When the SPAR system took over MFI on April 30, all of my former permanent shops were removed (with no notice) and were assigned to other SPAR reps. BUT, there were low-balled shops at the nearest department store to my home automatically assigned to me, with packages already in the mail and on the way, without my agreement to do the shops.

I called the SPAR DM and said I had not agreed to do these shops, and I was told they would be removed from my account. Several days later, they were still there, so I wrote to SPAR and asked them to remove all assignments "for now" and asked why shops were automatically assigned, but no emails alerting me to that fact, or phone calls, were given. This is the response I received...

"I have removed all work from your page. I will remove you from SPARs system as we do not call in advance to ask, we assign to your area. As for the message board we do not send out email messages alerting you to read the message board. Thank You"

GEE.... thanks. 13 years of doing work for MFI directly down the drain, as I'm sure they will now block me from all future shops with SPAR.

How are they getting away with the IC classification?

That is just crazy.

LisaSTL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How are they getting away with the IC
> classification?


because no one challenged it...

It is high time someone does challenge it then. Employees get assigned work, not ICs. Even with my ongoing projects, I provide my availability and what I am willing to take on each month. And I would not be "removed" for taking month off.

I am very sorry this happened to you.

Given the way they treated you, I don't think anyone can blame you if you contacted the proper authorities.

Just having them sold to another company is not new to them to do this. They were doing this years ago.
And they were very famous for sending you for a 15 minute job (15 minute pay) with the promise you will get more if you do this just this once. And then the next day getting another 15 minute one for the exact same store. So they are famous for
unfair scheduling in many ways.

Oh man. I'd be soooooooooo angry, I'd be spitting nails!

That's HORRIBLE. I think techman/Lisa are right. It's high time we stand up against crap like this. This market is what we make it (the market is what it bears, right? If shoppers don't take low fees, then companies have to pay in order to get their work done. Well, this is the same. If people stand together and stand up against this kind of treatment, the market will be forced to correct).

So sorry this happened to you.

It seems to me this would be much easier than addressing fees and expecting a large group of people to band together. It is the IRS who would be interested if the company is abusing the independent contractor classification.

Sure, let the IRS do the heavy lifting ... but it wouldn't hurt if many shoppers complained to the IRS.

Basically we're so expendable that if anyone kicks up a fuss they'll just mark you off the list.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/2013 03:32AM by CAscotch.

ok...will somebody school me - what does SPAR stand for?

Now this is the exact opposite experience I'm having with them so far. Most of my perms ( the ones that it's time for) have been assigned- the DM even emailed and verified my perms for me. They certainly pay better than MF ever did. I'm now making over minimum wage in my state for the first time in years w/MF! She did ask about assigning me some poster jobs, and I politely declined.

They tried to stuff an assignment down my throat even though I didn't do regular work for the purple portal. When I called them on it, they claimed that "it was an error." The remainder of their email explained that they assign tasks and do not have a job board. I have also been getting emails for unpaid merchandiser training. Sounds to me like a company that wants to treat its ICs as employees.

Yup, amshopper, I participated in two unpaid training sessions---and they wanted me to watch some videos online.

The manager finally e-mailed me back. She could not believe that Market Force was paying me $15 for each Sony job---said they could only pay $8.25. And from what I understand, if the job only took 30 minutes, I would get paid $4! And then have the 2.9 worker's comp deducted from my pay.

Just not worth it. I didn't want to be assigned any job at their whim. Or to deal with that manager.

So thus ends my admittedly limited merchandising career...

This is the Market Force culture translated to SPAR. You are a "Human Resource" your "skill" is a dime a dozen. If you were a brain surgeon you would command a higher rate of pay but they would have no need for you as they do not have brains!

I have been looking for an explanation: What is SPAR? I do not see an explanation in this thread.

A merchandising company that purchased a division of Market Force. That division was formally called Certified Field Associates and focused on merchandising and theater checks. The theater checks stayed with Market Force.

Yikes!

Just what we need. A company which makes Market Force look generous. And which apparently doesn't get the Independent Contractor vs. employee distinction.

On the plus side, they did ship me a rather nice name badge on a string. And I've never done any merchandising for Market Force purple, just theater checks.

I got screwed by SPAR too. Three weeks ago I got a call from my DM who introduced herself and explained that SPAR will be taking over the grocery audits from Market Force. She also promised to email me the paperwork to sign up with their company. So I waited and waited and eventually forgot about it. Last week I logged into MF and found all my grocery audits were gone. I emailed my DM and asked if I was going to get them back. She claimed that she had never heard of me and she gave all my grocery audits to another rep. I was so mad! I emailed her back and reminded her that she called me recently and I was still waiting for her to send me the paperwork. I haven't heard from her since. Now that I'm reading this thread, I don't think I'm going to bother with SPAR anymore.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/06/2013 02:17PM by HeatherC.

> GEE.... thanks. 13 years of doing work for MFI
> directly down the drain, as I'm sure they will now
> block me from all future shops with SPAR.


I'm sorry about your loss of work with MF, but not working with SPAR in my opinion is no big loss. Last year, I agreed to do several jobs for them on a monthly basis. This was around August. I explained when I started that due to tax season, I might need some back up from February through April. She said she could probably get someone to temporarily cover for me. In October or November, I wrote my DM to ask why my jobs weren't showing up. No response. About a week later, I called her and she said that she had found someone else to do them because I was going to have issues during tax season. Now, mind you this was a week before they were supposed to be done again. One of the jobs was out of town so I had arranged another job while I was there. The one job alone was not worth the time and effort to go that far. But what did she care? I had served my purpose. If I do something wrong....... tell me....... if someone will do it for less money.......tell me. But to say that she got someone else to do it because I was going to become unavailable in 4 months and not bother telling me???

I haven't requested any of the assignments I used to pick up without giving it a second thought since I found out they had turned into SPAR, and I don't intend to. There are a TON of other companies around that truly appreciate what I do in a town where I know companies have trouble finding people to fill the jobs.

I wished they WOULD stop sending me emails!!!! I've asked them over and over again to remove me from their DB but they just won't. Luckily I have not signed their ICA and I most certainly will not purchase their Worker's Comp insurance.. what's that all about anyway...

Even though jobs are sparse up here, I just don't want to do those $8 per assignment with $2 extra for 15 min more...

Kundry,

Have you updated your profile with them? First, there should be a place at the bottom of the e-mail to unsubscribe. Then, go to your profile and edit it - there should be a box you can uncheck to send you e-mails. One MSC politely told me I would not be assigned any more shops with them, but kept sending the e-mails. That's how I got them to stop.

Spar was the first company I did work for as a merchandiser. They do assign their contractors a geographic area and then they get all the work that falls in that area. when I started working for other companies I was surprised that they all didn't do that way.

It seems like we, as contractors, get the short end of the stick in this industry. However, I do enjoy the independence and flexibility of this kind of of work. We will never have it all go the way we want so I guess it boils down to how much we are willing to put up with to continue to work.

Spar has been using that IC for years and I was working for them for over three years on the blockbuster.
They knew that redbox was buying out blockbuster but never let us know for months that we would be out of a job.After they lost blockbuster they just stopped assigning me and others any shops

I refused to accept their terms and would not work for them. They must be crazy to think people will work for thoes low rates and pay 2.9% for their Liability Insurance. If you accept their terms then you are crazy. I gave up 12 permenent jobs with them.

Thank you for all your comments! I don't usually do merchandising, but with those terms I was hesitant to start. And now I definitely won't! Cute landard- I think I will use it for other conventions.

My DM has yet to contact me as well. Not sure why! I have left several messages with no response. No job board, no phone calls, they just give you the job they want? It seems this way? Really frustrated with spar.

Now I know why my one standing job disappeared from MF. SPAR will be very lucky if they find anyone to do the job, as it is in a small town in the middle of nowhere in ILL. Oh well, becasue of the low pay, I was looking for a way to get out of the job anyway. I had kept it because I was enjoying the job. I was also finding great pay (pay was great as I was the only one doing shops in the area and the other companies could not find anyone else) from 3 other companies with jobs in that small town so it made it worthwhile. I may not being doing any shops in that area now.