Nielson Homescan: Worth the Trouble?
Survey Site Reviews December 14th, 2009Sandy sent an email over the week-end about Nielson Homescan:
Was wondering I thought you had said something about Nielson’s Home Scan…..is it for real or something I should stay away from?
I did try Nielson Homescan for a while, and although it is real I found it a waste of time. They send you a hand held scanner that you use to scan the barcodes of ALL of the items you purchase. Once a week, you send this information to Nielson with your computer. For your efforts, (and I found it to be an absolute pain) you are entered into sweepstakes or earn points for merchandise. To make matters worse, it takes an enormous amount of points to be able to buy anything. Even if you earn a 100,000 points, good luck with finding anything that you want. For me, at least, I found the choice of items to be lame at best.
I have enough to do without having to scan all of my grocery purchases, looking at the receipt for the price and keeping up with it all. Even I’m going to go to all this trouble, I would at least expect to be able to redeem for a gift card that would enable me to buy what I wanted.
Tell us what you think about your experience with Nielson Homescan!
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December 14th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
I have been a member for over a year. And haven’t won a sweeps yet. And of course I haven’t accumulated enough points for anything worthwhile. But I guess I’m too lazy to send the scanner back. I do scan & transmit my info when I think about it. So, Sandy I don’t think it’s worth your time & effort.
December 14th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
The short answer: No.
December 14th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
I was a member of neilson taking surveys and even earned some money, but then they required you to download a program, which I did. But noticed I began having pc problems and uninstalled it. A couple of days and I received an email stated that I was no longer using their program and if I did not reinstall I would not be able to continue. Well that was fine with me. Probably wasn’t a good idea installing it in the first place. I decided if they no longer cared for my opinions I had pleenty of other sites who did.
December 14th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
I took one look at their offer, shook my head, and decided it would be a complete waste of my time. Sounds like I was right.
December 14th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
This one sounds as if it is not worth the trouble.
December 14th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
I tried this out for about 1 week (Home Scan) and I realized what a total waste of my time this was And I sent them thier scanner back. I dont like the idea of spending a lot of time and effort to make people money and get next to nothing in return.If a survey company or any other type of company makes it worth my while I will go all out to help them and put a lot of effort in to every project I participate in. But doing the home scan I felt like I was being taken for a chump
December 15th, 2009 at 9:21 am
Just talked to my sister that is still using this scanner and this is what she had to say: Yes, I am still using it, but I really enjoy doing it.
December 15th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
I tried Nielson Homescan over a year ago and also found it to be a pretty big waste of time. Not only that, but it says that you have six months to redeem all of the points you have earned on their site; as soon as my scanner was in their hands my account was closed.
December 15th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
I also returned their scanner after about two weeks of realizing what huge hassle this program is.
December 15th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
I like homescan. They added new toys and i was able to get my daughter something for Christmas! It helped me out! To me its not a waste of time. It doesnt take but a few minutes to scan and that all!
December 16th, 2009 at 1:02 am
I did it a few years ago. It was fun at first for about a week. The scanner never scanned well. The whole system was antiquated and a pain to upload the information. I gave up after a few months. Total waste of time. Not to mention all the little junk they send you. I got a mug, keychain, all sorts of crap. I did get one $25 gift card a few weeks after starting. but then the gifts end and it’s just an annoyance.
December 16th, 2009 at 1:31 am
I also like Nielson Homescan Panel, It has been about 2 months since I first started scanning and I have no problems with it at all, it takes very little time and I find it actually fun scanning my purchases. So far I currently have 5,800 points in just 2 months.
Also they have the best customer service, the respond within 24 hours.
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December 16th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
Its my first time to read about this Nielson Homescan. So I don’t have comment about them
December 17th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
[...] is just a sample of some of my emails from readers, click here to see the comments about Nielson Homescan on the [...]
December 20th, 2009 at 11:57 am
I had the same problem as Debra above about downloading the Harris program and it really messed up my computer. So I uninstalled it, received an email from Harris but just did not reinstall it. Was surpise that I’ve been doing surveys at Suveys.com and Paypal let me know that I received $1 and $10 within 2 weeks. Had those funds sent to my bank as I’ve been laid off so every dime counts. I think surveys.com won’t get you rich but they do send you money for easy & short surveys. Godd luck to everyone, Debra Gould
December 20th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
I reread my comment above and wrote Harris but meant Neilson. But had a simlilar problem with Harris. Perhaps they are the same survewy company. I’m register to so many I can get confused remembering all their names.
But I do like surveys.com allot.
December 20th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
I am no longer interested in either company.
December 27th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
I was interested until they told me I had to download their program. Keeping the absolutely necessary programs running smoothly takes all the effort I want to extend.
June 1st, 2010 at 1:29 pm
I must have waited about a year to get a scanner but finally got one. And waiting was no problem. Actually, aside from the occasional email asking if I was still interested, I had all but entirely forgotten about it, when they finally had a scanner available for me. And I can understand the wait as my household includes just me and my dog, so shopping, and scanning is very light work. I imagine I’ll eventually amass enough points for something, perhaps apiece if that paper shredder, LOL. Come to think of it, I probably don’t have worry about “shredding” anything, I figure if some one steals my identity, it will be their problem.
July 1st, 2010 at 2:35 am
i received a email to say i would get a phone call re next stage as yet have not had that phone call