Pineconeresearch Reviews 

202
•
TrustScore 1.5 out of 5

1.4

While we don't verify specific claims because reviewers' opinions are their own, we may label reviews as "Verified" when we can confirm a business interaction took place. Read more

To protect platform integrity, every review on our platform—verified or not—is screened by our 24/7 automated software. This technology is designed to identify and remove content that breaches our guidelines, including reviews that are not based on a genuine experience. We recognise we may not catch everything, and you can flag anything you think we may have missed. Read more

Review summary

Created with AI, based on recent reviews

Looking at 46 reviews, most reviewers were let down by their experience overall. Consumers frequently spend considerable time completing lengthy questionnaires, only to be unfairly disqualified at the final stage without receiving any financial compensation for their effort. People also mentioned that recent platform updates introduced annoying technical glitches, while payout rates and redemption options have decreased significantly. Some reviewers were not happy with the customer support team, explaining that email responses are usually automated and completely unhelpful. Many users noted that reaching the strict minimum payout threshold has become nearly impossible under the newly introduced system rules.

What people talk about most

Website

Reviewers express widespread dissatisfaction and frustration with the website following its recent upgrade.... See more

User experience

People report negative experiences with user experience due to frequent screen-outs after spending... See more

Payment

Reviewers highlight negative aspects of payment, expressing deep frustration over reduced rates from four... See more

Customer service

Users describe negative interactions with customer service, expressing deep frustration over unhelpful... See more

Value for money

Consumers express deep dissatisfaction regarding value for money, noting that reduced rewards and high... See more

Reviews shaping this summary

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

This used to be a very good survey company we few screen outs, never got many surveys about 2 a month but were well paid. Now get only 1 every few months and last survey required me plus child to wat... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

I’ve been a member of this survey site for years, regularly completing surveys and occasionally testing products. It used to be reliable and I actually received points for the surveys I completed.... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

This company is to be avoided. Too many surveys which I do not qualify for, even after 20 minutes of answering questions. Points expiring just before I reach the threshold to claim a reward, then funn... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

I'm beginning to think all these companies are scams. They set up, let people use their time to provide thoughtful feedback to receive a kickback and then, after someone has spent up to an hour and a... See more


Company details

  1. Online Marketing Agency
  2. also in
  3. Internet Marketing Service
  4. Marketing Agency
  5. Marketing Consultant

Information provided by various external sources

PineCone Research is at the forefront of “online research”, today’s sophisticated and leading-edge approach to gathering consumer opinion. Consumer input is vital to the development of new and improved products.  Traditional survey methods, although effective, can be inconvenient and time consuming.  Online research helps solve this dilemma.  ; With online research, you can answer surveys from the comfort and convenience of your own PC and at a time that is convenient for you. Keywords: PineCone, research, epanel, marketing, online, on-line, karen scott, treehouse


Contact info

1.4

Bad

TrustScore 1.5 out of 5

202 reviews

5-star
4-star
3-star
2-star
1-star

No history of asking for reviews

This company hasn't invited their customers, so reviews may not be representative

How this company uses Trustpilot

See how their reviews and ratings are sourced, scored, and moderated.

1.4

All reviews

(202)

48 reviews in the last 12 months

Write a review
Companies on Trustpilot aren't allowed to offer incentives or pay to hide reviews. Reviews are the opinions of individual users and not of Trustpilot. Read more

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

For those complaining about pinecone

For those complaining about pinecone, they are good even though they removed PayPal. Please note, they bank transfer as low as £3. Once you receive your email, read it as it clearly states you need to log back in to get a code and link to a 3rd party wallet that takes your details for bank transfer. Not as quick as PayPal but you do get paid. Day or 2 max. Surveys are few and far between but with other surveys you have to do a lot of surveys to get to £3. Customer service have always got back to me. Definitely not a scam website! Been with them for years now.

May 23, 2021
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Poor

They used to be a very good research company, paying out easily through PayPal. £3. Now it’s very awkward to receive what you are owed. Pressure to build up points and receive substandard gifts and bling instead of money. The research itself is fine, although very thin on the ground, but admin is awful since 2019/2020.

May 20, 2021
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

i haven't received the 3.00 in my bank…

i haven't received the 3.00 in my bank account i checked it says the transfer is completed on the 30 of April and its now 11 may where is my money this is outrageous i am calling in the bank if its not to do with the bank then you guys are at fault either pay me or close the website because it sounds like a scam.

May 11, 2021
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

I haven't been able to get my rewards

They keep sending surveys and when completed they said it was a screener? it lasted 15minutes for no pay?The way to get the bank transfer is so difficult that I have not been able to action this and Pine Cone customer service have not helped they keep referring me to another third party??
the link that the third party sent doesn't work??

March 10, 2021
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

I no longer recommend Pinecone

Pinecone used to be a good research company but recently it's gone downhill. Rewards are no longer paid into Paypal and money transferred into the Mastercard credit option expires after 4 months (as I learnt whenI wanted to use the virtual card last Christmas, 5 months after I'd received it!). I'm now trying to have my current rewards transferred directly to my bank account (although to date I've only received confirmation of one of the three redemptions I requested), but to redeem this one reward I was directed to another website (rewardsondemand) which firstly said it had a problem with creating a 'wallet' for me and then, when it had created a wallet, said that there was a problem with my redemption code or pin number and I must go to my Pinecone to access the information! Trying to access the Pinecone site I got an Error 503 - so I tried replying to a Pinecone e-mail and asking for help. The automatic reply told me to contact them via their website and provided a link, which sent me to Error 503 again!!
It's such a shame that a previously 5* company has deteriorated so badly.

February 8, 2021
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Will never work with them again

After years of doing surveys for them I was never paid for the last one. I let them know about it and I still never received payment. So I decided to cash out what I had earned up to that point and be done with them. I went through the usual process to receive a check from them and it never came. When I let them know I did not receive what was owed me once again nothing was done. So I wasted time doing several surveys and never received anything at all for doing so!

January 29, 2021
Unprompted review
Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Badly Developed website/app but great company

I absolutely LOVE the way this company is doing product evaluation and testing. The surveys are basically the same every time so you know what to expect in terms of questions and time required to complete them. They pay the same every time, and instead of most sites where it's like $0.01 for taking a 45-minute survey, they give you $3 for usually less than 15 minutes of your time. Best of all-- You don't have to go through an hour of qualification questions just to get told you don't qualify or earn anything! The money adds up quickly and I've earned $100-200 each year from this. Probably one of the best side cash apps out there that doesn't violate your privacy or ask suspicious questions. I've even been sent several products to try out, which is super cool and fun, and can earn you more money sometimes. And it's fun to go to a store and be like, "I helped product test that thing!"
Yes, the website and app especially can be buggy, but I've never had any serious problems. They don't really have a limit on what you can cash out after the first time, so I usually just do it about every $15-24 just in case something does happen with their website. You can also buy things with points but I prefer the flexibility of currency. They don't have Paypal cash-out anymore, which is sad, especially since the other alternatives can take quite a while longer, but they have other good options too. I've used the virtual wallet, and while it does take extremely long to work, it does work. Karen Scott is usually pretty good about answering questions and helping with issues as well over email.
So yeah, more of a review of the company than the app, but if they just had better developers, this could easily be the best (and actually legit) side cash and product-testing app out there. Just so many good things to say about the company, despite its weaknesses in programming.

January 24, 2021
Unprompted review
Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Great company

I have done surveys for Pinecone for a number of years now. They always pay up extremely promptly, and if I ever have a query it is dealt with promptly. The best survey site I have ever dealt with and highly recommend

January 15, 2021
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

AVOID!!!!!!!!!!

This company has really gone downhill lately, from being one of the best online survey sites, to one of the worst.
Surveys are no longer guaranteed and since PayPal payment option got withdrawn and replaced with a third party cash transfer site, getting your money is an impossible task. Once submitted, cash out payments don’t get processed. This means your points get deducted and the payment never sent.
In other words, you are dealing with crooks and thieves.

January 7, 2021
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

If I could I would put zero score!!

If I could I would put zero score!!! I was member for few years, was saving all my vouchers(money).
I did forget that I had this membership as I didn’t get any surveys for some time. I try to log in to check my account, but couldn’t use my log in details. So I contacted Karen and was told that my account has been deactivated and she can’t do anything about this. I had just under £200.00 of my time. Never got an email about my account being removed or anything to get my money transferred out of it!!! Avoid... avoid... avoid. Scammer and money stealer

January 7, 2021
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Pinecone research and Karen Scott aka the scammer

have been with this company and Karen Scott-who runs this company for about 4 years now. I recently received a message stating that I had not participated in one survey and she had removed me from their services. One of the reasons the reasons given is that I had missed a survey!! Also I've never cashed out anything in the past several years whatsoever. I emailed scott and told her this. Scott refuses to return any emails! I was robbed of almost four years and hundreds of survey taking and probably $500 worth of my time. Karen scott is absolutely a fraud and so is her company. I will also be reporting her to the business bureau and everywhere else I can think of on social media sites! I hope others do the same!!

December 19, 2020
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Stay away!!

Stay away!!! They ban you for no reason and if you do join, make sure you cashout your points right away , you might login in one day and get a account deactivated message.

November 20, 2020
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Suspicious glitches

I used to love Pinecone but the last several surveys I’ve done it lets me get all the way to the end (19 minutes into the 20 minute survey) just to give me a fatal error message. When I email them, “Karen” pretty much tells me too bad! Really!!! Lots of wasted time. So disappointed they have so many so-called “glitches” too bad these “glitches” don’t occur at the beginning of the survey instead of at the very end after imputing very thoughtful opinions. I’m about to call it quits with them.

November 17, 2020
Unprompted review
Rated 2 out of 5 stars

I have had nothing but problems since…

I have had nothing but problems since Pinecone changed the PayPal or check rewards. They no longer notify you if you have points. I did one Bank Transfer which took forever to get it set up, e mails back and forth then it worked, but only 1/3 of the points were redeemed. E mailed Pinecone and was told I needed a link for each individual one. More e mails back and forth. Today I get an e mail to tell me what to do. I log in and it shows no money. I now have had to send in a ticket yet again which I will wait for days to get a response and email Pinecone. While there I saw more points so transferred them, but still missing the first lot. This is very frustrating and time consuming. I want to spend my time doing surveys, but also want my compensation. This needs to be fixed. I copy every order so have the evidence, but would like my rewards

November 9, 2020
Unprompted review
Rated 5 out of 5 stars

I'm very happy with Pinecone Research.

I've never had any problems with Pinecone Research. I've always received my incentives for surveys I've completed. I used to choose PayPal. Never had any problems. That option is no longer available, so this time I chose their new bank transfer option for the first time. I received my incentive into my bank account within 2 working days. Any time I've ever had any queries, I've emailed Karen and she always replies and is always polite to me. I'm surprised to see all the bad feedback. I'm happy with my experiences.

November 7, 2020
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Avoid like the plague!

Been a member for several years and it used to be good. Recently though, surveys were few. They took PayPal off the rewards and want my bank details to pay what I redeem into my account. I asked to redeem points weeks ago, but not heard anything. My log in details keep being rejected. Messages to them keep being rejected. Had enough! Never having anything else to do with them and advise everyone to steer well clear. I think they have been taken over by crooks!

October 27, 2020
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

I've been a member for many years and…

I've been a member for many years and in the initial stages I received almost weekly surveys now I hardly receive any. They recently changed their system for logging in and I told them I wasn't happy with this. The response I got was that all members must now use this system. As I can no longer log into my account I have asked several times for my account to be closed and my balance to be issued in paypal vouchers. I have received no response and I am really angry that after all these years they don't have the decency to fulfil my request

October 16, 2020
Unprompted review

Is this your company?

Claim your profile to access Trustpilot’s free business tools and connect with customers.

Get free account

The Trustpilot Experience

Anyone can write a Trustpilot review. People who write reviews have ownership to edit or delete them at any time, and they’ll be displayed as long as an account is active.

We use dedicated people and clever technology to safeguard our platform. Find out how we combat fake reviews.

Learn about Trustpilot’s review process.

Here are 8 tips for writing great reviews.

Verification can help ensure real people are writing the reviews you read on Trustpilot.

Offering incentives for reviews or asking for them selectively can bias the TrustScore, which goes against our guidelines.

Take a closer look