, and the scheduler sided with the product rep, even though I had emailed the rep the night before informing them of the situation. I got fired again.

Good riddance.

Sounds like you are so much better off without them. I would not put up with being called an unprofessional liar. I actually had several jobs in which the client had us going to stores and asking questions regarding the sales reps. After hearing from virtually every store that they hadn't seen their rep in months I wanted to apply for his/her job.

I did a few jobs where it was required that you do a precall. The information page said that you would be paid $5 for the precall and report. When I got my pay for those shops, I was not paid for the precall, and there were 3 separate assignments. I called and inquired about it and that man said (and I quite) "That is an outright lie, because we don't pay you for precalls. We never had and never will" I was so offended by his actions that I neglected to get his name. They have so many people that work for them that it is very unlikely that when you call the help desk that you will get the same person twice. I am STILL awaiting payment from them. I was told "End of the month" and now I am being told beginning of the month. I have only done 20 assignments for them, and 9 of which I have already been paid for. So I hope by this next pay period they get things straightened out or I will start raising heck. I got 5 calls from them yesterday, in which I spent most all day in bed with a fever. I told the first person that called that I had the flu and could they refrain from calling me for24-48 hours so I could get over this. She said she would make note of that on my account. I told her I appreciated that VERY much and hung up the phone. The next call I got was asking me to do another assignment, which I had no idea on what all I agreed to because every time they called, I was either sleeping or just waking up. During each call, I reiterated that I was feeling bad and had the flu could you hold all calls from MF for a day or so, "PLEASE!!!" I think the request made it worse, that they did exactly the opposite. BTW, MF IS a play on words, huh?

BBurkWV Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I did a few jobs where it was required that you do
> a precall. The information page said that you
> would be paid $5 for the precall and report. When
> I got my pay for those shops, I was not paid for
> the precall, and there were 3 separate
> assignments. I called and inquired about it and
> that man said (and I quite) "That is an outright
> lie, because we don't pay you for precalls. We
> never had and never will" I was so offended by his
> actions that I neglected to get his name. They
> have so many people that work for them that it is
> very unlikely that when you call the help desk
> that you will get the same person twice. I am
> STILL awaiting payment from them. I was told "End
> of the month" and now I am being told beginning of
> the month. I have only done 20 assignments for
> them, and 9 of which I have already been paid for.
> So I hope by this next pay period they get things
> straightened out or I will start raising heck. I
> got 5 calls from them yesterday, in which I spent
> most all day in bed with a fever. I told the first
> person that called that I had the flu and could
> they refrain from calling me for24-48 hours so I
> could get over this. She said she would make note
> of that on my account. I told her I appreciated
> that VERY much and hung up the phone. The next
> call I got was asking me to do another assignment,
> which I had no idea on what all I agreed to
> because every time they called, I was either
> sleeping or just waking up. During each call, I
> reiterated that I was feeling bad and had the flu
> could you hold all calls from MF for a day or so,
> "PLEASE!!!" I think the request made it worse,
> that they did exactly the opposite. BTW, MF IS a
> play on words, huh?

Not for any one general MS company, but to treat you like this, just shows the lack of respect that "some" MS companies have...

I have not had a bad experience with MF (yet) except for the photo audits where I get asked for tons and more tons of pictures. ( Thankfully I take WAY over what they require) and since they give me jobs, pay me in a reasonable amount of time, I have no real complaints. (yet)

But in your case and other shoppers, to call a shopper a LIAR, must mean that they must get some ( hopefully very few ) shoppers that do lie and I am hoping this is rare.

Since they deal with thousands of shoppers and BUKO emails everyday, they must must have very little patience.

When he called you a LIAR, that was uncalled for. Who does HE answer to?

BBurkWV Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> They seem to have several people that work from
> them that do not speak English well. I wonder if
> some of the calls that I get are "off-shore"


Exactly! They call me several times a week and none of them appear to be fluent in English. When I see the 518 area code on my caller id, I let it go straight to voicemail.

I had some visits through purple that seemed easy enough. I had to drive about 15 miles but there were 2 within 1/2 mile of each other when I got there so I thought ok, it's worth it. After the 5th trip out there(and numerous calls) when they still did not have the product I was supposed to do, I clicked on the cancel this assignment/I don't want to work for MF again. They are still calling me and emailing me to do assignments. They do pay in a timely manner, but they are just so disorganzied with the stores not having what you are supposed to do, it is not worth it.
I have to chuckle when I see people say they have been deactivated because I asked to be deactivated and they won't!

I Love Market Force!

I have agreed to complete the assignment that I have assigned to me right now, but I am not taking on ANY more until I get some payment. Even then I will find it hard to accept anything more from them. Funny thing is, my husband had signed up several months ago and I didn't know about it. His phone will ring and it will be area code 518, then a few seconds later my phone will ring and he says "I'll bet ya it's probably MF" and sure enough it is. We are right beside one another down the list.
He sees all the headaches that I go through and especially the assignment with the photos for One Main Financial, He is the family photographer and so he took all the photos with a D-SLR camera. High quality pictures too. But were they acceptable for MF? NO, they kept telling me that I was missing photos but I had way above the required amount and at the angles they wanted as well. That is the first assignment that I started getting aggravated with. Then one assignment that I accepted for $35, I got there and the store had thrown out everything that I needed to set up the display. I called MF from the site and told them and even asked them what to do. I was worried that I wasn't going to get anything for that assignment. I WAS actually docked $2, but I did still get paid for showing up . I ended up just cleaning off the shelves and gave them a number in which ti call and get more supplies. The manager was so nice to me and said that I wouldn't have to come back that he would set up the display. So I filled out my report and it was over.

BBurkWV Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have agreed to complete the assignment that I
> have assigned to me right now, but I am not taking
> on ANY more until I get some payment. Even then I
> will find it hard to accept anything more from
> them. Funny thing is, my husband had signed up
> several months ago and I didn't know about it. His
> phone will ring and it will be area code 518, then
> a few seconds later my phone will ring and he says
> "I'll bet ya it's probably MF" and sure enough it
> is. We are right beside one another down the list.
>
> He sees all the headaches that I go through and
> especially the assignment with the photos for One
> Main Financial, He is the family photographer and
> so he took all the photos with a D-SLR camera.
> High quality pictures too. But were they
> acceptable for MF? NO, they kept telling me that I
> was missing photos but I had way above the
> required amount and at the angles they wanted as
> well. That is the first assignment that I started
> getting aggravated with. Then one assignment that
> I accepted for $35, I got there and the store had
> thrown out everything that I needed to set up the
> display. I called MF from the site and told them
> and even asked them what to do. I was worried that
> I wasn't going to get anything for that
> assignment. I WAS actually docked $2, but I did
> still get paid for showing up . I ended up just
> cleaning off the shelves and gave them a number in
> which ti call and get more supplies. The manager
> was so nice to me and said that I wouldn't have to
> come back that he would set up the display. So I
> filled out my report and it was over.

This seems to be very,very,very common that they want more photos. I am a photographer and use a beautiful camera with crisp shots and I overkill on every imaginable angle, known to man and 6 photos when they ask for "one"....

So "no" it's not YOU that is imagining.. that no matter how many you send, they want MORE. I don't think it's to be mean, I think the client gets excited and asks for more. I have never gotten a "We need more pictures because the ones you took aren't good" its more, "can we have more pictures because our client wants TONS" Why don't they just ask for 7 of each instead of one or two????

MsLynn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I Love Market Force! I have worked/shopped for this company for about 5 years.