Have they finally sorted the site out? (gb.lightspeedpanel.com)

Member Name: MrTink12

Product:	gb.lightspeedpanel.com
Date:	14/01/07 (386 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Regular surveys, variety of rewards

Disadvantages: Poor customer service, still waiting for some vouchers to be sent

Occasionally I have felt the need to leave a negative comment regarding this website after reading a fellow Dooyoo members’ review. This was because at that particular time, I was having massive problems with the site. In order to be fair, I thought it was about time I provided a full commentary on my experiences with the site, and how (possibly) they are improving to become a potentially decent site.

In a nutshell, the Lightspeed Consumer Panel is an independent market research website. The website is owned by Lightspeed Research, and was founded by leading communications services group WPP. The company’s clients include leading worldwide companies (although I cannot be specific seeing that the site fails to reveal clients).


--------Joining the site--------
It is free to join the site, but only for those over the age of 16 and a resident of Great Britain. Registering is made simple: go to the website, click on ‘Join Now’ at the top left hand side of the homepage, and enter an email address and password. After this, one has to answer basic questions such as their name, address, gender, date of birth, current employment status and so on. After this an email is sent requiring you to activate your account. This process should take all of a three/four minutes to complete.


--------Site layout--------
The website is user-friendly, because of its simplistic design. To be honest, the site includes what you would expect from a market research site. After signing in, at the top of the homepage you can click on the following options:
(a) Rewards – contains an overview of the points program, and the Prize Draw.
(b) About – gives an idea of the sort of surveys you may receive, and how companies benefit from Lightspeed members answering these.
(c) Members – this section of the site is divided into three columns. In the first you will see a list of any available surveys. Secondly one can answer a mini-poll on a topical subject, but there are not many of these. In the third column one can take part in ‘Quick Matches’, effectively short surveys, five to a maximum of ten minutes in length, which depending on your answers provide more survey opportunities. Moreover, participating in mini-polls and Quick Matches will earn entries into the £2000 Lightspeed Prize Draw. Apparently, on account of this Draw, a person wins £1000, and two people win £500 every three months.
(d) Help – after typing a key word into a Quick Search box, a new window loads. This Panel Help is a comprehensive set of FAQs, containing a vast array of articles that should deal with most problems encountered. If you find your issue is unanswered in the FAQs you can just send an email.


--------The surveys--------
As a member of the Panel you can earn Lightspeed Points for successfully completing surveys. Surveys are sent to your registered email address from Lauren. They simply say that you are invited to participate in a survey, and the number of Lightspeed Points for completion and length it will take are specified. To accept the invitation, I simply go to the site, sign in with my email address and password, and click on the new survey link. Most of the surveys I am sent seem to be regarding alcoholic beverages. Perhaps they think I am some kind of alcoholic? Nonetheless, I do concede that I like the odd drink (or three). I cannot complain, because a good number of my Lightspeed Points come from surveys asking undemanding questions such as ‘what lagers do you drink?’ and my perceptions of different brands of alcoholic beverages. Other survey topics have included snacks, gaming, mobile phones and cosmetics.

Generally surveys award 100 Points for completion, although the most I earned for a survey was a very pleasing 250 Points. They usually take between 10 to 25 minutes to finish. Some weeks as many as four or five surveys have been sent to me, which is hugely impressive. At slower times, survey opportunities have been limited to approximately one every ten days. After successfully completing a survey, Lightspeed Points are instantly credited to your account. This is especially good when 100 points away from a gift voucher, because one can instantaneously claim a reward after completing the survey. A definite criticism to mention is that as with other survey sites, you can sometimes answer a series of questions for a couple of minutes, only to find out you fail to meet the criteria to complete the survey. In such an instance you are usually given some Prize Draw entries as a thank you for attempting the survey.


--------My opinions of the site--------
I think that it is best to divide my experiences with the website into three main stages.


--STAGE 1 (2004 to March 2006)--
When I first joined the site, two and half years ago or so, there was no incentive system up and running. Instead one could participate in a survey, earn entry into prize draws, and pray that you would win something. Needless to say, I was not a winner. I recall taking part in the odd survey, but because I could earn points or vouchers with other survey sites the Lightspeed Panel was not a site I paid much attention to. Thus I would rate this Stage with a 0/5 rating.


--STAGE 2 (April to November 2006)--
It was around April 2006 that the Lightspeed Panel decided to become a more contemporary market research site by introducing an incentive point scheme. The premise was fabulous: take part in surveys, earn Lightspeed Points for completing some fun surveys, and be rewarded with vouchers from a selection of shops. It did not take me long to accrue many Lightspeed Points, as survey opportunities were initially plentiful. Within weeks I was able to request a £5 gift voucher with 500 Points, and within 14 days, I received an email with a voucher code. I was required to click the link within the email which opened a website where one could enter the aforementioned code, and place an order for a voucher with one of the numerous high street shops and online stores listed (cd-wow, Woolworths etc). A definite omission was that one could not request an Amazon voucher, but the choice of retailers seemed wide enough for this to not be a significant complaint. I opted to receive a £5 WHSmith voucher, and within a week this arrived. At this point in time, I was really impressed by the site, but unfortunately over the coming months that feeling changed to one of frustration.

Surveys continued to be sent regularly, and I kept accumulating more and more Lightspeed Points. Therefore I was able to request four further vouchers during this Stage. Every time having requested a voucher (£5 twice, and £10 on two occasions), the site stated that a voucher would be sent within two to four weeks. Sadly Lightspeed did not bother to send any of these vouchers. I thought that emailing would help the situation. A total of five emails were sent to Lauren, who deals with customer care issues, in order to find out the status of my rewards. On the positive side, each email sent was responded to. On the other hand, each reply from Lauren was a standard non-individual response, apologizing for the delay and asserting that the vouchers would be sent shortly. A couple of them suggested that I had blocked emails being sent to my email address, but that was definitely not the case. I did not appreciate that each response was not directly answering the questions asked. With other sites, such as here at Dooyoo, and market research competitor globaltestmarket, when a problem arises the reply is personal and dealt with quickly. Thus, in my opinion Lightspeed scores low marks for its customer service care. Sadly I never expected to receive the outstanding £30 owed to me. With thoughts of how terrible Lightspeed was, there were many surveys I deliberately failed to respond to. As with Stage 1 before it, I won absolutely nothing in the Prize Draws. All things considered I would rate this Stage with a 0.5/5 score.


--STAGE 3 (December 2006 to current day)--
Without doubt this has been the best Stage. A few weeks back the website sent me an email saying that a new reward structure was in place. Due to curiosity of whether Lightspeed would now pay out, I decided I would take part in surveys that were sent to me. Two surveys have been sent during this time, which got me to 550 Lightspeed Points. I requested a £5 Amazon voucher with my Points, and promptly received it the same evening. To say I was shocked would be an understatement, bearing in mind that Stage 2 had been so disastrous. Perhaps Lightspeed have sorted themselves out, and from now on this will be an impressive survey site? I most certainly would hope so. Unfortunately I am still immensely disappointed by Stage 2, which still makes me feel rather negative towards the site.

Checking the brand new rewards section of the website is nice and straightforward. When signed in to the site, you will see ‘Lightspeed Points Account’ on the left hand side. Clicking on this will display a points history, points redeemed, and the number of Prize Draw Entries you have. More importantly there is an option to redeem your Lightspeed Points with a rather noticeable ‘GO’ button. Pressing this leads to improved rewards page with a wider array of rewards on offer compared with the Stage 2 selection. There is an adequate search box, which provides one means of checking what can be ordered. Alternatively on the left hand side there is a ‘Hot Item’ to check out, or one can browse rewards by Departments or by number of Lightspeed Points you currently have. It is possible to order computer games, paypal funds, gift certificates from the likes of Amazon, HMV and Firebox, music CDs, DVDs, photo frames and much more besides. For example, to claim £5 for your paypal account, it will cost 575 Lightspeed Points, whilst a Braun Advance Power Toothbrush is 3013 Points. The obvious criticism is that previously 100 Lightspeed Points equalled £1, but when ordering gift vouchers and paypal money, this is no longer the case. Personally, its not that great a concern that an administration charge seems to have been added to the cost of gift vouchers/paypal funds. If this additional cost guarantees that rewards are actually sent, it’s well worth it. Also noteworthy is that the rewards section of the site now has its own neat FAQs section, as well its own customer care area which (thankfully) I have not needed to use

I an pleased to say, there is some evidence to suggest that Lightspeed may send me the outstanding vouchers. A few days after successfully receiving my Amazon gift certificate, Lightspeed sent me an email with a £5 voucher code. This obviously means that they have finally sent one of the rewards requested in Stage 2. Once again I have decided to order a WHSmith voucher, and expect to receive this shortly. I would rate this Stage a very healthy 4/5 mark.


--------Final comments--------
Seeing as I have had a multitude of difficulties with this website, and am still owed money, recommending Lightspeed without hesitation is not easy. I think with the new incentive scheme in place Lightspeed is on the right path, and could prove to be a site worth registering with. Hopefully the site will not return to the dark side, and have difficulties paying rewards. At the time of writing, 2 stars out of 5 given as the overall rating for the Lightspeed Consumer Panel is a reasonable reflection of my experiences. If the site pays the £25 outstanding to me, continues to send scores of surveys, reward me with vouchers quickly when requested, I will update the review with a higher score. I certainly hope that I am forced to update this rating in the future.


--------Contact details--------
Website: http://gb.lightspeedpanel.com

Email: lauren.gb@lightspeedpanel.com

Address:
Lightspeed Research Europe
The Old Town Hall
4 Queens Road
Wimbledon
London
SW19 8YB

Telephone: 0207-896-1900

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Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed.

Summary: Take part in surveys and hopefully you will be rewarded!!!