MF was one of my best in SE Penna. They were good for about $1200/yr plus purchase over the past 5 years. Now I'm lucky if I hit $200 this year. In this area, gone are the FF shops, the donut shops, the cell phone shops and other good retail stuff. Most of what's left are burgers and "work for food" supermarket jobs.
I don't blame MF. Is it the economy, or are companies dropping MS in general?

Did you register for the Purple Portal of Market Force...Certified Field Associates?

Either you have done them too many times and you are kept out of the program for certain clients, or there are new shoppers in your area that grab the shops faster than you. The cell phones are gone but everything else, as well as new clients are still there. Try searches by zip code for major metropolitan areas like NY, Miami, Atlanta and see what shows up.

Plenty still in my area. Had a cell phone shop last month too.

Gigi, do you see plenty of different company cell phones? I saw 2 of the companies that were done before by MF now with someone else.

samwise Wrote:
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> MF was one of my best in SE Penna. They were good
> for about $1200/yr plus purchase over the past 5
> years. Now I'm lucky if I hit $200 this year.
> In this area, gone are the FF shops, the donut
> shops, the cell phone shops and other good retail
> stuff. Most of what's left are burgers and "work
> for food" supermarket jobs.
> I don't blame MF. Is it the economy, or are
> companies dropping MS in general?


Congratulations, you have been barred from doing shops ... just like everyone else is at some point. Everyone gets barred eventually after doing so many shops. Looks like you hit the magic number.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/27/2012 01:15AM by mystikwizard.

No it is slim pickings in my area too. We never had fast food in my area to begin with. It's not a magic number thing for me. The shops that I do all the time are still there. It's just they are about the only thing that shows up monthly. Picked up a new client a few minutes ago but it was the only one on the board. All that is there are airport and income tax shops. Been that way all month.

I shopped the two cell phone shops last month, but none this month. Are they indeed gone? Also just looked and all of the FF shops that were just posted are gone. It is extremely unusual for all of them to be scheduled this early. I can't imagine I've been banned from this FF chain. I have two bonuses ones this week.

Sometimes I find Market Force's site to be weird. I can log in and see somethings and others times different stuff. Log in again and the first set of things are back plus some of the second set.

I am not sure if this is happening to anyone else. Today I logged on and got a new shop and the golden arches were there. I logged on later and golden arches were gone. Then just now golden arches are back - same location and dates.

SecretAgentMom Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sometimes I find Market Force's site to be weird.
> I can log in and see somethings and others times
> different stuff. Log in again and the first set of
> things are back plus some of the second set.
>
> I am not sure if this is happening to anyone else.
> Today I logged on and got a new shop and the
> golden arches were there. I logged on later and
> golden arches were gone. Then just now golden
> arches are back - same location and dates.


This happens to me all the time! Drives me batty! They've been having these promotions with increased fees and I missed out on them because the site would only show some of the available shops with the increased fees. I'd log in the next day and they'd all be available; a few hours later only some of them were visible. I've tried different browsers and it still happens.
Glad to know it isn't just me, but that is super weird and they need to fix it.

Well, they are back on my board now. Weird!

I believe MF does this on purpose, so that we cherrypickers get a bit of fear and end up taking shops at lower fees before they disappear from the board.

ive solved the problem couple years ago, and dont do any shops for them, or any company they buy each year. Never looked back!

Too impersonal of a company with generally below avg fees.

techman01 is right.

for those saying that market force eventually kicks everyone off....any idea when this typically happens? 3 years, 4 years, 5? has anyone worked for them for longer than 5 years without a problem?

I've worked for them for 5 years and only one problem about a month ago. It was worked out, though.

is it more the number of years that one has worked for them or the number of shops one has done? hearing different things.

It seems to be a bunch of different reasons. Some day immediately after you reach 500 and others say 1,000 shops. Other reasons given have been that their computer program analyzes your shops any anyone who has all perfect shops or all negative shops gets bounced at some point. Then there are all the normal reasons for deactivation, like dropping shops, canceling too many times, shopping wrong locations, etc., etc..... There are apparently an unlimited number of pitfalls......

I just grabbed 18 of Market Forces assignments in the last 2 days....

So, that's where they have all gone! lol and great luck for you.
I got one today which I never saw before. It did not show up under 10 miles from my zip code, even tho you needed to live in my zip code for it. I expanded the search only because the entire page of shops suddenly went to such a wide view I needed to scroll to read and it only fit 4-5 shops on a page. weird...so i closed and opened again with a wider than 10 mile radius and there was a shop in my zip that I snatched up.
-------------------------------------------------------
> I just grabbed 18 of Market Forces assignments in
> the last 2 days....

Sandyf - I just picked up the same zip code shop. Sounds like a fun one. Looking forward to seeing what gets delivered on Monday.

Their system is wonky. When I go to select shops, very few appear. If I do an advanced search and type in MY zip code (the same one they have on file), a zillion more appear.

@sandyF Were the majority of the 18 you grabbed FF or were they a variety? I could grab 18 FF, but not sure I could stomach that much for $7.50 shop fee.

I live in Se Pennsylvania, and the ff shops for my area have not even been listed yet, bummer! Seems like mostly income tax stuff.

sandyf Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So, that's where they have all gone! lol and great
> luck for you.
> I got one today which I never saw before. It did
> not show up under 10 miles from my zip code, even
> tho you needed to live in my zip code for it. I
> expanded the search only because the entire page
> of shops suddenly went to such a wide view I
> needed to scroll to read and it only fit 4-5 shops
> on a page. weird...so i closed and opened again
> with a wider than 10 mile radius and there was a
> shop in my zip that I snatched up.
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I just grabbed 18 of Market Forces assignments
> in
> > the last 2 days....

BINGO! You figured out the secret. Open up your search by more miles and more work opens up..

Now that I do this, MF is more fun! More Jobs

gigishopper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Their system is wonky. When I go to select shops,
> very few appear. If I do an advanced search and
> type in MY zip code (the same one they have on
> file), a zillion more appear.
>
> @sandyF Were the majority of the 18 you grabbed FF
> or were they a variety? I could grab 18 FF, but
> not sure I could stomach that much for $7.50 shop
> fee.

I think you mean me...the 18 shops...it was right under sandy's post..

What did I grab? Some Fast Casuals, some ice cream shops and a bunch of those great Drive In burger places

Seems a lot of you are picking up a lot of MF shops. Are they strict on the "max 4 shops per day regardless of project" rule? I've wanted to do more several times, but haven't because I wanna get paid

Yes, they are strict on that rule.

yea i'm in pa and the ff shops haven't been posted yet here either

I suddenly have no FF shops on my board. Have casual, airport, retail and grocery. No FF.

I decline shops I'm not interested in. Decline all retail and grocery. those are still on my list, but no FF.

SecretAgentMom Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sometimes I find Market Force's site to be weird.
> I can log in and see somethings and others times
> different stuff. Log in again and the first set of
> things are back plus some of the second set.
>
> I am not sure if this is happening to anyone else.
> Today I logged on and got a new shop and the
> golden arches were there. I logged on later and
> golden arches were gone. Then just now golden
> arches are back - same location and dates.

This is most likely due to the emails MF sends where they reserve a shop for you for 22 hours. The subject of these emails is "MFI Shop Assignment with Premium Fee". They offer you a SLIGHTLY increased fee and hold the shop for 22 hours. If you don't accept, it goes back in the pool for all shoppers. That's why I think some shops disappear and come back.

Market Force schedulers have told me that they are cutting back on fees this year. So far it seems like they are indeed doing that. I probably have completed about 200 shops for them total, but don't think the reduced shop offers (from schedulers) is due to a limit I've reached. I think they've just found some newbies who are willing to do these shops for very little.

I'm just not going to spend at least an hour of my time and gas money to get what amounts to a free hamburger. MF isn't going to pay for my first heart attack.