National Consumer Panel: Accepting New Members!
I posted about the National Consumer Panel previously and wanted to let you know that they’re once again accepting new members! The National Consumer Panel focuses on measuring consumer attitudes and behavior. As a panel member, they will provide you with a hand-held scanner. Every time you or members of your household shop, you’ll use the scanner to scan the barcodes on all of your purchases. Then, once a week, you’ll send them your purchase information. As a reward for doing so, you’ll earn gift points that are redeemable for name-brand merchandise, including electronics equipment, jewelry, household items, toys, and more!
If you’re interested in becoming part of the Consumer Panel, you’ll want to go on over here and sign up. Please be aware that not all areas need Panel Members at this time. So you may or may not get accepted. Let us know!
Not worth it. I got accepted and was so excited. Then when I got the scanner and the directions it is so labor intensive-scan each item add the price the store if you used a coupon and a couple more things I can’t remember for each item. The prizes took forever to earn and were not that great. I sent mine right back. Just thought you might want to know before you spend the time
Good to know this. I had thought about doing this, but when I saw your post I decided against it! Thanks for the feedback!
Thanks. I wondered if it was worth it.
Just like many others said – WAY to much time involved if you are a coupon shopper. And it would seriously take a year to earn any sort of worthwhile prize. Don’t waster your time.
I did the same thing as Tess did. When I saw all of the work involved and how long it took to get any type of reward, I wrapped it up and sent it back quickly. I would rather spend my time looking and shopping for good deals, like the ones on this site. Thanks, Collin.
I agree. I got accepted a few weeks ago & have decided to send mine back, also. I buy in bulk w/lots of coupons, so it is pretty labor intensive. Not necessarily worth the time & effort required.
Wow! I’m glad to see I’m not the only one! I sent the scanner back after only 1 week. It was a huge PITA. Not worth it for me (maybe I shop too much! 😉 ).
I do not think that it is worth it either. I haven’t sent mine back yet though. I have to add the store price for everything and using coupons makes the process take longer. It takes forever to earn prizes and I haven’t earned anything yet! It’s a lot of work for no pay. I wish that I wouldn’t have ever done it. I don’t like them knowing so much about my family. Just another opinion, I know some people like it. 🙂
I completely agree also.
I do NOT recommend this program.
I got accepted… Got the equipment… found it was quite labor intensive to get set up and scan all items… On top of that my scanner would never upload over the telephone line. I tried to get technical support; they never responded; then cancelled my account AND started sending me threats of turning me over to a collections agency.
It was a complete waste of time and energy. I haven’t been so glad to see a product boxed up and back on its way to it’s sender in a very long time.
Same exact thing happened to me. Never could get it to work and it was a nightmare. I didn’t start getting threats until a month after I sent it back. It took forever to get it straightened out.
I got accepted for this also and I got it a little over a month ago. I will be returning mine also. I didn’t really have a problem scanning the items. It does take time, but I figured that when I got it. Of course once I used it about a week it seemed like NOTHING would scan! I had to manually enter each barcode. Now that is crazy. You guys all know how much stuff us couponers buy!! Well I still was going to deal with it, but then I couldn’t get any of my transmissions to be accepted. So I do all the work and I won’t get any points for it?? No thanks. I’m sending mine back to. It said something on their website about doing it in a quieter area and to try a different phone. Well it is hard to find a quiet time to do it around here! lol AND I’m not going to go buy a new phone just for this!!
I received my scanner about 2 weeks ago. I agree with Tess, its a lot of information you need to enter. Just a few examples, who was the primary shopper, who shopped with you? did you use double, triple coupons, then you are able to scan you item and in most cases you have to enter the price, how many, was it on sale, store coupon, manf coupon? Did you use your shopper’s card? total price and finally how did you pay for it. To me, it seems to be getting faster each time I purchase items and I do like that when I shop at Meijers, the prices are already in the scanner. The longer in time you stick with it, the more points you earn weekly. There is no out-of-pocket costs, the points are free and if you take online surveys, you earn even more points. In my area, you needed to have a landline telephone to become a member.
Yup I have the same exact sentiments, it is a complete waste of time with very little benefit (if any) As someone else pointed out, the prizes would take forever to earn anything worthwhile. Funny this came up, because I am boxing my up today to go back.
Wow, I’m surprised so many people don’t like it! I’ve been on the panel for 3 years. Agreed, the first year it takes forever to get anything (you get more points the longer you’ve been on the panel and more points for specialty panels), but I don’t think it’s that hard to scan stuff, I just scan as I put it away, it’s second nature now. I send info once a week, do a few short surveys a week, plus I’m on a couple specialty panels, so I take less than 5 minutes a week to do each of those. I do probably get 3 or 4 times as many points now than I did in the beginning though. So far I’ve gotten a fisher price water table, Panasonic DVD player & Wii Play with Wii remote. Next I’m going for a GPS navigation system for my car.
I was also surprised by how many people don’t like the program. I’ve been a member for 6 years, and the scanning has just become second nature. I just got an iPod Nano in the mail from them yesterday and am looking forward to earning my next reward. This is the first thing I’ve ordered for myself–in the past, I’ve always used my reward points on things for the kids. Each year you are in the program, they give you more points for scanning, and the surveys really add up as well.
Do you enter every coupon you use and every sale item? I considered simply scanning the items but I didn’t think that would be right. It became second nature to me too but I just didn’t think the amount of work was consistent with the rewards. There are many other programs out there that reward in a much more handsome way for substantially less work. Congratulations for six years, in all sincerity, you are my hero! I wish I could have stuck it out!
Yes, I do put in the coupons and sales. Now that I have been doing it for a while, it goes very quickly for me. I spend only a few minutes after each shopping trip. I have a system where I just line everything up on the counter, bar code out, then use my receipt to scan each item, coupon, and sale. For me it is worth it, but since I work from home, I may have more flexibility with my time than others.
Now that I’ve read all your posts I’m glad that they don’t offer it in my area!
i wasn’t good enough to get accepted, glad now 🙂
I just got my scanner and it is going back. I just thought you had to scan in your barcode of the items that you bought….no, it takes at least 1 minute per item to scan, and answer all of the questions on each item. I don’t know about any of you, but I work from home and am very busy with that, plus my everyday chores and life. I don’t have the time nor do I want to take the time to do this, so be warned. It is a hassle and half to scan and meet their requirements. Mine is going back!
I love being a member! I have already redeemed 4 prizes in the past 2 years! I would suggest trying this out and deciding on your own if you like it or not. It may not be for everyone, but it definitely works for me.
Got my scanner …. Sending it back tomorrow! What a pain!!! Not worth my time. Not for couponers 😉
I could not agree more with Tess and others. the prizes are SOOO not worth it. I was so excited when I got the scanner. but holy crap. WAY too much for what they give you.
wow, I got my scanner about a week ago, looked at the instructions and put it to the side, haven’t had time to deal with it yet, but I was already getting discourage. I will be sending mine back this weekend. Thanks for the heads up.
I still want to try it! 😉
my sister has done this and has gotten lots of stuff. so am glad I am signing up for the program. I am a stay at home grandma and any help is appreciated… not if I could just get this thing with the coupoons figured out…. I always get the nasty cashier…
This is NOT a good program for couponers! Super, duper, labor intensive! You have to scan EVERY item, enter every coupon, every sale item, it’s a major pain and the pay off is so minuscule in comparison to the work that you put in. I canceled after four months of hard labor and when I did I no longer had access to any of the points I’d earned! I received ZERO compensation for my hard work, it was a major bummer. What’s more, if you transmit EVERY week you’re entered into drawings. One week I forgot to scan until 11:55pm Saturday (the transmissions are due by midnight every Saturday) I submitted, it transferred a minute after midnight and as a result all of my hard work went down the drain. Again, I DO NOT recommend this program. For those of you who decide to do it GOOD LUCK!
My scanner is sitting right here, waiting to be sent back…. When I looked over the”prize” list and realized how long it would take me to actually earn something “big,” I think I’d be making 10 cents an hour! I’ll stick with Hip2Save and keep on clipping my coupons.
You sound just like me! 🙂 I had been on the list so long that I forgot about it til it showed up at my door. I was so excited to get it set up and start using it. Then I figured out how much work it would entail to scan and enter all coupons….and it would have worked out to the equivalent of around 10 cents an hour. Definitely not worth my time.
i got the scaner 6 months ago…you have to spend lots of time to scan the shopping .and you only get only 150 points each month.the rewards which they are offering are in higher poitns…it will take ages to collect these points…..so its not worth it..i am also planning to return them back.
I’ve been a member for about a year and at first it is a bit overwhelming. After you get used to it it’s very easy and my daughters actually like to help me when I scan. I’ve already received one gift from the points I’ve received and plan to continue with this program. I really do like it.
I have my phone through vonage so I wasn’t elligible. I wish they would just tell you that from the beginning.
I’d say try for yourself, but I found it labor intensive, too. Mostly cuz I use too many darn coupons. 😉
I found it too time consuming because of all my coupons as well! I think it would be ok for a non-coupon shopper.
Surprised so many people don’t like this. I just got pick a couple months ago, and I do use a lot of coupons. At first it does take some time to get used to but now it takes me maybe a couple extra minutes to enter it in as I put everything away. I find it very easy to do, but then again I am pretty tech savy, so maybe that helps. I say try it out for yourself. I’m a stay at home mom so I maybe have a little extra time that others don’t.
My family began being part of this around 1993 or so. I’ve always loved it and loved being involved in it as a child. Remember that pre-teens can help you with all the scanning and surveys and such. I hoped to be part of it again after I got married and even received a scanner but then found that I COULDN’T transmit the information because we didn’t have a land line. I kept trying different things and eventually they sent us a note saying we needed to send it back. I think since I waited so long to send it back (because I kept trying things even like taking the thing to work with me) we ruined our chance to be part of it again. If they have a way to transmit the information via internet that would be awesome. Of course they didn’t tell us from the beginning that you HAVE TO have a land line. And honestly, it seems like a skewed panel of members if they require that since I know that hardly anyone in my generation has land lines these days.
But all that said, if I had the chance to be a part of it I’d jump at the opportunity. I can’t tell you all the things my family turned in points for in the last 17 years. Quite worth it, in my opinion.
The site should definitely state a land line phone is required prior to having people fill out all of that info.
And I know few people who have a land line now-as you said above. My husband and I use our Blackberrys as home phones and our internet service is wi-fi through a satellite reciever-no phone line needed. Many people we know only have cell phones. Maybe the company needs to come up with a more tech friendly way of doing business.
I got my scanner about 3 weeks ago and I really don’t find it all that time consuming even on larger shopping trips. I am surprised so many of you don’t like it. It takes me about 10 minutes on a large trip to enter all the information and I haven’t had any trouble with the data transmissions. Sure it may take time to earn the points but all these reward programs can take some time to accumulate the points. Plus I like to think of the folks there compiling the data and wondering how I got all this stuff for such a low price! I keep waiting on the call that asks me if I need help on entering the data correctly!
I guess I am not meant to do this program. When I put in my area code it said it wasn’t a valid area code! I finally got that to go through and it said the program wasn’t for my area! Oh well, after all the negative comments it’s probably for the best.
I used to belong to this. It SUCKED. The amount of time required to do it vs the huge amount of points you had to have to get decent points made it not worth it. I stopped after a month and sent it back.
*huge amount of points to get decent rewards* is what I meant to say. doh!
I have been with them for almost 6 months doing it the right way every week and YES it takes a looot of time, and is NOT worth it I am ready to send everything back, I have 6,000 points and can only get a set of 4 tupperwear pieces so far. SOOOOO NOOOOT WORTHHHH ITTTTT.
And also I don’t have a land line and I was still able to still get in the program, so I don’t know why some of you could not. weird.
They may have changed that. How do you transmit now? When we were part of it was about 3 years ago.
I’m SO glad I’m not the only one.
I signed up and was excited to be accepted. I set everything up and there it sat. Everytime I shopped I thought I should do that. But the prospect of having just gone through a register and scanning everything, putting it into my car, then needing to re-scan it before I put it away again was so daunting. I never once did it.
I work full-time, as does my husband. We have a 2 year old and another little one on the way. There’s no way I’m adding that to my daily, or even weekly, to do list.
I shipped it back last week.
I recently got in and would agree with others that it can be a little time intensive but I already see it getting quicker. And i also like how it makes me examine my receipt and realize exactly what i ended up paying. I’m semi-new to couponing (well a return after a short not-so-great go at it a few years ago) so I sometimes get caught up in over buying and over paying simply because I have coupons. This week I planned out a trip more than usual using a spreadsheet and indicated what coupons i was using. I used that to help with my scanner entry and it went a little bit quicker. Yes it can be a bit of a pain for us couponers but personally I like that it draws my attention to the fact that even with coupons I do spend some money out of pocket.
Also I can attest to the fact that a landline is no longer required. I’ve never had a landline as an adult (except in my college dorm) and I think companies are realizing that it’s more and more common. Back then it probably connected more like an old fashioned modem. My scanner plugs into my computer and uploads through my internet connection. Some of the training materials though did imply there are people with out computers in the program so maybe they do need a telephone line in that case.
I should add that I do work full time but don’t have kids. It’s just me and my boyfriend so that makes it a little bit easier.
Thanks for saving me a lot of headaches! I am soooooooooooo glad I found this post BEFORE I finished signing up for the scanner, wasting more time is definately something I don’t need to do.
Ah yes, so I’m not the only one who was unwilling to use 80’s technology for such a painful task…and try it with a 2-year-old hanging around your ankles. Ironically, revamping their system to work directly with a computer would probably cost less than maintaining their antiques, while making it faster and easier for people to enter their information.
We tried it for a while, got a few toys for the little one, and sent everything back. Now to get them to quit pestering me to send back the equipment I already sent back and threatening me with a collection agency.