Is Pinecone Research A Scam? The Most Exclusive Survey Site EXPOSED!

Welcome to my Pinecone Research review!

Can you imagine a paid survey intermediary site that acts like an exclusive country club? 

No? 

Well, let me tell you that there's actually a survey site that's just that. And I'm talking about Pinecone Research!

First of all, I must Congratulate you for taking your time to do your own research before buying into any "seemingly good" product.

That's the way to avoid scams and find the legitimate way to make money online!

Let me be completely transparent with you, I'm not associated with Pinecone Research in any form.

So, rest assured that I'm not here to pitch or sell anything to you.

Instead, I'm here to reveal why this survey site maintains its exclusivity since it started, and what makes this possibly one of the most legit survey sites around. 

Check out this full and unbiased Pinecone Research review. 

Pinecone Research is a paid survey intermediary site owned by the Nielsen Company, one of the biggest market research companies based in New York.

Nielsen is also as legit as it gets because they’re known for doing data collection and researches for huge corporations around the world.

Pinecone Research works a lot like other programs developed by market research companies such as Vindale Research because they’re paid to pay you for your information and your time.

Because of their model, Pinecone Research is one of the most popular and most frequented paid survey intermediaries for people who want to get paid for sharing their opinions online.

What you probably know the Nielsen Company for is their Nielsen Rating, which is an audience measurement system for television, newspaper, and radio in their media markets.

Instead of having someone go door-to-door and ask about your media habits, they developed a recording device that’s attached to consumer television sets.

These devices are used to monitor and record channels viewed by the consumer and determine audience size.

One of TV’s most popular animated TV shows Family Guy had an episode that accurately depicted (to some extent) just how the Nielsen Rating worked.

In other words, any TV show that gets a low Nielsen rating won’t last long in the network.

That’s how big of an impact their rating is.

But with Pinecone Research, you won’t be paid to watch TV or listen to the radio.

Pinecone Research is an invite-only survey panel, which is not surprising given that the Nielsen Company operates on exclusivity.

Once you become a member of Pinecone Research, you will receive survey invites via your email once it becomes available. You can then complete these surveys to get paid.

There are two ways to get invited into the program:

1. An existing member or panelist sends you a referral link
2. If you sign up via a banner ad with a referral link

You’ll then be taken to their sign-up page where they’ll ask a series of questions, as seen below:

I advise you to answer this form as honestly as possible because this affects how you qualify for their surveys.

There are no fees associated with joining the program once you’re invited.  

There are certain features that make Pinecone Research totally different from all the other survey sites.

Even if you do answer their form truthfully, you will only be able to answer surveys that you were invited for.

There’s pre-screening done to panelists before any survey is handed out, so if your demographic matches their survey, you will be invited to participate in it.

You don’t have to worry about getting kicked out of the survey because you did not qualify, which is the most common problem for paid survey sites.

Pinecone Research avoids that by determining if you qualify for a survey at the start, and not at the end, of the survey.

A lot of Pinecone Research’s surveys involves products and consumptions from some of the world’s biggest brands.

This means that you’ll be answering surveys from well-known brands, and sometimes, you’ll even be asked to provide feedback on unreleased products.

Again if you qualify, you will be able to enjoy Pinecone Research’s Product Testing and Review feature.

The company sends you a product via mail with instructions on how to complete the testing. Sometimes, they do this with no prior warning.

However, you’re not going to be able to sign up for this since panelists need to qualify or are sometimes randomly selected.

Surveys will pay you between $3 to $5, while product reviews vary in terms of payouts. But I have read some reviews that state that product testing pays out at $6 minimum.

What’s also interesting here is that if you do a lot of surveys, Pinecone Research will eventually raise your rates to $5 minimum per survey.

Ugh! I hate point systems. But in all honesty, their system is simple. Every 100 points is equivalent to $1.

None of those XXXX points for 34 cents. That’s just stupid difficult to convert and keep track of.

Note that points also convert to USD, so people from other countries need to be aware of the currency conversion rate.

There’s no minimum amount required for cashing out, so you can convert your points into real money and deposit into your PayPal account in less than 48 hours.

Pinecone Research also has Sweepstakes where they randomly select panelists to receive cash prizes. 

These panelists gain entries into the Sweepstakes by filling out surveys and making sure that their account is active. 

Members have reported to have joined in Sweepstakes worth $500 drawn every two weeks a month to about $4,500 drawn every quarter.

Unlike most paid survey intermediary sites and GPT sites (I’m looking at you SendEarnings and InboxDollars), there’s no minimum cash out requirement with Pinecone Research.

So, once you’re done with your first survey, you can immediately withdraw it via Paypal or Cheque.

Note that there’s a slight delay in transferring points to cash and then getting the cash deposited, but the process is still quicker than most sites.

There are three options to choose from on how you want to get paid by Pinecone Research:

1. PayPal
2. Check
3. Gift Cards

Pinecone Research is perfect for anyone who’s:

1. Currently residing in the USA, Canada, or UK (sorry, people from other countries)
2. Eager to spend a few hours of their time each day earning a few dollars
3. Not bothered by doing mundane and repetitive tasks of just completing surveys

If you’re wondering why Pinecone Research has an F+ Rating on their Better Business Bureau or BBB profile as opposed to Nielsen Company having an A+ rating, here’s the reason for that.

Just to be clear, they closed 31 complaints in the last 12 months. And of those 31 complaints, 13 involved their billing and collection.

Pinecone Research is known to have issues when it comes to…

Wait for it…

Paying their customers.

Users have complained about not being able to withdraw via PayPal or check, and are sometimes forced to just take the gift cards instead.

Now that’s not a big deal.

What concerns me is that there are some people that claimed that their accounts were closed as soon as they had a hefty amount ready to be cashed out.

And I am not talking about a few dollars. I’m talking about hundreds of dollars waiting to be withdrawn.

It’s bad enough that people aren’t earning thousands of dollars a month on this program, but the fact that the site hinders them from withdrawing whatever amount they worked hard on?

Come on, Pinecone Research!

You’d think that market research companies wouldn’t be as selective in terms of people wanting to get into the program.

I mean, don’t get me wrong. These business models rely on getting a lot of leads from a lot of people. And advertising companies are willing to pay just as much to these market research companies for those leads.

Believe me, it’s not that difficult for any survey site or GPT site to get hundreds, if not thousands, of people to sign up and participate in their program.

But with Pinecone Research, their invite-only program is actually a pain in the butt to join because you have to get invited by an existing panelist or click on one of their random referral banners.

The exclusivity hinders people who actually want to earn a few bucks online. 

Exclusivity also exposes these people to scams from con artists claiming to have that “invitation link” if they’re willing to pay for it.

Now, you shouldn’t be paying for your invite if you want to avoid these con artists.

They may have the highest payout for surveys, which is at $3, but believe me, it’s not worth quitting your day job over.

Sure, you’re earning $3 to $5 per survey with a chance at increasing your minimum pay in the long run, but note that you still have to be invited into these surveys to begin with.

You can’t pick out ten surveys a day and earn $30 to $50 right off the bat.

Note that your demographics need to match whatever survey that they have, so if they only have 30 surveys available each month and you only qualify for 5 of those, you’re just earning $15 at the bare minimum.

If you really want to secure a decent stream of income online, I would invite you to look at my step-by-step guide in affiliate marketing.

A lot of GPT sites and paid survey intermediaries are notorious for kicking people out in the middle of the survey.

The reason? Because they don’t qualify for the survey and they only find that out after they complete the survey.

Pinecone Research actually prevents this from happening so if you don’t qualify for a survey, you’re not even allowed to participate in it.

And true enough, I have not read any issues about people getting kicked out of their surveys as well. So, it’s clear that Pinecone Research’s pre-screening SOP is working.

Pinecone Research is far from being a scam, and it’s only because they are using the Nielsen Company’s reputation to back their legitimacy up.

But as far as I’m concerned, I really wouldn’t recommend their program to anyone.

The fact that you have to jump through hoops around their inconvenient payment issues means that it’s not even worth the time to argue with a customer service representative.

I mean, if I have to waste days of my life arguing with a customer service rep about me not being able to withdraw $30, do you think it’s even worth it?

I don’t think so!

Let’s be honest. I am inclined to believe that there might be real problems with Pinecone Research’s withdrawal system, or that they’re arbitrarily choosing not to pay out customers.

The latter may not be proven, but there are reviews out there that do back my claim.  

And their payout isn’t even that high enough for anyone to turn this into a full-time income.