Survey Says...UPDATE!

It sounded good at the time. Make money doing surveys. I've signed up for many of these and I'm going to give a quick review of three of them:

The Best: NPDOR, which is NPD Online Research. When I first did this program I won $100 bucks in a random drawing. That has garnered them some loyalty, and they have a new system which is called "Sweepland". This is the new way to win prizes. You get points for every survey plus bonus points in a lottery style game each time you complete one. Then you get to allocate the points towards daily, weekly, monthly (and other durations) drawings. It is very clear how many points you have earned and how many you have in play. I haven't won any prizes since I re-upped about a month ago, but I'll still do my surveys.

Jury is still out:Vindale Research, which promises that you will get paid for reviewing products. I have earned $7.00, but I have about 20 opportunities ranging from $2.00 to $7.00. Why haven't I jumped at all of these offers? Well, you have to buy/signup for the service. Most of those offers cover the cost of the startup anda few extra bucks. If you are dilligent and keep track of all the "Trial" expiration dates, you can probably make it worthwhile. But it was much more difficult cancelling the efax.com account than it was setting it up with my credit card. The hard sell to keep me on board for an additional three months was annoying. I'm not sure I want to keep doing these opportunities, so I'll let you know. Lesson learned: If they say they will pay you "X" amount, read the fine print!

Avoid like double dipped salsa: Survey Spot. I haven't officially stopped using this service, but I am not sold on it's credibility. I have taken dozens of surveys. They are all relatively short. The payoff? Not much. They have a $25,000 sweepstakes that you earn "entries" for. Sounds great. Wrong. At the end of every survey you get to play a "game". The game is either a "scratch and win match three" or a simulated slot machine. You win anything from 5 to 100 "extra" entries into the contest. Again, still sounds good. Here is an email that I sent the Customer Service department:

1. How can I tell how many entrants I have received so far? I kept getting 100 point, 25 or 5 entrants in the contest, but I have no way of knowing how many I have received. How do I know that you even really enter me in that many times and if it is worth doing this many surveys?

Here is their response:

We're sorry SurveySpot didn't automatically enter you in the prize drawing, but your name has now been entered. Good luck and thank you for your participation.

If this message does not answer your question please reply with the words More Help in the body of the message, so that we can better answer your question.

Hmmm. More help as opposed to the "non-help" the first response elicited. Okay.

That didn't answer my questions. How do I know HOW MANY entrants I received.
If I've done all these surveys and I only have one entrant it has been a big waste of time and your site did not explain it very well at all. Is this an automated response or is did you not read my questions?

And their response:

We advice our members to keep a personal record. We suggest you copy and paste your survey invitations once you have received it.
In addition, we do not have a program for our panelists to view their entries in their drawing at this time.

I think they mean "Advise", but maybe I'm a little rusty in that part of my grammar. I'll let these two responses speak for themselves. I have a feeling it doesn't matter how many "entries" you have in the sweepstakes.

I'll give some other reviews later on, but until then, be wary of the surveys.