Survey Results on Surveys

[knotworth]

If you are interested, here are my experiences with 6 companies, all of which I signed up for last September:
Ipsos-I-Say
Lightspeed Research
Opinion Outpost
Product Testing Serivce
Survey Spot
Valued Opinions

Product Testing Service sent an email saying I had been registered, but has never contacted me since then, other than to refute my accusation that they are nothing but a scam to get your email address and then sell it to spammers. They have never sent me anything to test. I think their assertions that they are not involved with spam to be disingenuous.

Survey Spot offers many "fun surveys' which means they pay you nothing. They offer a chance at a drawing, but that is probably worthless. They do pay for some surveys and I managed to acquire $16 cash credit which I turned in and promptly received a check in the mail.

Opinion Outpost offered credits, although it seemed to me that the initial amount required to cash in was raised somewhere along the way between my initial sign-up and my redeeming the points. I did, however managed to get an $11 Amazon gift card out of them with no hassles.

The other 3 companies have jacked me around with promises, lies and deceit. It seems that one is able to earn points or dollars easily at first, but when you get close to the threshold required to cash in for money or merchandise, everything grinds to a halt and the payoff does not come easily. I threatened Lightspeed with a complaint to their state BBB in order to get a $15 Amazon credit out of them. ( They paid up and I didn't have to file the complaint.) Right now, I have a BBB complaint pending against Ipsos because they have promised to award earned points for over 2 months, but nothing has actually been added to my account. (Again, I am within a few points of being able to redeem). Their response to the BBB complaint is to promise to award the points, plus some extra points (for being a "good guy" or for being a 'troublemaker"; I don't know which) in a couple of weeks. That takes fur on your peaches to answer a complaint about not awarding points in the promised time span by promising to award points in a further time span! I also named Ipsos in a Federal Trade Commission complaint.

And now, I am starting the process with Valued Opinions. You need $20 minimum to cash in; I have $19.25. They have owed me $3 for well past their pomised 28-day reward period and they are answering my emails with boilerplate links to their FAQs page. The FAQs page says you will get your money within 28 days; my email asks why I haven't received my money since it has been well past 28 days; and they respond with a link to their page that says I will get my money in 28 days. Sweet!

I think surveys can be fun if you have nothing better to do, but don't expect to earn rewards or money. I see there are many companies out there beyond my "Special Six" and I see that most of them get failing grades on this Survey Police site. (That is, most exams that I have taken require around 80% as a minimal passing grade).

I've already "resigned" from Lightspeed and Opinion Outpost, and will do the same after I collect what was promised to me from Ipsos and Valued O's. I might stick with Survey Spot because they did pay in cash promptly, but I understand that many of their surveys die on your screen as you near the end, etc. I don't even bother with their "drawings"-they are probably a fraud. But sometimes it helps to "let off steam' by doing a survey that trashes some company you hate. I've also done a few that underscore how much I like companies that offer great products and/or superior service. We need to keep those companies around. Too bad few or none of these survey companies meet that criteria.

If you are being mistreated by one of your survey companies, don't hesitate to complain, file an official BBB or other agency complaint etc. If you can do so, find out all you can about the company--their CEOs name, corporate headquaters, etc. Email is cheap and easy, but snail-mail sent certified or whatever your postal system offers (they have to sign for the letter) is worth about 20 emails. Dropping the name and address of the CEO in your complaint will often get some lazy unconcerned employees off the dime and turn them into diligent, concerned advocates on your behalf.

But my bottom line about surveys will be found in my forum name. Surveys are not worth the trouble. Good luck to us all!

[Michael]

Knotworth I think you are mistaken about Opinion Outpost, They only pay in cash you can't get Amazon gift cards from them

[kitamus1]

Wow. It seems you are really upset. What companies do you like. I do not agree about Opinion Outpost. They do not pay in gift cards & they pay cash very promptly.

[factonista]

Wow. You've had bad experiences with my most reliable panels. If there are better panels than your "special six," please let me know so I can sign up.

As for "Product Testing Service," do you mean " In Home Product Testing Service?"

If so, I will agree that I hear from them infrequently, and I have yet to qualify for a product test with them - but it doesn't mean they are a scam.
Others on this board have vouched for In Home Product Testing Service.

My philosophy is that if I'm signed up for a lot of panels, even the infrequent invites can add up to some money.

[Lucky13]

I have to agree with Factonista, these are some of the better survey companies. I would put them in my top 20.

And assuming we are talking about In-Home Product Testing Service, I haven't made alot of money but it's starting to pick up. I usually receive a paper survey with $1-$5 cash included in the envelope. Just last week, I rec'd my first PT. They are sending me 6 variations of a product to test over a 3 week period for which I'll keep a diary and mail back to them. There's no pay but I get free stuff .

[knotworth]

Thanks to Kim1963 for clarifying the Product Testing issue. My remarks were aimed at Product Testing Services which can be found at www.product-testing.com. They say they are located in Minneapolis, MN. The name on the emails I received from them was Doug Mehrkins (approx spelling).

I'll also stick to my story that I earned 110 points at Opinion Outpost and received an $11 Amazon gift card for the points. That was about 2-3 months ago. I added a $15 one from Lightspeed and cashed them in for $26 credit with Amazon last week. Perhaps they have recently changed their policies or they offer different rewards for different demographic groups.

In my ongoing BBB war with Ipsos-I-Say, they have finally awarded my points and they say I can now cash in for $5, but they are changing their policies to only award cash now-no gift cards. They say that if I request a gift card from their site, they will send cash in 6-8 weeks. Cash is preferable to me but 6-8 weeks is not. I received cash from Survey Spot in about 2 weeks or less.

I agree that there are probably many different experiences for different survey participants. These were mine and they do reflect the approval ratings shown on this site. Only one of the panels I was involved with ranked above 72% (Opinion Outpost) and Product Testing Services wasn't even listed. If anyone is happy being affiliated with companies with 63-72% approval ratings, that's fine with me. I wasn't aware of this Survey Police site when I got into this endeavor, or I might have passed in favor of stuffing envelopes or raising chinchillas. What you do with the info I posted is up to you.

[SurveyBang]

its a shame that you have had so many individual bad experience with those companies. Ill have to disagree with your opinion on most of them as my interactions have been more positive and lucrative. If i had to file complaints with the BBB or FTC, then I would just leave the company and save my time fighting over a few bucks.