Nielsen Homescan?

It is way too much work for way too little points, you're so right. I thought since it was Nielsen that it wouldn't be a scam but I was wrong.

I have been doing it for over 2 years now and can testify to the uselessness of the whole process. As one has already pointed out you will have to scan everything if the store does not participate. That means EVERYTHING. Down to fast food and gas. They provide a bar code card for anything that does not have a bar code or comply with their software. You get harassing emails (see this topic later) about your not using their bar code card even if you do not need to. Their system is full of holes and problems but don't mention it to them. I know I have pointed out at least 10 that they deny them all. Even with hard evidence they will deny them. Their method of response is to lie and get even deeper and deeper in their lies. The want to stick their noses into your personal life. They want names of household members and other information about them. I do not mind generic information but they go too far. Then they start demanding that ALL household members participate. They will sign you up for panels that you did not agree to and that require even more time. They have tried this with me for at least 4 panels. Every one of them required keeping a diary (now we're talking about supplies that they are not providing). If you ignore it they will start writing you emails about your failure to participate. If you write them back and refuse they get unhappy about that. Emails- - Get ready for 3 - 6 emails per day. "Don't forget", "Be sure your family completes", and even "Final Notice" (these are trash and I have not seen a single correct one). I guess I am lucky in that I am a medically retired IT professional and statistician so I just stay on the program.The disagreements with their staff add a little spice to my life. I do not know how they think their sample can be valid. It they treat a busy house keeper/professional like they treat me they cannot possibly have anything but a totally invalid sample. Oh well...it got me a popcorn popper. LOL

how can you say it sounds like too much work for very little points when you don't know how much work is involved in getting each point? nothing rowantree (who sounds to me like a MAJOR whiner-complainer) has said indicates how many points you get for scanning each item. if you get one point for each item scanned, then yeah, it would take a long time and a lot of work to get that 96,000-point Nintendo thingy, but if you get 2 points for each item scanned, your work's already cut in half right there, and if you get more points your workload is reduced accordingly. saying it sounds like a lot of work for too few points, based on the information on this page, is like someone saying "a loaf of bread costs 34 noogonauts here!" and you saying, "that's way too expensive" without having any idea what a noogonaut is or how many of them a person is paid for a day's work. there's no context for rowantree's statement, so there's none for yours either.

They sent the scanner and I honestly didn't check it out thoroughly enough before signing up. Anything you buy - and I do mean anything - they want you to scan it. So imagine coming home with over 10 bags of groceries and having to take everything out and individually scan each one. Sometimes the scanner would say "prices not needed" and sometimes the scanner would decide that prices were needed. In that case, every time you scan an item, you have to enter the quantity, the price and if a store coupon was used. After you've finally scanned everything you bought, you enter in the total amount you spent from your receipt. Once a week you connect the scanner to your computer to transmit your shopping trips. I did try this but in the end, I just couldn't do it. For someone without any kids or who is super organized, I'm sure they could do it. But I sent mine back. You only earn points and have to turn those points in for cheap gifts - nothing good, it's the junk that you find flyers for with your credit card bill. So I was totally misled there. They'd also send me emails telling me to go to their website for a survey. Sometimes the survey would be there and sometimes (most of the time) it wouldn't. So I wouldn't be able to do the survey since it wasn't there, but I'd keep getting emails from them "reminding" me to do the survey before a certain date. I think if you have the time to dedicate to it, you'll earn points quickly! Good luck to you!

Well I got my scanner, I came home and there it was at my door step last night. Since I am single and my grocery shopping is light, I am going to go ahead and give it a try. I'll just see where it leads me. Thanks so much for a response and have a great day!

Good luck & I hope you get lots of points! :)

That's really nice that your husband does the scanning with you. I'm glad it's working for you guys!

We are doing this as a family...not for the points but to teach our kids how much things cost. The kids do the scanning and we, together, do the shopping and sorting. It has been a helpful and useful tool for teaching them how much we spend on everything from gas to groceries to eating out and entertainment. We plan on letting them use the points...it's a fun family thing to do that doesn't cost us anything except what we are already spending.

I've been a homescan member for almost 8 years, here in canada, we go into homescan.ca, so I would suppose you would go to homescan.uk, hope this helps you .