Springboard UK claims to be "one of the UK's leading online research communities." They are not, but who cares, as long as they give the opportunity to earn some cash. They do set cash values for their surveys, which is more straight forward than some other companies, which will give a reward of 300000 points and somewhere in the small print state that it is equivalent of £0.25.
Some surveys are rewarded with a prize draw, but I always avoid these, as chances to win are non-existent. The surveys come usually about two a month. The average value of each survey is £0.50, But there are some for £0.25, £0.75 and £1.00.
One cannot redeem less than £25, so the Springboard UK figured out that with the average earnings of £1 a month not many people would stay so long to redeem anything. However, they were wrong. I stayed several years, duly filling in the 50p surveys. It was not such a hard job - most of them could be done in 10 minutes or so, while I was waiting for a train, flight, etc.
After several years, I looked at my balance and saw that it well exceeded the required £25. The redemption page gave me two options - Paypal or cheque. Great, I chose Paypal and got a confirmation email, which stated -
Congratulations! You have now successfully redeemed your Survey Cash!
If you chose to receive a cheque, you should expect to receive it within the next 6 - 8 weeks.
If you choose to receive your payment via Paypal, you should expect to receive it within the next 3 to 4 weeks.
Three weeks passed, then another three weeks, yet another three weeks and so on. There was no transfer and I decided to write to the customer services. The confirmation screen stated that they would get back to me within one working day. Needless to say that they didn't do it within this timeframe. In fact, they never did (so far). Their confirmation email said -
Thank you for emailing support. We have received your ticket and will
respond to you shortly. Thank you for your patience and your continued
interest in our panel.
'Shortly' is a relative term. How long is shortly - a day, a month, a year?
Since then I can't see any reference to Paypal anymore on their website. Are they preparing a cheque for me? Am I the only customer who dared to redeem £25 from this 'leading UK company'?
They did pay after several months, but the surveys definitely changed. Most of them nowadays are worth only 25p.
I totally agree that Springboard are fraudulent.
ReplyDeleteYes they do send surveys valued at 25/50/75 pence, but mainly 25p.
To achieve the redemption threshold of £25.00 you have to complete at least 70+ surveys assuming some are worth more than 25p.
AH but that's the catch. Redeem and wait in hope!
They have now increased the delay in payout to EIGHT weeks for both Cheque & Paypal (see below). But amazingly if you "donate" they say within 2 weeks.
Who can trust this site to actually donate??
They also hide your redemption information on their site, hoping you will forget.
Dear John Mcconnell,
Congratulations! You have now successfully redeemed your Survey Cash!
If you chose to receive a cheque, you should expect to receive it in 8 weeks.
If you choose to receive your payment via Paypal, you should expect to receive it in 8 weeks.
If you chose to make a donation to charity, you should expect to receive an email with an electronic gift card to complete redeeming your charitable donation to an organisation of your choice in 1 to 2 weeks.
I am now on week 12 of waiting for my cheque. I have successfully redeemed in the past but it has become a joke this time around. After numerous emails back and forth with customer support they are now asking their "cheque vendor" to issue me with another one but told me not to expect it for weeks. I am so angry. I can't find a phone number for them any where!!!
ReplyDelete