Review Time
Please be aware that Pinecone Research is about to undergo a rebrand on their website etc. They are probably pushing to detach themselves from these awful reviews and feedback. Please, anyone reading this - don't fall for it. They will lie, they will promise, they will attract with shiny deals and 'fun quizzes' (apparently!). It's all nonsense - they want your time to earn themselves a great deal of money at your expense.
I have been a member of Pinecone Research for probably over two decades now. Initially, the survey site was great. You’d receive periodic requests FROM PINECONE to complete a survey FROM PINECONE. It was possible to pause your account entirely for vacations or other issues requiring time away from Wi-Fi. Contacting customer service for website related issues was simple and responses were provided within 24 hours. Now? With this most recent ‘update,’ I’m considering cancelling my membership entirely. Survey invites are nonstop through the day and surveys are spammy - they are not Pinecone surveys, but random other companies. Honestly, I’m not comfortable giving ANY INFORMATION to these other sites with which I did not initially sign up. If I do ‘complete’ a survey, it’s mostly just a lot of time wasted just to find out the survey is already filled. Also, it turns out rewards points now expire. I don’t know the rules on how long it takes to expire, but saving points for a better reward is pointless in trying. There is no way to pause your account now if going out of town or whatever. Customer service is nonexistent. You can email them through the site, but they will not respond at all. Until Pinecone returns to its former glory, I’d advise skipping this site if you’re wanting to answer surveys.
For many years I had no probs except got very few surveys. Problems started from Sept/Oct last year. Too many to list. It is difficult to contact them. I finally got reply re completing surveys that had probs at finish. They replied, in part, "Members who .......do not qualify for a survey, can spend up to 10 minutes in a study before the study determines that you do not qualify". This is disgraceful as it was not stated when we joined and I have never been notified of this previously.
I loved this site, but now that they've strayed from their original format of $3/survey, I don't waste my time. I am not spending 20 minutes doing research surveys for .50/$1/$1.50. The fifty cent one means our time is only worth a little over 1 penny per minute. That's an insult.
I have been doing surveys on Pinecone for several years and rarely had any problems. Now that they changed their platform it's definitely a huge waste of time. It seems like they are just data harvesting and after you've answered several questions they "disqualify " you. On the previous platform this never happened to me. I recently spent 20 minutes doing a survey and FINISHED the survey and received the "thank you for COMPLETING this survey, do not discuss it with anyone" etc. I was automatically redirected to their home page which said I didn't qualify to take the survey and had been screened out. Their customer service is absolutely USELESS and they just send automated responses which don't address the issue. They will waste your time, take your information then not pay you.AVOID PINECONE, IT IS NOW A SCAM!
hve been a participating member for many years, earned over £200 in points for surveys. They stopped communicating & cancelled my membership without telling me. I've asked why with no acceptable response. Total scam, do not trust or participate in this shambles
It turns out your points can expire. I don't take kindly to gimmicks like that, so I will no longer use this platform. I'm already getting eaten by inflation as it is. But on the plus side, I used this place for a year and I was satisfied with the surveys and they do pay and stuff though.
Many years ago I joined and it was the best, most serious, honest, thorough, informative and helpful survey/product testing platform. I stayed loyal to it for years! 1-2 years ago something horrible happened to it and it went down to 1/5 of its payment for longer surveys that, after you spent 20 minutes+ answering in detail, confirmed that you finished the survey, then said: sorry, you screened out. No points earned.I have shared these problems at least 30 times with them. Now their customer service response is very slow and no longer done by a human. The AI is of very low quality and doesn't understand most questions, doesn't comprehend much at all of anything and is programmed to plain out lie. I am fighting for just another few points so I can cash out without loosing any points and will delete my account. This is straight up FRAUD.
This used to be one of the best survey sites with great rewards, but something changed this year. I realized that I was not being qualified for practically any surveys, even though I was bombarded with at least 5 surveys a day. I would click on one MINUTES after it arrived and it would say it was closed. In addition, this year I lost 300 points in the spring and another 300 points in the fall because they expired without notice. I even wrote down every survey that I received for a month, the time received, time clicked on it, and what happened when I clicked on it, and I had over 50 listed, none of which I qualified for. Reasons varied, but I asked them for consideration. Now, 2 months later, I finally was able to complete one extremely long survey and finally got 1,000 points and was told I could redeem a reward. I was incredibly disappointed to learn that after all my literal HOURS of attempting to answer their surveys, the 1000 points gave me a measly $10 gift card. Thanks for nothing, Pinecone! You went from the best to the worst survey site!
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