Maritz does it again.

The yellow sign shops came on the board some time in August, to start in September. I signed up for a couple to go with routes and they did not auto-assign. Weird. Two weeks ago (Early October) I got a call asking me if I would do this shop I signed up for, 30 miles away. I had already been to that place with other shops... Okay, fine. I picked a date near the end hoping there would be a heavily bonused blue light store nearby.

Last week, I checked my shops list, and all was well. This morning, I checked my shop list just to make sure, and "review client requirements" was there. It wasn't there last week... That freaking test!

"If a northbound train leaves Chicago displaying a grocery rewards banner and half of the passengers are carrying bottles of Five Alive, what do you ask the conductor? If you indicated in your questionnaire that the train was carrying a flat car of groceries, does it need a metal sign in addition to or instead of the sign on the departures board?"

And, by the way, while I am at the station I have a wee merchandising assignment. The pay is less than in years past and the survey has doubled. Check your envelope...."Here's your sign."

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Oh my. You are not having a fun day. Deep breath and keep breathing. I was steamed enough with a not terribly dissimilar 'set up' that I cancelled all outstanding shops and requested termination. They promptly obliged and I have not regretted it.

It was nuts. I spent way, way too long on that quiz. The kicker? The weirdly detailed questions for the test were NA for this shop, anyway. An hour reviewing requirements, an hour processing and uploading and filling out the form. Half an hour at the station... That amounts to 4 dollars per hour plus just enough gas to get me there and back. I used to love Maritz!

(And while I was putting in the data I got an "overdue" email.)

Just out of curiosity, I checked out their Facebook page. They do not allow posts from fans, only comments in response to their own posts. Interesting. I'm not dumb enough to post something name about a company using my own name on facebook, but was interested to see if others have. Apparently not.

Several years ago, I had three assignments scheduled from this company. I had a seizure and was in a coma for a week (never had one before). I missed these assignments and was terminated from this and one other company. I telephoned them my situation and stated that I could get a doctor's note, but all I got was a response that if I missed two assignments, I was history.
And I now think, that's OK as there are hundreds of other MSC's that pay better than Maritz.

How awful! On the bright side, most of their assignments are becoming more trouble than they are worth. Maritz used to be a significant source of income for us... no more. I am banned from the "geen sign" audits because someone wrote in that I had flaked. I could not see the images for the test, and spent hours trying to contact someone about a shop that was due. I called, sat on hold, sat on hold, sat on hold.... left messages, emailed.... Several days later when all the shops were removed I finally got a hold of someone who could not reason, explain, or what-have-you. (Took five calls that day...) I wrote a letter to the team leader of that department and never received any reply. I was ready to terminate myself when a sheduler called with a nice bonus to drive to one of my favorite burger joints.

I used to like Maritz until I had the "quick and easy" bank shops. Yes, you receive about 20 pages of identical paper for each one and photo each paper to e-mail in. I had done several of them in one day, and apparently put the wrong (identical, mind you) cover page into one of the other assignments. They claimed they could know by the color that it hadn't come from that location, and by that point, I had started to recycle this mountain of paperwork anyway. I asked to be let off and have never been contacted again.

I think their changes are upon us. I am beginning to see more and more of them.

I used to do oodles of work for this company, but it's just too much hassle for too little. I don't understand why they can't use e-mail to communicate like every single other MSC does. The communication by phone just doesn't cut it. What shopper has time for long games of phone tag?

I agree, Tech. And the reminder phone calls get a little tedious, too.

I don't get any reminder phone calls. Maybe after today I need some.

ha ha

57carol Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ha ha

Is this for I don't get the reminder call or after today I may need some?

:-)

that you might need some, I thought that was cute...............

It was cute. There is a story behind why I said it.

well do share, please..................

57carol Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> well do share, please..................

I sent you a PM

Deech Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't get any reminder phone calls. Maybe after
> today I need some.

This is why my phone number in Maritz's system is 000-000-0000.

So I did their shop, including the new little merchandising assignment without extra pay... *whine, whine, whine...*

The shop pics and data were entered last Saturday night, and I checked every day for several days to make sure there wasn't a problem. Friday night- 7 days after the shop- an automated email stated I needed another picture. I did not see the email until early Sunday morning. Guess what? The shop has been removed from my list.

So now I am on hold with Maritz. I have a portable speakerphone with me so I am not as agitatated as usual... The counter says 29 minutes so far. I have been on hold for 31 minutes with SWITCHBOARD because the email did not give me an extension number.... No one is picking up. I wonder how long and I don't want to lose my place in the queue...

I am just about done with Maritz. What the hell is happening to their company?

53 minutes, and counting....

I feel your pain. I think my blood pressure is rising!

If they only knew you were on the forum, with an audience waiting for the outcome.

Trust me, if their facebook page allowed comments, there would be an audience...

(64 minutes)

117 minutes.... time to give up.

I hung up, called back, and went straight to the yellow team's desk. It seems the switchboard folk were having a pizza party and no one was manning the phone. The gal from the yello sign team was going to tell them what happened...

(The shop was off my list because it went through. All is well.)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/31/2011 05:58PM by heartlandcanuck.

Maybe they need to have a bunch of people post to their Twitter account with links to the threads here about them. Do the owners have a clue about how terrible the communication is and what shoppers are saying? I just looked and they have one: [twitter.com]

It looks like they just use their Twitter to broadcast their stuff to the masses, just like Facebook. There's no interaction. Wonder if they even check it.

Look at this tweet they posted: "New research: More than 70% of tweeted complaints receive no response" with a link to an article. Ironic.

Someone's already posted a link to this forum about them: [twitter.com] Oh my gosh. LOL!!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/31/2011 06:16PM by TechSavvy.

Wow!

I did find a page for Maritz research on Facebook that accepted comments... I commented on my 117 minute time on hold and cooled down, then deleted it after talking to a human.

(My post to V won't get edited if it gets posted. It has not been moderated yet and I don't have the energy to update it, then wait for moderation again...)

The sad thing is that operations there are not going to get any better. The changes being made are not in the best interest of the shoppers and sometimes the schedulers from what I was told. They can't tell the shoppers the last date shops have to be and cleared to be paid on the current pay period. Just another little change.

Techsavvy, I just wrote an email to Ms Larsen, the author of the latest study tweeted about, and told her about my hold time. In case I was a client she might have wanted to know...

Deech, I did not know that. That might explain why it took me nearly two months to get paid for a project with hard-to-fill shops.

If it falls just right it is not noticed but I did shops the first week of August until the 10th. Was not paid until the 15th of September. Reminds me of two school districts I worked for. The state transferred funds the 2nd of the month and they paid us the last Friday of the monthl. They sat on our money all month long.

If I do only gas audits and complete all of them in November and don't do the next round until January the shop I submit by the 10th of the month are not paid on until the 15th of February. At least that has been my case the last two rounds. This means they are holding my money for 45 days for it to get started.

When I checked the FAQ on the web site about the pay period it just gives the old information.

I wait on some heavy bonused shops also. I was almost afraid I was going to have to chase my money down. I think that was when I called and got the "we can't tell you" answer.

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Maritz does it again.

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