The Grapevine - any advice?

glitternova

Hello forum folk!

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post but I wanted to ask if anyone else has had problems with payment from the Grapevine panel market research group? I joined with them over a month ago and have done a few surveys, including one where I was sent a trial of an item with a £5.00 reward attached. They have not credited my account with at least £6.20 of the money earned from surveys and they won't reply to my emails asking them about the situation. I've also written to their parent company fieldinitiatives.co.uk to no avail. The first email was sent to them over 8 days ago.

Has anyone else had any problems with them? I know alot of people from here signed up to the panel after it was recommended on the main site (which is where I found it too) so I thought it might be the best place to ask.

Many thanks.

Boadicea

Hi Glitternova,

I have taken umpteen surveys for Grapevine and have never been paid a penny for any of them! They owe me over £13 now. They never reply when non payment is queried.:mad:

Another curious thing is that when you complete a Grapevine survey, you are always led to the Cint/Crowdolgy panel website. However when I queried the non payment issue with Crowdology/Cint they denied all knowledge of or connection to Grapevine. Curiouser and curiouser.

Has anyone else been scammed by this company?

Boadicea

RDSI are another company that does not pay for completed surveys, but leads you back to the Cint/Crowdology panel website. No doubt they will claim not to have heard of or have any connection with that company either!

Boadicea

Bit of an update; have discovered that Cint are the software providers for Crowdology and presumably for Grapevine, too.

Odd that whenever a Grapevine or RDSI survey is completed it invites you to check your reward and gives the link to the Crowdolgy panel account, making it seem that the blame lies with the totally innocent Crowdology panel.

Has anyone ever received payment from Grapevine, as this company are starting to look dodgier by the minute?!

Silvercloud

I've been with Grapevine a couple of months and normally get screened out of their surveys however I was finally accepted for two this morning,one each from Samplicio and Cintworks (surely a misspelling?).

I spent 45 mins - 1 hr and completed both 100% only to attempt submission and payment and be given a 403 Forbidden message!So they have my answers but have reneged on their obligation to pay me.Outrageous. :mad:

If we defraud a company,individual or the Government we are subject to the rule of law and punished accordingly;does this not apply to survey sites?Apparently not.

As already mentioned in this thread,emailing this company seems to be a waste of time so I won't be wasting any more of mine.I am cancelling my registration immediately and suggest you do the same.

Avoid.

1962davew

Hi
I am also a member of the above panels and thought I would have a look myself.
I sent an email and had this reply within 10 minutes.


"Dear Dave,

Many thanks for your email, and please accept my apologies for this.

I’m not actually directly involved with the Grapevine or our panel, however I have forwarded your email to the Director responsible at Field Initiatives, our sister company who run the Grapevine and panel, and they will be in touch to follow this up with you very soon.

Best wishes,
Hannah"


update to this message
I have just found my original joining message and it seems that they are all part of Cint/Grapevine/crowdology
I have successfully logged into RDSI and can view my points.
See below login page


Welcome,


Points
Your points 1.20 GBP
Last name
First name
Postcode & Str. address
Retype Postcode (only district required, e.g GU22)

Please, go to “Choose my payment method” and select one of the offered incentive systems. Press “Refresh”.

The instructions will appear on the current page on how to receive your incentives for participating in online surveys. Created Transaction Type Amount Status
2011-08-25 Points from survey 1,2 Done

Change your choice of payment


All content 2004 - 2012 - Cint AB, Stockholm Sweden

NB Still a newbie so cannot post the link

So now I will have to apologise for wasting their time.
Oh well at least that has sorted that out
Cheers

Former_MSE_Andrea

Hi

Grapevine has asked us to post a response on its behalf. MSE doesn't endorse anything a company says on the Forum.

Dear Grapevine Panel Members,

Thank you for the information you have provided in this forum, which has just come to our attention. We are disappointed to hear about your experiences and are keen to investigate this for you as a matter of urgency.

Please contact me directly with your name and the email address you use to log into Grapevine/Cint to conduct the surveys. Cint are our survey partners and are responsible for sending out the online surveys you have received.

We will look into each case and will aim to pay you any incentives rightly due to you for completed surveys as soon as possible.

Kind regards,
Vipul Chokshi
Director
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 8449 6404
Email: vipul.chokshi@fieldinitiatives.co.uk

Silvercloud

After emailing Mr.Chokshi last week to which I got a reply he telephoned me in person today to explain and I must say he came across as quite professional,however he had the advantage on me as I was not at my computer and could not check my facts to counter his explanation.

I suppose he can only go with the information on his screen but it was incorrect.He assured me I had been screened out at the beginning of the first of two surveys but I have checked my own records and I completed both in full.

I joined other survey sites at the same time as Grapevine and have had several £10 payouts whereas my GV account stands at 88p.It would have counted for something if I had been credited with the other survey I completed,perhaps they have software problems,I don't know.

Despite Mr.Chokshi's efforts,my experience has not been a good one and I cancelled my membership tonight.

This is my account only and may or may not be representative,others might find it works for them.

brightonman123

this email received earlier today.. photo effort required, and telephone survey.

please move / copy to another section (up your income?), if needed..

xxxxxxx


Hi!

We are looking for people who have bought KRE-O products for their children and their children have played with them already (i.e not unopened Christmas presents)!

Here is what a KRE-O toy looks like:



We want to run a 30 minute Telephone or Skype interview with you on either Monday 12th (between 9am-1pm) or on Tuesday 13th (between 10am and 5pm) and you will be paid £40 for this!

Importantly though, prior to the interview you must complete a short 10 question online survey of simple questions about your KRE-O, and take up to 6 photos of the KRE-O set and your son/daughter playing with it / photos of the final constructions your kids have made with it. They must be emailed to us prior to the interview – this is very important. You must also have access to a computer with internet connection during your interview as we’d like to talk to you about some pages online.

These photos will be used for internal training purposes by Hasbro and will NOT be made available to the public.

If you feel you fit all these criteria and would like to take part please respond to this email with your name, best contact number and email address.

Let me take this opportunity to assure you we abide by all the codes and conducts of the MRS.

Many thanks,

The GrapevinePanel Team
(Part of Field Initiatives)

katie07

Hi there,

I hope this is the right forum to post this in. Just wondering if anyone knows anything about The Grapevine (https://wine.the-grapevine.com.au). It's a survey site/community which focuses on wine/lager etc. I've recently signed up, and my first "task" was a mystery shopping task. However, the next stage of the task is to have wine posted to me to conduct a taste test against the wine I purchased in the MS. Now I'm all for free wine but, having never heard of this company until recently, I'm unsure about giving out my address. It looks like The Grapevine is run by a company called BrandHook.

Has anyone else had any experience of this company and can reassure me/tell me to run in the opposite direction??

Thanks in advance!

MoneySaver82

Hi there

I've been on The Grapevine since last September and never had any problems with them.
I've not had products posted to me but in the past they used to pay for tasks in Sainsburys vouchers so they had my address for this and I had a couple of vouchers posted with no problem.
Now they pay via Paypal and I've had £70 so far! :j - they pay £10 usually for every paid task which doesn't usually involve buying anything. This mystery shopping light wine task is the first time I've ever bought anything for a task - often they just get you to review product ideas or I've done a mystery shopping one that just involved reporting on a store display of boxed wine and taking pictures of if possible.
They're really good in my experience, no problems with payment ever, the paid tasks aren't massively regular but they usually don't involve much effort,as I say it's usually just posting on the forum reviewing ideas/coming up with new ideas.
I've sent my address off for the wine to be sent as I've never had any problems with them before so have been happy to do it and can't wait for my samples!
:T