BigSpot Review: a Legit Survey Site with TV Commercials?

Big Spot is getting a lot of air time lately on television, where it’s advertised as a reliable site for paid surveys. I decided to check out that claim myself. After all, a company that advertises on TV, must be making lots of money to be able to afford air time.

The result of my investigation is my review of BigSpot.

Who is Behind the Site?

As you know by now, the first thing I check when trying to determine the legitimacy of a survey site is to check for basic things like company history, an “About” page, site’s profile on the BBB (if there is any) etc.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find any piece of useful information about the Big Spot’s history except that a firm called Varsityplaza, LLC runs the site. BS doesn’t even have an “About” page. So, you are really limited in terms of knowing how really the company is.

As for their profile on the BBB, not surprisingly, there is none! However, the company behind the site (i.e. Varsityplaza, LLC) is listed on BBB with a B rating on a scale of A+ to F. There were about 10 complaints, all of which were closed.

So far my observation leaves me not very happy about this site!

BigSpot – How Does It Work?

You do not have to pay to become a member of this site, which is something to be expected from all legit survey sites. However, this site is a little different than others of its ilk. BigSpot.com, unlike most other survey sites, does not host its own surveys.

While most survey websites usually provide you surveys to complete before compensating for the same, this site behaves more like a portal website; one that merely provides you with a list of various free sites offering paid surveys once you submit your personal information. The site also actively encourages you to register at many of these companies.

To most people, this might seem like a convenient proposition (having all site names collated). However, the price to be paid for that information is a touch too steep; your valuable personal info!

BigSpot sells this personal info to advertisers for a nice sum of money, which is how it can afford to advertise itself on prime time TV.

Once you sign-up with them, you are provided with paid survey links. As you invest time completing these offers, you are usually told (for reasons not very clear) that “you are not qualified”.

The time you invested in this process has netted you zero returns but the same cannot be said of BigSpot. Usually, these surveys from this site concentrate on collecting the kind of information that most advertisers consider jackpot, i.e. demographic information like gender, age, address, income, marital status, and much more.

Inside the Website

The official site contains a form on its main page to help you get started quickly. Some typical questions concerning demographics are put to you like year of birth, race, gender, presence of children, etc.

You are told immediately about your qualification for signing-up with any of the survey panels. The survey panels on my list were all legitimate companies with whom I’ve dealt before.

However, there shouldn’t be any reasons for me to not qualify for these panels anyway.

The site tells me that in case I wish to know more, I need to tick the box and doing so will give me access to a complete list of qualifying survey panels once I am inside.

Is this simply a trick to make me sign-up with multiple companies and in the process, enable BigSpot to earn referral money?…

That could probably be the case, however, make sure you employ a generic email ID to avoid getting spammed! (You may want to read this article on how to avoid getting your email spammed).

Once you hit the large button named “Join Now”, you are directed to a webpage flush with sponsored offers! In my case, all these offers proved to be survey companies. Although these are legit, this is just another tactic to make you sign-up and in the process, help BigSpot make money. It’s nice to know that they are related in some way to the site instead of just being never-ending random offers.

Once I enter the site, I get to see the same panels again in the “database” of 10 survey companies. All of the companies are legit alright but calling it a database?

For goodness’ sake, there are a million survey sites out there and all that their database has to show for are names of 10 sites? Time wasted surely!

I can browse my way to the sites of each of those companies and simply choose to register. What’s so special about that!

My Take

This site is not the only site of its kind. There are plenty of sites similar to it but BigSpot stands out because of the massive airtime it gets on TV, which works as a sort of credibility builder.

The homepage of the site states that their deal comes without any catches. A blatant lie that….if you ask me.

I also find it a tad dishonest that the company refrains from revealing that it’s not a regular company conducting paid surveys. I am close to certain that the site rakes in referral money from the real survey websites it directs people to. As such, I’ve got a strong suspicion that your vital information is passed on to advertisers, which enables the latter to sell you things you do not want in the first place.

If there are any people benefiting from BS (no pun intended!) then it’s got to be the site’s owners. By getting you to sign-up for promotions and offers, they are raking in large payouts through the affiliate route. Sure, you might be rewarded in some way but rest assured, it’ll be in return for proving to be some company’s warm lead.

For instance, such companies might be willing to pay BigSpot amounts ranging from a single dollar for your email ID to more than $25 for more useful personal information, ala your Social Security Number or confirming details of your credit card.

So, is BigSpot a Scam?

Certainly not! However, if you are a seasoned survey taker, this site is a total time waster. While the site isn’t exactly a classic scam, I see no reason to use its services and dispense valuable personal information to sign-up with sites like SwagBucks, PineCone Research, and MySurvey, when the same can be done directly.

I hope after reading this review, you will stay away from BigSpot as you’ll find yourself flooded with phone calls, emails and spam (the volume depends on the kinds of information you’ve given out) by providing your personal information to this site.