Is Marketforce's Make-an-Offer policy going to back-fire?

I received the MF email whereby they list the criteria they use to decide if they will accept one's offer. So if MF looks at how much I was paid to do the exact same job before to determine if they'll accept my offer for a subsequent shop at that location, doesn't that incentivize me not to take any job at base pay? In other words, if I did a shop for base pay of $5 at a certain location, they will look at how much they paid me previously to decide if my later offer of $10, or whatever, is reasonable. Why would I lock myself into only doing jobs at base pay and never/rarely having higher offers accepted later?

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I hear what you are saying, but this is not a new criteria. This is what they have always used. The only thing that has changed is that they are now telling us they use it.

I seldom use Make An Offer and I paid little attention to their criteria. It really won't affect the offers I make. I will still make my own determination of what something is worth to me and that's what I'll use.

Exactly. It's always been like that. That's specifically why I won't take shops in areas I frequent at base pay. If I'm across the country and want a tasty burger and some crappy fries that'll get thrown away, sure, base pay is fine, the report is easy, but at home? No way.

There are reasons that a body stays in motion
At the moment only demons come to mind

Schedulers at MF have outright said to me "but you did it for $14 last time?" when I have asked for $18. So yeah, you get pegged for being willing to take lowball shops. That is why I try to "aim for the middle" when a schedulers offers/ calls, not too greedy but more than their first offer. I have very very seldom taken online shops at a lower price than I normally would and only because I am in the area any, have a hankerin', etc. And I will be "dad gummed" if those wily schedulers "remind" me of the last time I did it for less. Certain shops I do at the base rate because I really like the food and the shops get gobbled up fast and some shops are pretty much about how much they pay vs. how much I do or do not like the shops.

I thought it was nice that they let us know how it works. Gives us who didn't know a better understanding of the policy to do with as we choose.

That's why I bid so high on the travel shops. The minute they say to me "But you did it last time for $3 less" is the minute I stop answering the phone.

The new policy is not reasonable to shoppers who travel a lot. I might do a shop for MF for their stated rate because I want a free lunch while doing work in that city/town for another MSC. All this is fine, if I am headed that way. But If I am not headed that way, it is a different story.

There IS a job posted on the board in my area with a fee of $12 and reimbursement on it. I got a call today from a scheduler offering me $10 to do the shop. I hung up on him. Before the call came through, I received a Samantha posting for that job for $22, which I passed on because the road is closed between my house and that city, and I would have to drive an addition 10 miles on old back gravel roads at 25 mph, or drive an additional 10-15 miles further to stay on pavement. That just isn't worth the $22... let alone the insult of $10 when the job is posted a $12 on the forum.

I did the same job last month when a scheduler called me last minute, and I did the shop for $40 and as a drive thru.

$10 ... no...
$12... no...
$22... no...

$40... maybe...

The job isn't posted as make an offer, but when it is... I will ask for $40... after all the road is closed.. enough justification for me to leave my parked car in the driveway.

I tend to stack shops in a particular direction, so I may have added something onto a mini-route for $12, but I am not going to go out of my way at that price. I submit whatever is fair for the day and if they don't take it I forget it. It makes me less willing to take the shop at 12 , knowing that I won't get a bid of 25 accepted when they are under the crunch and I am going out of my way. It's their system and they can do what they want, but it doesn't really work for me.

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