UK Consumer Panels advertise on job boards and elsewhere for work-at-home product testers.
They claim to do research for big companies and to pay people working at home to test the products and write reviews.
It is true that product makers and retailers want reviews of their products, but those are easy to get once the product is available as many people who actually buy it will provide free reviews online at the various websites such as Trustpilot or the product makers website.
However, getting reviews i.e. feedback on a product before it’s on sale is a little more tricky. Where companies pay for product reviews, these are almost always by professional testers not members of the public and the testing is under controlled conditions, not by people sitting at home.
UK Consumer Panels claim “Presently we’re recruiting Product Testers (from home) in most of the United Kingdom regions to expand our private network of In-Home Usage Testers to fulfill upcoming contracts with multinational market research companies. We guarantee 15-20 hours per week with an hourly pay of between £14/hr. And £19/hr., depending on the In-Home Usage Test project. No experience required.”
However, what they actually do is to collect information on people who apply to be product testers then sell that information to marketers, spammers and scammers.
The website states “During your application process we will determine your consumer profile and establish what products would be suitable for you to test according to your demographics, lifestyle, consumer behavior, skills, hobbies and ability. Research questionnaires are used to identify and target certain types of consumers.”
There are reviews on the Internet by people who have tried working for UK Consumer Panels and here are a few examples:
- Avoid at all costs!!
- Immediately after signing up I received several spam emails and have continued to receive lots of them on a daily basis in the weeks since this. Also several spam phone calls immediately after signing up all in the same day. Complained a couple of times and they lied saying it wasn’t them.
- Would give zero stars if possible. Signed up naively thinking this was genuine product testing. Now despite clicking no on all their “offers” my mobile number has still been given to these “companies” aka scammers and I’m being harrassed 24/7 by multiple calls. When I block the numbers I get called again on a number with the same area code but different last numbers and now other numbers outside the area code calling me constantly! Absolute time wasting lunatics
- Nothing but a scam and I’m getting silly marketing calls
- Get sent offers often, made various attempts to follow through. As soon as it appears you’re near the end, it almost always makes you go through all again as the questionaires are endless. Also majority involve signing up to things to make payments to companies or offer out your details. Odds of actually receiving a product are as good as 0%. This site is purely selling your details on to other companies whilst offering you products that you will not receive. Seriously who would send you an iPad Pro for free?? Why would you test one after they have been available for over 18 months!? Save yourself the disappointment and avoid like the plague!!!
- Don’t join! Once you start going for offers they will just bombard you with texts (even when you haven’t agreed to be contacted by 3rd parties etc). They are just data harvesters!
Perhaps applying for the role of product tester at UK Consumer Panels isn’t such a good idea.
If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.
