Hello Everyone my name is Rebecca I am new to this mystery shopping and this is the first time, I want to learn this and is it worth it? what is the first step that I should know please? Let me know Also I have friends that might be interested Thank You for your time. Rebecca

Get signed up with as many companies as possible. Do not EVER EVER EVER pay any company to let you shop for them no matter what line of bull they give you. Paying these companies just lines someone's pockets. I've been shopping 15 years now and have had more adventures than one person ought to have. In my opinion and after having some lengthy interactions with them I would suggest to you to run like hell from Marketforce. They can and will use any reason they can think of to not pay you. Fortunately most other companies aren't like this.

Get yourself a good digital camera, a scanner, a stopwatch and chocolate to get you through the rough days. It's good for a little extra money but unless you live in a huge major metro area don't expect to be able to quit your regular job just to do this. Even then, KEEP your regular job.

Cettie Wrote:
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> Get signed up with as many companies as possible.
> Do not EVER EVER EVER pay any company to let you
> shop for them no matter what line of bull they
> give you. Paying these companies just lines
> someone's pockets. I've been shopping 15 years
> now and have had more adventures than one person
> ought to have. In my opinion and after having some
> lengthy interactions with them I would suggest to
> you to run like hell from Marketforce. They can
> and will use any reason they can think of to not
> pay you. Fortunately most other companies aren't
> like this.
>
> Get yourself a good digital camera, a scanner, a
> stopwatch and chocolate to get you through the
> rough days. It's good for a little extra money
> but unless you live in a huge major metro area
> don't expect to be able to quit your regular job
> just to do this. Even then, KEEP your regular
> job.


Why would you say that about Marketforce? What happened? I have not ever had any problems with them. Shanon

They have been doozies for the last several years, not paying me one time for a cellphone shop "to teach me a lesson" for supposedly being discovered on a fast food shop. What the hell does one thing have to do with another other than they didn't want to pay me?? I wasn't discovered in any way for anything but they're like that. They also claimed that I once shopped a bank for XYZ company three years before and didn't tell THEM. They stiffed me on a $55 bonused shop for that report. I also got irate phone calls from them claiming that I was a cousin of someone that worked at a branch of a bank. Apparently the bank people look at the tapes to figure out who the shoppers are, and this excuse was the best they could come up with. I don't have any relatives living and am not from here so how in the world do I have a cousin that works for a branch of ABC bank?

This only skims the surface of why I detest these people.

Cettie is right about Market Force, They try to find reasons not to pay; The bad part about it is that they DO NOT PAY WELL and then expect you to do a 15 page report that can take up to an hour to complete. The time it takes to do the MS and then the report it is not worth it. I have had it out with them several times myself.

My issues with MFI are the low pay; but I have never been questioned about a shop and have always been paid, and like clockwork.

That has been my experience as well. I have done some jobs for them that got 'squirrelly' in that they did not (could not) go as planned and I have made copious notes in anticipation of question, especially since the forms rarely give you much space to comment on unusual occurrences during a shop. Never a peep out of them, the money just direct deposits to my bank at an appropriate time for the job.

I find it rather interesting that they called my husband at work to ask him if he was related to ME in any way. He admitted to us being married so I wonder what shenanigans they're trying to pull. After ruining Christmas Eve they'd darn well better pay him for it.

Cettie - How was the connection made between you and hubby? Was it from a shop you or he did?

Through our home address and e-mail. I found out he decided to use the yahoo e-mail addy I used to use and they called him at work to ask some questions. Well he really does exist and really does shop so I hope those people are happy now.

Cettie Wrote:
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> Through our home address and e-mail. I found out
> he decided to use the yahoo e-mail addy I used to
> use and they called him at work to ask some
> questions. Well he really does exist and really
> does shop so I hope those people are happy now.


Trust me i can't stand them neither, they had the nerve to ct me off when i had a family problem and could put in the assignment on the computer in time ibelieve my daughter comes first than anything so i don't work for them any more but i'm looking to do other places

Let me preface this by saying that I am not at all criticizing your decision that family comes first--that is the case at my house as well.

All of these companies we work with are operating a business. If we don't do what we agree to do, it leaves them in a bind as they have committments to their clients as well. While I find it a bloody nuisance to report to a particular company that I have completed a job as soon as I get home and then later go back and do the report, I do understand why they have that requirement. I also find a 5 hour limit to report jobs by one company ridiculous as I may be away from the house for more than 5 hours DOING shops. The 12 hour or 2PM the next day or other reporting requirements I can live with.

When I had an office it used to bug the heck out of me, especially with one employee, that she was out so frequently with a sick child, a headache, a hair dresser appointment, needing to be home for furniture delivery, Monday morning oversleeps and the list went on and on. She was the secretary to my office mate and when she was gone it meant that my secretary had to pick up the slack for her in addition to helping with my work. My office mate refused to get someone in who would reliably appear for work because she felt sorry for this girl. Not only that, my office mate insisted on paying the girl for her time off without docking her vacation time. Hardly fair treatment to my secretary who was reliably there at 8:30 for a 9AM opening and there after 5PM if needed.

Some companies are like my office mate--no matter what the trauma, it is okay. Some companies are more like me--you agreed to do the work, so please get it done. Generally the larger the company, the less liberty they have to make a case-by-case determination about what is legitimate and what is not, whether to accept late work or not. There are companies I have worked with closely enough over a long enough period of time that I suspect they would not hold a slippage due to emergency against me. On the other hand, there are companies where the schedulers and staff have fixed deadlines they are not allowed to bend. There is nothing more pathetic than to talk reasonably with a scheduler and have them say, "My boss won't let me do that."

What many of these companies fail to comprehend is that shoppers are generally folks who are doing this around other jobs, families, and medical conditions. Many of us do have enough 'emergencies' that it is not feasible to try to perform a 9-5 job because, like my office mate's secretary, there are too many times when we would not be available. Unfortunately, none of them have enough work to keep a shopper substantially employed and few of them even pay reasonably well enough that it would work out to even minimum wage.

Well put, Flash!

I have never had any trouble with Market Force. I usually do not take the lowest paying jobs from them. But they will usually let you reschedule and that is something that many companies will not do.

In my case things went along fine and dandy for years until they got stupid. We're still waiting to see if they'll pay my husband for Christmas Eve. Now they're trying to ding him because the FF place closed early that night---and he was there within the correct time frame and stayed there a good hour, still inside the time frame.