Complaint Review: Echo Qualitative Project Support - Los Angeles Ca

I am actually in the middle of participating in a research study with Echo right now and can, with the most confidence, say that they are a wonderful company and that the original poster has a warped perception of how market research works. I just want to say that:

1. Yes, they ask you to send in a picture of you holding your driver's license, but it is not in any way to commit identity theft. An individual's date of birth can be found in public records. They would have a hard time committing identity theft with solely the information listed on their driver's license. This is a practice done by a lot of companies to ensure they are doing business with a valid client giving valid information (i.e. an online study that requires only people living in San Francisco; by sending in your driver's license, you can verify that the client isn't just saying they live there when they actually live in Boston or something. since they don't use the address to send your payment [Amazon gift card], this is a really good way to make sure the participant isn't lying).

2. Echo Qual is actually much more generous then other market research companies are. If you do at least 75% of the work then you still get paid 100%, as noted previously by the company. Most companies pay you absolutely nothing if you don't do 100% of the work. Would you pay someone for the full price of a job if they only painted half your walls and left the rest alone? No, no one would.

They are an extremely kind and fair company and, for someone who seems so bitter and unwilling to really listen and thoughtfully respond, it's a real shock that they had chosen you to be in their research study in the first place.

 All they are doing is stating policy. The problem is that they misapply the policy and lie about it to keep the money they owe you.

TO REVIEW:

1. I did a study for them.

2. I worked long hours to focus on and complete the study. (much longer than they led me to believe this study would take)

3. I finished every single question in the study.

4. I get an email from them saying whoever does not finish the study  will not get paid or not get paid in full.

5. I emailed the master crook over there Greg Fain, the project manager and asked him to confirm that I finished? To let me know if there is anything or any qustion unfinished. And I will make sure it's finished. - He does not answer. But instead soon after:

6. I get an email when it's time to get paid saying that I did not finish the whole study and I won't be paid the full amount.

7. I asked him to provide proof and tell me what questions I did not finish. (I had a copy of the whole study on my hard drive to kill him with the proof if he answered). He refused to answer and would not answer any of my phone calls or return any messages left on his answering machine.

==========================================================================

THIS IS A L ITTLE SHOP OF CRIMINAL HORRORS, WHERE ONE CRIMINAL GREG FAIN IS SUJPORTED BY THE NEXT, THE CEO, Kerry Hecht Labsuirs (OF A SMALL OPERATION WITH SEVERAL PEOPLE WORKING IN THEIR BASEMENT ON VENTURA BLVD IN CALIF). TRY TO GOOGLE THEIR COMPANY USING GOOGLE MAPS AND YOU  WILL SEE. THEY ARE DISHONEST AND THEIR OPERATION IS CROOKED. THEY WANT TO KEEP ALL THE MONEY FOR THEMSELVES INSTEAD OF PAYING PARTICIPANTS FOR THE WORK THAT THEY DID. AND THEY TRY TO GET YOU TO EMAIL YOUR LICENSE TO THEM. JUST CLICK ON ANY ECHOQUAL SURVEY SCREENER AND  YOU WILL SEE THE OWNER ON THERE KERRY, IN A VIDEO ASKING FOR THESE DOCUMENTS. MY ANSWER WAS, YOU SEND ME YOURS FIRST SO I KNOW WHO TO COME AFTER IF MY IDENTITY IS STOLEN (THEN THERE WAS SILENCE) DO NOT EVER TRUST THEM WITH ANYTHING LIKE THAT.

Anybody wanting to hire this company because they are charging you less to get your business, think twice. There are 4 major big, reputable market research companies in Los Angeles that are listed with and are a member of the BBB.  This company is not a member of the BBB and refuses to be a member,  the BBB told me.  And I believe it's because they don't want to answer to them and have -c  or d ratings shown.  You would be better off dealing with a reputable company that is established AND has a goog Better Business Bureau rating. Why associate your product or service with these crooks? They are all going to land in jail one day when the state Attorney Generals office and the IRS closes them down and seizes their bank accounts and assets

It's unfortunate that you had this experience but at the end of the day if a participant in our projects do not complete the assigned work they aren't compensated fully. 

It seems like from your post that you were participating in what we call an asynchronous exercise.  We always estimate the amount of time it takes people to complete things but it's not an exact science.  Some people are more thorough than other people or a little slower so what might take one person 10 minutes could take someone else 45.  I find it unlikely that anything assigned would take hours.  It just simply isn't done because people wouldn't complete the exercises.

Our policy around this is as follows:

• Anyone that completes 75% or more of the activities will receive the full incentive
• Anyone that completes 50-74% of the activities will receive 75% of the incentive
• Anything below that is up to the discretion of the client

When people don't complete the assignments as requested it is useless to the companies that pay thousands of dollars for these projects.  They have to rent software, pay for finding people, pay the incentives, reporting, etc.  It's very problematic for us to have people start and quit or to only give partial replies.  We simply can't and won't pay for people to not complete their work.

Any software that you used to complete this project would have clearly shown you on the dashboard what was left unfinished.  From a project management point of view, there are often hundreds of people that we're tracking through launch to completion.  It's a shame that Greg wasn't able to provide you with the exact details you needed but again, that information is always available to the participants in the software, itself.  Additionally, you were getting alerts in your email about what needed to be done.

Our clients are the ones that finalize the monies that are paid out to participants, so if you didn't complete your exercises and didn't receive your full amount that would have been a decision made by them.

This isn't uncommon in our industry - in fact, the opposite is true - it's quite common.  If a person doesn't complete their activities they aren't paid as if they are.  Our phone number is public on our website and if you'd like to dispute this further, please feel free to reach out.

To address the issue of our asking for the ID - we have to verify people's identification because this industry is filled with people who lie and cheat on the screening surveys in order to make the money this person speaks of.  What you failed to mention is that we also indicate they can block out their DL number and address.  All we need to see is the state it was issued in, their name and birthdate.  Not really an unreasonable request when you're paying people $100, $150 or $200+ for a project.  We also use standard language around why we need this in all of our communication and it's always explained.  Of course, if you aren't comfortable providing that - it's your choice and you should not have participated in the study at all.

From reading this report - it really sounds like this person wanted something for free and sadly, we just can't accommodate those kinds of people.