Yep. I'm blocked. Not deactivated, just blocked.

Has anyone else here been told they are now blocked from schedulers? We could commiserate.

Yikes that sucks. Good thing you've already started phasing them out

Yes. Still, I'm stunned. I can't say much, because I don't know if MF reads this forum, and I don't want to be deactivated. But I am stunned. I've gone from a "go to" shopper to "don't touch" shopper in one fell swoop. Sucks. I do hope it's not because I have posted here about them. I absolutely 100% understand that we are not to post about them on "public social media", but I haven't really considered the forum as public. I've been very careful to not post anything on, say, Facebook.

Oh, wow cease, that is awful! Do you have any recourse?

Yep, me too. Not overly concerned because wasn't going to do any shops for them till payment issues are resolved. I'm sure they monitor the forum and have always suspected some of the posters to the forum are associated with MF. If they are concerned about the bad press they are getting in the forum then they need to get their act together; otherwise, they will continue to get bad press. They should also understand that should I be contacted to complete a shop for them in the future, MY fee, based on their behavior, will increase drastically.

Blocked how? You can't log in any more? Or you can't negotiate with schedulers for jobs? Please explain. I'm confused. I've heard about the "we can't offer you more shops" email and I've seen shoppers who can log in but the find shops is no longer available, but what is blocked?:

In my case, I can only access the My Shops and My Account features. No access to Find Shops or Home page where shopper messages are posted.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2019 03:34PM by calsim11.

I am having login issues with MF on chrome. If i got to go private mode, I can login. Have you done that? Or what happens if you are login on the app?

I am having trouble with MF for other issues, and I am currently restricted from doing a couple of the clients. I messed up on 2 shops and they restricted me. They admitted in the email, I should be able to be off of the restricted list at some point in time. I suspect sooner rather than later as I can do 2 of their branded "difficult" shops very easily. And they will want them done.

That's weird, I've never seen that where you can log in but can't see any shops. Maybe it's just a glitch? I've only done one shop in the past 2 months with them because there's not much around here, but I've noticed a lot less shops in general, even when I look out of my area.

I am blocked from schedulers.

If you've ever route shopped, you'll realize that it's absolutely 100% impossible to build a route without working relationships with schedulers. (This, however, is based totally on personal experience; those shoppers who knock out 100's of shops a month on multiple routes don't work it the same way I do.)

I am fortunate the lovely, lovely scheduler took the time to talk to me, as she knew it was a waste of her time -- she is not allowed to schedule shops for me, and has 200 shops to fill. And guess what? She cannot fill the hardest 20 without paying some shopper a bonus.

But it won't be me.

But what happened?

What do you mean, what happened?

I think honny is asking why you were blocked. When you talked to the scheduler, did they say why?

@ceasesmith wrote:

What do you mean, what happened?

Ah. It's been a long day. Brain malfunction -- mosquitoes are eating me alive and keeping me from getting a decent sleep.

Evidently, MF is "encouraging" shoppers to not use schedulers, to take the jobs right off the job boards. Which I cannot do, because it means accepting base pay -- which does not even begin to cover the gas to and from, as the nearest MF shop is 45 miles away.

I don't run a charity.

Also, seems this is getting dangerously close to treating me as an employee, rather than as an IC, free to bid on jobs.

This affects "thousands" of shoppers; each shopper affected is flagged to let every scheduler know they cannot schedule shops for that shopper.

Ah. So you're not blocked from taking shops you just can't deal with schedulers.

@bgriffin wrote:

Ah. So you're not blocked from taking shops you just can't deal with schedulers.

Sounds like it, but cs might be de facto "blocked," due to distance issues.

That is insane! I only use schedulers to get my shops. If the website offered decent fees, then shoppers would use it.

Are they trying to phase out the schedulers? If that's the case, you shouldn't be their Guinea pig.

@ceasesmith wrote:

Ah. It's been a long day. Brain malfunction -- mosquitoes are eating me alive and keeping me from getting a decent sleep.

Evidently, MF is "encouraging" shoppers to not use schedulers, to take the jobs right off the job boards. Which I cannot do, because it means accepting base pay -- which does not even begin to cover the gas to and from, as the nearest MF shop is 45 miles away.

I don't run a charity.

Also, seems this is getting dangerously close to treating me as an employee, rather than as an IC, free to bid on jobs.

This affects "thousands" of shoppers; each shopper affected is flagged to let every scheduler know they cannot schedule shops for that shopper.

I have heard for years that if you only did bonuses shops you would eventually get blocked. I would guess that if you picked up a few off the board shops that you were driving by anyway eventually you would get unblocked.

Honny, I only use schedulers, too..

The scheduler believes they are trying to do away entirely with the scheduling department. They also want to cut fees. I feel it's true they want to cut fees, but I am not sure about getting rid of a scheduling department.

I will give the idea of picking up shops "I'm driving right by" some thought. The problems with that, however, are (l) once you've done a shop cheaply, you'll have to fight tooth and nail to get a bonus for that shop and (2), when I build a route, I don't have TIME and energy to do cheap shops. My minimum is $25, and that's for a shop that's fairly quick with an easy report.

Plus, right now I'm really too angry to even consider doing MF a favor -- and taking shops off the board is just that.

cease, you can't go from a minimum of $25 to $6. Like you said, you aren't running a charity. There has to be another way.

My average fee with MF is above $50.

There's only one shop I do for as little as $25, and that's for a different MSC; it's FF, with an easy report.

Well, when they can't fill those shops, they will come around.

Well, what will happen is they will fill a couple, leaving distant "orphan" shops....and I'm only willing to drive 600+ miles if I get ALL the shops in the area....or get $125 each for the orphans. They will no longer pay that. Right now, there's 8; someone will cherry-pick the ones they are closest to, leaving 3 or 4. I will NOT drive that far for 3 or 4 $70 shops. I don't WANT to drive that far for even $125 each for only 3 or 4. And I'm talking 235 miles to the nearest shop, another 70 miles to the next one, 55 to the 3rd....etc., etc, etc.

The shopper they have is in Huron, SD. Look at the miles from Huron, SD to Wall, SD (240 miles), and from where I live to Wall, SD (282 miles). I'm hoping the guy in Huron has sense enough not to take them, either. There's another shopper in Hot Springs, SD, but he doesn't like getting on I-90 to get to those other shops.

Frankly, if they DO call me, I suspect I'll just be too busy to do them any favors. I have over $300 in shops scheduled for tomorrow, and I won't have to drive near that far, and the reports are easier. And the schedulers all know I'm route shopping, and they don't hassle me if I don't get the reports in until the following morning. And if I felt like it, I could make that $375 (plus reimbursements) picking up 3 of those easy, fast food shops and probably add fewer than 10 miles to the route I've already planned.

As long as I can meet my goal of grossing $400-$500 a week without them, well......

Periodically, a new shopper comes along and starts snatching up shops I typically target for well less than what I'd do them for. Inevitably, s/he realizes that it's not a good deal and stops - suddenly just flaking on a handful. Most of the shops then reappear on the job board with a happy bonus or I get contacted by a scheduler desperately needing them done - which translates into a very happy bonus. Of course, I can't blame the MSC for wanting to get them done on the cheap.

It might take a month, but you'll likely get asked to do those shops again.

I never blame a MSC for wanting a shop done as cheaply as possible. Competition is fierce, and companies must control costs "with an iron fist", as someone said over 100 years ago (I think, just before they called out the National Guard or the Army to shoot the striking workers, LOL!).

Face it, if a gas station can use Field Agent to get 2 photos and a short narrative of an interaction with an employee for $6 and pay the Agent in less than 24 hours, why should that gas station pay MF $25 for the exact same results?

Maybe they need to re-write some contracts -- perhaps less than 100% of the locations can be shopped, so that those highly bonused remote locations can just be skipped.

The conflict is that as they must control costs, my costs keep rising; I must remain profitable (as must they), or I just can't do this anymore.

Which means I would have to move, because there are NO jobs here.

Well, this thread makes me feel quite foolish! I had no idea that the MF shops could go for $50! I had not idea that schedulers could pay so much. I once had a scheduler relationship with MF, but that scheduler kept me at a low rate based on what I had agreed to in the past. The benefit was that they called me to do shops about twice a week and kept me busy at places very close to my home. Now I am reading that some of you get paid $50 or more? Wow! I really need to read this forum more often.

Several years ago, they paid much, much higher fees. Shops I did for $125 each then are now at $70.

Several years ago, they lost the "golden arches" contract; my understanding (and I think I read it in Forbes) was this contract was about $2,000,000 annually. For which the salesman who sold the contract received a 20% commission (yes, $400,000 -- we are in the wrong end of the business totally, LOL!!!). And there's no longer a contract with those ooey-gooey cinnamon buns.

Then Sears/KMart declared bankruptcy, listing MF as a (I think) major creditor. Left MF holding the bag, so to speak.

I'm afraid I was quite forceful when I spoke with management. I told them I felt like they kicked me to the curb and spit on me.

Probably didn't help my case any.

Me, who ALWAYS, but ALWAYS advocates for "courtesy, courtesy, professionalism, and more courtesy", yes, ME, actually said that.

@ceasesmith wrote:

Me, who ALWAYS, but ALWAYS advocates for "courtesy, courtesy, professionalism, and more courtesy", yes, ME, actually said that.

Yes, but, depending on our situations, we all have our breaking points, and I guess you reached yours with this particular situation. No one likes to "lose it", but it happens. Now you just have to find other ways or other companies or other solutions to this particular situation.

@calsim11 wrote:

In my case, I can only access the My Shops and My Account features. No access to Find Shops or Home page where shopper messages are posted.

Now your other, critical posts about MF make more sense.

Well, this is ironic. Last night I posted about how I was rooting for this MSC. Today I just cancelled all of my scheduled shops with them and will not be seeking out any in the near future. (And it sounds likely I may end up blocked anyway.)

Why? Because I followed the instructions in one of their e-mails for the "premium fee", which is adding a whopping $2 on top of their normal fee if you accept through the link. Which I did, but the fee didn't get added. When I questioned it, they said "you didn't log into the website BEFORE clicking the link", and "no, we can't correct it, because you did it wrong." I went back to the original e-mail, which literally says that to accept the offer, "just click on the link below." It doesn't say "go to the website, log in, then come back here and click the link."

They're losing a very reliable shopper because they won't pay me the $2 premium that they offered me in the first place. I normally don't react this negatively this quickly, but I don't need this BS.