Virginia Tech Transportation Institute — Local services in Blacksburg

If you sign up to participate in a study at VTTI, make sure you don't need the money any time soon. I spent 3/4 of my day off to volunteer on August 1 and still have not been paid 20 days later! I went to use my prepaid Visa card 2 weeks after participating and it was declined, kind of embarrassing. So I called the number on the back of the card to find out my funds were never loaded. I had to call to find out there was a "glitch" in the payment system and I wasn't paid. Then I found out they were reapplying for funding approval in order to pay the participants. I asked if they can just send me one of the pre loaded cards and was told no, they don't work either. Now they are telling me it will be next week at the earliest before funds will be loaded. 1, I shouldn't have to call to find out I wasn't paid, they should call me. 2, I don't wait a month to get paid at work, definitely not going to wait a month for payment on something like this. How is a multi million dollar division 1 university unable to follow through on commitments?!? At the end of the day, it's $40, but ultimately it's the principal of following through with what was promised. And some people are doing this for the money and can't wait a month for payment. I'll update this review once I am paid to see how long the whole process took.

UPDATE 08-23-2019 The funds finally arrived! The director of the institute called and apologized for the issues and thanked me for participating. While I appreciate the call, still think the situation should have been handled...

VTTI is an amazing place. So many cool research projects are underway that will improve transportation for everyone. We recently hosted a work event here and Pam and team were super accommodating and on top of things. If you are not lucky enough to have an affiliation to do tours here, you might want to check out the website and sign up for research projects. If I lived locally, I would 100% sign up for any projects where I could drive on the smart road, especially if weather simulations were part...

A really great and very rewarding experience. A wonderful staff...