@boridi wrote:

@French Farmer wrote:

@swanderson wrote:

Overdraft fees are the result of poor planning. Keep an appropriate average balance in your checking account and they'll never be a problem. If you can't absorb a day or two ACH delay (very common), you're cutting things way too close to begin with.

Good Grief!

Of all the persons that inhabit this forum, how likely would it have been that you chanced to read this and was able to offer this piece of sage advice?

Further, how excellent that you also thought to offer your criticism!

You are so helpful!

It's good advice considering how often people are complaining about day-late payments. HS Brands taking months and months to pay is one thing, but a delay of one day by Maritz should not be such a problem.

Of course its "good advice"!

Is it not fairly obvious that its also a "no brainer" piece of advice?

Does anyone really believe that this concept is new? In my opinion everyone would have a reserve of cash to fall back upon in the event of some type of situation like ACh payments being late. But, as has been pointed out, sometimes that concept is difficult to achieve. Sometimes "life" gets in the way.

I understand that when some of us gripe about late ACH payments that there are those who wish to defend the MSC.
In this instance it is Maritz, a great company to work with. Typically, they pay like clockwork. Yet lately, there have been problems. Larry Loos has been nice enough to come aboard and apologize. That's nice.
Thank you Mr Loos!
I also know that Maritz is a company that will cut you off at the knees if you are a "frequent flaker" or perform too many of their assigned shops late. There are other reasons, I know of, but those two are how a shopper gets removed from the Maritz programs.
I have no problems with their reasoning and I always try to live up to their expectations, delivering my assigned shops on time and with professionalism.
IOW, I don't flake.
I expect the same of Maritz. Don't flake. Pay me on time, pay me what I have invoiced and per the schedule as is their company's policy.
The lack of professionalism with their pay schedule is troubling. I have disassociated myself with other MSCs for reasons such as this. It is my choice and I do not look back with regret. If their (Maritz) pay problems continue, I'll do the same. Once again, my decision, my choice.

With this ongoing string, I am bothered by the lack of empathy and then the criticism in the guise of being "helpful". It is akin to telling the farmer that he should have put a new lock on the barn door after the cows got out.

Gee thanks!

PS And that is my rant!

Maritz is still in my top three. Yes, I complain about the money being a day late because I, I , I, saw the check stub post thought it was going to be in there. I was disappointed that that $72 would not be used on my bills. Did it hurt much? Only my ego. Nothing is going to get turned off. I'm not going to quit working over one day late payments. My real gripe was the email they sent out Monday which was unnecessary. It made people think they would have their money on Tuesday when in fact we would have our money on Wednesday. Larry has been great coming on to apologize. I never spend MF or CI's money before I actually see the deposit in the bank. It's my fault really because I expected more of Maritz. Regardless they still always pay even if not on time and I make the most money off of them.

Paint and sheetrock ain't cheap anymore! The cost of materials has skyrocketed. In my opinion, all this stuff about house flipping that is on TV and these seminars that you can go to, the only people making money is the people telling you about it. Now, if I were a contractor and had access to salvaged materials from other jobs, intricate knowledge of Plumbing, Electric, and basic Structural Engineering plus the time and energy to do everything- absolutely everything- myself, I could make it work. But I don't. And this is what I have learned from being just a homeowner.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/20/2019 07:37PM by sestrahelena.

Another opinion ( Don't Stop Me Now, I'm rolling!)... If I complete a shop for Maritz and submit it the day it is due but accidentally upload the same photo for thing 1 and thing 2, which are supposed to be completely different, they will send the report back for a correction. Sometimes it is days later. Now, because of my own idiocy, my report is now passed the deadline I had committed to. Have they ever once ranted and chastized me for correction lateness and/or screwing up? No. Nay. Never. Over the years I have messed up a few times, especially on new-to-me assignments (which I have since perfected, haha!) And they have always been nothing less than graciously professional. They still allow me to perform work for them (at a decent pay rate!!!). So, as far as I'm concerned, if they need an extra day here and there, or make a mistake, I will have the same patience as they have had with me. Maritz, go ahead, take an extra day. Heck, take a week if you need it. It's alright by me.

Again, just my point of view...

Great attitude Sestrahelena! I know the schedulers love you!

F & L, please, just be careful! We all want to believe that things can be done in the way we want them to, for our benefit. It is so easy to be suckered into a dream. I worry for you and I have been close to being in your position so I can relate. Please, do the math! Calculate the cost! I have been in this position and I have lost.

Nothing was ever accomplished without trying. No one is suckering me into this. Do I know that this will be a long hard road? Yes. But as I said before I've never made more than 12-13k in my life. I've lived in my van. etc. etc. I'm a Scorpio. I'm Stubborn as heck. I see so many old people with NOTHING, still renting after a lifetime. (I used to deliver pizza to the senior high rise). I've got to try!

You go girl. Give it all you've got. You don't have anything to lose, worst case scenario you have to go back to the way of life you are already used to. But people with determination like yours usually make it. Sometimes not the first try, sometimes not even the second. The secret is to keep trying. You can do it.

Thank you Coffee Queen! finally a word of encouragement! I only envision success.

A realtor offered to sponsor me in real estate school. He basically offered to pay for the class and give me a job once I finish it.

F and L
I apologize on the Medicaid as you are right. It just so happens Georgia is probably the most restrictive state for being eligible for Medicaid. I see any adult between 19 and 65 without any dependent children no matter how low their income is ineligible. This to me is stunning and the state rejected expanded Medicaid in 2018.

I feel bad for you on this.

I am sorry that Sun Trust Bank despite a 5 year relationship only would waive one fee. Do you have your debt card set to deny any charges that would overdraft your account. I am assuming it was a check or ACH payment that overdrew the account. I see that you are in the process of moving to a credit union which is probably your best bet. I could also suggest an online banking account with Capital One. There are no minimum requirements for both savings and checking accounts. They pay a better interest rate of .20% on checking and .80% on savings. The checking account offers an overdraft line of credit you can apply for. I have a $165 overdraft line of credit. You can deposit checks remotely via their phone app. The only drawback is you can't deposit cash as there are no branches near you. This is just some helpful advice.

If you are disabled are you collecting disability and if not have you applied. The process can be long but once approved you will get back pay for the time you were disabled while waiting for approval. If you apply and are denied which is likely as most applicants are denied get a lawyer and fight it. There are lawyers that will only collect if you win.

I do like animals while not all but dogs, horses, and Hippos at least. I can understand the desire and wanting to help them. All I was saying was put yourself and loved ones before others. There is nothing wrong with having a dog or cat or two as long as they are healthy and don't require expensive medical care.

As for your stove that is up to you. You clearly don't want and/or need one so that is great as it works for you. You should have a working fridge thou as that could be a health situation with freezing milk and not being able to properly keep food.

You are going to do what you want as for the housing flips and I can see I am not going to change your mind on that timetable. I wish you luck.

When and if you do eventually get that $1000 in savings you may want to think about what an emergency actually is. By saying oh something always comes up and as soon as I save it something comes up and its gone. Almost nobody has that many emergencies. Regular oil changes and brakes are normal car maintenance. You should be factoring these in when applying for routes and how much you need. More mileage means more car maintenance. I would even include tires on this but a sudden thing of all the tires going sure an emergency. Normal trips to the Doctor for L at $25 sliding scale as you said should not be coming out of that fund. Normal vet visits again no. This again is just food for thought and I am not trying to argue with you or be demeaning. I am truly just trying to help. I don't no how tied down you are to where you live but a move if doable may be best for you although at $350 a month rent I am not sure.

Last you may want to try if you end up owning the house renting out the rooms nightly with Airbnb.

I'm not judging anyone here, but..............

F and L, in my opinion, you do not have to justify anything.

In my opinion, what constitutes an "emergency" to one person is not an emergency to another.

For me, it is the unexpected expense. Should I have planned for it? Maybe.

And, for some of us, often $1000 is just not enough.

How we live our lives is our business.

The gist of this string is that Maritz did not and has not recently been paying on time, living up to their standards.

Asking for another photo when the debrief has been filed on time is one thing. Expectation of reimbursement and payment of a shop performed is another.

Everyone is right and everyone is entitled to their own opinions. The hardest thing for someone who has been impoverished their whole life is to NOT go out to eat when now you can afford it. The most painful blow to my finances is nothing said above. I am actually kicking myself and talking my self closer every day to kicking a painfully expensive habit-smoking cigarettes! FYI I don't write paper checks, I don't even buy them. I will, however, set up an electronic check for a bill. NY I don't know how it's not clear to you, if my medical is completely paid how you don't realize that I already receive disability. I do receive $818 a month. However, you can not live on $818 a month. I am not on SSI. On SSI you can only earn $100 a month and after that they take every other dollar. (welfare disability). I am in fact on SSDI, meaning that I worked and paid in and am drawing my own disability back out. I can actually work and earn a lot more than just $100 a month and it does not affect my disability. Last year I made approximately 20k, and ended up writing off 16k in mileage. My AGI was less than $5000 and therefore am not in immediate danger of losing my Disability. I want to make enough money to cut my disability off. OSI's and gas station inspections work for me in the sense that I am only up walking around a few minutes and then I can sit in the car and rest and recuperate and drive to the next inspection. My brain works but my body doesn't like to cooperate with what my mind wishes I could do. Both of my knees need total replacement. The best thing for me is to get a swimming pool. A swimming pool could be considered "medically necessary" in my case. I can only move freely in the water. The only way I will ever get a pool is if I make it happen myself, obviously no one is going to give me a pool. Every day I keep these goals in mind and it helps keep me going. I have Silver Sneakers and can go across town to the gym. The problem with this is when you come back from a route, get home oftentimes after 12 am, you do not feel like getting up the next day and going clear across town to get into the pool. Your mind tells you you need to work on your reports. This is one of my failures, is not wanting to get up and go clear across town to use the pool. Every single out of town route my left leg swells all the way up. I come home and alternate between sitting and laying to get the swelling down and to input my reports. It's not easy dealing with pain, walking into inspections and knowing the store people wonder why I am the way that I am. But I know this routine is the best chance I have of improving my life. I was actually thinking about the real estate class even before my OSI offered to sponsor me. This would train me a lot in the real estate market and allow me to earn more money to invest in my own property. I actually moved here from a more metropolitan area where I was paying $140 a week for a room and a bathroom in a rooming house. I don't want to move and increase my cost of living (essentially anywhere I move would increase my rent). I do pay $53 a month for ADT to live in such a cheap neighborhood. But I prefer having my own space.

F and L: When you are in a position to get a pool and if your knees can handle going up and down a ladder, consider an Intek pool. We put one in here in Michigan about 10 years ago, find they last about 3 years each, and are much cheaper than a permanent one (even with replacing several we've still spent far less than the cost of installing a permanent above ground one). Plus, you likely won't require any kind of fencing because the ladder can be removed and it should not have any impact on your homeowner's insurance costs (at least that's our experience). They are also much cheaper to buy at the end of the season and, when the pool wears out, you can just replace the liner rather than the whole pool. It's super easy to put them up and take them down. You will want to upgrade your pump and filter to the sand version from what comes standard with the pool but that's not too expensive. The Intek one has been very cheap for us to maintain chemical wise (I think we maybe purchase 1 case of chlorine and 3-4 bags of shock over the course of a summer and most pool places will test the water as often as you need for free).

I am happy you are on disability and getting some money to help. I never said you were not on disability and simply stated if you were not you should apply. I am glad to hear you are already on it. I have 8 herniated discs and working on disability myself. I don't claim you can or can not live off disability alone that is up to each individual and there living situation. You do what works for you. I am very similar to your situation medically and have those same feelings. I too often have days with trouble getting up to do shops I committed too. I can only schedule a portion of the work I was able to do before I became disabled and my condition continues to get worse. I do truly feel for you. Anything I said here was advice trying to help and in no way an attack. I am sorry if you felt that way. Best of luck to you.

Bottom line: If you did the assignment on time and correctly you should be paid accordingly. No excuses! I can't speak for anyone else, but I am not in the habit of subsidizing corporations after I lived up to my end of the agreement.

Oct pay day for me was on the 10th and saw it in the bank on the 16th. The last payment for Oct will be the 31 as per Team 9 email. This is a direct quote.
"How our pay schedule works is if the visit is shopped and invoiced between the 1st and the 14th of the month, they pay the end of that same month providing they are invoiced by the 14th of the month. If they are shopped and invoiced between the 15th and 31st or whatever that last day of the month is providing it is invoiced by that last day of the month, it pays the middle of the following month. You only have 14 days, from day of completion to invoice the visits, so what we recommend to the contractors is as soon as you do the debrief report go ahead invoice the visit so that part of the process doesn’t get missed."

I thought this forum was about Mystery Shopping, helping each other. People please do not do the drama and turn this into another horrible social media site. No, I do not do Facebook or any of that.

glad i found somewhere else for my main bread and butter..

If I were you, I would not hold your breath. Getting paid by them is a crap shoot!

We've been blessed with more Maritz work here lately...but someone refresh my memory...when do they post payments to the "direct deposit" page? I'm praying for payment tomorrow, but there's nothing showing on the direct deposit yet...
I emailed one of my former contacts regarding some missed invoices several weeks ago...haven't heard anything back at all. I *hate* being on the phone, but I guess I'm going to have to call....WHY, WHY can't Maritz figure out email?????

The best way to handle missed invoices is to call and select team 9. If you get another team just leave a message. Janet is a genius and always figures it out and gets us paid. You probably won't see your check in the "direct deposit" column until tomorrow.

This will be my first time getting paid from them. Where does it show the direct deposit pending?

Next to the top headers were you go to either my shops or find shops you will see a selection called my account. Pick my account and a drop-down menu shows up and select Direct Deposit. Under direct deposit Select payment history. When your check is sent to the bank it will show there, probably tomorrow.

Janet is actually the one that I emailed I am guessing she's been to busy to email me back...

Thank you!

Direct deposit received on the 31st as indicted per the Maritz rep.

Thank you!

Now, a suggestion (that shall no doubt fall on deaf ears):

Why not switch your payment schedule to a "Bi-weekly" schedule? Just reprogram your computer to paying every 2 weeks on the Friday of the 2 weeks. That seems to me to be more of a "set in stone" payment method than the current arbitrary schedule that is dependent, but not always on the days of the month.

@French Farmer wrote:

Direct deposit received on the 31st as indicted per the Maritz rep.

Thank you!

Now, a suggestion (that shall no doubt fall on deaf ears):

Why not switch your payment schedule to a "Bi-weekly" schedule? Just reprogram your computer to paying every 2 weeks on the Friday of the 2 weeks. That seems to me to be more of a "set in stone" payment method than the current arbitrary schedule that is dependent, but not always on the days of the month.

I would not like such a move. Being on the 15th and last day of the month is predictable. Always on a Friday (biweekly or not) makes it more vulnerable to holiday weekends. Be careful what you wish for.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/01/2019 12:31PM by KA047.

TS pays on the 5th and the 20th. The money is always in my account on the 6th and the 21st. Sometimes they pay extra times. (For example, if the 5th-6th falls on a holiday or something sometimes they do a partial payment ahead of time, then add an additional payment to cover the time from when they paid till the 5th. I don't have a clue which payroll software they use or you use. But I like their way better. It's nice to find "unexpected" money in my account often when I need it most. Alta is pretty reliable as well but I often don't get the deposit till the 1st of the month (they pay once a month at the end of the month). I live off of TS and Maritz, I depend on their income. The rest of the companies I do not truly depend on although I usually know I can put certain bills off till the 20 or 25 if I am expecting money from them. When I did free government phones as an independent contractor depending on the marketer, depended on whether they were that reliable. I quit one marketer because he kept moving the pay date. (He would say the 15 but on the 15th he would say it would be a few more days). I quit doing phones for him and went to another marketer. When I worked for Pizza Hut, Papa Johns and Marco's I ALWAYS had my check by pay date. (every Friday or whatever day it was). And they had to overnight paper checks to us! MSP's I think you can do better!