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Lucrative online surveys - sometimes backfire

December 30th, 2006 at 02:43 am

As you know, I'm a physician. One of the few perks of that occupation is that I am frequently invited to participate in market research surveys which pay quite well. While most people are doing online surveys to make a few dollars, I'm doing ones that pay $50-$100 for surveys that I can sometimes zip through in 15 minutes or so.

Even so, I ignore 80% of the invites I get because some of the surveys are so incredibly boring and tedious that if I'm not in the right frame of mind, I can't stand doing them.

I decided to do one tonite while we were all sitting around watching tv. They said it would take about 35 minutes and pay $70. The opening screen said there would be about 50 questions. The questions weren't numbered and there was no progress bar indicating how far along I was in the study. So I got started. The format was incredibly boring and tedious, but I kept at it for what seemed like a very long time. Eventually, my family and I decided to play a board game, so I took a break. When I came back, I continued the survey and began counting questions. After 50, I stopped reading and just clicked randomly to see if there was an end to this torture. After 75, I just gave up. I e-mailed the survey company to tell them their survey was faulty and had no end. I also told them that I felt I was entitled to some compensation for the huge amount of my time they had wasted with their defective survey. I've done a lot of surveys for them, so I'm curious to see if I get a response, and, more importantly, if I receive a payment.

This is the first time anything like that has happened, though, so it is probably some software glitch. Oh well. Such is life. Earlier this week, I got checks for $60 and $80 for other surveys I have done recently, so I can't complain too much if once in 10 years something like this happens.

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

4 Responses to “Lucrative online surveys - sometimes backfire”

  1. Amber Says:
    December 30th, 2006 at 03:08 am 1167448112
    1167448112

    what a pain, I am not a MD but I get some surveys without the status bar as well and have learned that they are the longest. So now I just do not even bother...I hope you get something

  2. PRICEPLUS Says:
    December 30th, 2006 at 06:28 am 1167460108
    1167460108

    I don't do or get a ton of surveys. If something interesting comes along I might participate though! It sounds like you had one bummer of a survey there though!

  3. tinapbeana Says:
    December 30th, 2006 at 03:31 pm 1167492671
    1167492671

    steve, the psych major in me is wondering if perhaps you got caught in a study survey rather than an actual survey... sounds like something a grad student would come up with!

    and BTW, very glad you joined us on the blogs. hope you enjoy it!

  4. Ima saver Says:
    December 30th, 2006 at 06:58 pm 1167505090
    1167505090

    Sorry it was a waste of your time.

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