ComplaintsforToluna USA, Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  04/21/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On 04/20/2022, I sent an inquiry to Toluna: I realized I hadn't received survey invitations from Toluna in a while, and I just tried to log in. I am receiving this message: "One or both of the responses above don’t seem to be correct. Please try again." I tried resetting my ***sword, but I still haven't received the reset email. I am concerned that my account may have been hacked. Can you please look into this? Their response was that there was a "violation of our Terms and Conditions and 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. so please help me.

  Business response

  05/02/2022

  Hello ***,

  
  I sincerely apologize for the delayed reply from our Support team. We needed to conduct an in-depth analysis of your activity in order to determine if your account has been suspended based on sound reasons that could jeopardize our quality standards. This analysis was necessary to reach a final conclusion and we are very sorry it has taken longer than expected.

  
  Our Data Quality team conducts regular panel quality checks and are taking into account and looking at the overall survey activity of our respondents. During one of these checks they found your account was flagged multiple times for fraudulent complete attempts in surveys, mentioned also in ticket #******, which raised concerns over the overall accuracy and validity of your participations.

  
  These flags indicate a breach of the Terms of Use and Membership, so I'm afraid your account will remain closed due to this reason.

  
  We are more than happy to discuss any additional questions you may have in the ticket you have opened with our support team.
  Kind regards,
  Mariana P******

• Initial Complaint

  12/09/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I am currently part of an online community called ****** **** *****, powered by Toluna. The community is set to close mid-December 2021. I have attempted to cash out my rewards before the community closes. I requested a $20 reward link through the community on December 2 that was never sent to my email. I also have $7.50 in rewards remaining in my account that I would like to redeem. I have requested support from the community and the reward distributor. The community moderators have never responded to me and the distributor stated that I need to contact the community platform. I am stuck. I need a redemption of $27.50 in total sent to my email from the community before the it closes at the end of the month.

  Business response

  12/22/2021

  Dear ****,
  
  I am truly sorry to hear about your experience and I would like to reassure you that we are always doing our best to resolve as quickly as possible all situations that are brought to our attention.
  
  Upon investigating I can confirm that both $20 reward requests you made on December 2nd were automatically dispatched by the portal directly to your email address associated with your ****** **** ***** account.
  
  Unfortunately, the system does not have the capability to flag that you did not receive the rewards links, it only confirms the successful submission from the portal. There are situations when these automatic messages might go directly into the spam folder, depending on the custom settings or security level of your email provider. Your rewards were processed instantly, the same day (as you may have noticed in the screenshot you received as a proof) and resent to you via e-mail. We are terribly sorry you encountered difficulties in accessing them initially.
  
  We apologize if the support team didn't live up to your expectations. Due to the high number of requests, the support team needs some time to investigate before coming back with a final solution, but we can assure you that no request is being ignored.
  
  According to the T&C and Privacy Policy of Insure Beta Crews, the points were successfully provided for every activity you participated in and following our investigation, all the promised points for your activities have been rewarded.
  
  Unfortunately, there is no possibility to provide you with rewards of a lower value, these being the only options available.
  
  We apologize once again for any misunderstandings and we would like to thank you for choosing to be part of this community and for taking this journey on the ****** **** ***** panel portal. Your contribution was greatly appreciated, and we thank you for having participated in the activities and for your feedback.
  
  Kind regards,
  Mariana P******

  Customer response

  12/22/2021

  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID 16344651. While the response is not sufficient to resolve my complaints, I will no longer contest the issue. Please mark the complaint closed.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  **** *******

• Initial Complaint

  12/07/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I have been a member of the Toluna panel for over 12 years. As of December 1, 2021, I was locked out of my account. On December 6, 2021, I contacted Toluna support informing them that I could not login and asked how to get my account working again. On December 7, 2021, I received a very vague response, "Unfortunately, during our regular 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." Toluna support did not provide any further detail to understand what activity was contradictory. After 12+ years of loyalty with Toluna and never having an issue in the past, this makes no sense.

  Business response

  12/15/2021

  Dear Miranda,
  
  I'm terribly sorry you were not satisfied with the response from our Support team and I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to provide some clarity on this situation and change your opinion for the better. To protect our clients and the security of our panel, our team cannot indeed disclose the details and techniques employed to detect fraud, but I will try to explain the situation the best way I can.
  
  Your account was temporarily suspended by our Data Quality Team because it was flagged during our regular panel quality checks. I’m going to list below the reasons that led to the suspension of your account:
  Your IP was flagged as high risk (as having been used in recent fraudulent activity), one of our major clients flagged your responses in survey *******-US as not valid, and your survey participation in the past 12 months raised some concerns over the accuracy of your responses in a few more surveys.
  I understand that having your account suspended is an unpleasant experience and I sincerely apologize for this, but we need to also ensure that our clients receive reliable information from all of our influencers.
  
  As you are a very loyal influencer for many years, which we highly value, we further analyzed the situation and did an in depth review of your overall activity on our panel. Following this manual review we concluded that your overall activity is legitimate and we decided to reactivate your account as we are confident you will complete all surveys with the required attention and consideration going forward.
  You have now full access to your Toluna account and you may login at any time to request rewards and continue participating in surveys.
  
  I hope that you are satisfied with the response and the solution we have offered and we remain available for any inquiries you might have. Please do not hesitate to reach out anytime with any and all concerns you might have and we will be happy to help!
  
  See you soon on Toluna.com! Keep influencing your world!
  
  Kind regards,
  Mariana P******

  Customer response

  12/16/2021

  
  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

  10/11/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Yesterday on October 7th 2021, I went to log into my account because I had noticed that I had been logged out. Did NOT get a notification that my account had been closed or even reviewed until I had attempted to log in with my password and username, only to be rejected and told that I didn't enter the right information. Did not get a password reset email, which I had asked for numerous times, and then when I finally get a response from helpdesk, I find out only then that my account was closed and my rewards forfeited due to 'activity which could compromise the integrity of the panel'. I was not told what kind of activity. Was not satisfied with the helpdesk's response and will not recommend Toluna to anyone. In fact I'd advise people to avoid sites like Toluna unless they want to their accounts closed for no reason at all also.

  Business response

  10/15/2021

  Hello ********,
  
  First of all I would like to apologize for any inconveniences caused and I will briefly explain below what happened.
  
  We understand that having your account temporarily suspended is upsetting and we are sincerely sorry for this! At the same time it is crucial that we also ensure our clients receive accurate data from all of our influencers as that data is used to make important business decisions.
  
  Your account was flagged during one of our regular panel quality checks because your survey participation in the past 12 months indicated suspicious activity.
  The flag report suggested a behavior that avoided participating in surveys that are created and hosted directly on our platform, surveys that have more solid and extensive checks implemented in order to ensure the highest possible level of quality of the data collected, compared to less strict surveys hosted on clients’ platforms.
  
  After further review of your account it was determined that your account does not indicate any fraudulent activity and your account was reactivated on October 11th, as also confirmed by our Support Team in ticket number ******.
  
  Full access to your account has been restored and you may login at any time ** ********** and continue to participate in surveys and all the activities we offer on the site.
  As means of apology for this inconvenience we have also credited your account with a 10.000 points bonus, already available in your account balance.
  
  Thank you for your patience and understanding while we reviewed the situation of your account.
  
  We hope you find this resolution satisfactory and we look forward to seeing you on **********!
  Kind regards
  Mariana P******

  Customer response

  10/15/2021

  
  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

  08/25/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  On 8/17/21, I sent an inquiry to Toluna: I realized I hadn't received survey invitations from Toluna in a while, and I just tried to log in. I am receiving this message: "One or both of the responses above don’t seem to be correct. Please try again." I tried resetting my password, but I still haven't received the reset email. I am concerned that my account may have been hacked. Can you please look into this? Their response was that there was a "violation of our Terms and Conditions." When pressed for further information, they responded "your account has been blocked as a security measure because you accessed your account through an IP address that did not correspond to your country of registration and/or used a Proxy/VPN anonymization connection reported in IP databases that have been recently used for fraudulent activities on the web." I explained that I don't even know how to change my IP address or use a VPN. I would like the full balance of my account paid out if they cancel.

  Business response

  09/01/2021

  Hello *******,
   
  Thank you for your patience while we performed an in-depth analysis of your account. 
   
  First of all, I would like to offer my sincere apologies for any misunderstanding caused.
   
  As my colleague Emma also explained in her reply to your support case, your account's termination is not related to your IP addresses.
  Please be assured that we haven't identified any activity that would indicate an unauthorized use of your account. Toluna takes the security of our community very seriously and we have been implementing stringent measures to ensure the security of Toluna.com.
  If you had reason to believe someone else might have access to your Toluna account you agreed, as per the site’s Terms of Use and Membership, to immediately notify Toluna of any unauthorized use or breach of your member account and you are solely responsible for the security of your user name and password and any activity that occurs under your membership account.
   
  I would like to reiterate that the flags that lead to your account's suspension are strictly related to your survey participation in the past 12 months. 
  We understand that having your account suspended is unpleasant, but it is critical that we ensure our clients receive reliable information from all of our influencers as the data we gather on their behalf is used to make important business decisions. 
  According to our Data Quality Team's reports, there is a high number of survey flags in your account which indicates that surveys were not completed according to our Code of Conduct, and, as stated in our Terms of Use and Membership, failure to comply with this Code of Conduct may result in termination of your membership account and forfeiture of any Points.
   
  Nonetheless, while the suspension of your Toluna membership will remain final, we have decided to grant you rewards of your choice in exchange for the Toluna points available in your current balance as a gesture of goodwill considering your longstanding Toluna membership. The 3 rewards you requested on August 27th have been processed and delivered to your Toluna account since August 30th and the vouchers’ details have also been made available to you via email on September 1st.
   
  We do hope you are satisfied with our resolution. We'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for having been part of our influencers community and to wish you all the best for the future.
   
  Kind regards,
  Toluna Team

  Customer response

  09/02/2021

  
  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. ↩