More on Toluna Strangeness

In my last post I wrote of the strange goings-on at Toluna. To summarize, they somehow transferred my account to a new opinion site called iQuestion. The new site has no surveys to take, but it did have the balance of my earnings, which I was unable to retrieve because there was no way to access PayPal (as they promised) and no way to ask for a payment by check.
This week a payment by check option did appear when I checked the site and I've quickly retrieved my balance (stay tuned to see if the check actually arrives). But there are still no surveys to take and my requests for response to what was going on - including my request to be returned to membership in the original Toluna site - have gone unanswered by the administrators at Toluna.
There have been many online rants about Toluna and its past problems in non-payment, bumping people off surveys for no reason, etc. But, I've always managed to at least take surveys and get somewhat regular payments. But, being shifted unwittingly to a new survey site with no surveys is a new low for this company.
My warning is - at least for now - STAY AWAY FROM TOLUNA. If you have an account and have some earnings there cash out as soon as possible.

Alert: Toluna Pulls Strange Switcheroo

I’ve long touted Toluna as one of the better survey sites. They have plenty of surveys to take, and their payments are generally good and prompt. But recently I’ve run into a serious – perhaps fatal – problem with Toluna. I’m advising caution when dealing with them.

When I noticed there were no surveys coming in from Toluna – which is highly unusual – I decided to check out my account online. When I did I was shocked to find I had no points listing (I should have had several thousand) and no surveys to take. After clicking on everything I could on the site to find the problem, I contacted Toluna online and was eventually told that my account had been switched to a Toluna subsidiary called iQuestion. Upon further enquiry, since I’d never heard of iQuestion, I was told that at some point in the past I’d agreed to have my account, points and all, transferred to iQuestion. I recalled no such questionnaire and even if I had encountered it I would never have agreed to a transfer (what benefit would that bring? None, of course). Moreover I when I went to the iQuestion site, not only were there no surveys to take, but when I tried to cash out my balance using PayPal as the site said it used (a nice change possible since Toluna never offered a PayPal option), the site would not allow it nor any other cash payout, such as a check. Instead the only options were Amazon credit or some kind of screwy sweepstakes.

I don’t know what the final outcome of this will be, so stay tuned. But, if you’ve had a similar experience I’d like to hear about it. In the meanwhile, I’m advising everyone to be very, very cautious when using any Toluna site. And, if I can’t get out of iQuestion and back to Toluna I’ll be unsubscribing faster than a speeding bullet.

Opinion Outpost Game Change

Opinion Outpost, one of if not the top survey site around, has changed its prize method. You’ll remember that you have to have taken a survey and at its conclusion said “no thanks” at the prompt rather than “Take another survey.” When you do select no thanks a prize window opens up. In the new methodology you have three doors to pick from. If in the doorway you pick a betting chip shows a number “1” you’ll win an extra 20 points; a 2 chip equals 10 points; a 3 chip is worth 5 points; and a 4 chip (which you’ll get most often) is equal to nothing. Cute game, but REMEMBER you have to choose “no thanks” after every survey you take in order to get into the prize window page.

Review of Valued Opinions

Valued Opinions is a fair to poor online survey site. It doesn’t offer a plethora of surveys to be taken, but there are enough to keep you interested if you’re serious about taking online surveys. The one significant downside of the site is that its payment system is pretty meager – especially when you have to accumulate $20 in surveys taken in order to cash out. That could take a very long time.

Valued Opinions is operated by a company called Research Now and you are likely to see that name under different survey site names and in the url of various surveys you might take. Its home base is Texas and some of you might be familiar with e-Rewards which the company bought out some years ago. The company also owns and operates a number of other survey sites and opinion polling services.

For the most part the surveys offered by Valued Opinions are a little longer than most other survey sites’ offerings. I’ve also noticed that it is very hard to get completion of any survey they send, which makes it even harder to accumulate points to achieve the cash out level.

In all, if you are looking for more lucrative and rewarding experiences I’d say stick with sites like Opinion Outpost, Toluna, Focusline or Surveyhead. Valued Opinions doesn’t really make the cut of the top survey sites and I’d list it under “only if I have nothing better to do with my time.”

What Do Survey Sites Collect About You?

Recently, while completing a survey, I saw an image that I don't think the survey company wanted me to see. I managed to grab a screen shot of it and here is what it looked like:


The image is of some of the information survey sites collect about you; things like the computer and operating system you are using. There is, I'm sure, other data being collected - after all that's what surveys are, data collection sites - but it's interesting to see it in black and white.
It also serves as a reminder to be careful what information you provide to survey sites, especially ones that may not be well known. Be cautious but enjoy.