Hey Freelance: I don't want to work for MF because of their clients. I can't afford the calories and other aspects of fast food in my diet. But I know others who once did work for MF and actually enjoyed the food--and MF's list of clients. As many Forum participants have stated, it was a good match for them--but may not be for others. I am one of those "others."

I just didn't like the way their admins were so quick and with little or no explanation to buck a couple of honest people out of their system. Is it okay if that bothered me a bit? Seemingly, some posters didn't like anger that apparently came out in a few of my posts. And I will apologize if that offended anyone. I have seen far worse from many other forum posters. But pardon me, it seems the purpose of this forum is to compare notes and to support one another. If I do have some friends I introduced to mystery shopping and they don't have much experience with it and then had a bad experience--of course I would be a bit ruffled to see them hurt. I care about them.

And I do believe my comments were to solicit information from others who had had the same situation. Their comments were very useful to the people I care about.

My new mystery shopping friends have moved on by the way, with the help of my MSC list and another list found on this forum.

So, I thought this forum was created to compare notes and to gain understanding about mystery shop companies. I and they gained a great deal from the posts--which I appreciate.

I have a list of my own companies for which I work and I value my opportunities with those companies: Shoppers Critique, Insight, Coyle, SPG, Beyond Hello, DSG (my first, five years ago) Service Sleuth, BBS, A Closer Look, About Face, and others, all of which have contributed greatly to my quality of life.

But----I would like to suggest---Marketforce may want to communicate more thoroughly with those they decide to bilk before the action takes place. You must admit, MF is the single MSC on this forum that has the highest number of complaints. Sure, they have what I understand to be a long list of clients. You are correct, I don't work for them, but I learned what their clients were from my jilted friends and decided not to sign up. And my point in taking the issue to the board was to get information for others who have only recently begun to mystery shop and have now had a bad experience.

I got a long list of great information from the other forum posters to provide to the third parties and they appreciated everyone's contributions.

Thank you everyone!!

I guess I am lucky then. I applied to Market Force but was never accepted. My daughter also applied, and she was not accepted. Now that I think of it, we used the same computer. I guess that puts us in NO-NO land. From what I read, I am not missing anything.

MotherDaughterTeam Wrote:
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> It appears they link IP addresses.

This IP business concerns me somewhat, as my neighbor and I share an address (but not a unit number) and an Internet connection. The neighbor also shops full-time, and may also be an IC with MFI. For that matter, I have used shared library connections and coffee shop connections in the past. So, I wonder, are the IP connections only reviewed when one shopper is deactivated? I'm pretty sure I have seen posts on here where multiple family members were all shopping for MFI and it wasn't an issue, at least until one of the shoppers was deactivated for whatever reason. If that's the case, I have to believe they aren't just automatically randomly canceling anyone who logs on from the same IP address as any other shopper.

To protect myself, should I make sure to only connect using my personal cell phone wifi connection going forward, to avoid any perception that I might be related to other shoppers? Or is this something that only comes up when their routine deactivation algorithms kick in anyway? I feel like maybe I'm being way too paranoid here, but MFI represents enough of my income at the moment that I feel like it's worth asking about. Any thoughts from the community on this?

I was also let go for no reason other than good work. BTW.....which Grocery shops do they now have

MotherDaughterTeam Wrote:
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> So, I thought this forum was created to compare
> notes and to gain understanding about mystery shop
> companies. I and they gained a great deal from the
> posts--which I appreciate.

> But----I would like to suggest---Marketforce may
> want to communicate more thoroughly with those
> they decide to bilk before the action takes place.
> You must admit, MF is the single MSC on this forum
> that has the highest number of complaints. Sure,
> they have what I understand to be a long list of
> clients. You are correct, I don't work for them,
> but I learned what their clients were from my
> jilted friends and decided not to sign up. And my
> point in taking the issue to the board was to get
> information for others who have only recently
> begun to mystery shop and have now had a bad
> experience.
>
> I got a long list of great information from the
> other forum posters to provide to the third
> parties and they appreciated everyone's
> contributions.
>
> Thank you everyone!!

MF is a billion dollar company, so their working model seems to be working for them, why should they change it? The decision to terminate someone is done by the computer software based on their proprietary algorithms, ie you might be giving always a 10 to a location where as other shoppers give a 5, a location is always strangely slow in giving you fries, or any other reason.

That makes sense. Now I understand the beast called MarketForce. Thank you. This makes a lot of sense and now this information will be available to others within the history of this forum.

Omgee Wrote:
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I
> feel like maybe I'm being way too paranoid here,
> but MFI represents enough of my income at the
> moment that I feel like it's worth asking about.
> Any thoughts from the community on this?


Yes you are being too paranoid. Sweat the big things in life. Getting canned from some MSC is not even close to being a big thing.

I have had mostly positive experiences working with Market Force, but something odd did happen a few years ago. At that time I did not have a scanner so I was faxing my CPIs to them (Thank goodness we no longer have to fax or scan them). There were four or five high paying shops for which they said they did not receive the CPIs. I faxed them again. In some cases I faxed three copies of the CPI. They still claimed they were not getting them. Finally, they booted me because they had not received the CPIs.

They were nice enough to pay me for the shops anyway.

About a year later, I bought a new printer, and this time I made sure I bought one with a scanner. I contacted Market Force and told them that the problem with faxing the CPIs was now gone because I had a scanner. I asked if they would consider putting me back in their database, and they did!

I never did find out what happened to the faxed CPIs. They just disappeared into cyberspace I guess.

My husband and I both work for Market Force and we haven't gotten the boot...yet. I'm expecting it to happen, based on these responses. Not a big deal. Hubby doesn't do any of the "arch" shops and recently his vitamin store audit got rejected. He's not too happy with them at the moment

Where is Blanka when you need him? LOLOL...or all of those wonderful recipes for diversion? I just found his thread from last year in which he rants getting shops rejected from three companies. It's a good comedy.

Almost from the very beginning MarketForce has been the biggest revenue slice of my MSC income pie. In some months as much as 35% of my revenue comes from this one company. Loosing MarketForce would be crippling to me. If they every pulled the rug out from me I would in all liklihood close up shop completely. I guess we all have had a fall out with at least one MSC, for me it was Confero (don't get me started on that topic).

I have read and have experienced all of te frustrations others have posted about MarketForce with lower initial pay rates, etc. but I got to meet with Brad Christian at the Atlanta IMSC Conference and found a top executive who was willing to listen and who made a very positive impression with me.

Every so often I do manage to snag some assignments with MF that have decent bonuses and I have learned to let the hedgehog burgers sit on the available list till mid month when they start paying $10 a visit.

For now, I am happy to have them as a client.

BigEdUSA....if I were you, I would look into other companies to add to your income because someday...MF will can you!

I was let go by MF about 3 years ago. I was told that I was either too hard or too easy when evaluating an unspecified client, and that security prevented them from telling me any more than that. I have been better off without them both in terms of total dollars of shops and average dollar per shop in each year since they dumped me. I almost wish they had done it sooner, but I did get a lot of experience shopping for them.

Apparently you and your daughter are working for MF and possibly you both have the same phone number listed. This is the reason. It had happened to me. All you have to do it to call them, speak with a Supervisor and explain the situation.

You and the other person in your household working for MF should have totally separated phone numbers. Then this problem will not happen again.

Market Force is so far in my opinion the best company to work with. I have been doing assignments for them (both portals) for a long time and I just love them.

They are always cordial and professional. I have had some issues like the one you had, and some others, with assignments, reports, etc. Always they resolved in a professional, cordial way.

So far they are my favorite company. They pay on time, they have direct deposit, they are nice, professional, cordial and I have nothing to complain about them.

myst4au Wrote:
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> security prevented them from telling me any more
> than that.



All variations of this reasoning are just beyond ridiculous, and super aggravating.

Like when I was interviewing for a 911 call taker job. I had to go through some type of intensive interrogation with a retired cop, which was almost half psych test. I was told I didn't get the job because I didn't pass that part, but they couldn't tell me why because of confidentiality. It's *my* information... so... huh?

Although I think I know what it was... the cop was trying to see if I could handle the stress of the job, and when I teared up a little remembering the accident where my car blew up right after I got out of it, with my two Collies still inside, so I watched my dogs die in a giant fireball right in front of me... he pursued this quite a bit. So I think they decided I couldn't handle the stress of the job. Thing is... I routinely handle *other*people's stress just fine, and people often lean on me for support in stressful times. Reliving my own horror is another story.

I have worked for them for 3 years. Last year they cancelled all my shops for THE fast food burger place around. When I asked "Why", they never gave me an answer and I asked several times.

Bunch of schlops they are. So many shoppers will tell others what they do and eventually all of this will come back to them.