I completed two cellular phone audits. The second one that I submitted, I accidentally uploaded the same interior photo as the first one. My submission was completely deleted by their system and I did not get paid. I reached out and they justified it. They stated that I should have been more careful. This appears like an unethical practice. Any other company would reach out to get the appropriate photo. No issues. Marketforce can not value their contractors very much. Thoughts?

Ughhhhh. That is so petty. I am sure that editors don't want to encourage carelessness. Still, the end goal should be to get the job done. Unless you're always always always messing up or the shop was submitted way late, there is no reason not to allow a correction.

The problem is that the computer system automatically discarded it before the editors received it. Isn't that what editors are for? To review the report and correct errors and gather additional information. Small mistakes like this happen. Considering I took and had the correct photo, but just had uploaded the wrong one, I should have been able to rectify the issue without problems, and received payment. I should receive payment for my work. Frankly, it seems like Marketforce is trying to circumvent the need for editors, but this at the expense of their contractors.

They are the world's largest MSC. A lot of their stuff is done by computer.
Your mistake is not an issue with their ethics.
I have made mistakes too. Sometimes, they let me fix them, but not always.

Not all companies let you fix mistakes. I know that Intelli-Shop deactivated somebody when she mixed up her toilet photos on a big project.

Define unethical?

You have made several assumptions by the way.

Market Force does warn us about their fraud prevention that is in place, as many other companies also do. We are responsible to provide correct receipts and pictures before submitting reports. We can review the files we attached and correct any mistakes before submitting them. The MSCs have the right to handle improper submissions as they choose.

The same thing literally happened to me the other day except 2 images was uploaded; one correct and one incorrect! I just signed up with them and was so shocked they wouldn’t even give me a chance to edit. Smh.

Not sure I'd consider it unethical. I could see them thinking if the shopper mixed up pictures, could they have mixed up other details in the report.
Hopefully you didn't have to travel too far for this shop. Chalk it up as a lesson, happens to all of us eventually.

Long ago, they allowed corrections. Now they say "Reports cannot be changed after submitting". Period. No exceptions.

That being said, a couple months ago, just because I was bored, I clicked on "show receipts" for each one of my shops. I had never, EVER done that before. To my horror, I discovered they had duplicate receipts for two of my shops.

I sent the HelpDesk a copy of the correct receipt, told them the two shops (ID #s, cities, dates, etc)., and they DID correct it.

I honestly believe that I did NOT submit the receipts in error; I do my reports the day of the shop, and the duplicate receipt from was the LATER shop, a week later.

Now, possibly, if the receipt was duplicated from the earlier shop, it could have been my error; but to duplicate the receipt for the second shop, I would have had to go into the report from a week earlier and submit the receipt a week after the shop was completed and reported.

Absolutely, just not possible.

SoCalmama - It wasn't a significant mistake. This was the simple error of grabbing the wrong photo file from my documents because I labeled it similarly to the other one. If they want to go the automatic route, they could have instead sent out an automated response informing me of the duplicate, and allowing me to submit the correct one. Or is it too much to give your hard-working contractors a chance for revision? Much easier to assume fraudulence and guilt instead.

TereceagIt - sorry to hear it happened to you too. It is shocking. Most mystery shop companies (the quality ones) do not work in this manner. The majority will alert you of any errors that are fixable so you can immediately rectify them.

jGoodwin - I've been working for Marketforce for years now and never have I submitted a duplicate photo until this time. Submitting an incorrect photo in one of the spaces should not be cause for automatic deletion. Not following the guidelines should be. The lesson learned is that Marketforce doesn't value their contractors enough to edit the reports properly with actual human beings. It is easier for them to create faulty algorithms that assume fraudulence and leave honest, good contractors in the dust. It is unethical because I did the work, took all the correct photos, and will not get paid for the work. But I get it, they don't give two craps about me. I didn't travel far for the shop, thank goodness.

It's easy to get hung up on defining "ethical." Sure, they're keeping to their agreement. It's still not the best way for humans to treat each other. Even automated systems are designed by humans for humans so that doesn't let anyone off the hook.

It's not a good practice to reject shops that were done properly. Flagging duplicate photos or reports for review makes sense. It's easy enough to kick them back for corrections. They can even impose a penalty if it's excessive or reject anything not corrected in a reasonable period of time.

I bet whoever designed the system never imaged that a mixup could happen on their end. Automation is infallible? Sure.

@ceasesmith wrote:

I honestly believe that I did NOT submit the receipts in error; I do my reports the day of the shop, and the duplicate receipt from was the LATER shop, a week later.

Now, possibly, if the receipt was duplicated from the earlier shop, it could have been my error; but to duplicate the receipt for the second shop, I would have had to go into the report from a week earlier and submit the receipt a week after the shop was completed and reported.

Absolutely, just not possible.

ceasesmith- Very interesting situation there. It makes you really wonder what type of errors are happening on their end.

I might have been lucky, but also submitted a wrong receipt. I noticed it right away when I saw that my shop was invalid. I could not figure out why and kept on checking and finally figured out I had submitted the wrong receipt. I immediately emailed the help desk and explained the situation and attached the correct receipt and apologized of course since it was my error. They validated the shop and I was paid, after a few more emails since the person who wrote back to me was not the same person who later wrote back to me. But it was resolved..

Just don't work for them again! I think they are being unreasonable.

That side of MF is, quite frankly, junk. They're are awful to work with and treat their shoppers like chum. They also don't care and I am pretty sure take some perverse pleasure in finding ways to make shoppers miserable. Yes, I have been burned by them. Do as little work as you think you can get away with for them and find other companies. Every single other company I have worked for has allowed for corrections since, ya know, that makes for a useable report.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/10/2019 07:54AM by weatherman2111.

When shopping for MF I enter the shop as soon as I do it. Before going on to the next shop.i also check and double check photos.

@adamaimeemom wrote:

When shopping for MF I enter the shop as soon as I do it. Before going on to the next shop.i also check and double check photos.

Some of us don't have that kind of time between shops.

Most of Marketforce shops require less than 10 minutes time to input

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/2019 07:06AM by adamaimeemom.

I shop Marketforce every now and then. I dont mind them that much but I agree with the others. Sign up with other mscs. They pay double for very similar shops.

@adamaimeemom wrote:

Most of Marketforce shops require less than 10 minutes time to input

Maybe the really easy cell phone shops, sure. Others can and do take more time.

I had at least three experiences where they claimed duplicates from different shops. Once they claimed that I included 19 photos from a previous gas station audit. I am not so careless that in addition to the 12+ pictures that are required that I would add another 19 from some other job. The stations had completely different color schemes. The last time I had to call, and repeatedly email them that this time their claim was not possible. I went to a closed location, took three pics, and submitted the report before the next job. Later they claimed I submitted a pic from the 2nd job into the 1st report, and vise versa. So they cancelled them both. I know its their faulty system, but I could only get them to accept the first job since the claim was an impossibility. I could not prove that I did not put pic from #1 into job #2, but I know that I did not. I only do a few jobs now, I don't trust them, and am always afraid of getting screwed. Now I am deleting old photos after each report, and not taking extras. Hopefully that will work better.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/18/2019 07:14PM by Carol R.

Usually their reporting system is rigid. Once the report is submitted, it's difficult to get them to correct or make any change at all.

Same here. I uploaded the same photo by mistake for 2 shops. I attempted to correct and was denied. Usually no problems with MF. It did make me smh. 2 of the shops I did for them were in the WORST neighborhoods. One, the shopkeeper actually keeps the door locked during the day and only lets you in If you look safe. No worried will not self assign those again.

I personally have been treated well by MFI

I always go in and change the name of the picture from what the phone names it to the client and street immediately. That way when i upload the picture i know before i submit it and can delete it and upload the correct photo. Have never had a problem.

I've made a lot of money from MFI. However, I am thrilled to no longer contract jobs with them. In my experience, the managers/QC folks I worked with are unpredictable and, well, mean, for precisely for the type of event you described. The last straw for me was not computer-generated or related. I will spare you the tedious details, but in my case they were incorrect and stuck to their printed word, even though the business had an alternative way of handling signage.

By the way I've done hundreds of burger shops with another MSC, where they require multiple photos. Sometimes I do five or more a day and not once did I upload the wrong photos.

I have two shops done the same way, where I did not get paid. A hardware shop where I put down the wrong time, The latest was a burger shop where I had to get a milk shake and I did not get a drink also.

Seriously? How do you input AND edit a MF shop in 10 min?? They have by far THE WORST website and THE WORST app. It takes me 30-45 min just to move thru the questions, forget adding photos too!

i just got rejected this week for the same thing. They said i uploaded duplicate photos for 2 shops. Of course, I can't argue with them because i can't get back into the report to check for myself. I asked if it was possible to edit, and they said nope. Just out of luck. It totally sucks cos these stations were NOT on my way home, were kind of in a sketchy neighborhood, and one of them really creeped me out. I went way out of my way to waste my time that day. :/