Cindy's Surveys

For as long as I've known Cindy, she's done surveys. I've never understood the motivation behind her efforts, but she is a devoted survey-ist. When it's time to relax around here, it's not unusual to find her happily working on a survey while I curl up in the recliner reading.

Sometimes she gets paid for doing surveys, anywhere from $2 to $50. Another pay off is the accumulation of points toward gas cards, motel rooms, and other such things. Last summer, we funded a good portion of a trip to Knottsberry Farm with her niece and nephew using rewards from her surveys

Survey work usually involves filling out forms on websites. Sometimes though the work involves live chats and sometimes she answers questions via the phone. Cindy's survey practices have brought us some interesting products to try out and a few good laughs.

We have tested things like ball point pens, toothpaste, dryer sheets, body wash, shampoo, face lotion, mosquito repellent, and we just got these big boxes of tissue to test just in time for winter. I like testing the products. One of the pens we tested has become my favorite writing implement.

Recently our cats were enlisted to product test. The product is a cat treat called Lickittys. According to the literature accompanying this treat, Cindy was to observe their "catisfaction." The treat looked like a nipple that the cat is supposed to lick. As you can see in the picture above, it sits on a pedestal with an adhesive back so it sticks to the floor. It has a little plastic top to "help keep the treat fresh when not in use." The idea is to allow the cat to enjoy the treat in "their natural grazing way."

Cindy set the treat near our cats' food bowls so they could do their part. After peering skeptically from a good distance, the cats gave the nipple wide bearth, clearly avoiding it for the entire 3 days they were commissoned to test the product. I don't know what the reward was for this survey, but in my opinon our laughter alone was worth the effort.