If anybody does work for MF you know what I'm talking about. Who would actually want to do these on a regular basis?

I did one the other day for $10 with $2 reimbursement. It took me over an hour at the location, I took over twenty pictures, filled out 19 pages of paperwork, spent about an hour back at home reporting it and trying to link the pictures (after I manually resized each one via MS Paint).

I'm new to MSing, and all-in-all MF seems to be a really cool company. But these gas assignments, COME ON! You guys know what I'm talking about?

I have worked for MF for a couple of years and I do the fast foods when they are convenient for me, but I have never done the gas shops for them. Too much work, too little money!

I too have worked with MF for a couple of years and with the precursor company Shop 'n Chek. That definitely does not mean that I do all of the shops they offer! I have not and never intend to do their tax shop, they don't have gas shops in my area but I learned my lesson with the Maritz version of those turkeys. Granted with some of their shops the screener questions don't give you enough information to know what you are getting into, but only on a couple of occasions have I selected a shop I came to regret. They are not big payers but I find enough reasonable work with them to make them a useful company to work with.

I have done a few of the gas station audits. $10 is definitely low for the amount of work involved, but the more you do, it will take you less time. I usually only schedule them for the gas station that is two minutes from my house.

Nichtoliver Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If anybody does work for MF you know what I'm
> talking about. Who would actually want to do
> these on a regular basis?
>
> I did one the other day for $10 with $2
> reimbursement. It took me over an hour at the
> location, I took over twenty pictures, filled out
> 19 pages of paperwork, spent about an hour back at
> home reporting it and trying to link the pictures
> (after I manually resized each one via MS Paint).
>
> I'm new to MSing, and all-in-all MF seems to be a
> really cool company. But these gas assignments,
> COME ON! You guys know what I'm talking about?


Yes, $10 is low...they do get bonused. You shouldn't need to resize each picture in Paint -- why not change the settings on your camera so the pictures are the correct size to begin with? I think my first gas shop took about 1 hour...now they take much, much less time.

Karen IL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> You shouldn't need to resize each picture in Paint --
> why not change the settings on your camera so the
> pictures are the correct size to begin with?

I rarely set my camera for the size the finished pictures should be in case some of the back needs to be edited out. I don't know if it's how the stations in my area are set up on the corners, but I always have to go across the street to get the canopy, island, sign, etc. so I always have to crop in.

I'll have to look for that function on my camera. It would definitely be a time saver.

But still. The sheer number of pages I have to print (25), fill out, and the photos I have to take suck. Especially when I have to use MF's "link to question" thing.

For me Marketforce is in the same category as greenbean casserole.

Oh yum, Cettie, you really like it then? tee hee

I changed it to like half. I am off to do a gas shop now and I will let you know how the upload goes. Thanks.

lisams901 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Karen IL Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > You shouldn't need to resize each picture in
> Paint --
> > why not change the settings on your camera so
> the
> > pictures are the correct size to begin with?
>
> I rarely set my camera for the size the finished
> pictures should be in case some of the back needs
> to be edited out. I don't know if it's how the
> stations in my area are set up on the corners, but
> I always have to go across the street to get the
> canopy, island, sign, etc. so I always have to
> crop in.


Seriously? I've never cropped a picture. I leave in everything and turn in the pictures. Never have had a problem.

I did all the "tests" for one of the Market Force gas shops, realized a needed a partner between the ages of 18-25 because it was a compliance shop and haven't done very many Market Force since then.

If everyone would stop doing the "slave labor" jobs, they would pay a reasonable amount.

It would also be nice if you didn't have to be a detective to find out what the shop entails before they want you to sign up for it.

I usually email the scheduler, but that takes time, which is money in this business.

On a whole, I think Market Force is one of worst MSC to work for because they ignore the needs of the shopper. It amazes me that they actually have clients.

Karen IL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Seriously? I've never cropped a picture. I leave
> in everything and turn in the pictures. Never
> have had a problem.


It could just be me and how I'm used to taking pictures. Due to space, most of mine have to be taken from across the street to get the full canopy/island/sign/etc. in the picture. I hate turning in a picture that is half canopy and half street, cars, other buildings.... so I crop out what is not needed then resize the finished image.

lisams901 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Karen IL Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > Seriously? I've never cropped a picture. I
> leave
> > in everything and turn in the pictures. Never
> > have had a problem.
>
>
> It could just be me and how I'm used to taking
> pictures. Due to space, most of mine have to be
> taken from across the street to get the full
> canopy/island/sign/etc. in the picture. I hate
> turning in a picture that is half canopy and half
> street, cars, other buildings.... so I crop out
> what is not needed then resize the finished image.


Oh, OK. I often take the site picture from across the street as well. I just turn the picture in as is. Quit cropping -- yer making the rest of us look bad! LOL

You can change the zoom and "crop" out the street scenes. I guess you knew that, anyway. I try to remember the questions that these pictures will be attached to so when I am doing the attachments, it doesn't take long.

I don't much care for the price, either, but I feel that I do the few close to me quickly, and the only reason I'm doing it is because I don't have something else that lpays to do at that hour.

Terry, I seriously doubt you'd get mystery shoppers to go on strike. After all, who they are is a "mystery". If we did go on strike, then the media would hear about it and others who are unemployed would jump in to compete! So far, nothing we've done has changed the payments except expect bonuses. A lot of times, that doesn't happen.

In a perfect world, every mystery shopping and merchandising company would pay me round-trip mileage outside my home area, be it city, county, or neighborhood, at $1.00 a mile. In a perfect world, I'd get a bonus for an urgent deadline or for picking up something because someone flaked. In a perfect world, I'd get a bonus because of my previous scores with the company. Get a 10, get a bonus next time. Get a 9, maybe get a bonus. Would an MSP be able to bonus for that? What do they do, anyway--have a bonus account for the month and when it is gone, it is gone? Maybe the schedulers get to share it if they managed to have any bonus money left at the end of the month. lol

My beautician told me today that he makes $400 a day. He works in a cheap shop.

Hi, I use a very cool program that takes all the hard work out of processing images.

You simply point the program at the folder that contains your new images and then a folder to out put it too, select the size 640, then voilla.. all done.

It saves me tons of time. 300 photos processed in 95 seconds all the right size, all under 100kb and excellent quality.

below is a link.. In case the link does not work, just go to www.download.com and key in, with quotes, "Free Batch Image Converter"

[download.cnet.com]

p.s. www.download.com is a highly recgonized and trusted site. I have never had one ounce of trouble with any of the files I have downloaded from there.

Good Luck, hope that helps.

terry9297 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I did all the "tests" for one of the Market Force
> gas shops, realized a needed a partner between the
> ages of 18-25 because it was a compliance shop and
> haven't done very many Market Force since then.
>
> If everyone would stop doing the "slave labor"
> jobs, they would pay a reasonable amount.
>
> It would also be nice if you didn't have to be a
> detective to find out what the shop entails before
> they want you to sign up for it.
>
> I usually email the scheduler, but that takes
> time, which is money in this business.
>
> On a whole, I think Market Force is one of worst
> MSC to work for because they ignore the needs of
> the shopper. It amazes me that they actually have
> clients.


Terry, I agree with you. If we all would stop accepting ridiculous assignments for unreasonable amounts of money, they'd be forced to up the price. Unfortunately, there are many people out there willing to do that ridiculous amount of work for next to nothing (ten bucks).

And let's not kid ourselves, this industry isn't exactly "skilled" labor. Any Joe Sixpack who wants to make an extra ten bucks can download paperwork, read the instructions, and click the checkboxes to report the shop.

I understand that they can't release paperwork until you've accepted the assignment for proprietary and copyright reasons, but it'd be nice to see what you're doing before you're forced to click "accept".

Nichtoliver Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I understand that they can't release paperwork
> until you've accepted the assignment for
> proprietary and copyright reasons, but it'd be
> nice to see what you're doing before you're forced
> to click "accept".

And you have just hit on one of the most important benefits to shoppers of forums. From discussions I have a good idea of what shops and what companies are unrealistic in their fees vs their expectations. I have learned what shoppers are similar enough to me that if they have had a great working relationship with company XYZ, I am likely to have a similar great working relationship. When they find that the ABC shop offered by a company has an outrageous report, I probably will find that to be the case as well. I certainly 'shadow' a few shoppers because I know their reaction to certain shops will be a harbinger of mine even though I have not had the privilege of seeing the instructions or report form.

Try using this link for a picture resizer for your photos. I would not use anything else. I love it and it works great! PIXresizer.Softonic.com

I do not work for them in L.A., but in Vegas, yes (higher pay), I personally never do gas shops....and by the sound of this one, geez...sounds horrible.

market Force bottom line is a bad company

terry9297 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> On a whole, I think Market Force is one of worst
> MSC to work for because they ignore the needs of
> the shopper. It amazes me that they actually have
> clients.
-------------------

They do lack in some areas, for sure.

As a whole it amazes me how little some of these projects pay..You basically end up working for like 2.75 an hour on some of them.

Nichtoliver Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> terry9297 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I did all the "tests" for one of the Market
> Force
> > gas shops, realized a needed a partner between
> the
> > ages of 18-25 because it was a compliance shop
> and
> > haven't done very many Market Force since then.
>
> >
> > If everyone would stop doing the "slave labor"
> > jobs, they would pay a reasonable amount.
> >
> > It would also be nice if you didn't have to be
> a
> > detective to find out what the shop entails
> before
> > they want you to sign up for it.
> >
> > I usually email the scheduler, but that takes
> > time, which is money in this business.
> >
> > On a whole, I think Market Force is one of
> worst
> > MSC to work for because they ignore the needs
> of
> > the shopper. It amazes me that they actually
> have
> > clients.
>
>
> Terry, I agree with you. If we all would stop
> accepting ridiculous assignments for unreasonable
> amounts of money, they'd be forced to up the
> price. Unfortunately, there are many people out
> there willing to do that ridiculous amount of work
> for next to nothing (ten bucks).
>
> And let's not kid ourselves, this industry isn't
> exactly "skilled" labor. Any Joe Sixpack who
> wants to make an extra ten bucks can download
> paperwork, read the instructions, and click the
> checkboxes to report the shop.
>
> I understand that they can't release paperwork
> until you've accepted the assignment for
> proprietary and copyright reasons, but it'd be
> nice to see what you're doing before you're forced
> to click "accept".


As a new shopper, I was grateful for the 10.00 plus up to $4.00 reimburse, because I ahd NOOO idea what I was etting into and I figured these lower paid shops were good training. Now I am doing $25.00 plus reimbursement.

So I think that the lower paid shops are ok, good actually to get your feet wet. What I don't like is low pay and huge reports or time consuming shops. I have done quite a few bank shop and they only paid $10.00,and actually took a long time, but it was still good training.

I have found several other companies that bonus the gas shops so your total pay/free gass/water works out to about $20 per store - and most only require 6 - 8 photos with about 15 questions that need to be answered. My first few shops took about 30 minutes each for the report, but I can now crank them out in about 15 mintues.

In my area, Market Force is great on things they call you for (grocery audits, liquor store audits, pictures)....and they pay lightning fast once you get set up in the system.....but skip it on the gas unless you're desperate for income.