Thank you...you are better than the guidelines

The trick with Market Force (Purple and Blue portals) is just accept shops which you actually enjoy doing, no matter the fee. Don't be fooled by the amount. A $45 shop may mean more than 4 hours work and a lot of muscle power. Also, I am not what you would say, devoted to them. Anything that even smells of stress, I don't accept. The Blue Portal has been worry free. But I have tolerated a lot from the Purple Portal because a number of occasions, they exhibited respect for me. They have accepted all my shops and paid them (I had to write them once), even one I could not complete because of a slight accident. However, next time a trigger happy staff deactivates my account, I won't be sayng yes if somebody calls to reactivate it.

Trailer checks offer the cheapest rate at $10 for First Show for the first auditorium but this goes down to $7 if other shows. The next screen is always $2. Yuck! They could change the type anytime. But this is the easiest to do. If you organize your timing, you can accomplish a lot and even do some shops when there is a big gap in time. I always buy a ticket after I have completed the shop and have reported on it by phone (if First Show) if I really want to see the movie. One time, a manager invited me and I told him I bought a ticket. He asked, "Why?"

You see, it is stipulated in the document, "The checker is not authorized to bring guests into the theatre." Sometimes there is an additional, 'or stay and watch the feature."

I refuse to do another Theatre Installation or standee or price auditing for any MSC. Never again! I have no interest in merchandising as well.

When I do the trailer check, I organize my other shops around the movie site with the goal of earning more than the minimum wage and have fun. I go home satisfied and relax and I usually do it on a Friday. The maximum allowed is two theatres a day. So I choose two theatres on the subway line. I would do a restaurant shop before the movie, a bank shop, a wireless shop and a shoe or retail shop in between, all from other MSC. The ability to auto assign helps. Be prepaid for cancellation or changes on the CFA assignments. They do it all the time. Always have your other shops to fall on.

Blind checking or Open checking or Theatre Evaluations entail more work but you are paid much more and they reimburse tickets for you and your partner. They are more complicating. Be prepared to stay until the last show. They are actually easy to do if you have nothing better to do and you like the movie. You have to like the movie to view it again and again in its entirety, to check the quality of every showing or count the patrons, etc. One tricky part is the purchase of the tickets for the first shows and the last.

Market Force is not among my favourite MSC but my commitment to do my job is the same.

charyuop Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> LOL thought the idea of clocking out, then walking
> to my manager and say "ok, now I am a contractor,
> here's my paperwork and I go back to work" LOL
> (Sad is that MF pays $8/hour, as Walmart employee
> I get $12 LOL).

Funny. I need to network with you about Walmart stock jobs.

It's difficult to read your post....but if you live in MA, there are many companies who offer super paying shops, much higher than MF.

jethrodfrog Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I had a horrible experience with MarketForce.
> They were annoying me with those awful phone
> calls, even though I told them that if they don't
> offer me more than 20 to do a job (I live in the
> third largest town in Massaschusetts-just to get
> to the highway takes me more than 15 minutes,
> never mind travel time) don't offer it to me.
> Finally they offer me a decent job about three
> towns down from me so I take it. Up until this
> point I had been rather lucky, taking bonus
> assignments that were all along the same route so
> I made an o.k. wage for hardly any work, and they
> paid me, so I wasn't too afraid. Then I took this
> job, at a fantastic sams or some such nonsense.
> They told me I had to do the shop on Monday. See
> the problem here? Hair dressing salons aren't
> generally open on Monday! So I get all the way
> there on the day they told me it HAD to be done,
> only to find out it was closed. I was more than
> irritated. They then had the guts to call me up
> and ask me to do the shop again. I told them that
> I would only do the shop if they reimbursed me for
> that visit that never happened that I showed up
> for. They told me no. I told them to lose my
> name if that was the case. They did.

I have done probably hundreds of assignments for MF, both Blue and Purple, and I don't think I've ever had a problem. As for emails and calls, I've never felt them excessive or annoying. They accept rejection easily, and theyre often offering bonuses when they call, so I'm not complaining!

As for theaters/trailer checks - that used to be my forte. (My go-to babysitter is no longer available, so I can't take trailer checks anymore unless they are "any showtime" ones instead of "first show" checks). I would do them every weekend. I'm a movie freak (hence the name) and I loved just watching new trailers and getting paid for it.
There was one time, the first weekend The Dark Knight opened in 2009, when they wanted trailer checks for EVERY screen in the theater (16 of them). It took me like an hour just looking over showtimes and figuring out how to hit them all in the least amount of time. I think I was there for 8 hours that day, but made like $95 just to watch movie trailers!

Every MSC has its good and bad. Marketforce tends to get a bad rep because (a) they give brand new shoppers a chance, and thus have more potential to go wrong, and (b) sheer volume.

I personally have never had a problem with MF. They pay consistently and on time. Their guidelines are crystal clear. Their shops will never be the highest-paying, but they're great fillers, especially if you need a meal while you're out doing other shops. Plus, you can also score big bonuses near the end of the month.

They do tend to piss people off with their phone calls. Personally, I've only ever gotten one call from them, so I can't weigh in much on that.

Yes we ALL loved the company at first. And after working for them for a long time (able to do 8 shops a day with them), you give an honest report where the worker was rude and ........kaboom....... TERMINATED!

Their treatment of workers is poor and the pay is low. I do agree, however, it's a good place to get your feet wet as a new shopper. Easy reports and some of the schedulers are very nice. Their procedures dealing with people stink.I really liked Certified before MarketForce bought them.

I make a lot of audits for them and I had no problem in saying when a worker was rude, ate behind the counter, completely ignored me and I had no problems in saying when the worker did great, beyond expectations.
I must be one of the lucky ones because I have never had any problems with them...or maybe I am simply a good shopper ;P (J/K).

I wonder if enough shoppers complained to them about receiving outsourced schedulers that didn't understand oral English? I sent an extensive message to them about it after the first call and I couldn't understand them . . . nor them me . . . and I'm really good at understanding foreign English . . .

I loved the last call I got from MF...asking me to do a simple bank shop and offering me $100 to do it! You know I snatched that one up.

You go, Girl! Woot woot!

I've been doing shops for Market Force since 2002. My only complaint, is that the shops don't pay well (in my area) and I've grown tired of the same old shops. Paperwork is easy - have never had any complaints.

I have never received a call from Market Force. I read a few unfavorable reviews about them, but decided to try a grocery shop for them. It actually went fairly well and I was paid in less than a month.

I've done more than 300 MF shops and I've found them to be an efficiently run, professional operation. Yes, the Filipino schedulers are a pain, but it's easy enough to simply say no or just not answer the call. The shops are simple and relatively low paying, but they're good for a few hundred $/month to me - along with all the FF I can stomach - and are useful to fill-in the gaps between more remunerative shops. The reports are a snap - next to no narrative - and I've never had a bounced report and only a few instances of requests for clarifications.

Overall, I think they're fine!

A follow-up to my previous post:

I forgot to add that I've found them to be the easiest MS firm when it comes to rescheduling. It can be done directly on the website, no approvals or explanations needed.

Also, all the positive things I said apply to the Blue portal. My experience w/the Purple portal has been disappointing. The pay is generally miserable, and to top it off, the time they allot for an assignment is often grossly insufficient to do a decent job. I got stuck several times working for free when I couldn't get someone on the phone to authorize OT. I don't even check the site regularly anymore, and will only consider them when they offer a substantial bonus via email.

I haven't received a 925 call in at least 10 days. I wonder if they're getting the message...

jethrodfrog Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I had a horrible experience with MarketForce.
> They were annoying me with those awful phone
> calls, even though I told them that if they don't
> offer me more than 20 to do a job (I live in the
> third largest town in Massaschusetts-just to get
> to the highway takes me more than 15 minutes,
> never mind travel time) don't offer it to me.
> Finally they offer me a decent job about three
> towns down from me so I take it. Up until this
> point I had been rather lucky, taking bonus
> assignments that were all along the same route so
> I made an o.k. wage for hardly any work, and they
> paid me, so I wasn't too afraid. Then I took this
> job, at a fantastic sams or some such nonsense.
> They told me I had to do the shop on Monday. See
> the problem here? Hair dressing salons aren't
> generally open on Monday! So I get all the way
> there on the day they told me it HAD to be done,
> only to find out it was closed. I was more than
> irritated. They then had the guts to call me up
> and ask me to do the shop again. I told them that
> I would only do the shop if they reimbursed me for
> that visit that never happened that I showed up
> for. They told me no. I told them to lose my
> name if that was the case. They did.

jethrodfrog Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I had a horrible experience with MarketForce.
> They were annoying me with those awful phone
> calls, even though I told them that if they don't
> offer me more than 20 to do a job (I live in the
> third largest town in Massaschusetts-just to get
> to the highway takes me more than 15 minutes,
> never mind travel time) don't offer it to me.
> Finally they offer me a decent job about three
> towns down from me so I take it. Up until this
> point I had been rather lucky, taking bonus
> assignments that were all along the same route so
> I made an o.k. wage for hardly any work, and they
> paid me, so I wasn't too afraid. Then I took this
> job, at a fantastic sams

Dude - heads up there appears to be some sort of hex on mentioning a MSC and the client name together ...... just sayin'

Also - I NEVER trust a MSC or scheduler when it comes to open hours or days for a shop - too easy to check it myself




or some such nonsense.
> They told me I had to do the shop on Monday. See
> the problem here? Hair dressing salons aren't
> generally open on Monday! So I get all the way
> there on the day they told me it HAD to be done,
> only to find out it was closed. I was more than
> irritated. They then had the guts to call me up
> and ask me to do the shop again. I told them that
> I would only do the shop if they reimbursed me for
> that visit that never happened that I showed up
> for. They told me no. I told them to lose my
> name if that was the case. They did.

I've been following this thread a bit and this line kept jumping out since it was quoted several times. No, I don't see the problem, LOL! Virtually all salons here are open from Monday through Saturday and some of the chain places are open on Sunday as well. This is a perfect example of instructions/guidelines/shopping days that are developed by a national MSC and sometimes for national chains. It can and will vary by state. I got caught up in it when I self-assigned a gas station shop for a Sunday. I am not aware of any gas stations that are closed on Sundays. Needless to say, when I traveled through a smallish town in another state I got a little surprise.

"See the problem here? Hair dressing salons aren't generally open on Monday!"

Sinclair cannot be shopped on Sundays because many of them are closed.
(No, because thise thread is called MF does not mean I associate Sinclair to MF).
LisaSTL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've been following this thread a bit and this
> line kept jumping out since it was quoted several
> times. No, I don't see the problem, LOL! Virtually
> all salons here are open from Monday through
> Saturday and some of the chain places are open on
> Sunday as well. This is a perfect example of
> instructions/guidelines/shopping days that are
> developed by a national MSC and sometimes for
> national chains. It can and will vary by state. I
> got caught up in it when I self-assigned a gas
> station shop for a Sunday. I am not aware of any
> gas stations that are closed on Sundays. Needless
> to say, when I traveled through a smallish town in
> another state I got a little surprise.
>
> "See the problem here? Hair dressing salons aren't
> generally open on Monday!"

The one where I goofed didn't have a no Sunday rule. I really wish they had.

LisaSTL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The one where I goofed didn't have a no Sunday
> rule. I really wish they had.


I did not know there were other gas stations closed on Sundays..now you got me curious LOL

Does anyone remember when grocery stores were not open on Sundays and they closed at 5:00 or 6:00 on the weekdays? I remember it was a really big deal when Pick-n-Pay started staying open until 8:00 on Thursdays and Fridays. How times have changed.

Yes, I remember when everything was closed on Sunday and nothing stayed open past 6 p.m. The first late store we had was a 7/11, but it was only a very small grocery store located downtown and didn't sell gasoline.

The first place we had in town to eat later than 8 p.m. was a Dairy Queen, which opened up in the 1950s. It didn't have a walk in dining room or a drive through. You parked in front and ordered at a window. When it was ready you went back to the window and picked it up. The food was not precooked; they prepared it after you ordered it. Speed was not a goal of the customer service.

I can't remember the prices of the food at the DQ in the 50s, but at a downtown cafe on the courthouse square, a lunch with meat and four vegetables, drink, and substantial desert was 65 cents. During World War II, hamburgers were 10 cents for a big one with a thick meat patty, and for 5 cents more you could have lettuce and tomatoes. Coca colas and big candy bars were 5 cents.

Do you remember the expression, "Remember Pearl Harbor"? Well, I remember Pearl Harbor.

Edited: I can't believe this system is not letting me refer to the event that kicked off World War II, PEARL HARBOR.

Go to Europe and it's still like that in many countries. In Italy the close Sunday and usually half day Monday. Plus they close 3 hours for lunch.

I'm pretty sure they're doing it right. (;

charyuop Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Go to Europe and it's still like that in many
> countries. In Italy the close Sunday and usually
> half day Monday. Plus they close 3 hours for
> lunch.

MDavisnowell Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yes, I remember when everything was closed on
> Sunday and nothing stayed open past 6 p.m. The
> first late store we had was a 7/11, but it was
> only a very small grocery store located downtown
> and didn't sell gasoline.
>
> The first place we had in town to eat later than 8
> p.m. was a Dairy Queen, which opened up in the
> 1950s. It didn't have a walk in dining room or a
> drive through. You parked in front and ordered at
> a window. When it was ready you went back to the
> window and picked it up. The food was not
> precooked; they prepared it after you ordered it.
> Speed was not a goal of the customer service.
>
> I can't remember the prices of the food at the DQ
> in the 50s, but at a downtown cafe on the
> courthouse square, a lunch with meat and four
> vegetables, drink, and substantial desert was 65
> cents. During World War II, hamburgers were 10
> cents for a big one with a thick meat patty, and
> for 5 cents more you could have lettuce and
> tomatoes. Coca colas and big candy bars were 5
> cents.
>
> Do you remember the expression, "Remember @#$%&
> Harbor"? Well, I remember @#$%& Harbor.
>
> Edited: I can't believe this system is not
> letting me refer to the event that kicked off
> World War II, @#$%& HARBOR.

Great post, thank you.

I'm pretty sure you typed P-e-a-r-l Harbor and not S-e-x Harbor. o_0

Definately do not sign up with Market Force. Do not sign up with Monterey or Best Mark. They have a system where the form used will not allow you to upload a receipt. It will reject the receipt, then they dont pay you. Monterey bullshits you into "bonus" pay, then sends you a message that "more information is needed" without a spec of information about what was missing.

Bestmark allows you to do 2 shops in one store at the same time. But then they refuse to reimburse you because you bought one candy bar instead of two.

NEVER EVER sign up with Monterey, BestMark or Market Force. They are all scams.

You've made it very clear that you do not like several companies and you've done it on several threads. None of the companies mentioned are scams, they are all quite legitimate.

What specific problems are you having? I've uploaded receipts to both Bestmark and Market Force for years with nary an issue. In fact, one for Bestmark was just a few weeks ago and I have been paid. I have completed bonus shops for Monterey and have always been paid in full.

Hi blanka,

I'm going to speak very honestly to the issues it seems you're having, as you've now posted in two separate forums about a few similar companies.

What you're going to find is that almost everyone here has, at one point or another, shopped with all three of these companies-- BestMark, Monterey, and Market Force. Many shoppers have had good experiences with these three and some shoppers have had bad ones (it really depends on which company we're talking about and it really depends on the shopper).

Because these things are so subjective (very "your mileage may vary"), it's really hard to post things like, "don't shop these companies, they are frauds" without very specific proof.

I'm going to say that-- based on your posts-- my guess is that you're at the beginning of your mystery shopping career. Some of the common complaints when a person starts shopping is that companies send back reports for lack of detail, or more description or because the shopper has missed one or two or several components of their shop.

While some of these things might seem very small to you, they may mean quite a lot to the company you're shopping for (and for the client that company is representing). For example, let's take your shop for BestMark.

You said that BestMark allowed you to do two shops for the same company. You also said that they refused to accept at least one of those shops because you only bought one candy bar and not two. The thing is, each set of directions for those shops, I am sure, asked that you spend at least $1.50 (I'm just guessing on the shop limit) at the store you were shopping. Those two receipts are needed as proof of your visit. They will both have different register numbers, different time stamps, different cashier's names, etc. There's a lot of information on the receipt that BestMark needs to give to the client.

I'm also positive that BestMark never waived the requirements for both receipts (as is clear by them refusing at least one of the shops). In truth, and I know it might be hard to see, the fault really lies with you as the shopper. These things are hard to accept when we start and many of us have been in your position, but they don't make them any less true.

In my experience, both Market Force and BestMark have issues. I've never shopped for Monterey to be truthful, as they don't have shops in my area. However, despite the fact that I feel that they have issues, they are often not completely insane when it comes to paying a shopper for a job that's done "perfect" as you claimed in the other thread.

While these companies may do things that seem unfair (and on rare occasions _are_ unfair), none of them are "scams".

Sending you the best,

Jen