Basics:
Certified Field Associates, a division of MarketForce, offers mystery shopping jobs in theaters, but is poor about paying
Expected pay: nominal
Husl$core: $
Commissions & fees: NA
Where: Nationwide
Requirements: Vary by assignment
What is Certified Field Associates?
Certified Field Associates, a division of MarketForce, enlists freelancers for mystery shopping jobs, often to check out movie theaters.
How it works
You sign up with the site, providing basic information about you and your geography. Once accepted, you’ll be able to access information about mystery shopping gigs in your area.
Each gig comes with a detailed explanation of what you need to do; when; and how much you’ll be paid.
Certified Field Associates Review
Mystery shopping isn’t the highest paid gig in the world, but sometimes is attractive for people who like to shop — or go to movies or out to dinner — on someone else’s dime. However, Certified Field Associates manages to make mystery shopping at movie theaters completely unattractive.
It does this by setting such tight deadlines that shoppers are unable to watch the movie they bought a ticket to see; and then impose such onerous restrictions on the subsequent reports that many shoppers don’t get paid at all.
What’s mystery shopping?
Mystery shopping involves going into stores, movie theaters and restaurants to answer specific questions about the service. Restaurants might want to see if their employees are properly explaining the daily specials. Retailers might want to know whether potential customers are greeted at the door — or whether youngsters are asked for I.D. when trying to buy age-restricted products.
Mystery shopping sites assign these jobs to freelance shoppers, who go in with a specific instructions and report back.
Certified Field Associates specializes in movie work, however. This site will have shoppers go in to watch the trailers of upcoming films and check how many and which advertisements were shown prior to a film. And you may need to count the number of patrons at a particular showing.
How much do you get paid?
Pay for these projects is never much — usually a few dollars to about $10. Shoppers generally also get reimbursed for purchases, so mystery shopping can be a way to finance activities that you like without having to pay for them.
Movie buffs might think working with Certified Field Associates could provide a valuable benefit of being able to see shows when they first come out. However, with most of Certified Field Associate’s theater jobs, you’re supposed to report on the things that happen before the movie starts. You’re generally not there to watch the film.
Complaints
Dozens of former workers complained to the BBB about a host of abuses. Some maintain CFA “invalidates” shopper reports to have an excuse not to pay you. Others complain that the site requires a ridiculous amount of work for practically no pay. When we checked in February 2023, all of the complaints had been mysteriously removed. However, the BBB gives this business an F rating and says it is not accredited.
Recommendations
If you love to shop, there are better mystery shopping sites to ply your trade. Check out BestMark and SecretShopper, which both appear to offer better pay and opportunities. If you want to sign up with Certified Field Associates, you can find them here.
You may also want to read our blog post on what it’s like to be a mystery shopper.
What their shoppers say (from Glassdoor):
Each movie theater field check typically pays a flat rate of approximately $4.00 after higher self-employment taxes and takes well over an hour of your time. Plus, you have to pay for the travel to get to the theater. It should be noted that some of the field checks require you to buy a ticket to a movie. But you are not allowed to watch the actual movie, as you must hurry home to fill out your report before their quickly looming deadline. You sometimes don’t get reimbursed for buying movie tickets.This company provides you with conflicting instructions, in order to avoid paying you for doing incorrect or incomplete work.
From Indeed
It’s them against field associates. With the low pay, no reimbursement of transportation fees if assignment is cancelled. It isn’t worth it.
They will find every reason to “invalidate” your job; therefore, you get no reimbursement, no payment, and they got a free mystery shop completed.
$5 an hour
By the time I paid a fortune for printing ink, since you have to print out every job, and gas and a few other things, it worked out I was making $5.00 an hour. You can negotiate for higher pay. But they put you down for it, and make you feel small for asking. So they must be part of a commission line. You can make it work. But it’s harder work than most people think.
This company sets standards as if you are an employee but pays you well below minimum wage. For instance: Shop at a jewelers where you are required to shop on a certain day, read and print the paperwork, do a certification test, shop, then login and fill out a narrative to their subjective desires. They tell you how long it should be and when it has to be done. Pay? $8.00.
Editor’s Note:
Market Force’s answer to the following BBB complaint should give you an idea of why you shouldn’t waste your time with these jerks. Short version: This worker had to fight to get paid $12 — $7.02 of which was her out-of-pocket cost.
Complaint
I completed the job on the day, time and at the location asked of me. The shop was done correctly as stated in their requirements. And I submitted all receipts showing the location, amount paid, time and who the cashier was. During the time to do paperwork online, a “T” was put in front of the name of the person I spoke to. The rest of the spelling of the name was correct. They marked it “invalid” and refuse to pay me. It angers me that though I submitted the receipt and did everything right, they refuse to pay me. It’s like they found a reason to not pay me instead of looking past a small error that doesn’t effect the job itself. People are human and mistakes are made.
Desired Resolution: My monies for this job. I paid $7.02 out of pocket which was promised to be reimbursed and the additional $5 promised to complete the shop, which I completed correctly.
MarketForce response:
The Complainant acknowledges that somehow when she was entering her shop data into her report the name of one of the employees was misspelled. The mystery shopper has an obligation to review her report data prior to hitting the Submit button. If mistakes are caught by us or the Client, as they were in this case, the shopper risks having her shop be invalidated. Usually by the time the Client or we discover a mistake in a shop, it is too late to pull it back. The shop is put out for reassignment immediately. An uncaught mistake also calls into question whether other mistakes were made in the report. We will not be offering this shopper any more assignments. In return, we will pay her the sum requested.
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