Toluna Refuses to Pay Alloted Points for Live Survey Internet

I participated in a 90 minute survey through Toluna that promised to pay 90,000 points, the equivalent of $30.00.

I followed all of the directions, arriving on the site early to insure I could connect to the live chat room and everything functioned correctly.

I was an active participant all the way through.  At the very end, with about two questions remaining, the chat room froze.  I still had connectivity as I was able to access other sites, so the issue was on Toluna's end.

The room reconnected a few minutes later, and I received the message thanking me for my participation.  I took a screenshot of the the room and message to prove I had been active for the duration of the live survey, and submitted a help desk ticket including the image.

I checked the ticket every few days, and even posted updates to it several times.  Twenty days passed with no response, so I posted to Toluna's Facebook page.  They removed my post and responded by telling me to contact the help desk.

I informed them I had already done so, and they did manage to get someone to reply that day - but the answer was to deny my points.  They said since I did not complete the survey they could not pay me.

Something is wrong when you give an hour and a half of your time only to be told you will not be paid anything.  I posted again to Toluna's Facebook page, and in turn one or two others posted as well that they were having problems.

Toluna's solution was to remove all of our posts and to block me from posting anything further to their Facebook page.  They keep company email addresses very well hidden from public, but I did manage to find a fax number to their Wisconsin office.  I also found their CEO, Mr. Lowell Ricklef, on Facebook.  Two messages to him have netted no response to date.

As far as I know I have not had an issue with Toluna before, but then again I did not keep track of the nickle and dime surveys.  However, 90 minutes is a significant amount of time, and the promised $30 (90,000 points) is not asking too much for the time I gave in participating in their live survey.

All I can say is buyer beware.