ComplaintsforToluna USA, Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  06/24/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I have been using Toluna for a long while now, I’ve cashed out with them numerous times and I’ve never had a problem with this platform, until now. I redeemed $10 about a week ago and recently I’ve received an email stating that “my gift has been cancelled” i cannot login to my account, this is infuriating. I do not lie on my surveys and I try not to rush too fast, and I’m definitely not a bot. My account was removed because this system is shoddy and they will remove anyone at any RANDOM moment. I want my money that I rightfully deserve, I spent days working towards 10 dollars and I will see that I receive that money into my account. I will pester this company for years if I have to get what I am owed, this is outrageous.

  Business response

  06/26/2024

  Dear ******,
  
  As explained in ticket #*******, your Toluna membership has been suspended after a quality check review of your activity over the past 12 months. This decision is not random but justified. Our Data Quality team found 25 flags in your survey responses: rejected for poor quality in 2 surveys, speeding through 5 surveys, and fraudulent attempts in 18 surveys.
  
  These actions violate our Code of Conduct, which requires members to provide truthful and considered responses. As a result, your account was closed and your remaining earnings were forfeited, as per the Site Terms you agreed to.
  
  We regret this outcome and wish you all the best!
  Kind regards,
  The Toluna Team

  Customer response

  06/26/2024

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  this company is a fraud.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ****** *******

  Business response

  06/27/2024

  Hello ******,
  
  We are sorry you feel this way.
  The suspension of your account was based on sound reasons, as we have previously explained in detail.
  
  This is our final response and we have nothing else to add.
  
  Kind regards,
  The Toluna Team

  Customer response

  06/27/2024

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  Go jump with a noose, ******* *******. 
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ****** *******

• Initial Complaint

  06/07/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I was scammed by Toluna Influencers. I waited for more than 3 weeks for my $20 ****** redemption and today they sent me an email saying that they can’t redeem my ****** redemption and that the points have been credited back to my account. I think that they closed my account because when I tried to login I couldn’t login at all. I did the forgot password option and I still haven’t gotten an email which means that they closed my account. They are a scam survey site.

  Business response

  06/20/2024

  Hello ********, 

  Your account was suspended for failing the quality checks. We have detailed all the reasons in ticket #*******.

  As we believe in second chances we have re-opened your account on a probationary basis, under the conditions that you ensure your personal information is correct and up to date and that you will take all surveys in good faith and pay the needed attention going forward.

  Kind regards,

  The Toluna Team
  

• Initial Complaint

  03/26/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I spent a long time earning 30,000 points, in good faith, per their terms, always answering honestly to their survey questions. I tried to cash out and then received an email that they were unable to process the gift card reward, and the points were put back on my account. I just figured they had some sort of glitch so I logged in and cashed out again. Later I got another email that they couldn't process my reward. I went to log in, and couldn't log in. I thought something happened to my password, so I submitted to reset my password. I never received the email to reset my password. I emailed their customer service, and received a response that they booted me from the platform for quality control issues. I was dismissed as shown in the emails, in a way that they wouldn't have to pay me for the rewards I earned, and told not to contact them as they considered the case closed. This doesn't allow me to be in touch with their privacy officer, or to make a complaint. If there was a problem with me as a panelist, it should have been made known to me, and I should not have been allowed to spend many hours of my valuable time, thinking I was going to be rewarded. It was a $25 gift card that they owe me. Their website has terms, FAQ's, etc. that explain their practices and when I read through there is nothing I have done to infringe on their terms or conditions. If it is truly just up to their discretion, and they cannot provide something to show me how they came up with that determination, then I would like a formal acknowledgment that none of my survey taking data will be provided to their clients or used. If I'm not getting my part of the deal, the points/reward, then I don't want them using my responses or sharing it with their clients, in any shape or form (including anonymized/aggregated/de-identified).

  Business response

  03/28/2024

  Dear *******,
  
  We hope this message finds you well.
  
  First and foremost, we want to express our sincere regret for the inconveniences you've experienced during this process.
  
  Maintaining the highest level of quality is paramount to us, and our teams perform regular panel checks to identify any potential issues that could impact the integrity of our panel.
  Decisions regarding account suspensions align with our Site's Terms & Conditions, and are executed based on the outcomes of these routine checks.
  
  Your panelist rights were suspended and your account was closed on March 18th due to the results of a similar panel check. The specifics of this matter were communicated to you in detail through support case #*******. After conducting a comprehensive manual review, we made the decision to reinstate your account. You've been regranted full access to your account, including your earnings, allowing you to resume participating in surveys and making new reward requests.
  
  Should you encounter any challenges, questions, or concerns along the way, our support team is more than happy to assist you. Don't hesitate to get in touch!
  
  Warm regards,
  Toluna Team

  Customer response

  04/01/2024

  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ******* *******

• Initial Complaint

  02/05/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  After weeks of doing surveys for ********. I finally had enough to cash out. Like most reviews warned. As soon as you cash out with toluna they instantly ban your account. When inquiring why they say you’ve broke a term and condition. No evidence to back it up when requested. This is a true scam run by Toluna the con artist. They make money off scamming people and their work.

  Business response

  02/14/2024

  Hello ******,
  
  We deeply regret any dissatisfaction you may have encountered while utilizing Toluna, and we apologize if it conveyed the impression of unfair practices towards our members. Please be assured that fairness remains a fundamental value for us.
  
  It is important to highlight that we conduct rigorous quality checks, and accounts may be temporarily suspended when our systems identify activity that could potentially compromise the integrity of our processes. Consequently, your account underwent a temporary suspension to facilitate a thorough analysis of your account data. We appreciate your understanding of this aspect of our platform. Our support team has explained the reasons and details of your account suspension and already provided a resolution in ticket #*******.
  
  If you have further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact our support team.
  
  Kind regards,
  The Toluna Team

• Initial Complaint

  01/08/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  This company is running a complete and total scam. I created an account with them and was doing paid surveys for about a month, was really excited about all the bonuses I was receiving. I collected 35000 points to be able to cash out $10 to my ******. Did it 3 times in the row, but zero money came in, so I sent an email to the customer service, and received some bogus explanation it takes 1-2 weeks to receive ****** payments. So I kept doing surveys, cashed out another $10. Still nothing. I sent another email, and again same bs explanation it takes 1-3 weeks. Complained again, so instead of honouring those $40 they owe me, they locked me out of my account saying I violated their rules and regulations.

  Business response

  01/11/2024

  Hello ******,
  
  We would like to apologies for any inconvenience caused and reassure you we don’t engage in any derogatory practices like withholding members' payments or suspending their accounts without valid reasons.
  
  Our commitment is twofold: to offer the best and most rewarding experience to our Toluna Influencers and to provide high-quality data to our clients who rely on authentic consumer feedback for their critical business decisions. To maintain this high standard, we regularly conduct quality assessments of our members across the globe to ensure the quality, authenticity, and security of our panel.
  
  During a recent quality assessment, your account was flagged as suspicious, leading to the suspension of your panelist rights and survey access.
  Several of your survey responses did not align with our Code of Conduct. This code explicitly states that surveys should be taken in good faith, meaning providing truthful answers and not rushing through surveys or answering questions identically. Toluna retains the right to withhold Points if we reasonably believe that survey responses lack truthfulness or consideration.
  
  As we believe in second chances, following an in depth manual review of your overall activity we have decided to reopen your account on probation.
  
  You now have full access to our activities, may login at any time and request additional payments. Please know that your ****** requests have been declined as a result of this situation in the meantime, and the points have been returned to the account.
  
  Going forward we kindly recommend that you avoid aborting survey participation and continue to take your time to attentively read and provide careful and thoughtful responses to each question to ensure no similar flags are raised in the future.
  
  Our support team remains available whenever you have questions or concerns and they are always more than happy to help, so don't hesitate to get in touch!
  
  We hope you are satisfied with the resolution and continue to take part in surveys in good faith.

  Kind regards,
  The Toluna Team

  Customer response

  01/11/2024

  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ****** ***********

• Initial Complaint

  12/04/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Twice in the past week and a half I have tried to redeem my points for a $30 ****** reward. Twice I have been denied and since Tuesday, 11/28 I have been unable to access my account to try and redeem for a different reward or take additional surveys. Each time I try to login it says "Error:Authentication failed. Please try again." Sometimes it even tells me my login info is incorrect which I know it is not. I have reached out to them twice for assistance on why my account is locked but have not received a response. It seems from doing some research online, that many other people have this issue when they try to redeem their points for a reward. Very disappointing considering the amount of time I have spent doing their surveys.

  Business response

  12/19/2023

  Dear *********,
  
  We sincerely apologize for the difficulties you experienced. Our support team diligently addressed your concerns outlined in ticket #*******. They thoroughly explained the reasons behind the situation and offered a resolution. We trust that the provided solution meets your satisfaction. Should you have any further inquiries, please feel free to reach out to us. Our dedicated support team is ready and happy to assist with any questions you may have.
  
  Kind regards,
  The Toluna Team

• Initial Complaint

  11/15/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Toluna is the only survey site that does this. For a while the site was giving a lot of error messages after completing a survey and not once have I been compensated and I’ve let it go. I'm always blown off, even after I've provided a screenshot showing the error and even after I provide a survey number they find some way to blame the respondent for doing something wrong. Now there are 2 high point surveys that I haven't been compensated for, the first one was for 12,000 points Sept. 1! The other was done on 10/8 and I believe it was 6,000. There is no excuse for not paying someone for 2 months. It is unethical and most likely illegal. I will reach out to ******** *****, the parent group to ******* and Toluna to see if they are mandating this behavior and then I report to the ******** ******* and the ******* ***** **********. I've tried to resolve this through communication multiple times and the last one came back undelieverable. I'm not the kind of person that backs down when it comes to fairness and this will be no exception.

  Business response

  11/21/2023

  Dear *****,
  
  We apologize for any inconvenience you experienced on Toluna.com, and we want to assure you that enhancing our users' experience is our top priority.
  Like any digital platform, occasional errors may occur, but refreshing your browser and clearing cache and cookies often resolves the issues.
  
  We appreciate your feedback on the two incidents you highlighted, and we've already compensated you for them:
  
  On July 28: *******-US, 3000 points compensation, related to Ticket #******* (technical errors)
  On August 16: *******-US, 3000 points compensation, related to Ticket #******* (qotafull message delay)
  
  Regarding the other two surveys you mentioned, where you qualified, please note that the timing of points crediting varies.
  For some surveys, points are credited very quickly or within a few days, while for others you will receive the points only after the survey has closed. You can expect to wait a maximum of six weeks for points to be credited to your account from when a survey closes, though we try to limit this as much as possible.
  
  Survey *******-US-1, completed on September 1, is currently on hold and is scheduled to close on November 18. Points will be credited within six weeks from this date, as mentioned in our FAQs.
  Survey *******-US, completed on October 8, has already been closed, and you can verify the credited points in the Points section of your account.
  
  If you have further questions or need assistance, feel free to reach out to our support team. They are here to help and clarify any concerns you may have.
  
  Best regards,
  The Toluna Team

  Customer response

  11/29/2023

  This has not yet been resolved. I've gotten a response as if there will be action taken but there has been nothing accomplished. 

  Customer response

  11/29/2023

  Please disregard my last message.  It appears to have been credited. 

• Initial Complaint

  10/20/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I've been taking surveys with Toluna for a month and earned enough points to redeem for a GC valuing >$30. Unfortunately I didn't redeem any points yet & when I tried logging into my account 2 days ago, I started receiving user authentication errors. Long story short, I found out from Toluna that my account was suspended for the following reasons: Kindly note that Toluna is always vigilant in maintaining our community’s integrity. Unfortunately, during our regular quality reviews we’ve noticed issues with your account and survey activity that could negatively impact the integrity of our processes. Our system has detected that you were performing an activity that contradicts information provided in your member profile or is not in line with our Terms. As such, the panelist rights for this account have been suspended from our site and your earnings have been forfeited due to the violation of our Terms and Conditions. I am deeply concerned by this response. After reviewing the T&C, I don't see any behavior that I violated. I find the timing of my account suspension suspicious given the amount of points I earned & am kindly asking Toluna to look into my account activity more in depth. The only "violation" I can think of is perhaps answering questions repeatedly which is because I am following the rules by providing consistent responses to repeated questions. Also, I have tried to update my profile information on the Toluna website, and every single time I've received an error on the website and have been unable to save those changes. I don't see any of these events as a violation on my part. If I can't continue taking surveys with Toluna, I respectively request that they at least allow me to redeem the points I earned. I spent a lot of time answering the surveys honestly & providing detailed responses & feel as though I deserve the rewards associated to that time and effort. Thank you!

  Business response

  11/02/2023

  Hello *****,
  
  As our support team explained in ticket #*******, your account underwent an unfortunate flagging during one of our routine quality assessments. Subsequently, on October 17th, your account was suspended by our Data Quality team.
  
  To maintain the high standards of data quality and ensure we receive accurate information from all our influencers, our Data Quality team conducts numerous regular checks to verify various data quality aspects and detect potential irregular behavior. These checks encompass a wide range of criteria, such as registration verification, survey access location, proxy usage, device validation, digital fingerprinting, survey participation activity, and various other data points. Additionally, we implement quality checks at the questionnaire level for every survey we offer.
  
  As we firmly believe in second chances, we've decided to reinstate your panelist privileges on a trial basis. To avoid encountering similar inconveniences in the future, please take your time to provide thoughtful and careful responses to each question in upcoming studies. We also recommend using ****** ****** when participating in our surveys.
  
  You have now full access again to your account and the 141,140 points balance. Upon logging in, please ensure that your profile information is accurate and up to date. If you encounter any persisting errors, kindly forward the screenshots that display both the error message and the section you're attempting to update to our support team and they will be able to assist you.
  
  We hope you are satisfied with this resolution.
  Kind regards,
  The Toluna Team

• Initial Complaint

  10/17/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Hi.I have been taking surveys for a while with the Toluna company.I recently cashed out for a $25 gift card.I then received an email stating that they could not process the transaction for the gift card so they credited my points back to my account.So I try to sign in to my account and I get an error.Then I reach out to customer service and they say to change my password.I did but never received an email back from them.I wrote back to let them know this.Then all of a sudden they send me an email that says I was banned from my account and will not give me a reason why.Also that they are taking all my points that I earned.I looked at their reviews online after this and noticed that this is a regular thing that they are doing to their customers.This is shady fraudulent business practices.There seems to never be a problem until someone actually cashes out.They were perfectly happy taking my responses from my surveys until it came time to pay me a gift certificate,then all of a sudden they accused me of doing wrong.They never give an exact reason why they block your account either,because there is no legitimate reason..that's why.They need to look into the system they use to monitor surveys because it does not work..or maybe they do not use one at all and that is a lie,so they have a reason to use customers then ban them and keep their points.Please help me get my $25 gift card that I earned fairly and honestly. And please find out why they do this to people in the first place.Thank you.

  Business response

  10/27/2023

  Hello *********,

  To begin, we want to extend our sincere apologies for any inconvenience you may have experienced. We want to emphasize that we do not engage in any detrimental practices like withholding members' payments or suspending their accounts without valid reasons.

  Our commitment is twofold: to offer the best and most rewarding experience to our Toluna Influencers worldwide and to provide high-quality data to our clients who rely on authentic consumer feedback for their critical business decisions. To maintain this high standard, we regularly conduct quality assessments of our members across the globe to ensure the quality, authenticity, and security of our panel.

  During a recent quality assessment, your account was flagged as suspicious, leading to the suspension of your panelist rights and survey access.
  Upon the review of your account activity, it was found that several of your survey responses did not align with our Code of Conduct. This code explicitly states that surveys should be taken in good faith, meaning providing truthful answers and not rushing through surveys or answering questions identically. Toluna retains the right to withhold Points if we reasonably believe that survey responses lack truthfulness or consideration.
  Some of the responses you provided may not have met the required level of thoughtfulness or relevance for our clients' research. Our records indicate that since you joined our platform, your account was flagged for attempting fraudulent completions in five surveys, and you were also flagged for irrelevant open-ended responses.

  We heavily rely on our clients' reports, and it is crucial for us to take action to prevent sending them data that falls short of our quality standards.
  In the spirit of giving a second chance, and after a comprehensive assessment of your overall activity, we have decided to reinstate your account on probation. Please note that your reward request for a $25 Walmart voucher has been declined due to the above mentioned situation, and the points have been returned to your account.

  Going forward we kindly recommend that you avoid prematurely ending survey participation and continue to invest time in carefully reading and providing thoughtful responses to each question. This will help ensure that no similar flags are raised in the future.

  We understand that this may have been an unpleasant experience, but we hope you appreciate that these checks are essential to maintain the quality standards of our panel and to deliver only high-quality data to our valued clients.

  Kind regards,

  The Toluna Team
  

• Initial Complaint

  10/10/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I have been a member of Toluna for many years. Earlier this year, my account was suspended, with the reason given was something about my ip address. They gave me ideas to try to correct this, and I have done what I could, to no avail. I have several thousand points that I would like to redeem and I would also like to be reinstated. Being retired now, I enjoyed taking the surveys from Toluna. They still e-mail me with opportunities, but when I try to access the surveys, I get an error message.

  Business response

  10/20/2023

  Dear *****,
  
  To begin, we would like to express our gratitude for your unwavering loyalty throughout the years. We highly value longstanding members like yourself.
  
  We are delighted to confirm that your account has never been suspended and we can see you are able to complete surveys. If you no longer remember your account password to log into your account we advise you to go to the Toluna website and click on the 'Forgot Password?' link on the login page. Enter the email associated with your account and you will receive a password reset link in your inbox.
  Your current account balance of 40,174 points allows you to request a $10 gift card from the six options available at the moment, or a $10 ****** payment.
  If you encounter any issues while participating in surveys, please do not hesitate to contact our support team and they will be more than happy to assist you.
  
  Looking forward to seeing on the site!
  Kind regards,
  The Toluna Team

  Customer response

  10/26/2023

  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***** *****

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩