Has anyone had a problem...

[Seeker615]

With the survery people at Universal Studios?

Now we had a wonderful trip the end of August/early September. Crowds were great and the parks were a blast but our very last day it seemed the survery takers were everywhere. There appeared to be two different groups. One group was trying to get you into a TV show to critique and the other must have been trying to sell something? (my first day this woman was asking about plumbing products and then disqualified me when I told her my husband was a plumber)

Well that last day every corner had a person trying to get us to stop. We politely declined and kept moving. It got a little annoying. The last straw was when we were walking by Mel's Diner and I was on my cell talking to my hubby about something that he needed to take care of when this man approaches us and starts asking where we were from. I indicated I was on my phone but he kept talking. I turned my back and kept walking and he starts following us and back-peddling trying to get my daughter now. She tells him she already did the TV thing (we really didn't) but he still won't go away. Finally I hang up my phone and tell him we are heading to a show and we are not interested in participating.

I did contact Universal and they did get back to me and said they will address the issue. Hopefully if enough people complain they will lose the survey takers. It can get a bit annoying trying to duck them!

 

[damo]

I've never had an issue. We did do a survey this past stay on employees. We were asked politely if we wanted to do it.

 

[nytimez]

Universal has plenty of survey-takers (as does Disney) and I'm glad they take guest feedback seriously enough to employ people to do this.

I've never had a problem with them, never had any aggressive survey-takers follow me around like you describe. Sometimes they stop me (and I usually answer the questions), sometimes they don't. Like damo, I've found them to always be polite or at least not rude.

 

[Thumper_Man]

Sorry OP that you got bombarded by survey takers. I know some tend to get a little pushier than others. When we went last year, they pay you to take the tv survey. It was kinda fun doing this one, but really took away from the day. Only thing I didn't like was they said it would take about an hour away from your day. They do it by age groups. I was the oldest in our group and in a different age group, so mine took the longest. I think I was in there about an hour and a half. It was nice to get a little money back, but I would not do it again as I couldn't get the time back. At least what we got paid help pay for dinner for the night.

 

[Fantasmic23]

My husband and I were very politely approached in April to critique a new TV show ("Whitney"). We were hesitant at first, but sweaty bodies and exhaustion won in the end. It took thirty minutes and we made $10 each (which we blew on souvenirs).

In August, we were approached as we were coming out of Men In Black. There was some "free" gift being offered, but you had to participate in one of those time share presentation first. We politely declined.

 

[kacaju]

My husband was looking for the TV people when we were there!! When dh and I went a few years ago we were paid $20 cash each to view an upcoming new show. My dd11 and I did a pizza roll taste test and got $15 for doing it!! We wer ethere for a week and had unlimited passes so we did not mind taking the time to do it.

 

[Metro West]

I've never had any issues...in fact I did two surveys on opening night of HHN. One was in the holding area and asked general questions about HHN and why you came and the other was as I was leaving. That one was more detailed and asked about HHN and the houses and scare zones. Normally when I tell them I live here, they go to someone else.

 

[Seeker615]

I don't mind being approached but the aggressive one really annoyed me. If we were going to be there longer I would have participated in the TV one but we only had a limited amount of time and wanted to get everything done as who knows when we will be back.

 

[Lynne G]

Funny,
We were also at IOA and US at the end of August. We only were contacted once for a short survey about how employees were doing as we left IOA one afternoon. One afternoon at US, we also did the pizza bites survery and got $15 US dollars to spend. Took about 15 minutes, but it was hot out and where we sampled had AC and place to sit, so no big bite out of our time in the parks. Neither of the requests for our partipation was aggressive.

Sorry you had that happen to you. Never did we get offers of items (other than the US money) or TV viewing during our 4 days in the parks. Guess not in the demographic they were looking for!

 

[Carl4628]

We had the exact same problem during September 15th to 19th...with several aggressive surveyors. One guy was extremely aggressive and after I politely declined, he continued to follow us down the street yelling "I'm not selling anything". I had to get aggressive back in order to get him to leave us alone. To beat it all...the same guy approached us again later and acted in the same manner. We finally wised-up and navigated the streets accordingly in order to avoid these aggressive surveyors. Universal really needs to reign these people in...

 

[schumigirl]

Guess not in the demographic they were looking for!

LOL.......that must have been us as well.

I do like to give my opinions on things at times and this year we were never asked, despite seeing them nearly every day. One of them struck up a conversation with us one day and they were not looking for Brits that day.

But any time we have been asked to take part in surveys the people who asked have always been polite. Only once we declined to do a 20 minute survey as we were leaving the park, only because we were in a rush. But they just smiled and wished us a good evening.

 

[Planogirl]

No one asked us to a single survey this past August and that was a first. I like to do those that are about the parks but don't care to be bothered about other subjects. Plumbing? That's ridiculous.

 

[Bluer101]

The survey people are fine, have done a few myself. Also love doing the ones that pay you $$$.

As for the time share, the first thing they ask, "Where are you from?" Just tell them you are local, or you are flying home in 2 hours. They won't ask you any more questions after that.

 

[Seeker615]

Carl - let Universal know about the aggressive survey taker. I bet he is the same one we dealt with. Universal did contact me about the issue so hopefully they are listening!

 

[4greatboys]

We've never had a problem with the survey takers then again we enjoy doing the surveys. I've seen several good shows.

 

[PartofDisney'sWorld]

The reason some of them are so pushy is because they are required to meet a quota. Not that that excuses them to be pushy because people are on vacation and obviously don't want to be continuously coerced into taking surveys. I went last month to both parks in one day and only got stopped twice, once in USF and once in IoA. Since I am local they didn't want anything to do with me.