Survey Irritation #27

[NotRichYet]

I know we all have our "peeves" when it comes to taking surveys. Here's one of mine:

Some surveys have "progress bars" that tell you how far along you are in the survey. Great addition, WHEN THEY WORK. However, I get reeeeeeeeeally irritated when they ask you a bunch of questions and the progress bar is humming along to 40, 50, 60% complete, but then, it mysteriously drops back down to about 20% and starts moving up again from there. ARRRRRRRRRRGH!

Anybody else have a survey "pet peeve" they want to share?

[footfree]

Lets say they are asking questions on 10 different companies (across the top of the survey) and then they have 50 (not really,just seems like it,on the side)different choices of how the company preforms and you need to choose which company falls into that category.Had that with GTM today omg that was so long and boring.

[RushHour]

I definitely agree with you on that pet peeve. I like knowing I'm almost done. When I see a progress bar drop to less than it was it makes me want to just exit out of the survey and go do something else. Definitely annoying! Glad to know I'm not alone.

[TSP1973]

I have seen that happen many of times, I just want to throw the keyboard at my computer when I see that!

[Whatatay]

I could go one for hours with this. The problem is you either stay in high school and get an education or become a survey maker, since it appears you have to be a moron to make surveys.

My biggest pet peeve. They ask if I purchased something, ate at a restaurant, or used a product within the past 12 months. Then they ask if I have done this in the past 6 months, then the past 3 months, 1 month, 2 weeks, and then the past 7 days. Then when I say I haven't in the past 7 days I am disqualified. Why don't they ask in the reverse order? That way if I used or did something in the past 2 weeks, that means I also used it in the past month, 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months. Also, then they make it worse by asking the same question in different variations. For example, "which of these products have you seen in the past 12 months, 6 months" etc. Then they ask which of these you have purchased in the past 12 months. 6 months etc. Then they ask which you have used in the past 12 months, 6 months etc". On and on and on.

The other one is when they ask me to type the names of all the restaurants, stores, or types of yogurt I ever heard of. After spending 5 hours typing this list out they then show a list and want you top select the ones from the list. Then they do the same crap like above with asking you to type out which ones you have bought, then which ones you used. Why not just give me the list and save me a bunch of time?

[DanLambskin]

i had one today...asked me a list of restaurants I've eaten at in the past year

then gives me a list of 3 restaurants and asks which i've eaten at in the past month with no "none of the above option" yet i had to click something to proceed even though i hadn't eaten at any of them recently

later it asked me how much i thought a fair price for a side of mashed potatoes was (whole numbers only) so i said $1...next it asked me what i thought a cost was that was too cheap to doubt it's quality and said it had to be less than $1 (yet i cant put $0.99)...i had to click the back button about 50 times so i could change my original answer to $2

[Leefall]

What is the purpose of my original profiles if after entering a survey I know I am not at all qualified for the subject? I think profiles are surveys in disguise. The survey company should do some work & weed out some of these surveys. I think they just send all surveys to everyone completely disregarding your original profile. I no longer complete my profiles as they are a waste of time. Pinecone seems to be the only company that is aware of my profile, none of the others & I am accepted for most surveys.

Also, when you indicate you have never tried a certain product & then they ask you if you liked it. They disregard your previous answer & ask how you liked the product.

[Whatatay]

i had one today...asked me a list of restaurants I've eaten at in the past year

then gives me a list of 3 restaurants and asks which i've eaten at in the past month with no "none of the above option" yet i had to click something to proceed even though i hadn't eaten at any of them recently

later it asked me how much i thought a fair price for a side of mashed potatoes was (whole numbers only) so i said $1...next it asked me what i thought a cost was that was too cheap to doubt it's quality and said it had to be less than $1 (yet i cant put $0.99)...i had to click the back button about 50 times so i could change my original answer to $2

This is what I am talking about. I think there should be a new term for moron, idiot, or imbecile. It would be survey maker.

[jayinchicago]

I have more irritations to list than words in the OED. Probably why I've only done Pinecone surveys since around October or so.

My biggest PITA is while doing a beer survey (I used to get a lot of those, probably my age and gender) it would ask complicated questions about the last x weeks, days, months and have me list beers I've had. Now, I don't know maybe you are keeping a 3 month list of beers somewhere, but I can only make educated guesses. Then the survey will revisit the question a bit later as if trying to catch me giving inconsistent answers--I'm not memorizing this stuff guys!

Questions that literally cannot be answered as asked bother me too. Also I will x out a survey if it's a long checkbox grid and the categories aren't visible after scrolling.