Saturday morning at 5am ... sound asleep ... vibrating cell phone (ringer off) on night stand wakes me up ... I check callerID and see it's an out-of-state number I don't recognize, so I ignore it ... my home phone rings a minute later (I really don't remember providing them with that number) ... I answer groggily to hear "May I speak with ___?" I respond with, "Who is this?" The person says they are calling from Market Force International and, before they can say anything further, I interject, "Do you realize it's 5:00 in the morning on a Saturday? I'll talk to you later. Good bye." ... I hang up.

Fifteen minutes later cell phone vibrates on night stand ... I ignore ... one minute later my home phone rings ... I answer more irritated than groggy this time ... person says they are calling from Market Force ... I angrily say, "Do you realize it's STILL close to 5am on a Saturday?! Your phone calls are waking up my kids. Please don't call me." I hang up.

Fast forward to 7:45am ... cell phone vibrates (at least I'm fully awake now) ... guess who?! The Purple Portal People are calling to ask if I'll do an $8 merchandising assignment on November 22! Are you serious?! GRRRR

mmm... one more reason not to use the purple portal...

also one more reason not to have a landline...

Can someone please explain the dif. between the purple and the blue portal. I am still confused. I do some PITA Market Force shops but I don't know if they are blue or purple or if it matters.

I can never remember which is blue and which is purple. To me one is Market Force (and used to be Shop'n Chek) and the other is Certified Field Associates. The biggest difference I see are the jobs. Market Force has mystery shops and audits while Certified seems to have mostly merchandising type assignments.

I am definitely doing the mystery shops, not merchandising. Very slim pickings here. I don't go after many because the pay is low.

Okay- I have never had one THAT early, but I have had one as early as 7am, which is against their rules. They are not supposed to call before 8am, period. So I called in one day and got a very nice scheduler and told her I had been called several times too early and wanted put in my file 1) no calls on Sunday, at all, unless I had a late report and 2) no calls before 8am, period. That worked really well. I was getting tons of calls to do the theater checks, and I said no every time, so I had them remove me from that, too.

PizzaPizza Wrote:
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> Saturday morning at 5am ... sound asleep ...
> vibrating cell phone (ringer off) on night stand
> wakes me up ... I check callerID and see it's an
> out-of-state number I don't recognize, so I ignore
> it ... my home phone rings a minute later (I
> really don't remember providing them with that
> number) ... I answer groggily to hear "May I speak
> with ___?" I respond with, "Who is this?" The
> person says they are calling from Market Force
> International and, before they can say anything
> further, I interject, "Do you realize it's 5:00 in
> the morning on a Saturday? I'll talk to you
> later. Good bye." ... I hang up.
>
> Fifteen minutes later cell phone vibrates on night
> stand ... I ignore ... one minute later my home
> phone rings ... I answer more irritated than
> groggy this time ... person says they are calling
> from Market Force ... I angrily say, "Do you
> realize it's STILL close to 5am on a Saturday?!
> Your phone calls are waking up my kids. Please
> don't call me." I hang up.
>
> Fast forward to 7:45am ... cell phone vibrates (at
> least I'm fully awake now) ... guess who?! The
> Purple Portal People are calling to ask if I'll do
> an $8 merchandising assignment on November 22!
> Are you serious?! GRRRR

oo, good tip Jaosmom! Thanks.

jersey, the "purple" is (as LisaSTL said) also known as Certified. I've only done a few easy theater trailer checks for them, but it looks like they primarily have merchandising assignments (not my cup o' tea).

Thanks PizzaPizza I think they have dif. clients out here (in VA). I only shop their casual dining the burgers must be well done shops on a regular basis. The pay is low. And I am tired of the well-done burgers. I don't want my burgers to moo but a little pink in the center, please.

PizzaPizza- what time zone are you in? The Certified and Shop'n'Check folks are al in EST.

well judging by no msc takes the time to find out what part of the state you are in they probably dont take the time to check time zones...

Shops in your area.. Binghamton NY... uh.. thanks but 800 miles round trip to do a $10 assignment is not something i am interested in... sassie sucks at this...

as of right now i am in no position to be of emergency help to my family i just put my phone on a soft surface with vibrate or turn in completely off...

Yes, I'm in a different timezone, but *you'd think* that someone who works as a scheduler would realize that, especially when the shop is also in that (different) timezone. Oh well, I'll follow cooldude's example and bury my cell phone or something like that.

You'd be amazed how many people are time-zone challenged.

Jersey-I think you are confused Blue Portal does mystery shopping and audits(the part you work for) then they have the Purple Portal(the part the OP is referring to) that does mostly merchandising, exit interviews, and trailer checks.

I have only done a few trailer checks and merchandising assignments but generally find most of their work to be labor intensive and they only pay like $8 an hour, not worth it to me. Plus I get tons of calls from them, more than any other MSC.

time zones are above their pay grade...

Brak Wrote:
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> Jersey-I think you are confused


Yep! Always!!!