New agreement

@wrosie - That is an interesting observation, whether or not MF is willing to pay fees less than $50.00, but not a reimbursement without a $50.00, accumulation. Either way, complete disrespect for the shopper's work and honoring the "whole" payment due.

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I interpret that to mean $50 including both fees and reimbursements. I went back and checked any months last year where I earned less than $50 with them and I was paid appropriately the following month. So I would assume this must be a new policy. I could care less about the gift card part of it....that sounds completely voluntary. But I will not be happy about floating them cash because I earn less than $50 in a month. I sure hope they reverse course on this one.

Maybe the bean counters figured that instead of shoppers cherry picking the super bonus shops and maybe doing 1 assignment per month...they could "encourage" people to take a few more assignments at a lower rate to meet the $50 threshold. The behemoth company seems to have way more shops and processes payments weekly. This can't be about paying too many people...It has to be they don't have a great system and they want to reduce time/labor spent paying people for 1 or 2 assignments per month.

With direct deposits, it can be set up automatically. I think if they were sending checks the expense of the check preparation and postage would cause them to do something like this, but not with ACH.

@Snuffycuts99 wrote:

I interpret that to mean $50 including both fees and reimbursements. I went back and checked any months last year where I earned less than $50 with them and I was paid appropriately the following month. So I would assume this must be a new policy. I could care less about the gift card part of it....that sounds completely voluntary. But I will not be happy about floating them cash because I earn less than $50 in a month. I sure hope they reverse course on this one.

You can interpret it but, according to the quote, the $50 minimum is in fees. Reimbursements are not fees. So you you would have to do five $10 shops before you get paid anything.

MFIsherri, where y'at????

I had not yet read the agreement until just now. I want to point out that many of you who have signed it and are divulging information on this thread have violated the next to last paragraph. I am pretty sure that once you sign it you should still be able to see the agreement somewhere on your own page of the site. You may or may not care but i just thought I would point that out for those who do
It they truly mean they are holding funds then I foresee that it will quickly backfire on them and cost them more than the fees for paying people in a timely manner.

Just picked up a $40 fee on a shop due today that someone flaked on. So with my one earlier shop this month I'll hit the minimum. I was curious to see what would happen when I didn't hit $50, but I couldn't pass up a $40 fee.

My only hope is that they'll lose the burger client. Yes, I'd rather that the behemoth company get the contract.

Well that is a hot bag of garbage. I hope new (and existing) shoppers think very carefully before agreeing to this.

i'm going to venture MOST did NOT read it thoroughly. I am one that did NOT. just like I don't read all the terms when buying tickets on ticketmaster or any of the other legal mumbo jumbo they inundate you with for so many things

I think ultimately if they are not paying each 20th of the month...people will start asking why and MF will have plenty of emails to respond too explaining this new procedure. In addition...they will probably lose shoppers in the process. It will all work itself out in the end.

Hb,

Sure, I sign in almost every day, you would think that they would have made me sign it by now? Anyway, when it happens, I'll get a copy of the agreement.

Guess I will only do the jobs that doesn't need an investment to do it. It's not fair for them to do this, and we have no say so. I've been a very good shopper for them for years. This is all changing now. They have lost so many jobs now, it will be hard to get $50 built up.

Shopping Arkansas, Louisiana, & Mississippi.

Ask and you shall receive.. lol

I went to check for stuff to do, and guess what popped up. It's copied and pasted to a word document. And I have NOT signed it yet. Since you all seemto think they trying to hoodwink us, I'm going to read the entire thing before I sign.

I found the line that you guys are worried about and it worries me too. And seeing is it's been months probably a year since the last time I actually did any work for them I believe I'm just going to wait. I don't think I'm going to sign it right now.

"Fees for all assignments which are designated as completed in the portal during any calendar month will be paid within 20 business days of the next calendar month, as long as your account balance is at least $50.00. You can elect to be paid via ACH or receive a gift card through our gift card program."

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/2023 10:48PM by Morledzep.

So little stuff in my area these days, it's not worth it to me to spend the time worrying about hitting the minimum. I'll pass on their jobs for now. Maybe they'll retract this trickery and get back to normal.

It also says that if you accept an assignment from them without signing the pay withholding agreement it will be assumed you did accept it. I don’t see this ending well.

@OldmanJames wrote:

My issue is the only shops near me are 5 G . There also were daycare phone shops but an older man pretending to be pregnant was not possible. Lol I recently moved to this state so I will not take the shops in unknown areas in a nearby large city with a very high crime rate as my safety is worth more than a 5G shop fee. There is rotation on shops and 3 5 G in areas I feel safe in so I cannot do the ones in areas that I am familiar with them frequently enough to get $50. I do not like the idea not sure how this will work. I am confused by this new policy and hope it gets clarified.

Can you call for your spouse?

I usually do about 3 shops per month with them at a minimum of $20 per shop. I usually bring someone with me to eat the food. I taste it for the purposes of doing the report. I like it but I don't love it and I wouldn't even go there if I weren't being paid to do so.

However, that tactic of having a minimum is ridiculous. Bad enough we have to lay out the money for the food but now you want to make people wait to get paid and get their reimbursement? That is shady. I see some have emailed them, I would like clarification as well. They really should have sent out an email about it instead of just having people sign a new agreement. I know I am guilty of not reading stuff like that.

There were a few other things that made my raise my eyebrows a bit - like reporting if you are convicted of a misdemeanor or are an accused party in a lawsuit. I don't anticipate that being an issue for me personally, but it seemed a little odd to make such a broad statement.

@Morledzep wrote:

Ask and you shall receive.. lol

I went to check for stuff to do, and guess what popped up. It's copied and pasted to a word document. And I have NOT signed it yet. Since you all seemto think they trying to hoodwink us, I'm going to read the entire thing before I sign.

I found the line that you guys are worried about and it worries me too. And seeing is it's been months probably a year since the last time I actually did any work for them I believe I'm just going to wait. I don't think I'm going to sign it right now.

"Fees for all assignments which are designated as completed in the portal during any calendar month will be paid within 20 business days of the next calendar month, as long as your account balance is at least $50.00. You can elect to be paid via ACH or receive a gift card through our gift card program."

I signed it without reading it carefully and can't find it now on the website. Based on what others have posted (quoted) from the new agreement, it seems that they are counting fees, not reimbursements. I think this will be counter productive for them in the long run. While I have not had a payment from MF below $50 in years, I think it will not be well received by their regular shoppers and those who do few shops as well. It just plain stinks that they could do this.

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The more I learn about people...the more I like my dog..

Mark Twain

The way I read it, is $50 minimum for gift cards only. It looks to me like direct deposit goes on as before.

This is what it states. To me, it looks like you must accumulate $50. If you do a $10 shop, you're not getting a direct deposit till you do 4 more.
"Fees for all assignments which are designated as completed in the portal during any calendar month will be paid within 20 business days of the next calendar month, as long as your account balance is at least $50.00. You can elect to be paid via ACH or receive a gift card through our gift card program."

@Maryanne J wrote:

The way I read it, is $50 minimum for gift cards only. It looks to me like direct deposit goes on as before.

Also, "designated as completed" is quite vague. Does this mean it's been through editing and ready for pay? If so, when editing gets backlogged or takes longer than expected, it could throw a shop into the next month, causing the shopper who carefully calulated their $50 minimum to miss out on pay that month because the shop was not yet edited.

The whole agreement is badly and obscurely written, leaving out many details. It reads like a sixth-grader's essay.

Well I got my reply from Marketforce. It appears the $50 limit only applies to people receiving paper checks. I asked for clarification from them: "I have direct deposit. Are you saying I don't need to reach $50 before I'll get paid and that the $50 minimum is for paper checks and gift cards only?"

HERE'S WHAT MARKETFORCE REPLIED TO MY INQUIRY:

"Hi, if you have decided to opt-out for direct deposit for your payments, we will soon be shifting away from a paper check to an electronic card payment (e-card). Once we have officially made this change, we will post an update on the shopper portal. In the meantime, you will receive a paper check if you do not elect to use our direct deposit option.

Once we change over to the e-cards, this is the way it will work: Each time we run shopper payroll for the respective month then you will be able to “request” a distribution for your payment. The request will take you to our fulfillment vendor and they will deliver the payment card electronically via email. However, you must have a $50.00, or greater, payment balance that is owed to you before you can request and receive an e-card payment.

Direct deposit is definitely the quickest and easiest way to receive your payments each month, so please sign up for direct deposit if you can! Thank you."

Wow, I did not see anything in the agreement that resembled that well-worded explanation!

GREAT NEWS!

FROM MARKET FORCE JUST NOW:

"Correct, if you have Direct Deposit the $50 minimum doesn’t apply. Thanks!"

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/2023 05:07PM by wrosie.

Today, April 27, I finally got this. It won't let me get to the job board unless signed.
So I too think I will not sign until this is resolved.
I wonder if the phone call schedulers are aware of this, and wonder if they could explain it better.
Perhaps when the shops start piling up even with MAO, MF will get the hint that we ICs are leery.

When they change the wording in the agreement that they want me to sign, then I will sign it. But the way it stands now, the way it is written, it says that unless we have a $50 balance we will not get paid and it does not distinguish between ACH or gift cards or paper checks. And I really don't do enough work for them to be bothered to worry about whether I did $50 worth of work or not.

I see someone has posted the appropriate response from the HD in this thread and I hope that provides more clarity. If you are on ACH/DD you are NOT impacted. As we all know, costs are rising everywhere and providing payment via check is not only costly, but it's less secure (you wouldn't believe how many get "lost" in the mail).
That said, feel free to continue to send questions and commentary. [

quote=sestrahelena]
MFIsherri, where y'at????[/quote]

But why are all the responses from MF breaking down the wording of the agreement to add statements that contradict what the agreement states? Why is it that the agreement cannot be worded correctly to include what MF is saying it actually means, because the agreement definitely states the contrary.

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