So!

Yesterday, I noticed a lot of audit-type shops that Market Force Purple Portal had listed for a local healthcare company. Basically, they wanted a shopper to go into various doctor's office waiting rooms, take snapshots of a closed circuit television set-up, report on the set-up's usability, functionality, and overall maintenance. They also wanted the shopper to take notes on supporting materials that accommodated the systems.

I noticed that the shops had been posted last week and that the end date was today (Fri, Aug 10th). I put a call into the office, yesterday, had to wait (of course) for a scheduler to call back, and made arrangements to complete nine of these shops. The scheduler agreed upon a small bonus, so I asked that she send me an email confirming them (which she did), and then-- per her instruction-- printed the materials (over a hundred pages) and contacted each department to get a go-ahead to photograph their waiting areas.

This was about four o'clock central time, yesterday, when I started making the calls (the offices were only open until 5PM), so I had about an hour to call and reach a manager in each office to set up the appointments. During that time, I received the confirmation email from the scheduler and the shops were listed in my profile.

About five minutes to five o'clock CST, every single shop disappeared from my shop log. I logged out, refreshed, cleared cookies-- I did everything I could, including emailing the scheduler back and telling her that while I was printing out the last few packets of material, I got a SQL server error from their website and then all the shops were gone.

I had already made contact with all nine managers at the medical facility, and had scheduled a start time of 9AM CST (Fri). Here it was, 5PM (Thurs night), the scheduler was about three minutes from the end of her work-day, and I had shops that had vanished from my log, but that were scheduled to start first thing the next morning.

I waited about fifteen minutes, didn't hear a word from the scheduler, so I called in to the help desk.

The help desk tried to look for the shops, but they'd disappeared (they hadn't been cancelled, it was as though they never existed). I tried to reiterate to them that not only did I have a huge stack of paperwork in front of me that I'd printed out for the shops (obviously they were real), but that I had people waiting on me. The woman from the help desk said, "I'm sure no one is going to be physically waiting for you at the door." I said, "Actually, the woman from the first department said she'd meet me at the pharmacy at 9AM, so ... it's not as if I'm making it up." Her reply was, "No one said you were." Umm...

Anyway, she told me that I was absolutely, under no circumstances, to go to the location in the morning. That she was going to leave word with the project manager (whom I could still not speak to at that time) and with the original scheduler, but that she wouldn't be able to get back to me with a reply until the afternoon because that's when she got in. =OO

I asked her if there was any other way to get some kind of resolution, trying again (emphatically) to impress upon her that it was her client that was going to end up looking bad and she said outside of calling the help desk when they opened, that was it.

I got up about 7AM (the help desk opened at 8AM EST) and got ready to call. The scheduler actually beat me to it. She told me that the shops were gone, that she had no idea what happened or what to do about it, and that there was no way to even document the work and effort I'd gone through at that point.

She apologized, and while I told her that I appreciated that and that I certainly didn't blame her, I wasn't going to spend yet another hour trying to contact everyone to tell them what happened (as though I even knew!!). I offered to send her the contact information so she could do it, but she said that wasn't necessary. =OO

In the end, the whole thing was just a huge waste of time.


-- It wasn't four hours later that another scheduler called to ask for a favor...

Wow. The company makes a huge, really huge mistake, and doesn't have the decency to cancel appointments? Do they really think all of the medical professionals have nothing better to do? If I was the client they would be getting the ax immediately if not sooner.

I couldn't agree more, Lisa. It was pretty epic fail in my opinion. =X

Lets not forget about all of your expense from printing 100 pages, holy cow!

Definitely, peach! I'm pretty sure I used the last of my toner, too. =X Hrmph!

I would charge MF for your labor.

You did EVERYTHING right (and by the way, I love your detail minute by minute account of what happened!)

You are an independant contractor who REALLY covered all the areas and the computer/scheduler or whatever cancelled/deleted/screwed up your shops.

I would bill them for your paper, your time and your aggravation.

Boy, Sunny, you don't know how much I wish I could! Mostly, though, I just wish they'd get it together. I was actually excited about the shops! =DD

jentodd Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Boy, Sunny, you don't know how much I wish I
> could! Mostly, though, I just wish they'd get it
> together. I was actually excited about the shops!
> =DD


Yes, and it "showed" by all your hard work and preparedness! Shame on them for doing that to you.

Fight the good fight!

Incredible. Also loved your "headline". You must have felt like Alice in the rabbit hole. So sorry, They suck.

Example of their confusion, you won't work for them after this, will you?

I'll don that armor and keep fighting, Sunny! Thank you! =DD

It was a very Twilight Zone feeling, that's for sure, cyn! One minute I had work (and was so excited about it, too) and the next minute... nothing. And with no explanation or concern for that client! That's what shocked me most!

I barely worked for them, then, Irene. My last shop was a theatre shop for Hunger Games in which they'd sent me an agreed upon price for shopping and then changed it while I was actually _at_ the theatre doing the shops. I came home, entered all the information, and saw their in-house email (their mail has trouble being delivered to active mail servers, I've been told) that "notified" me of the change. I pitched a small fit (that was a LOT of work, even for the agreed upon wage) and losing money on the deal was _not_ awesome. They said they wouldn't rectify the situation unless I showed them the paperwork. I did so and the person I spoke to about it was so combative it just left me with such a bad taste in my mouth.

The only reason I agreed to do _these_ shops was because a scheduler I'd liked had contacted me and asked me for help. But no, I'm pretty sure that was my last straw where Marketforce is concerned. I just recently read the thread about how they had tried to cheat other shoppers out of an agreed upon wage (the phone shops that were listed for $40 and then changed to $4). For me, they've just wracked up such a reputation for paying poorly and being shady, that I don't know who can possibly trust them.

How discomforting!

Deep breath, dark chocolate and march on....

Words to live by, Irene! =D

I believe in the "principle."

They owe you something... for all your hard work

A while back, I did a complicating theatre assignment for them - by telephone and bonused. I was supposed to be the leader of a 6-member team. Only two people appeared and late. I had to do the rest to compensate for the missing members. To make a long story short, it was a mis-adventure and I was a rookie at that time. By the time I got through with the assignment, the subway had closed. I had to take a cab. When I called them, one of the staff told me we would not be paid because I did not get enough partners or something else.

I was so furious that I wrote them and told them of the expense incurred and time involved in delivering the report. I did not get a complete list from the scheduler or from my shop log of what I had to do. And because they did not give me enough people to work with, I was overworked. I Explained I depended on the public transportation because I did not know it would be too long for the manager to sign the documents. He even refused to provide me with more data required for the evaluation. He told me he would call it in, which I found out was a no, no. Coupled with that, we were not originally allowed to do anything inspite of the letter of authorization. I mailed that letter with the documents required and with the reports from the other two. I asked them to remove me from their list.

I got my pay with bonus with no additional word from them.

Hope they can straighten this out. They can be very frustrating.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/16/2012 03:18AM by risinghorizon.

Wow rising! That's like a thousand times worse than what happened to me! At least I was still in the comfort of my own home! Jeez. I'd be so ticked off I'd probably be ready to spit nails.

It's good that you got your pay and bonus, but it sounds like they owed you two times the bonus and a serious apology!!! I just can't imagine!

(I'm upset on your behalf! =DD)

True. But in writing them, I seemed to have released all my frustrations and anger. I was assured I was not going to be paid so I was really surprised that they had even read my letter. More surprised that they did not take me up on my offer to remove me from their D/Base whereas they were trigger-happy earlier, then asked me back.

It was a very good experience and from then on, I became less stressed, and fully confident of how I wanted to be treated. They also became more respectful of me. I refused permanent assignments and often used their shops as fillers though my commitment as a mystery shopper remained the same.

Speak out and don't worry. There are other MSCs deserving of your commitment. If you choose to stay, only accept shops that you really want to do with minimal or no stress and don't be bullied.