Hubby Tony and I are both signed up with a local market research company. Every month I get a couple of emails about focus groups they think I might be interested in (or hard-to-fill studies where they hope I know someone who would qualify). Tony gets a similar amount of emails for different studies. If I'm not interested in an opportunity I forward the message to Tony, and vice versa.&
For the past five years the only group either of us have qualified for focused on cat litter. I had to go by the company's office and pick up four gallon jugs of litter identified only by a piece of paper with a letter taped on the side, use it in place of our regular brand, and let them know what I (and the cats) thought of it. The pay wasn't much, but at least I didn't have to purchase litter that month.
Last week Tony got a message from the company regarding employment issues. He was too busy to answer the online qualifying questions, but he sent it my way in case I was interested. I went ahead and clicked on the link to fill out the form, sent it off, and promptly forgot all about it. When my phone rang on Monday I was surprised when the caller identified herself as an employee of the research company. She told me she wanted to review the answers I'd given online, and when my verbal answers jived with the written ones she offered me a chance to come in for a focus group. For two hours of my time they would pay me $100, a nice hourly fee.
I put the appointment on my calendar and was looking forward to my adventure. Last night I got another call from the company, who said they had one additional question from their client they needed to ask me. It was a very easy yes or no question, and I didn't give them the answer they were looking for. Based on my response they needed to rescind my invitation. They apologized, and said I will be getting a lesser fee of $25 for my trouble. They'll also keep me in mind for anything else that will come up. I'm not holding my breath.
Five years ago today: A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
This happened to me a few years ago for a project involving cars. I got three calls, asking very specific questions each time, until they finally told me, NO, I didn't qualify. That was some intensive research.
ReplyDeleteGood to know I'm not the only one that's happened to.
DeleteWow, that's going to be a biased focus group!
ReplyDeleteEither that or they had too many people just like me and needed to weed some out :-)
DeleteBummer, well at least you get $25.
ReplyDeleteYes, and I didn't have to do anything to earn it!
DeleteWow, how did you get involved in these endeavors? I'd like to make some extra cash. I don't qualify however for the med student guinea pigs, guess I'm too old for that. That doesn't pay much anyhow. Maybe where I live is too small with few companies. The college every now and then wants subjects for this or that, but pay almost nothing, maybe a five dollar gift card, which doesn't even cover the gas over there and back.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing it's because I live in a large metropolitan area.
Deletewell, that sucks! Paying to get the answer they want? That's not research...at least, not ethical research!
ReplyDeleteHmmm. I hadn't thought about it that way.
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