The guidelines clearly state the three items must be from three different departments. Not only are canned soup and canned broth in the same department, they are next to each other in the same aisle. I did this once with produce items. I won't make that mistake again. Brush it off, learn from your mistake and move on.

@loghomelover wrote:

The guidelines clearly state the three items must be from three different departments. Not only are canned soup and canned broth in the same department, they are next to each other in the same aisle. I did this once with produce items. I won't make that mistake again. Brush it off, learn from your mistake and move on.

@loghomelover wrote:

The guidelines clearly state the three items must be from three different departments. Not only are canned soup and canned broth in the same department, they are next to each other in the same aisle. I did this once with produce items. I won't make that mistake again. Brush it off, learn from your mistake and move on.

[/quote]

Exactly, I have had to brush off and move on a couple of times due to my own mistakes.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2016 08:56PM by prince.

@myslady wrote:

........ So when I mark a student down for one wrong answer I do not flunk her for her assignment and give her no credit.

I kind of felt like this when I first started mystery shopping. Really! They aren't going to pay me when I made one silly mistake. What about my gas, my time etc. etc. Surely they could pay me part of it. Surely my one mistake doesn't ruin the whole report.

But I have learned to use it as a learning experience and move on. More than once.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2016 08:55PM by prince.

So did anyone notice anything different on the new website? All I see that is different is they changed the title of selecting new shops to View Available Shops. I just submitted a shop for them and didn't notice anything. Still just 1-3 questions per web page

I re read the email and noticed they said the "corporate" web site. I don't think they meant the shopper website that we all know so well. The corporate site has some interesting items on it including the names of at least two clients.

I am laughing myself sick. The link in my e-mail doesn't work! Just more of the same old, same old.

Yes, I received 2 emails, one for each division. I clicked the link and found that absolutely nothing was different on either site

Well that was not 100% true, my available shops were much fewer with the obvious missing FF account, but that was the same way as it was the day before the email!

Market Force is a horrible company, but in this case it sounds like you might be in error.

I am always happy to see the companies improve the sites and they could be a bit faster but sometimes it is our connection. The 8 hr requirement is tough for me because of my location so I just don't accept them. Because of the rural area I am located in I don't shop for them to often as there are not many of their clients here. Setting that issue aside the have always paid me well & bonuses me often for the shops completed and the one feature they have that I do appreciate is the ability to see past payment history. That is something I wish all MSC would implement. Mystery Shopping we have the choice to Love it or Leave it. Blessings to all and New year

I got the "improvement" email yesterday. I entered a shop today and noticed no change in their super-slow website, except that the old "FC whatever" link in the left menu pane has been changed to a more meaningful "view available shops" link.

I question why MF has so many shoppers and they don't pay very well. Is it because they have so many shops available? Whatever happened to the saying of "work smarter not harder"?

Taking a test and doing a job are not remotely the same thing. If you promised your students to award them some prize for a perfect score on the test and they did not get a perfect score, they would not get the prize, either. It would be up to you to allow then some leeway for special circumstances or not. Why would you expect a company to pay you for a perfect shop when you didn't do it perfectly?

I got the email - checked the site - wow - two shops available. Not like it was a few years ago

@Flash wrote:

Historically their shops indicated reports needed to be in my midnight. Now many of them are within 8 hours.

Historically Market Force has changed their requirements requiring that the shopper be vigilant. Market Force has always been mindful that situations occur that prevent timely reports both on their end and the shopper's end. They have worked with me and because they are impossible to contact and have them reply they get tons of e-mails from shoppers instead of having their tech people send out a general announcement when they have issues.

Unfortunately they changed some fees downward or they added many more observations a shopper must make requiring more time a shopper must shop.
Changes in guidelines are necessary to keep the employees on their toes, but Market Force (AND ALL MSC'S) should HIGHLIGHT CHANGES as human beings miss changes if the shopper has a HABIT OF DOING THE SAME OLD, SAME OLD!

Mystery shopping should not be a game to see if you can avoid paying the shopper and get a free report. I do not think Market Force plays that game.
A Swedish furniture dealer famous for having hundreds of ambiguous questions fails to alert their shoppers of the pitfalls and "gotchas." If you are an EXPERIENCED SHOPPER you know your client and drop them like a HOT POTATO or PLAY THE GAME as you are an INDEPENDENT SHOPPER.

Capitalization was done intentionally to demonstrate the points MSC's and Mystery shoppers SHOULD TAKE NOTE OF instead of preying on newbees and desperate shoppers who will work for $5 and take money out of shopper's pockets. Unfortunately there will be newbies that never read the forum.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE THE MSC'S WRITE BETTER GUIDELINES?
As independent shoppers YOU can choose. Newbies and desperate shoppers can not. Since I try to make my observations and solutions mutually beneficial to shoppers and clients. The MSCS would get a better quality report for their client with fewer invalidations for shoppers if that is their objective.

@minkecantrell49 wrote:

I question why MF has so many shoppers and they don't pay very well. Is it because they have so many shops available? Whatever happened to the saying of "work smarter not harder"?

If you wait out​ for bonuses, then the pay is pretty good.

@sillysister74 wrote:

If you wait out​ for bonuses, then the pay is pretty good.

That depends on where you happen to live. Where I am it appears there are so many shoppers that none of the MC's have issues getting people for the $5 & $6 shops, or the "Free Meal" with no pay shops that don't even cover the required meal cost.

I just entered a shop and it seems as if the server has been upgraded. The dreaded "Loading." screen between report pages was just a blip and the report went in as fast as I could tick the boxes and hit next like it used to be.

Then again, it's the middle of the afternoon, so probably not as many shoppers entering reports at this hour.

I haven't been able to load the MF site on my iPad lately. I used to find it easy and quick to do the reports in the car that way between shops. Works fine on my phone still though. Anyone else having issues?

@minkecantrell49 wrote:

I question why MF has so many shoppers and they don't pay very well. Is it because they have so many shops available? Whatever happened to the saying of "work smarter not harder"?

I work for them few and far between, but I always, always get bonuses when I do or it's otherwise not worth my time.

@Sandman1048 wrote:

Where I am it appears there are so many shoppers that none of the MC's have issues getting people for the $5 & $6 shops, or the "Free Meal" with no pay shops that don't even cover the required meal cost.

The "free meals" that do not cover the cost of the meals are actually "discounts" if you were going there ANYWAY you got a discount if it did not cover the cost of the food. Many companies put surveys on their receipts and you get a free appetizer or something next time you go in if you answer the questions on line. A discounted meal might be better than paying full price.

What burns my butt (beside a fire 3 foot high) is when the food and service was so bad it was like amateur night. Nothing remotely professional occurred. The food was bad, the service was worse and the manager comps your check. Heck! I was not paying for the dinner anyway, the client was! All I got for the experience was abuse and the feeling like I was poisoned. I can remember a few of those experiences. 

I do remember one Mexican restaurant, the name of the restaurant could have been Montezuma's Revenge, where the manager was so embarrassed and apologetic. He admitted his failure to perform. He gave me and several other tables gift certificates to return on a better day when "Murphy's Law" was not being practiced.

The follow up visit was spectacular. I did not reveal the gift card till the end of the visit. Unless they had my picture posted in the kitchen with instructions "If you see this guy fall all over yourself to give this guy an excellent experience", they had no way of knowing I was back for a second look with a gift card on the house.

That restaurant did a 180 degree turn and gave outstanding food and service. I did not see the same manager or server on the second visit. Unfortunately I was not evaluating that follow up as a mystery shop. If I were evaluating it, I could not refer to or compare the previous shop. I did write a complementary letter to the company because that follow-up experience deserved praise.

If managers were entrepreneurial they would give abused shoppers more than just a sweet (comped) dessert to take the bad taste of the experience away. They would give exceptionally abused diners an opportunity to return and experience the restaurant on a "better day". I did NOT change a word of the negative evaluation. I did not mention the gift certificate in the report.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/2016 03:29PM by Piled Hip Deep.

@Piled Hip Deep wrote:

The "free meals" that do not cover the cost of the meals are actually "discounts" if you were going there ANYWAY you got a discount if it did not cover the cost of the food.

I understand what you are saying in this part, how about something like Groupon, 50% or more off and NO reports

On the funny side, the old saying "There is no such thing as a free meal" is so true in this industry. I love the offers for the "Free Meal" shops. How can something you must work in order to get be free? Free would be give me a coupon to get a meal and not require me to do anything for it, now that's a free meal

There's a couple of us who frequently complain about misnomers like a "free" meal. It devalues the service we provide.

Today I noticed quite a change on the website. Past years' payment history not as accessible as it was. And when I went to the PDF to print it out for tax purposes, there is a $3,000+ discrepancy between my records and their records. I keep exquisite records, and I made $9,000+ with MF in calendar 2015...the website shows
less than $6,000. January and February, 2015, payments aren't in the records at all, and several other months are off by hundreds of dollars.

Good thing I keep my own records.

I fear someone else has had MY payments transferred to their records, and are in for quite a shock when they receive their 1099!