Surveys getting worse everywhere

[beavinator]

I found this site via google, and decided to sign up just to rant and see if anyone else shares my frustration. I have been taking a lot of online surveys every day for many years now. Being unable to work but unqualified for disability, this is the only source of income I've been able to find. Unfortunately, it seems like every aspect of online survey taking is getting worse by the day. The number and length of surveys I have to slog through keep getting larger, while rewards keep shrinking. And yet my biggest source of frustration lately has been the content of the surveys themselves. If I didn't know better I would swear that a large portion of the surveys I take were written by monkeys. So many surveys now start by asking "Have you EVER heard of any of these brands, even if only by name?" They then list well-known brands which one would need to be living in a cave never to have even HEARD the names of, given how ubiquitous advertising is in our lives. If you answer honestly that of course you have heard of all of these brands, you are then forced to answer a THOUSAND questions about every aspect of your opinions on and experience with each of the brands you made the mistake of admitting you'd heard the names of, even if you have no experience with the brands whatsoever. And half the time after completing the entire pointless survey which is clearly not providing the surveyor with ANY relevant information whatsoever, you are disqualified anyway because they don't like your answers. And if you're signed up with multiple survey sites (as I'm sure the majority of us here are), you will take the exact same pointless surveys COUNTLESS times, because they all get their surveys from the same few terrible companies such as OTX/OpinionsHere. Some days I find myself literally screaming at my computer after taking my 20th aggravating survey for the 20th time. Sometimes I swear these must actually be disguised psychological tests to see how much of this we can take, since the surveys are written such that they couldn't possibly be generating even remotely useful marketing data for these companies. This opinion is bolstered by the fact that despite my continually rising levels of frustration and lack of adequate rewards for doing so, I keep on taking the stupid things.

Is there anyone else who feels the way I do about this? Sorry for the LONG rant, but this seemed a good place to vent my frustrations, as writing nasty letters to the survey sites' support departments is wholly unproductive.

[sgontu]

Dont worry , you have company.

Its getting very stressful with dq ing and begging for missing points.

I m not very far from completely quitting taking surveys. Peace of mind is quite expensive to buy.

I never thought surveys would take so much of mental peace.

On top of it when people accuse me of not providing honest answers which i do to my best knowledge, it hurts my self esteem.

I also see some companies doesnt know how to build a survey. they just keep the list long and want to know everything on teh globe with just a dollar.

[fiestyvermin]

Everyone is frustrated by those surveys they are such a headache. For me its where they ask you to list what brands you are aware of and then their very next question will be a long list of brands which they tell you might include some of the brands you already specified. Makes me wanna grab em and say whats the point of asking for brands I know if you are going to list all these brands for me to choose from. Most times it doesnt make a difference if I choose none or if I put one or two it doesnt disqualify so whats the point? Just a way of wasting time and making it more difficult.

[Leefall]

beavinator, sgontu, fiestyvermin

I agree with you 100%.

I always delete when I see OTX or opinionshere which now infects most survey companies.

[1957horses]

beavinator, sgontu, fiestyvermin

I agree with you 100%.

I always delete when I see OTX or opinionshere which now infects most survey companies.

ditto

[rosiesmom]

I got like 10 invites from OO today and when I finally clicked one I had to answer 5 questions and after that it took me to a survey for 1 sweeps entry. Huh? Where are the other 9 that they sent me. Not there!!

[cricket]

If the OTX surveys are the ones with the skinny black lines, totally lifeless, yes, ugh, waste of time. I wonder why the companies even take them on. If they want to make money on their end, who would they contract OTX? Also, opinionshere...I see those, where you have to click on boxes (age, race, etc) and I just don't even bother.

Beavinator, I remember when I got $20 every few days from Toluna. What have they done? I have been frozen at 40,000 points for months. When I cash out, maybe on 2015 I am gone. I basically stick to Opinion Outpost and MyView, neither of which I wait for invites...I just go there and one leads to another, sometimes for hours. Global Test Market is also good. Superpoints, Swagbucks and irazoo for pocket change while I am in the shower or watching TV, just clicking away.

I look at it this way...even if something pays 50 cents, you don't get to your daily goal without the 50 cents. My daily goal is at least $10, not a whole lot but $300 a month helps and I usually exceed the goal. The weekends are slow as you know, that's why I do Swagbucks because there isn't a minute where you can't make 'something'. Good luck, let us know if you find any better ones.

[rosiesmom]

I just added up what I have made in the past 2 1/2 years, just over $300. I think my age and that stuff hinders me, I don't drink or smoke. But I can cuss, why oh why don't they have one for cussers??!!

[footfree]

I just added up what I have made in the past 2 1/2 years, just over $300. I think my age and that stuff hinders me, I don't drink or smoke. But I can cuss, why oh why don't they have one for cussers??!!

lol -maybe it's because they don't want to hear the earful we could give them about how they treat us!

[beavinator]

fiestyvermin: I never even bother filling in when they ask me to actually type the names of companies I can think of, as I know the next question will always just be a list to choose from anyway. I've never been disqualified for that, as far as I know.

cricket: I'm getting far less money from Toluna now than I used to too, but I still get more from them than most other places so I still consider them one of the better ones overall. Though they definitely have a lot of the dumber surveys lately. I really hate the ones that force you to pick a choice, none of which are true, especially when they should already know that based on previous answers. It's especially annoying when they then ask you WHY you answered that way. I always write "Because you forced me to!" I run into having to give bogus answers a LOT, as many aspects of my life don't fit into the standard choices they seem to think should apply to everyone, particularly having no income, no family, living with friends, basically never making purchases of any kind, and not having any opinions about brands or companies other than "all any of them care about is money and more money".

Which reminds me of another type of survey that annoys the crap out of me: the ones that are clearly a company trying to figure out how easily they can trick people. It's especially common with financial firms lately. They'll ask your familiarity with all the major financial firms, and your level of knowledge about how they've decimated the American economy in the last 10 years, then show you several variations of PR statements the firms might make about how they really care about their customers and aren't evil like those other firms, then ask the same opinion questions again to see if you would actually fall for such nonsense. It makes me wonder if they are stupid for thinking people could be that stupid, or if people really ARE that stupid. Either way, it's rather horrifying if you think about it.

[idylatoo]

I sent you a few links to sites that have a lot of information from working at home. I hope they help.

[rosiesmom]

I hit upon a silly idea. Some of these places offer gift cards that I am not really interested in, BUT there are people who are. I looked up a couple of sites so even if I am not getting cash for the surveys, maybe I can sell them on one of those sites and make some cash. Just thinking outloud since some of the survey sites are not offering paypal or anything like it anymore.

[idylatoo]

I hit upon a silly idea. Some of these places offer gift cards that I am not really interested in, BUT there are people who are. I looked up a couple of sites so even if I am not getting cash for the surveys, maybe I can sell them on one of those sites and make some cash. Just thinking outloud since some of the survey sites are not offering paypal or anything like it anymore.

A lot of those sites have you end up selling at a loss. If a site has nothing I can use at all personally, I start asking friends/relatives if they want them. I then either "trade" the card for the straight monetary amount or give them away as presents. Most sites I use have amazon.com so the giftcard problem isn't so much of an issue for me anymore.

[rosiesmom]

I hit upon a silly idea. Some of these places offer gift cards that I am not really interested in, BUT there are people who are. I looked up a couple of sites so even if I am not getting cash for the surveys, maybe I can sell them on one of those sites and make some cash. Just thinking outloud since some of the survey sites are not offering paypal or anything like it anymore.

A lot of those sites have you end up selling at a loss. If a site has nothing I can use at all personally, I start asking friends/relatives if they want them. I then either "trade" the card for the straight monetary amount or give them away as presents. Most sites I use have amazon.com so the giftcard problem isn't so much of an issue for me anymore.

I haven't used one yet, but seriously considering it if they do Paypal deposits. I have amazon points, but I want to buy things from other sites and I can't use amazon for that. Don't know about it all, and yep, you do take a loss, but if I didn't pay anything for it to begin with, no problem. I don't make near the money some of you folks do so it doesn't bother me that much. I usually just get gift cards to give to my daughter for Christmas and after two years of this, she still has most of them, so I don't think I will be doing that this year.

[abby63]

beavinator, sgontu, fiestyvermin

I agree with you 100%.

I always delete when I see OTX or opinionshere which now infects most survey companies.

ditto

Same here! Would you believe I'm taking a survey on satisfaction with my gas station that was on my receipt to try and win $1000 and I'm getting an error, lol Thank goodness it's only 4 questions.