Pinecone Research Review

Rating:

Pinecone Research is one of the better survey sites out there, they send an average of 4 surveys per month. Payments are paid via PayPal within 2 days, and via check/vouchers within a two weeks, payments are processed Monday - Friday, so if you do a survey late Friday and the payment hasn't appeared in your PayPal account it will arrive on Monday or Tuesday. Pinecone is very prompt when it comes to payment which is a plus.

In order to join Pinecone Research you must find one of their banners/links, they sometimes send members referral links to help recruit more members to their panel. You must be aware that just because you found their banner and signed up does not mean that you will necessarily become a panel member. If Pinecone Research deems your demographics fit then they will send you a welcome email telling you about the panel as well as assigning you a household id and password. They do not send an email if your application to the panel is rejected.

Below is what the registration form looks like:



Pinecone Research is open to residents from the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. They paid its US members $5 per survey and $4 per survey for UK and Canadian members. Last summer, August 2008, they decreased the amount they pay per survey to US members. The amount was decreased from $5.00 to $3.00 plus a sweepstakes entry. I personally didn't like this change but their payments are always fast and I like testing products. Some believe they decreased the amount because of the economic situation that the United States is in right now. Whatever the case may be, many think they should have stated why they chose to decrease it instead of saying the members wanted to be paid $3 plus a sweepstakes entry. I doubt members would voluntarily choose $3 over $5, sweepstakes added or not. They certainly could have been more straight forward with their panelists, it would have been taken in a more understanding way for most.

Their surveys range from about 20-40 minutes long and are usually interesting, you may get a couple repetitive ones now and then. You will not be paid for household questionnaires (requests ending in 3001) that you may be asked to complete. Your responses to these brief 2-5 minute questionnaires enable them to send you product evaluations, which are paid, that are more specific to your household. The surveys are more innovative now than they were a year ago, they have a fresher look. I have noticed the sooner you do the surveys the more likely you are to receive the product to test, so if you love testing the products complete the surveys as soon as you get the email invitation. When you test a product you get paid for the first survey and then they will send you another survey asking about the product you tested. So instead of just the $3 and sweepstakes entry you will get $6 plus that free product, considering you don't have to send the product back - they will specify this in a letter that comes with the product.