Panda Research? Legit? Or a Scam?

[SimplyJessica]

Hey guys,

I'm fairly new to this whole survey business but I am hoping that I can, with a fair bit of time, earn enough money to purchase my schoolbooks for college.

One of the sites that I found through another survey site was this: http://www.pandaresearch.com/ It all seems well and good. However, the majority of the surveys you fill out require that you pay X amount for shipping and handling on a free sample. Is this legitimate? I'm not quite sure why they are paying the survey taker, but still charging money for this. Shipping and handling in most cases seems to be almost $6, but they're paying around $10. Has anyone had any experiences with them? Good or bad? How can this work?

Thanks in advance. And, Chris, I love your newsletter. Just signed up for it. God bless you!

[FreePaidSurveys]

I've had no experience with them, but at first glance I see a few things which make me a bit weary.

First is this phrase on their homepage:
"All Participants will receive a Free 2 Day 3 Night vacation from Summer Bay Resorts just for registering with us."
Hmmmm...this sounds vaguely familiar....oh, yea, that's what the last 300 pieces of junk mail that have graced my circular file said on them.

Second, they keep referring to "sponsor offers", not surveys "sponsor offers".
I took this from their FAQs Page:
(6) What do we mean by "getting approved" for a sponsor offer?

By "getting approved" for an offer, you are satisfying the requirements outlined on this page. For credit card offers, you must be approved for and activate your credit card by making a purchase, balance transfer or cash advance to "complete" the offer. *

When our sponsors report to us that you've completed their survey and offer, your account will be updated accordingly. This will usually take 6 to 8 weeks.

Next is the payout minimum, $100
(15) Do I have to redeem my free gift by a certain date?
No, We will keep carry forwarding your balance till you have reached your minimum payment threshold of $100.
Standard minimum for most survey sites is $10-$15 and that's because they send you a check, these guys are all PayPal.

Next is this section of their privacy policy:
Marketing Partners:

This Privacy Policy applies to consumers that have signed up on the www.Panda Research .com website. We may use the personal information that you supply to us and we may work with other third party businesses to bring selected retail opportunities to our members via direct mail, email and telemarketing. These businesses may include providers of direct marketing services and applications, including lookup and reference, data enhancement, suppression and validation and email marketing. However, we may send you offers on behalf of our partners. Keep in mind that if you take advantage of an offer from a Panda Research .com partner and become their customer, they may independently wish to send offers to you. In this case, you will need to inform them separately if you wish to decline receiving future offers from them.

Then there's this section of the terms and conditions:
A.4) Panda Research NEWSLETTER AND OTHER EMAILS. By signing up for Panda Research, you are opting-in to receive Panda Research newsletters and other special offer emails. If you do not wish to receive these emails, you may opt-out at any time, by clicking on the opt-out link in the email messages you receive from Panda Research.

OK, let's see, what else...Oh, this little snippit from their "termination and cancellation" section:
(f) inactivity (defined as the failure to earn any cash incentive in your Panda Research account) for a continuous six-month period
Notce they didn't say that you were inactive, just that you didn't "earn" a cash incentive, which in case of the credit card offer above, I actually have to spend money to get credit. I see. How many truly FREE offers do you think they'll have in order to reach my $100 minimum?

There were a couple of other things that I didn't particularly care for as well. Now, this might be an OK site. I'm sure however that you will receive a good deal of email from their "partners" and I'm also pretty sure that a lot of the "sponsor offers" will have a catch.

Now it also states on their account that shipping is free. So, I'm sure the shipping that you are seeing is from their "partners". If you need to pay shipping for a "Free" sample, than it's not free. To me, if you can't ship it to me free than you don't really want me to try it. That'd be like me paying the neighbor to babysit their kids, just doesn't make sense.

Be very careful with this one.

By the way, I don't have a newsletter (yet). Let me know which one you did sign up for, especially if they said it was from this site.

Hope this helps

[SimplyJessica]

Thanks for the information. I didn't know if that was standard or not. I did notice that it wasn't on your list.

By the way, I don't have a newsletter (yet). Let me know which one you did sign up for, especially if they said it was from this site.

Oh, my bad. No, it wasn't a newsletter that said it was from this site. I've got newsletters on the brain. I'm signing up here and the section I found was this: http://us.freepaidsurveys.net/ussurveydirectory.html And all of the other information you have here. And I'm signing up to this board.

Sorry. I've got newsletters on the brain. Guess what job I'm doing right now. Been working on one for the past three weeks. The hardest part is starting it from scratch.

Thanks for confirming the information. I depend on my father a lot for information like this but since he was new to all of this, he told me what his opinion was. And he thought it sounded rather fishy. But since he said he didn't know about all this, he told me to check with some other people who did this. And this group was one of the first ones that came to my mind.

I'm glad that I shouldn't have to pay for free samples. The reason I'm filling out surveys is because money is tight. Plus I tend to feel guilty if I request something that I don't plan on using.

Thanks again. God bless you!

Jessica

P.S. If it's all right with you, I'd like to bookmark your response so I can use it to refer back to.

[FreePaidSurveys]

feel free to bookmark whatever you like. and by the way, the stuff i mentioned about this site, is pretty much what i look for in all sites before i join or list them.

good luck to you,

[Mickey]

Jessica, the way to make money fast is to do focus groups or taste tests. I will be making over $200 in 2 weeks between my husband and I. If you want to discuss further email me at michelleivey@yahoo.com. Put "Survey Information" in the subject line as I get alot of emails. Surveys are great and I made over $1000 in 2004, but you can't count on them. FG's & TT's are real strong right now so it would be a good time to get in. I'll be watching for your email.

[april545]

I foolishly joined this crock, and commenced in "earning $198.00 in about 3 weeks. Funny part about it has been well over 6 months and all but the intial $10 (giving to me by signing up) is still under payment pending approval. How hard is it to see that I enetered in my email address, which was the qualifiying factor.

[linda]

I have done several surveys for Panda Research, the first few almost 90 days ago. I have supposedly racked up $150, but have only been "approved" for $25 - hence, I can't get paid because the requirement is a minimum of $100 approved. I filed one complaint, and they said they pay about eight weeks after the client reports I have fulfilled the requirements of the survey. So I can only assume either their clients aren't talking to them, or they are providing free labor.

[happygal]

Linda, just be forewarned, I have heard your exact same story from person after person. All have gotten into the hundreds and I have never know a single one who has been paid. Have they paid people? Maybe, but I just haven't ever heard of it. Honestly, I would suggest dropping them and moving on.

[linda]

Thanks for the input, Happy Girl, I think I'll do just that.

[Destiny1028]

I joined Pandaresearch about 5 days ago. I have $300.00 plus pending and $23.00 confirmed. I don't like the fact that you have to make $100.00 before they pay you.

[happygal]

Just don't get your hopes up too much Destiny1028...I have never known of anyone who has been paid by Panda. Not to say it couldn't happen...but I just haven't ever heard of it happening...But I have heard of a lot of people who tried and never got paid.

[rickou812]

SO has anyone ever been paid? Has anyone ever reached that magical $100 dollar mark?..lol
I am a member and I have approximately $50 dollars confirmed, but it has taken me several months to do that. That is because I meticulously search through the crap and try to do legit paying surveys or promotions. This site is not for the faint of heart, it is designed to take advantage of those ignorant to marketing scams and such.
I would not recommend this company/site to anyone but as a last resort.
However, I retain the right to change my mind, IF, I ever reach that magical number AND get a check....lol
But you wont catch me holding my breath