A Reddit user named StaphylococcusOreos has earned 50 dollars in Google survey rewards by exploiting location tracking on daily trips to his office restroom.
The worker spent ten months collecting small survey payouts after the tech company refused to restore his expired rewards balance. Other users on the platform praised his persistence and resourcefulness after he shared the story online.
The poster explained that he had initially accumulated 50 dollars, equivalent to roughly 4,200 rubles, through a Google program that pays users for completing short market research questionnaires. However, he later discovered that the accumulated balance had an expiration date, and his credits disappeared before he could spend them.
When he contacted customer support to request a restoration of the funds, representatives turned down his appeal. The user said he vowed at the time never to use the survey platform again.
Google survey trick
His stance changed when the application began sending him location-based questionnaires about a specific retail shop operating inside his workplace building. The store was situated directly adjacent to the restroom he used every day during work hours.
Because accessing the bathroom required him to enter the store premises, Google location services detected his presence and prompted him with daily questions. Each day, he completed the survey by stating that he had visited the store but had made no purchases.
The application rewarded him with 0.24 dollars, or about 20 rubles, for each submission. He repeated the process daily for ten months until his earnings reached the 50 dollars he had previously lost.
Google operates several rewards initiatives, including Google Opinion Rewards, which sends users brief surveys based on location data, store visits, and user activity. Participants typically receive small amounts of Google Play credit or cash payments for answering basic questions about recent shopping trips.
Online community response
Members of the Reddit community responded to the post with humor and praised the employee for turning a workplace routine into a financial recovery strategy. Reddit is an American social news aggregation and discussion website where registered users submit content and engage in community discussions.
One commenter suggested paying respects to the porcelain deity in gratitude for the payout. Another noted poetically that while the company had flushed his 50 dollars down the toilet, the user had managed to retrieve the money from the same place. A third participant remarked that the common phrase about bad things happening had acquired a fresh meaning in light of the event.
The incident is part of a broader trend of Reddit users sharing unusual workplace stories and personal retaliations. In a separate account published on the platform, another user described taking revenge on a neighbor who regularly stole food from a shared refrigerator by secretly adding an intensely spicy ingredient to the dish.
