@johnb974 wrote:

@shoppingfool wrote:

Done. I forgot about that. Thank you for telling me.

When you do your shops wear a trench coat, dark glasses, gloves and a hat.

LOL LOL LOL!!!

@bgriffin wrote:

The more people that jump ship the merrier. It's filler work for me. I did 6 gas station shops directly off the interstate on my drive today. $150 in added profit. I only grabbed them when I needed to stop and get something to drink or go to the bathroom anyway. I have to have the gas to get home.. Probably added an hour to my drive between the 6. Reports were done driving (interstate, middle of nowhere, nobody within 20 miles of me).

I don't "need" the money. It's just bonus. If they shaft me on the payment I am literally out 1 hour of time. I would have bought all of the exact same items anyway, including the gas.

Well good for you!

@shoppingfool wrote:

Why can't people who are supposed to be professional just follow the rules they agreed to. If you don't like the rules don't sign the ICA and don't shop for the company. Just because no one gets fired for breaking the ICA does not make it moral to agree to not disclose clients and then disclose them.

Yep - they follow their rules and we follow ours. Now, where’s my money?!

No one is breaking the ICA. The customers of the MSC's are posted on their sites. It's PUBLIC information. You only break the ICA if you show your reports to other MSC's.

@johnb974 wrote:

@Fidobaxter wrote:

Hello, I received an email today from them apologizing that my payment is late and they will let me know when it will be processed. Unreal! This was my first time shopping for them! I wanted to start doing shops for them on a regular basis and recently signed up for three more. Well after receiving the email regarding payment status and how they don't know yet when I will be paid, I immediately canceled my upcoming shops with them. I can't work for a place where the first shop I do goes unpaid for an uncertain amount of time. That's B.S.! Especially since I had to shell out a decent amount of money for this one. Sorry but I'm just disappointed.

This has been going on for 6 months now. Before that, they paid on time and no one had a problem with them.

Yeah, it’s like something happened late last year where their payments started getting later and later. They were always good about paying on the 10th-15th at the latest. They must have lost a big contract or something. That is all I can imagine. Hopefully they will make it through this tough time and get back on track. I’m ready for things to get back to normal with them.

@SoCalMama wrote:

@johnb974 wrote:

This has been going on for 6 months now. Before that, they paid on time and no one had a problem with them.

Fake news. They paid after the 20th one time this year. So, this has not been "going on for 6 months now."

Check Date Amount
DD 1/18/2019 $XXX.XX
DD 2/18/2019 $XXX.XX
DD 3/22/2019 $XXX.XX
DD 4/17/2019 $XXX.XX
DD 5/20/2019 $XXX.XX

Here's 2018:
DD 1/12/2018 $XXX.XX
DD 2/12/2018 $XXX.XX
DD 3/12/2018 $XXX.XX
DD 4/11/2018 $XXX.XX
DD 5/10/2018 $XXX.XX
DD 6/15/2018 $XXX.XX
DD 7/12/2018 $XXX.XX
DD 8/10/2018 $XXX.XX
DD 9/13/2018 $XXX.XX
DD 10/10/2018 $XXX.XX
DD 11/12/2018 $XXX.XX
DD 12/14/2018 $XXX.XX

Geez - look at the difference in payment dates. 2018 = 10th-12th was typical; 2019 = 17th was the earliest! Usually 18th-22nd. That’s a big difference!

@johnb974 wrote:

It's no mystery if the MSC displays their client list. They are making that information PUBLIC. It's not a secret. All they are asking is you don't reveal your information or forms to another company.

That is not what the MF disclosure agreement says.

“Finally, you agree not to disclose the names of MFI's clients, the location of the assignments, or any information gathered during an assignment to anyone other than representatives of MFI.”

"“Finally, you agree not to disclose the names of MFI's clients" those names are PUBLIC information on the MSC sites.

@CAGB33 wrote:

“I did 6 gas station shops directly off the interstate on my drive today.”

All in one day! Whoa - that is a lot of miles in one day! Had to be 700 miles.

Exactly 700. Courtyard Flagstaff to Holiday Inn Express Shamrock.

At the risk of incurring the moderator's wrath, John, you are misleading anyone here who may be new at this.

Any newbies following this thread, please ignore Johnb974 mistaken, erroneous, and misleading statements.

As the saying goes, better to keep quiet and let people think you are a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.

The ICA binds US - it's an "Independent Contractor Agreement".

@ceasesmith wrote:

At the risk of incurring the moderator's wrath, John, you are misleading anyone here who may be new at this.

Any newbies following this thread, please ignore Johnb974 mistaken, erroneous, and misleading statements.

As the saying goes, better to keep quiet and let people think you are a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.

The ICA binds US - it's an "Independent Contractor Agreement".

WOW, talk about threatening others who don't follow your rules. I stated the legal facts. MSC customers are public information. You can do whatever you want.

Hopefully we'll get paid within a week.

I'm sorry if you interpret my words as threatening.

6/21: 'Our management team has been investigating what went wrong. They will let us know as soon as they know what day the deposits will be made. And as soon as we know, we will post a Shopper Message on the website so please continue to check that.'

We are hopeful we will have a date for you before the close of business today; however, if not, our Supervisor will be monitoring the communications all weekend in order to get the word out to all of you.

6/22: 'We expect to be able to clear this issue and begin the payment process early next week.'

No date was given with latest message!

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/2019 08:57PM by calsim11.

Pity we have to depend on hope, especially when MF fees are at slave labor levels. I received a call from a scheduler on Friday, hoping I'd take a job. I asked about being paid and she told me she just received a direct deposit payment and for me to keep checking my bank. When they start blatantly LYING, you know the worst is still to come.

Why don't you put your money where your mouth is and talk about the clients of the MSC at discussion in this thread? Because you know it's against forum rules? That makes your argument rather silly. If it's okay to do it then go ahead.

@johnb974 wrote:

No one is breaking the ICA. The customers of the MSC's are posted on their sites. It's PUBLIC information. You only break the ICA if you show your reports to other MSC's.

Oh, but every scheduler I've talked to at Market Force are EMPLOYEES. They get paid weekly (IIRC), by DD. Absolutely totally different than paying vendors (which is what we are). Remember, the scheduler may not realize we are different than employees, either.

@batnat wrote:

Pity we have to depend on hope, especially when MF fees are at slave labor levels. I received a call from a scheduler on Friday, hoping I'd take a job. I asked about being paid and she told me she just received a direct deposit payment and for me to keep checking my bank. When they start blatantly LYING, you know the worst is still to come.

I wonder if mystery shoppers in Canada or rest advanced world received their pay. The US has LEAST worker rights, lowest minimum wage and weakest unions, so corporations NOT worried about screwing us. Anyone here out of US?

Unions, minimum wage, and worker rights do NOT apply to us. We are not employees.

We are merely vendors, supplying a product to the MSC.

This will all depend on how the new laws affect Independent Contractors.

I am from Canada and no pay yet either I get direct deposit and did about $100 worth of pay last month. I might have to find another msc to grab a bite from, their payment schedule is too volatile.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/2019 03:33PM by Mysteriousways.

Agreed. We are independent contractors. We do not work for the MSCs. As such, we can choose to continue to work with certain MSCs or simply walk away.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/2019 08:48PM by beaker1214.

The clients of the MSCs are not listed on the home pages of their websites. You have to join the MSC, submit an ID and password , and sign some form of an ICA which does prohibit revealing clients, reports, procedures, etc. When you sign in, after being accepted, you can see what clients you will shop for.

Google Market Force and you'll see a list of their customers.

@johnb974 wrote:

Google Market Force and you'll see a list of their customers.

Maybe you should google confidentiality agreement.

@Forum Moderator wrote:

Numerous posts removed as they were inappropriate and/or personally insulting.

Regarding the assertion made, this must be substantiated by a credible source. Otherwise, every post quoting or referencing the, as of yet, unfounded assertion will be removed. You are encouraged to edit your posts. Action will be taken, otherwise.

Hmmm... Just for the record, if I happen to post something what if I'm the source? I actually have been doing this for almost 20 years, I do have private clients, and I've rather more often than I'll ever publicly admit been the one who shops the shoppers, busts the liars, and told off MSC owners for lying to their clients....

.... I have people who depend on me to discretely dig up the dirt and expose the baloney going on out there. Here's hoping that the cold hard facts and the blunt truth is tolerable around here. And just in case somebody ever thinks I'm guilty of violating any ICA, sorry, if a business or principal in the business was my client before whatever MSC ever existed, they are within their rights to protect their business interest's by doing what it takes to find and deal with the truth. I did swear to uphold and defend twice, after all.

Yours truly,

Independent Credible Source in my own right.... According to my clients, anyway.

All I can say is, you shop your way, I'll shop my way. We're here to make money.

@batnat wrote:

Pity we have to depend on hope, especially when MF fees are at slave labor levels. I received a call from a scheduler on Friday, hoping I'd take a job. I asked about being paid and she told me she just received a direct deposit payment and for me to keep checking my bank. When they start blatantly LYING, you know the worst is still to come.

They do not call me, I do not call them, and wouldn't it be freaking interesting if any private clients I have were my customers before they even existed? Seriously, if you owned a business and contracted with a MSC wouldn't you want to know for a fact exactly what is and is not true?

Fear not, you who depend on hope, eyes are watching, ears are listening, and the fiddler will be paid, the fat lady will sing, cows do not jump over the moon, and little dogs have no interest in such sport as dishes jumping over spoons. Getting results is sometimes time consuming, maybe too much so. For instance, I was recruited something over a year ago by a MSC to help regarding problems a certain client had. Bluntly put, the MSC and my efforts were and are being literally ignored by the client, and after a call from client Corp. HQ I bluntly told 'em that I was not interested in wasting my time when nothing improved. The MSC has known this from inception, my patience was and is at an end, and I've told both that I'm the expert and will not waste my time if results are not forthcoming. What next is up in the air.

There, I've hinted regarding private clients I've had for decade(s), said what I do, and while I'm happy to help a MSC with a difficult client, or a client with a difficult MSC, or all sorts of stuff, I'll not waste my time spinning wheels and accomplishing nothing.

Let's all be polite, truthful, and helpful, I'm sure our moderator would like that. As per getting paid by so and so, I've dropped enough hints already, and suggested replacement ideas for consideration with board member(s) and counsel. Of course, I make no decisions at the level required, I only provide the data.

So sorry I can't flesh out the details, but then, so many people like to hide in shadows and think they can get away with stuff they should not even consider. Oops, may not be too smooth a move if certain eyes are watching and ears are listening!

Chin up, folks, somehow I think things will get better, or else, they'll be made better.

Independent Credible Source

Serious mental illness here.

Every post is like that. Sad.