To my knowledge, I've never been blocked or deactivated. Perhaps I may be low-balling, but I have never had an "Make an Offer" declined. I have two other "day jobs" so it is not convenient for me to answer the phone when a scheduler calls, nor have I returned a call when they leave a message. Sometimes I am unable to access a shop because it's been locked; I suspect it's locked because they are contacting others to see if they will take the job. However, if I look at the board at 2 am, it's rarely locked.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/04/2019 04:42AM by lgo1957.

@lgo1957 wrote:

To my knowledge, I've never been blocked or deactivated.

I've been deactivated three times, I think? They always reactivate me.
I don't know that I have ever been blocked? I used to make lots of offers, but not so much lately. I have been busy with other things. Plus, I cannot eat any more Chinese Fast Food.

@bgriffin wrote:

@ceasesmith wrote:

bgriffin, thanks so much for the kind words. I'm really glad there's a need for us low quality mystery shoppers!

That wasn't what I said at all but if you wanna take it that way.....

On a skill level of 1-10 MF shops are a 1-2. They are the easiest shops. Let's say there are 1,000,000 active shoppers in the world. There may be 5,000 skill level 10. You could be a skill level 10. I have no idea. But the fact of the matter is all 1,000,000 shoppers would be at skill level 1. So they can afford to be difficult. Their shopper pool is LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE SHOPPER. They're not Coyle, whose shopper pool is the 5,000 shoppers at skill level 10.

They may have 1 million shoppers, but they are not all in the same area. In my area, I've seen the same shop posted for over a month. I now hold out for the bonus on even the simple shops, because they don't have that many shoppers in my area.

985,313 of that million live where I shop.

I got blocked from certain clients because I made too much money off of them. That isn't the reason they gave me but I'm quite sure it's the reason. That's the thanks I get for taking off at a moments notice to do shops in the middle of nowhere.
I hope you find an alternative stream of income Cease. There has to be something.

@ceasesmith wrote:

No shop is "easy" if you drive 7 hours to get there.

I do not even aspire to Coyle; my lack of tech ability precludes that.

Not to mention the fact that I don't have a credit card.

I get what you are saying, but bgriffin is right on the money. Nearly all the MF shops are so easy grade schoolers could do them and could do the reports with almost no writing skills. That's why MF doesn't value it's shoppers very highly - people sign up every day and anyone can do the shops. Those who aren't successful by MF standards are dropped and others quickly take their place. If you drive 7 hours to do a shop, you are being paid the bonus for driving 7 hours to do the shop. The additional drive, and the ensuing bonus, does not make the shop itself harder. The drive and time spent driving are what's hard. The limited number of shoppers in the remote areas you have been shopping should ensure that you are not blocked for very long, assuming a lot of new shoppers have not signed up in those remote areas.

And I'm not sure a lack of tech ability would be a problem in doing Coyle shops. You write well and have an excellent, very ordered way of looking at things and explaining. This would be a requirement for successful Coyle shops. I actually am more perturbed by the tech issues I run into with MF than with some of the MSCs with more detailed requirements and "harder" shops. I would bet that anyone who has enough technical skills to do a MF shop could do a Coyle shop. The difference is in the requirement for writing skills and ability to manage a more complicated shop scenario.

Thanks for the kind words, rofl.

I think I did sign up with Coyle and several other "upper tier" companies; they accepted my writing sample without a quiver. Frankly, I just don't have the financial resources to complete any of their shops.

I guess I've never done a "difficult" or "hard" shop. Some shops are physically difficult for me (I hate the big box stores; it's so hard to walk from one end of the store to the other!). The ones I find to be difficult are where the guidelines are not clear. I've done the testing center (boring!), home improvement stores, "white glove" hotel inspections, cosmetics, gas stations, and and zillions (LOL!) of fast food shops, grocery stores, retail, purchase & return (not a joy), and probably some others. I have done a couple "integrity" shops; didn't like them much. I've done a couple of restaurants, nothing high end. They were all "easy" shops. I probably overthink them, and work too hard on them.

At one point, I did aspire to hotel stays, resorts, and cruises. That was before I got injured at work (May, 2015) and lost all my financial assets.

Last week, I drove over 1000 miles in two days to complete 7 shops; got home about 8 PM on day 2, got up at 2 AM, submitted my reports, and hit the road for another 700 mile route.

I didn't make enough on either route to make them worthwhile.

Two months ago, I could have called any of my schedulers at MF and picked up anywhere from $400 to $700 in MF shops. I would just call and say "I'm in Concordia, KS -- you got anything within a hundred miles of here? Oh, yeah? What does that pay? OK, I'll take it -- what else you got in eastern Nebraska? Oh, good, yes, I'll do the fast food, the hardware store, and all 5 gas stations. Thank you! "

It was a win-win -- they got shops done they really needed done, and I made money.

I guess now this IS a rant, LOL!

I'm just so tired......

Look up Ticket to Work Program for your area. You may be able to transition into something that doesn't require you to drive 1000's of miles a week. Keep your options open, said the Lazy Lioness/Internet Forager.

And to anyone out there thinking about doing cust svc type phone support, but afraid to because of tech fear - stop. It is common for companies to offer remote assistance. You can be sitting at your computer and in a few easy clicks (with your permission) they can see your screen, point to what you should be looking at, and walk you through what you need to do. Remote Assistance. You can do it.

I think the key here is assuming they “need” all of these rural locations shopped. Maybe they don’t. We don’t know the contracts MF has with their clients. If they only need a certain percentage of locations shopped, it would make financial sense for them to skip the ultra-rural spots where they need to fork over high incentives to get shoppers out there.

It sounds to me like their current business model doesn’t require all of those locations shopped.

Some clients have "quotas", for sure. Sometimes, halfway through the month, I'd get an e-mail telling me all my remaining XYZ shops were canceled; the quota for the month was met already.

But when a shop stays on the board, and your fellow shoppers call you and tell you MF just called them with an outrageous shop offer (much, much higher than my make-an-offer which was declined), you can pretty much say to yourself, yep, they needed that one shopped.

Me too. I am blocked from schedulers. I have not had a call in 2 months. Except for the last 2 day of the month for something that they can’t get done. I have been having pretty good luck making offers though.

Then I don't think you're blocked -- the schedulers (even the overseas ones) are NOT allowed to offer me shops. Not even on the last two days of the month, when they are desperate.

Can you just change your number (Google voice) and call a scheduler?

@gocrazy4801 wrote:

Me too. I am blocked from schedulers. I have not had a call in 2 months. Except for the last 2 day of the month for something that they can’t get done. I have been having pretty good luck making offers though.

Me either, and I have been working on my Tagalog with my co-workers. Darn it.
ETA: I am testing the make an offer system by bidding $1 over the set fee. I'm wondering if I got too many bonuses?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/10/2019 12:50AM by SoCalMama.

No, because the first thing they ask you is your shopper ID, which is a unique number to each of us.

@eyelove2shop wrote:

Can you just change your number (Google voice) and call a scheduler?

SCM, are you saying you are also blocked?

@ceasesmith wrote:

SCM, are you saying you are also blocked?

I don't know. It's a little experiment. They allow me to self-assign and I don't recall the last "make an offer" that they accepted. I would say that I am, since the fee is $10 and I offered $11.
I just saw this message:
The Make An Offer was declined.
You can accept the current price or decline the shop.

What a waste of some beautiful Tagalog! I'm going back to learning Italian then.

ETA: I am going to decline it. It's 3 miles from my house, and the food would mostly go into the trash anyway.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/10/2019 02:23AM by SoCalMama.

OK new update. Not blocked. Now I have to do a drive thru for a place that I can't stand. Oh well. At least I know that I can still "make an offer".

@SoCalMama

I'm in the midst of an experiment with a MF shop myself, fellow science person.

1. Email received from MF with offered price for shop. Saved.

2. Went online and applied for said shop with MAO to match proposed fee. Declined.

3. Replied to email from (1) accepting offer. Waiting for response.

4. Shop still on board.

I'll update when all data has been compiled. I'll crack their code, or die trying.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/14/2019 02:18AM by nslinhar.

Just to clarify, Market Stat is a different company from MarketForce. And, Market Stat does now pay via a digital email check, so that email you received is probably the real deal and you should go get your $5.

@JZexy wrote:

I received this scary scam!!! $5 isn’t too much of a clickbait for the gullible...
Be Safe!
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Market Stat, LLC <support@checkbook.io>
Date: Sun, Aug 25, 2019 at 12:30 PM
Subject: Reminder: Market Stat, LLC has sent a Digital Check
To: <jlzinck3@gmail.com>




Market Stat, LLC sent you a check



Click here to deposit or print this check
Please do not print or take pictures of this email. The image it shows is incomplete and does not contain all the information to cash this check. Click on the blue button above to deposit this check.

If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact our account manager at mschneider@checkbook.io



Market Stat, LLC

7500 College Blvd, 5th Floor

Overland Park, KS 66210

www.marketstat.com

P: 888.515.STAT

Email: accounting@marketstat.com

This email was sent to you via Checkbook.io
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@nslinhar wrote:

@SoCalMama

I'm in the midst of an experiment with a MF shop myself, fellow science person.

1. Email received from MF with offered price for shop. Saved.

2. Went online and applied for said shop with MAO to match proposed fee. Declined.

3. Replied to email from (1) accepting offer. Waiting for response.

4. Shop still on board.

I'll update when all data has been compiled. I'll crack their code, or die trying.

I'm afraid I'll die if I eat that food. Of all of the shops to get approved .... I might go at lunch. I have a co-worker who is trying to gain weight. He can't eat fast enough. He has the metabolism of a rat on meth. The other day I brought him a burger and American Chinese food.

"He has the metabolism of a rat on meth." Me too. I almost spewed beer out of my nose when I read that.

FYI not a food shop. Retail.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/14/2019 12:37PM by nslinhar.

If you got the shop through "make an offer", that doesn't tell you if you are blocked.

If a scheduler called you about the shop, or you called a scheduler and they scheduled it, then you are NOT blocked.

I am beginning to wonder if being blocked from schedulers (which means we cannot negotiate fees), is treating us more like EMPLOYEES than INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS.

Negotiating our fees is, to me, one of the definitions of being an independent contractor.

I am absolutely stinking SURE that MF management is not working for minimum wage -- or even less.

@SoCalMama wrote:

OK new update. Not blocked. Now I have to do a drive thru for a place that I can't stand. Oh well. At least I know that I can still "make an offer".

lol - let me know where to send flowers.

@nslinhar wrote:

or die trying.

Yeah, I gave up after they accepted my offer to do it at their email price...12 hours later. Still alive and that's the end of the experiment. Pretty sure I didn't crack the code, but you could send flowers to a children's hospital on my behalf.

I have now been contacted by a dozen other shoppers who were all blocked at about the same time I was. We are all struggling.

I'm bumping the thread for other blocked shoppers, who may have missed it, but may see it now.

Feel free to PM me.

? Is the situation that most of the nearby shops are from Market Force? ?

@ceasesmith wrote:

I have now been contacted by a dozen other shoppers who were all blocked at about the same time I was. We are all struggling.

I'm bumping the thread for other blocked shoppers, who may have missed it, but may see it now.

Feel free to PM me.

From the ones I have heard from, they were all route shoppers who shopped mostly for MF.

Several were making much more money monthly than I was.

And they are all over the country, the northeast, the northwest, the midwest, the south, and the southwest -- from Maine to Florida, from North Dakota to Texas, from Washington State to California.

The situation for ME was that MF was the company with the MOST shops within 400 miles of me. Shops from other companies were basically just filler shops on routes. MF provided my "anchor" shops, and enough bonus funds to make routes profitable.

It's moot for me now, since I no longer have a car (it died over a week ago).

I am still getting calls for the gas stations, but they are no longer able to pay enough to make them worth my while, and they do not accept my very reasonable "make an offers" even when they are lower than what they have paid in the past. Things have changed.