I haven't done that many in 3 months but they consider me a cheater, I accidentally misspelled my name by one letter and got banned. Sheesh.Quote:
Originally Posted by StitchandPooh'smom
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I haven't done that many in 3 months but they consider me a cheater, I accidentally misspelled my name by one letter and got banned. Sheesh.Quote:
Originally Posted by StitchandPooh'smom
Me too...and I never get them! I have only done 1 since September. I don't have a lot of time for them but tried to take one to help SR out.Quote:
Originally Posted by sammielynn
Gosh, I have been out of the loop. Just finding this thread in the past hour. I am guilty, also. I use my main email address but if I can't get one I switch to one of my other addressess. I just try whichever one comes to mind. And, frequently, in the past, I have had new surveys available under a different address with the same identical demographics that didn't show up with my main address. The only thing that varies is my salary. I am on the cusp and it changes from month to month.
I have done several automobile surveys, but they have all been different and I have really enjoyed them because I am in the market for a new vehichle and have been learning alot thru these surveys. I have had the same car for 10 yrs and since becoming a mom, just haven't paid much attn to cars. These surveys have done alot of my ground work in researching what I would like. Opened my eyes to alot of newer vehicles and some I never would have considered.
Wow! :hugs: Tricia :hugs:
I just finished a survey and thought wow.....I hardly get any each month. I never qualifiy. I haven't really been around. Then I find this thread. What crazy stuff. I hope all clears up soon. I feel bad for everyone.
I totally agree with you. I do not need any more frustration in my life. I stopped doing the Greenfield survey a couple of months back because I could never qualify. Guess I am on the naughty list too. Oh well.:(Quote:
Originally Posted by spring
I'm sorry too - I'm sure I'm on the banned list and I didn't mean to do anything wrong. I used 3 e-mails, not counting any mispellings. The e-mails are mine, my dh's, and my dd's (who doesn't live with me but does visit). I'm sure I made other mistakes but if they look at the # of surveys I qualified for in January (5) it seems strange to qualify that as fraudulent.
I was just thinking the same thing as I was catching up on this thread. You would think that they would have a system in place that if the email address you enter is incorrect that it would let you into the survey. Also, if they can track that the same household has taken the same survey more than once than they should have a system in place so that it can be avoided. I talked with DH tonight and I think that in January DH and I took the same survey on Automobiles. Now, I know that his answers and mine would be totally different when it comes to cars. If they can track all of that you would think that they can track when you do a survey and then get redirected to some other site.Quote:
Originally Posted by 3dog2kidmom
Gosh! I've been away from SR for like a day 1/2! I haven't been on the forum a lot ( I have a newly acquired addiction to ebay) All of of sudden I come back and find this! How sad. I haven't had a chance to read the whole thread, but I wanted to respond because I think it's so sad that Greenfield would look at us like this. I can't say I've tried multiple emails or anything (I only got like 6 surveys last month:rotfl: ) But I can't believe that people doing this could actually jeopardize SR! Good luck to the whole SR family, and if this has already been addressed, I'll probably read about it tomorrow so forgive me.
I'm going to add my two cents, and I don't throw money around lightly.:)
I've been thinking about this all day while at work and when reading tonight, it just confirms what I thought of today.
My dearest grandfather always said "It is easier to do something wrong and apologize later, than to do what is right and stand by your decision". And I think this is the case with GF.
In the past, Tricia was patted on the back from GF for the traffic she generated to GF. Sunshine Rewards is a powerful 10,000+ members and that can cover alot of demographics and revenue for GF. The very thing that they commend SR for can also be their scapegoat because they have to know just how dedicated we, the members are to SR, to generate the traffic we generated for them.
With that being said, this comes from the daily Survey page and from GF own admission:
Rules: Click on the banner above to fill out the "qualifying" information. If after you have filled out the qualifying information you are selected to take a survey, you will be rewarded .80 for filling out the survey completely. Please note that we are unable to trace the surveys beyond what Greenfield credits us for. If we do not receive credit for you for a particular survey automatically, Greenfield is unable to track your participation in any way. Do not request credit as we are unable to track beyond what we receive from them. You can only complete a survey once a day, but you may try as many times in a day as it takes to get accepted. Survey credits will appear in your accounts Monday through Friday except on holidays. Click Here if you cannot see the banner.
Plus how many of us have taken a survey completely to the end only to knocked out because of classification choices or not rerouted to the "congrats page" or just never recieved credit?
If they can't track if we completed a survey to pay us, then how can they email addys of the 34 or the 170 surveys of the one person?
IMO: I think GF wasn't following the policies set by one of their main clients. And instead of "doing what is right and standing by their decision" or admitting their fault, they passed the buck. Now I realize there is 100's of rewards sites, but SR does have some of the STRONGET DEDICATED member of any rewards site. So it would be "easier to do something wrong and apologize later" for GF. By passing the buck to Sunshine rewards, they get to save face with that client...like saying see we are trying to comply and make good with you. And by temporarily banning a % of SR members and allowing them to start taking surveys again after a cool down period, makes them look like they are trying to be fair.
Sorry but to me, it has to be more than a bunch of ladies who can't spell correctly while trying to complete a survey, tend to their children, answer the phone, cook supper, and whistle dixie at the same time.
A majority of those temporarily banned can be seen anytime on this forum and this forum is available to anyone to read-you don't have to be a member to read. Their dedication can be seen from helping each other, rallying whenever a glitch comes up or(and some of you wil remember this) the great cookie capper...how upset everyone was because someone tried to cheat the system(unintentionally or intentionally). Let's face it, those who were banned will always be with SR no matter what and I think GF knows this. Why else would they ban bad spellers, someone who has a large family, or someone who has 3 email addresses. I think they know, even through this, SR would remain strong and her members would stand behind her.
OK...hoppin' off the soapbox for now.
And Tricia, if you need to delete this, feel free to do so, but this has been eating at me and needed to be said.
This is blatant cheating. However having 3 email addresses or mistyping your email address does not seem to be cheating. I have used three email addresses (and more if you count typos, because I can't type without messing up!) We have three adults in our home and they have answered the surveys. I would say that if my husband and I have done some of the same surveys then the answers would be either really similar or totally different depending on the subject! HOWEVER, it was opinions of two separate people so where is the beef??? The third email is my Mom who I have asked to take a few surveys when I have been trying to reach a goal of 20 - 30 surveys in a month. Her income, age etc is vastly different from ours as are her opinions.Quote:
Originally Posted by SunshineGirl
Greenfield is creepy as they can have us jump through hoops and spend 25- 45 minutes on a survey only to deny credit (for whatever reason) when you send them an email detailing the problems or concerns they are "unable to help or track the problem" However now they know everything there is to know about us, we are all cheats and fraquds and stealing their precious .80 a day. I DO NOT REPEAT DO NOT do surveys on any other site my maximum ever has been 30 surveys and that was waaaaaayyyyyyyyy too much work.
Tricia you had a great idea offering the incentive to do a certain number of surveys a month. As with everything else you will have your Blatant fraud and then you will have the little guys who make honest mistakes. Or if you got a second survey in a day by some lucky chance you figure it was good karma for all the lousy ones you did only to be denied credit. Certainly not a crime punishable by greenfield.
That being said, since this is SR's livelihood may I suggest the first thought I had when this monster reared it's ugly head......aren't there other companies offeing surveys who might like and even welcome SR's members???? I don't mean to sound flip but I would think that there are other survey sites out there.
I think SR is basically a great group and will follow the rules as posted and would most likely welcome a fresh group of surveys if available. With 10,000 members however as with anything you wll have the ones who do not follow the rules and need to be weeded out. (Like the one with 29 email addresses or whatever) BUt again, that is blatant so I would try a new survey company spell out the rules and trust that your members will carry you through.
Kudos to sunshinemckenzie for a great, well thought out post! I have been thinking the same things myself.
While I'm sure there are always those who will try to cheat the system, the vast majority of us are here as I said before, for the cameraderie and to help earn a little extra toward Disney or what-have-you, and now we are banned for following what we thought were the rules, and for what have been the rules for a long time.
It seems like there is more to this situation than meets the eye to me too.
I'm right there with you. I have no sympathy for someone who has 34 e-mail addresses (all fake) and is trying to cheat the system, but those of you who tried to do the right thing and are banned from GF - that's not right.Quote:
Originally Posted by sunshinemckenzie
I have not worked too hard on surveys lately, but I will try extra hard until the rest of you can come back! :sunshine:
Wow, I just came back from vacation to find I am blocked and to read this sad news. I'll be upfront - we used three different emails and three different demographics (meaning age and sex) but that was because there are three different adults living here. We never lied or tried to trick anyone.
I thought I was playing within the rules of the game, and I feel terrible that I may have caused problems.
I'm so sorry you have to go through all this, Tricia! know I hae mutiple addresses, but to be honest, I have a hard time remembering if I even do a survey, let alone what it was about!
I hope they get of your back soon! This is still, and will always be, my favorite reward site of all time! Even if I never do another survey here, I'll still do all my shopping here.
I got one last night. :)
I'm a bit skeptical if I'll get credit, though, as it ended abruptly, right in the middle of what I thought was going to be the next page. I did get the congratulations screen so I'll just be on the watch for the credit. It was very weird though that when I pressed next it ended.
Reading all this, it does seems as if there should be checks in place to prevent this type of thing from happening. I hope they add them, as it does seem as this should be their responsibility to monitor. Interesting that they can't help or track if there is a problem with a survey, yet they were able to provide a list of those banned.
I'm still stunned at all that has happened. I was one of the ones that asked my DH and even my Mom to try doing a survey on the few days that she visited. They used their own addys. Barring any typos, that puts us at the "EVIL 3" addys. Now I wished I never bothered to ask them for help. Obviously, GF profited from the surveys we all finally qualified for. I can understand them punishing those that took blatant advantage, but to ban the rest of us is just soooo wrong. I would wish GF to go down in flames for not having better ways to monitor their own rules and taking care of problems as they presented themselves, but that might mean hurting the SR family. I really feel for Tricia and the other SR managers. What a HUGE headache this must all be for them. I hope we can all come out of this a better, more productive group - with or without GF (I won't be shedding any tears for them). To everyone else, all I can say is SO SORRY for all the trouble and HANG IN THERE! I refuse to give up on SR! They have brought me more sunshine in my day than I thought a website ever could! If I never earned a penny more, I would still be proud to be a member!! :hugs: :sunshine:
Well, as much as I hate surveys, I decided to try and help since so many can not take them now. I have taken two in Jan. and 0 in Feb. using only my address but I think I am locked out as well because once or twice when my DD could not get a survey and I was at her house, I took one for her on her SR account using my address- or I tried but I think I got kicked out as usual - thus the reason I hate surveys and do not do them - anyway, I tried to get one today but it just rerouted me back to the members page so I must be banned for helping out DD so I won't be taking surveys either.
I know others have asked Tricia to post the banned lost. But maybe Tricia should post the list of those that are NOT banned. So those that can still take a survey can actually try to take a survey and help out SR. It seems the "good" :angel: list must be pretty short. :rotfl:
Wow, I actually got a survey today! So that makes one for January and one for February. :) I must not be on the "naughty" list, since its taken this happening for me to even qualify!
I have gotten a survey the past two days so I must not be on the banned list.
Thank you sunshinemckenzie, well said :clap:
I still cannot get a survey! I'm banned!!:( Hopefully more details will come soon...
I've apparently been banned. I'm not surprised at all though. I've definitely changed up my email addys and occasionally my demographics (income, household vs. mine vs. DH's depending on who took the survey). I've had a lot of company in lately and I've been having them do the surveys too.
The whole thing really ticks me off. I don't see how they can chose to ban us when we weren't even told that using more than one email addy/demographics, etc is against the rules. It's not right to change the rules half way through the game. :mad:
I'm sorry for my part in the whole deal, Tricia. Had I known that what I was doing would have been deemed as fraudulent (even though I used all honest info) I wouldn't have done them.
I hope you get it all figured out soon.
I could not qualify for one yesterday - but I did today :)
Hope this gets cleared up soon!!
I got a survey today. It was very easy to get and was a pretty easy survey on politics.
Can you all not click into yours anymore?
Well said sunshinemckenzie, I agree!!!
April
I guess I am confused. How does changing your email address help you qualify for a survey? Wouldn't the demographics be the same? :confused: Sorry guys...I'm relatively new here.
Well that's the question, isn't it? WHY would a change in email address bring up new surveys, when everything else is the same?Quote:
Originally Posted by Shadey55
And yet it can, and it does, quite often, bring up new surveys.
But I think in their mind, email address IS part of our demographic, so a change in email is a change in demo, which they seem to have a problem with.
sunshinemackenzie, bravo for you grabbing their own words and trying to figure out how they can't have info if we need help, but suddenly they have tons of info when it helps them! Not only do their words paint a different picture, but just the page where you can say that yo're not xyz, and change to different demographics shows that they anticipated that others would want to participate, and they created their site so it could be changed. :confused:
Quote:
Originally Posted by chipndale
I would, respectfully, have to take the other side and request that she not publish any list for privacy reasons. Anyone that has read this thread knows that if they can't get a survey, they've been tagged. If you can get a survey, you haven't. Many, including myself, have volunteered that information but I see no need for SR to publicly disclose that information.
Anyone could take a look at that list and come to conclusions that may be inaccurate or unfair, not knowing the circumstances why each name has been placed in "time-out." Plus, I think there are ways for those who are a lot more computer savvy that I am to trace email addresses and that would be a major privacy breach. This is a public forum, visible to anyone who wants to look at it and sometimes we get a very false sense of security here and post way too much personal information. Now, if she would decide to send individualized emails to members advising if they're on the list, that's a totally different scenario.
I am certainly against the cheating tactics of the person who used all of those emails that have been previously listed on the board but, I must be honest, I was surprised to see a list of email addresses posted on the forum. I'm just thinking there's a possibility that one or two of them could be "real" and not fake. Even though what they did was very wrong, I don't feel it's the right of members in this public forum to have access to that information - It is for SR and possibly GF to deal with that person on a one-on-one basis.
Just to clarify, I am 99% sure that the email addresses I posted were fake. None of them are the addresses that the member uses to cash out to paypal, to get emails from us, etc. There were some similar lists that used real words (like kitty@hotmail, dog@hotmail, thedog@yahoo), that I think were all made up as well. But I didn't want to take the chance that they might actually belong to someone. I would definitely not post any real addresses anywhere and even edit people's posts when they post their own because any email address posted ANYWHERE is going to be a big 'old spam target.Quote:
Originally Posted by fourfoxesinpa
If someone really wants to know if they are on the list, they can file a trouble ticket and I will tell you what email addresses that they listed for you. But suffice to say that about 2/3 of our regular survey takers were on the list.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SunshineGirl
That's not needed as I know I'm in the 2/3. As many people as I have in my household with different emails there is no telling how many they have for me, but one thing is for sure, I took every survey honestly regardless of what demographical information I submitted!
Same here. :(Quote:
Originally Posted by Blessing and Miracle
I don't see what could possibly be gained by publishing lists of any description. Any information you need about your own account you can certainly get from Tirica.
Ms Tricia....with the clarification in the email you sent out today, I have a question (assuming they ever un-ban me, LOL). It states that only one person in the household is allowed to take surveys. Who gets to determine which person? If they un-ban me, can I pick my hubby to take 'em and just stick with that, or would it have to be boring-demographic me?
Well, I don't really need to file a TT either - as I am very sure I have a bunch of emails on their list too! The only reason I might would be to see how many they thought I had - including any typos, mixups, and dot changes. But maybe I don't really need/want to know.:rotfl:
What I really want to know now is how long we are going to be banned - are they working on some system to make sure all of us naughty ones will not be able to circumvent the survey system?
And not that I have at all considered doing it - far from it! - but the question did come to me, is if a banned person had a new email that they had not used for Greenfield yet and tried it, this would constitute fraudulent behaviour, would it not and probably wouldn't work either? As I say, I would not do that - I'm banned so I'm banned until further notice. But I just wondered.
I just want to go on record as saying I use real words and phrases for my gmail accts. so I can remember them. Now it's not dog or kitty or anything one word but they are real. At one time when I wasn't getting any credits I created a gmail acct. about the email address being real. I took out some frustration when I typed that in and waited for my credits:rotfl:
Wow I tried reading all these from start to finish and it would take me at least three hours...guess I need to keep up on a daily basis!
I'm really sorry all this has happened...being fairly new (a couple weeks old to the forum and SR) I was very pleased to see the honesty in the group of people on this forum! What a great bunch, to bad there was so much confusion in the rules.
Now I'm actually afraid to take the survey's (I've only qualified for one since I started anyway) and I wonder if others are afraid like me and will not even try to take the survey's thinking I will do something wrong and get thrown off the SR site altogether.
I'm wondering the same thing!Quote:
Originally Posted by mollyeilis
And I'm wondering where the email is??!! I have gotten lots of emails from SR, so I don't know where this one went! But I sure would like to see it and not be in the dark about what is going on.
You know thats a good question. If GF is running surveys with all of the Reward Programs then how would that work if other members of your family are members of other RP. When I joined SR I also joined a couple of other RP. I cancel one and allowed DD to take over the other one since both only allow one member per household. Although she's gone off to school now our emails haven't changed! This is all still a bit confusing and I blame it on GF.:confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by mollyeilis
I agree would like to know about what email and what person.
I originally started using 2 bc of getting stuck on the 24 hr rotation. I was once able to take survey's once a day then got stuck on the 24 hr rotation like OTX is, so i would alternate between the two. Appearently I'm stuck like that now on the SM survey too!