Pinecone folks - Are studies getting longer?

[disneysteve]

For those who do Pinecone surveys, is it my imagination or are the studies getting longer? The last couple I did seemed much longer than usual. Maybe it's just a fluke but I thought I'd see if anyone else had noticed the same thing. It was bad enough when they cut the pay from $5 to $3.

[marvholly]

Yes and at my age (near 66)I do not qualify for many surveys anywhere.

Also, on my last Pinecone survey I did qualify for the at home trial of the product. It was cancelled 2 days after I got the product. It is now 8 days later. I have NOT received the paperwork to return the swtuff as promised and I really need the counterspace w/all the Passover cooking. I have also NOT received payment.

I did send an email this am warning that I MUST get the paperwork & I expect payment. Not my fault the study was cancelled.

[ShawnaC123]

I did Pinecone a lot a few years ago, then eventually got kicked out right after they changed to $3 dollars because I was burnt out on doing surveys all the time and was busy, so I stopped doing enough to keep my membership. I can't imagine the studies getting longer because a lot of them seemed eternal, though I'm not sure if that was a Pinecone thing or one of the other survey companies I used.

[marvholly]

I FINALLY got the return materials Sat afternoon-too late to get to the PO to get it out. This was 10 days after the study was cancelled.

Time spent packing 12 minutes
Time/miles to PO 12 minutes, 4 mi rt
time in line at PO 20 minutes

Total 44 EZXTRA minutes of my time + 1/4 gal of gas ($1.15 here) all for $3 which I will get AFTER they finally receive the return via parcel post - estimate 10 days + check processing time.

I will NEVER again waste my time to do an at home survey/product trial for Pinecone. And this is from one of the TOP survey sites. I can just hope MANY others feel the same way and they raise the payment and/or feel the SAME financial blow by mfg that I got hit by.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Interesting. I quit Pinecone not too long after they stopped paying $5. I did not seem to qualify for many surveys. I actually suspected they were trying to push me to quit since I opted for cash payments instead of the cash lottery entries that they were trying to switch to back then. Afte that option, they kept sending me the nonpaying demographic surveys with peculiar frequency, yet they were rarely sending a paying survey. There was one survey on which I needed assitance and they kept just saying "try it again. I'd spend 25 minutes on the survey, then it would malfunction. Their response was basically try it one more time. Repeatedly. I wasted a lot of time and got paid for none of it. So finally I said, buh-bye.

[disneysteve]

they kept sending me the nonpaying demographic surveys

I do get a lot of these now that you mention it and they're annoying - "Which brands of shampoo have you ever heard of?" with a list of a zillion brands to check off.

They obviously don't pay well but I've always figured if it was time I'd just be screwing around online anyway, $3 is better than $0. I don't do every study I get invited for but I end up doing a couple each month.

[kobe008]

I have been doing them for a couple of years now and I have not noticed any increase in length. Lately I've had some that were fairly short. I usually do them during a break at work and love having the money put right into my paypal account. Have bought several presents for the kids using the money.

[PMMM]

I have been doing them for about 6 months and probably not long enough to give good feedback. I too just do them when I get a break at work. So far the money is easy. I haven't had to do too much. If they get to cumbersome or take up more time than I think it'w worth then I will just pass.