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Crowdology and Panel Champ Issues


dazedandlost

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  • 3 weeks later...

Yikes!  I tried logging into Panel Champ today and when my password was rejected,  sent the 'forgot password' request.  The message I got back was that my email was not in their system. (what?)  Would that I had read this forum before sending them an inquiry.  I expect either 1) I won't hear from them at all or 2) I'll get some sort of insulting response that accuses me of fraudulent activity or whatever.   Not a big loss in the grand scheme of things...more a waste of time.  I rarely qualified for any of the surveys they sent me and it took forever to build up any sort of balance.  I think I was $2 away from enough to cash out some minimum amount but if they're in financial trouble as some of you surmise,  I can imagine them giving all these lame excuses as they jump ship.  It just burns me that any of us are treated this way when we spend the time to play by the rules and take surveys with serious intent.  Some years back, I received a "good-bye" email from a small survey company (whose name I can't remember now) that was closing out.  They were very upfront about their circumstances and why they had to make the decision to end the business (a mix of financial and personal issues).  But what I will always remember is that their notification was so gracious and that they took the time to say thank you to the members for all the support they had been afforded.  It was one class act of a departure.   Panel Champ.....not even close!

2/4/2019 Update:  Today I got an email from Panel Champ, directing me to contact Cint concerning my "issues".  Figure that next I'll get their "we're investigating untoward activity" routine.  Such hogwash!  

 

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2/5/2019 Update:  OK, I have to dial back my outrage-meter over this Panel Champ/Cint debacle.  It could just be a fluke...like maybe I got the one and only customer support person who is reasonable but clearly the response I got was very different from those I'm reading about here and that is puzzling.

I received an email this morning from Cint Support and was told that the reason my Panel Champ account was cancelled had to do with my marking one of their emails to me as spam. I might have done that in error while sending others to the spam bin or it might have landed there on its own without my help.  (My email provider seems to have a whimsical approach to the task....sending junk to my inbox with reckless abandon and dumping  important stuff into the spam folder, regardless of address book status.)  Not only did the support person offer an explanation, she suggested I reapply to the site and open up a new account with my same email address.  They aren't able to just reopen an account once it is officially closed, which is what the spam status perpetuated.  Then she advised,  once that was done I should let her know so that she could arrange to transfer any incentives from the old account to the new one.  I expected to forfeit what I accumulated thus far so that was surprising to me.  I went ahead and opened a new account, updated all the profile questions, and received a prompt email verification that the account is up and running.   Thankfully, that verification email came directly to my inbox and did not go by way of the spam folder.  I notified her of the status and now it just remains to be seen if my accumulated incentives will really find their way to the re-established account.  

I need to go fix some coffee now and try to wrap my head around all of this truly unexpected development.  

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Glad things ended up working out for you, Peach :-D Before this recent development that ended with complete account annihilation, a similar thing happened to me. (supposedly marked one of their survey invites as spam and had to email them to get the issue sorted) In my case - unless I'm remembering wrong - I didn't have to open another account; they just did something on their end that semi-fixed the problem. I say semi, because I still couldn't receive survey invites via that email address. After emailing support several times about it, I finally caved and just changed my email address.

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So sorry that happened to you 'dazedandlost'. I surmise that these sites try a lot of hit-and-miss stuff before finally settling on protocol.  Or maybe it's a matter of their reps  deciding for themselves as to what procedure to follow and I just got incredibly lucky in this instance.  I received another email this morning, advising that my credit had been transferred. Checked on my account and sure enough, there it was as though none of this had happened.  Not sure how long this run of luck will last...Murphy's Law and all that.  But I am grateful for everyone who posts on this forum (be it positive or negative reviews) because otherwise I would feel like I was doing all this in the dark.  Best wishes.

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Seems to me that they know full well they are getting very bad press from the mass account closures. Which because people are complaining so publicly about it, they could be losing clients who commission the surveys.

With all facts out there, I genuinely believe either its a major system fault that has flagged so many accounts or they've had financial difficulties and rather than folding, have mass closed accounts to balance the books knowing full well that people who have had their accounts closed can't do sod all.

They are now backtracking and letting deleted members open accounts again, yet notice how they still blame it on the member? Saying they marked their email as spam.

That's absolute codswallop because when someone marks an email as spam, the sender doesn't receive any notification of this. All that happens is when an email from that sender is received, it gets directed to the "junk mail" folder instead of the inbox.

With most email services even "blocking" an email address, doesn't block emails as people may think. The sender can still send an email to that person, but when it reaches the recipient, the block filter deletes it permanently and they never see the email.

So unless Cint have gained unauthorised access to your email account, there is no way whatsoever for them to know if you have marked their email as spam or not.

If I get a bit of spare time in the next week, I might just contact Cint about this, because either they are admitting to gaining access to peoples email accounts without their permission, which is a form of cyber crime (unlikely)... or..... They are simply telling porky pies. 

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I just looked through my email exchanges with Cint, during spam-gate, and their explanation was: " We have reviewed your account and see that you have been unsubscribed from your account, as you have marked an email from us as spam. Once you report an email from the panel as spam, you are automatically unsubscribed from the account."

And I was remembering wrong. Like Peach, I was told by Cint that I had to create a new account, with the same email, because they say they can't activate an unsubscribed account. I think support had to directly send the verification email, because that email address still couldn't receive emails from their panels. (and still couldn't even after my account was remade and Cint gave me back all my incentives)

I remember being delightfully stunned that, not only was the situation mostly resolved - besides, like I mentioned, having to change my email address anyway, because support seemed stumped on how to get the old email to receive survey invites - I got back all the money made prior to the issue. Flash forward a year later: accused of failing quality assurance checks and radio silence at requests to further investigate :cry:

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How bizzare. I mention Cint here yesterday and today wake up to an email from them. Very strange. They have this thing with me where contact has closed, then a month later I will get an out of the blue email from them telling me how I breached the terms again (on my suspended account I can't even access), or that my accounts are remaining closed. 

 

Emilie (Cint Support Team)

Feb 8, 10:06 CET

We regret to inform you that our systems have identified activity that is in violation of Cint's Participant Terms & Conditions for Panel Membership. As a result, we have removed your panelist account from our system and you will no longer be able to login, take part in surveys or other research programs or redeem or receive any rewards.

This decision will not be reviewed or reversed.

You can review Cint's terms & conditions here: https://www.cint.com/panelist-terms/

Kind Regards,
Emilie
Cint Support Team

 

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