Amazon Mechanical TurkReviews 63

OK, so my MTurk account is suspended. I have tried several times to contact Amazon about it. Generally, either there is no response, or the response is canned and very unhelpful, and there is no follow-up. I don't know what to do except complain about it. I'm not sure how these people can even be credible if they aren't offering any support for their site.

If I could give zero stars I would. I had a Mechanical Turk account but haven't used it for awhile. When I went back online to try to find some work, I received a message that my account was suspended.

Can't get a reason why or anything because all three requests I have sent to the appeals email they provide have gone unanwered!

I changed phones and phone numbers, thought I had updated all my apps to use the new number. Turns out I forgot about Mturk. When I try to log in it tries to send a verification txt to the old number. I explained to customer service that it offers no other way to verify me. Not even through email. After going back and forth with customer service through email, and getting responses from them that look like copy/paste answers...I told them to shut the account down. It was a waste of time if they won't give support for there service. Id rather use the QMEE app. They pay better.

I randomly received an email stating that MTURK was denying my application to be a worker and I will not be "permitted" to work with them. The thing is, I never applied. How did they get my information?

They ban you for no apparent reason. When I found tasks that I can do and started making money off of the tasks. That is when they closed my account. These guys are crooked and scammers. The worst thing about that is that they are the only ones (yes, I've searched up and down the internet) that has a wide range of tasks. All of the other tasks sites either have way too few tasks or the tasks are just out right scammy in that they do not intend to ever pay you. MTurk has all of the tasks that will pay you as well as those that won't and if you find the right types of tasks for you, they WILL BAN you.

In April 2012, I joined Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) and began earning over $600 per month through the platform until 2017. However, from 2018 to the present, my monthly earnings have decreased drastically to just $80. This is due to Amazon Mechanical Turk increasing their pricing from 20% to 40%, which has resulted in clients leaving the platform in disappointment. I am frustrated and saddened by this change, as the platform's management has behaved rudely and shamefully. This increase in pricing has resulted in losses for everyone involved - MTurk, workers like myself, and clients. It is disappointing to see such poor management decisions negatively impacting the lives of so many people.

I applied for Amazon Mturk and I provided all my information correctly, then they ask for my documents to show my identity and I provided my passport and all information and all of them was correct but they still didn't approve me. My Amazon Mturk account didn't approve for payment and I emailed several costumer services but no one even helped me with this issue. There's also no number to call or talk to someone about this issue. When I get responses, they mentioned tó email *******@amazon.com. I emailed to that many times but never got a response. They get your information for free then suspend your account for no reason. This is insane.

We deposited over $700 to run surveys in Amazon MTurks. They removed our access for non valid reason and have not response to numerous emails and have not giving our money back.
I called Amazon and they are no help since they said a different business.

I fond Bezos and Jassy's email and sent to them - no response.

These guys are terrible and robbers.

While a good percentage of the work on Amazon Mechanical Turk is legitimate, although low-paying, I've been encountering scams on the site more frequently as of late. I have noticed patterns of behavior by the individuals submitting the HITs which allows them to get a lot of effort out of people for nothing or next to nothing. And if you do end up in a dispute with a Requester, you can forget about getting any assistance from Amazon. They won't lift a finger to help you; you'll be on your own. So here are the things I've noticed which you should watch out for or avoid altogether.

Be very careful about accepting HITs where the base pay/reward is low (usually 25 cents or less) but which promise significant bonuses upon completion. I did this one HIT for a Requester called Geneva Resort (the same HIT has also been posted under the name, L-PAL). It involved writing an essay and taking a vocabulary test. All told, it took between an hour and an hour and a half to complete. The base pay was only a penny, but I did it because a bonus of nearly $12 was promised. Well, Geneva Resort approved the HIT and paid the penny, but they never paid the bonus. I contacted them multiple times; they never bothered to respond to me. And as far as Amazon support goes, they say they don't "mediate any issues between Workers and Requesters." They do enforce payment of the base pay/reward if a HIT is approved, but they don't make Requesters uphold their promise to pay out a bonus. So I'm just going to have to write off getting paid for all of the work I did on that HIT.

Another way Requesters get out of paying for work done on their HITs is to allot an extremely short amount of time to complete the HIT. You see, you have to complete the work, get your completion code and submit that before the allotted time expires. Because once a HIT expires, you can't submit it to get paid. There was this one instance where I accepted a HIT from a Requester, called Suan C, without paying attention to the time requirement. I completed the HIT in one sitting (10-15 minutes, max), got my completion code and went back to the MTurk site to submit it, but the timer had expired. I contacted Suan C, and like Geneva Resort, they never responded. And again, Amazon did nothing. So always keep a close eye on the timer and skip HITs which have a ridiculously low completion time set on them.

Here's the last thing I've noticed Requesters do. A lot of HITs will state the estimated completion time right in the title. That is nice, since you can compare the estimated time to the allotted time. However, many Requesters lowball the estimate. I've lost count of the number of times it's taken me 2-3 times longer to complete a HIT than what I was anticipating. And while the Requesters did allot sufficient time for me to complete the HITs (which means I got paid), I ended up doing a LOT more work than I was expecting to have to do for the advertised pay.

Overall, I'd say Amazon Mechanical Turk is a convenient way to make some pocket money, but be prepared to not always get paid (or get paid much) for the work you do. I'd view this as an option of last resort, more than anything else.

Edit: I just wanted to add one quick update. Matt See is another Requester whose HITs you should avoid. He also doesn't respond when you try to contact him, and he DIDN'T PAY for work done on one of his HITs.

Made a "free" AWS account as required. Within a week it was hacked and I was charged over $270. I was then forced to spend over 8 hours changing the settings for a "server/database" the hackers created as AWS claims they can't close the account or credit without everything being reversed by you. Even if you didn't want ANY of the scam services Amazon shills. It has been over 3 weeks and I still do not have my money back. Avoid this scam and AWS needs to go bankrupt. $#*!ing thieves

They will suspend/close your account with no explanations or details given even if you've had your account for over a decade! Even if you are a top performer and never had any issues. There is no one to talk to or appeal. You will not be able to access your account at all and lose all the money earned and pending. If you are making any money on there know that at any time they can close your account.

If they don't approve the task they will keep your money with no recourse. Basically the contract is worded so they can just keep any money that you prepaid. I wouldn't recommend.

I approach everything I do in good faith. Thus, I expect promised compensation for my efforts. Requesters frequently offer poorly constructed HITs that cannot be submitted, as they may require a code that is never generated, or they cannot be completed for any other reason due to erroneous coding. Requesters can reject on a whim but are not required to provide a reason, although workers can contact requesters. The ONE time I was rejected was because the requester was unable to comprehend the mTurk report received, on a HIT for which no completion code was required in order to submit, although she claimed that it was required (?) and only emailed a copy of her report that showed my worker ID# without any supporting evidence that there was a completion code required. Amazon took her side and let the rejection stand, although she got 15 minutes of my time and all of the data from my efforts for free. Not a good result. Another example came from a HIT that I completed BEFORE it notified me that I was not qualified. I contacted the requester who stated that the HIT had NO qualifications, despite my remitting a screenshot to both Amazon and to the requester. He refused to pay and once again I wasted 15 minutes, he got all the data he'd asked for, and Amazon refused to either discuss the issue with him or to work on my behalf. Then Amazon expected me to troubleshoot their platform for free. The only conclusion that can be made is that mturk is for people with a lot of time on their hands, who are happy to do often mindless penny-ante HITs with no expectation of compensation. I enjoyed some of the HITs, not only because those requesters paid as promised, but because the HITs were fun or interesting. Some HITs are reasonably well compensated but those are few and far between.
Another issue-more an annoyance-is in mturk's filters. I filter HITs to show only those for which I qualify, but I still get a lot of HITs for which I'm not qualified. My list also shows HITs in any of several languages that I do not speak.
If you need to earn money to pay bills, this isn't the place. If you have free time and don't care about the money, go ahead and have some fun.

I am so sick of being treated like this. All i wanted to do is get another going after i stopped using my old account years ago. That old account was suspended. Then i tried to make a new account and they said i am not "permitted" to work at amazon m turk. Truly disgusted with the unfairness. I hate being treated like this. I just get walled out for some ungodly reason. I hope you enjoy these bad reviews mturk cause im just getting started.

When I first joined Mturk, it seems like a good way to earn extra tinny money. I did not suspect it to have so much problem since it is a big company.

HOWEVER! You only realize it is a scam because it WON"T pay you! Not to say all the tasks are paying out very low rate considering the time you put there.

First, You cannot get your payment from Mturk like transfer to paypal or bank account directly, instead, you have to use their AMAZON PAYMENT to receive your payment as one and only way they give you. For signning up, you have to provide you SSN and Driver license, all those sensitive information. I have never use any product so far that require you that.

Second, after you get your earning from Mturk finally to be transferable to the AMAZON PAYMENT account, which is after 10 days of your first Mturk hit(which I think more that it is truly a scam, because during this period, you will do more hits and won't get paid instead of just doing one hit and find out it WON"T pay you), you have them ask for your bank account and need you either log in( type your account and password) to be able to verify, which I feel very uncomfortable with. Or upload your bank statement.?
Who the hell do you think you are? Federal government? You don't have the right to do that, prob into people's privacy and their sensitive information!

Third, how much money I am trying to withdraw? Only $13, yes, that is all I earned from 2 weeks of endless survey, less than $1 a day. And yet you require for a transferring-one- million-dollars type of verification process?

Forth, the customer service is irritating and useless. They just don't provide any way for you to directly call them, when you call, the person will tell you, he can't handle it, but someone from the "correct" department will email you back!

Fifth, when you finally get the reply, it is so official, they don't even look into your individual case but give you a general reply. Which tell me to do the things I already did and the second email they ask me to upload bank statement? WHY? I already verified my bank account by logging in and answer the security question! What do you want from me? This makes me feel very uncomfortable that the company is trying to dig into my personal information so much.

And now, they still don't pay me anything and it is 5 days after I called them reported this issue. So I think they are scam for sure at this point. If you have similar experience, comment below. We can file a CLASS ACTION together and sue the company to death!