Long time Lurker, new Poster.
This post is more of a vent than complaint. After more than 5 years as a shopper with them, I was just removed from their database for a vague and generic reason citing an especially casual or critical approach as compared to the average shopper.
Mind you, I have successfully performed audits, photo shops, revealed and non-revealed mystery shops as well as their FF shops. I have often been called for help with shops from their schedulers and have been told I am one of their better shoppers.
I suspect this removal stems from recent FF shops. Looking back at my shopping history from 2005, 2006, 2007, etc. to present I can honestly say that the majority of shops I performed were reported as good, very good and on rare occassions excellent. On every shop I clearly offered narration to justify my reasons, citing specific instances such as radiant smiles, consistent bussing of tables, upbeat greetings, attractive landscaping, fast service as well as an outstanding instance of a crew member offering a cup of water to a seeing eye dog on a hot day. For over 5 years there has never been a question on any of my shops.
This year (in the last three months) I had to report (honestly) three poor shop experiences. Again, I clearly justified my reasoning of crew member horseplay, a manager screaming at his crew and excessive timings for no reason. Each and every experience (both good and bad) can certainly be backed up and verfied by the video. I find it strange that there was never a problem with a honest good shop, but all of a sudden I am removed for a honest poor shop.
I am starting to believe that MFI only wants to tell the client what the client wants to hear and not the truth. So, alas, I join the ranks of ex-MFI shoppers.
Thanks for letting me rant.

Situation normal for this company.

Same thing happened to me,I had completed over 300 jobs for them with no problems and then all of a sudden they said: one email said my reports were too positive,the 2nd email said my reports were too negative.So I did not challenge them ,I figured no great loss.Seems this has become a fairly standard practice for this MSC....Good luck

MFI has an algorithm in place that flags a shopper if their reports are more than X standard deviations away from the norm a certain number of times. They then eliminate the shopper from their database. This method is central MFI - it allows them to serve huge national clients at a low cost - it eliminates the need for paying quality control checkers and other human intervention when "oddball" reports come in. Usually the "oddball" reports are negative reports - there isn't a lot of deviation room on the high (positive end).

Same thing happend to a friend of mine that had completed more than 400 jobs for them. I honestly believe that if you do enough volume for them - eventually the same thing will happen to everyone - WHEN it happens is all a crap shoot. Don't take it personally.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2010 04:39PM by MickeyB.

I agree with you Mickey. It will happen, the question is when. And unless you have been eliminated for cause you will never know why, and you will not be able to change the fact that their computer chose you. I don't find anything particularly wrong with that, but I know that it upsets people who considers themselves good loyal shoppers for MFI.

...and isn't it nice to learn then while you though you had been evaluating service all that time, you were simply a cog in the machine that generates whitewashed reports for the regional mangers to justify their annual pay increases?

;-)

What a bummer. Market Force is certainly not one of my favorite companies to work for, but I do like to do a FF shop every now and then when they are bonused and I'm on the road. Now I'm just wondering when I'll get the axe. My reports are usually good but I just know eventually I'll hit someplace bad...

If you only do the occasional shop for them, it will probably be a while before the computer executes you. :-) It seems to happen most to people who do tons of shops for them. I will not ever be in that category, so unless I screw up something, I am probably safe for at least a couple more years, too. But they are so weird and impersonal that it is difficult to know anything more than "one day it will happen."

While waiting for those bonuses at the end of the month, I was able to pay off one of my shopping credit cards. Yes, I was one that was banned from them but when I emailed and asked why they gave me some lame reason. When I started back I only took shops that were bonused. So now I am awaiting the bonuses again.

What's the hold up MFI?

I take a few ff shops from them during the month and feed grandkids but won't do that much now that school is starting back. Except for my $25 plus reimbursement ones at the end of the month they send me out on. Wheeeeeee. It's nice while it is happening. Hopefully I can stay under the radar for a while.

prettygul1 so you were banned and they reinstated you?

I was banned at one point for my reports being late (after midnight). When I explained that I was driving 200-300 miles a day to get to and from some of those shops, they reinstated me. They did tell me to let them know if the shops were part of a route ahead of time. Then they dumped me again even though I let them know. I wrote and told them that I had let them know ahead of time and they've reinstated me again. If they want those end of the month ff shops done, they better quit pickin' on me. lol

Folks, without being too specific and getting myself into hot water, after you have talked to a few of the MF people on the phone it is not real difficult to figure out why they make so many mistakes and do such odd things. 'Nuff said.

RJR Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Long time Lurker, new Poster.
> This post is more of a vent than complaint. After
> more than 5 years as a shopper with them, I was
> just removed from their database for a vague and
> generic reason citing an especially casual or
> critical approach as compared to the average
> shopper.
> Mind you, I have successfully performed audits,
> photo shops, revealed and non-revealed mystery
> shops as well as their FF shops. I have often been
> called for help with shops from their schedulers
> and have been told I am one of their better
> shoppers.
> I suspect this removal stems from recent FF shops.
> Looking back at my shopping history from 2005,
> 2006, 2007, etc. to present I can honestly say
> that the majority of shops I performed were
> reported as good, very good and on rare occassions
> excellent. On every shop I clearly offered
> narration to justify my reasons, citing specific
> instances such as radiant smiles, consistent
> bussing of tables, upbeat greetings, attractive
> landscaping, fast service as well as an
> outstanding instance of a crew member offering a
> cup of water to a seeing eye dog on a hot day. For
> over 5 years there has never been a question on
> any of my shops.
> This year (in the last three months) I had to
> report (honestly) three poor shop experiences.
> Again, I clearly justified my reasoning of crew
> member horseplay, a manager screaming at his crew
> and excessive timings for no reason. Each and
> every experience (both good and bad) can certainly
> be backed up and verfied by the video. I find it
> strange that there was never a problem with a
> honest good shop, but all of a sudden I am removed
> for a honest poor shop.
> I am starting to believe that MFI only wants to
> tell the client what the client wants to hear and
> not the truth. So, alas, I join the ranks of
> ex-MFI shoppers.
> Thanks for letting me rant.


I am going in that direction, MFI has reports that are too long for the paltry amounts the pay. I had an instance where the "helpdesk" wrote me to say they recieved an emails from me saying the same thing 3x's .... Well I had three shops, and needed them to be aware that the issue was NOT for one shop it was consistent....The response disturbed me to the point where I will NEVER accept another job from them....I am noticing a lot of MSC's do not let shoppers know before hand that the report is going to take an additional 5hrs after the required visit time of 1 hr.... for $10. These type of requirements prevent me from accepting multiple shops unless I have already been exposed, and know what to expect. Can I only get 1 reminder for multiple shops? No, I get them for EACH shop. So they get an email from me for EACH shop.

I received an email from marketforce. Congratulations on completing 100 Shops. One day later last week, another email came that they were terminating my
independent contractor agreement. I called the help desk to ask what is going on.
I was told that I gave them a incorrect social security number, which is definitely not true. They asked that I fax a copy of my social security card, which I did. I have not heard anything further.

I liked having marketforce as a fill in, when business is slow. In addition some of the bank shops paid well.

I never got a reason from them when I got dropped. I just could not log in. I did not evern try to find out why. I did get the Social Secusrity number excuse from a sister company of MFI. My SSN could be verified all of a sudden. I tried an email on that one and never got an anwer. I would only do the shops in town closed to where I worked so it was no great loss.

SSN could not be verified. I probably made them mad when I asked why they could not verify it when I passed security clearnece for a visit from President Bush when I worked at the hospital with my SSN.

I got dropped today but reactivated again. lol My son-in-law and I use the same computer and I accidently assigned him a shop that I was applying for by using RoboForm. Ron wrote them to ask them to move it over to me and they said we had violated the ICA because we were sharing account information, including ID's and Passwords. All this because we use RoboForm to get into the websites easily. So they deactivated both of us. Ron wrote and explained we live in the same house and use the same computer and don't team shop. It took them all day to reinstate us. I almost cancelled 10 shops because they deactivated me without ever even discussing it with us. They have our phone number. They almost lost two shoppers and I travel for them all the time. Don't make my life harder with unreasonable demands!!!

Sorry I didn't know you asked this question. Early in 2009 I couldn't self assign anymore. So one day in January I was on Jobslinger and saw some of the jobs and then decided to question why I was banned. They told me (a year later) that I had not submitted receipts. I am quite sure I had faxed them in. In fact I know I did. They told me if I could send them in (again a year later) that they would reinstate me. I told them that I had taken those things to be shredded. Well ehat do you know they reinstated me anyway. I believe they had no merit behind it. I have about 7 shops that they saw haven't had the CPI or receipts uploaded. I faxed again same message. I now know for sure it wasn't my wrong doing. After a couple of weeks of the receipts not being uploaded, I will probably scan them which is such a hassel becasue you have to resize them the scans.

patty24 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> prettygul1 so you were banned and they reinstated
> you?

iblessyah@yahoo.com, you story only confirms my comment of 8/18. These people are Georgia illiterates. (Apologies to any Georgia shoppers.)

I had tried to line up a bank with them and two gas shops with another MSP in a small town 45 miles away. The bank wound up on Ron's account and they deactivated us and wouldn't move it to mine. By the time I got reactivated, the bank was gone and I was stuck with two gas shops 45 miles away. I lined up some other things in areas nearby, but I was not happy to lose the anchor shop for that town and get stuck with two more boonie gas stations. At least no one chased me and tried to get my camera. lol And thennnn, today I found other shops in that town that I didn't see during the weekend and everyone wants me there nowwwwww. I'm not going. I need a break and tomorrow is a day of rest for me.

This is typical for this company. They would rather hear a lie than a direct and accurate report of what actually transpired. I quit working for them after they actually asked me to amend my report to be "more" favorable.

This is my first time to post on this site. I am an engineering manager (lost my job eighteen months ago---how is "hope and change" working? Not in Iowa!) and I have been doing mystery shopping for 34 years, since I was in college. I have seen a lot of good things, a lot of mediocre things, and a lot of just plain stupid things in that time period. If you do not mind, let me preface my remarks with a brief history lesson for those of you who are new---or who never knew.

Regarding Market Force, at least the old ShopNChek (SNC) portion that is now the Blue Portal, I will have to say that I am biased, but honest. I know Carol Cherry (Smith), Laura Livers, and Ellyn Fill, all of whom worked through the years to make SNC a great company. Through their continued involvement, a lot of the SNC protocols, polity, and people were kept after the merger. MFI, however, is a big conglomerate of a number of small niche companies---like some of Mike Green's old work---that had quality that was just impossible to beat. As a big conglomerate, just as in any other industry, the main focus is to make a lot of money. Sometimes that means that the little things that kept the pre-merger folks at the top of the list will be done away with. That is unfortunate for BOTH the shopper and the client, and it is NOT a good excuse for anything. There are still a lot of good people at MFI, but there has been both growth and changeover that has led to some decrease in efficiency and workability. Overall, however, they are still one of the best in the business for working with shoppers---though sometimes persistence and constant communication are very important.

That being said, I know that MFI has (what they consider to be) a "great and accurate" computer program for measuring shoppers' work against some sort of "norm" and determining who is good and who is not. Over the years I have done (worked for SNC since about 1980 or 1981 and have a 5-digit shopper number) between 3000 and 4000 shops for them (SNC and MFI). Shortly after the MFI computer program arrived---yep, you guessed it---I got deactivated. It took me about a month to get reactivated, and there have been some interesting exchanges with results from some of the reports since then, too. The folks at the bottom that we have to work with just go with whatever the program says, because that is their job, so you need not get angry at them. Their "analysis" program, however, needs to go. There are better, more efficient, more respectful ways of taking care of problem shoppers---and there a whole lot of flakes and idiots out there,too---than depending on a faulty program.

I hope this helps some of you. Even with the problems that MFI has, the remnants of the SNC crew, their protocols, and their ethics continue to make me a loyal shopper for them. Happy shopping to all!

Wow this concerns me. I do a lot of shops for Market Force but yesterday had problems with them. They didnt take me out of the system but tried to take my Panera shops away from me. I had asked for a manager but she is the one that decided to take away the Panera. They didnt pay me for a shop that I did cause I ordered my Salad minus the chicken which I had done int he past but this time in my report I mentioned they still charged me for the chicken one and put chicken on it. The auditor said I was not supposed to special order the salad. The salad comes with or without the chicken so I never knew this one a special order and I had done it int he past and was never not paid for it. But because I mentioned the cashier error in doing it wrong even in reality it was not special ordered because he did it wrong. They counted that against me. Thats why I asked for a manager. After replying to the manager that I was upset about losing the Panera shops and I have done many urgent shops for them over and over, she gave the shops back to me. My concern is what you all say here and they just take you off for no apparent reason. I do more for this company than any of my others. They ahve more of a variety.

How odd.
After years of no problems I started to have a few. The major contention was that I was rounding times. Ha. I am exact with my little DVR recording all shops. It is bound to happen that a time ends in 05 or 10 seconds. 1 in 5, of course for each case. It would be strange is some of the times (like 20%) DIDN'T end in 5 or 0. That would be more likely to be changed times to avoid 0 and 5.
Anyway, I have been dropped from FF shops, which I did about 250 of before getting my certificate of thanks from them for doing 250 of them. I asked why I wasn't seeing them on my job selection list and was told that the client a) limits the number of shops from a given shopper to try and get different demographics on them, and that b) there is an upper limit of how many shops one shopper can do for a given client. Either answer is valid and might make some sense, so that's just the way it is.
I still get plenty of calls from them for help with some of the shops in my area when they are stuck with them. Mostly, I can do them, so it's just a matter of taking fewer shops now.
For somebody who is trying to add to income this is too bad. Welcome to the recession!

Again, try to remember that most of the folks that review and contact you are ---just like in a call center or a help desk---the first line of defense, so to speak. They have pretty much cut and dried rules, and there is (especially with MFI for some reason) no wiggle room. It is as I stated above that you really have to take a deep breath, try to get another person involved, and stay professional. Usually---no guarantees---you will be able to work things out, just as you would with a phone or credit card billing error. I DO miss the days of ShopNChek!

farmboy1x, that is my reaction as well. They seem to not question a job but reject it. The protest aspect of that usually gets more folks involved and usually resolved adequately. I have had a number of 'win', 1 'lose' and 1 'draw' with them. Not bad considering how many jobs have been done.

Oh... what a relief to find this thread! I wondered if it was just me who found out the hard way that MFI is TER. RI. BLE.

I hadn't gotten as far in my history with them as some before the house fell down. But I did a shop, a FF one that paid a whopping $7 plus lunch reimbursement, which MF stated my receipt was "inaccurate" for, and they deactivated me with no warning. I mailed them the original receipt - stupid me, not sending it certified - which, of course, never showed up to them (read: probably got thrown away).

I emailed some mucky-muck, and she wrote me a half-a$$ed "I'll look into it" reply, after which I didn't hear anything else. I tried submitting a formal complaint to the BBB in GA where MF is; in TN, where I am; and neither ended up being accepted.

So... yeah. Several 100% decent companies out there, with whom I've shopped for a long while now with no issues, and who also provided great service. PM me if anyone wants recommendations on my Top 3

Best,
Juststardust

juststardust Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Oh... what a relief to find this thread! I
> wondered if it was just me who found out the hard
> way that MFI is TER. RI. BLE.
>
> I hadn't gotten as far in my history with them as
> some before the house fell down. But I did a shop,
> a FF one that paid a whopping $7 plus lunch
> reimbursement, which MF stated my receipt was
> "inaccurate" for, and they deactivated me with no
> warning. I mailed them the original receipt -
> stupid me, not sending it certified - which, of
> course, never showed up to them (read: probably
> got thrown away).
>
> I emailed some mucky-muck, and she wrote me a
> half-a$$ed "I'll look into it" reply, after which
> I didn't hear anything else. I tried submitting a
> formal complaint to the BBB in GA where MF is; in
> TN, where I am; and neither ended up being
> accepted.
>
> So... yeah. Several 100% decent companies out
> there, with whom I've shopped for a long while now
> with no issues, and who also provided great
> service. PM me if anyone wants recommendations on
> my Top 3
>
> Best,
> Juststardust


How do I PM you from here. Would like to know the others cause most of my shops are thru MFI.

To PM just click on the blue name of the member. That will get you to a screen where you can select "Send Private Message"