Gas stations on SASSIE = End of an era?
@CoolMusic wrote:
With the move from the Maritz legacy platform, it would appear the days of negotiating for bundles are gone?
Seeing as the base pay for both Blue and Yellow stations is grossly inadequate for the amount of work, the thought of no more lucrative, high-mileage routes to the boonies is giving me the sads.
Am I missing something?
I have been making my routes and sending them to the scheduler. I keep getting answers "We are not taking bids for routes. There is no bonus for this project." or similar to this. I have hope from one scheduler that incentives are coming in February. Some of the shops are being rebranded to the running brand and that is creating a new problem here in the four corners area
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/02/2021 08:37PM by bmttinman.
if we hold out, they'll have to pay fairly at some point. even with maritz, they often times weren't looking to pay first month of a quarter.
Pay has been doubled for Blue ones in my neck of the woods.
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The more I learn about people...the more I like my dog..
Mark Twain
The more I learn about people...the more I like my dog..
Mark Twain
I think it's too early to jump to conclusions. Once the new schedulers get a better feel for which are the problem locations, they will likely adapt as needed. Yes, they probably have access to past data, but its not the same as going through it themselves. And while the legacy system had its advantages, the new system has strengths as well. For example, with the old system I could only see online incentives so many miles away from my home. When I asked for incentives for locations further away that I *knew* were less than the online incentives, I was usually low-balled. With the new system, I don't have to stop my routes at an imaginary line.
B, please edit your post to remove the gas station's name.
Thanks.
I amPM'ing you.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/2021 05:36PM by ceasesmith.
Thanks.
I amPM'ing you.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/2021 05:36PM by ceasesmith.
CoolMusic, you are missing the same thing I miss.
Long, profitable routes several times a year, and working with schedulers who were an absolute delight.
Long, profitable routes several times a year, and working with schedulers who were an absolute delight.
And this round they did not ask if you wanted to do the shop again, so no guaranteed route with your favorite shops.
My biggest issue with this change is the ability to schedule weeks out. The current shops near me are scheduling, at the most, for the next 10 days. I used to know which routes I had for weeks in advance.
Editing seems to be hit or miss as I did a whole bunch of these and I'm either getting tens or sixes and they're all being done the same way!
I miss the planning and scheduling ahead. That's been my problem with the stations on the instant site. The sassie system isn't good for all the pictures either. It's adding at least 20 minutes to my shops, or I have to get home and do the reports which makes it terrible going through the pictures.
I have companied in my reports that the legacy system was much better. They used to add additional money to do the shops at nights.
I cleaned house on the gas station that starts with a V at the end of December and early January because they waited too long to give bonuses. I shopped all over Oklahoma, the texas panhandle, northeastern NM, southeastern CO, southern KS, and Arkansas. Then I flew to CA and rented a car. I made 7500 in three weeks, approximately 6500 in profit. So there is money to be made if you can find the right scheduler to work with. The same scheduler said to wait until late February to start asking for bonuses again.
well it’s the second month of the quarter, still no budges on bonuses. watch them add $5 in a week or two as if that’s supposed to get anyone excited. maritz would’ve roled out the $12.25 and $16.75 incentives on the board by now.
OK the running shops@ceasesmith wrote:
B, please edit your post to remove the gas station's name.
Thanks.
I amPM'ing you.
The Blue shops are a problem for I have done the audits. By their rules, I can't do the MS portion
The Exxons in my region were all at $12 to start. I had never done them before and created a route of 7 because their "time estimates" for the jobs. Needless to say, I sent them all follow up emails regarding their pay amount and said I wouldn't agree to that price ever again. I ended up landing a few at $40 a pop because no one else would take them.
@Mressler82 wrote:
The Exxons in my region were all at $12 to start. I had never done them before and created a route of 7 because their "time estimates" for the jobs. Needless to say, I sent them all follow up emails regarding their pay amount and said I wouldn't agree to that price ever again. I ended up landing a few at $40 a pop because no one else would take them.
is this for the monthlies though or quarterlies? they had to pay on the monthlies. i saw those going at $37.50 incentive.
I had the same issue. The company I scheduled through uses shopmetrics but I can't get the jobs to migrate in to any of the apps that support shopmetrics so last month I entered over 2 dozen gas station shops the "old school" way on my laptop... which took over 25 minutes per report and some didn't migrate appropriately! (Shuffled pictures and responses, and the editors apparently couldn't read my comments to them regarding THEIR software issues. Which, that is exactly what it was. If, when uploading, their system moves photos to the wrong question, how is that OUR fault?
These were the quarterlies, I believe. Started at $12, by end of January they had the 37.50 bonuses. For a decade, I was the manager on the other of the shop, the questions they were asking in the reports were what we used to get for our seasonal inspections. It was a mini mystery shop and over 25 photographs of each location.
@Mressler82 wrote:
These were the quarterlies, I believe. Started at $12, by end of January they had the 37.50 bonuses. For a decade, I was the manager on the other of the shop, the questions they were asking in the reports were what we used to get for our seasonal inspections. It was a mini mystery shop and over 25 photographs of each location.
i’m fairly certain that only monthlies had $37.50 bonuses on them. NO ONE has taken any quarterlies near me and i’m still being told no bonuses. i’m a little bit confused by 25 photos. mobil doesn’t require 25, did they change a lot since maritz(i’m assuming we can say maritz now since they no longer have them)?
This whole change from Maritz to ipsos SUCKS !!! The Maritz site was excellent (after years of improving it). The sassie site is like going back in time. Pick a picture, load a picture and reload it again !!! The ratings are dumb too ! They do not tell you what was missed(if anything actually was ???) 12 years of work and climbing up with a better income, all for nothing !!! No more weeks of scheduling, bids on bundles or even TALKING TO A HUMAN !
My area has been infiltrated with ipsos shoppers that just take shops ! Mine you, at the low and first rate ! 6 or 7 hours of work for $125, plus your miles and wear and tear on your car ! I was around $200 for this work. Now, I feel like I'm losing cash (BIG TIME). Change is NOT always good !! The sassie people don't even know your history and dedication. I LOVED this work and looked forward to the day ahead ! Now... I feel a BIG UGH !!!
My area has been infiltrated with ipsos shoppers that just take shops ! Mine you, at the low and first rate ! 6 or 7 hours of work for $125, plus your miles and wear and tear on your car ! I was around $200 for this work. Now, I feel like I'm losing cash (BIG TIME). Change is NOT always good !! The sassie people don't even know your history and dedication. I LOVED this work and looked forward to the day ahead ! Now... I feel a BIG UGH !!!
Well I do hear you all and feel bad for those suffering with the switch. As a mystery shopper one has to learn to evolve and adapt to changes good or bad. Schedulers and companies come and go. Shops often switch MSPs. You must develop new relationships with schedulers. Email them and explain. Offer to do routes and tell them what you need and what you got in the past with Maritz. If they refuse to work with you or budge then find other work. I know it sucks but that is the business. I am sure they will end up paying through the nose in the end on those hard to fill locations.
Shopping Western NY, Northeast and Central PA, and parts of Ohio and West Virginia. Have car will travel anywhere if the monies right.
I don't know about it being the "business" ?!?! 12 years of doing gas stations, I don't consider myself a shopper. The only "mystery" is the in store purchase. I don't do real mystery shopping (not worth my time) I have averaged over $35,000 a year since 2014.(after learning the business the first few years) I work in 4 states and have made a comfortable living on MY SCHEDULE ! Ipsos is very large and I do believe they don't care ! They tell the schedulers what they can do ! That is through email conversations with Sassie, etc. There has always been a "give and take" with it. Have 35 to 40 regular shops locally, then make some bank out of state. With changes over the years, I have NEVER lost over $10,000 over this past year !!! I'm fortunate that I have made wise investments and do some day trading. If not, I would have to get a "real job".
The problem in sassie is not Ipsos but the KSS schedulers. It has always been the same issues when they had taken over the scheduling for an MS company. Most of the KSS schedulers start with the $2.5 bonus, creeping to $3 and wait until the last 2 days of the month to give a miserable bonus. I just delete them. I am not willing to do it for peanuts, when you calculate insurance, wear and tear, etc. What is even more annoying is the sassie platform for the gas station. Unfortunately, as we all know why, when an MS migrates to KSS for scheduling, sassie comes too.
The editors, that must be Wordsmith is another animal. Quite a few of them in that company appear to be English majors, Brits, etc, similar to the old Intellishop editors. Especially the Brits think that you have to write a novella for each question for a $5 filler shop. This is based on how low the fees are in their countries, barely a "bonus" ever. It seems there are going to be a pain in the &*%* with grades and trivial corrections for a Y/N gas station, with barely any commentary.
The editors, that must be Wordsmith is another animal. Quite a few of them in that company appear to be English majors, Brits, etc, similar to the old Intellishop editors. Especially the Brits think that you have to write a novella for each question for a $5 filler shop. This is based on how low the fees are in their countries, barely a "bonus" ever. It seems there are going to be a pain in the &*%* with grades and trivial corrections for a Y/N gas station, with barely any commentary.
it’s a combination of both. ipsos communication is terrible, they’re like some huge corporate company who are practically unreachable. and now there’s a middleman(kss), who are very reachable, but their whole purpose is getting these shops done as cheap as possible, and eating into our fees. fees >>>>>>>>> everything else. it’s so frustrating that it’s gone backwards for us is, when with inflation it should be the opposite. maybe ipsos are so big they just don’t care that shops aren’t getting done. none of the red white and blue gas stations in my area have been touched this quarter in my state, except for the monthlies. it would never have been like that before. basically now we have 2 huge hurdles to clear to get shops done for reasonable fees, when before we had the maritz hurdle which was about 2 inches tall.
I have been doing mostly gas stations and convenience store shops for the past year and love them. I can travel all over and I enjoy it. But IPSOS is making it insanely crazy to plan anything. They have had the yellow/red stations on their board for my state for weeks. The bonus keeps going up and I keep offering to take them on the following weekend, only to be told by the scheduler "we can't schedule out that long. It has to be done tomorrow." I tell her no one is going to do it and that is why they are still on the board. So I go and book someone else for the weekend only to see them still there. I hate this,
I hate not being able to self-schedule so you can't add to a route when you are out and I hate that they think someone is going to drive 300 miles to nowhere New Mexico for $40 or worse $12.50. I wonder if these schedulers actually have maps and can see that one job is in one town and the next job is an hour away and then another hour away. These are not things you plan at the last minute. I think like many others my time with them is at an end. Sadly I doubt they will care one bit.
On that note does anyone know of other MSC doing convenience store/gas stations that are easier to work with than IPSOS?
I hate not being able to self-schedule so you can't add to a route when you are out and I hate that they think someone is going to drive 300 miles to nowhere New Mexico for $40 or worse $12.50. I wonder if these schedulers actually have maps and can see that one job is in one town and the next job is an hour away and then another hour away. These are not things you plan at the last minute. I think like many others my time with them is at an end. Sadly I doubt they will care one bit.
On that note does anyone know of other MSC doing convenience store/gas stations that are easier to work with than IPSOS?
Alta360 (there are no rembs. though, but no purchase) they take a while to get some money. They are very easy forms and shops. The Presto app does green and yellow. Nice pay for the start of the rotation $18 ($3 remb./$2 fuel) Again, easy form. Shop can be a pain in the butt at a bad station (time consuming) Again, they take their time on fee raises.
I miss Maritz very much !!! Routes, bids and wait for it ................you could talk to a HUMAN !!!!
I am having the exact same problem. She will just wind up paying even more than they used to pay, since she is going to keep declining my offers, insisting that they have to be done today or tomorrow, not in two days or three days. I am the only person who does many of these locations. Since the route will require multiple days and hotel stays, it is not possible to get them all done today or tomorrow. Not going to happen. Especially in subzero temperatures. She would have had one entire state done by today if she had accepted my offer last week. But, only one has been taken out of 24.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/10/2021 02:29PM by mjt9598.
@cindycribbs wrote:
I have been doing mostly gas stations and convenience store shops for the past year and love them. I can travel all over and I enjoy it. But IPSOS is making it insanely crazy to plan anything. They have had the yellow/red stations on their board for my state for weeks. The bonus keeps going up and I keep offering to take them on the following weekend, only to be told by the scheduler "we can't schedule out that long. It has to be done tomorrow." I tell her no one is going to do it and that is why they are still on the board. So I go and book someone else for the weekend only to see them still there. I hate this,
I hate not being able to self-schedule so you can't add to a route when you are out and I hate that they think someone is going to drive 300 miles to nowhere New Mexico for $40 or worse $12.50. I wonder if these schedulers actually have maps and can see that one job is in one town and the next job is an hour away and then another hour away. These are not things you plan at the last minute. I think like many others my time with them is at an end. Sadly I doubt they will care one bit.
On that note does anyone know of other MSC doing convenience store/gas stations that are easier to work with than IPSOS?
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/10/2021 02:29PM by mjt9598.
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