The question has arisen whether this online poll organization, and other similar poll takers are a useful and worthwhile panel or simply another scam. In this review, we’ll try to cover all the important aspects of the Harris Poll.
People often ask whether Harris Poll is yet another clever scam – short answer is NO, long answer is bellow
If you want to join without reading further, you can sign up here
- Allows most countries
- Flexible work – you chose your hours
- Respect for privacy
- Decent payment
- Sometimes not enough surveys
- Slow customer support
Origins
Harris Poll is a subsidiary company controlled by Harris Interactive. Harris Interactive is a company with New York headquarters that focuses its primary interest on market research. Dr. Gordon S. Black, a professor of science at the University of Rochester in New York, founded Harris in 1975 during his tenure at that institution. Originally he named the company The Gordon S. Black Corporation”, but after acquiring Louis Harris and Associates from the Garnett Corporation in 1996, Professor Black decided to revamp the company completely and also gave it the new name of Harris Black International Ltd. The role of Harris Poll is simple and basic, and that is to commission international market surveys. Due to its extensive global presence, Harris Poll is not surprisingly recognized by other established marketing research operations such as the British Polling council and the U.S. national Council of Public Polls as well as for other survey market organizations throughout the worlds as well.BBB
For all the above, the Better Business Bureau’s rating of Harris Poll is not the A+ rating that might be expected. Actually, Harris Poll does not have a rating at all with the BBB. That, in itself, is no indication of the legitimacy or honestly offered services of this company. Nor does it mean there is anything at all wrong with the company. It is not at all uncommon for a company to be omitted from the BBB’s files Hundreds of companies across our country, while completely legally and honestly operated have no accreditation with the BBB. Actually, the most likely way to be included in the files of the BBB is to accumulate a list of complaints.Legitimacy
Any investigation into its affairs should assure the seeker that the Harris Poll is in no way a fraudulent company. Unfortunately, on occasion, scammers have attempted to conduct illegitimate activity in the Harris name, offering secret shoppers free gifts, etc. In today’s world with the Internet so accessible, not only to legitimate business persons, but to every sort of scammer and hacker imaginable, someone somewhere, will always find ways to slip in through a side door to exploit cracks in the security measures in place to profit from the honest and legal efforts of others. As with everything else in the business world, the catch phrase is caveat emptor. Buyer beware. The actual Harris Poll, investigated in depth, appears to be an honestly-run and completely legal company and has an international reputation for being one of the best businesses of its kind.Membership
As with nearly everything on the Internet, to become a part of Harris Poll, the applicant needs to register as a member. Qualifying for membership is simple and uncomplicated. The applicant must be at least thirteen years of age and have a valid email address as a valid brick and mortar address. As with most sites, it is necessary to choose a user name and a password. A profile page is available and may be useful. Your shopping habits and general location may be helpful in poll taking. In the industry, this is known as a profile survey. While this is not a particularly exciting or always terribly interesting occupation, it does have a practical purpose, one that can also be beneficial. However, it must be remember that this is no get rich quick program. There are no fees to pay and a member has no commitment to continue should he/she lose interest in the poll. The company uses all the information supplied by member profiles to decide their qualifications for specific surveys. Therefore, the information provided on the profile may have a good deal to do with the surveys that are presented to you. It is possible too, that such surveys might save time for you in the future. It could save a person considerable time filling out surveys to which they’re not really qualified to do. Normally, new members are enrolled in what is known as the Appreciation Program. From this starting point you begin to gather up points known as HiPoints. Later, these HiPoints may be converted into different rewards the site may offer. An interesting fact is that the moment a new member is registered, he/she is offered a brand-new survey, and an additional perk is that the entire process if very clear and easy to understand. From the initial registration, the registration explains the number of points you may gain by completing the initial survey, how long it should take you to complete it, and even if you can’t completely comply, there may still be points awarded anyway. That is to say, even if you fail to qualify for the initial survey, you still gain points and you will be entered into the HiStakes Quarterly Drawing. Most members are given three or four surveys per month and in general, most of these should take less than thirty minutes to complete. Each completed survey brings points. On rare occasions, and given ample prior warning by Harris Poll, you may be invited to a survey that offers no reward points. As mentioned, this is only a rare occurrence.Rewards
This site does not make rewards in cash. For this sort of program, cash awards are unusual, and most other systems offer the same sort of rewards programs as Harris Poll. Referred to as HPs or Harris Points, the holder may exchange them for prizes or gift cards. At Harris Poll, the typical gift card would have a face value of perhaps $10. You may also donate your points to any of a number of charities listed on HP’s website. An aspect of Harris Poll that many find unusual is that it some surveys may include normally taboo subjects such as religious surveys or ethnic surveys, although the vast majority of surveys are much more mainstream. These may include grocery shopping, fashion, music and other fields of general interest. One of the better features of Harris Poll is that most of the surveys are short and the company appears to make a real effort to keep them that way as well as to introduce, when possible, an element of fun for the member.Public Comment
We thought it would be interesting to learn exactly what others think of Harris Poll and its website. Apparently not one detractor has come forward to say anything derogatory about this company. Everyone connected, or has been connected, with Harris Poll agrees that the company is completely legitimate and straightforward in its dealings with members. The only occasional complaint was that the company doesn’t pay as much as some feel it should for the work involved. Here below is a summary of the foregoing. The Positive:- No cost for membership.
- No hint of any scams.
- Rewards and prizes.
- You don’t have to live in US or be a citizen to join.
- Surveys are short and sweet.
- They don’t clutter your email with messages or try to sell anything.
- As with most sites you have to have a password. However HP insists on creating a password for you and this can be a problem to remember. This can and does create problems at logging in. But it is possible to recover the password through customer service.
- No cash rewards. Some rewards are in the form of magazine subscriptions and gift cards.
- Recently email invitations have dropped dramatically resulting in fewer surveys for members which translates into fewer rewards.
- It can sometimes take a long time to build up enough points to consider a redemption.
- Although gift cards are transmitted electronically, they still take an unseemly long time to arrive.
- The gift cards are limited to $10 in value and it is up to the survey member to pay for the postage unless you opt for digital gift cards.
- HP members are unable to find direct access to online shopping websites from its website. Members have to find the desired websites by themselves and because of this, members are frequently required to give out credit card information as a part of gaining access to the desired website in order to complete the survey.