Seriously MarketForce?

July 20, 2012 04:30PM

MissyH71 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> MarketForce is a $54 million dollar company.
>
> This is clearly a breach of contract.
>
> Your CPI *IS* a legal document.
>
> They need to suck this one up and pay out the
> previously agreed upon fee.
>
> SO GLAD I don't shop for this bunch of ex-Bain
> Capital jerks anymore!

Market Force was part of Bain Capital?

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July 20, 2012 05:29PM

Didn't they have this same thing happen a few month back? I didn't do or apply for the jobs, but I seem to recall a system message at certified with this exact same "error".

July 20, 2012 05:54PM

I can't believe Marketforce is actually responding to this.
So - answer this - why do Shoppers that have been with you for awhile suddenly get deactivated for certain jobs? We do a good job, then suddenly all fast food shops disappear from my search. When I write you and ask you about this, I get a response that I must have declined them - when in fact I haven't. Then magically they appear again. This has happened to me at least 4 times.
Marketforce - why does this happen?
And why do Shoppers get completely deactivated for no reason (as I have read about)??????

July 20, 2012 10:48PM

I got deactivated the same day I got an MF e-mail asking me to do a shop with a BONUS, SINCE YOU DO SUCH A GOOD JOB!

It seems their computer flagged me. (I was once a ShopnChek shopper.) I have submitted my driver's license twice and phoned in my SSN. I am awaiting their decision.

All my scheduled shops were cancelled. It seems like they have no reason to deactivate me!

July 20, 2012 11:13PM

I, too, would like to know why shoppers with a positive track record are being dropped. Why fire your best workers? It makes no sense. Then again, many of the things they do make no sense.

They have a business that exists to measure customer service and they have some of the worst customer service I have ever seen. Can you imagine what a shop report would look like for MarketForce? That shop would take days to input!

July 21, 2012 07:22AM

It's my opinion that several of the mystery shopping organizations find ways to get out of paying. I did a car wash shop and paid almost $12.00 out-of-pocket for the best wash available per the instructions. I scanned the receipt and sent it in. They replied and said they could not read it. I darkened the receipt and sent it in. Again they said they could not read it. So, the next day when I went to work, I blew it up. That evening, I scanned it and sent it on its way, but this time they replied and said that it was too late. They marked my rating down and said that they could not pay me because now it was late and they could not read the receipt. So, as you can see, a lot of these organizations screw people over. I was not a happy camper, so I understand this whole bit about not getting paid properly for the work done. With MarketForce, it is my opinion since they posted $40, they owe you $40. It's just like going shopping at a department store. They are required to sell you the product at the price advertised even if it is wrong.

July 21, 2012 12:32PM

MarketForceHelpDesk Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hello All,
>
> As we cannot apologize enough for this mistake, we
> have altered all fees back to the original $40
> amount for those of you who accepted the shop with
> the incorrect fee showing. If you have any
> questions or concerns, please reach out to
> helpdesk@marketforce.com.
>
> Thank you!

Hurrah!! Someone finally got Market Force at their own game.

July 21, 2012 05:53PM

They are really busy ... so am I. I did enter my reports last nght and they removed the shops this morning. Oh well, my mistake. I did not have the energy to enter last night when I got home.I wanted to do a godd job so waited til this morning. arrrr

July 21, 2012 06:50PM

lucky7s Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> They are really busy ... so am I. I did enter my
> reports last nght and they removed the shops this
> morning. Oh well, my mistake. I did not have the
> energy to enter last night when I got home.I
> wanted to do a godd job so waited til this
> morning. arrrr

I'm sure you meant to say "didn't" enter reports. In this case, if you did not enter reports within the required time, then they were correct in removing them. For all they knew, you did not even complete the shops. Part of shopping is knowing how many jobs you can schedule so that you can enter reports within the required span of time. I have overbooked before and ended up staying up half the night to finish. MF reports are hardly strenuous ones with loads of narrative and seldom take a long time to enter. Chalk this one up to live and learn. With some companies, you can negotiate to have more time to write the report. MF is not one of those companies.

July 21, 2012 07:22PM

I emailed the help desk complaining cuz they took the shops off and they replied and put them back on so they are now reported and all is great!! wWoohoo!!!!!!!!!!!
I had one a special order fast food and a grocery shop (my favorite)!!

July 21, 2012 07:23PM

I would say that you got lucky on that one. But then again, that's your screenname.

July 21, 2012 08:16PM

I have worked for marketforce for more then a year. They are mighty picky! I have had a few shops (3) rejected. Be very careful about doing what the schedualer tells you and not what is on the paperwork. Make sure you get the name of the person you are talking to as you no loinger have your "own" schedualer. I have done lots of work for them and for the most part enjoy it. I am glad to see that they finally did right by the workers on this one.

July 22, 2012 12:02AM

I forgot to say they mentioned I should have emailed the help desk to tell them I would be late submitting the report.

I may be very lucky in that I am one of the few shoppers in this area and I go all over for my work to begin with so I pick up shops all around. I refuse to take phone calls tho... no way no how. I had 6 schedulers call me one day for the same shop.

July 22, 2012 01:22PM

lucky7s Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I forgot to say they mentioned I should have
> emailed the help desk to tell them I would be late
> submitting the report.
>
> I may be very lucky in that I am one of the few
> shoppers in this area and I go all over for my
> work to begin with so I pick up shops all around.
> I refuse to take phone calls tho... no way no how.
> I had 6 schedulers call me one day for the same
> shop.

It won't matter that you may be the only shopper in the area and cover a large area. I did the same thing AND took phone calls AND bent over backwards to do every piddling shop they came up with then I got sick and emailed them that I was going to take a little time off to get over it. They asked if I wanted to close my account and I said no that I would just not schedule any shops until I had whipped this bug that had me under the weather. When I did get over it and went to look for some shops I found I had been deactivated. Since this was not the first time they had deactivated me I decided I was tired of fighting with them about it. I wonder who is running up and down these mountains now for them.

July 22, 2012 02:04PM

I suggest you call them or email. They deactivated me once. I am back in. Doesn't hurt to try.

July 23, 2012 05:58AM

I was deactivated for some fake reason about tax services or something. That is absolutely untrue, as I only made $320.00 that year. I don't think if I e-mailed the help desk or called them that they would reactivate me. Do you guys think I should just re-apply?

July 23, 2012 07:24AM

"a red phone rings each time we post about them as do most MSCs (that follow this forum). Some will respond and some won't."

I am glad to see MF responded finally in the positive to this situation. I have nothing negative to say about MF b/c they have always been positive with me. :-)

July 23, 2012 11:25AM

I doubt re-applying will do any good as you will show up in the system. What is "tax services" and what does only making $320 have to do with it? Did they need your SSN or were they unable to verify the one you supplied? That is becoming standard with many companies and how much or how little you made doesn't matter since you have to report it all on your taxes anyway.

Brigid12 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I was deactivated for some fake reason about tax
> services or something. That is absolutely untrue,
> as I only made $320.00 that year. I don't think if
> I e-mailed the help desk or called them that they
> would reactivate me. Do you guys think I should
> just re-apply?

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.

July 23, 2012 09:55PM

I havent seen any response about the deactivation for no reason issue that is a concern of numerous posters on this board.

sojo917 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "a red phone rings each time we post about them as
> do most MSCs (that follow this forum). Some will
> respond and some won't."
>
> I am glad to see MF responded finally in the
> positive to this situation. I have nothing
> negative to say about MF b/c they have always been
> positive with me. :-)

July 24, 2012 03:07AM

Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't.

August 05, 2012 11:14PM

I suspect that the reason the mistake of $40.00 was made is because $40.00 may be what the client was paying MF.

If I'm right, that means MF is paying shoppers 10 % of what they receive from client.

Think about that one.

August 06, 2012 12:10AM

I am not a big fan of Market Force, As a matter fact, they drive me crazy. But I have to take their side on this one. The phone shops really only pay $4, not $40. MF admitted to the typo error and offered to let you cancel. I have never seen a 3 minute phone shop pay $40. You can see up front it must be some kind of error. Come on girls!!! Use your busines sense. If you were in Market Force position, you would not be able to pay 10 times the amount of pay due to a typo.

August 06, 2012 12:50AM

sameroth Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am not a big fan of Market Force, As a matter
> fact, they drive me crazy. But I have to take
> their side on this one. The phone shops really
> only pay $4, not $40. MF admitted to the typo
> error and offered to let you cancel. I have never
> seen a 3 minute phone shop pay $40. You can see
> up front it must be some kind of error. Come on
> girls!!! Use your busines sense. If you were in
> Market Force position, you would not be able to
> pay 10 times the amount of pay due to a typo.

I agree that because of a typo they may not be required to pay the incorrect amount to all shoppers who accepted the shops. BUT in the case of shops that were accepted in good faith by shoppers at $40 and already performed, MF could and should be expected to pay the incorrect $40 amount. In the case where MF caught its mistake before shoppers performed the shops and communicated the problem to shoppers, giving them a change to cancel, that would be an acceptable. But the problem was that MF did not catch the mistake until AFTER some shops were performed...and they changed the CPI of those shoppers AFTER the shop was completed. To lower the shopper's pay after the fact is totally wrong and unfair.

August 06, 2012 02:34AM

If you would have read the thread, you would have noticed:

Not all of them were 40.00, some of them were at 4.00
There was a limit of 3 shops per person.
They had *weeks* to catch it, because there was a lag time between posting and the first shop dates.
They only caught it a week or two after the first scheduled shop was completed.

There was too much time in there to be nice. Multiple weeks.

If it was posted one day, shopped the next, and then caught the next day, that would have been a different story. But that wasn't the case here.

August 06, 2012 02:43AM

A signed contract dictates that terms should be honored.

August 18, 2012 11:22PM

I stopped doing work for them. They work together as sister company's with certified, and I don't trust them. I made a lot of money of a certified and they changed a lot of their employees. I have done great work for them, and then all of a sudden I felt like they didn't treat me right.I had trouble getting paid and a few other issues. They started paying less money for the same jobs and it wasn't worth my time to do them for the same paperwork. The funny thing is I haven't done work for them in a long time and I still get emails and phone calls from them. I think even my dad gets call from them and he did a lot of jobs for them as well. I am very upset with how they started to do business, since I made decent money and knew what to expect from them.

August 19, 2012 01:18AM

techman01 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> They can't do that and if you challenged them in
> court they would lose.

Actually they can if a reasonable person would've realize the shops shouldn't actually pay 40. Or something like that -- been a while since I studied law in school. But still sketchy and not good for relationship building.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/19/2012 01:22AM by rawraw.

August 19, 2012 01:53AM

As everyone already explained, MF changed legal documents after the shopper had "signed off" and submitted.

On another note, why in the world do you use the phrase "Come on girls!" and then follow it up with such a basic Business 101 kind of comment. Please explain since I am a girl and all this business talk just goes over my head.

sameroth Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am not a big fan of Market Force, As a matter
> fact, they drive me crazy. But I have to take
> their side on this one. The phone shops really
> only pay $4, not $40. MF admitted to the typo
> error and offered to let you cancel. I have never
> seen a 3 minute phone shop pay $40. You can see
> up front it must be some kind of error. Come on
> girls!!! Use your busines sense. If you were in
> Market Force position, you would not be able to
> pay 10 times the amount of pay due to a typo.

August 20, 2012 09:53PM

Market FOrce is a SCAM!! Nothing but problems. Stay away from this company

August 20, 2012 11:17PM

Blanka - Thank you for sharing your opinion, but it is a mistake to call this company a scam. Many of us are quite successfully shopping and merchandising with Market Force, which is a nationally known and reputable company. One of the requirements to be a successful auditor/merchandiser/mystery shopper is to maintain good relations with the companies. It's also a good idea to maintain a cordial relationship with other shoppers so the suggestions, tips, and general information will flow freely as needed. If you turn off other shoppers, they will turn off the tap.

You've had problems you need to work out with each individual company. The problems are related only to you and your individual shops, and do not mean the company is a fraud or a scam. Calling the companies frauds and scams because you have failed to resolve your personal situations is not a good move.

You may find that harsh and unfounded attacks on companies, such as calling them scams and frauds, may generate unpleasant answering posts from other shoppers who are supportive of those companies. Remember, if this does happen it was caused by your own posts.

Mary Davis Nowell. Based close to Fort Worth. Shopping Interstate 20 east and west, Interstate 35 north and south.

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