I have only done one gas station audit for them, but have requested a few of their drive thru fast food shops... My problem with them is, when I request something, I expect to hear back reasonably soon...not 3-4 weeks later saying "you recently requested a shop...blah blah". That's not recent. They need to get on the ball with their schedulers.

Once you do a job though, they paid quickly.

Just got an email from them...they are changing all their phone system and Ext.#.

I love Maritz!! The hardest thing is to remember to submit an invoice for every shop. I enter my shops for the day and submit an inovice immediately. It takes less than a minute per shop. My ONLY complaint is that they don't have a menu option for you to see if you have missed an invoice. You only have 14 days to do the invoice, and then you have to mail in your receipts with a self made invoice to get paid.

Shopping the Great NW

Karen IL Wrote:
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> I love me some Maritz. That's the company I do
> the most for.


Well let me tell ya.... I must have ticked them off highly because my car broke down on me and I had to cancel a lot of my jobs with them. They black listed me and now I can't get ANY jobs with them. I used to like them a lot until they kicked me to the curb.

Shoppurr Wrote:
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> I love Maritz!! The hardest thing is to remember
> to submit an invoice for every shop. I enter my
> shops for the day and submit an inovice
> immediately. It takes less than a minute per
> shop. My ONLY complaint is that they don't have a
> menu option for you to see if you have missed an
> invoice. You only have 14 days to do the invoice,
> and then you have to mail in your receipts with a
> self made invoice to get paid.
>
> Shopping the Great NW


I, also wish they had a place to check your submitted invoices. When I entered my invoices I wanted to check and make sure they went through, but they didn't show anywhere. The only way I knew they went through is by trying to enter them a second time each (it tells you you've already entered them).

KaiGywer Wrote:
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> I have only done one gas station audit for them,
> but have requested a few of their drive thru fast
> food shops... My problem with them is, when I
> request something, I expect to hear back
> reasonably soon...not 3-4 weeks later saying "you
> recently requested a shop...blah blah". That's not
> recent. They need to get on the ball with their
> schedulers.
>
> Once you do a job though, they paid quickly.

What you're running into here is that schedulers cannot award shops to people who request them until they've been on the board for awhile for shoppers to self assign. The requests stay in line until whatever date the scheduler is finally able to begin handing them out, after self-assign shoppers have had their chance at them.

They changed their phone system and now it is worse. You used get through to the call catcher and it used to say "If you need to talk to someone for Project name A press one, for project name B press 2..." Each project name was the name of the company shopped.

Now it is, "If you want to talk to someone from team 1 press 1, team 2 press 2, etc." I couldn't find anything that told me what team I was looking for, so always had to go through and wait for the receiptionist to transfer me. Not sure how that helps build efficiency.

I also started with Maritz about 13 months ago. I have had some issues with the photos I took too, and had to go back to retake them. Other wise, it has been great. I mainly do the banks, and some gasoline shops. I get a check once a month, and on time so far.

If I shopped for them, I don't remember it. What I do know is that many years ago, a scheduler asked me to do a mystery shop followed by a revealed audit at a gas station/convenience store. I told her that in my small town, I see these people regularly. I can do a MS or a revealed audit. I can't do both. She thanked me, and that was it.

(The town I lived in was tiny and in a very rural area; they probably had no shoppers for many miles around. Maritz had a difficult time filling another type of shop about 12 miles in the opposite direction, probably for the same reason. They called me about that shop a number of times. I didn't care for the fee or the requirements, so I always declined.)

Back to the gas station, sometime later, the same or another scheduler asked me to do the same shop. I declined and again told her why. She said I could do just (the MS or the audit, I forget which now). I cautiously accepted after making double and triple sure that I would not need to do both. It was very odd that the shop requirements changed like that.

I accepted, and they sent a huge notebook of materials to me in the mail. The paperwork and online job description indicated that the shop was a MS and revealed audit. I was so angry. I let them know that I wouldn't be doing the shop and why. I spoke with a supervisor who had a difficult time believing what I told her about my having made sure that it was a shop *or* a revealed audit but not both. She didn't want to call me a liar, but she didn't believe that a scheduler would tell me that I didn't have to do both parts when the scheduler knew I did have to. I wanted the supervisor to know that I went to great lengths to clarify the requirements. I was canceling because I was lied to, not because I changed my mind.

I can only assume that the scheduler thought I would just do the shop once I had the book and the job. You know how some schedulers are -- so desperate to get a shop accepted that they lie about the job. Don't inundate me with good scheduler experiences. I didn't say there were a lot of schedulers like that. There are some, though. (You know, the ones who put "Fun, easy, short form," etc. into the subject line of jobs that are anything but.)

As far as I can remember, that is my only experience with Maritz.

I COPY and then PASTE to Word get the Security Code.....

Jamie,

This is a semi-inundation. In 9 1/2 yrs., and through 88 MSCs, I've encountered two schedulers who were unacceptable to me. While I'm not a fan of the "fun & easy" technique, I also realize it's a practice this industry tolerates. It may be the low number of assignments I've completed, 2741, or perhaps I've merely been fortunate. That being a fact, from my perspective they are a solid group of folks. If, though, one were to lie to me about a shop, I wouldn't hesitate to take the same action as you did with Maritz.

I have done several of these martiz bank shops now, but since my son has gone back to school and I am working 5 days a week at my regular job instead of 4 I have had much less time to secret shop. Maritz always calls me to ask me to do the shops. I begrudgingly picked up two more figuring I can pick up the bank portion on my lunch breaks. I just need to get better at telling them no. It isn't the shop itself, but the scanning and the resizing of the documents that drives me nuts. The shops have become tedious, as well, because I have to feign interest hearing the same routing over and over. The Maritz bank shops are just not as fun as other shops... but I still keep getting suckered into them by a sweet sounding scheduler.

I have done many shops for this company and I like them. Don't forget to "submit an invoice". This is unique from other companies. If you don't do this, your pay will be delayed. I've gotten paid before the 60 days too. They are friendly, and will call you if there's a problem.

So far I've fond them to be decent to work for, at least for the most part. I've been with them about 16 years now.

I took someone's advice from this board. I don't scan the documents for these shops anymore. I set the resolution on my camera to the resolution they want and take pictures. This way there is no resizing. I am so glad someone told me that. I just can't remember who.

phlutter Wrote:
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> It
> isn't the shop itself, but the scanning and the
> resizing of the documents that drives me nuts.
>

I find Maritz to be a great Mystery Shopping Company. I perform, at a minimum, 20 shops per month for this company. The schedulers are friendly and competent and more importantly the compensation for shops performed comes quickly. I only wish that I could find more MSC's like Maritz.

When I did some bank shops, I also just took pictures, at the correct resolution, of the materials. It was too easy. I do the gas stations all the time and have had no issues with them whatsoever.

I go online and one of my projects says "over due." The dates are 9-24 through 9-30. Why would it be considered over due?

Robin, I'm not sure exactly what you're seeing, but if you haven't reviewed your requirements for the job you'll get an "overdue".

robinhardage Wrote:
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> I go online and one of my projects says "over
> due." The dates are 9-24 through 9-30. Why would
> it be considered over due?


You probably had a test on the requirments that was due. They like those done before the shopping date starts up. No biggie. Just go in, review your material and test. Warning though...if you do not pass test twice, call them before attempting the third so they can walk you through the answers.

ohhhhhhhh, got it!! Thanks so much!!

SecretAgentMom Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> robinhardage Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I go online and one of my projects says "over
> > due." The dates are 9-24 through 9-30. Why
> would
> > it be considered over due?
>
>
> You probably had a test on the requirments that
> was due. They like those done before the shopping
> date starts up. No biggie. Just go in, review your
> material and test. Warning though...if you do not
> pass test twice, call them before attempting the
> third so they can walk you through the answers.

Maritzes service station shops have become so involved and long that I have backed off from them. I am very particuler on the shops I pick. There people are very helpfull when ever I have had a problem they are the greatest.