Arbitron ratings company

[lordhutt]

Has anyone ever dealt with these people?
They keep sending me money. Usually $10 at a time and want me to carry around a little pager sized black box to monitor my tv and radio listening. They say you will get money every month for doing it.

They say the box picks up signals from the radio and tv and keeps records of what you watch. I find it hard to believe that something like this could even work for starters. When they called me and I told them that I dont listen to the radio or watch tv, which is true...I listen to cd's or mp3's and watch movies or download my tv show commercial free. Then the guy tried to tell me that doesnt matter because even it I go to a grocery or department store it will pick up what they are playing...WTF!!! First of all that would not be my choice and second is that even possible!!!???

They can keep sending me all the cash they want...up to about $70 by now and keep calling me (caller ID is nice) but I have no intention of ever doing this. I have told them to stop but just received 10 more beans today which is what prompted this post.

So, anyone know the deal with this company?...www.arbitronresearch.com

[zzyzzx]

Their webpage doesn't say how the box works, and I can't imagine how it works either. Can you post some pics of it. Any info on the box saying hwo made it and a model number, etc.

[gadgetguy]

Maybe the "signals" are audio waves and it's just a microphone and recorder. It would record any audio within earshot, wherever you go. Of course, that much data would create a storage problem, and would be a pain to filter to determine listening habits, but it could be done.
More importantly, that method would also record all of your private conversations and personal activities.

[adam]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_People_Meter

Granted its wikipedia but it seems legit. It just reads certain tones that I guess each radio station inserts in their broadcast as an identifier. It then uploads its logs of what stations it recognized, and how many times, when you set it up to upload overnight.

If they are paying you to do this and you don't mind carrying it around I say go for it. Its easy money. Maybe they are as interested in learning about commercial radio use as much as they are personal use, and are perfectly happy seeing what radio stations you hear around your part of town just running chores.

[usually_quiet]

My parents had dealings with them in 2007.

In their case, it started with a phone call. My father agreed to participate in their radio listening survey, which he later regretted. Participation involved filling out a paper form, for a week, I think. Each of them was paid $3. They were called a few times and nagged during the period they were to fill out the forms, and then again to remind them to return the forms, which they had already done.

As far as I know, they haven't been contacted since, which is good, because my parents don't want to participate again. In view of that, and the amount of money they have already sent you, I'm very surprised you can't get them to leave you alone.

[budz]

Funny that this has been mentioned because I too had a phone call and agreed to participate. What a freaking mistake that was! I have caller ID on my home phone and I got tired of them calling me constantly every god damn day since I received the stupid radio ratings diary. I finally told them to stop calling me because they'll get their damn survey when it's done. Then I received a damn $1.00 in the mail the other day. Hopefully they'll leave me alone now since I was very off at them on the phone.