Survey Scout Review What Does BBB Have To Say?

I found a review hub earlier today on Survey Scout praising them for how much money you can make with them and what awsome customer service they offered their members. The person who posted this hub did not allow comments so I could not ask some very interesting questions to them, therefore, I decided to do my own research on the company and write my own review. I am sure the comparison will be as different as daylight and dark between this hub and the other one, who is obviously an affiliate member of Survey Scout.

Upon doing a search for Survey Scout with BBB, I immediately noticed that this company that is supposed to be so legit and in business for so long is not accredited with the BBB. However, they do have a pretty extensive file on the company which was opened (the file) in 2004 through complaints to the BBB.

Upon personally visiting their website, I quickly noticed all the normal sales hype on the home page that told you everything about how you can make money EXCEPT for how much it costs to sign up. You have to actually sign up with them before you can get that information. This was a red flad to me before I ever went to the BBB. It's one thing to have to take a free tour to get all the info but quite another to have to actually join before getting a price!

Their website claims to have a money back guarantee. The charge (according to BBB records) is $34.95 to obtain access to a list of hundreds of market research companies that are looking for survey takers. It also states in their website that they use clickbank. Now, one of the questions I was burning to ask is that after I pay the $34.95 to join Survey Scout, do I then have to pay the $40 some odd dollars that clickbank charges, too? The reason I know this is because I joined clickbank once and that is what it cost me. Therefore, if you have to pay that on top of the $34.95 you have already paid Survey Scout, you are fast appraoching $80 and haven't gotten started yet!

I would also be keeping in the back of my mind that this is not a home based business I am starting but rather working in an employe type of setting where I would be working for the companies. Now, I don't know about anyone else but if I pay anyone one red cent to go to work for them, it will be in my own business. I will NEVER pay an employer to let me work for their company.

Now, they can argue with me until they are blue in the face that I am purchasing an excellent service that I can't get anywhere else but I would not be convinced of that. With a little research, it was easy for me to find marketing companies on my own that didn't cost me a thing to find. This is similar to paying these companies for a listing of real estate foreclosures when that is all free of charge to obtain with a little research. When i visited greenbook.org, I had no problem pulling up an entire page of these companies throughout the U.S., complete with street addresses and contact names and numbers.

According to BBB reports, Survey Scout charges $34.95 to gain access to a list of companies that MAY be offering survey opportunities. In their disclaimer, concerning earnings claimed on the website, they state, "note that earning money from surveys is not under our control and depends on many factors, such as the number of companies a person signs up for, the demographics, the number and types of surveys currently being offered by market research companies, etc."

BBB also reports that there have been 46 complaints within a 36 month reporting period with only 2 resolved within the last 24 months of that reporting period. Many responses have gotten no response when BBB enquired. They also state that based on their files, this company has an unsatisfactory record with BBB due to the unanswered complaints.

The report goes on to state that the file contains a pattern of complaints from consumers who report that the company;s claims of work at home earnings are misleading. Consumers report that they paid a fee of $34.95 to make money by filling out surveys for market research companies. They report that they did not earn any money and have been unable to obtain a refund.

The BBB reports that two of the company's mailing addresses, one in Marysville, OH and one in Dublin, OH are mail drop boxes within the UPS stores. Survey Scout says that their parent company is Edgestone Group, Inc, which, according to the Texas Secretary of State is located at a P.O. Box in Flower Mound, TX. BBB has requested basic background information from the company but has not received a complete response as yet.

I decided to do a google map search on the address and came up with no results. I also did a phone number search through yellowpages.com and got no results from the yellow pages but when doing a person search for the same number, came up with simply a location of Boise, ID with no other info. The phone numbers listed as fax numbers turned up no results with the same procedure except one on a person search which showed up a location of Marysville, OH.

Another number that was listed as simply an additional number with the same searches turned up a result of a listing in Flower Mound, TX for Edgestone Group. The same number also showed up as a personal listing for Scott Hall in Roanoke, TX. However, Steve Little is listed as company president with Scott Boyce as Customer Service Manager.

The phone number listed with the Geneva, NY address for this company turned up as a listing located in Columbus, OH with no other info. How many red flags have you counted so far? Trust me, it gets even better!

Now, according to BBB, this company also operates under the name Hedgestone Group. Upon searching for this company, the only one I found with the same name (other than the Survey Scout affiliate site to Hedgestone Group) turned out to be a real estate company with a url redirect to what Hedgestone Group calls its parent company of Sherman Properties USA. Now, when the url redirects, the only thing you find is a 404 error page saying the site may have been removed.

Now, I may not be the brightest crayon in the box but.....this doesn't look good! The only thing I was able to find out for sure about addresses and phone numbers is that they go all around the world to lead to nowhere! For all of the answers I found today, I had only more questions.

Tell me, now, would you want to work for someone who had no dependable contact information, no physical address listing, complaints out the wazoo with BBB and many unresolved due to lack of response from the company? Nevermind that they are charging you a rediculous fee for something you can get free of charge with a little research! Give me your take on this?