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Maritz Bundle Gas Station Audits

December 04, 2016 06:23PM
I do a lot of out-of-town gas station audits over a range of sometimes 200 miles one way. Maritz bundles the shops in routes of 2 to 45 or 50 stations. An example of one route was about 30 gas stations in my hometown and the other 15 or 20 were in a town 130 miles south. The payment for the route was not sufficient to pay for the cost of gas or a night in a motel and still make a profit to be able to do the shops in the town south of mine. I put in a request for only a portion of the shops, the ones in my hometown, and presented a new bid for the route, but the last three or four times I have done it the request is not even acknowledged and eventually the bundle is re-posted with another equally inconvenient route. Another aggravation has occurred when towns 50 to 100 miles away and have two or more stations are offered on separate routes. I wish I could talk with the route planner for my area. I could set up routes which would not only make my life easier and I would spend far less for gas but would also save the company money paid on incentives to send me to places I have already been.
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More About Gas Station Mystery Shopping
December 04, 2016 06:58PM
I assume the shops you refer are the green gas stations. Other than the very first time I accepted the packaged route, the routes have been as you said, an aggravation. I'll use another term a pita.

I've viewed the routes and then saw the shops too many miles distant to make them doable (even when they give ample time to do them and assign other shops in the vicinity). I've done the same (submitted a bid and/or deleted the distant shops) and have not received any return input. Since then, I look at the routes and pass; not worth my time.

I've always assumed someone submitted a better bid. Good for them, I'll take the local shops that are left after the routes or their remainders are dissolved.

That's all you can do.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/2016 06:59PM by French Farmer.
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December 04, 2016 08:18PM
I don't think we are talking about the same gas stations but the principle is the same. I have been working with Maritz for a number of years and this subject is really my only complaint. Whenever I have had a problem I have found the schedulers and supervisors doing all they can to help me. I just wish with the route bundling they would get feedback from the shoppers in the field so they could design more practical and efficient routes.
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December 04, 2016 09:34PM
The majority of Martiz employees are not even allowed to use email. Do you really expect them to put together a route that makes sense?
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December 04, 2016 09:38PM
Last I heard they had maps taken away from them so the routes will probably continue to get worse. I used to do some and I enjoyed it, but someone in my neck of the woods took them all for cheaper. More power to him/her. I"m not doing this to lose money and I spent the last two months shopping my immediate vicinity with easy retail and FF shops, and made good money doing it. I take whatever pays well. Like the OP said, I could put the routes together with ease since I have now been to nearly every location, but they insist on doing it the hard way.
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December 04, 2016 10:25PM
I'm not into bad mouthing Maritz employees. As I said, I have always had good experiences with them. If Maritz does not make a profit I will not have a job so I would prefer to do my best to see that my part of the commitment is done well.
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December 05, 2016 02:06AM
the benefit is I end up getting one or two close or realtively close for big bucks aka outlaying shops.

Shopping Western NY, Northeast and Central PA, and parts of Ohio and West Virginia. Have car will travel anywhere if the monies right.
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December 05, 2016 01:31PM
I've offered several time to create their routes for them in my area and they always say "I'll see what they say." I have three green station routes with them. They somehow happened to be decent routes. Every so often they send me a route with 50 stops and expect me to take $500 for it, even though it spans well over a thousand miles. Who is taking these???

______________________________________________________________________
Seriously, nobody cares that you're offended.
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December 05, 2016 08:08PM
@Judy1942 wrote:

I'm not into bad mouthing Maritz employees. As I said, I have always had good experiences with them. If Maritz does not make a profit I will not have a job so I would prefer to do my best to see that my part of the commitment is done well.

I completely agree. Who is bad mouthing them? They are my favorite company.
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December 06, 2016 04:52PM
I've been with them over 20 years now, still my favorite company. The only thing laughable about some of their "routes" is that one of them consisted of exactly ONE location. It's hard to think about a solitary gas station as a bundle but the truth is that we only have one of those particular stations within hundreds of miles from here.

Her Serene Majesty, Cettie - Goat Queen of Zoltar, Sublime Empress of Her Caprine Domain
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December 06, 2016 05:48PM
In the old days, I didn't mind heading out to stations 60 or 100 miles away, then the routes came out, and I never shopped the gas stations again. I was shopping in a huge state with two time zones. I couldn't explain over the phone that I didn't have time and they wouldn't pay me enough to take routes that involved 12 or 15 hours of driving, one way. I wonder if other shoppers bailed when the routes came out.
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December 07, 2016 09:26PM
I bailed. I loved doing those stations but the routes are ridiculous.
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December 09, 2016 02:15PM
This explains why no one answers the emails.
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December 12, 2016 05:38AM
I have worked for Maritz for 3 years and have never seen these routes. I am wondering if it is because I live in a very rural area? Montana, Idaho Wyoming area. Where would I find these routes?
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December 12, 2016 05:57AM
If they need you or want you, they get offered to you.
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December 12, 2016 10:46AM
Patti915, the routes I've seen have been offered by email. They may not have routes in your area, or they may have a shopper who does them. It would be a good idea to call them and tell them you're interested.

Mary Davis Nowell. Based close to Fort Worth. Shopping Interstate 20 east and west, Interstate 35 north and south.
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December 12, 2016 07:27PM
Thank you!
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January 07, 2017 07:17PM
Well, I was hoping someone who develops routes for gas station audits specifically in Texas would have read the posts from last month and make a change to how they set them up. But, no, it didn't happen. Again the routes are set up to include only a portion of the audits in a town plus additional audits in a town(s) from fifty to even a hundred miles away. So, in one more attempt, I will voice my suggestion/complaint. Here in the Panhandle, towns are at a minimum thirty to fifty miles apart with few exceptions. Some are even further away. It is impossible to drive a route that is 400 or more miles round trip with seventeen to twenty shops in one day. The routes don't pay enough to afford an overnight stay in a motel and they also don't pay enough to make the trip a two day, two round trips event. It is totally non-understandable why a route developer would have half of the available gas stations in my hometown and half or more of the available gas stations in another town which is more than one hundred miles away scheduled on the same route. Does that make sense? Not hardly. Please if anyone from Maritz reads this, please...please...please see what you can do about this.
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January 07, 2017 08:02PM
@Judy1942 wrote:

Well, I was hoping someone who develops routes for gas station audits specifically in Texas would have read the posts from last month and make a change to how they set them up. But, no, it didn't happen. Please if anyone from Maritz reads this, please...please...please see what you can do about this.

Voicing complaints about the operations of a mystery shopping company on an internet shopper forum and hoping someone at the company who has decision-making authority will see it and make a change is probably not likely. There are a couple of MSC presidents and principal employees of MSCs who read here and they sometimes come into the forum to argue. Some like to identify the shoppers who are posting anonymously. Other companies have employees who read here but I'd be very surprised if much credence were given to the comments of an anonymous shopper poster. In any case, I don't think Maritz reads shopper comments here.

Why not voice your thoughts directly to the company? That way at least you would know your thoughts reached the company, regardless of whether it got any change or not.
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January 07, 2017 08:14PM
Perhaps you are right, roflwofl, but I think any person who reads my above post will surely look at other I have written praising this company and their employees. I have a great work and ethic record with them and they would know that too. I also have defended the company from some who decided bashing them was okay. I refuse to be involved in that as this company has been incredibly good with me. I have never had a problem with them that a phone call did not correct. If I knew WHO to call at the company, I would, but I simply don't know how to get that information. Do you know someone at Maritz who has told you no one reads comments on this forum? I have been told some on their management team do.
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January 07, 2017 08:58PM
@Judy1942 wrote:

Perhaps you are right, roflwofl, but I think any person who reads my above post will surely look at other I have written praising this company and their employees. I have a great work and ethic record with them and they would know that too. I also have defended the company from some who decided bashing them was okay. I refuse to be involved in that as this company has been incredibly good with me. I have never had a problem with them that a phone call did not correct. If I knew WHO to call at the company, I would, but I simply don't know how to get that information. Do you know someone at Maritz who has told you no one reads comments on this forum? I have been told some on their management team do.

Who told you that some on their management team read here? Someone who works with Maritz? Whoever told you that would be a good source for a name of someone to talk with. If that person knows that some on the management team read here, then that person would probably know who the management team is. Looking at the MSPA contact information for Maritz, Gina Wiseman, gina.wiseman@maritzcx.com, 636/827-3960, is shown as their main contact. Gina might also be a good place to start to request a name or names of someone on the management team to whom you might make your suggestions.

I'm not trying to argue or criticize. I merely think posting anonymously on a shopper board hoping for change at a large MS company is not likely. Since you posted multiple times 4 weeks ago and received no response and saw no change, it seems to validate that.
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January 07, 2017 09:12PM
Thank you for your suggestions and the name, email address, and phone number. Honestly, it never occurred to me to check for contact information on the MSPA site. Sometimes I think I need to look in the "phone book" to get a number so that, no doubt, is an indicator of my "up-to-date" technology skills at times! :-) I do not/did not take your replies as arguing but only wanting to be helpful. Thank you again.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2017 09:12PM by Judy1942.
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