Hello, I have done gas station mystery shops for Market Force. I had one last night that had to be done 7 -9 PM. I got email from Maritz today regarding gas station routes. Has anybody done these and how is it?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/04/2017 05:34PM by sitotw.

It is a violation of your ICA to reveal the client and the MSC. Please edit your post.

I have found the Maritz shops not worth the money. Even getting a few extra dollars per station to do a route, I found each audit to take an hour and the reports would sometimes take me 3 hours to complete, with as many as 88 photos to take and download to the report! And they really believe I should do all that for a total of about $17, including reimbursements? They fail to understand that there are not enough working hours in a week to make a living by working for considerably less than minimum wage! For example, I do a gas station route for one MSC, 9 shops, 2 overnight hotel stays, and net $700; Maritz wanted me to travel just as far and do 7 stations for $280 GROSS.

At base pay plus reimbursements, even gas stations 5 minutes from my house ended up making less than minimum wage.

I thought about picking some up as "filler" on routes, but they are just too much work. To me, a "filler" should be quick, with an easy report, and pay up to $25.

However, some shoppers LIKE doing them, and have figured out how to make a living wage while shopping for Maritz.

And Maritz has many good things going for them -- they are almost always reachable by phone, they try hard to be helpful, they will send you a paper check, and, best of all, they don't have the crazy insane 8 hour filing deadline for their reports. They also pay very fast, usually within 2 weeks of the reports being approved.

Also, something I didn't know when I started with them, after you complete your report, you have to submit an invoice to get paid (it is on the website). So be SURE to submit the invoice!

Thanks for sharing your experience. I like to avoid shops with that much time commitment.

You will get paid more with Maritz than you are currently getting for shops at the other MSC, if you wait for bonuses, or request a bonus. The audits are time consuming and can take between 40 and 60 minutes. So, knowing that going in, you can figure out what you would need to make it worth your while. Instead of picking up a route, I would encourage you to look for individual locations at the website that need to be filled and try one.

I am not crazy about the Maritz ones that you have to take a picture of each of the pumps. Sometimes it is hard to get to a pump if the station is busy or a customer sits in their car and talks on the phone for a while after getting their gas. I believe that is the $17 one. I had a station once that had 16 pumps and was busy - took forever to get the pictures. I will take one or two if I need a shop but other than that I won't take those. The other ones with Maritz are fine.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/04/2017 09:28PM by pegleg2000.

@ceasesmith wrote:

I have found the Maritz shops not worth the money. Even getting a few extra dollars per station to do a route, I found each audit to take an hour and the reports would sometimes take me 3 hours to complete, with as many as 88 photos to take and download to the report!

My audits take 35-60 minutes depending on the # of pumps and how busy the station is. But three hours to upload the report with photos? Are you using a dial-up Internet connection? My reports take about 20 - 30 minutes including the invoice.

@pegleg2000 wrote:

I am not crazy about the Maritz ones that you have to take a picture of each of the pumps. Sometimes it is hard to get to a pump if the station is busy or a customer sits in their car and talks on the phone for a while after getting their gas. I believe that is the $17 one.

If a customer "camps out" at the pump screwing around with their cell phone, I knock on the window and ask them to move. Why should my pay decrease with every tick of the clock because some butthead needs to posts a selfie to Instagram?

@Sybil2 wrote:

@ceasesmith wrote:

I have found the Maritz shops not worth the money. Even getting a few extra dollars per station to do a route, I found each audit to take an hour and the reports would sometimes take me 3 hours to complete, with as many as 88 photos to take and download to the report!

My audits take 35-60 minutes depending on the # of pumps and how busy the station is. But three hours to upload the report with photos? Are you using a dial-up Internet connection? My reports take about 20 - 30 minutes including the invoice.

No. 88 photos is the AVERAGE I take on Maritz audits. I either get stations on the interstate that are huge and very, very VERY busy...feel like I have my life in my hands trying to walk through the lot! OR I get tiny, beat up stations in tiny towns, and something is ALWAYS wrong with the station. Something that consumes hours on the report, e-mails, and phone calls "No, I sent in ALL the photos I took. It's NOT A GAS STATION ANY MORE. It's now an OFFICE. There is NO merchandise for sale, because it's NOT A GAS STATION ANY MORE! It's been converted to an office building. I took interior photos, the secretary was nice enough to call her boss and get permission for me to take photos of the real estate office. No, there is NO public restroom, these are private OFFICES. Yes, I know one of my photos show a placard that says "restrooms inside", but they are NOT public restrooms, the placard is left from when it WAS a gas station. It is not a gas station anymore.

No, I do NOT have a receipt for my gas. It's not a gas station anymore. No, I do NOT have a receipt for my
"inside purchase" as there is no merchandise for sale at this location. All I have, which I submitted with the report, is a hand-written note on company stationery which the secretary was kind enough to write out for me, stating that I was at such-and-such an address at such-and-such a time on such-and-such a date.

No, I don't have an "audit authorization slip", as there was no gas station to audit."

And on and on and on and on....

I've done over 8,000 audits for Maritz. You are definitely doing something wrong if this is how any of your audits are handled.

How much reimbursement does Maritz give for gas?

@HonnyBrown wrote:

How much reimbursement does Maritz give for gas?

Depends on the client, the one that seems to be the topic of recent posts is up to $5 of fuel reimbursement.

Thanks tc.

@sitotw wrote:

Hello, I do gas station mystery shops for Market Force. I had one last night that had to be done 7 -9 PM. I got email from Maritz today regarding gas station routes. Has anybody done these and how is it?

Hi, I must be doing different gas station shops for Market Force than what the others are referring to because I'm only making $10 and taking about 15 minutes for a look around & take 10-15 photos. The report and uploading photos takes like 20 minutes. Which I think I will get quicker doing now that I have done some.

I realize this is not great money but I actually enjoy doing these revealed audits. I use them as fillers because they do not make you pick a date. Only a date range of about 10 days. So, whenever I'm in an area I stop by the nearby gas station and put a few gallons of gas in my tank for free.

Are yours mystery shops or revealed? It's kind of hard to be anonymous when you're taking the type of photos that they are requesting!

Thanks for all the info on Maritz shops everyone.

I'm confused why everyone is talking about audits when the op question seems to be about mystery shops. I like the Maritz gas m shops. The reimbursement covers the required gas (something MF does not in my area) and there are no photos. The downside is that you have to physically make sure the air/water work, unlike MF and Maritz doesn't reimburse for it (in my state it's free if you purchase gas). The report has a little more to it but not much in my opinion.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/05/2017 03:20PM by wwin.

Apparently, Maritz offers two different types of gas station audits. I guess it would depend on your area. The ones I pick do not require ANY photos, just a $5 purchase of gas and at least $1 purchase from the convenient store.

Maritz has 3 gas stations that do audits and one of them also does mystery. I think that is the $5 gas and $1 in the store. I love those and have quite a few this month.

There are a bunch of different gas stations that Martiz shops, but the routes will be just for one type of station. Now each station has its own route. So you'll pick up three, four, whatever numbers of one type of station. And they do a few different types of shops at the stations. Some are revealed, some are not, and some are de-branding. Some are during the day, and some are at night. The only thing I would caution is that some of the stations are really far apart. Martiz is not too good at knowing how far things are from each other. There might be a lot of driving on the routes.

Boy, I learned a lot here today.

I have NEVER seen a mystery shop at Maritz. Every one I see is a revealed audit. Every one requires back and front photos of EVERY pump and a photo of every violation.

Interestingly, I have done many other shops for Maritz, and breeze through them -- never a problem.

The gas stations (and I've done several different brands for them) are my Waterloo!!!

I know we have had this discussion before, and risking redundancy, I tend to agree with Sybill and Hoju. Except my 3000 Maritz shops pale compared to Hoju's 8000. Cease, in my opinion, the key to these gas station shops is a well thought out and organized worksheet. My suggestion is to set it up in the order you do the shop but keep it flexible enough that you can move on from a blocked pump, for instance, and pick it up later in the process. As you move through the shop each completed item should be checked off so that nothing is missed. The biggest hang-up can be attempting to do each pump in order rather than taking pictures as the pumps become available. My routine is fill-up, park, do the C-store, then the restroom, take the pump pictures, then the MID and overall and finally return to the pumps to note the additional info needed. I can do a simple 6 pump station in 20 minutes if there are no hang-ups but my average is around 30 minutes for all stations. And 88 photos is an overkill. How many of those photos do you actually use in your report? Finally, 3 hours is about 2 1/2 too long for uploading your report. If you have an accurate worksheet you should be able to complete your report from that without having to review your photos. As I said, the worksheet is the key.

I thought about signing up for some Maritz revealed shops today, then remembered how miserable the job was last winter and decided to wait until the temperatures warmed up.

@ceasesmith wrote:

I have found the Maritz shops not worth the money. Even getting a few extra dollars per station to do a route, I found each audit to take an hour and the reports would sometimes take me 3 hours to complete, with as many as 88 photos to take and download to the report! And they really believe I should do all that for a total of about $17, including reimbursements? They fail to understand that there are not enough working hours in a week to make a living by working for considerably less than minimum wage! For example, I do a gas station route for one MSC, 9 shops, 2 overnight hotel stays, and net $700; Maritz wanted me to travel just as far and do 7 stations for $280 GROSS.

At base pay plus reimbursements, even gas stations 5 minutes from my house ended up making less than minimum wage.

I thought about picking some up as "filler" on routes, but they are just too much work. To me, a "filler" should be quick, with an easy report, and pay up to $25.

However, some shoppers LIKE doing them, and have figured out how to make a living wage while shopping for Maritz.

And Maritz has many good things going for them -- they are almost always reachable by phone, they try hard to be helpful, they will send you a paper check, and, best of all, they don't have the crazy insane 8 hour filing deadline for their reports. They also pay very fast, usually within 2 weeks of the reports being approved.

Also, something I didn't know when I started with them, after you complete your report, you have to submit an invoice to get paid (it is on the website). So be SURE to submit the invoice!

Thank you for nailing my objections on the head. I couldn't put it together and state it in an objective voice.

My biggest peeve is needing to print off the security code. I could pick up more work on the fly; if I didn't need the security code to write reports.

I work for them so I can build my resume and they pay like clockwork. They're offering a direct deposit option now and it works.

@LIJake wrote:

I know we have had this discussion before, and risking redundancy, I tend to agree with Sybill and Hoju. Except my 3000 Maritz shops pale compared to Hoju's 8000. Cease, in my opinion, the key to these gas station shops is a well thought out and organized worksheet. My suggestion is to set it up in the order you do the shop but keep it flexible enough that you can move on from a blocked pump, for instance, and pick it up later in the process. As you move through the shop each completed item should be checked off so that nothing is missed. The biggest hang-up can be attempting to do each pump in order rather than taking pictures as the pumps become available. My routine is fill-up, park, do the C-store, then the restroom, take the pump pictures, then the MID and overall and finally return to the pumps to note the additional info needed. I can do a simple 6 pump station in 20 minutes if there are no hang-ups but my average is around 30 minutes for all stations. And 88 photos is an overkill. How many of those photos do you actually use in your report? Finally, 3 hours is about 2 1/2 too long for uploading your report. If you have an accurate worksheet you should be able to complete your report from that without having to review your photos. As I said, the worksheet is the key.

Thank you. I will admit I don't have a game plan/worksheet. I'll work on it because of your help. Thank you again.

@MA Smith wrote:

My biggest peeve is needing to print off the security code. I could pick up more work on the fly; if I didn't need the security code to write reports.

You don't need to actually print out the security code. You can just write it down somewhere on your paperwork. I add the security code to my cheat sheet. Easy peasy!

@Sybil2 wrote:

If a customer "camps out" at the pump screwing around with their cell phone, I knock on the window and ask them to move. Why should my pay decrease with every tick of the clock because some butthead needs to posts a selfie to Instagram?

Obviously, you've lived to tell the tale, but I assume every stranger has a gun and is willing to use it. No way would I knock on a window and tell a stranger to move on. You must MS in a nice parts of the country.

I am an equal opportunity mystery shopper and auditor. I work in very high-end neighborhoods, middle class areas and the low-down dirty hood. I like variety and I do not have a fear of death. Living in fear is no way to live at all.

@LIJake wrote:

The biggest hang-up can be attempting to do each pump in order rather than taking pictures as the pumps become available.

I actually take my pump photos in order 99.9% of the time. A lot of the time there are photos in between them because when a pump is in use, I'll move on to other photos and come back to it, but having them in order keep my error rate much lower.
I move fast and I'm willing to ask people to wait just a very brief moment before pulling up to a pump so I can get the picture.
Something about a person wearing a bright orange vest makes people think they need to yield to you no matter what.

I've shopped for Maritz over 22 years now, doing more thousands of shops with them than I can count. A gas location doesn't take me more than half an hour and if their site is working then a report isn't even a half hour. Even with all my bizarre adventures I have never had a report which required anywhere near 80+ photos, not even when I do an every-pump gas station.

@Sybil2

When you click on the print/view evaluation it says you must print to see the security code. How are you able to get the security code without printing the paperwork?

I have tried to take the pumps in order and it doesn't work much. There are a couple of stations by me that have 16 pumps and trying to get pictures (let alone in order) is a feat in itself.

You click on the link to print/view evaluation form, when that page comes up you can see the security code on the preview before you'd hit print..

I also don't necessarily photograph the pumps in order, I make my own check list of various photos to take and mark them off as I do them. On the check list I also write shop memos about gas and inside purchase or whatever else I have been known to forget to look for.