I, for one, was a bit taken aback. Personally, I usually do my shops in the afternoon and come home, eat, watch TV, and do the reports, usually beginning at 10PM. I always get them done by midnight. Now, when their new policy initiates, any shops not done in less than 8 hours will be disqualified. This disrupts my entire schedule, if doing early afternoon or 11:30ish shops. I do not think I can do as many for them, now. I haven't done that many, lately, anyway, it seems, though. I dislike this new policy, quite a bit.

The way the announcement is written it might be less then 8 hours for some assignments. There's another thread from a little earlier on it [www.mysteryshopforum.com]

That might explain why the site was so slow and dicey at about 4:00 PT today. I also experienced a mismatch regarding the [client name deleted] scenario on my homepage v. the one that appeared on my reporting page tonight. I hope that they adjust that requirement to ease a traffic jam on their site.

Mod note: Do not link the client with the MSC. It is against forum rules and an ICA violation.

Maybe if enough people call or email the help desk politely protesting the new requirements they will rethink it.

I am the same as you, Crickettt. I have this weird idea that I must wait until all is quiet in the house, kids are in bed, dishes are done, etc and only THEN will I sit down to do my reports. So if I do any lunch shop, they would end up taking it away from my shop log? I don't like it. Companies such as Sentry have extended their report times to 24 hours and they still catch a lot of slack ok this board. I can't imagine shortening the report time will benefit MF in any way. Then again, those who do their reports on the go, as they perform them will probably love the opportunity to pick up those that have been removed from "slow pokes" like us!

@RESO wrote:

Maybe if enough people call or email the help desk politely protesting the new requirements they will rethink it.

I emailed the help desk yesterday. I'm with cricket and SST on when I like to put in my reports. This policy would eliminate any breakfast or lunch shops for me M-F.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/21/2015 12:13PM by PaulinMI.

I also emailed the Help Desk. I may pick up shops during my regular work day, but I certainly cannot report them from work. I wait until I get home, scan my receipts, etc., then file all my reports for all the companies. Also, since the web site changes, the MF page does not always work well for real time reporting. It's easier to input all of my reports from my laptop. Midnight or 12 hours to report should be the minimum.

To those who emailed help desk what was their response? I doubt they care too much what handful of shoppers think.

I think the Report Due Time should be part of the terms on the Guidelines and CPI when we take the job. For those jobs where the deadline is days away, hopefully 12 hours or up to midnight of the day you perform the shop should be fine. If they have a few shops that need to be done faster, then those should be the ones to have shorter deadlines. Hopefully they'll make that very clear in BOLD TEXT when you assign the shop and in the CPI to make sure people see it.

Then, I think market forces (hee hee) have to take effect: if those jobs still get swiped up off the board just as fast as the others, MF probably won't need to make any more changes. But if they linger because people have trouble meeting the required report times, the fees or bonuses might have to be adjusted for those shops. If faster than normal reporting is a premium to the MSC, I hope they realize that it's something they might have to pay a premium price for. We'll see....

Ill just wait for those flaked deadline shops & scoop em up w/big bonus $. Yippee!

I got this reply from the help desk.

-------------------------------------------------------
Good morning,

Thanks for writing in. In order to meet faster turn-around times/deadlines for our clients, we are having to move up the reporting period requirements. You will see this change noted on your CPI :

“Report your results online as soon as possible but no later than (8) hours after your shop is completed. Upload/scan your receipts at the time you enter your report.”

We realize this might affect your decision to take some shops you would ordinarily be able to accept. If you have any further questions, please let us know.
---------------------------------------------------------

Unlike the notice on the website this message made no mention of arbitrarily shortening the reporting times. Who do we believe? I replied to the mail that the deadline should be clearly indicated in the shop listing or on the pre-assignment quiz, as we don't get to see the CPI until we accept the shops, and would have to cancel if the deadline did not work into our schedules.

I don't expect to get another reply, but we'll see. I hope more shoppers will flood the help desk with this concern and maybe they will reconsider.

Just another thought on this. I can't see any logic in MF cancelling a shop when a report is an hour or two late. Rescheduling certainly won't get the report to the client any faster. But this could lead to more of those mysterious deactivations.

I normally scan my receipts rather than take a photo to upload. That way I can fix any light printing issues. I can see some shops being returned for because the receipts are difficult to read after being taken from my car seat on my iPad.

MF has been low on my list of MSC's, used as a fill in for higher paying jobs. Just moved even further down on my list

Seems to me no one likes it much. I KNOW it will cut down on lunch shops I take. If I only do one or two that day, then, maybe, but FAST time, my fee will go up accordingly and they can take it or leave it.

Market Force has been acting weird with shop deadlines even before this announcement. For example, they canceled one of my shops without any warning. I tried to file my report the morning after my shop and had to email Help Desk to ask why.

One of their reps. said they canceled the shop for failure to report within 12 hours. The problem was that location was open until late night and Market Force canceled my shop way before 12 hours after closing time. They would have no idea whether my report was late. They just assumed it was.

Got shops... I've never gone to sleep without reporting my MF reports because they will cancel them. I did a fast food on a road trip home and completely forgot to report it. I received an email at 6am asking if I had done the report and by 9am it was removed. I hadn't even gotten to my email that morning by 9am, so it was too late and they told me it was already assigned to another shopper. Lesson learned for me on that one. No leeway time for MF, especially now!

Meh. It's much ado about nothing IMO.

This really won't affect me. I would say I typically submit my reports for MF within 8 hours anyway. For others, with more narratives and longer reports, I tend to take full advantage of the midnight/12/24-hour deadline.

I know it makes me a bad shopper but I see deadlines as more of a suggestion.

i always do my reports right after my shop anyway. i just like to get it over with.

Ok, I have read many people fussing about this company. What is the big deal about them? I only see a variety of low paying fast food places..... anyone please care to explain why this company is so loved? Thanks.

@sofi wrote:

Ok, I have read many people fussing about this company. What is the big deal about them? I only see a variety of low paying fast food places..... anyone please care to explain why this company is so loved? Thanks.

Good point. Market force is like the Walmart of MS'ing in my eyes. They are big, cheap and have the worst customer service. Yet sometimes they are the only game in town.

I don't love them, but they are useful. For example, they often make some of my routes work because they pay for tolls & parking. Also, my shops with them often have good bonuses.

I did a shop today with a $120 fee. Can't say I do not love Marketforce when I see shops like that. And I do like a few of their other shops when I see them on the boards. Fortunately I read this thread as I had not seen the warning from Market Force regarding the new deadlines. Today's report was due in 8-12 hours. What do they mean by that? They can delete the shop after 8 hours? I certainly do not want to chance that this time 8-12 hours actually meant 8 hours. I always enter my shops the same day but this one was on my way to work and by the time I am home and with my scanner it is near the deadline (or 4 hours past the deadline if the deadline is 8 hours). So I filled out the report on my lunch and then had to fax the receipt. I know they prefer scanned receipts but they made this short turn around rule, not me. And no, I have no interest in purchasing a portable scanner or a smart phone with a fabulous camera just so I can file Market Force shops. I guess I will no longer be able to do the ones with short turnarounds unless I am close to home and my scanner and have nothing better to do then to rush home right after the shop.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/22/2015 09:10AM by sandyf.

I had a Market Force shop recently and i broke down on the way to it. It was a Saturday and nobody was available to ask for help or advice until the Monday. The job was removed from me on the Sunday and points taken off me. They quote 2 working days for a reply to an email so it is more than difficult to get help at a weekend.
It was all sorted on the Monday but not until I rang and spoke to somebody. Filing a report within 8 hours of a job can only work if the support is there for it.

I do happen to love MF and have been with them since the Shop 'N Chek days. Although I shop with many companies, MF is one that I can count on to have work every month. I get a nice DD, on time each month, and do a variety of shops with them that have fairly simple reports. They have a huge selection of clients around here. I'll only do certain ones that I enjoy or find fast and simple and can fit in as fillers. I do bonused and non-bonused shops. I get phone calls and bonused email offers. With that being said, I will have to be careful about the time slots now as I frequently go on long day routes of 10-12 shops from a mixture of companies. Reporting within 8 hours may be impossible if I don't have my lap top with me, which I'm not going to do for a day trip...unless it's a really well bonused shop. So, I'll just wait and see how it goes. I've never had a shop removed for not reporting on time, and I have submitted late many times over the years. Sometimes I've reported 12 hours to the minute. I will have to be more diligent with the times now. I certainly don't think of them like the Wal-Mart of MSing. They are a well run organization that pays me to the exact penny each and every month at precisely the time expected. I suppose if you're only seeing FF shops at the starting rate, they could be considered a low end company, but they have much better clients and offer nice bonuses to me. It depends on how you look at mystery shopping in general and what you want out of it. If you want a great meal or a resort vacation with a long report for $25 fee or less, they're not for you. If you want quick shops with low narrative reports and nice fee, they are the ones. I'm looking to make money with them. I'll leave the lifestyle enhancement to those who enjoy long narratives. I'd rather do short reports, save my money and pay for a relaxing meal or vacay with no reports.

I hope I am not the first casualty of this new rule. I had a shop as mentioned above with an 8-12 hour turnaround. I sent in the report well under the earlier time limit and also faxed my receipts under the 8 hour limit by over an hour. I got a receipt from the fax machine that my fax went through. Today I got an email telling me the shop was rejected. For this one I am out of pocket $50 and my time and this is cash out of my pocket for a loan service interest fee which I cannot eat, or wear or give as a gift. They claim my report or receipt (who knows which one as this is just like hearing either your ID or password is wrong except with more consequences) was not received on time. Of course they are closed until Monday so I have to worry all weekend about it. Hopefully the help desk will get back to me today and say they found my documents. Otherwise I will be wringing my hands over this all weekend. I wish it had happened on a shop with a layout of $5 that I ate if it had to be the test case.

Edited after hearing back from the help desk...they told me that this job says you cannot fax a receipt. In fact I did not see that anywhere and in fact I emailed the help desk before doing the job and telling them I would have to fax the receipt. When they emailed me back they did not say I could not fax the receipt. They did mention an alternate way I could send the receipt by computer but did not say do not fax. I just looked at the receipt faq's and it clearly says you can fax the receipts. Hopefully I can speak with someone on Monday but the weekend people seem to be sticking to their guns on this. I do have proof I sent the receipt. They said they cannot find it and that when faxes come in they put them with the reports but then in another sentence I am told it takes up to 5 days for a fax to be applied to the report. And this job was assigned before the change,not that it makes a difference as I followed the new rules as to time.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2015 12:34AM by sandyf.

Sandy, so sorry to hear that happened. I booked a breakfast Monday at the start of a long day so guess I'll take a computer along. I've always resisted that but looks like if we want to shop for MF it's going to be a necessity now. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you, hope it works out in your favor.

My account looks brand new, but I'm in fact a long time lurker.

I can say that I know exactly why the reporting times have been micromanaged. It's because more people taking their tablets into the field, and reporting immediately.

A competitive strategy, or spoiling a client to get the contracts, or ?

I'm not taking a tablet into the field to worry about breaking or being stolen, unless it is for a specific job, and considering all of the stresses of this company with asking us for free surveys, the stress of being kicked to the curb at any given moment, the molasses slowness of the reporting system (omg), the foreign schedulers, and all of the other details of working with them, I am considering phasing them out, completely.

After all, they are just going to be rid of me sooner or later and there is no reason for me to count on them, anyway.