There are a lot of gas station shops in my area from Maritz. They pay $11 and I was wondering if they were worth it.

Has anyone done them?

What's "really" involved?

If they are the ones that pay $5, buy $5 gas and a $1 item from the convenience store, they are easy as pie. Pump your gas, pay at pump and get a receipt, quick look around to check for current POP and general cleanliness, check the bathroom, buy a convenience item, soda or tea, etc., noting the cashier's name and description, and you're done. Easy report.

I'm doing one for the yellow gas people today, I take 2 shots of 7 things, buy 2 gallons of gas and basically spend about 20 minutes at the location. The report takes me about 15 minutes when I get home.

These pay $11 and are buy $4 in gas and $1 in store purchase.

Is there a way to see the instructions for these shops, so I can see if I wanna do em before I accept em?

You guys do those gas station ones thru Maritz?

And does anyone think it's strange when you're only buying $5 of gas or 2 gal of gas?

These are Maritz. No, you can't see the whole instructions before accepting the shop. No, I put in $5 and pay with credit card at the pump so the store clerk doesn't have a clue. Sometimes if the receipt doesn't print and you have to go in to get the receipt, they might, but I've never seen them bat an eye. They don't care. Buying one or 2 gallons of gas is not what most people do, but buying small amounts of gas is apparently not as rare as one would think.

Don't be concerned about the amount of gas. Nobody cares how much gas you buy.

I had an interesting experience at a station in central Texas. A prosperous looking man drove up in a really big, expensive new pickup. He was wearing a good shirt, starched jeans, a high dollar hat, top quality boots, and a fancy belt with sterling buckle and conchos. The value of his clothes and jewelry would have bought my car. He prepaid $5.00 worth of gas, and it didn't bother him a bit. Nobody batted an eye, as we say in the South.

For more information on the shops, talk to one of the people at Maritz. Sometimes you can get right through to a person, and if not, someone will certainly call you back. They do most of their communication with shoppers on the telephone. If I remember correctly, you will not be able to self assign at first, so they will have to walk you through the process.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/08/2011 02:56AM by MDAVISNOWELL.

You're talking about the green gas people. Just as easy as the yellow ones. I spoke to the MS company and they said it was ok to get a little more gas than $4 if I really needed it but they would just reimburse you the $4. Same with the inside purchase, they'd reimburse you $1. You just need to wear your devastatingly gorgeous orange vest no matter which ones you do.

I had to order a new vest from Amazon. The plastic ones they gave me wore out. A man asked me the other day if I was going hunting.

I did a series of eight shops for them and never got paid. They claimed I did not turn in a voucher. I had to send pictures and a complete notebook back to them. Never again. I was approached by employees and felt in danger.

I do shops for them all the time. They are easy, quick and pay each month. Buying only 2 gals of gas doesn't bother me one bit. Just do your shop, make sure you have your receipt, pictures, do the report. It's not hard to do at all. I can do 3 or 4 at a time so I don't feel like I am wasting my time.

But it is up to you to make sure you get the invoice in. You only have 14 days and then you can not access the shops online in any way. That to me is the most irritating part of the who Maritz process. I do their gas shops as often as they come up.

candodo Wrote:
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> I did a series of eight shops for them and never
> got paid. They claimed I did not turn in a
> voucher. I had to send pictures and a complete
> notebook back to them. Never again. I was
> approached by employees and felt in danger.


It seems Maritz would have a less convoluted system on their website but they do not. After submitting the reports, with pictures I guess (I do not do the ones that require pictures), you must go back to the visit, click "submit an invoice," enter the visit number again, and process the invoice, then submit it. It then gives you an invoice number and a printable invoice you can retain if you want. Unless the invoice is submitted, you don't get paid. If you submit the invoice and you mess it up somehow, like attaching an unreadable receipt or something, they will contact you (I know, because I had a problem with submitting my receipts on my first few shops for them and they worked with me to get it right so I could be paid) but I am told that if you don't submit the invoice at all, they don't contact you and you are not paid.

y

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2017 10:49PM by cosj.

cosj Wrote:
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> What is the re-shop time on this shop?


I do these shops all the time but I have never had to re-shop a site. I have had to go back and get a photo I missed but the shop is put on hold and there is a 24 hour time period to get it in. That trip is at your own expense. That is why you check all your photos and receipts before you leave the site.

Several times I have had to do a re-shop that another shopper messed up and I was asked to do it over. Don't know what happened and did not ask I just took the bonus and got the shop done.

t

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2017 10:51PM by cosj.

Sorry my train of thought went in the opposite direction. I do different gas shops for them and only one has a rotation in my area. The $4 at the pump and $1 inside rotation is every other shopping time frame. So you could do the first time frame, skip the second time frame , and shop the third time frame.

Maritz has a bunch of different gas station shops. If you call the company, you can find out the re-shop. I do a green station, a yellow station, a red station, and a blue station. These don't have re-shop times. I can do them every time frame if I'm able to book them. Then there are some other stations I do that are competitor shops and they have rotations.

Do you find them worth it? I talked to them on the phone about what the shops entail and it just seems there is too much involved for using them as filler shops along my routes. I suppose i should just take one and do it to find out.

It would depend on you to decide if it is worth it. For some it is for some it is not. I use other shops as a filler when I do gas shops. The more you do them the faster you become with the actual shop and putting in the report.

The first time you do the shop it takes longer because it is new. The more you do it the faster you get. The questions do change with the cycle except a question will be added or deleted. I do them in 20 - 30 minutes because I want to make sure I have all the photos I need before I leave so I will not have to come back.

The shops that take the longest are the stations that have so much wrong with them almost every question has a no then there are extra photos to be taken. It takes me far less time to do the shop than it takes to drive there.

Right now, according to a scheduler, I am on rotation for the green station. They can lift rotation status if they really need to bad enough. They may have done away with the rotation regs but I can't speak to that.

When I first started doing these type shops for another MSC (and they are all basically the same) I did it on a day I had nothing else to shop. I did it like that to get use to it and to see if I wanted to do them.

Keep in mind that usually twice a year the weather is a disadvantage. The first cycle is in very cold weather and the second one is usually is weather that is getting pretty hot.

Is is really not that bad just sounds like it is until you get use to doing them.

v

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2017 10:48PM by cosj.

I'm looking into some of these shops, do any of these shops ever get a perfect score when you fill out the report? I'm somewhat nervous, b/c they want me to get a picture of the mens and womens restrooms. So when is the best time to do these shops? When are gas stations the least busy? Especially the ones that are right off the interstate? How would I go about executing those?

I always find it so odd that Maritz has 0 shops in my area (Twin Cities Metro) - I've been checking for years. I figure that there must be a shopper who has them on lockdown around here because I've never seen even one.

thatsdeadwrong Wrote:
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> I'm looking into some of these shops, do any of
> these shops ever get a perfect score when you fill
> out the report? I'm somewhat nervous, b/c they
> want me to get a picture of the mens and womens
> restrooms. So when is the best time to do these
> shops? When are gas stations the least busy?
> Especially the ones that are right off the
> interstate? How would I go about executing those?


Maritz does not give the shopper a score on the report. If a photo is missing or is wrong or not clear you will get a red overdue on you shop page and an explaination on what is wrong. You have 24 hours to fix it or I guess they reject it. If you do not have any overdue on your report you could assume the report is perfect.

There are no good times to do the shops. You drive up to get your gas and the station is empty. Get your gas, camera, evaluation report, introduce yourself and pull your camera out and the station is full. Never fails it seems like. We laugh about that all the time. When I enter the station the business comes in with me.

I try to get my inside photos when I first get permission to do the audit then go out side. The restrooms sometimes are tricky. I do not take a photo of the ladies restroom if is someone in there even if there are stalls. That way no one can get upset even if they are in the stall. If there are stalls I just take a photo of the counter and sink unless the place is filthy. Since the orange vest is out best friend and needs their photo with us, in the mirror, I don't want to make another lady nervous when the flash goes off.

The mens restoom photo gets a little difficult sometimes. I try to get it when no one is in the store. I like the ones with the locks on the doors, that way when I try the door and it is locked I know it is occupied and wait until they come out. I then stand in the open door and get my 2 shots. (Be careful not to mix them up.) I have gotten caught in the door with my camera and a man came around the corner. I just looked at him and said, "Don't ask," and we just laughted.

The larger stations with the stalls if I not sure, I will knock on the door and say cleaning lady. I do not open the door enough to see just to hear if someone yells back. Other stations managers will check for me.

I like to get to mine early. The earliest they can be shopped is 7:00 and most of the time the ones I have are not that busy then. Either that or folks are in a hurry to get to work so they do not hang around.

I try not to get anyone in the photos in the forecourt (fueling area) especially at the pumps. It is almost impossible not to get anyone in the shot when across the street but it too far away to tell if they are a man or woman.

If they are right off the interstate try to get as far away as you can to get the photo from across the street. (All stations, no matter the color, are very particular about that one). Get as far away as you can. I am not going up the incline of the freeway to take the photo. My luck I will slide back down. I have taken photos at an angle and still gotten the entire station and had it approved. The editor can go back and look at former reports, with the photos, and if the shopper( at some shop before) got a across the street photo they feel you can also.

All of that said they still are not bad shops to do.

CourtneyH Wrote:
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> I always find it so odd that Maritz has 0 shops in
> my area (Twin Cities Metro) - I've been checking
> for years. I figure that there must be a shopper
> who has them on lockdown around here because I've
> never seen even one.


That is strange. There are no red ones in my state and there are only 2 or 3 greens ones left. That gas company has pulled out of the state except with those. Two of them are so old and run down and in a part of that town I do not care to go in.

I am not sure how anyone could lock any of them down and not give the rest of the shoppers a chance unless they just get to the web site before anyone else sees them. I know after the jobs are posted the schedulers cannot schedule any shops with any shopper for like two weeks. When the site was updated and I tried to self schedule more than one shop at a time it, kicks all of them into the request a shop file. When I called the scheduler and told her that was not what I wanted, she told me she could not schedule anything for me for two weeks. Still only can schedule one shop at a time.

q

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2017 10:48PM by cosj.

The restroom photos are easy. Just have the CSR check for dead bodies first...

You are required to get a pic with you in the orange vest???? I haven't done one of these for ages, but lost the vest early on and didn't replace. I just did it without and have never been questioned on that one. I have a shop tomorrow, so am wondering if this is a new issue.

Yes to the orange vest. The vest photo is new this year. Mine blew apart the first year they sent it and I did not replace it either. I found one for $15 and I was not about to pay that. A guest at the hotel had to wear one all the time and he brought me one from his company.

Also have to download the receipt on the evaluation form now also. The green folks finally met my price and I found out they now require a vest . If they do not a mirror in the restroom take the photo from your car window. I get a better shot that way than all the reflection in the station window.

If you do not have a photo the form ask why. I do not know what they will say if you do not have one. Wal Mart has them in sporting goods for under $5 (or they were). They are mesh. They are hanging on a wall board close to hunting items. Everytime I ask a clerk I am told they do not have any but I always find them just never bought one.

g

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2017 10:47PM by cosj.

The send you one the first of the year but they come apart with the first big gust of wind, or mine did. I was able to borrow one the until hunting season then the guest got me one. If I have to put one on for the photo I just keep it on. It gets easier to wear it after a while.