Was I played?

I don't naturally do this, but I filled out an online comment card for an internet service. And they called me back the next day. Holy crap, they actually listen to those things?

So, to remove content (fill in an example of content yourself):

• I had made an appointment, by phone, to a service (where I had to go to the service) Let's call this S (for service)
• A week before the appointment, I got an email asking me visit a website, to fill out an online form, all very relevant info for the appointment, and would save time at the Service (you always have to fill out forms for the first fifteen minutes at the Service and it's info that never changes, so why the hell am I filling out this stupid form by hand? Again?). This was a third party website, directed at lots of these kinds of services. Let's call this WFC (for web form company). I thought the site was well-done or at least better than average, asked only necessary questions, good UI.
• I went to my appointment. There were good and bad things about the appointment.
• After my appointment, I happened to be web-surfing and I saw an article about the WFC (the company behind the form) that was disparaging about their sales strategy. Or more specifically, the WFC sales people tend to hard sell the S's so much that, despite the efficiency the WFC offers, S's don't like to work with WFC (90% turn away). Also other shady sales practices and culture.
• And after that, I happened to get an email from WFC asking to me answer a survey about how my appointment went, to essentially review the Service (so a bit like Angie's list or TripAdvisor).
• Because of the negative news about WFC, I decided to go fill out the survey. I said both the good and bad things about the Service, but there were also some survey questions about the WFC site/experience itself which were mostly good, but because of the news I had read, I also mentioned some qualms I had (I used that phrasing) about their privacy and sharing of user info, giving the negatively sales behavior as reason for my qualms. My review was copious about the Service, and only a one liner about my qualms about WFC.
• The next day, I got a call. Yes, a direct cold call. From customer service at WFC. Very breathlessly concerned about my ... concerns. They weren't wondering about my review of Service. They were addressing my concerns. We spent about 15 minutes discussing the issue, me giving more detail about my qualms, and they being somehow apologetic about the situation saying that they wouldn't do what I feared (on the internet, you can say anything, and it may even be true!).
• They gave me an Amazon gift card (online).

So I don't know who's right, who's telling the truth, everybody could be telling the truth in the small narrow view of things, or everybody could just be doing their job the best way possible and others are misinterpreting or interpreting correctly for their own small narrow perspective (everybody is an adversary if it's a game).

The point of this story... I want to know if I was played. Getting a gift card (no idea what the value is) out of the blue like that, I'm paranoid why would they do that unless they want to assuage me. I'm not the one giving bad reviews of WFC. ... maybe it's just what people do in customer relations whenever a call back is made. Maybe all they superficially see is 'negative about WFC' and they jump on that to plug the hole/stop the gap/nip the bud/unmix the metaphor. Because once you accept a gift, there's a psychological balance. You always owe whether you're giving or receiving.