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Focusline Surveys closing down


ChookyGirl

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Michelline, I think you are right, some people maybe just thought it's all too hard, but I'm afraid I'm one of those annoying people, I won't give up!!  Were you also aware that just before they closed down, they raised their minimum redemption amount from $25.00 to $50.00? I have asked them about it but got no reply, I think they did that knowing they were closing down and thought that it might reduce the number of payouts.  Then I think what happened is, so many people, like you and me, (who actually don't do surveys for free), kicked up a stink and starting asking questions.  I think it's shifty.. have a good weekend anyway, try not to stress yourself out about it!

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Chooky Girl

I thought they had raised the amount to 50.00,a while back.So,you're saying they just did it?

Doesn't surprise me,wonder what went on that they had to close.

Well,that's good you're stubborn cause I tend to be..too.

Like I said,there are people that are going let it go or maybe only have a small amount they have not cashed in.So that means,Focusline will be left with a lot of unredeemed rewards.By rights,people really need to contact the BBB. I think you have to file the complaint in whatever state Focusline operated in.

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ChookyGirl

I'll try not to stress.....Lol

I do stress and I shouldn't..cause it isn't worth it.

You also have a good weekend and will probably be back here tomorrow.

So I will talk to you then.

Good night.

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Chooky Girl,  I am not too worried yet; I've been with them for 6 years and we have been communicating regularly since the closure. They sometimes take 2 months to pay a request. Again, the "left over amounts under the $50 threshold" were manually paid out. I would like a confirmation from my Friday inquiry though as to the status of the other confirmed $50 paypal requests amounting to $400. Normally with Focusline,  I would qualify for a $50 payout every 45 days or so, maybe 60 days? In the end though, they were offering strings(like 20 at a time) of 75 cent surveys that were only taking a minute or two. So you could do them all in less than 30 minutes and quickly make $15; this was occurring on a almost daily basis. Much of it is your personal demos, and maybe more importantly is logging in and checking the dashboard. I have found if you wait for emails, it is often times too late to participate.

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Another thing about Focusline and OnlyCash surveys. I believe these recent closures along with JDPower, Slam Dunk, etc. that were all formerly in the USamp/Instantly corporate umbrella. SSI bought out the USamp/Instantly operation which was quite a big one. They have gradually been closing the old Usamp/Instantly panels. The only ones that remain to my knowledge are iPoll(which has roots in the old Surveyhead from USamp) and Buzzback which is currently down for a make-over. So I don't believe we have a scam here necessarily, just SSI(Survey Spot, Outpost) streamlining their new acquistion. I certainly hope this is the case, I don't want to eat the hundreds of dollars I have in receivables. Buzzback has been down about 10 days, I would expect them to re-open any day. iPoll was only down for a day or two. It is back and running similiar to Outpost. If anyone knows of any of the old USamp/Instantly panels that are still open, I would like to know about it. Thanks.

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Hi TomMack,

 

wow I can't believe you were getting so many from them.  Maybe its because I'm in Australia or something,  because I sit and do about 2 hours worth of surveys per day, the longest an invite would ever sit in my email inbox (from any survey site) would be 12 hours.  I check it first thing in morning and do a few (if I have time as I work 3 days a week) or else I do them at night....iPoll are definitely closed here in Australia, shut down end of April, so maybe you guys are lucky and it's still running over there in US??  My husband actually wondered if the US/AUD$ exchange rate was at play in these companies closing down too....wouldn't surprise me.  It's interesting what you said about SSI though, we are with probably about 15 survey companies in total and I would say 5 of those are under SSI umbrella.

 

Thanks for your input, hope to hear of you getting your larger redemptions soon.  Have a good day.

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Chooky Girl

Finally got the rewards from Focusline,but they still owed me a small amount from what was left over in my Focusline account.

I will chalk that part up,won't get that part of it.At least I am thankful I got my rewards,but still wondering why they just didn't send it and I had to ask for it.

Hope you're doing well.

I was going to say....are you a member of Pinecone Research?I am.. and like it very much.

Take care.

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Chooky Girl

I will let you know if I get the money.Thank you for writng.

I hope people don't let their money go,some people may not want to bother with it,but they should.

You're right,whatever work you do,you get paid and lets face it,you sometimes put tons of time in a survey and get paid peanuts.

And nobody should have to contact them,they should have contacted all participants who they owe rewards to,I think they just wanted to get out of paying.They also gave a link that didn't work.I am talking about the link they gave when you went to their site on contacting them about rewards.Thanks for listening and you have a great weekend too.Will be in touch.

Hi Michellene,

 

Great stuff to hear that you got your money, I have no idea why we had to ask for it, I think they just crossed their fingers and hoped that most people would just give up and write it off...not you and me though!!!  I will look into Pinecone, I have never heard of it, although I'm in Australia, we don't seem to have half as many as you guys, I'm assuming you are in US?  I will search and have a look, as I need to replace the two survey sites that I have lost recently, being FocusLine and iPoll...although another member of this forum told me earlier today that iPoll are still going???  Maybe just not Down Under....see ya .

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Hi Chooky Girl,  Again, 12 hours is too long to wait; although depending on what you do for a living, it might be unavoidable. I believe you need to be proactively logging in like a cycle through all your panels to check dashboards. Sometimes 5 minutes after a e-mail is too late. I can do this because I am self-employed with a home office. You get a feel for when a panel is dry or hot for a particular period during the day. Update on Focusline: I was paid one of $50 paypals yesterday; I believe it was a March 10th request; they have somewhat been paying out of order chronologically. So I have six left to pay. I was told my iPoll $50 was being paid within a few business days. Making progress, hope everyone else is getting paid.  Again, did you mail iPoll and ask them if you can participate in Australia? I would email either the surveyhelpcenter or the instantly addresses that have been mentioned in this topic. I did not have to do anything, it was down for 2? days, it came back up under the same address with a different look and my rewards intact. It is very similiar to Outpost now. On SSI, you may now be under more of their umbrella, they seem to reaching for a monolopy. The USamp/Instantly buy was huge and they may well have made other discreet moves that I am unaware of.  I was totally suprised and unaware when they swallowed USamp/Instantly.

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Hi ChookyGirl

You said Ipoll is closing there?I get surveys from them all the time,but rarely do them.

I guess doing surveys all these years...I'm kind of sick of them.There is good ones,but they have changed over the years.Not as good,just my opinion.

Also have you ever tried Global Test Market,it is a very good survey site.They send me tons of surveys.

Take care.

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Michellene,

 

Yes I have tried GTM, unfortunately because my husband signed up with them first, they only allow one membership per household.  He has quite good success with them, believe me I would love to sign up too, but it's not worth it, they eventually find out due to IP address and would probably cancel both our accounts,  has happened with other survey sites and it's not worth it.  I will look into iPoll, although I'm not too worried, I only ever claimed once in about 3 years with them, so I consider them way down on my list of "good" survey sites.  Have you tried Vindale??  They are pretty good, although I've been at a standstill with them for a few weeks now, stuck at $33.04, (need $50.00 US to redeem which generally converts to about $68.00 Australian).  Off to work now, have a great day, thanks for your ideas.

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Focusline Update: Received a response from Friday from surveyhelpcenter.com (sometimes the mail comes from the instantlyrewards address) and was told all of my remaining Paypals have been processed and paid within a week; the dates of my cashouts were Apr.12, Apr.20, and Apr.26th.

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Focusline Update: Received a response from Friday from surveyhelpcenter.com (sometimes the mail comes from the instantlyrewards address) and was told all of my remaining Paypals have been processed and paid within a week; the dates of my cashouts were Apr.12, Apr.20, and Apr.26th.

Hey TomMack, that's awesome news!! What a weight off your shoulders hey.  I don't know about you, but it's not even about the money, (although with an amount of $400 it is)...the reason I was chasing them was because for me it's the feeling of being ripped off and being powerless that I can't deal with.  I'm so happy for you.  My husband and I were discussing all this last night and we have both agreed to not let any of our balances build up anymore, as soon as we can redeem, we will redeem.  It's not worth the stress, if we then find out that yet another company is shutting up shop.  So glad to hear your good news, have a great day mate.

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Thanks, they paid everything in full yesterday(focusline, and ipoll). I agree with your stance. I keep a list of rip offs and give em hell. I look up board of directors and call them, etc.

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TomMack,

 

So glad to hear you got all of it...now you can relax!!  I think what some of these "companies" don't understand is that this is like any other industry, we give our time, then they pay us for that time.  No other corporation, small business owner, whatever, would get away with allowing someone to work for them, even if it's only a few hours, and then not pay them.  When we start a survey, it's like we are clocking on for work, then when we finish that survey, we "clock off".  I am currently having an email conversation with Vindale regarding a Star Wars merchandise survey that I did with my 8 year old daughter.  They wanted her opinion, so I sat with her and typed her answers etc...we got right to the end, they asked me all the usual classification questions, I hit Submit, then got a message saying "sorry, you did not qualify for this survey".  And this was after at least 20 mins.  I was royally pis*ed off!!  Contacted them, they got back to me and said they had awarded me the minimum for "attempting the survey".  I suggested that maybe they hadn't read me email properly, as we DID complete it.  Still waiting for a response.  This happens regularly, with Toluna, Vindale and sometimes others.  It's the feeling of powerlessness that I hate, they have the last word in the end. It seems we are just lowly serfs!!  But I'm so glad you got all your money, it was a huge amount and you had obviously put in a lot of time to earn that, so well done for sticking to your guns.  Have a great weekend, spend a little, save more (if you can!!).

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