a s.

In my previous years of using their service, I have always had to pay hundreds more for "income overages" If my income was a little higher than reported they'd charge me anywhere between $400-700 more at the end of the year. However, doing my 2019 tax return with a preparer today I was in for a shock. Now, up until the point where the tax program calculates how much extra I owe (or not, which has never happened) before the premium tax credit calculations, I was due a $2,400 refund. Once the premium tax credit calculation was done, I lost the $2,400 AND I owed the IRS another $700. Holy S***.

Now get this, I was already paying $500 a month in premiums for this high deductible health plan that I purchased through the marketplace. Maybe my math is off but this is what I cost me to have health insurance that I couldn't use for 2019. $6,000 in premiums + $2,400 in a refund that was negated + $700 extra that the IRS hadn't grabbed yet = $9,100. That comes out to almost $760 PER MONTH for a single person, high deductible health plan. For that kind of money, I could have bought a much better private plan outside the marketplace. Heck, for that kind of money I could have taken the risk and insured myself! So who do I speak about the royal screwing I just got? IRS? Healthcare.gov? The insurance carrier? They'll tell me to go pound sand. So I pay $3,100 or I get fined, get property seized or go to jail for not paying. My advice. DO NOT use this service. Whatever they quote you for as to what you will pay when you enroll and what you will end up paying at tax time is patently FALSE.

Ive been doing testing for them for years. In the beginning it was great. I would qualify for many tests and the client would give me high marks for my detailed testing. Then the problems began. Clients and even User Testing would find any way they could to decline payment. Id go through the recorded video with User Testing and show them I did exactly what was requested. They would then pay out the fee for my work. Kind of like an insurance company. Deny the claim and maybe deny the appeal.
Then there was a lull where I would get no tests at all. I wrote to them and they told me to keep waiting for tests. I just stopped looking at that point because I figured there were too many testers and not enough work. Then the test requests started rolling in again about a year ago. I never qualified for any tests. What I think User Testing is doing (or their clients) is to phrase the qualification / survey in such a way that they get the information they need without you actually having to take a test. Think of the questions as free marketing research. For example, you get questions like what is your income, what is your age, what auto insurance do you use, what brands do you use?
Now its even worse, if thats even possible. I am hit with a ton of test requests. They still gather the data for marketing research purposes in the guise of qualifying questions. But now they will send you the same test request multiple times on different dates. They will send you requests for high paying qualifying tests which have already expired. I hadnt checked my inbox there and I had SIX pages of tests to go through. After going through about 30 tests and not qualifying for a single one, I tried to decline all the tests in bulk. You cant do it. You can only do one page at a time. I dont know if declining tests hurt you for getting future tests but at this point I dont care. The company has lost all credibility in my book.