Has anyone worked with Fieldwork (focus groups)?

[nj07208]

I was scheduled for a focus group on 8/11. You had to have pre-work submitted at least 2 days prior to your day which I submitted on 8/6. I logged in 10 minutes prior to my time as requested and stayed for 15 minutes past my start time....and no one was ever there. I replied to the email which they had used to contact me (had to submit an NDA and the pre-work) and no one has replied. What the heck? In all the years of doing focus groups, I've never had something like this happen. Needless to say, I'll never apply for anything with them again.

[Njsurveyman]

I will say that I am sick and tired of all these focus group companies keeping all their studies remote via webcam or zoom, even though virus rates are very low in NYC and NJ. I have no interest in them and then have to chase after them for my pay. I have even posted on their FB pages that I hope to see more in person FG offers soon. 

There is only one in person research place near me that I have already been to twice for taste tests this summer. 

[NFriday]

I have worked with Fieldwork Chicago, but not since the pandemic.  I don't think I get many projects from them right now.  They were fine before, but I was maybe eligible once a year.  Nobody in the Chicago area is doing live market research studies.  There is one place out near O'Hare that was considering starting live studies again, last month, and asked me how I felt about it.

[NFriday]

I just looked them up, and Fieldwork Chicago is doing some live studies now.  The don't have anything I am eligible for though.

[NFriday]

I just got a study from Fieldwork Chicago for tomorrow, but they are only looking for people 18-59, and so that leaves me out.  There is a new Ben Affleck movie coming out, and they are doing some showings tomorrow.  They are paying $40 digital visa card for attending the movie.  They say they are going to email the visa card in two days, and so I assume it will be virtual, which means you can only use it online.  You have to wear an appropriate mask, and you have to show up one hour before the movie starts.

[NFriday]

I get emails from Fieldwork fairly regularly, and I just applied for a ton of studies with them, including a few that were looking for people over 65.  The email I got from them was about a two day mock jury that paid $575 total, and I assume you get a free lunch both days.  I did one of those at least five years ago, and once you do one, they usually don't want you again, but this one did not ask me if I had done a mock jury.  It only asked me if I had served on a jury in the last five years, which I had not.  There was at least one more mock jury that was only one day, and paid $275, and there were many more that I applied to.  The mock jury that I did at least five years ago was easy money.  I was there maybe six hours, and I think I got paid $250, and I got a free lunch.  It looks like they are doing more live sessions than they used to.  A lot of them were for Chicago, but they also had some for Atlanta and San Diego, and a few other cities, and a few national ones.  I don't know if anyone else here lives in the Chicago area.  The live ones I applied to are in downtown Chicago, including the two day mock jury.  Most live panels pay you with a visa gift card now.  I have done a few other panels with them in downtown Chicago, but it has been a while.

[NFriday]

I applied for a ton of panels on Thursday, but so far, I have not heard back from them.  

[NFriday]

I just got a call from Fieldwork Chicago an hour ago, and when they started asking me questions, I could just tell that the call was about the mock jury trial that lasts two days and pays $575.  She asked me a bunch of questions.  Most of them were the same ones I answered when I applied for the study.  There was then a long pause, and then I asked if she was still there, and then I got a busy signal, and so I hung up.  I was hoping that she would call me right back, but she did not, nor did she send me an email.  Oh well, I am probably not eligible for the study.

[NFriday]

I just applied for a bunch more Fieldwork panels.  The great majority of them were zoom.

[NFriday]

Fieldwork Chicago just called me up this morning about a Medicare study.  After I answered her questions, she said she would call me back in ten minutes, which she did.  When she called me back, she said that one or two of my answers did not meet what they were looking for, but she said that she would submit my answers to them and see if they would take me anyway.  The study is one hour, and I would go to downtown Chicago.  They are going to pay $125. if I am eligible.  They have tons of panels available, and a lot of them are remote, and are available nationally.  

[dimefynder]

I signed up for Fieldwork last winter or so, and haven't gotten any studies from them, although I have only tried a few times. They are legit, but there are a lot of professional companies like that .

I had been trying to get these types of studies (usually web cam-based) recently, because it would be nice to land one that pays double or triple digit dollars now and then, as a supplement to chasing the usual blizzard of 50 cent surveys. But I've mostly given up, because I am working more at a regular job. The two I tried hardest with were User Interviews and Respondent IO (you might recognize the latter from smaller surveys), but my zero batting average burned me out - and qualifying is time-consuming. More people are onto them, so spots get taken up more quickly these days.I also had a brief membership with Bay Area focus groups, which charges about $7.95 per month. A good source of national studies, but I didn't land any, and the effort was too much, as well. Another source (and they don't charge) of studies you can do at home is L&E Research. They often have hundreds.

I have also tried Field Work and Probe Market Research. I have actually had success with stuff I found on Craigslist or elsewhere. (PEGUS Research, Focuity Group, ACU Poll Precision Research). Craigslist has some scammy ones, too (the ones that offer over a thousand are suspect, except for some of the medical-related ones, but they can be found elsewhere sometimes). And for less money, but still much better than traditional surveys, try to get the Remesh studies. Swagbucks and a few others often have them. These are the ones that offer 10, 15, 18 or 20 dollars.

[NFriday]

Most of the studies I have been eligible revolve around Medicare.  When I first started doing surveys, I checked on Craigslist regularly, but now that I am signed up with the majority of the market research outfits, Last time I looked a few days ago, there were tons of studies on Fieldwork.  I am also signed up with Presence and Clarion, and a few other ones that I don't hear from that often.