Market Force Information Reviews 158

I found working for Market Force (previously Retail Eyes) quite fun to begin with - got the odd free meal, small amounts of money which, to their credit, was usually promptly paid... But then I realised that it's actually taking me a good few hours to carry out the assignments, make notes, take and upload the photos, scan and upload the receipts, make very specific observations for fear of not being reimbursed if I couldn't remember certain details and fill in the tedious and extremely badly designed questionnaires where I had to think of many ways to answer the exceedingly detailed and idiotic, often "yes" or "no" questions with a minimum of so many words! Often the same question was rephrased in several ways and sometimes the reports would be queried if I didn't guess what concoctions were apparently expected of me, and it became too much work for the sake of a free sandwich and the extremely modest fee.

On one of my last assignments for these people, I was sent to a big bank's restaurant by mistake. The "handler" apologised to me in a most insincere and mechanical manner and offered me £5 in compensation for all my hours of wasted time - this including the numerous phone calls I had to make to him and the bank's representative, waiting at the bank's premises, not to mention my bike parking fee of £1... All this after I had gone out of my way to help this particular "handler" out by carrying out some very urgent assignments for him in the past at short notice. I have come to realise that this company treats their mystery shoppers as scum and the recent 25p reduction to the fees is the final insult they've added to my injury.

On another occasion I completed a restaurant assignment only to have it queried with questions such as "until what time were they serving food?" which hadn't appeared in their poorly designed instructions. I couldn't be bothered to do their homework for them and ended up being forced to forfeit the assignment, paying for a meal that I wouldn't have otherwise chosen to have. I have also been sent to a location that turned out to be closed. They did pay the very modest fee and apologised in a rather casual manner, but it certainly did not make me feel particularly valued as a mystery shopper.

Recommended only for those desperate enough to trade hours of their time and the humiliation of having to answer extremely idiotic questions, take photos, upload receipts, respond to urgent queries and be expected to accept pitiful compensation and contemptuous treatment for time and effort wasted due to RE's own mistakes in return for £2.75 and a free sandwich or sometimes no fee at all - just a reimbursement toward a dinner in a pub.

Contradictory questions.

Website not working, so you can't upload receipts, miss deadlines then get penalised for late reports !

Fail to pay valid expense claims.

Pity they can't organise a mystery shop of themselves to demonstrate what an incompetent bunch they are.

Have been using these for a few years. Had 20-30 free meals out and about, either much cheaper or occasionally worked out completely free. You won't make money, but if you enjoy eating out its a good way to save considerable money and try a few new places. I've never had any sort of problem getting them to pay up either, so maybe the other reviewer had an unlucky experience.

Overall something different to pass the time and socialise on the cheap with well known brands. Just do as asked in assignment notes and you will have no problems.

I joined Retail Eyes in July this year and stacked up around £68 worth of successful assignments for them. I have now stopped shopping for them as they have failed to pay me 4 times!! I am a patient person and understood at first that there may be a genuine mistake and gave them the benefit of the doubt. So after contacting them and talking to a rather stroppy young girl in accounts, she told me they would email me with the details of the problem. I received this email later in the day telling me to re-enter my payment details as there is a problem with my sort code!! I knew I HAD entered my bank details correct, but despite this I did it anyway (making sure I had 2 witnesses this time!!!) and waited for the next payment date.
When I was failed to be paid again, I contacted them again asking what had happened and AGAIN they accused me of failing to enter my payment details correctly!!!! They kept telling me to re-enter my payment details and wait a whole 2 weeks yet again, but this time I knew something was going on so I demanded an alternative payment method or I will take legal action.
They finally sent me a cheque of part of the balance I was owed but informed me that for the rest of my balance I enter my details correct as this cheque was a one off!!! What a cheek!!!!! I have risked entering a total different bank account information in for this next phantom payment date but obviously have not been paid for this either!!!!! Still awaiting my final balance!!!
But rest assured i will NEVER do any more work for them again!!!!!!