Beware Vindale Research May Be A Scam!

You've all heard the saying; “opinions are like as… I'll say belly buttons for the sake of being PG. Everyone has one! But it doesn't mean we all want to hear yours. LOL Fortunately there are companies out there that do want to hear from you and pay you for your two cents. In some cases that's literally all you get. Well Vindale Research is one of those companies that are willing to pay you for your opinions and claim to pay a lot more. In my Vindale Research Review we'll dig deeper to see if it's worth your time to work with this company.

What is Vindale Research?

In a nutshell Vindale Research is a marketing research company hired by other businesses to conduct research studies on various topics, products and services. Some of the money that is paid to Vindale Research is used to recruit and pays its members to take surveys. Their program is Free to join.

How do you make money?

The great thing about Vindale Research is they pay real cash via paypal and none of that funny money points stuff that some people hate on. Obviously you get paid for taking surveys. The pay for this can range anywhere from $1-$5 per survey. But Vindale Research does offer many other ways to make money with their company as well.

They include the following:

• Product Evaluations
  Basically you get paid to try various products/services. To try these products you'll usually have to provide your credit card info or pay for some minor shipping cost. However since Vindale is paying you to to do these evaluations you usually end up making more than your initial trial fee. But there is a catch to this which we'll cover later. In either case after the trial period ends you have to give Vindale your views of the products to get paid. This can pay $5 – $75.

• Vindale Videos
  You can earn money by watching Vindale videos online. These online videos tend to be quick so they don't pay a lot. So expect pay somewhere near 10 cents per video watched.

• Reward Mail
  This is where you get paid to read advertisement emails. You can earn up to $.10 per email.

• Referrals
  You are paid to refer more people to Vindale with each referral earning you $5.

• Submit a Payment Photo
  You can earn $5 by sending in your photo of yourself with your Vindale payment.

• Cash Contests
  Vindale offers cash contests that can pay you up to $15

What are the Vindale Research Complaints?

So far it sounds all good in the hood doesn't it? But as always every company has complaints and Vindale Research is no different. So I'll do you the favor and lay out some of the big ones for you so you can make a more informed decision. Don't fall for the okie dok until you read these.

Poor Better Business Bureau ( BBB )History

Most of you already know how I feel about relying on the BBB as your sole source of determining a company's legitimacy. You shouldn't! But if you rely on it heavily you won't like the fact that this company has many complaints listed in their BBB report. Please note it's listed under their parent company name. But please believe it's the same company. In addition to the poor BBB reports there are a gang of complaints all over the internet here and here. Some of these complaints are by people that are habitual complainers and don't understand how survey companies work. But many are legitimate concerns that make you say “hmmmm” and not in a good way. You could probably stop reading the review right here if you wanted and know everything you need to know. lol

High Cash Out Thresholds

Many of my favorite survey companies have very low cash out thresholds which could be a few dollars or less. But good old Vindale Research wants to be special and have a ridiculous payout requirement of $50. Ouchie! Given that many of the surveys don't pay that high it's probably going to take a very long time to cash out and frankly I think that's done by design. They get tons of valuable research information and still get paid right away. And you're dangled a carrot of getting paid when you do reach that pay out amount many moons from now. If you have that type of patience you're better off building a business online like I do and see some real money in time! But that's none of my business.

It May Cost You!

Although it's Free to join and take surveys for Vindale, if you decide to take part in their so called “product evaluations”, many of them will require you to cough up some money for shipping or a trial period using a credit card. If you fail to cancel that trial period then you'll probably end up paying more money than what Vindale paid you. In other words you're taking an “L” aka a lost! That's because usually after the trial period is over the company you're so called evaluating will automatically hit up your credit card with a fee that is usually higher than what Vindale paid you. The company will continue doing this every month if you don't remember to cancel. Most people will forget because they won't think to organize which offers they signed up for, how to contact the company to cancel, etc. Vindale wins regardless because they'll still get paid once you sign up for these offers.

You're Disqualified!

Like so many survey companies there are pre-qualification questions that people need to take before they can get to the heart of the paid survey. Allegedly this is to help the company determine if you're the right person they're looking for. I call this bull. When you first sign up, they have your demographic information so why would you need to provide similar information again. It's been suggested it's just a way for them to get some free marketing research without paying you.

Apparently Vindale Research has also received complaints from people that have completed their product evaluations but Vindale Research can't verify this so they don't pay you! Now this could be because of technical issues such as the type of anti-virus software or other browser plugins you're using that mess up their cookie tracking. Or it could be that Vindale is just pocketing their money and not sharing. I can't say for certain. I just know there are folks that are missing out money that was due to them! So that's a risk you're taking and have to be cool with.

I could go on but I think I covered the big ones. But feel free to fill in any I missed in your comments down below.

So Is Vindale Research a Legitimate Company?

Personally I wouldn't mess with these guys. I've never been big on survey companies that won't guarantee I will get paid for every survey I take. The product evaluation survey hybrid thing is sketchy in my mind. Don't get me wrong there are legitimate companies that will pay you for trying products and services. But they don't mix the whole survey aspect to it. Anytime you're doing get paid to try offers you really need to be organized. And I think most people go into it blindly so I don't necessarily blame Vindale Research for that. Putting that aside I really just don't like the other complaints I've read. So again I would pass on this opportunity. But you may be a different dude or gal.

What is an alternative to Vindale Research Surveys?

Ultimately you can't rely on surveys for consistent income and large sums of it either. Don't believe the hype that you're going to earn hundreds or thousands taking surveys. You're not! The only way I've been able to make that type of money with surveys is by referring other people that have more patience than me to take them. And that's just real talk.

So if you want to create a website around referring people to surveys or other opportunities that pay you for referrals then you can check the company that taught me how to do that here.

Or if you're just looking for a way to to make real money online, willing to work hard and have the patience to see it through, then follow my lead and look into My Top Free Work At Home Recommendation! You'll learn how to build a real income online that isn't dependent on if you qualify for a survey or not. And when you do get it rolling the money is consistent and pays way more than you could ever make just taking surveys. But that's for you determine. It may not be your cup of tea. However you won't know unless you try and you have nothing to lose since it's FREE unlike some of those product evaluation surveys Vindale is trying to get you to fall into.

Well you've heard enough of my opinion about this company. Pun intended. Now I want you to chime in and share your views down below. I know some people are making money with this and that's great. So you guys chime in as well.

Thanks for reading!

Until next time,

Eddy with a y signing off!