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I constantly clear my browser cookies and cache. I also have an ad blocker. That probably isn’t enough, but it’s all I have. I’m to the point where I just don’t give a rip anymore. No matter what, the deck is stacked against survey takers. They will continue to use sketchy shouldn’t even be legal tactics to continue raking in the money while we beg for crumbs.

Throttling an account is how survey companies get around not paying for work done, by keeping a panelist below the payout threshold. UserCrowd, ViewPointForum, Walmart Spark surveys, and others do this. Some like Toluna, Walmart, i-say will forfeit the points, if they languish too long. This is one of the unethical behaviors of this industry that I'm contemplating making a stink about to regulators.

I often wonder how an entry to a game of chance is a reward? I'm willing to participate in a game of chance as a "bonus", only after getting some sort of incremented reward. I also don't typically participate in drawings that you have to convert points to enter. The panels that are doing this are using the rewards from all the losers to pay for the winnings of a single person. In my opinion, this burgeons on unethical conduct.

Minds. (Thank you. Thank you very much.)

Actually they may "owe" you more than that. Go over the award history of your account, to your very first surveys and look for "invalidated", those surveys were never awarded. PointClub can take up to 9 months to validate a survey. This is most likely because they are allowing the client that commissioned the survey to pick and choose results that fit their bias. First thing you need to do is find the parent company involved. I've done this already and it is innovatemr.com. If you want to get in the inbox of more than support, it will be a two-step process and take a little time and effort. Go to linkedin.com, search for the company "innovatemr", they are in the LA area, and find the C-Level individuals you want to alert. Since InnovateMR is a startup, go to crunchbase.com and search for that company, you'll find the founders. If not already on your contact list, add them. Confirm them from the LinkedIn links on crunchbase. Next to get the email addresses from a professional connection provider, I use rocketreach.co, since I get 5 email addresses a month free. At rocket reach you can do more searches, so long as you don't select and view an address, it's 5 searches a day. So search smartly and reveal only when you are sure. There are other professional contacts companies but haven't used them. Send your communications to them, they are professionals and its been my experience you will get a response if you keep it neutral and professional. Just the facts.

Plantation

Cake

Zone

Warning

HORSE {me}

It's been since the pandemic forced people to stay in that I noticed that the minutes per survey didn't add up with the cents being offered. I saw a dozen surveys that were like 25 minutes for 18 cents. I said no thanks. I can't make the minimum points each day, and that is ridiculous.

Hey SurveyPolice, I'm back!! Did anyone miss me?? Been a couple years and a lot has happened in my life.

skin

Mental

Whiskey

Folks, Some of Y'all may find this observation interesting. The mobile provider Virgin Mobile shut down over six months ago. However, they continue to be included in surveys about Cell providers. Has any one else notice high latency with survey panels keeping their surveys up to date and find obvious out of date questions included for a long time? I also notice this about electric cars and Tesla as a selection for a manufacturer in automotive surveys. I started doing surveys in 2015 and didn't see this acknowledgment by including electric cars until 2019. I also noticed that the car maintenance surveys still don't have selections for electric car. For some reason, these yokels think that people change the oil on electric cars. What are your experience with these out of date surveys? Kris

I am FREE! I have spent the last 2 days trying to get about $3.00 to cash out. I completed at least $5.00 worth of surveys that ended with me not qualifying. But I kept pushing thru (LOL) and finally all the measly $.30 surveys paid off and I'm done! I got to $10 and cashed out for Paypal. After it showed up, I sent an email stating my thoughts on how that site has went to hell and told them to close it. I used to do so well with them but I won't continue with this nonsense.

I abandoned them years ago. Late screen outs, and no credit for surveys the fail to return me after completion. I escalated those uncredited survey completions to "support" and I did get an acknowledgment and sometimes a response the ticket was being investigated but no further response. I have almost 20 years in support and tracking cases to resolution, so I was prepared and knew how to save information for later followups. I recontacted Opinion Outpost several times, including the responses from support and those were directed to the black hole team. I'm still getting their reminders to take a survey, and those are going to an interment folder for junk panels. After I finish my current round of escalations on some other egregious panels to the professional organizations. I'll re-engage Opinion outpost and build a file of their unethical conduct for another complaint to the professional groups they or their parent companies subscribe to.

Wet.

Paint

pacific

Swell

Called MOM I wrote this about a year after my mom had a stroke and by then she was in her own little world To watch a parent a mother, your hero, who you went to for everything sadly isn't grasping what she is being told. It's hard to watch your mentor, the one who raised me, feed me, disciplined, helped make snowmen and snowball fights start slip away. To decline into herself not knowing the time of day. When as a teenager and were out to late she would be sitting on the front porch waiting for me to get home. Or a mothers arms that hugged you when you were sad, that now doesn't, even know. How it breaks my heart to see her like this. Hands that combed my hair I now comb hers, and gnarly fingers sometimes grabs my hand and looking at her I see an old lady smiling at me, and I wonder where is my mom at, why has time taken her beauty, her loving face and replaced it a silly toothless smile, and gray lifeless hair and a frail body with skin so thin I'm afraid to push to hard on it while bathing her. So now I give her what ever she wants to eat, I buy her little suprisiesys, and her delight as she looks at it. I have to changer her pants when they get wet just like she did mine our rolls reversed. I am grateful to my mom, because I am adopted. I was wanted, and now it is me to return the love she gave to me. I love and miss you mom.

1957Horses, you have such a good heart. You took care of her so you knew the quality of care that she would receive. God love you!

felon

Yeah, finally was able to cash in! All it took was lots of begging and threatening to complain to my state attorney general’s office. I shouldn’t have to resort to this just to get my points. It’s ridiculous, and my review at half a star stands until PointClub shows significant improvement!

That is one thing I don't like about them that they seem to keep your points hostage for a long time because of that I am spending less time on the site.

Folks, We all know that we are being tracked, that is not what this post is about. In an earlier post, I made reports of that type of Activity as revealed by the EFF's Privacy Badger browser extension.. What I am discussing here is far more insidious, the fact that independent, competing companies, are generating information specifically for sharing between themselves with negative outcome for ourselves. See the Tellwut blog, 14-ways-increase-chances-qualifying-online-survey, item 4 from the list. "4. Be selective of your membership. A reason that you may not qualify is because you did a survey first on another site, as many survey sites pull surveys from similar sources. With modern tracking capabilities, you may become disqualified from a survey without even seeing the questions." I'm sure many of the more season panelists have had the accusation at the start of a survey "you've already completed this survey". However, the survey screening questions were new to you. I suspect that poorly design, tested and implements software was responsible for those kin of messages. But I think that we may not even see all surveys that meet our profiles because this all knowing software deemed us ineligible and block panelists' the opportunity. In a previous discussion with MySurvey, before they dissolved, I had a discussion with support about not being compensated for a multipart survey. One of the reasons included on a long list of reasons for being rejected from a survey was: " Waypoint - This means that the system detected that you had already completed the same study via another survey panel and is unable to use your responses as this would skew the information provided to the client." So I'm quite confident this is a very prevalent practice, throughout the industry, globally. Since there is no transparency on this practice, how the information is generated, except for "fingerprints" I.E. network address, browser version, OS version, cookies and so forth. Of that, what information is used, except as perhaps under the general privacy statement shared with our partners and 3rd parties", how these determinations are made, how long this information is retained, is it retained in a central location, is that central location secure, who is responsible for the efficacy of the information. You get my drift, there is a loose and fast attitude because we are not informed and since these panels don't disclose what they are doing, they can do anything. We already know how willing panels are willing to cross into unethical conduct. Among other tactics, I suspect that these companies are leaving behind Browser cookies for others to find, even cookies from other browsers.

Orchard.

Bikes

Annex

Push.

Elbow

Ground

lab

cancer

Dermal

Sport.

STOP!

Barrel!

I’m in a mood today for some reason. I think it’s the heat. Very hot and humid, and that kind of weather makes me irritable. Anyhoo, I thought I’d post some survey companies I think are good, some middle of the road, and some badder than bad. First the good: 1.) Prolific - This survey site is top notch in my opinion. I don’t get screened out of surveys through them. The pay for most of the surveys is excellent. There is a mix of very short surveys, some longer ones, and ones that may go an hour but pay really good. The minimum you need to cash out is only £5.00. They have PayPal, and they get it in your account usually within a day of cashing out. At this point, I make more money through them than any other survey site. Highly recommended. 2.) Paid Viewpoint - This one is a little different. It took me like a year to get my trait average up to 10,000, the maximum, and took some time to get to the $15.00 minimum to cash out. Once I did though, on average, I can cash out once or twice a month through them. I don’t get screened out of surveys with them. Their surveys are very brief, and don’t pay a lot, but some days I might do 6-8 surveys, and it adds up pretty quickly. Highly recommended. Noticing a theme here? JMHO, but I think the top sites are those that don’t screen you out and waste your time. I do not like having my time wasted. Okay, now middle of the road (runs hot and cold) 1.) PointClub - The longer you maintain a consecutive streak of logging in every day (and I do mean every day, including Christmas!), the more of a bonus you get on top of points earned. Now the max was 100% bonus. Those were the days. I usually cashed out twice a month. Cash out threshold is high, 25,000 points or $25.00. And the surveys you take will pend for weeks until they approve them and add the points to your account. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, they unfortunately reduced the maximum bonus to 10%. So I can usually cash out about once a month. I have contacted them many times when I think they are too slow in approving my points or getting my cash out to PayPal. They take 3-4 weeks to get it into PayPal now, and it’s starting to irritate me. And I have filed one complaint with BBB over them trying to rip me off after doing a $2.65 survey, and them screwing me out of the points. But they do respond, so I guess that’s better than nothing. If you keep at this every day, it should work out okay. Middle of the road. 2.) One Opinion - Now owned by Dynata, who we all know sucks. Cash out threshold is high, $25.00. I used to be able to cash out twice a month, but since the slow down, only once a month if I’m lucky. They have a stupid useless AI. If you are having issues, demand to the AI that they escalate things to a human. That usually gets results. They have quite a few surveys, and send quite a few emails. They run hot and cold. Before COVID-19, I usually made about $50/month. Middle of the road. 3.) Forthright - This used to be my #1 money maker. That ship sailed some time ago. No minimum cash out, and they get it to PayPal pretty quickly. They have a lot of surveys, but it’s difficult and takes time to get one that you can successfully complete. I don’t spend anywhere near the time I used to spend on this site. Most of the surveys are partner surveys. The range in pay is anywhere from $0.50 to $5.00 per survey. They run hot and cold. I used to make about $80-$100/month from them back in the day. Not so much anymore. 4.) Pinecone - It took me forever just to get accepted on this panel. Most of their surveys are $3.00 each. You can get screened out though. Not a lot of surveys. Best to login every day to check and see if you have a survey. For some reason, there is no longer PayPal. I just put the money on a Visa gift card and let it accumulate. They are having some issues with their site, so I’m not sure what’s going on there. 5.) YouGov - Started out slow, but now is going pretty well. I cash out once or twice a month, and put it toward Amazon. Good surveys, not too lengthy. I can’t remember what the cash out threshold is, but they go by points. I don’t think I’ve been screened out of any of their surveys. 6.) Tellwut - The good thing with this panel is that people on the panel can submit their own “mini surveys”, 1-5 questions, and you can get a few points for these. Not too many points, but if you login every day, they do add up. Otherwise, the usual panel surveys and stuff. I like to put this towards my Amazon too. I’ve created three mini surveys so far on there. You can also comment on the mini surveys. I like the social media aspect of it, like to read others comments. Now the bad/ugly/total time wasters/survey panels that suck: 1.) IPSOS - Avoid this one. I was on there less than two weeks, and suddenly they booted me out, said my demographics didn’t match what they were looking for. Why the heck did they even let me in to begin with? I hear they are notorious for just kicking people out for no good reason. And when I get them as a partner survey, I will X out. Total waste of time. Avoid. 2.) Opinion Outpost - I did a bunch of surveys through them, took a lot of time. After about six weeks, I had enough to cash out. So I tried to cash out. No dice. I emailed their “customer service”, total joke. They sent a canned response telling me to clear my cache and browser settings, blah blah blah. So I did that, tried again. Still wasn’t working. So I copied and pasted the error and emailed them again. This time I got something back with step by step instructions, which I followed to the letter. Got the same error. Tried it several times, tried it in different web browsers and everything else. I emailed them again, and they never got back to me. So I sent another email requesting that they remove me from the panel and stop sending me emails with surveys, as I wasn’t taking any more surveys until I got my money. Crickets. Tons of emails from them. I finally blocked them. Avoid. Terrible. 2.) JD Power - Total scam. Another partner survey that I take through other sites. After spending 20-30 minutes on a survey and then saying I completed the survey, got something saying their quota was full. Happened to me several times. Now if I see one of theirs, I will X out. Time waster. Avoid. 3.) Peanut Labs - Partner surveys through PointClub. I tried a few of these, and always the same thing. No points whatsoever, and would get kicked out after spending 20-30 minutes on a survey, or their quota was full. Total scam. Avoid. 4.) Review Robin - Partner site through Forthright. Total scam and ripoff. They will boot you out at the last minute, and their surveys are always longer than they say they are. They are notorious for saying the quota is full after you spent 20-30 minutes on what was supposed to be a five minute survey for $0.50. Avoid. Whew, glad I got that off my chest! I know, these opinions of mine are subjective, don’t mean squat. That’s all right though. Take these all with a grain of salt. Different panels work for different people.

Transfusion.

Cubes

Sounds like you are doing pretty well. With OneOpinion, I make all of $25 every two months but I stick with it since it's a legit site. PointClub is still taking eons to pay out and I'm earning very little there these days due to their reduced pay rate and galloping DQs. Pinecone surveys do pay $3 but lately their surveys have been coming through other sites and pay all of 50 pennies, which is puzzling for such complicated surveys, though I do like taking them and sometimes they lead to product tests (love love love). I like ClearVoice quite a bit and get product tests there too. Prolific is indeed the superior survey site. The surveys are from universities and institutions and are deeply interesting and exercise the brain. I love them and often I even get bonuses for individual surveys because they recognize a diligent survey taker there.

Folks, I've been a member of various vision critical forum panels in the past. Be aware that there are no cumulative rewards or perks. no discounts, special offers or even measly coupons. The only incentive is entry into a game of chance, a drawing. I never got anything for all my efforts and it is real easy to become discouraged when you get nothing in return. I seriously question the ethics of any corporation that relies on a game of chance as the reward. This is a legitimized way to get work for free. While they do state that the rewards have been quintupled, $1250 per sweeps take to 50 winners,. The membership is vast, so the expected return is nearly zilch. What I find the most disturbing is the parsimony of a very, very rich corporation. The address listed in the TOC is Nestle USA Corporate headquarters. Nestle is a transnational company pulling in over $90,000,000,000 yearly and use nearly free panelist input to increase their profits. I'm sure there's a story in here, can anyone recommend a journalist that might be interested in this subject?. Besides Micheal Moore.

derailleur

West.

Happiness.

Lobby

You may have other avenues that you can use, I had to make an ESOMAR complaint against TAP research to get my rewards because their site couldn't track my rewards and support was not responsive. The complaint was relayed from ESOMAR to someone in upper management. ESOMAR doesn't have any real authority to resolve this, but they do have the ability to affect the panel's reputation. Reputation gets them paying clients and disrupting their reputation will get sales and upper management's attention. There are other professional organizations in addition to ESOMAR, look at the marketing page for the panel. if there isn't, then look for related and parent companies in the TOS and privacy statements. You may also want to look for clients posted to their credential pages and contact those. Once you have the companies, you can find individuals listed at LinkedIn, Wikipedia, The Secretary of state that the company is incorporated, DBA searches, CrunchBase, rocketreach, google reviews, civil court cases, other survey rating sites like trust pilot and site jabber. Sure this is a lot of work, but knowing how to do this will be useful in many times over. It's also a good way to channel anger and angst to something productive and satisfying. Also, much of this is low cost, except for time.