Let me start out by saying I like Maritz and do a lot of shops for them. However, I get frustrated with them because my shops available periodically disappears. I know there are shops available and have had them assigned by a scheduler and also get calls asking if I can help them with some shops, even though my board is blank. I have asked schedulers and ad-min what the problem is and asked to speak with an IC person. No one could tell me why my shops available board is empty. Ad-min seemed a little miffed that I spoke with them as I was told that scheduling shops is not their responsibility. I was also told that no one from IC was available. And the schedulers simply did not know. I came to the conclusion that I had too many shops scheduled and could add no more but no one could tell me how many is too many.

So much for my frustrating rant. My shops available re-appeared a couple of days ago just as mysteriously as the disappeared. Today I received a message apologizing for a delay in getting my June shops processed which caused a block on my being able to self-assign July shops. I was assured that this is being taken care of and they will work through this glitch quickly. I was given no choice but to fill my month with shops from other MSC's, so in the long run Maritz helped me.

Has anyone else had this problem and did anyone else receive this message?

Jake

I received an "apology" e-mail from them on yesterday but it was about a totally different subject than what you are talking about. I am going to "copy and paste" it below blocking out the client name. Since I am not fully functioning yet this morning, if I overlooked something, please let me know immediately. I do not want to be "yelled" at by a Mod today.


"{Bank} Contractors,

We would like to sincerely apologize for the slight delay in getting some of your shops processed through our validation system. {Bank} has discovered a glitch in their system which caused a high volume of mailings to not go out in June. Shops which did not receive their mailed materials must be looked at on a case by case basis to understand if they were affected by this glitch to understand how they could have scored.

Please know that we at Maritz sympathize with your situation and are doing everything in our power to speed up this process so that your visits can be sent through the system. We have created a process that will allow all of the visits that are being rechecked to be processed for payment at the end of July regardless of what status they are in.

Because these shops are not technically complete in our system until they have been looked at to assess the correct scoring, we are also aware that they may be blocking you from awarding yourself additional shops. We will work through these as quickly as we can. In the meantime, you are welcome to call Maritz to assist in awarding you more shops.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

Maritz Research"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2014 12:01PM by Shop2LiveinFL.

I had some hiccups with them this week over the assignment dates of three shops, but it got worked out and I know the reason for the problem. I've never had a situation of shops appearing and disappearing, but I'm not sure I would notice such a thing since I probably only search their board once or twice a month. If a shop disappeared, I would assume someone else got it. If it reappeared, I wouldn't know it hadn't been there the day before.

Frequently I won't be able to see this or that brand of station, not limited to any one brand. It's an on again and off again problem and doesn't have to do with how many I have assigned. One in particular is especially difficult, it throws me out and I am even thrown out from the recurring shops portion of the program and lose what I've established there. I had one brand that was relatively stable and even that one threw me out this month. I don't know what's wrong, maybe their system is overloaded. It's glitzy for sure. For me it's getting worse instead of better.

I just posted my "apology" e-mail from Maritz above. They are blaming the problem on the client's system but Maritz has many issues with their own system. I think that they should not waste the manpower to review each and every shop and just give all the {bank} employees the points for the month of June. Consider it a summer-style Christmas or Hanukkah gift.

Why are shoppers always the ones to suffer the consequences of computer glitches and MSC/client errors? What are your thoughts on the debacle?

I can understand and accept the fact that glitches will occur. What annoys me is no one at Matitz has an answer. As for bank employees getting or not getting points is of no concern to me. Their problem, not mine.

But me not getting paid on time because of another company's glitch is MY concern. And my 11 (or was it 12) affected shops were a bonused 2-day overnight trip. So yes, I am not a happy camper.

I have never been able to see shops and talked to just about everybody there. Two days ago, I made one last ditch effort. The woman I spoke to referred my account to an IT person (I only recommended that solution a zillion times). She left a message that the IT person figured out what was wrong on their end, and now I can see shops. That glitch only took a few years for them to figure out. And wow - I get to see $12 big box hardware stores that I did for CoRI for $25+. I'm hoping these will get bonused, so I'll just wait them out.

I had glitches with dates this past week also - jobs were listed for July initially, but when I went to download paperwork that morning, the dates were August! Made a call but that scheduling team was not in yet - was transferred to another team member who was able to help me out. Quick fix, everything was scheduled correctly and I was on my way!