Shopper Payments
June 22, 2019

Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/2019 01:10AM by bmttinman.

My payment history showed the payment on Friday, January 11 but it's blank now. Nothing was in my account on Friday.

I got the same. Showed a payment on the 11th, now it's gone. It's messing up my other shops. I need that payment for other shops.

I think this is now the second time in a month they've messed up on payments.

Problems, I'd say. I accept shops, then as time approaches to do them I see the shop fee and or reimbursement is cut. Without exception I cancel the shop. Hope somebody out there has the stones to make it expensive to get it done. I currently refuse to accept calls from their Phillipino friends, they told me one thing and switched it up one time too many... I've had discussions with certain clients, for whom I was providing services long before MF even existed, they all know what's happening. If they want to lose a client or clients, fine, it'll happen, no problem. When they victimize one of you, it is observed and reported.

Is Market Force having problems?

Personally, all else being equal, I always play the main chance. So I am gonna say....No, they aren't.

I'm not worried.

@panama18 wrote:

Is Market Force having problems?

Personally, all else being equal, I always play the main chance. So I am gonna say....No, they aren't.

I'm not worried.

Back to back months of late payments, I would say they are having problems.

Per market force website..they pay between 15th-20th, this payment I imagine will be coming by Jan 23rd based on if Jan 18th is accurate when they are sending out payment. I know it sucks to get an email that your paid and then realize nope you werent.. Im just as anxious as all of you..expecting over 100 dollars for December jobs and would really come in handy right now..very little msc jobs here and in between full time work...

As far as getting paid from Market Force, not concerned about that.

I got paid on Oct 10th and November 16th..not sure about December..double checking that.

This is just a guess, but it sounds like something got messed up on the client side which is causing the delay

Copied from their website:

"Please remember that just because you have received your payment one month on the 9th or you think you always have it by the 12th or you believe that the payments have never gone beyond the 10th, the truth is that the payments will go out no later than the 15th-20th of each month. That is the date range you can count on and should budget for. If you happen to get your payment before the 15th-20th, consider it a good thing!"

It's only the 14th. Your payment is not late.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/15/2019 05:25AM by JASFLALMT.

Winter storms recently? You'd be surprised how those things can delay an entire city or region's businesses for days or weeks. I've had mail that was a 2-3 day-er go something like 12 days before.

Maybe people couldn't even get to work?

I hope MFI and their popular fast food client stay around forever! I love that client and MFI's easy report of it!

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/15/2019 08:45PM by shoptastic.

Not that I'm aware of.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/16/2019 06:36PM by iblori.

@johnb974 wrote:

@panama18 wrote:

Is Market Force having problems?

Personally, all else being equal, I always play the main chance. So I am gonna say....No, they aren't.

I'm not worried.

Back to back months of late payments, I would say they are having problems.

Indeed. Let's use common horse sense for a couple seconds:

1) If it cannot be scheduled and kept that way, that's likely either carelessness, laziness, or worse, not enough money. All are not good, like really, when you electric bill comes can you simply pay when and if you want?

2) Of late they have a habit of posting shops for whatever fee and reimbursement. Then they change it (up to now always LOWER) with nary a word, and expect us to do it anyway. I will never let them steal from me.

3) I know a bit from the inside at their call center in the Philippines, sorry no details here, but in the last nearly a year things have went a bit South.

4) They keep having IT problems, often ones that a reasonably knowledgeable 8 year old would not have. Plenty of evidence of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing, but more on a level of individual organs, digits (fingers or toes), sections of the control system (brain) and so forth being interestingly non-communicative.

5) As per the not worried quote, the replacement outfit to serve a certain current client is owned by a certain pal of mine, so at least in that case, you do not need to be worried, unless there's chicanery in your blood, anyway. One end is family, the other end built on a relationship decades long. Think Zarma, Zen and Karma all rolled into one.

@iblori wrote:

Yes, Marketforce has had problems lately! I did a shop at the wrong location and realized it when I went to enter the survey. The restaurant was INSIDE the casino but the guidelines didn't indicate that, so I went to the one outside the casino. The survey wouldn't allow me to answer the restroom question, so I realized my mistake then. I immediately emailed support and was told I could redo the shop. However, in between the time I was told that and the date I was going to re-do the shop, one of their QC people removed it from my assignment listing and invalidated it. I ended up driving 25 miles each way to redo it and went to enter it and couldn't. They would not correct THEIR mistake. I don't do much for them anymore, and I used to grab every assignment I could.......until I realized there are other companies that pay twice what they pay for gas stations and phone stores. I only pick up shops when they call me and negotiate or I make an offer online and they accept it. They no longer pay enough because I'm not a "newbie" anymore!

You realized their mistake, unless you were contracted on the basis of being psychic or the like. We shoppers are not a mass of brain dead flesh mindlessly making them money while we lose ours, after all, tho it seems often that's what certain MSC's wish.

Right! They never even acknowledged the mistake and I'll bet they still don't indicate which restaurant the mystery shopper needs to go to in the guidelines.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/2019 03:56PM by iblori.

I also found it interesting that Certified Field (the "other" MF) now has regular shops, as opposed to just movies. Am I late in knowing this info? I just learned that a couple of weeks ago and now, seeing the info here, I am wondering if there is just some consolidation and/or transition happening.

The end of the month, end of the quarter, end of the year financial reconciliations may be a factor.

Somethings been off with payments since October. I thought maybe they had new payroll employees. Payment is to be made by the 20th, yes, but when they have a pay date of the 11th, then take that down with no explanation after the past few months of payment issues, I worry. I don't do this for fun.

Their rates have dropped again in my area.

@marg704 wrote:

Their rates have dropped again in my area.

Sounds like par for the course, my biggest gripe is when I accept a shop for X fee and Y reimbursement, then go over the details later as I prepare, and one or both numbers are changed, always lower. Bang, it's cancelled, no exceptions. Seriously, hope somebody out there make's 'em pay a princely sum when their Philippino pals call! Don't you just love it when they call and ask you to drive a 40 or so mile round trip for $6 plus insufficient reimbursement?

Shoppers who have signed up for Direct Deposit will receive their money first. Checks will go out one week after the Direct Deposits are made.

the truth is that the payments will go out no later than the 15th-20th of each month. That is the date range you can count on and should budget for.

I've noticed that their payments have been later in the month than in the past for several months now. Been doing shops for them for 15+ years and it makes me wonder when they are always running later and defensive about it if they are having trouble covering payments. Just my theory.

This is the first time I've seen anything "off" with their payments.

I haven't been ms-ing, since taking on a new job, but literally Jan. 2019 is the first month I've personally noticed.

Hoping it's just the crazy winter weather we've had recently. Mid-west storm that knocked everyone's power out maybe? I know FOR SURE I get Market Force calls asking me to take shops from the mid-west (area code). Are they maybe based there?

Or have just some kind of support center there? I know that other place is California that I get calls from. Those two.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/2019 05:28PM by shoptastic.

oh, and hasn't CA had crazy wildfires too?

MFI job board has NEW clients in my area.

So, I doubt that'd be in that much trouble......I hope not lol. I love their popular food client everyone konws. That's one of the few that will bonus. Already craving them, but trying to cut back calories after the holidays still.

I got an email today requiring me to reschedule a shop for their healthy fast food client. First of all, the title of the email was for their grocery client, which majorly threw me off because I don't have a shop scheduled for this client. Secondly, the email indicated that, due to an internal scheduling conflict, the shop needed to be moved up over a month from when it was originally scheduled. I've had mandatory reschedules before but nothing this crazy.

I also received a reschedule date for a shop I don't have and when I checked my job assignments there had not been a change listed for that job. Strange.!

@grannysarms wrote:

I also received a reschedule date for a shop I don't have and when I checked my job assignments there had not been a change listed for that job. Strange.!

If you click reschedule on the fast food job, the list of dates stated will appear. Apparently they told us they had rescheduled but are instead expecting us to go in and manually reschedule ourselves.

I just went in on the reschedule page and rescheduled the job. Thanks

It annoys me when they call for the hedgehog shop and offer me $4 for the shop that's listed on the website for $8.50. More than one scheduler has tried to do that lately.

I haven't noticed any shops suddenly having the fee reduced after I accept it, and the fees seem to be following the usual pattern of going higher the closer we get to the end of the month.

I have noticed that they seem to have lost at least two major clients in the last year (the big blue cell phone company, the furniture rental store).

I feel like the payroll issues (amounts showing early and disappearing, etc) could just as easily be chalked up to a new person or group handling those functions and screwing up. The month that they post a guideline for when payments are going to show up and they miss it entirely, then I'll start worrying.