Can you really make up to $45 an hour as an at-home product tester? Is American Consumer Panels a real job? Absolutely not, and I’ll explain exactly why within this post.
Summary: “At Home Product Testing” is a real thing, but not in the way this “job” implies. You may occasionally be able to test products with legit sites like PineCone Research, but nothing about it is really a job at all.
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What is American Consumer Panels and is it legit?
Maybe you’ve come across this company on a job search or heard about them online. According to their listing, you’ll get paid between $25 – $45 just to test products at home!
They’re posting wanted ads in just about every city all over the United States. The example above is just a short snippet from Texas listings, but they were everywhere.
This was taken from the job board jobs2careers.com, which is definitely not one of the more trusted job platforms out there. They basically pull job listings from around the internet, so while many job listings there are completely legit, you also get some fake ones in the mix.
The American Consumer Panels website, located at american-consumer-panels.com is incredibly simple and vague.
What I found funny is the most information this company has on its website (aside from the product tester from home position listings) is within the FAQ where they try so hard to make themselves sound legit.
But the reasons they give are just silly.
American Consumer Panels is claiming the reason they’re not a scam is that they’re a member of the FTC Guardian (?) and because they don’t have malware on their website. In addition, they talk about how reviews of their company are all fake so don’t trust them.
None of that says anything about the company itself.
They also go on to say because you don’t have to pay for the products upfront, they can’t possibly be a scam.
But they’re still completely misleading and outright lying to you.
Plus, the “media coverage” of them is all fake. They only provide you with 2 links, and neither are actually real. The “US Financial News Today” isn’t even a website that exists anymore.
What is this American Consumer Panels product tester job really about?
Ok, so why would they go to such great lengths to make you believe you’re applying for a real job? Since you’re not paying them money, what do they have to gain?
Well, when you “apply” for the product testing position you’re going to then be given instructions to apply for their partner survey websites – LifePoints and Inbox Dollars.
(Interestingly enough, there’s another deceptive site that also requires you join these same two companies…)
Whoever is behind American Consumer Panels is earning commissions when you sign up for these websites. It’s a form of affiliate marketing called CPA – cost per action – and they get paid when you enter your information to sign up for these survey companies.
And look, there’s nothing wrong with that as long as you’re not outright DECEPTIVE about it! And in this case, they aren’t being truthful.
But they claim that they need you to sign up for these companies and take surveys with them so they can collect a complete demographic profile for you, so they know if you’re eligible to even be a product tester for them or not.
If you don’t hear back from them, you don’t fit in their demographics.
Legit product testing companies don’t advertise themselves as an actual hourly paying job, and further, they don’t operate like American Consumer Panels at all. You’re not asked to join other companies to get a demographic profile, you create your own within THEIR company.
There’s actually a similarly named site “American Consumer Opinion” in which you have the option to get paid to test products too, although they have gotten terrible reviews. But at least they’re not completely fake like this.
There are actually legit “product testing” gigs, but it’s not like a job at all
There are a lot of market research companies that do pay users to test out products, but it isn’t at all like a job where you get paid an hourly rate. One of the legit ones is PineCone Research.
Basically you need to apply to test individual products with these companies, but it’s not easy to get them. Typically there are thousands and thousands of people applying to test out products but there will only be a small number available for the company to send out.
So it’s extremely inconsistent at best, as most of the time you wouldn’t be able to get products to test anyway. And even if you are lucky to get a product to test every once in a while, it’s hardly a job!
The Bottom Line
American Online Jobs is completely a scam in my opinion. While you aren’t getting conned out of money, they’ve crafted an elaborate scheme to deceive people into thinking they’re going to be getting a job when in reality it is nothing of the sort.
While there are a few legit at-home product testing gigs out there, they could hardly be considered work at home jobs.
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