This company is full of it. I sent a complaint to them when all of a sudden I couldn't access their shop board. They never responded; the nerve. They didn't even offer me the courtesy of telling me I was no longer a shopper. They did it covertly and didn't pay me for my last shop! When they needed clarification on shops they demand you respond or threaten to not pay you, but if you have a complaint, they ignore you or will un-register you as a shopper. I think we should boycott them. If you have no shoppers, then who will do the work?

BOYCOTT them and tell your fellow shoppers that MFI can shove it

Exchanges such as this and others that I see in this forum are EXACTLY the reasons why I rarely post on any forum anywhere. Just look at the overall tone of many/most contributors, and you see mostly negative thought patterns with no direction. I realize that much of it is because of negative things that this company (or on other forums, other companies) have done or have PERCEIVED TO HAVE DONE to a shopper.

However, the purposes of a forum are two-fold: to air the problem intelligently and to work toward aiding in a resolution. The resolution with MFI is that people that get mistreated should continue to not just accept the uncomfortable "instant drop and no-pay" result, but to spend some time to call the company and do some discussing up the line. Yes, it takes time, but so does resolving any problem. That, unfortunately, is life on this planet with other imperfect human beings.

I actually got involved in this thread because I have not only well over three decades of experience with mystery shopping companies and their procedures, but because I personally know the philosophies of many of the people that made a major part of the company (ShopNChek) what it is today. I have had problems over the years, too, but I worked to resolve them. This applies to ANY company out there on the board, not just MFI, since they all have their little quirks!

I know some companies will temporarily "deactivate" shoppers when they near the $600.00 income for taxes. I do not recall which companies have this policy, is MFI one one these companies?

I have been shopping for them for more than 5 years and got emails thanking me for a great job done, got their bonuses...ect... Then all of a sudden, got suspended, then re-instated after I contacted their supervisor, then after a few more months again got suspended... all for things like, not putting a period after entering the name of sales associate (Question: "enter name of associate" ... answer: "Alex" ), also other "grammatical mistakes"...

too much trouble to continue with Market Force....there are lots of other companies that pay better.

This is a company that hires new schedulers all the time who are over-enthusiastic to prove their detailing abilities to SPOT and weed out the sloppy and dishonest shoppers.

I was "pulled" from MFI (purple portal) when I had a bit of a run-in with a grocery store manager while conducting a DVD merchandising assignment back in 2005. On the exact day of my third anniversary from being on hiatus (the day I was deleted), I magically started getting assignment requests.
I have noticed that their merchandising assignments have been greatly reduced from even 5 years ago by almost half the price.
This past December I tried to get reimbursed for a rather expensive movie visit that took me almost 3 months. I did have to go up a level in order to get that taken care of.
Bottomline, keep your documentation - you can "disappear" at the touch of a button and have very little recourse of getting reimbursed without the paper to back it.
Be kind to others; there is always more to what is going on in their lives than meets the eye!
Lmj

If I decide they are more trouble than they are worth I have more than 200 other companies on my list of companies I am signed up to work with. The point is that they DO have work in my area and I can pick and choose what I am willing to do. I have very few problems or interactions with them. I simply accept the shops I am willing to do, get an email confirmation, get an email reminder, do the shop, upload the receipt and CPI and enter the extraordinarily easy report. On about the 10th of the following month the money is in my bank account. With about 95% of the jobs I do for them I have no personal contact with anyone at MFI and no need for any personal contact on either side of the transaction. I would say that says a whole lot of good things about working for/with them! Where there is contact it is almost always someone offering a bonus to go somewhere and do something for them at a price that is fair. I don't hold my breath waiting for offers and when they do call we are not talking about a $1 or $2 "bonus" to go to the ends of the earth such as some companies seem to think is an attractive offer.

OMG, I work with MF when there is nothing else or if there is a bonus job. So far so good, but I just recently got a check from them for $15, when I did about 8 jobs during the time period the check was for. I sent them an email about a week ago and I am still waiting to here what's up. Maybe my number is up, who knows. I haven't been doing mystery shopping all that long. I am still a newbee. I started about 6 months ago, so I guess I have a lot to learn and its nice to know there is a place to go to vent and learn alot about different companies. I don't mean to sound stupid, but what the heck is a FF? Talk to you soon,Gin

FF is fast food, like the drive through burger joints et al.

Several suggestions. First go to the CPI/Receipt Status Page and make certain that the receipts and CPIs for all of your jobs are marked "Verified". Sometimes there are snafus with those and you may need to upload them again. If your 'missing' shops are there, that is likely to be the reason for non payment.

Then go to the Payment History just to double check that you aren't just missing a check in your records. I have them do direct deposit so I don't have the missing check issue, but it is helpful to know just what they paid for.

Do realize that the payment made in early August (mine shows 8/9) covered work completed in July--completed means that the CPI and receipt were uploaded and verified. If one was rejected, that job would not have been considered 'completed' in July.

WOW they dropped me too. I figured it was because I hadn't shopped for them in a while. One day I just could not log in. Do you think the computer just drops people? I guess I just didnt care!

Has anyone else had trouble evaluating/reporting the pink and grey cell phone stores due to the complexity & mulitude of questions and ensuing software error messages during the reporting process?

I did one of those yesterday and had no problems.

I have a different problem with MFI--they muff about one out of every four faxes I send to them. And of course, they then blame me for not knowing how to correctly send a legible fax. Funny, I have sent business faxes for years and everyone else receives them fine.

Frankly I think MFI hires minimum wage workers from the Atlanta inner city--and they get what they pay for. "Are you sure you be pushing the 'send' button, sir?"

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/19/2010 12:38PM by ShopUntilYouDrop.

That may be true about their hiring practices. Obviously they don't pay high fees to shoppers either and have reports simplistic enough that they can easily be accomplished by virtually anyone who attempts mystery shopping. I certainly have never bothered faxing them anything.

I would always prefer to upload directly into the website and the report. The less paper handling, the better. I am delighted that Sinclair now allows me to upload receipts rather than wait for weeks checking back to see if the emailed receipt ever got credited to the report. I still fax to SI, though they seem to lose about one in twenty receipts--even when it was faxed over with two or three others in the same batch and my fax receipt shows the correct number of pages transmitted.

I fax when I enter the report at work. It's much easier because my work scanner is set to upload to a PDF by default. When I'm at home, I scan & upload. My preference is fax, though. It's easier for me. I agree though about them losing about 20% of my faxes.

I got an email from them last week, on my second email account, asking me to sign up to be a shopper with them. Been there, done that and no thank you. :-)

RJR Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Long time Lurker, new Poster.
> This post is more of a vent than complaint. After
> more than 5 years as a shopper with them, I was
> just removed from their database for a vague and
> generic reason citing an especially casual or
> critical approach as compared to the average
> shopper.
> Mind you, I have successfully performed audits,
> photo shops, revealed and non-revealed mystery
> shops as well as their FF shops. I have often been
> called for help with shops from their schedulers
> and have been told I am one of their better
> shoppers.
> I suspect this removal stems from recent FF shops.
> Looking back at my shopping history from 2005,
> 2006, 2007, etc. to present I can honestly say
> that the majority of shops I performed were
> reported as good, very good and on rare occassions
> excellent. On every shop I clearly offered
> narration to justify my reasons, citing specific
> instances such as radiant smiles, consistent
> bussing of tables, upbeat greetings, attractive
> landscaping, fast service as well as an
> outstanding instance of a crew member offering a
> cup of water to a seeing eye dog on a hot day. For
> over 5 years there has never been a question on
> any of my shops.
> This year (in the last three months) I had to
> report (honestly) three poor shop experiences.
> Again, I clearly justified my reasoning of crew
> member horseplay, a manager screaming at his crew
> and excessive timings for no reason. Each and
> every experience (both good and bad) can certainly
> be backed up and verfied by the video. I find it
> strange that there was never a problem with a
> honest good shop, but all of a sudden I am removed
> for a honest poor shop.
> I am starting to believe that MFI only wants to
> tell the client what the client wants to hear and
> not the truth. So, alas, I join the ranks of
> ex-MFI shoppers.
> Thanks for letting me rant.


Ah Yes! The clients of MFI should understand that they are not getting the truth. The manager's get defensive when the truth be told.

You committed the cardinal sin, The company that rhymes with Micky Mouse (the middle initial is "d" is so big customers go to them without thinking and eat garbage made in less than 2 minutes because the straw burger was previously cooked and was sitting in a warming drawer for who knows how long. When you tell the MFI that this firm was dirty or slow or disorganized you get fired!

I would sooner go to a place that makes the burgers on the grill where you can eat free peanuts while you see the burgers cook in 6 to 8 minutes, and you get a ton of fries. I made the mistake of ordering the large fries, I could have fed four people with an order that large. Both the meat and fries are fresh not previously frozen.

Strangely enough, this firm is also shopped by MFI. I have never had a really bad thing to say about the five burger makers. They have their "Murphy Days" when anything that could go wrong does go wrong including cars crashing through the windows (no diners got hurt). I saw it on the news, How do you report that one? The food was great but a car crashed into the front of the store? WOW!

edited...just not funny enough.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/10/2010 05:47PM by Irene_L.A..

Has anyone else had the following occurence with this company?
I emailed them about it and they told me they could not give me a "personalized response for my situation" ok... why? I ask myself. And they expected shoppers to self monitor, they tell me....and I do this as well.
I uploaded my CPI for a shop I did a few weeks ago and it showed up as verfied shortly after I did so. I login last night to upload another for yesterday's shop and then the previous one shows up as not received?
I am wondering why the CPI went from verified to not received....

I check the receipts every time I sign onto their site because that is so critical to getting paid. I have had them go show up and then not be received or be rejected. I just send back the same darn thing and it gets verified. But their system has obvious glitches as sometimes I am unable to upload my proofs because something is already there and 'verified' even though I ONLY submit after submitting the job.

This thread illustrates the point I made in a thread earlier. The MSP's want the shopper to be honest and report objectively but when you report a negative they get upset and cut you. They want you to compromise your integrity and spray perfume on a pig.

Customers can still identify a pig when they see it and would rather go elsewhere, unless they need a 2 minute straw burger that is kept in a warmer, so they can get back to work.

I will go to the place that takes six to eight minutes to cook the burger fresh in front of you. What a difference and the fries are fresh not frozen also! Unfortunately, the chain is not everywhere like Micky D is. I stopped eating Micky's a long time ago. I stuffed the Micky burgers back in the box and dumped it in the garbage.

ShopNflop Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This thread illustrates the point I made in a
> thread earlier. The MSP's want the shopper to be
> honest and report objectively but when you report
> a negative they get upset and cut you. They want
> you to compromise your integrity and spray perfume
> on a pig.
>
> Customers can still identify a pig when they see
> it and would rather go elsewhere, unless they need
> a 2 minute straw burger that is kept in a warmer,
> so they can get back to work.
>
> I will go to the place that takes six to eight
> minutes to cook the burger fresh in front of you.
> What a difference and the fries are fresh not
> frozen also! Unfortunately, the chain is not
> everywhere like Micky D is. I stopped eating
> Micky's a long time ago. I stuffed the Micky
> burgers back in the box and dumped it in the
> garbage.


i to was deactivated from Marketforce this week, I know it was from a shop I did this weekedn for Micky D's I did not give the 7 to 9 rating I always give them, I have called emailed and tried everything to get ahold of Marketforce, but no one will contact me. I have also received emails regarding "best shopper" bonus shops in the last two weeks, I will keep trying to get a hold of them to see why...

orcamon,
Please remove the name of the client from your post. It is a violation of your ICA to include it.

They contacted me for more info on a grocery store I had done a few weeks later with all kinds of questions about my report. I could tell that some district manager probably got reamed and was trying to weasel out of how horrible the store, the parking lot, the employees and the selection was. I think that they were surprised that not only did I stand by my report, I thanked them for the opportunity to respond as there were not enough characters for the total description. Seriously - this place was so horrible that I knew I was going to get a call that I took covert cell phone pictures and emailed them as well.

I got a call from Market Force not only thanking me for my quick response but all the information and the pictures to back up the report to the client. They actually offered me that shop with a bonus the other day and I refused it - never again; too gross and not worth it at all.