Wow... I have done over 500 assignments for Market Force on the Merchandising/Audit/Theatre side. After 200 succesful audits they called me for extra jobs with a bonused fee. Today I come home and find all my upcoming audits missing from my board. I called and they told me that they determined that my S-BEV audits were fraudulent so they removed me from all future audits. I asked them what made them feel like they were fraudulent and they told me Quality Control determined this and could give no further details.

This is unbeleivable to me, I have never been accused of fraud before. Has anyone else experienced this with Market Force and were you paid for the completed assignments?

No calls to question my reports or anything. Wow!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/19/2012 05:23AM by Wild Bill.

I am sorry this happend to you. It hasn't happened to me with Market Force but I have been falsely accused of wrongdoing during a shop. It makes a big difference when an MSC is willing and able to discuss the specifics with me versus an MSC who doesn't tell me anything other than it thinks I'm a bad shopper that they don't want to work with anymore.

I appreciate MSCs that don't make a judgment on my integrity or competence until they've communicated their concerns with me and given me the opportunity to respond.

Wild Bill

Go through search on this forum and you will see you are a new member of the ousted club!
You are not alone by any means at all.
They are notorious for it. And the shoppers who keep saying oh it will never happen to me,......



Wild Bill Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Wow... I have done over 500 assignments for Market
> Force on the Merchandising/Audit/Theatre side.
> After 200 succesful audits they called me for
> extra S-BEV jobs with a bonused fee. Today I come
> home and find all my upcoming audits missing from
> my board. I called and they told me that they
> determined that my S-BEV audits were fraudulent so
> they removed me from all future audits. I asked
> them what made them feel like they were fraudulent
> and they told me Quality Control determined this
> and could give no further details.
>
> This is unbeleivable to me, I have never been
> accused of fraud before. Has anyone else
> experienced this with Market Force and were you
> paid for the completed assignments?
>
> No calls to question my reports or anything. Wow!

It seems to happen a lot.

It would make so much sense if they would explain to shoppers what the problem was. If it truly is an issue with the shopper, you could learn something and move forward even if MF has banned you. If it is a misunderstanding that could be easily explained, they could keep an experienced shopper. But MF, seems to think banning is the only way to go.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/19/2012 05:44AM by Shelly.

From what I experienced myself and read of other shoppers' experiences, I believe some MSCs just don't want to bother communicating with shoppers about this issue. If a client is dissatisfied, get rid of the shopper because it is much easier to replace a shopper than a client. Unless the shopper in question is exceptionally valuable (such as fitting certain demographics, speaking certain languages, willing to travel to the middle of nowhere to shop, etc.), just drop the shopper.

Don't open a can of worms by giving the shopper a chance to explain or prove her/his innocence. Just refuse even to discuss the details of the allegation. The shopper may complain on forums but she/he will likely give up after a while.

=(

Thanks for all the responses. The good that came from this is I discovered this forum on a google search for Market Force Complaints !

That's why I won't work for them at all....disgusting.

WildBill,
Now that you have found this forum, I hope you will join in the discussions. This is a self-help community of shoppers helping shoppers. I'm sure that you have a lot to contribute.

I made a mistake once of attaching the wrong picture. We also attached that picture to the correct audit. So basically, the same pic was uploaded for 2 shops. They deactivated me, but told me why. I sent an email explaining the mistake along with the correct picture. They reactivated the same day. It all depends on who you get.

I have to respectfully disagree, robinhardage.

I was deactivated without having made any errors, no flakes, and no late reports. I was a successful shopper with them for 6+ years and they deactivated me because I would not accept shops at their ridiculously low fees. Though I had been around long enough to see the shop fees drop to insultingly low levels, I was told to either accept a shop within a week -- or be deactivated.

You know what my choice was.

How long had you gone without taking a shop? In a 16 month period I only performed one shop for them. Could it have been their periodic purging of long term shoppers?

I was deactivated once because I submitted a typed receipt... but I said in the report that I did not have a receipt because one was not provided. They reactivated my account after I told them what happened.

Also, I have problems with reports having the same time because I live on a time zone change where I cross the time line most shopping days. I respond to their emails, and so far, I haven't been deactivated.

I no longer receive notifications on their shops for the big FF chain, but someone told me there is a lifetime limit on how many shops you can do for that FF agency. As previously stated, if they need you to do remote areas, they will keep you.

Market Force is known for tactics like this. They accused me of being related to a bank branch manager and not confessing that detail so they weren't going to pay me for the report. It didn't seem to matter that I wasn't from here and had no family, much less family in the area that worked in that bank. The result was that they got out of paying me a nice bonus on what would have been a $75 shop. I also am of the opinion that they use the reports because that shop never made it back to the jobs board.

You know is MSPA was worth it's weight it would monitor this kind of crap. I think it's terrible that Market Force can do this and is not held to any kind of standard.

It's my opinion that in large companies you wind up with people in positions where they have to produce results to keep their jobs. In this case I wonder if MF may have "quality control" folks who have to deactivate a certain number of folks each day/week/month to justify their existence. If their bosses see deactivations go down, perhaps the QC people are called into question.

The "easy" ones to deactivate might be when a client complains about a report and call the report into question. As others have said, it's easier to replace a shopper than a client. I learned early on that some clients don't really want bad reports. I'm very careful to to record several positives for any negative that I have to report. If the burger was burnt, I look for something like speed of service, appearance of store, or another food item to expound upon in a positive way. If there are several things wrong, I might choose to focus on the worst one or two items so the negatives don't become overwhelming for the client.

YMMV

I just got an email from market force saying that I was being terminated as an independent contractor immediately. I have worked for them for 2+ years and have never been late on an assignment nor have they ever questioned my report other that once I sent the wrong receipt. I feel hurt as I tried to do my best and have never been fired from any job in my 60 plus years. Does anyone know if this is happening to others. I still have the side where I do merchandising just not the side with food.
Camille

dont shop for market force or any of the companies they buy and ruin each year.

ctalbert Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I just got an email from market force saying that
> I was being terminated as an independent
> contractor immediately. I have worked for them
> for 2+ years and have never been late on an
> assignment nor have they ever questioned my report
> other that once I sent the wrong receipt. I feel
> hurt as I tried to do my best and have never been
> fired from any job in my 60 plus years. Does
> anyone know if this is happening to others. I
> still have the side where I do merchandising just
> not the side with food.
> Camille

Camille: It happened to me a few months ago. However I still do the purple side when it is bonused. At first I was upset about it but it does "free you". But it does hurt as I had never been fired either from anywhere. There is more money to be made in audits with less hassle with companies that don't outsource their call center to call you at the crack of dawn to go make an extra dollar at a restaurant 50 miles from you. I do miss some things like children's stores but not the fast food!

My wife and I have been shoppers for MF for over a year, and have done hundreds of shops. A few weeks ago we both got the email below. My wife's mother's account was also locked, but no email. We did not know about her suspension, nor she of ours. She did send an email to the helpdesk and after 3 days they responded with the same email. That is when she told us. They will not discuss the matter, but it appears that because we have an "association" with another shopper that is wrong, yet they encourage us to tell "friends". We were starting her mother on a couple easy shops near her to keep the rotation going so we didn't have to wait so long between shops. She hadn't even completed any shops yet.

We both had completed shops from earlier that day. We sent emails to helpdesk and they just requested a copy of the receipts and then sent a follow up email that they had processed a supplemental payment that would be included with our Oct. payment. My sister still continues to do a few shops for them.


This message is to inform you that your scheduled assignments with Market Force Information have had to be cancelled. We need to let you know that we are opting to discontinue our Independent Contractor relationship with you and will not be offering you any other assignments.

As part of our constant effort to guarantee the integrity of our database to our Clients, we run numerous weekly reports to examine our Shopper database for inconsistencies. One of these reports identified an association between you and another Shopper who was formerly in our database. We cannot go into more detail concerning the nature of the association since this is proprietary information and cannot be released to the general public.

While we are not stating that you did anything wrong, the mere association is cause for concern on our part, and it is the reason we have had to err on the side of caution by not offering further assignments. This action may seem harsh, but it is an aspect of the careful attention to detail that our Clients expect from us, and one of the things that makes us the leader in our industry

Wild Bill Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Wow... I have done over 500 assignments for Market
> Force on the Merchandising/Audit/Theatre side.
> After 200 succesful audits they called me for
> extra jobs with a bonused fee. Today I come home
> and find all my upcoming audits missing from my
> board. I called and they told me that they
> determined that my S-BEV audits were fraudulent so
> they removed me from all future audits. I asked
> them what made them feel like they were fraudulent
> and they told me Quality Control determined this
> and could give no further details.
>
> This is unbeleivable to me, I have never been
> accused of fraud before. Has anyone else
> experienced this with Market Force and were you
> paid for the completed assignments?
>
> No calls to question my reports or anything. Wow!

MF accused me once of submitting a receipt that did not "match" their database records, so I was deactivated immediately and unceremoniously. Because I had read so many similar stories from other shoppers, my first thought was to say, "Oh, well." But, I consistently make about $100 per month with them, and more than that I was just irked that after almost 500 successfully completed shops and no cancellations, they would call my integrity into question. So, I emailed them a couple of times, didn't get much information that way so I called them. I was told that if I submitted my original receipts, they would review them and consider reinstating me. It took a few weeks, but I was finally reinstated. Try a couple of emails and phone calls - maybe you will get an answer and maybe not, but I just wanted to share my experience with you. Maybe it will work for you as well.

Can anyone tell me how to deactivate my account with them instead of having to email/call them? I have had enough of there persistent 8 am phone calls for jobs half that of minimum wage. I too was banned from specific shops without any reason even after politely asking. No professionalism nor communication with loyal shoppers...pretty pathetic...but there will always be another sucker down the road so no loss to them...

Market Force is the bestest mystery shopping company ever and I know when I get to heaven they will be there too!.................SORRY!

Hairballs:

Login, and on your home page, your options are under Shop Management. I would suggest a rethinking period before deactivating yourself. Opt out of emails for a month or a year, then decide.

This was taken from their email:

" If you wish to remain an active Shopper, but do not wish to continue receiving this daily e-mail, go to [shopper.marketforce.com] and change the preferences on your Account Profile page to modify or opt out of this e-mail. We are sensitive to the amount of e-mail that we send so we now offer 5 different options for shop assignment reminders so please choose the one that best fits your needs."

"If you no longer wish to remain in our database as a Mystery Shopper/Field Associate, please go to [shopper.marketforce.com] to immediately remove your name as a Mystery Shopper/Field Associate from our active database."

I was de-activated due to not taking the low paying jobs which is all I ever saw...it's been over a year since I've worked for them, and found out they have a restaurant in my town I want to do, so wrote and was re-instated, am doing two shops for
them this week, we'll see how it goes.

Wild Bill: I have worked for MarketForce for several years now. There aren't many jobs where I am so at times yes I refuse to do the jobs. Sometimes they call and ask if I will take a job and only after deciding what I will take for the job I accept. I feel your issue might be better handled if you actually called the phone number they are claiming the shop is associated with. Speak to the person who oversees that particular shop. Most issues are the timing issue where QA does not realize your watch might say one thing and the shop your doing has entirely different time within minutes. Each place shopped will have a different time then yours and we all know this. The only other explanation I have for you is there are to many people who are working for this company in your area.

I have had a positive relatoinship with Market Force for over 6 years. The merchandizing portion was separate for a number of years and I did lots and lots of Sony DVD jobs. Then I was gone on vacation for 3 weeks and when I came back, lost all the relatively 'high' paying ones and they let me keep the $8 jobs but I told them I could not afford to go distances for $8 and have done very little since then, almost 3 yers ago. I do job the food side but usually do not sign up for jobs but take the jobs on phone calls because they almost double the price paid at that time. I do a loal grocery store for reimbursement only but we use a lot of bread and milk so it is worth it for a very simple report.

This is basically a start again for me and MF....I have been trying to upload a receipt for 1/2 hour, it doesn't go through,
any tips? I've read all they have to say with nothing helping. Now I'll have to go out and fax....ugh!

Check out snappyfax.com. I have an all in one scanner etc now, but when I didn't, I faxed straight from my computer using snappy fax.


Irene_L.A. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This is basically a start again for me and MF....I
> have been trying to upload a receipt for 1/2 hour,
> it doesn't go through,
> any tips? I've read all they have to say with
> nothing helping. Now I'll have to go out and
> fax....ugh!

DW had this issue a week or so ago. We tried through three browsers on two computers and concluded it was an issue on their part. DW emailed it to the helpdesk address with an explanation of the issue. It showed up as verified the next day.

Irene_L.A. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This is basically a start again for me and MF....I
> have been trying to upload a receipt for 1/2 hour,
> it doesn't go through,
> any tips? I've read all they have to say with
> nothing helping. Now I'll have to go out and
> fax....ugh!

Thx...I will keep trying, just a bit frustrating for an easy job.