Nielsen
 

So we get a big package in the mail the other day from the Nielsen TV ratings people. Apparently, my wife took a call from them a couple of weeks ago and answered a few basic questions, nothing private. She agreed to take part in the survey, and in this package are a couple of diaries for keeping track of what we watch and $30 cash, which I found very odd.

Anyway, after a bit of searching, it seems like Nielsen really does send cash. I'm curious, though, has anyone else received anything like this and/or participated? If so, any downside, i.e. constant harassment follow-ups?

The downside is you have to keep the diary. They don't harass you afterward and it is unlikely you would be asked to do it again for a long time.

We did it for radio a few years back. Radio doesn't pay as well as TV. I think we got like two bucks each. Good enough for a bottle of Two Buck Chuck, I guess.

We were a Nielson family for about 4 years. Had the boxes on all of our TVs and everything. Sent us a check, I think, once or twice a year. The only 'hassle' and I put it quotes is because we had a DVR at the time and their equipment didn't like it for a while so, they would come out every few months. Eventually, their equipment was finally upgraded to know when the DVR was in use and the only time they came out after that was if they lost signal and when they took out everything when our time was up.

No downside that I can think of to be honest. It was usually the same techs that came out to our house, so we got to know them and they even brought pizza one time. None of them were jerks or anything like that.

We tried our best to keep the Sarah Connor Chronicles on, but, I guess it didn't work.

And apparently they send the cash upfront because, oddly enough, response rates are a lot higher when people already have the money than when they have to return the diaries to get the money. Guilt for the win.

Same here.

I'm sure I'm on some sort of network blacklist for this kind of thing.

Cool... Yeah, I don't mind filling out the diaries at all. I can understand paying ahead of time for the reason Malc notes; I just found it really strange they send cash.

I bet they don't mess with me because those bastards stole my last name.

I've somehow managed to end up doing Nielsen twice. The first time was a diary and they sent me cash. The second time they came and set up an actual receiver with my TV. That lasted 5 years...every 6 months I got a $30 check. I also got a small check if I ever purchased a new TV or DVD. The best thing was they ended up needing to add another phone jack in the house for their equipment and they paid for all the installation. And the oddest thing is I got sent a Cracker Barrel sampler for signing up initially. Weird.

With the diary, there was NO hassle. With the monitor, if the thing went down they were out and would often take a couple of hours to fix things. They also had to upgrade their equipment twice.