For most parents out there (single or otherwise), making a few bucks on a side hustle is like living the dream. Finding a legitimate side hustle is almost impossible these days because of scams set up to con the trusting few still left in this world. Doing your homework and your own market research makes not just financial sense in the long run, but peace-of-mind sense, too.
Reviews are a dime-a-dozen, and it gets difficult sifting out the scam reviews from the honest ones. The more in need of a side hustle you are, the harder it becomes to see the warning signs that your gut points out along the way. Survival mode on a financial level is debilitating and we trust this series of reviews on scam or legitimate side hustles bring you that peace of mind.
If you haven’t yet checked out our other reviews or are wondering what other survey sites are out there so you can make money, pick up a few Amazon gift cards or redeem coupons, you can read more here: InboxDollars, PrizeRebel or Survey Junkie.
Let’s take a look at Product Report Card.
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- Give cash rewards to its members
- Make sure to take your earnings out asap
- You will lose them if you do not withdraw within one year
- There are sites that offer better rewards
In A Hurry?
Who or what is Product Report Card?
Product Report Card is an online surveys’ site that “connects consumers and subject-matter experts, like you, with our clients to share their insights into current marketplace trends”.
Finding information on how the business pays out to their members, how you earn that cash, who the company actually is, and what their support options are is difficult. One can look at other reviews done, but again, a quick look at their Facebook page clearly shows that no updates have been made to any posts since early 2018. If they’re not marketing their own product, where is their revenue coming from?
How do you use Product Report Card?
I’m not sure why the sign-up process would require me to state my ethnicity, home address or my cellphone number, which in my opinion are all private information. Nonetheless, I signed up and gave the info grudgingly. A gift card is a gift card, right?
The profiles take a bit of time to complete, so before you can get going, set aside at least a half-hour to complete your personal or buying profiles and preferences. Be sure to tick as many boxes as you truthfully can, so that you qualify for cashback, taking surveys, reviews on products, or Amazon gift cards or codes.
The company offers you three ways to make money with “online surveys”, but be warned from the get-go: there is no easy way to bypass any of this, there is no quick buck in the pipeline, and there is no way to determine what or where you qualify for something. Overall, it is not user-friendly at all.
Verifying my email address meant that I had to verify my cellphone number entered at registration. Double verification? Apparently, it’s so that the support team can call you with additional offers, and also to avoid duplicate accounts are created. All right, if you say so…but I still skipped this part and continued on to the profiles shown above.
Online surveys
Product Report Card is not really an online survey site in the “traditional” sense of the word. They’re also pretty upfront about that, preferring instead to differentiate themselves by offering reviews on products you already own or offers to join product study groups.
To qualify for online surveys, you need to complete the above profiling in full per category to be considered. It would actually be a complete waste of your time if you didn’t completely and honestly fill out your profile preferences. I mean, what’s the point then?
Market research studies
Based on your profile and the product registration information you gave at the time that you completed your profile and settings, brands could invite you to join an exclusive market research group and give your opinion on the products being reviewed. As at the time of writing this review, I can’t say how often that happens or what would either qualify or disqualify you as a reliable opinion source. My profile obviously does not qualify for study or research groups, or perhaps there just are none in the pipeline at this time?
Product registrations
In order to complete any “research studies” on available product reviews, such as in-home product tests, you will have to register the everyday products you already own and use so that your profile qualifies for the system to send you invitations to the research studies. Rewards are granted based on an approved product being registered.
Product reviews
I looked for it but could not find any kind of way that this tab offers money. It seems to be a collection of already-reviewed products that allow you to compare products and features, as posted by different users.
As reliability goes, I’m truly not sure how one can trust the reliability of the product reviews (in general), as these are paid opinions. Deep down inside, I still maintain that the best and most honest reviews come from the heart, those that are given freely and in the heat of the moment.
Nevertheless, if that is your thing and you’re thinking of upgrading a product you already own or want to purchase, choose your category and browse, compare and consider.
It needs to be noted, however, that these product reviews are totally out of date, and the website itself has not been updated with new product reviews on this tab since 2014. If you’re supposed to be paid for reviewing products, does this then mean (in the case of the screenshot below) that nobody has bought or reviewed taps in this range in 8 years?
How much can you make on Product Report Card?
As mentioned, finding payout information for company is difficult. You may get lucky in finding some information, but most of it’s incomplete, hearsay or just made up as there really is no way to tell — until you get paid.
What rewards does Product Report Card offer?
Somehow, Amazon figured out that gift codes are a way cheaper incentive than gift cards. A gift card has a face value. It’s a tangible thing you can trade for a specific item such as a book for $10 that you use your $10 gift card on.
A gift code, however, means that you now have to accumulate a set amount of points, or cash out/redeem the code before it can be used as a viable earning and payout method.
How does Product Report Card payout?
As with other information for the company, this little bit of news is also not available on their website. Browsing other reviews in the hope that someone cracked the code before me, I learned that the company no longer makes PayPal payments and that you can claim your cash either through Amazon gift cards or codes, or wait for their check to arrive in the mail.
What’s the catch with Product Report Card?
With so many other online paid survey sites out there at the moment, and so much more transparency from those sites than with Product Report Card, I would have to say that it’s all a catch. I dislike how much personal information regarding my exact demographics I had to share. As a parent, I have to be wary of sites that demand so much information that I can immediately pinpoint my location. Paranoid? Perhaps.
What the members say about Product Report Card
As always, the Better Business Bureau is a good place to start if you’re wondering what kind of business practices any firm uses. The Denver BBB seems to have a great reputation for encouraging their negatively-reviewed listings to respond if nothing else.
According to the BBB, Product Report Card was incorporated as an LLC in 2012. It took less than 6 months for the BBB to open a profile for the company, based on negative user complaints.
An alert currently in place states that the company has a pattern of complaints that specifically relate to payment issues.
68 BBB reviews later, and my overall impression is not a good one.
I used to think that TrustPilot was also not a bad place to go and get reliable reviews, but all of my research that eventually led me to TrustPilot seems to be in direct contrast to what is found on their website, and I’m hesitant to take them at their word in this case, to be honest.
4088 reviews later and on TrustPilot, Product Report Card scores 4 out of 5 stars. The two reviews contrast just too much for my peace of mind.
What kind of support can I expect from Product Report Card?
I distrust any website that does not have an FAQ or a blog to answer common support queries. As has become the norm, this company does not disappoint. The best I could do was fill in their contact form and hope that someone read it, or send them a fax using the fax number I found on the Better Business Bureau.
Fax? It’s 2020, people. If you need me to enter my cellphone number when registering, I expect to see a contact number that I can call when I need to.
Is product report card a legitimate site?
In order to be fair and unbiased, one must take all those comments, complaints, responses and compliments, as well as all the reviews done to date, into account.
That said, no matter how many glowing reports you read about this or that site, it’s really not funny when the shoe is on your own foot and you’re the one not getting paid. Based on the amount of work required to get your profile set up, and the amount of personal information they ask for, yes. Product Report Card is hard work. Yes, I expect to be paid for it all. No, I do not want to be one of those whose account is frozen, disabled or not paid.
According to all accounts, the company is a legitimate online survey site, though not a very good way to earn cash. Reasons cited for this include the amount of effort involved (comparatively with other sites like InboxDollar, Ebates, etc), the lack of transparency and user-unfriendliness of the website itself, the lack of support pages or structures, and more.
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In conclusion
Do I personally think that Product Report Card is worth all of that time and effort just to make a few bucks on the side, especially given their obvious history and their lack of any discernible social media presence over the past 2 years? No, I don’t.
I am from South Africa and have been working with companies like Typeform and SurveyMonkey creating surveys for the past 5 years. Nowadays, I love reading, writing and looking after my children.