Over the past year and a half, I have done over 120 various gas photo shops for Maritz. At best, the pay was mostly just marginal (between 9.00 & 15.00 and sometimes gas reimbursement). Since they just finished implementing their new reporting system, I think I have done my last of these for them. I feel the new system is a joke and a waste of my time. The questionaire has been reformatted and now takes twice the paper, ink, and time to print the same questions. Now I am doing the job of their photo editing department, which takes more of my time. The photo upload time has more than doubled, while the pay has remained the same. Consequently, the pay per hour has actually decreased dramatically. I live in a rural area and high speed internet is too costly, so I am stuck with dial up. Maybe with high speed, it might be worth the hassle of continuing these shops.I did one job today and I think I will cut my losses and give the job back to them, since the reporting problems that they have been having are still not fixed, but have actually been worsened.

I have had trouble with the site since they have changed too. And you are right you have to edit your photos or they won't upload. I've also had difficulty uploading a typical receipt. Ended up sending them by mail.

And seems to be they are being slower about paying for jobs than they have been in the past.

Maybe they will get the new system "ironed out" soon.

I had applied for them, but never was assigned a shop. I feel their pay is too low anyway. As far as their new system it probably was not tested thouroughly before going live. I believe they require too much for the pay they offer. It seems mystery shopping companies are attemping to pay less and less for services performed which is ridiculous, but I guess that is their job to get it done cheaply.

I figure that their website was contracted for the same way their shops are--a low offer out there that somebody was hungry enough or inexperienced enough they took. Gosh, I can write a program and I can do it in HTML, so maybe I should make money putting up websites? Duh, not hardly.

Well, I design for pay sometimes (I'm trained and teach it, as well,) but a site like that is not HTML- its heavy DB backend work. I could never do that. Leave me CSS anyday. And it needs a a coding specialist. That work doesn't come cheap, and maybe they did bid it out, or maybe they did it in house, but didn't really understand what they are doing.

::double posted--sorry:

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/11/2008 10:40PM by Flash.

I certainly understand it is not HTML. I was being smarty about it because it looks and responds definitely amateurishly, as if it had, perhaps, been put together by somebody who knew a little HTML and was learning the rest on the fly.

I just opened a new e-mail from Maritz. They are offering a $5 bonus on a particular gas shop if you pick them up in a hurry. There doesn't seem to be much of a movement of their shops of any kind. The extra $5 is still not enough to make it worth the trouble of wading through this new site. I think they had a slow down on takers on the gas shops for this quarter. I picked up 24 of them this time, before the new site went into effect. Only one of the two shops I left has been picked up by someone else. Normally, most of the in-town shops go in a day or so, but this time I took over a week to decide on the ones I wanted. I think the new site is a snub to the shoppers. More work, time and my materials so I can do my job and someone else's for actually less money per hour. I wonder how long before they have to either improve the site again or raise the fees across the board?

Don't hold your breath on either website optimization or fees raised :-) I have seen the same fees from them for the same jobs for years now. On the other hand, they haven't been like some MSPs and cut the fees or cut the fees and offered "sweepstakes entries" of dubious merit.

Their new website has disqualified me from shopping for them . I have never had
a problem with them, have a good rapport with several achedulers and have done
a lot of shops for them. I am trying to get to the bottom of it but their people
get the same check next week whether they help me or not. I have talked to a couple of underlings they let take phone calls but gotten nowhere. They have always been indifferent, but this takes the cake.

I'm so glad to read I'm not the only one having problems with this company. It just isn't worth $7.50 to spend two hours trying to get the reports in the computer to meet their deadlines. Fortunately, I found the quizzes pretty easy, but then perhaps I just got lucky and I did save the information for future reference. I'm thankful there are so many other companies out there that aren't so difficult to please.

I received an e-mail yesterday where Maritz was offering $10 bonuses on a group of shops that normally go for $10 each. Only hitch is that the jobs have to be done next week and you have to have materials shipped to to you. From what I've seen on their web site, jobs are moving very slow, even for the non-photo jobs. I think they revamped their site to put more work on the shoppers and make the jobs for their schedulers and other staff easier to save money. It seems that sooner or later, somebody will have to realize that the shoppers are not as gullible as they think nor or are the company reps as smart as they think themselves to be. When I have to use more of my paper,ink and time to download the paperwork that I have to print, I feel that I should expect to be compensated for my extra expenses, not have the overall pay decreased just because somebody decides to deliberately make the job more difficult.

Joan--your experience with ANY company is not yours alone. Hang around long enough. BTW--how long have you been shopping?

Tomm--don't hold your breath. Many of them are lowering their fees, and no matter how low they go, there's always someone who will take them. I usually wait till certain gas shops at Ritter go to their highest price at month's end. This month someone grabbed them all at the lowest price. Lots of suckers out there!

As for paper and ink, I download many of the instructions into a folder, read them, and just boil them down to a few notes on a pad. Most of them never get printed. I'm not defending their tactics, just offering a little help with your expenses.

I also have been mildly annoyed at the security code nonsense. Perhaps it made sense years ago when paperwork was mailed out and back but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense when you are selecting a job to report. If entering information from the wrong location was such a huge problem, I think we would hear a lot more shoppers groan about not being paid.

So you are going to 5 locations, repeating 5 times the same job that you have done every month for how many years? You scan over the instructions online and there are no changes from what you have done every month. You could just as readily use the same paperwork package to make notes you have used for each job with a different colored pencil and save a tree. But no, with Maritz you need to print the page in order to get the security code.

I trust that eventually they will get their website worked out but I just don't trust that the mind set of the company ever will update. I have now received my last payment from before the change to the new system and my payments from the jobs reported on the new system. These were the last jobs I will be doing for Maritz without truly substantial bonuses that appropriately compensate for my time spent jumping through their hoops.

Has anybody been doing their $15.00 photo audits? I took on a bunch this past week and I am sorry I did. One location was closed, but you still have to take 2 photos and do the debrief. I had trouble downloading my pictures from my camera to my HP program. It put me way behind. Also, I lost all my info for one of the debriefing because it didn't save when I left my computer for a few minutes.

By the time you go to the locations, take the photos, download the photos, name the photos, go through the questionnaire and upload the photos, I think I made zilch, zero dollars. One Maritz employee told me that it really shouldn't take but about 15 minutes to debrief. I just don't know about that. With the money the oil companies make, you would think they could pay more for these. I really got a little perturbed after a while doing these. Oh, another thing, I also had to call the marketer two days prior to doing the shop and enter the info on the website. You know, that takes a while to do too.

I like doing the photos but my goodness, it not worth my time for such little money. There's another MSP who does these too. They only pay $12.00 and they want you to do a customer service survey and a lot more. Tons of guidelines.

Have you had the same problems? Or do you have some suggestions for me if perhaps I'm going at these wrong or something. It made me feel really bad doing these. Not much fun at all.

They have a new pilot program now like GfK's. Buy $5.00 gas and $1.00 in the store. NO PHOTOS. They gave an incentive of $3.00 to do them over the weekend. I did so many for GfK this week, I didn't have any room for gas or the energy to do any more. My husband, said he didn't know he had a wife anymore because I didn't come to bed. I was on the computer so long.

Thanks to all of you. I enjoy this forum. Your expertise and knowledge are helpful.

The ONLY ones I will do anymore are GFK and the TNS ones. Both are flat fee shops. One is a reveal with 4 or 5 photos, one is no photos but a longer report. I feel both shops are a fair use of my time for the pay.

There are some folks who look forward to Maritz gas but I have better things to do with my time because they are definitely not cost efficient for me! CORI I will do with bonuses that get the pay almost equivalent to list price on GFK and TNS, but I haven't seen decent bonuses on those in some time. I am unwilling to do Ritters.

I've been Gold Certified through MSPA since August 2003. In some ways I've been mystery shopping all my life. About 25 years ago my girlfriend worked for a marketing company and I did her Wendy mystery shops all over NE Florida. It was so different then. I'd be given $3.00 for food at each location. I vividly remember when they were testing the upselling aspect of the business by rewarding their associates if they asked if I'd like an order of fries with my order. So, the location would get either a smiley face or a frown for being successful, then the person taking the order would be rewarded with $10. Way back then that was considered quite a bit of money. Would you believe NO Reports! No photos! That was it. Being an insurance adjuster and traveling all over the same territory I made my girlfriend's life much simpler. I can remember having 5 to 10 containers of chili in my refrigerator at one time. Wow!! Times have changed since then.

I refuse to do the gas station ones. I could never just go and pump a dollar of gas. That seems so ridiculous to me. Then, go inside and make a small purchase along with all those photos is just crazy.

I'm not anxious to do anymore of the Maritz ones like I did a couple weeks ago. After reading all the guidelines, practically panicking to meet each requirement with timing down to the seconds at the different intervals, and figuring out where to put the food I don't even eat without being noticed made me half whacked. You can't take anyone with you. How do you order and receive your food, then inspect the restrooms? I don't want to take my food with me. I managed to get the table next to me to watch my food while I visited the little girl's room. Then, have to do practically the same thing at the drive thru. Even more food I don't eat. Then, go home and enter all the stuff in the computer. It's a good thing I'm not married, as I relate to Charlene's statement being on the computer half that night to meet the out of the ordinary time restraints and having to upload their specific report along with the receipts three times before realizing it was their required report that wouldn't upload and ultimately required faxing. All of this for $7.50. I'm much better suited for ice cream audits, sit down dinners or collecting aluminum cans.

Suppose it's whatever tickes your fancy. Anyone that likes those deserve a gold star in my mind. I applaud them!

charlened Wrote:
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> They have a new pilot program now like GfK's. Buy
> $5.00 gas and $1.00 in the store. NO PHOTOS. They
> gave an incentive of $3.00 to do them over the
> weekend.

I used to do these shops that Gfk now has (though with less locations here) for Gap. Same exact survey. Better pay from GfK (though Gap offered me more bonuses, GfK pays better up front...) Maritz called me a few times to do their photo gas shops. I declined. I said I had heard too many awful things from other shoppers on forums to consider them. I have a young son and want to live to see him graduate college at the very least...Some of those station owners seems to go off all crazy when the photos come out. No thanks! And that doesn't even include the extra time for uploading, etc. I have not been to their site since it changed over, and all the new problems shoppers have been stating cropped up. If they are doing thes, it might be worth a look! :-)

I got an email explaining that they put a couple of my gas station audits on hold. One photo wasn't good enough. There wasn't a soap dispenser on the wall, so I took a picture where it should have been. I can see their reasoning, it didn't show the sink and mirror. I went back to take another photo of the men's restroom and the CSR, who was from India, I think, put a hand soap decanter on the sink. He explained in the best English he could, he was so nice, that bus loads of people come in there and take the tissue paper and the soap.Can you believe that? I got the picture before without the soap and a picture after with the soap. What do I do now?

The other station is on hold because of missing photos. I was so tired after working on these debriefs that I think I answered a question wrong. When I went to the station, the telephone was working. It was another station that had the broken telephone. One of the perimeter lights was burned out the night I was there. Today, the station lights weren't turned on yet. I took the photo anyway because it is burned out.

I've never had any body go crazy on me. I've read some stories too, but due to the insignificant pay for these, I am declining to do any more unless they are nicely bonused. And I feel that we perform an important necessary audit at these stations. I enjoy taking the photos but need to be paid more for them.

Maritz called me two days ago with an overdue shop. They offered me a oil change shop with extra incentive. I need an oil change so I took it. They pay for the oil change and extra pay. Sounded like a pretty good deal.

You have my sincere sympathy for the gas shops Charlened. I don't know if they still do it, but the multiple threats leveled at shoppers for possibly using photos from former shops was my first level of disgust and the shops went downhill from there. Of course you don't 'recycle' photos and perhaps one threat of deactivation is enough? I too battled with the photo editor and eventually told them what they could do with one of the shops. Wanting multiple visits to achieve a level of 'perfection' that can not be achieved with personal safety is just bull on a cheap shop.

Before I was doing shops I used to go to the locations where Maritz offers their oil change shops and stopped doing so because: 1) it generally took me 2-3 hours to get an oil change (min 1hr, max 5hr). 2) the guys stripped the oil plug every couple of visits so I always had with me the paperwork from the last oil change to show it was their responsibility to replace it. 3) they usually reported strange numbers of 'grease fittings'--generally 4-7--and my vehicle has only 2. 4) they reported tread depth on my tires and it varied wildly between visits--sometimes showing my tires with a whole lot more tread left on them 6 months later (my tires were wearing evenly so it wasn't a case of measuring different tires or different amounts of wear, it was just sloppiness). I did one oil change shop with Maritz only because I was going to do a ff shop and a cell phone shop at the location anyway and got it all lined up to do simultaneously. I spent some time putting together lists of personal stuff I needed and spent a fair amount of time on my personal business. Nevertheless I had nearly an hour wait after all my other stuff was done. Then there was battling their website to get the shop in. Quite different from the oil shops I do with another MSP that tend to take under 20 minutes total.

Thanks, Flash

I've been getting email from them to clear up the missing photos. I called and left a message. I never heard back from them by phone. I felt I needed to talk to them and explain. I'm calling again this morning and sending an email. I have the missing photos now since I went back and took new pictures and will upload the ones they need for the infractions.

Seems since they changed the site, it's harder to get through to someone. They haven't answered email I sent them on another shop that was on hold. I called and it didn't help. The employee didn't know why they had it on hold. I resubmitted it and it went through okay.

h my goodness, I hope this oil change doesn't take forever. I wanted to do it on Wednesday. It was a cloudy and rainy day. I called over at the service department and was told it wasn't much of a wait. Of course,now,it's the weekend crowd. I haven't been able to even look at it yet. I've been so busy with other shops. DSG and Athpoweronline have assigned me a bounty of shops. And GfK has also. I have a FF lunch shop tomorrow I've got to do for MFI.

I did four shops today, and I'm stuck on one of the reports. It's late and I'm tired. Good night all.

A shopper friend was told that Maritz does not read the emails on line but rather does a daily print of the emails to manually distribute to folks to call back and respond to. Certainly there has never been a response to the few emails I have sent. It is nonsense to have an email link on their website if questions and issues just go into the ether.

I have contacted them once since the changeover to the new website. For the first time since working with them I had a past due payment and it was under the old website so I could not see any of the information. They evidently had lost my invoice. Luckily there were no receipts mailed with it as it had been a photo upload shop. I ended up talking with 3 people before the third indicated they would have a fourth call me back. When the 4th called, they indicated they would approve payment, which I received several weeks later. I sense total chaos in their house.

Funny on Maritz and thier gas shops They called me and asked me to do some card swaps for them. I went to the both shops neither one even had the cards there nor did they know anything. Then I reported back to Maritz and did all their paperwork game oneline. Now I am recieving 2 emails a day saying needs clarification because I did not submit a photo. A photo of what? The job doesn't exist if there were no cards to put out how much more clarification can they need? I have called and to no suprise no one ever gets back with me. All I can do is delete the 2 emails everyday like I don't have enough to delete and look through anyways. Well now I feel better knowing I am not the only one with frustrations with this company. Trust me I live in a very rual area 30 miles away from almost anywhere littearlly compnies have actually let me name my own price there are alot of GREAT companies out there but always those few that have to spoil all the fun in shopping.

Have you considered taking a picture of your foot and uploading that to them? Or a sunset? Or a blank piece of paper lying on a table? If there was no specificity as to what you were to take a photo of, send them something absurd but not obscene

Take a picture of the inside of the store showing there were no cards... :-)

That might require a return visit I am amused by one company that asks I take a picture of where the thing SHOULD have been if it is not there. I send them photos of floor tile, empty card tables (I am supposed to be looking for product demonstrations) or just random shots up the aisle.

I send Ritter photos of missing soap dispensers and towel holders in restrooms. How do they know they were missing from the left wall and not missing from the right wall? Maybe I lied, and they were really on the other wall.

On a shop last week, I forget which company, there was no way to show the missing "whatever." I wrote on a piece of paper, "There was no (whatever)" and uploaded it, otherwise the software wouldn't accept the report. That was fun. No complaints from the company.

Yes, I have my scanned post-it notes "No purchase required for this visit", "No longer doing business as this brand" etc. that get uploaded instead of a receipt. Of course the problem is explained in the report, but my sense is that reports get mindlessly previewed for documentation and if a receipt upload is the standard, there had best be something there even if it was not a shop requirement.

I haven't done any gas shops for Maritz yet but I did 3 bank shops (my first for them) the end of January. I signed up on Christmas & immediately applied for a bank shop (required bank approval to be accepted). I never heard anything until the end of January and they called. I had a lot of shops so said no. Then the last day of the month they called to tell me they were bonusing the bank shops at $30 (regular $15) - so I did 3 that day. Easy shops, one business card, short yes/no report w/1 short narrative. I've talked to several schedulers and all are very nice and helpful. I like them, at least so far.

I have a jpg file I made in "Paint" that is pretty and ornamental and says "No Photo Available" with little curlicues around it. I have used it many times when there was nothing to take a picture of.

sneakers Wrote:
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> I send Ritter photos of missing soap dispensers
> and towel holders in restrooms. How do they know
> they were missing from the left wall and not
> missing from the right wall? Maybe I lied, and
> they were really on the other wall.
>
> On a shop last week, I forget which company, there
> was no way to show the missing "whatever." I wrote
> on a piece of paper, "There was no (whatever)" and
> uploaded it, otherwise the software wouldn't
> accept the report. That was fun. No complaints
> from the company.