Pinecone research account deactivated!

bright_side

Hi, I have been a member of Pinecone for approx 10 years and never had any issues, however I emailed them yesterday because I was unable to login to my account and they have just informed me that my account has been deactivated.

Apparently I have not responded to the 'last few' invitations they have sent me and they have tried to contact me via email regarding account deactivation and I have not responded. This is untrue! I had noticed that I haven't had any surveys from them in quite some time, but have always completed the ones I did receive. I had over £70 credit and I am really shocked that they have just done this

Has anyone else had any similar problems? I'm kind of wondering if they've just done it so they don't have to pay me

libra10

Have been with Pinecone for many years, and never had any issues.


In my opinion, they're a genuine company.


I would write a polite note to them, or contact them on their Facebook page.


Good luck


https://www.facebook.com/pineconeresearch/

purplevamp

I have, in the past, had emails from them saying "please complete emails or we will deactivate your account". This was when I didn't have time to complete or check a lot of my emails. I have since made an effort to do this. You should have had some sort of warning email from them. If you didn't then I would contact them and see if they can reactivate your account. Good luck

bright_side

Thank you. I most definitely haven't received any emails from them regarding completing surveys - ever. I wasn't even aware they did that! Since they stopped rewarding in Luncheon vouchers I have been trying to 'save up' to £100 so I could buy something I wouldn't usually afford. I certainly wouldn't have ignored an email from them when I have over £70 on there. I did reply to their email, so hopefully they will get back to me.

olliedoll92

Same thing happened to me as well

bright_side

Update. I emailed and explained that I hadn't received any correspondence from them in quite some time and although I didn't receive an explanation of what may have happened, my account has now been reactivated :T Fingers crossed I will start to receive invitations to surveys again soon

Kit1

They did this to me too and l hadn't received anything from them before they closed my account. When l wrote to them they just said they had contacted me and that was that.

Thinking about it now - l haven't heard from them for months :-(

Ebe_Scrooge

bright_side wrote: »

Thank you. I most definitely haven't received any emails from them regarding completing surveys - ever. I wasn't even aware they did that! Since they stopped rewarding in Luncheon vouchers I have been trying to 'save up' to £100 so I could buy something I wouldn't usually afford. I certainly wouldn't have ignored an email from them when I have over £70 on there. I did reply to their email, so hopefully they will get back to me.

It's never a good idea to carry a large credit with any survey company - even the legitimate ones can close down with little or no warning. Why don't you take the PayPal option, stash the money safely in your bank account and save it there ? Depending on the account you've got, you may even earn a few pennies in interest as well

bright_side

Ebe_Scrooge wrote: »

It's never a good idea to carry a large credit with any survey company - even the legitimate ones can close down with little or no warning. Why don't you take the PayPal option, stash the money safely in your bank account and save it there ? Depending on the account you've got, you may even earn a few pennies in interest as well

That's a very good point and I will do that in future I am now concerned about another survey site where I have a very large credit but that one pays in vouchers Being on a low income my thinking has always been that if the washing machine breaks down I could get vouchers to replace it! I guess I will have to rethink that one too.

Ebe_Scrooge

bright_side wrote: »

That's a very good point and I will do that in future I am now concerned about another survey site where I have a very large credit but that one pays in vouchers Being on a low income my thinking has always been that if the washing machine breaks down I could get vouchers to replace it! I guess I will have to rethink that one too.

I think the accepted wisdom with ANY survey site is - as soon as you have enough to cash out, do so. If they pay cash, then great, stick it in a bank account for a rainy day. If they pay in vouchers - use the vouchers to pay for stuff you'd have to buy anyway, put the equivalent amount of cash in your savings account. I'm a member of loads of survey sites, and always do this. Even the ones that only pay in Amazon vouchers - they'll have a long expiry date. Get the voucher safely in your mitts ASAP. Odds on, you'll be buying something from Amazon at some point, even if it's Christmas presents or whatever.

PineCone are one of the better and more "trusted" sites, but who knows what tomorrow brings ?

Anouchka

Recently I found I was unable to log into the Rewards section of the Pinecone site.

I emailed them and found that my account was blocked. They did not offer any explanation for this but said they had unblocked it.

True to their word, I was able to log in and collect my reward.

I don't really trust any survey site and take any reward/cash etc as soon as I can.