What a week it has been with MF, and their so called "help desk". I was so stressed out this past week, that I needed to vent on the fourm.

The issue started out late last month on one of my shops. The client was the vitamin shop that MF has been doing the auditing on. After accepting the shop, I looked over the guidelines and it explained that you could not print out the paperwork until the night before the visit as there could be last minute changes for the visit. I said fine and waitied until the night before. When I did look over the paper work, I noticed that one of the files I needed to complete the shop was missing. Since I was completing the shop the next day, I was concerened about the reponse time with their help desk. I went ahead and emailed them and explained the situation. As I figured, they did not respond until it was too late and the shop date had passed.

When I emailed them again about the date issue, they repsponed that it was too late, and better luck next time. This I had no problem with, but had an issue with the shop still showing up on my log. This client has on their guidelines very specific instructions that the shop must be removed from MF, and not from the shoppers. Those who do cancel the shops on their own, will have their account's deactivated. I emailed again the help desk about the shop being still on my account. They responeded two days later, but by that time it was too late, the shop was removed by the system and my account was deactivated. I was livid at this point! It took three more emails and paper trails to the help desk to show that I was in the clear. After a few days, my account was reactivated and all in the clear.

The help desk does provide a benifit to shoppers, but having so many employee's respond to questions just gets everyone confused. Since they have no number that you can call, you must wait till they respond back which is normally two days. Even though I can't stand them sometime, overall I lovee working with Market Force. They always seem to have shops listed near me, and the pay is fair and even better with the bonuses that come at the end of the month. In fact just after my account was activated, I picked up two hard to fill airport dining locations for $50 each. One of them was a bar that I found great use for de-stressing from thinking about their issues..lol.

Dr D

There web site does show a phone number. I had a situation that caused be to be very angry and did get the phone number from the web site.

I was told that I had not followed my guidelines, but I had. Somehow they had put the wrong guidelines up for my shop. I had to talk to a person, not just email to get this point across.

Not my favorite company

I put them in the same category as green bean casserole and I say to hell with it.

I have several numbers of people that have called me to schedule shops (sometimes with bonuses). If I ever have a problem (with any shop) I call one one of those numbers and ask questions. I guess I have been lucky, because each time they have helped me and told me exactly what to do.

I usually get a quick and helpful response via email. Haven't had any major issues where I had to call or needed an emergency response, though.

I have always had quick responses from their help desk.

I also have quick and very polite responses from their help desk.

I would include many other companies in this particular rant...I have found when doing shops on weekends if there is some last minute question, for many companies there is no one there. Emails do not get returned until monday. I just cross my fingers and hope I made the right choice about what to do. But it is frustrating. Since so many shops are on weekends it would be nice if there were always some way posted to contact them. This is a 7 day a week business! And irregularities do come up at the last minute.
Dr D...going out on a bar shop sounds like a good solution to this frequent problem.

Second to None and Business Evaluation Services. RUDE and sloooowwwwwww.

Cettie Wrote:
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> I put them in the same category as green bean
> casserole and I say to hell with it.


LOL!

I don't understand what happened. I had a shop due today. I went to log on and my account has been deactivated. This is frustrating because I don't know what I did that caused this. This company calls me all of the time. I am always doing assignments for them that they need done. Then they do this to me? Grrrr is right!

Mz, I'm afraid Grrr IS right! MF is shrouded in mysteries when it comes to why they deactivate reputable shoppers. They wont tell you what caused this no matter how much you ask!

I bet you anything SIMONE is behind all these mysterious deactivations.....

mzjoyousone Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't understand what happened. I had a shop
> due today. I went to log on and my account has
> been deactivated. This is frustrating because I
> don't know what I did that caused this. This
> company calls me all of the time. I am always
> doing assignments for them that they need done.
> Then they do this to me? Grrrr is right!

mzjoyous, you should call MF. They do frequently deactivate shoppers from being able to select new assignments, but it does not usually affect any current assignments. When a shopper is deactivated, the first clue is that their "web fx" disappears and they cannot view the job board and select new shops. But they are able to complete all the shops already assigned to them and they are paid for those shops. If you cannot see an assignment that is due today, there is something wrong. Call them. It does not sound like deactivation to me.

I posted this on the other thread but I am reposting it here as this is related.

Ok, this is CFA of Market Force. They changed the shop's rate for the nth time and I was told I could cancel if I did not approve of the change. After having all these changes a number of times (a few times they even outright cancelled the shops), I decided to cancel this time. I got the message that cancelling the shop would affect my record. Holy Moses!

This was how I was deactivated once. I did not want to do the same kind of shop which I foolishly accepted the first time even if I successfully completed it. The next time I looked, I could not log in. Then someone contacted me and asked me if I was still willing to do the other shops. I said, yes. She reactivated my account.

So, I guess, one way to be deactivated is to cancel a shop where they themselves changed the pay rate or any aspect of the shop. Don't believe them when they say you can cancel if you do not agree with the change. So, this is my rant and I sympathize with you.

I was working for this MSC for over 5 years and I did a dumb thing. I told them before they found it but to no response they deactivated me anyway. No questions asked. I have not done any shops for them now for over 18 months. They have the market in my area and it is so hard to find shops in my area. I miss working for them. Does anyone have a contact that I could call to find out if I could review with them the issues?

mzjoyousone Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't understand what happened. I had a shop
> due today. I went to log on and my account has
> been deactivated. This is frustrating because I
> don't know what I did that caused this. This
> company calls me all of the time. I am always
> doing assignments for them that they need done.
> Then they do this to me? Grrrr is right!

jeffthegeek... Marketforce staff deactivate your account for no reason... even if you email them or call in to give a report.... THEY SUCK!! and DAN is a FOOL

Hana,

It's really not polite to call people fools - particularly when you just join the forum and start attacking. We try and keep a medium of venting but not cursing and name-calling. Everyone has their beef with particular MSC's - but some people - myself included - have not had any problems with MF staff. I've personally ALWAYS received responses and yes, even compliments, on my work for them.



Hanaemori Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> jeffthegeek... Marketforce staff deactivate your
> account for no reason... even if you email them or
> call in to give a report.... THEY SUCK!! and DAN
> is a FOOL

I didn't say they deactivated me for no reason I said I did a dumb thing. I admitted it to them. Don't know who Dan is.

Hanaemori Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> jeffthegeek... Marketforce staff deactivate your
> account for no reason... even if you email them or
> call in to give a report.... THEY SUCK!! and DAN
> is a FOOL

That's what my biggest complaint with MF is, not telling shoppers why there account has been deactivated. If a complany is going to fire you, at least they can tell you what you did wrong so that you don't make the same mistake again for future job prospects. To send out a generic canned email saying that you can not discuss the deactiving issue becauce of trade secrets is just ignorant and rude IMHO!

Trade secrets? Really? The format is pretty much the same across the industry and unless they're going to say that you didn't answer a particular question that is so unique and special, which I don't think they're capable of creating, how is saying you didn't do such and such in general terms a trade secret? I think it's an evasive answer because they really can't defend their action.

From all appearances Market Force does not like nor want "professional" shoppers. This is based on both the 4 shop a day limit which hampers route shoppers and the trend toward booting shoppers who have completed anywhere from 750 to 1500 shops. Why this is a "trade secret" and treated like a matter of national security is beyond me.

So, number of maximum shops a shopper can perform for them is their criteria for deciding whether to deactivate a shopper? And, if their competitors know this it will negatively affect their business and relationships with their clients? It may destroy their reputation with shoppers but with their clients? I think not. On the other hand, if shoppers know they play this game, maybe they won't be able to get high quality shoppers and it would negatively affect their business.

Does anyone have a good number to call a MF scheduler?

I picked up the two $66 "Q" sandwich shops and just saw there are three heavily-bonused gas station shops nearby. But - that would put me over my limit.

Thought I would give them a call and see if they'd work with me. These gas stations are in the outback (almost literally) so ....


... if you have a number, I'm going to give them a jingle. Thanks.

1-800-669-6526

Thank you, Lisa.

Time = Money today, and I didn't want to go through the rigamarole with an overseas scheduler.

Have a great day! (cliched but true)

They might work with you since it will only be one extra shop. Let me qualify, they used to work with you, LOL! Please let me know if it does work out because I scheduled 5 shops for myself that are close, but would still be easier completed on the same day

It's not the report, it's the BEV that needs to be printed the morning of the audit..."Birds Eye View"

Because the BEV can change daily....

MissyH71 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Does anyone have a good number to call a MF
> scheduler?
>
> I picked up the two $66 "Q" sandwich shops and
> just saw there are three heavily-bonused gas
> station shops nearby. But - that would put me over
> my limit.
>
> Thought I would give them a call and see if they'd
> work with me. These gas stations are in the
> outback (almost literally) so ....
>
>
> ... if you have a number, I'm going to give them a
> jingle. Thanks.

I'm confused. The Q sandwich shop is not with MF. Why would that affect the three gas shops from MF?

@cubbiecat - no, but I had two gas station shops that I got done before leaving to do the "Q" shops. So that would've put me over my limit.

@Lisa - well, they didn't let me take five shops in one day, but they did agree to push back a shop 10 days so I could get them in. They were actually pretty nice, and they called me back in 10 minutes after I left a message on the 1-800 number.

That bites I still might give mine a shot. If I get someone else it could result in a different answer LOL!