Well, after 5 years of 30+ shops a month, I've received the well-known and highly feared AXE...

Anyone know a MSC who has the kind of shop volume MF has? I'm already shopping for over a dozen other companies, but don't make much more than $200/mo with any of them...going to really miss that $800-1000/mo from MF...it would be great if I could find 1 or 2 other MSCs to sign up with to replace that chunk of my income!

The alternative would be finding a "real" job (ACK!!)...

The shops fluctuate by region. Your going to have to add dozens of more companies. Try jobslinger

Without doing an analysis of the MSCs for which you are a current member, IMHO, only shopping for "a dozen other companies" is your problem and maybe the reason why you've relied so heavily on MF. This might actually be your lucky day because you are being forced to rethink your business strategy.

If you are serious about mystery shopping, you simply must sign up for a minimum of 100 MSCs. You will be introduced to a whole new world. Spend a couple of days perusing the "Official List of MSCs" and the corresponding discussions. Then spend the rest of the week signing up with as many MSCs as you can.

(heart)
PS
Have you thought about video shopping?

It was just your time, it comes to all of us eventually. You need to scroll down this page to the 'official list of companies' and sign up for every one of them. You should be able to replace that income fairly easily.

Sorry that happened - what a pain - especially in the pocketbook.

I often feel like I'm the only person who knows about "your" and "you're." Not everyone finishes middle school, I guess!

@mystery2u wrote:

Well, after 5 years of 30+ shops a month, I've received the well-known and highly feared AXE...

Anyone know a MSC who has the kind of shop volume MF has? I'm already shopping for over a dozen other companies, but don't make much more than $200/mo with any of them...going to really miss that $800-1000/mo from MF...it would be great if I could find 1 or 2 other MSCs to sign up with to replace that chunk of my income!

The alternative would be finding a "real" job (ACK!!)...

That will be a sad day for me. I left them last fall and came back a couple of months ago. Even got my theater trailer check sidekick signed up with them now. We live too far apart to invade each others space, though.

Everyone can suggest signing up for 100s of other companies, but most probably don't have anywhere near enough volume for the low sweat output to match that. I know lots of MSCs don't operate in Houston, so why bother?

P.S. You think "your" and "you're" is bad? I guess so, until you find enough apostrophes being abused with "its" and "it's" being misused and the occasional "go's" (goes) and "make's".

Lord help the Interwebz. Heh.

@mystery2u wrote:

I often feel like I'm the only person who knows about "your" and "you're." Not everyone finishes middle school, I guess!

Sort of like separating sentences with an ellipsis instead of using a period and capitalizing the first letter of the next sentence's first word?
Or criticizing someone's grammar instead of thanking them for their attempt to be helpful?

@mystery2u wrote:

I often feel like I'm the only person who knows about "your" and "you're." Not everyone finishes middle school, I guess!

Well, if you feel like you are the only person who knows the difference, then you must have a very exalted opinion of yourself. Since Market Force uses sophisticated tools to detect bias, I think that they may have detected bias in your reports, for you have clearly displayed a bias in your comment, probably without even knowing it.

I just received the "Congratulations on performing 250 shops" e-mail. I fear my days will be numbered as well.

Congratulations on finishing middle school and finding out the difference between your and you're. That advice to sign up with more companies was spot on and I don't know why you chose to pick at grammar instead of just saying thank you very much. Good grammar is nice as spice but it won't get you as much in this business as a kind spirit and a grateful heart. Some of us didn't have the benefit of a good formal education and some of us don't give a rat. Takes all kinds.

@mystery2u wrote:

I often feel like I'm the only person who knows about "your" and "you're." Not everyone finishes middle school, I guess!

And, thanks to some phone and computers (or should I say computer's?) auto-complete someone could know the correct grammar and still send out something that's misspelled.

Wow, I guess I'm the ONLY person who has EVER gotten a note from a MSC editor about using proper grammar! In my experience, MSCs require perfect spelling and grammar...I guess I must be the only one who shops for those companies...either that, or you all must be English majors (except for isaiah58) and never make any grammar errors at all! Congrats on that!

P.S. Almost every thread I've read on this site inSISTS you MUST sign up for 100 MSCs. I don't know how that is helpful information (it's certainly not new information!).

Have a great weekend everyone! Go see Avengers (if you haven't already)!

Oh, and for those who asked (thanks for the PMs!) I live in one of the 3 largest cities in the US. Thanks to that (and the multiple companies I shop for) I was doing as many as 80 shops a month, easily, and many of those were within biking/walking distance. Unfortunately, about 30 of those were from MF...

And, I was "fired" because while eating, I placed my drink cup on the tray with my receipt, and the "5" of "6:45" was blurred. I have learned from this experience that if your receipt says "6:4?" then the company has NO idea of when you were there...

Word to the wise: guard your receipts like GOLD! They may mean your career with the company you are shopping for!!!

Have a great weekend!! Learn from my humble mistake!

I saw new The Avengers movie and it was just okay. Too long with too many dead spaces. The romantic thing brought the movie down.

MysteryRU - I hear ya pal, I hear ya.

Some days it is very hard to fight back the urge to correct all the spelling errors that flood the forums and Facebook (most of which are painfully simple words) but posters get severely defensive about it with excuses like "this isn't a report, I shouldn't have to bother" , "...nobody really cares don't make a big deal about it".

I cringe when I see people use the word "heal" to mean a part of their foot - or "waste "when they mean "waist" ... c'mon now.

I see a lot of spelling and grammar errors, sometimes from those who often correct the mistakes of others (that usually makes me chuckle the most!) I sometimes make errors because my tablet drops words or refuses to allow certain words....and I don't spend as much time proofreading here as I do when I'm completing a report for which I will be paid.

The only time it really bothers me too much is when a poster writes a complaint that his reports are unfairly graded, using no capitalization, run-on sentences, incomplete sentences, and incorrect pronouns in his post. And it's a short post! He "KNOWS" his reports are perfect because he has spell checker......yeah, right. Many people don't realize that spell checker only corrects words spelled incorrectly, but does not recognize a correctly-spelled word used incorrectly.


edited because even though I previewed this before posting, either I did a bad proofread or the computer dropped a word.......hmmmm.......this must be somebody else's fault......

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/2015 01:44PM by AustinMom.

Hello,
I joined Market Force last month and am unfamiliar with them. Can someone please let me know what the Market Force AXE is and how to avoid it?

The AXE refers to being deactivated by MF. You probably have several hundred shops ahead of you before you even stand a chance of being deactiviated.

Here is another thread to look at: [www.mysteryshopforum.com]

In that thread, someone reported having recently hit 250 shops, and then deactivated. I got over 750 a few years ago, and then deactivated after a commendationb from MF. Some people on this Forum report living a charmed life where MF keeps them forever.

My advice to you is that you should not worry about it. If and when your time comes, remember that there is life after MF.

Oh my....is this normal that you are dismissed after doing too many shops?

Based upon posts on this forum, this seems to be standard operating procedure for MF. IMHO, the only real question is when. Still, I recommend people MF to people who want to get started doing mystery shopping. The shops are plentiful and generally easy. Definitely good for training. I also tell them about this forum.

@COFFEEJAN wrote:

Oh my....is this normal that you are dismissed after doing too many shops?

I just hit 750, including 70 just last month. This is the first I've heard of getting deactivated after "x" number of shops.

I've had plenty of receipt issues, and in fact yesterday had to ask for a report to be reopened because I entered the wrong information (two shops at same chain in one day, got the info backwards). I've had an editor I write excellent reports, so maybe that's why I'm still around.

I don't think you need to worry, bluejacket. I've been shopping for them since 2008 and have not yet been deactivated, so if there is deactivation after "x" number of shops, clearly that number is far higher a few thousand. I think there are a lot of reasons for deactivation. I'm not convinced that a certain number of shops, by itself, is the determining factor.

We type fast and don't proof read!

I turned 67 last month and no longer get daily e-mails from MF. I checked my notifications and nothing had changed. I still get Premier Notices and phone calls, though. I did not check into it because I am starting to cut back anyway. I thought the timing was interesting though.

I'm fairly new (five months) and am 69. I do a lot for MF and haven't had any problems yet. I plan to stay as long as they want me, then move on.

You may want to go back to your original posting and correct your mistakes before popping off about peoples writing skills?......."Anyone know a MSC who has the kind of shop"

I don't believe the number of shops you do has anything to do with it. I received the axe after 200 + shops but I am pretty sure I know why. My wife joined about two months before I got axed and she was axed at the same time. There are more stories like mine suggesting two shoppers using the same computor to access their website will cause you to be deactivated. To further instill a possibility of fraudulent activity my wife flaked on shop, I recieved a call to do the shop for twice what she had contracred for, I accepted, a week later after putting in a shop I realized I had mixed two locations up, notified them immediatly, during the wait to get a reply back my wife was screening for a visit to check out Mayor (bleep)cheese and friends over the phone and told the scheduler she used to work for a competitor that was the Monarch of Mooby's and thirty minutes later we were both deactivated. so when she told them of her previous employment I was there by biased by association worth anappoint that probably already had a red flag on it due to two users on the same.computer.
So if you add up all the instances in my story then I'm sure any business looking at that would say it's not worth the risk and cut the losses. It was however like some say the best thing that happened to me. I now make more money doing fewer jobs and recieve calls daily from different companies. Market Force was a great training opportunity and I made good money with them. I do not particularly care for their policy pertaining to my cancelation, whatever it is, but they were a good company to make money with. Fast and easy shops with no narrative And local jobs every rotation? Nice.
I would recommend like others have änd sign up for more companies. There is so much more out there besides what they offer that you could not do it all without a Cartel connection and even then you would need that tricky watch that stops time while you still move in it.
That's my take on the matter.

I too shop for MF and have done 150 shops for them and right now I am not picking up shops from them right now. People are taking their gas station shops for 9.00 a pop. Plus paying up to about 6.00 for gas and then a store purchase. I guess they either need the gas or they don't do the math. So I am taking the summer off from them. I liked it when you got pay for the shop and only had to purchase something from the store. But I guess this is one way for the stations to get people to pay for gas LOL. It seems like my car doesn't like the E-10 gas it does funny things when I use their gas. With the normal station I use it doesn't seem to do that. Funny. But it is time for me to move on.

@bunnyshopper2 wrote:

I too shop for MF and have done 150 shops for them and right now I am not picking up shops from them right now. People are taking their gas station shops for 9.00 a pop. Plus paying up to about 6.00 for gas and then a store purchase. I guess they either need the gas or they don't do the math. So I am taking the summer off from them. I liked it when you got pay for the shop and only had to purchase something from the store. But I guess this is one way for the stations to get people to pay for gas LOL. It seems like my car doesn't like the E-10 gas it does funny things when I use their gas. With the normal station I use it doesn't seem to do that. Funny. But it is time for me to move on.

$5 of the purchase is reimbursable though... And depending on the gas station you go to, you can snatch up a Tootsie Roll or a Tootsie Pop for $0.25 or less.

The shops without the photo audit make the gas station shops attractive, with bonus amounts making it even more attractive.