Survey Stashing: Valued Opinion hints & tips

zoe.j_2

i completed the drinks diary but was only paid fifty pence when i was told i would get £6.

Pixelation_2

Hi Everyone,

this is my first post here, i have been a reader for years but never registered until now. I was wondering if anyone could answer a question for me. I am a "new "member of valued opinions, I say new because about 7 years ago I was a member and used to average around £10 every 5-7 weeks in amazon vouchers, and then all of a sudden I stopped receiving emails. Anyway I quickly forgot about them and signed up again recently, using the same email address I used years ago, so i was wondering, is this the same company as i was a member of years ago? or is this a new company? just it seems odd that I could register again with the same email address if they are the same.

My experiences so far have been good, I signed up three weeks ago and have just cashed in a £10 boots voucher which states it will take 28 days to arrive.

Pixelation

JDPower

Pixelation wrote: »

Hi Everyone,

this is my first post here, i have been a reader for years but never registered until now. I was wondering if anyone could answer a question for me. I am a "new "member of valued opinions, I say new because about 7 years ago I was a member and used to average around £10 every 5-7 weeks in amazon vouchers, and then all of a sudden I stopped receiving emails. Anyway I quickly forgot about them and signed up again recently, using the same email address I used years ago, so i was wondering, is this the same company as i was a member of years ago? or is this a new company? just it seems odd that I could register again with the same email address if they are the same.

Accounts are usually/infamously deleted if left dormant for a while. Seven years is is about ten times longer than the usual time it takes for accounts to be removed so think it's a safe bet you were deleted.

PaulLC

This is interesting.

I've just had the same "inconsistent replies" message. This annoys me as I'm not trying to deceive and I do, up to a point, take it seriously. I know just before I got the message (and appear to have been blocked from taking new surveys, although the account is still active) I was offered a real pig of a survey. The questions were confusingly and ambiguously worded, and one was so vague I could not work out what it was asking for. I kept being stuck on this page with a recurring message that said the response I was giving was not correct. In the end I managed to unstick it by randomly entering numbers which it seemed to accept, and I wonder if this was at the root of the problem... I have suggested to them that the inconsistency is not so much in the respondent as the design, so could their partners phrase the wretched things better?

As for the payment: £1.50 for 30 minutes actual work. errr.... this works out to £3.00 per hour. Minimum wage is now over £6.00 per hour.

System

I don't believe they have to offer a rate comparable to the minimum wage?

PaulLC

Legally not, alas. The T&C makes it clear an employer-employee relationship does not apply.

But morally, if i'm performing actual work for somebody for an hour and I only get a pay rate of £3.00 ph.... (or pro-rata...)

PaulLC

Really, really, annoyed with VO.

They have just started charging for the privilege of claiming the reward you have more than paid for - every time I qualify for a £10 reward they are now charging 50p to redeem it.

There's massive protest on their Facebook page about this. I think Martin Lewis and his readers should be made aware!

Have written to VO thus:

What do you need to know about me? Deeply NOT IMPRESSED with being stung for 50p every time I redeem a voucher. Wow, you really value us, don''t you? These are YOUR overheads and marginal costs - if you want our opinions so badly, pay up with good grace or recoup the money from your "partners" who need the information we provide. There really is nothing like biting the hand that feeds you, is there! As others had pointed out, how would you feel if you went to work to discover your employer was docking 5% of your pay to meet the overheads of administering the payroll department? This simply isn''t on and I see from your Facebook page you''re getting massive protests and negative feedback! Also going to post this on other boards and social media - ie the Martin Lewis Moneybox pages which hitherto have reccommended you as a means of earning extra money. Let''s see what Martin (and several hundred thousand readers) thinks!

libra10

There are already several similar threads about this.

Is this going to be the start and other companies will follow?

It will be interesting to see whether VO lose members because of their greed.

JDPower

I really don't see it as a major issue myself, it's only a 5% price increase, which I admit if it were yearly would be a lot, but I've been with them (amongst others) about 4 years now and don't remember any increase in that time, so works out the equivalent of (at most) 1% a year, which is less than inflation, so I'd say they're doing pretty well to only increase it by that amount.

libra10

The idea is that the 'worker' is supposed to receive the increase, not the company who employ them. We are receiving a 'reduction' in pay!

When I first started with VO, an average survey might be worth approximately £2, now very few pay that much money, most around 50p to 75p. By charging 50p to claim a payment, this is a cheeky way of paying us even less money.