Pinecone - as seasonal as their namesake! (pineconeresearch.com)

Member Name: WhistlingWind

Product:	pineconeresearch.com
Date:	15/06/09 (30 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting subjects in surveys

Disadvantages: Poor quality customer support; scarcity of surveys; inflexible payment scheme.

I have read many glowing reviews and opinions of Pinecone's surveys, most of which I would agree with. However, I'm afraid that I'm about to spoil this company's laurel wreath! I would go along with statements that their survey subjects are interesting and that it is a quality site; but you do not hear from them very often and you probably won't know that, in the time since you last heard from them, your name will have dropped off their email list. They don't send periodic emails asking you to update your profile as do many other sites. In regard to payment for your efforts you will not get actual cash if in the UK. They pay you in luncheon vouchers, which may or may not be useful to you (useless to me), and will only allow you PayPal payments if they themselves invite you to use this facility.

I had reason to query their customer support on all the above issues recently and they were not helpful. The attitude was very much 'take it or leave it' so I decided to leave it! They also declared they had no record of me, despite the surveys I'd been doing for them last year for which I had managed to achieve three lots of luncheon vouchers and one PayPal payment. All-in-all I was not happy with them.

Finally, I would like to request that all reviewers of paying sites be accurate in their descriptions of rewards. I have seen reviews of Pinecone which say that they pay you £4 or $3 or whatever. What they actually pay you are vouchers to the value of, which is not the same thing at all as flexible cash. Reviewers should make that clear. All claims of making hundreds of pounds should also be viewed sceptically; it very much depends on your personal profile how often you will get a survey to complete; for instance, unless you have pets and/or children living under your roof, expect fewer surveys as you won't fit the profile nearly so often. This is equally the case with Pinecone as with all the other sites.

Summary: Not as good as they seem initially.