Survey night

So tonight (Monday) I am cleaning out my backlog of Opinion Outpost surveys.  If you haven't done this, it may be tedious at times but it's a great way to get free stuff on Amazon.  (If you are a friend that has published a book and I bought it, likely it was purchased in this manner...)  In respect for the rules, I can't go into what each survey was about, but I thought I would put in some of the fun things that happen with a survey.


Survey 1

This was what I call an, "I'm listening, but not really" survey, because answers that don't follow where they want to lead are basically ignored in the interest of getting you to answer questions you've told them don't apply to you.   I knew that we were having a disconnect when it asked, "Which of these states is your practice in?"  It was a pet survey, and even without checking the "my dog has itches/hot spots" box, it proceeded to ask me about my itchy dog.  (The least of our worries, I assure you.)  I thought I might get out of it when it wanted itchy dog's age in years and months by putting zero and zero.  It informed me I couldn't put a zero in the year, so I put a 1.  It informed me I couldn't have a zero in the month, either.  Apparently there's some new goverment edict that a dog having reached the day before a birthday is shunted a month ahead in time.  Obviously, at this point I bailed.


Survey 2

This was what I call a "thrown under the omnibus" survey.  It collected info on a large number of "services" and for me it took the two I acually use- our financial advisor and our grocery store.  After taking about 15 pages of questions to whittle it down to these two, it then asked the SAME million or so questions about each one.  Two things stood out annoyingly from the rest.  One, a minor deal, was a certain page that a list of "extremely satisfied to extremely unsatisfied" questions were asked.  In fairness, several of them had a "not applicable" choice.  UNfortunatley, the ones that didn't were the ones where it was the only honest answer for me.

The other was the text box between many questions asking, "Why did you give fill-in-the-blank this score?  Give as much detail as possible."  Many surveyors have learned that I have a very low tolerance for essay questions before they start getting snark.  One of the financial questions was answered with, "they have free pop and cookies"; one of the grocery questions got, "You're asking for a lot of detail for a little grocery trip."

Conclusion: 11 points!  That's $1.10 in Amazon.




Survey 3

They were briefly interested in my shoe inserts.  But the last ones I got were an off-brand they weren't interested in, and I got gonged.

See how you are, Jamie?  See if I go to Tony Packos again...

Survey 4

After a "survey on hold", the next one was one of the "since you're a valued member, extra points" deal- which usually means it will be some specific product I can't afford.  AND it's about where I would go for certain medical procedures.  "Would you go to Goshen clinic, Elkhart Clinic, or Elkhart General?"  Gee one's 57 miles away, one's 68 miles away... could we maybe do this local?  Then I notice that they're making up how long it would take me to get there- so they want to see my time v. recommendation v. cost thinking. 

This one gets boring fast.  One of their three-headed "option choices" gave me the SAME place for two of the choices- but one of the two "sames" was 45 minutes closer and $100 cheaper.  I start flipping over to FB and Twitter.  Answer a few comments on the post I put up.  See how many likes I got from stealing Bobby G's meme and posting to FB:

(Answer: 3 likes and 2 laughs in the first hour.)

But- I stick with it and get another 11 points- I am waaay ahead of the game at this point.





Survey 5

Ugg!  I know this one all too well.  About six pages of every consumer product known to man, asking if I have bought any of them in the last 3 months, and woe betide you should you say you did, because they'll want to know brand, serial number, warranty info, what you paid, etc, etc. 

YES.

Survey 6

This is one of those annoying ones that try to squeeze from you every bit of info on every TV show (and all accompanying ads) you've so much as thought about watching in the last 24 hours.  That would be a "TV? what's a TV?" from me.




Survey 7

Typical cell phone survey.  With the typical flaw- before they start asking you "who's the best voice, the best quality, the best etc etc," perhaps you might ask if you have been with more than one company?  (Answer: no.)  Of course, the nice thing about this survey is it reminded me I needed to stick my phone on the charger... 


Take a break.  Check the meme (4 likes, 3 laughs).  Let the dog out.  Get a snack.  It's the Kraft Trios Snak-fulls, with cheese, chocolate, and banana chips.


Asks me (twice) if I want to answer a few more questions.  Like an idiot, I say okay.  But I stick it out, and get 16 points.  This is by far my biggest point day in the 10 or so years I've done surveys!!!




Survey 8


At this point, I've been at this for right around two and a half hours, and am hoping for a big streak of "survey on hold"s. 

Do you want to take this in english or espanol? English
This survey is about blah blah blah, do you agree? Yes.
That's all the questions we have for today.  Thank you for your time.


Thank you, Jesus...

Just 4 more left on the board...


Survey 9

Getting tired, accidentally deleted that one instead of opening.  Drat!


Survey 10

This one's on beverages I buy at the store.  Mainly milk and diet soda.  Racked up another 11 points.  Dog wanted out again.  This is waaaay most points I ever got in one night, maybe triple.


Survey 11


This one wants me to do a 24-hr diary of my music listening starting Wednesday morning.  $10 bucks cash money.  Why not?  And it paid me 3 points for saying yes!  Good grief, we're up to umm... ummm... 52 points...

Survey 12


"Check back later!"  And the evening is at last over!