Ah super. A dooyoo category lacking a jillmurphy opinion. Woohoo!

Euro Panel is part of Skopos, dooyoo's surveying sideline. We all know about paid internet surveys don't we? Y'know, those market research thingies that pay you a shekel or two for joining up and answering questions about airlines and chewing gum and mobile phones and all things consumer. It's one of those. I quite like answering quizzes and surveys so I joined up ages ago. Did you even know that Euro Panel existed? Dooyoo have the odd pop up campaign about it, but they don't seem to promote it heavily, so maybe you didn't. Oh well, you're not missing much.

I should tell you about them really then...

Well, you can join up if you go to www.euro-panel.net and fill in all the bits and pieces - name, address... oh. No you can't! You need a Key Code! And if you ain't gone one then um... well you have a problem:

"You can only register with the Euro-Panel if you have received your personal key-code from us. Please enter your personal key-code into the following box. (If you have not received your personal key-code from us, you cannot register with the Euro-Panel. To ensure scientific quality, we cannot give out key-codes on demand.)"

and:

"Participation in the Euro-Panel is only possible upon invitation. For scientific methodological reasons, we cannot allow self-registration of members. The possibility of self-registration with a panel would lead to distortions in the panel?s member-structure and limit our studies? generalizability. Those invited to participate in the Euro-Panel are given a personalized key-code in the invitation (this happens only once). However, we cannot give a key-code to anyone upon request. Invitation to participate in the Euro-Panel and assignment of a personalized key-code follows a process of random selection. Further requirements for participation are:

-
members must be at least 14 years old
- residence and bank account in Great Britain
- internet access and a personal e-mail address"

Is what they say on the matter, rather snottily. Deary me. Well, I joined up on the launch when they actually WANTED a nice large cross section of people for samples! Perhaps if you emailed Katie or GilesTheMD they might be able to help. Oh, let's press on anyhow. What happens, if you ever get a Key Code, is that [very] occasionally an invitation to participate in a survey will drop into your email inbox. You click on the link and spend ten minutes answering questions on whatever the subject of the day is. It's all very simple. It's all done by lots of other people on the internet too, all competing for business.

So why is that I don't think you're missing much if you don't have a Key Code? Well, it's the rewards y'see. The idea with paid surveys is that you give time and information and the company you give time and information to give you some sort of payment in return. Like all the others, Euro Panel offer rewards. Theirs are in the form of Bonus Points. Each bonus point is worth half a euro. When you get to eighty bonus points you can cash in, and your forty euros will be worth about twenty five quid. In eighteen months of membership I've responded to each and every one of the dozen (so you see, hardly frequent), maybe a few more, emails I've had from Euro Panel and so far I've amassed the grand total of 24 Bonus Points, only a third of the way to cashing in. Most rewards are done by prize draw you see, and I'm not lucky, I never win one of those 15 or 20 Bonus Point prizes.

Compare those rewards with um... ok, for example, with www.globaltestmarket.com where in 2002 I've answered twelve surveys of similar length to those sent by Euro Panel (about ten or fifteen minutes at most) and received two $50 Amazon gift vouchers, or with www.myvoice
.co.uk where a three minute visit twice a week has provided me with one £20 High Street voucher and almost half the points required for another. Or what about a REALLY spiteful comparison: Euro Panel versus www.ciao.com where I receive on average four (seven in August) similar surveys paying between £1 and £2 each with money sent (sometimes late but always sent) monthly, direct to my bank account providing my balance is £10 or more.

So you can see, if you don't have one already, I'd not hassle Katie for a Key Code. Euro Panel, who are in profit apparently, don't share that profit awfully well. Don't bother. I think I'll delete any further invitations from them without going to the surveys. To be honest, I've only been doing them anyway out of a sense of misguided dooyoo loyalty. Oh well!

[Apologies to all my lovely readers who've bothered to click on this opinion (and to Nick who works for Euro Panel, is a thoroughly nice bloke and a sex god to boot). Normal Murphy reviewing service will be resumed as soon as the site's working properly again.]