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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/10/2019 07:48PM by kristimullisgmail.com.

You have no recourse to the Department of Labor in your state (and certainly not to the Federal Department of Labor). They deal with employees. We are independent contactors.

I had a gas station evening visit rejected this week for the same reason - reused photo. I have never been to this location at night before. No response to my note to them either.

@kristimullisgmail.com wrote:

I think contacting the department of labor and filing a small claim is in order at this point. It's not the money, it's now a case of you are scamming shoppers who are already paid a pittance, which I didn't mind since it included a free meal. I did the shop perfectly and you still refuse to pay. This is how class action suits get started. Has anyone else had this experience??

Not with MF but rather with another MSC, I once accidentally selected a photo from an earlier shop I had done for them. It was indeed my fault. That company cut me some slack and allowed me to submit the correct photo. I was grateful.

MF used to be a little more forgiving than they are today. They would let you fix your mistake. The problem is that MF takes on virtually any shopper and are the entry point to mystery shopping for most shoppers. There are going to be lots of errors, everything from outright attempts at fraud by shoppers to not fully performing the shop to deciding that 'close enough' is 'good enough'. They do not pay their editors to be babysitters--no MSC does. A few years ago shoppers were put on notice that you get one bite at the report--it is acceptable or it is rejected.

I have never found that MF was out to reject acceptable work to save a few bucks. I have had shops rejected by them from time to time over the years--indeed I have left a client site knowing that I don't have what I need for the report and there is no possibility of fixing it. I have sometimes rescheduled the shop to repeat the following day when perhaps I will be able to get the needed number of interactions or my camera will work or whatever issue it was with the first shop I can get resolved. They don't accept excuses.

If you are 150% certain that you submitted a current photo (for example, this was the first time you ever did the shop so you could not have accidentally sent a photo from a previous shop), they have a shopper advocate I believe (at least they used to have one). Look for why they might have thought your one and only photo, which you submitted, might make them think it was an old one. Was the time stamp on your camera off? Did you load your files onto your computer from your camera and the computer assign a different date/time to the photo?

You have no legal grounds to file an action; you are not an employee.

Did you send the photos to "photos@marketforce.com", or to the helpdesk? They need to go to "Photos".

Also, you are human, and humans make mistakes. The software (I think it's called that) picks up "metadata" from inside the photo. If you were submitting more than one shop on the same day, you MAY have clicked on the wrong photo.

I say that because, although I NEVER make mistakes -- never! -- I did once, somehow, click on the wrong photo. I'm positive, of course, that it was my computer that did that, not me!

Also, I was reviewing my shops on MF one day, and found they had the same receipt attached to two different shops. However, BOTH receipts were from the later shop, which was done a WEEK LATER. I immediately sent a scan of the correct receipt for the earlier shop to every department I could think of -- QC, Photos, Helpdesk. It was so obvious I could not have attached the wrong receipt. How could I possibly submit a shop 1/1/19 with a receipt date of 1/8/19? That would imply, at least, that MF would allow a shopper to report a shop almost a week after the shop completion date. I don't think so!

How in the WORLD MF attached a receipt to a shop a WEEK after the shop was completed and approved is beyond my ken. But they did. And they corrected it, too.

Also, once they have denied a shop, they have a reputation of not allowing corrections or second chances.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/10/2019 11:36PM by ceasesmith.