dooyoo.co.uk

In the Beginning there was the word, and the word was DooYoo...

DooYoo is a site much like Ciao, where consumers can go to read the latest reviews on products; everything from perfumes and laptops, to baked beans and toilet rolls. By joining the DooYoo website, which is quick and simple to do, users can create an account which enables them to be paid for writing reviews, and for each time a user rates their reviews.

I joined DooYoo in February 2010 (I think, for reasons I'll go into later I currently can't login to check the exact date!), and quickly became slightly addicted to the site; here was somewhere I could write about my experiences of products, my opinions on topics and actually get paid for it!

Ratings

Rating other people's reviews is a key part of the DooYoo site, and writer's reviews can be rated at four levels - Not Useful, Somewhat Useful, Useful and Very Useful. As an equivalent of Ciao's Exceptional rating, DooYoo users can nominate reviews for 'Crowns' - being awarded a crown adds not only 1500 DooYoo miles to your account (more on earnings soon), but is a mark of an outstanding review.

Products & Suggestions

The green and white coloured site is very easy to navigate, and it's easy to search for products you wish to write about; if the product is not there, you are free to suggest it to DooYoo and they might add it to their catalogue of products. Be warned though, the time scale for many suggestions is drastically slow - a suggestion on Helium.com can be added within a few hours usually, a suggestion on Ciao is normally up within a day or so, but I have previously been waiting several weeks for a product to be added on DooYoo, which again is disappointing.

By adding other members as friends, you can soon build up something similar to the Circle of Trust on Ciao, and for me these members get priority when I rate, alongside the people who have rated me, and who politeness dictates I give a return rating to.

What's In It For Me?

The 'Pre-Change' Rewards Scheme

In order to earn money on DooYoo, users have to earn DooYoo miles, with £1 equalling 1000 miles.

When I joined DooYoo, the reward scheme for payments was very different to what it is today; previously, 500 miles (50p) would be paid per review, and these could be written on anything, aside from topics in the DooYoo lounge - a place for more 'off topic' reviews, anything from the contents of reviewers handbag to how fantastic their mums are - which didn't accrue money for writing them but did I believe earn miles for 'reads'.

The 50p per review earning amount was a very attractive feature to DooYoo for me, and although I do like writing the reviews and reading about other people's opinions and experiences with products, ultimately it is the spondoolies I am interested in. For me it's not a bonus, it's the main reason for writing. The fact I enjoy it is the bonus.

The New Rewards Scheme

Since the recent re-jig of payments, rewards are now offered depending on what level they are in.

Level 1 reviews pay 600 miles (60p per review), plus 20 miles (2p) per read, and Level 1 products include an array of electrical goods, computing goods, household appliances and perfumes to name a few topics.

Level 2 reviews pay 300 miles (30p per review), plus 15 miles (1.5p) per read. Level 2 products include books, cosmetics, gardening equipment and some health products, amongst others.

Level 3 reviews pay a measly 100 miles (10p) and just 10 miles (1p) per read, and this level includes topics such as films and DVDs - one of my favourite topics - food and drink, music and travel.

Personally, although I understand the need for the change in reward scheme - after all, a complex review for a laptop should not earn the same as a baked bean review - I was unhappy with the individual topic allocations. For example, an easy to write fragrance review would be allocated 6 times as many miles as a potentially crown winning film review.

10p for writing film, travel and music reviews in my opinion is far too little, and I hope that DooYoo will reconsider the categories in each tier very shortly, as the payment scheme is already putting many good writers off the website.

Cashing Out

Your hard earned miles can be converted in 3 different ways:

Reach 5000 miles (£5) and you can donate your miles to charity.

Reach 20000 miles (£20) and you can convert your miles into Amazon.co.uk vouchers

Reach 50000 miles (£50) and you can have a cheque for that amount posted out for you.

And now for the juicy part...

After she had some financial difficulties and lost her job, I recommended my sister join DooYoo; after all, I was enjoying using the site. I recommended it as I'd already had a few cheques for £50 come through, which I had sent to my sister in order to put into a savings account for my niece. Despite being somewhat of a child-disliker, I still love the little blighter, and thought that it would be better for her to have the cash saved for her rather than me spending it on a airline flight which I could already afford...

On my recommendation, my sister joined DooYoo, and began writing reviews. She actually did better than I did in terms of quality when I started, as I suggested she looked at other reviews to judge the level needed, so she didn't turn into just another new churner.

She added more members to her Circle of Friends, and continued to write and rate reviews of people she was trusted by and trusted, including myself, as well as returning rates.

A lot of hard work later, my sister reached her 50000 miles threshold and was thrilled about it, and shortly after requested her cheque.

Shortly before this I had reported a revenge rater, so when I received an email from DooYoo customer support, I thought it was regarding this matter. The revenge rate had been removed (yay!). Unfortunately, so too had my sister's entire DooYoo account, and I was informed that my own account was suspended for 2 weeks due to DooYoo's claim that I had multiple accounts created to 'generate DooYoo miles for each other'. What?!

I have an account. My sister has an account.
She writes her reviews, which sometimes I rate along with everyone elses return ratings.
I write my reviews, which sometimes she rates along with her other Circle of Friends ratings.

Quite frankly, I'd been so disillusioned with DooYoo since the reward scheme change that I barely had the motivation to write for one account, let alone multiple accounts.

I informed the team as to the circumstances to appeal on both mine and my sister's sake, but I'm yet to receive a response - I'll update when I do.

DooYoo said they also deleted a third account supposedly linked to me. I have no idea whose account this is, so I feel sorry for the poor sod who's about to find out that their account's just been scuppered thanks to DooYoo's misguided actions - hopefully they hadn't built up a lot of cash, although it would be convenient for DooYoo if they had I suppose...

It seems to me that DooYoo only had a problem with my sister's account after she requested her hard earned money from them. Funny that, isn't it.

Update: 14th July - After both myself and my sister sent emails to dooyoo they eventually got back to both of us (at our own, might I add, different registered email addresses), and have stated that neither my account nor my sister's will be reopened. They are convinced we are the same person, despite having different names, addresses, writing styles, topics covered, and not participating in a clicking cartel for each other.

My sister has lost £50 of earnings and god knows how many hours of her time.
I have lost £38 of my earnings, so that's £88 between us gone all because Dooyoo are too dense to look at the actual content of the reviews and have judged our accounts by where I post my cheques to. £88 stolen basically. Watch out for these guys...any excuse to not give you your hard earned cash.

Conclusion

I am thoroughly disheartened by DooYoo. After the reward scheme change, which I understood but was disappointed in, I was already finding it hard to muster up the energy to write reviews on the Level 1 earning products I see as quite dull, but which I needed to look at in order to keep my review earnings up.

After this latest episode though, I have been put off this website even more so. I have found that I only seem to have problems with DooYoo when money is involved, money that has been earned by writing good quality reviews for them, and money which they seemed determined not to have to pay.

If I have to serve out my suspension, I plan on returning, earning the 15000 miles I need to cash out (if of course DooYoo don't conjure up yet another reason to not pay...it wouldn't surprise me), and quitting. They are becoming unreliable, and I will not waste my time and effort in writing for them when it seems they can close/suspend accounts/deny payments on what seems like a whim.

I will earn my last bit of money, and then leave them to it. DooYoo is very disappointing, and though I once held it in high regard, I now no longer recommend it.