American Consumer Panels – Scam or a Legitimate Biz Op? (Review)

There’s a lot of buzz going around the company American Consumer Panels for a good reason. They claim to offer work-from-home opportunities like product testing, which pay anywhere between $20 – $50 per hour.

They say you don’t need any prior experience to get started. When you think about it, it looks too good to be true.

Most internet marketing scams are identical, and they promise the world. Is American Consumer Panel any different? Here’s a detailed American Consumer Panels Review to find out.

What Is American Consumer Panels?

American Consumer Panels is one of the market research companies that allows you to do in-home product testing. The developer of the American Consumer Panels website, according to the privacy policy, is Innovation Consulting LLC in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

However, if you conduct more research on this firm, you will realize that there is no information on its founder and that its company profile is not listed on its website. It led some to believe that they were a fraud.

The website often advertises online job directories and is a familiar face. Their listings often suggest users can make money by testing products and working from home.

On further research, we opted for the ‘at home product tester’ job, and it took us to a page where it said you get 15+ hours a week of work.

It raised doubts in our minds. Why are they willing to hire product testers with no work experience testing products? And are willing to pay you a lot of money for the same?

You need to click on the start button, which brings up a questionnaire sporting five questions to get started. American Consumer Panels make things look so easy, which is a red flag in our book.

So far, it’s all hype, and there isn’t anything about online Consumer Panels America worth mentioning. Often, products that are all about hype have one goal – to rob you of your money!

Click Here For Our #1 Recommendation

What Is American Consumer Panels All About

American Consumer Panels claims to connect people like us with companies within the USA and pay you for your feedback.

According to some American Consumer Panels Reviews, every step in the application, from the first to the last, made the process look legitimate. YES, we are not kidding! We, however, realized there was a catch since the information is TOO good to be accurate, and it’s right there in the last step.

After completing the application, you will be asked to join two random survey companies – iSay Ipsos & VIP Voice Consumer. Instead of giving you a job, they suggest you join these two companies first. That screams scam, doesn’t it?!

Go ahead and join a random third-party company that doesn’t have anything to do with product testing. It’s pretty obvious why they want you to do it. 

This website is only interested in making money off you by promising something which is total BS. Every time someone visits the survey sites through their affiliate link and joins them – they earn a commission.

A shady affiliate marketing tactic that some people use to get sales! They’re only doing affiliate promos for survey-style websites and make money when people join through their links.

See Related: WAH Program Review – Scam or a Legit Business Opportunity?

How Does American Consumer Panels Work?

All American Consumer Panels does is find people, lure them into joining some random survey websites and make money through them.

It operates by delivering products to evaluate. American Consumer Panels provide items to in-home usage testers. They may request in-home usage testers to write product evaluations, record audio, or capture images of their experiences.

In-home usage testers may be requested to visit a client location, but only within 20 minutes of their residence, or to take part in calls or video chats with market researchers. Most of the time, testers retain the items they test as a complimentary gift for their efforts.

They first convince you by showing product testing jobs that look too good to be true. Once they have your attention, you’re suggested to sign up somewhere else.

The survey sites pay for your opinion. However, they pay pennies ($1-3 an hour), and there’s no way you can make a living out of this.

What is In-Home Usage Testing?

When a consumer research companies sends you a product for feedback before selling it, it is known as in-home product testing.

Typically, reputable market research companies recruit in-house usage tester for businesses. Depending on the product, testing may take place at home. However, certain products may need you to visit a specific place for testing.

Furthermore, while you may be permitted to keep some smaller or one-time use/consumable things, bigger or more expensive products may necessitate on-site testing or the return of the product after review.

After evaluating the product, some tests may demand you to complete a survey, while others may require you to participate in a panel discussion.

Main Tasks As A Product Tester

Non-disclosure agreements must be signed and returned. You must do this before the firm ships the merchandise.

When you acquire the product(s), you must take care of them and utilize them with caution.  Stick to the daily routine that comes with each product. It might involve things like:

• unpacking
• following directions
• journaling
• online comments
• use the product for a set amount of time
• write evaluations
• taking pictures of items 

You must keep track of your in-home consumption. Audio recordings, movies, diaries, and photographs may be included. Attend online meetings or conference calls through Skype. It occurs two to three times every week, and you are paid by the hour for it as well.

Some projects may need the usage of “MFour’s Mobile In-Home Use Test Technology.” Most product testing can be done at home. You may need to visit the customer for training on occasion. You will also get hourly pay for this.

You may need to communicate in a private chat room at times. The group will be led by the market research group. And you will be expected to write reviews and maybe record a video review of the product.

See Related: American Income Life Insurance Review – Another Dirty MLM Scam?

What Product Should You Test?

The specifics of what you would test are unclear because it is dependent on whatever firm the American Consumer Panel® is working with at the moment.

For example, when I was writing this review, the firm indicated that they had collaborated with several brands, including Apple, Dyson, Fisher-Price, HTC, KitchenAid, Nespresso, NutriBullet, Sony, and many more, the majority of which are listed on their main website.

Many of the firms they worked with are listed on their web page, but I cannot promise you will use their products if you join them.

To examine some of the product testers in action, I recommend visiting their picture gallery, where you can see who is on the panel and what they were able to test. Is it genuine? Who can say? I’ll leave it up to you to decide.

Again, I have no clue how truthful these images are and can’t confirm them, so approach them with caution when viewing.

See Related: MyOpinions Place Review: Is It A Legit Survey Site Or A Scam?

How Can You Participate in American Consumer Panels?

Their website is focused around persuading companies to seek their services. Furthermore, there appears to be no obvious connection to the careers page anywhere on the site.

In fact, the only link to their employment website I saw was under “What responsibilities do I have to accomplish as a Paid Product Tester?” specifically on the Frequently Asked Questions page.

The following roles are listed on the careers page:

• Payroll Assistant
• Account Executive
• Application Developer
• In-Home Usage Tester (Product Tester at Home)

Surprisingly, the first bullet in the Payroll Assistant job description reads, “Prepare and handle Payroll for 516+ product testers external employees paid weekly.” As a result, you may get a sense of how many product testers they may have and the fact that they are “external” personnel.

It says to include your CV and compensation criteria through email for the first three vacancies. A link to the “application” procedure is supplied for the In-Home Usage Tester. 

Given the lack of information on their website regarding how to be recruited there, I conducted a Google search for “American Consumer Panels job positions.”

The only job that surfaced was for a product tester. It is provided on several employment boards such as LinkedIn, Internships.com, and others. They use job boards to attract qualified people to their website.

The job descriptions are all the same. And they claim that to apply, you must click on a link that brings you to the In-Home Usage Tester job website mentioned above.

How To Become A Panelist At American Consumer Panels?

Joining American Consumer Panels is simple since they will recruit you even if you have no prior experience in this field.

All you have to do is test certain products and provide feedback to the firm that owns those products so they may be improved before they are sold to the market.

Sign-up Process

Signing up with American Consumer Panels is straightforward since you only need to enter your email address, which is always the initial step in any online work.

There is nothing more to input. Save your email address and password, and you will then wait for further instructions from them.

Survey questions

If you are searching for work but are unsure whether a website is legitimate or whether it is a scam based on how the offer is presented to you.  Because it sounds professional, you might believe American Consumer Panels is “legit.”

They will ask you five questions to determine your suitability for the position.  The questions are aimed to persuade you that they are a “legit” website managed by “specialists.”

Demographic profile

When you have finished answering the survey questions, they will send you an email instructing you to complete the sign-up process by creating your demographic profile.

It is due to their website’s statement that “During your application process, reputable market research companies will analyze your demographics and consumer profile to identify which goods might be ideal for you to test.”

Market research firms collaborating with us will employ surveys to identify and target certain customers, ensuring that the relevant participants are engaged and obtain the required representative sample.”

It is why many who come across this type of employment offer instantly sign up since it sounds and appears “legit.”

Survey sites

The final step is to join up two survey sites, LifePoints Panel and InboxDollars Panel, both of which are legitimate survey sites.

When you sign up for those two websites, you will almost wind up completing surveys, which is not terrible because you may earn some additional money there.

However, after you sign up for such websites, you will no longer receive calls or messages from American Consumer Panels, which concerns me.

Not only that, but once you have finished the steps, you will not hear from them again, and you will be left hanging, with additional survey questions bombarding your email.

What’s more worrisome is that you’ve given them your personal information through the demographic profile you’ve created. And that information is now in the hands of the survey sites in which you have signed up.

How Much Money Can You Make Using American Consumer Panels?

If you are chosen for testing, American Consumer Panels promises to give you work every week at hourly pay ranging from $25 to $45 per hour.

The issue with product testing is that it is an unstable method to generate money. You are only compensated when items are available for testing.

If you aren’t interested in a business opportunity but want to supplement your income, you may try paid survey sites like Inboxdollars.com, SurveyJunkie.com, and Swagbucks.com.

Is American Consumer Panels a Scam?

Yes, it’s definitely one of them. Consider staying away from the American Consumer Panels scam since they rely on the ‘bait-and-switch’ tactic, often used by scammers. And it seems like no one gets hired.

They are earning affiliate commissions from you promoting survey sites. In the application process, they are also collecting your email address without your permission.

The company has more negative reviews than positive reviews on GlassDoor.com. Here’s one of them.

On top, there’s no information on who runs the company. We find it interesting how they strategically try to hide their faces and prefer to be ‘under the radar all the time.

American Consumer Panels Complaints

No Information about the Founder

Who is responsible for this? Nobody will ever know the answer to that question. The names of the founder, management, and workers are not available. It raises a big red flag.

They would have no trouble releasing that information and identifying their identities if they operate a legitimate business. There is far too much secrecy. And it is a huge concern why this information is being kept from the public.

Not Accredited by Better Business Bureau (BBB)

The Better Business Bureau’s ratings and accreditation are crucial in every organization. Consumers base the validity of the firm on whether it is accredited by the BBB.

However, American Consumer Panels did not have a Better Business Bureau listing. For some of you, this may be a deal breaker.

Misleading – There Are No Products To Test!

As part of the sign-up procedure, they need you to register with one or two survey sites. There are trustworthy and less reliable survey sites among them. American Consumer Panels wants you to continue doing surveys for these firms for many weeks as they “develop your demographic profile,” referring to these polls as a step toward becoming a product tester.

In reality, American Consumer Panels is an associate of these online survey sites, and they receive a commission for every person who registers for the surveys through their website. There have been numerous complaints that no at-home product testing jobs are available with this organization, and there never have been.

It’s pointless to join American Consumer Panel if you’re only going to be routed to questionnaires and never receive things to evaluate. It appears to be a waste of time.

Unresponsive customer service

The organization likes to promote, but when you try to contact them, at least via the email address on their website, they appear unresponsive.

A respectable organization will at least be responsive in some way, whether through social media, email, or phone. With no phone number and an unavailable social media profile, this triggered some red flags once more.

What’s the deal with all the spam?

Your contact information may be transferred to other firms by registering with sketchy survey sites, resulting in even more spam. Most people who sign up with American Consumer Panels, assuming they are seeking a position as a product tester, use their real contact information, which sidesteps any safeguards you could take to avoid or block spam communications.

After joining American Consumer Panels, you will receive a variety of survey email invitations and a lot of spam, but never a request to actually test a product.

Deceitful Press Coverage

The site attempts to appear authentic by including an FTCGuardian badge, press articles, and social media connections (which do not work). The FAQs inform users that completing third-party surveys is part of their own recruitment process. And those other survey sites that term American Consumer Panels a fraud are “clickbait.”

Everything is set up to take advantage of unsuspecting readers. While many scams are intended to deceive, this one goes further to masquerade itself as a real work-at-home job and entice people to sign up.

Even if you look at their press releases, anybody can hire a press release provider to have their press releases sent to numerous news sites. In this situation, the press releases issue from American Consumer Panels were under the name ABNewswire and Pittsburgh Post Gazette article – a news release service.

Fake Address

The company’s address is One World Trade Center, 285 Fulton St., Suite 8500, New York, NY, 10007. This particular address is a “virtual office.” You may rent this address from Servcorp, which redirects your mail to your actual address, allowing you to have a more distinguished street address than you have.

It’s unknown where American Consumer Panels is situated, and the firm’s website doesn’t mention any related individuals. You may also see a list of all the tenants that rent space in One World Trade Center, and American Consumer Panels is not one of them.

Similar to the Canadian Consumer Panels Homepage

You’ll find something interesting when you search for Canadian Consumer Panel’s Homepage. The photo above compares American Consumer Panels and Canadian Consumer Panels.

It was identical to American Consumer Panels. There is no FTC Badge and a different location and phone number, but it is the same site.

The identical About Page and job vacancies have little distinction. An “actual physical address” in the Toronto Star Building: Yonge Street No. 1, M5E 1W7 Toronto, Ontario, Canada

And what results do a search for that address yield? DaVinci virtual offices. Another “physical address” is their virtual address.

And what about those photos? The majority of the images on both sites are identical. When you zoom in on them, you’ll notice that the papers they’re carrying all read ProductTestingUSA.com or ProductTesting.uk.com.

It’s unclear whether they are actual sites or are associated with the American/Canadian Consumer Panels sites, but it’s another problem with this site.

A Lot of User Complaints

A company’s negative reactions and unpleasant complaints are natural, but having a lot of them is not. American Consumer Panels received several complaints, most of which were about not receiving any items to evaluate.

As part of the application process, you will be sent two surveys to establish whether you are eligible, and it is upsetting that you answer surveys just to find out that there are no items to evaluate or test. It’s a waste of time and energy.

See Related: Home Testers Club Review: Unbiased Insights for Consumers

Final Thoughts

It’s best to not fall for shady companies like American Consumer Panels without doing research and learning from other people’s past experiences. They are not offering any jobs, they are instead relying on dirty marketing tactics to make money off people without them realizing it.

If you want to make money doing surveys, it’s always a smarter idea to sign up through the main website directly instead of using someone’s affiliate links. (Lot fewer chances of receiving spam, a lot better, right? 🙂 )

However, there is a way for the average person to make money online, it’s our top recommendation. Using this brand-new affiliate marketing training, a broke 20-year-old went from $0 to $6000 a month working online.

Related Resources

• MCA Review
• Primerica Review
• American Consumer Opinion Review