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Has anyone considered taking a survey site to small claims court?


dawn_b_adams

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So perhaps it’s the fact that I’ve had a jumbo margarita with lunch earlier today and I have some tequila in me that I’m asking this, but I’ve actually been pondering this for a few days now. I like to read the latest reviews on the dashboard for all the survey sites. Something I’ve seen again and again is people who have taken $50+ or even over $100 worth of surveys and they suddenly get dumped by the survey site for the same generic BS “not being honest, rushing through surveys, having more than one account” etc etc etc. And that’s it. No recourse. No amount of complaining/contacting the BBB/state’s attorney’s office/whatever is gonna get you that hard earned money back. 

I think it’s beyond unacceptable, total BS that these companies get away with this. I wonder if it’s even feasible/realistic to find a way to take these survey sites to small claims court. Probably not, but I wish it were. My heart aches when I read some of these stories from people who were screwed. With small claims court, if they find in your favor, not only do you win your settlement, but usually the offending party has to pay court costs and that in addition for paying you the money you’re owed. I’d love to see someone like Judge Judy ream some of these companies a new one. Someone needs to hold these companies accountable for fraud and stealing. Wondering if anyone has ever tried to take a survey site to small claims court.

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I threatened one site with taking them to small claims court.  I got my money!  Threaten them with that.  Might work.

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8 hours ago, pansyrhonda said:

I threatened one site with taking them to small claims court.  I got my money!  Threaten them with that.  Might work.

Fortunately I’ve been okay. Usually, the minute it reaches the threshold, I immediately cash out. I don’t sit on it at all. I pretty much expect to get screwed, and I won’t give them a chance to pull that crap on me and be out all that money. 

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I think I'm going to try this one. I earned that money. It took a long time to earn that money, through mind numbing surveys. 

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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.

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Thank you for the information Schludermann. I'm definitely going to do this. Information is power.

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