Negotiating Maritz gas station bundled routes

March 11, 2015 03:06PM

I'm a fairly new shopper still, and these are a whole new ball game to me. I've done a couple but they were already a very good price. Bonuses were in place. So, short and sweet, what is your strategy for negotiating a bundled route?

To be clear, I'm asking how you go about getting your price if you think it's worth more than they have offered?

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March 11, 2015 03:19PM

I just counter with what I think is reasonable. They will wait for the best price they can get. So it depends on your market. I have also noticed, that they do not pay close attention, to station locations, I always find an orphan which I drop from the route.

March 11, 2015 03:30PM

And I'll make an offer without the orphaned station on the route, giving myself a nice window to do it, then make a separate offer on the orphaned station.

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Have PV-500 & willing to travel.
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March 11, 2015 03:35PM

Well up till now I've been picking up that orphaned station with a whopping bonus. I"m ready to jump into the route fire though. But I still love you guys who won't do that orphan. Of course it's always a mess because its out in BFE where they don't think anyone will ever come by to check on them.

The last one of those I did, the owner was very rude to me, although I try to be as non-threatening as possible. I continued to be polite but when I went into the disgusting bathroom I came out with the dreaded tp on my shoe and didn't know it. Someone outside pointed it out to me, although for sure the owner had seen it. So I stayed an extra 15 minutes just to show her she couldn't intimidate me by letting me be embarrassed.

March 11, 2015 04:08PM

The routes I have been seeing have two gas stations 50 to 100 miles apart and they are offering $22 (total) to do both of them. And the closest one to me is usually 30 miles away. I don't respond to their emails, so they call me, and can't understand why I want $1 per driving mile to do one of those routes. That is easy to calculate, and I figure it takes care of my timne also. They also seem to have zero concept about toll bridges and toll roads, and that I can only get on toll roads, and get off toll roads, at limited places (think the NJ Turnpike in South Jersey).

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

March 11, 2015 04:42PM

I would not be too critical of Maritz [or any MSC] regarding toll roads and toll bridges. If you're not in the immediate area, or at least somewhat familiar with the area, you won't know about the specifics. For example, I know Portland and Eugene are both in Oregon [and yes, there's also Portland, Maine and probably some others], but I have no idea the distance between them.

March 11, 2015 04:59PM

I don't expect them to know about the toll roads and toll bridges, but when I tell them about them and about the cost for traveling from Exit 2 to Exit 1 on the NJ Turnpike and the $5 fee for the Commodore Barry Bridge, they will not increase the fee to cover the expense. I have told them that they will then need to find someone who lives in NJ and is already planning on paying the toll. The jobs then just sit there. Some are even for gas stations in NJ Turnpike service plazas, most of which only have access from one direction (Northbound or Southbound). They told me that doesn't make sense.

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

March 11, 2015 05:25PM

Sometimes schedulers are dealing with a computer and a map site, meaning that some schedulers don't even live in the State that they assign or oversee OUR destination issues. Maybe before we commit to a shop, we should ask the MSC if they are willing to pay or reimbursed the transportation fee or toll fee.

It is one thing to "be going that way anyway" but to be doing them a favor, maybe they should include tolls. Even if it is one way. I see a problem, if they did because if you do a ROUTE we could probably make more on the reimbursed toll fees, then the shops itself. Maybe that's why the MSC does not pay tolls.

If willing, negotiate your bonus or your fees to do the shop. Especially if the MSC is not having anyone "Locally" assigning the shops.

March 11, 2015 08:54PM

They do no know, nor do they particularly care, about distances and tolls. They simply want to pay the lowest amount to get the job done. If you're the fastest accepter or the lowest counter-bidder on their route offers, it goes to you, whether you're the closest or furthest from the locations. For orphaned stations you can employ two strategies. Ask for what you need, or ask for what you think they'll pay. I choose the latter, and if it's not accepted, then I'll ask for less next time, as long as it's still above what I need.

March 11, 2015 09:48PM

@elcarev68 wrote:

Ask for what you need, or ask for what you think they'll pay. I choose the latter, and if it's not accepted, then I'll ask for less next time, as long as it's still above what I need.

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March 11, 2015 11:47PM

Although nice people at Maritz most not too bright. They don't get route scheduling so you must negotiate one location at a time which makes it hard to set a route with them. My way around it is I calculate what I need for all the locations and then deduct the regular pay and that leaves me what I need as a incentive. I then tell them I can do all these shops at base pay if you will give me location x at such and such incentive. Ex you need $20 Incentive for each of 10 locations. Only one is offering incentives. I can do these 9 locations at base pay if you can do this location with an incentive of $200. for whatever reason this works. Just make it clear without the highly incentive location you will not be able to do the others.

Shopping Western NY, Northeast and Central PA, and parts of Ohio and West Virginia. Have car will travel anywhere if the monies right.

March 12, 2015 12:16AM

Where are they? I haven't seen any in my area...???

March 12, 2015 01:22AM

The thing that grinds my gears about Maritz is that the teams don't want to work together. If I'm going to make a route, it's going to be across multiple brands to fill it up nicely. They have no idea how to negotiate multiple brands across multiple teams. They get so confused because I'm only willing to take a handful of jobs IF I can take the other handful of jobs so they need to work it out on their end.

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March 12, 2015 11:23PM

I have been successful in putting routes together with this MSC using two or three different brands. It did take several calls to different schedulers negotiating bonuses and getting them approved with different supervisors. I had to do the phone work but in the end it paid off.

March 13, 2015 04:02AM

Thanks guys. I was successful at negotiating my first one. But my competition was probably already too busy LOL.

March 20, 2015 01:55AM

Does anyone remember receiving a message from them last month asking us to not cancel our routes due to recurring bad weather, but rather to call them and they'd work with us in making it work out?

March 20, 2015 02:01AM

Mary Davis Nowell. Based close to Fort Worth. Shopping Interstate 20 east and west, Interstate 35 north and south.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2015 11:19PM by MDavisnowell.

March 20, 2015 02:11AM

Thanks, MD. Don't know why I thought that I had seen that. Can't imagine they'd make such a message geographically specific. Could have been client specific. I'll still get mine done, but I'll have to use vacation days at this point. No more winter routes for me.

March 20, 2015 04:22AM

Even with a map they didn't seem terribly sure where I was. Doesn't help I'm Canadian though.. and the scheduler's boss kept claiming the location that was 134 kilometers each way, was 'only' 50 miles. No.. it's 84 miles each way which I had to go look up. I asked for a hefty bonus.. they offered half, I asked for more, and got it.. even though I've never done anything for them before.

Seems there are no shops in Ontario if you are an unproven shopper.. they are all hidden so I can't pick up anything even if I wanted to.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/20/2015 04:22AM by Mafia_Princess.

March 20, 2015 09:37PM

@BuffaloNY101: I could be wrong, but it appears no one realized the value of the strategy you generously shared. IMO, you're brilliant!

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March 21, 2015 02:33PM

@stilllearning wrote:

@BuffaloNY101: I could be wrong, but it appears no one realized the value of the strategy you generously shared. IMO, you're brilliant!

[www.mysteryshopforum.com]

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Actually I used this strategy. I broke down what they were offering per shop with a bundled route. It was $20 each. I have done all of these stations before so I know which one is a hot mess. I thought $20 each was reasonable for the others, but I added $30 for the bad one that had lots of violations last time. So I submitted my offer exactly $30 above what they were asking. They accepted it without even trying to get me to lower it, which makes me think I can go a bit higher next time.

This is a small 5 station route in an area I'm always shopping anyway.

April 14, 2015 03:02AM

Just adding my grain of salt about this MSC. If you take a bundled route and for whatever reason you end up not being able to do one of the locations, you get completely banned to get shops for that particular gas station company in the future. Extensions are not easily granted either: one to three days max even if there is lots of bad weather or some other type of problem.

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Negotiating Maritz gas station bundled routes

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