Is anyone else having problems searching for shops. No matter what zip code, city or miles I put in, I get every single shop in three states.

I knowwwww....I just tried 20 minutes ago and there are 2 jobs within 200 miles! (normally 50-60) no matter what you select, nothing comes up!

And all the ones that were there a couple hours ago are now gone for me.

twolittlethyme Wrote:
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> And all the ones that were there a couple hours
> ago are now gone for me.


I'm not sure they are "gone" but rather...in the "Twilight Zone"...

OH no. I haven't looked there yet!

You must unlock the door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension: a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind.

Try searching zip code 66666

Ok thank god its not just me. I thought I had suddenly been kicked off of certain types of shops or something. There are certain ones in my area that NEVER get picked up till the end of the month and even those are gone. Bummer because I wanted to do a FF tomorrow morning before a wedding I'm photographing up in that area. All I see is an airport 4 hours away!

I'm having no trouble here - in fact, several GS shops are now showing with increased fees! Wonder if it's regional?

Mine is including shops in a couple cities that, while being in the state, are nowhere near the right area. Their distance measurement software must be really out of whack... well, even more than usual!

Strange. I put in my zip and 2 shops show up. (normally 60) but I put in NY zip code (100 mile radius) and 600 shops show up!

I just tried logging in and it says access has been restricted!!!! I had just checked two days ago and only saw 3 ff shops. Now I'm worried I loved doing shops for them. I just sent them an email to see what was going on with my account.

I was there about 1/2 hr ago and got a shop and all seems normal on this end.

It seems like they tweaked it to 50% normal....

Maybe it was a bad bug..

Because if they keep up this fluke, I am not going to have any shops for the second half of this month from them...

Oh great. When everyone else was having problems, the search function was working fine for me. Now, no matter what distance I put it, I only get shops that are much farther away from me. I have tried using different zip codes around me, but the same shops keep showing up. I can only see the shops close to me in their e-mail bulletins.

I can't believe it's taking them his long to fix it. Every other company has a decent search function. Why can't MarketForce? I've given up. Hopefully, they'll notify their shoppers when they hire decent IT people who can fix this mess.

This MF scheduling fiasco reminds me of the 1985 marketing disaster of Coca Cola.

Coca Cola had a perfectly fine, unique recipe that their customers loved, but then, they tweaked it to taste like Pepsi, and the public was outraged.

Then, they dumped their New Coke recipe failure, that no-one wanted, reverted back to Coca Cola but now they call it "Classic Coke" just dumb....and extremely expensive for Coca Cola.

Moral of the story Market Force: "If it ain't broke, don't try and fix it."

I can't believe the bizarre results I've gotten tonight with different approaches to the search. My town has two zip codes at the same post office. If I search within 200 miles of one of them, five shops show up. If I use the other zip code I think I got 65 shops.


Funny story . . . I got a call from a MF scheduler yesterday about some shops in a town 85 miles from here that they always have trouble filling. I told her I was out of town, but I was going to get a friend started with MSing this weekend so "there will be two of us to cover that town." She acted all haughty and said, "we have lots of shoppers, I have a whole list here," and acted like she didn't care if I started a new shopper because there were plenty of people to do that town if I didn't want to go there.

I notice the two shops they do in that town are still on the board. I guess her "list" of people didn't want to go there either. They're probably all 150 miles from there versus my 85. I know there are no shoppers in that town because there are two other shops for another MSC that I get begged to do every month.

I may call her tomorrow and say, "Shall we talk bonus money now?" and maybe take my friend there this weekend to do all four shops. IF they collectively will pony up the $50 travel money I require for that run. And bonus up the shops to something a little higher than $5.....

Hah! I had something just as bizarre happen to me today! MF called me to do a FF shop for $10 that I did last week at another location for $15. When I mentioned that, he said since I was a new shopper, he wasn't able to pay any bonus for this shop, but the next one after this I would be given a bonus. Right. I'm going to believe you'll pay me a bonus on some future, as-yet-unnamed shop if I take this one for 2/3 what I made on the same shop last week. Whatever! I said I'd think about it and call back. He said it may not be available by tomorrow. Fine. Let someone else have the $10. This is the third time this week you've called asking me to take shops. You'll call again, but you'll learn to have something to offer when you do. I might be new to you, but I read the forum. I've got a lot of experience to draw on.

spaztck Wrote:
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> Oh great. When everyone else was having problems,
> the search function was working fine for me. Now,
> no matter what distance I put it, I only get shops
> that are much farther away from me. I have tried
> using different zip codes around me, but the same
> shops keep showing up. I can only see the shops
> close to me in their e-mail bulletins.


I am in the same boat. It was working fine for me before and now no matter what radius I put in even 2, I get shops from very far away and nothing within 2 miles. It is such a hassle to try and find shops close enough that I am willing to take. Very fustrating. I may just have to forget MF for a while and come back after it is fixed. I spend way too long to check their boards.

I did try putting in the 200 mile radius and I was able to see the shops closer to me. I just had to go through pages of shops, but the 200 mile radius is not working either. I could not see shops in the town 60 miles from me, unless I put in that zip code and did a search. The 200 mile radius probably showed me shops up to 45 miles from me. It sure is strange.

Lisa, just remember that MF always thinks they are doing the shopper some type of favor.

It might be the browser. Safari wouldn't let me in but I had no problem with Chrome and the normal shops are showing up.

I'm trying on all three browsers on the PC and it is as wonky as ever. First, all these airport shops are showing up - still; second, you can't tell me that on 6/7 every Arch is gone (but poof, put in a zip code in the next town, here they are) and there are no retail shops besides the ones in NYC that there are hundreds of depending again on the zip code you put in.

I can't believe they haven't gotten emails about this but like someone said, be grateful for the crumbs.

I search for jobs on their website 2 or 3 times a week. Nothing shows up and then they call me to ask if I can do jobs!!! It's great for me because now I get to name a price or they offer more than would have been on the website. But I can't understand why I never see them to begin with.

I am confused..... I thought they sold out to spar? now I get calls again all the time to do shops just like before,,, I am wondering if I should worry about these big bonuses and the payments? anyone else getting calls for shops?

Market Force sold the merchandising portion of the business to SPAR. The portal which focused on mystery shopping along with some audits has remained unchanged. The division previously in charge of merchandising has also kept some things like theater checks.

marcooper Wrote:
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> It might be the browser. Safari wouldn't let me in
> but I had no problem with Chrome and the normal
> shops are showing up.


Wow. I can't get it to open on Chrome AT ALL, and have to use IE and it's still wonky over there. My laptop won't run firefox (I'll have to try on the new one) so I can't test it there.

Hahaha..I just went over to look at the job board and 10 ff shops popped up at 5.00

Wow! I should grab 'em, eh?

Those are the only ones that are showing right now for me and I started with 40 mile radius, then 90.

Ah..time to light the bbq and the heck with this nonsense tonight, right?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/08/2013 08:56PM by Canuck.