Complaints

This profile includes complaints for NORC's headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see Find Local Branches.

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  NORC

  55 E Monroe St Fl 20 Chicago, IL 60603-5901

  
• 

  National Opinion Research Center

  10500 Copper Ave NE Ste A1 Albuquerque, NM 87123

  
• 

  NORC

  1 Broadway Fl 14 Cambridge, MA 02142

  
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  NORC

  4350 East West Hwy Fl 8 Bethesda, MD 20814

  
• 

  National Opinion Research Center (NORC)

  1155 E 60th St # 3 Chicago, IL 60637

  

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/15/2022

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  This company sent me a ***** document stating they wanted to ask me questions in return for some gift card. A few days later they showed up at my home banging on the door flashing her Norco badge into my door camera. My husband answer and told her nicely we would not be interested. She asked to talk to me and he told her I was in the bath. She told him very rudely and pushy that she would be back. A few days later I see she was back but I ignored the door as my husband was not home. My son was riding his bike and she cornered him when he was coming home. Later that night I called and complained and said to LEAVE us alone! But nope they wont stop calling now! This is insane and is harassment. I am also filling out a police report about this. These people need to understand NO means NO! Leave us alone means YOU ARE NOT welcome to come over or call! I will say it again tell your employees to loose my number and address and never contact us again!

  

  Business Response

  Date: 12/21/2022

  
  Action Steps taken:
  We have reviewed the complaint submitted. We were able to identify the survey the complainant had been contacted about. We would like to confirm that this is a legitimate, federally funded survey and is ultimately conducted for the betterment of society. All data-gathering procedures are consistent with the scientific literature on survey research and best practices in social science data collection.

  
  Trained NORC interviewers made in person contact with the household on two separate occasions. In the first visit, a household member indicated that he was willing to participate but that his wife was not interested.  The interviewer made an appointment to revisit at a time both the husband and wife would be home.  The interviewer arrived at the appointed time but the respondents were not home. The interviewer left a card for the respondents to get in contact to complete the interview. After this visit a call was received from one of the respondents on our toll-free line asking us to not visit again.  The case was finalized on December 13, 2022 and no additional contact was made with this household.  The complaint with the Better Business Bureau was made three days later.  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 12/22/2022

  Complaint: 18596535
  
  I am rejecting this response because it is partly inaccurate. My husband was bullied by this interviewer the first time. He said no that he wasnt interested and she said she needed to ask me.  She would not accept no for an answer that day from him.  At that point I didnt know who you were and have never heard of your company. I went onto BBB website to learn- which I did learn enough to know that I was not interested either. That is when I called that ************************************************************************** the gift cards and to not contact us anymore. Communication should have stopped right there. 
  What went wrong in all of this was that this interviewers behavior that first day was off. She shouldnt have been so pushy like she was. She needed to be respectful when someone tells her that they are not interested. On the second time she should not have approached my son like she did. She is a stranger to him and that was very scary. Look at that through *************. A stranger approaches you and asks you where your mom is then gives him a letter/ That was scary for him. That was her second mistake she made. Then her third mistake made was what you didnt share above in your response back. Maybe you really didnt know about this. After my call saying to stop contacting us (few days later), this interviewer called again and left a voicemail. She said how is she supposed to talk to us if we never answer the **** phone. Swearing was her words not mine. Maybe she was calling to apologize and was angry I didnt answer or maybe not. Clearly though she either didnt get the message to stop all communication or she simply didnt care to listen and called anyways or I sure hope she called to apologize. 
  After this voicemail is when I filed a BBB. 
  
  
  To sum it all up here as I said before we are not interested at this time. Its Christmas time and we have a lot going on. I dont have time to deal with this right now. 
  Maybe in the future we will consider it but that will be if and when we have time to do so. Right now no. If and when we do want to participate we will call the 800 number. For now please take us off all lists with ya all. Please let that interviewer know to not call anymore please. 
  I am not looking for anything from this complaint other than simply agreeing not to call/text, email, send anything in the mail or come to our home. 
  Thanks!
  

  

  Business Response

  Date: 01/05/2023

  As previously stated in our response, this case was finalized on December 13, 2022 and no additional contact was made with this household, nor will it in the future.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/05/2022

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I received a letter via ***** back in July 2022 regarding taking a NORC survey. I wasnt interested in doing this so I threw the letter away. A very pushy NORC interviewer showed up at my door in August (on a Saturday) trying to pressure me into doing an interview right then. I had family visiting from out of town (he saw the car in my driveway with the out of state plates) and told him (nicely but firmly) I wasnt interested in doing a survey then or ever. I thought that would be the end of it. This man has come to my house on at least 4 more occasions. I did not answer my door each time, but he did catch me outside one of those times. I told him AGAIN that I wasnt going to give him an interview and to just go away (again firmly). I really thought that was it until yesterday (Sunday) when he showed up again, this time leaving a note promising me $250 to do the interview. In my opinion I find him rude, aggressive and borderline harassing. His name is *****************************. I dont want him on my property again, and I will contact the police department if he returns.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 12/12/2022

  I received a letter via ***** back in July 2022 regarding taking a NORC survey. I wasnt interested in doing this so I threw the letter away. A very pushy NORC interviewer showed up at my door in August (on a Saturday) trying to pressure me into doing an interview right then. I had family visiting from out of town (he saw the car in my driveway with the out of state plates) and told him (nicely but firmly) I wasnt interested in doing a survey then or ever. I thought that would be the end of it. This man has come to my house on at least 4 more occasions. I did not answer my door each time, but he did catch me outside one of those times. I told him AGAIN that I wasnt going to give him an interview and to just go away (again firmly). I really thought that was it until yesterday (Sunday) when he showed up again, this time leaving a note promising me $250 to do the interview. In my opinion I find him rude, aggressive and borderline harassing.His name is ____ I dont want him on my property again, and I will contact the police department if he returns.
  

  Business Response
  

  Thank you for giving us the opportunity to respond to this complaint. NORC at the University of Chicago is an independent 501(c)3, not-for-profit research organization that collaborates with government agencies, foundations, educational institutions,nonprofit organizations, and businesses to conduct objective social science research. We have been conducting research in the public interest since **** and we are always trying to improve our operations so thank you for reaching out to us.
  
  We have reviewed the complaint submitted. We were able to identify the survey the complainant had been contacted about. We would like to confirm that this is a legitimate, federally funded survey and is ultimately conducted for the betterment of society. All data-gathering procedures are consistent with the scientific literature on survey research and best practices in social science data collection.
  
  A trained NORC interviewer made in person visits with the household on a few occasions. Upon initial contact a household member indicated she was not aware of the study and accepted print materials about the study. Follow-up on initial contact was made according to scientific best practices and standard non-response protocol. The household address in the referenced survey was scientifically selected and cannot be replaced. However, participation is and has always been voluntary. To that end, NORC has already placed a block on this address and will not contact them again about their participation in this survey.
  
  We do appreciate that the complainant did express their concerns with NORC staff, and contacted the Better Business Bureau with the intention of assuring that her requests were escalated. We hope that we have adequately addressed all the concerns expressed by the complainant.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 12/15/2022

   
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***********************

• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/27/2022

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I had had 2 people come to my house and just now a phone call I keep telling them to leave me alone I dont want to take part in their survey. They say my house was chosen yet it would only let me do the survey not anyone else in my house . She said she can make a note but that they wont stop contacting me . They are very aggressive and scary . The first guy said I hurt his feeling , he is just an old fat guy he would try to trick me . I have video but cant figure out how to share it from my security camera .

  

  Business Response

  Date: 11/08/2022

  Customers Statement of the Problem:
  
  I had had 2 people come to my house and just now a phone call I keep telling them to leave me alone I dont want to take part in their survey. They say my house was chosen yet it would only let me do the survey not anyone else in my house . She said she can make a note but that they wont stop contacting me .They are very aggressive and scary . The first guy said I hurt his feeling , he is just an old fat guy he would try to trick me . I have video but cant figure out how to share it from my security camera .
  

  Business Response
  

  Thank you for giving us the opportunity to respond to this complaint. NORC at the University of Chicago is an independent 501(c)3, not-for-profit research organization that collaborates with government agencies, foundations, educational institutions,nonprofit organizations, and businesses to conduct objective social science research. We have been conducting research in the public interest since **** and we are always trying to improve our operations so thank you for reaching out to us.
  
  We have reviewed the complaint submitted. We were able to identify the survey the complainant had been contacted about. We would like to confirm that this is a legitimate, federally funded survey and is ultimately conducted for the betterment of society. All data-gathering procedures are consistent with the scientific literature on survey research and best practices in social science data collection.
  
  Trained NORC interviewers made in person contact with the household on two separate occasions. In the first visit, a household member indicated doubt regarding the survey and the interviewer left print materials to provide additional information about the survey. On the second visit, the interviewer spoke with a different household member that indicated that somebody else in the household did not want to participate, but also told NORC staff that they would contact us by phone regarding the survey. The third and final contact with the household was by phone, where a household member indicated that they were not interested in participating in the survey. The complaint with the Better Business Bureau was made three days later, though no additional contact had been made with the household. Each of these contacts with the household was made with more than a month between contacts as to not unduly bother household members.
  
  The household address in the referenced survey was scientifically selected and cannot be replaced. However, participation is and has always been voluntary. To that end, NORC has already placed a block on this address and will not contact them again about their participation in this survey.
  
  We do appreciate that the complainant did express their concerns with NORC staff and contacted the Better Business Bureau with the intention of assuring that her requests were escalated. We hope that we have adequately addressed all the concerns expressed by the complainant.