OpinionPeople

[nerak58]

This is a German-based site. I'd reached the minimum payout level of 150 points (worth GB£15.00) and requested a payout on 2nd Nov 2010 - they say they make payments at the end of each month, straight to the member's bank account. Gave them my bank's BIC & IBAN codes (required for payments from abroad) but nothing arrived at the end of November. I queried this and was told they'd sent the payment, details they quoted were correct. By 15th December still nothing, so I sent them copies of my bank statements to prove the money hadn't arrived. Chased them twice more since then, finally got another bog-standard reply (exactly the same as the first one) today saying the money had been remitted. So I've sent them the bank statements again, asking them to show me where they see this non-existent payment. It's not the amount that bothers me (if it ever turns up I'll lose about £2 in bank conversion fees anyway) but the sheer pig-headed refusal to accept that the money hasn't arrived at its destination and the fact that they just haven't bothered to read all the info I sent them. In their first e-mail they said I had to ask my bank where the money had got to - 21 years working for a major UK clearing bank is long enough to know that payments have to be traced from from their source, not the other way around. If I ever get my money I'm resigning from their panel, but in the meantime, be warned about this company.

[TSP1973]

Sorry to here about your problems and hope you get them solved, thanks for letting us know about this company.

However there is one thing I would like to say "Never give out your bank account information or any other personal information like that!". They could easily drain your bank account, leaving your with nothing. Plus if they did that, being that it is a foreign company, it would be 100 times more harder if NOT impossible to get your money back in the event that they would drain your bank account!

[nerak58]

The only information they have about my bank account is the international sorting code and my account number, no passwords, pin numbers or other information, in fact no more than any other organisation which pays money directly into my bank account, e.g. my employer, child allowance, tax credits etc. Our UK banks are very secure, somebody would need to know much, much more than just sorting code and account number in order to access the account, information which nobody at all knows apart from myself, so that's not really my worry. I don't exactly doubt the authenticity of this company, which is affiliated to Esomar, I think it's more a case of complete ineptitude and downright pig-headedness in their attitude - also, there might well be a language problem, although there shouldn't be, because they operate in 10 countries apparently.

PS: Draining my bank account is not a particularly lucrative option at present for any would-be fraudsters, which is why I'm reduced to doing these blinking surveys for peanuts!