Date: 3-3-2014

Due Date: 3-3-2015

Resolution: What's this an old school cellphone?

Nope.

This is the free scanner that I received from the National Consumer Panel a Neilsen/IRI Joint Venture!!!

What the hell does that mean?

I'm not fully sure, but I will be scanning everything that I purchase that has a barcode and participating in surveys to earn points to get free stuff!!!

As a kid… I was always fascinated by my one friend who was lucky enough to be a Nielsen Family. As a kid, who loved television more than anything else, I was so jealous that this casual viewer got to share his viewing habits with the world and not me.

About a month ago I was looking for free samples on the internet for my Free Stuff Reviews when I stumble upon this ad for a free scanner. When I found out this “free product” was part of the Nielsen family of market research… I had to give it a shot. After clicking a few links, filling out a form, taking a survey, and then clicking a finalize link to reassure that I was sober and this wasn't something I signed up for in a blacked-out haze, I was accepted as a panelist.

No this is not the job that I've been talking about on Facebook, there is no pay other than a currency of bonus points that you get to trade in for prizes ala Skee-Ball tickets.

I won't be giving any updates for this resolution, but at the end of the year, I will take all of my bonus points and go on a prize catalog shopping spree and update you as to what this venture afforded me to buy.

**Result #62: I Did Sign Up And Participate was going to consider this a Success!!! with an "*" but when I went to log into the site I was informed that I failed :(**

Update #1: The Conclusion…

Date: 3-3-2015

Even though this is probably the worst task for someone who works in retail, I was doing so well at this resolution for the longest time. Even after a day of scanning products in and updating inventory, I managed to come home every day that I went shopping to scan in items in my private life.

Staying caught up with NCP is a pretty annoying task. First… you have to enter in your info, where you shopped, who you shopped with, and so on. This part isn't all that bad.

Then you have to scan all the items. This wouldn't be a problem if it was just a matter of scanning and moving on. Instead… you have to scan an item and enter the quantity. Then it asks you if it was on sale or regular price. If the item is on sale you have to select what kind of sale, coupon, in-store promotion, etc...

This gets annoying pretty quick but it still wasn't that bad.

Eventually… the NCP decided they were going to do scanning via a phone app. This happened right around the time I came up with the idea that I wanted to move. I didn't realize they were going app-only so I packed up the equipment and started to use the phone app.

The phone app turned out to be very annoying. My phone took forever to capture the bar code and it just seemed harder to enter the information in general so I decided to take a break until the move so that I could hook up the scanner again and get back on it.

I finally found the scanner and went to log on to get back into the swing of things I found my account has been suspended and they are now demanding their equipment back.

They kicked me out :(

I don't think there's a way to construe this as anything but a failure.