I, too, dislike many of the custom sites. Trendsource has some nice features, like the history and invoices section, but I have no love fest for the job search feature and truly despise having to go in and out of "programs" to print forms for work I am doing the same day. MFI's site is buggy, and I hate the page by page reporting.

Give me Sassie any day. It is super easy to search and has a great history and payment feature. Unless the MSC blocks it, as does BH, it gives you a nice PDF at the end without you having to do anything more than click the link to it.

In the end, though, regardless of how I feel about their SW, I DO NOT judge the MSC on what SW they choose to use, as I am not clued in to the features on their end, the costs, and the reasons they chose one over the other.

I will hold them in lower regard for having websites that are painfully slow, though. :-)

I don't like their new login system...have to login twice...why?

I just want to clarify that I was addressing the search feature for jobs. As far as job input, Market Force is incredibly frustrating as the page by page reporting was one of the most despised features I had of the entire experience with that company. It was ridiculously time-consuming and uncalled for. That and having to scan your CPI for each and every job, as well.

Trendsource's input is amongst the best when inputting jobs. It is extremely fast and easy. Printing paperwork isn't a big deal.

Service Intelligence is also pretty simple IF your notes match the questions in the order they appear on the site. If not, it can be time consuming and redundant, but if it does, then you can go through it pretty fast. The one thing that irritates me with SI though is that if there is a section that is not applicable, you have to answer every single question as being NA as opposed to other MSP where if you say you couldn't do a part of the shop as it didn't apply to you, the whole section would be deleted on it's own.

CRI is a pain in the ass to do because a number of their clients want comments provided for every single question ... which can go up to 20,25, or 30 questions in some cases, regardless if the answer was "Yes" or "No", which is extremely time consuming. And I know a lot of people complain about their pay, but in my area their shops tend to bonus pretty quickly. Input is just a real pain, though.

But primarily, my gripe is that their Job Search feature really doesn't stand out to me in any way and just looks "blah".

Which is fascinating because I always found SASSIE intuitive and helpful. I can search my immediate area readily, then flip to statewide to see if the shops have even posted and were grabbed already in my area, then flip to nationwide to note who their current clients are for future reference. I know of no other software that makes this kind of information gathering so easy. It may not be pretty, but I go for functionality rather than looks.

For search for this purpose, I go with function. Sassie all the way. Prophet is beyond annoying. Way beyond.

For the MSC's main website, the worse it lays out, the more poorly designed it is, the less my opinion of them. The main website is their face to the world. Geez. Keep it current, use great designers, update as needed, and use a fast host.

Ifeel they ask way too much for the pay they offer. I have done a few shops for them and every time, by the time I finish the report, I promise myself "never again".

I have no problem with Beyond Hello except after getting straight 10, somehow, I got 8 because they had to contact me for something already on the report. I like that I could take a friend for the eye exam. But they have very
limited shops in my area. They are in my top 10 US MSC.

I've done 7 shops for the over the past 6 months. They mostly have Sunglass shops in my area. They seem to be fair and I've received good ratings. At first I thought they were knit-picky. I received an 8 for my first two shops. But, since then I've received 9s and 10s. I think it's because I became a better shopper.

My boyfriend's mother's first mystery shop as a shopper was for Beyond Hello. She received a 10.