“I completed the Nutritional Drinks research in Aug/Sep 2023 and still haven't yet received my incentive. Despite numerous emails to V V and couple of phone calls, there is just no movement from V V. Now my question is : when will I receive my incentive that is way overdue to me??”
“Have done mystery shop in august (5 shops ) and photos for curry’s in sept and STILL waiting for payment. Judging by the reviews I’m not the only one still waiting for payment. I received an email in September to confirm my photos for the Curry’s project were fine. So why am I still in November , not received the incentive? I have been patient, polite, patient and waited but to wait 3 months with no clear indication of when this will be paid is beyond a joke and unacceptable. You cannot expect people to do tasks for you in their own time and then not pay them”
“AVOID AVOID AVOID.
I did a mystery shop back in August, I was told it would be 21 days for payment from the end of the task. 30 days later I chased as I hadnt received payment, apparently the client was taking longer than expected to review the data... Fine, but you shouldnt have said payment would be in 21 days. Its now over 2 MONTHS since i did the mystery shop and I STILL havent received payment, I keep chasing and get told the same thing - the client is taking longer than thought to review the data - THAT ISNT MY PROBLEM! I am now taking this further as its disgusting that they are getting away with this on multiple tasks as you can see from other reviews. They also seem to be applying their own reviews on sites, 3 5* reviews 3 hours ago? uhuh not suspicious at all”
“Absolute scam of a company! Avoid avoid avoid!
I did some mystery shops for them back in August for £70. It’s been well over 21 working days and still haven’t been paid. I have attempted to contact them numerous times- no one ever answers the phone. I’ve even messaged them on Facebook messenger and I get ghosted. Such a dishonest and untrustworthy market research company.”
“AVOID WORKING WITH THIS COMPANY AT ALL MEASURES!!
I completed a 9-day research course trialling nutritional shakes for people who are currently on cancer medication.
Despite completing the course and emailing several times to ask when I would receive my £90 incentive they still refuse to pay.....and this is beyond the 21 days.
Such a rude and insensitive company with NO morals!”
“Don't waste your time.
Vocal Views’ organization and payments have always been a mess. You almost never qualify for studies so even before the other problems it’s almost not even worth taking the time to apply to studies with them. They struggle with communication and are usually extremely difficult to get a hold of. They are consistently late on payment when you happen to get into the extremely rare study you qualify for (yes, longer than 21 working days). One time I even had to email them for weeks in order to get them to pay me at all, and their staff often don’t know the actual parameters for their studies. For example, I was explicitly told that I could participate in a particular study on an Android phone, which turned out to be incorrect. I showed up and had to be turned away because the study would not work on that device, which made it a big waste of my and the client’s time. If I were a prospective client of Vocal Views, I would not hire them to conduct research as, from my experience, you can’t trust them to provide a quality service. As a participant, I will be staying away from VV and sticking with more reputable websites like Respondent.
Those are all past experiences I’ve had with them, but this recent occurrence is the final straw. I participated in a study on gaming recently. There was the main part of the study and then, at the end, participants completed a short 5-10 minute survey. Unfortunately, due to a technical issue on the researcher/Vocal Views’ end, I and several other participants were unable to see the survey. All we could see was a white screen.
I then spent the next 40+ minutes troubleshooting the survey issue, communicating with the team about the problem, and waiting for them to fix it. Keep in mind that this time extended way past the original end time for the study, which meant that I was not being paid to stick around for an extra 30+ minutes. However, I was committed to completing the research. During this time, I was verbally assured that I would be fully paid for my participation. Unfortunately, they were unable to get the survey to work but eventually, the main researcher told me I was free to go via written message on Zoom, which I took a quick photo of in case there were any problems later down the road.
As you may already have guessed, I, of course, did not get paid the full incentive for my participation. After being late on paying (as per usual), Vocal Views opened and resolved a “dispute” against me, shorting me a chunk of my payment. I immediately reached out to them explaining the whole situation and have now been emailing back and forth with support for weeks to no avail. They are adamantly unwilling to pay me the promised incentive and are unwilling to acknowledge the reality of the situation, which is that I was hired by Vocal Views and I did everything that was asked of me — onboarding calls, email confirmations, responding to texts, a tech check, waiting for an hour prior to the study, and doing everything possible to complete the end of study survey — which means that it’s their responsibility to make sure that I’m paid in full. I last spoke to an individual who claims to be the highest person in the company and just keeps saying “you didn’t complete the survey.” Yes, I didn’t complete the survey. It was physically impossible for me to complete the survey and I spent more than my fair share of time on that portion of the project. The participant is not responsible for technical issues on the researcher’s end.
Unlike reputable websites like Respondent, Vocal Views does NOT protect its participants. It’s up to Vocal Views to have systems in place to ensure that participants are paid. Instead, every time you work with them, you’re taking the chance that they’ll just tell you “too bad, so sad, we’re not paying you” for whatever reason. There are many other reviews echoing similar situations. Sadly, you can do everything right and still be left short or with no payment at all.”
“It takes their customer service weeks to respond IF they respond at all! Their finance department is the slowest I have ever seen. They either don't pay you or they pay you extremely late. They keep on claiming that they pay everyone in 21 days but in my experience that is only true half the time. Very disorganized company indeed.”
“They never pay the incentive they said they would, A fraudulent company
They said they are waiting for the payment first as they have cash flow problems”
“This is my TrustPilot review, they aren't even worth writing another bad review about lol
I had the same type of bad experience in 2019 so I'm not sure why I even did another project for them. It took months to get paid last time, and that was only after complaining for weeks and making it public. I feel completely scammed again, it sucks. It's been well over 21 days after project completion and nobody has gotten paid.”
“Vocal Views is poorly managed. They claim to pay out incentives within 21 business days (excluding holidays and weekends - but even then, 21 days is ridiculously long), but 3 out of 4 times they take months longer to pay, if they pay you at all. Contacting customer results in canned responses or ignored emails.”
“I have been waiting to be paid since December 2022 for the skincare study I did for weeks. I emailed several people and their support email address and was promised I would get paid when all items were returned back which was done weeks ago. I was promised payment after 21days and its been months!!!”
“They will spam you endlessly even when you ask for your data to be removed. They do not comply with GDPR regulations at all. No unsubscribe button on mailers to my mobile (purposely done to keep their mailing lists healthier). Do not join them if you don’t want to be harassed relentlessly with up to 5 emails in one day.”
“I took part in a market research on Chocolate back in june 2022. I have been trying to get my payment of £60 ever since and it is now November 2022. The payment shows it is due to me. Do you think its fair to withhold payments? What can i do to get my money? Can anyone advise me how to get an authority onto it, please?
Vocal Views is very wrong!!!!”
“I participated in a video recording study with them on August 10, 2022. It is now October 26 and they have yet to pay me for my efforts. Half of my emails to them are left unanswered, the other half of the replies always says the same thing: we got too many payments to go through, soon we will pay. In this day and age it really boggles my mind how a company cannot manage its payments when there are so many tools out there like PayPal, Venmo etc. Oh another thing, they make the payment via bank transfer (if they ever make it!) I have been extremely disappointed with them.”
“After "their client" boots me from a study, I left a review on trustly... I simply stated to "their client" that, "I thought this was a tech check didn't know it was a 1 hour Meet and greet." Booted for that? So I left my review on trustly... never would I have imagined that vocal views would then contact me on Facebook to threaten "pressing felony charges for defamation" if I do not remove my review. Are we no longer allowed to leave reviews?? They told me if I do not remove the review in 2 hours, they would call the police. Using intimidation to get good reviews is an absolute embarrassment. This company should be put out of business at minimum.”
“I did research for this company and was assured that I would be paid by this week via 2 separate emails. I called them to query the payment and was told that the client had not paid so It has not been actioned . They don’t know when it will. They lie and withhold pay, do not use them, there are plenty of other very professional companies. Avoid”
“Did a facial serum study with them and was never paid! My emails went unanswered, so I basically worked for free! Who knows what ingredients were really in those face serums too! Beware fraudulent company!”
“Unprofessional and dont play fair!
Very poor communication and unclear information about what is required. Agreed to a survey which was in two parts. Completed part 1 exactly as asked only to be told I wouldn't be getting paid as I hadn't fully completed part 1. So they gathered an awful lot of information about me for free.
Im an experienced survey and focus group user and I can smell a rat with these guys. Feeling like Ive been stitched up!
Further to the above, I placed a review on another well known review site and Vocal Views were able to block it by pretending to have had no connection with me! A total lie!”
