Dating Options Avis 34

I wish I'd read the reviews before signing up!
If you are sitting on the fence and thinking of taking the plunge....RUN FOR THE HILLS!
Take your $2000 and burn it! At least you'll have a warm feeling for a while from the heat of the burning notes!
Although, if you can afford to burn $$$, you might be happy to spend a significant amount with nothing to gain other than disappointment at poor service at the end of your membership.
After a long phone relationship with their recruiter (who was very good at her job and gave the impression of caring) I signed up full of optimism and hope.
What a fool I was!!!
That's 9 months of my life I'll never get back not to mention the $$$$
I found pouring my heart out to someone quite emotive, then to find that person, the one with whom I had started to build a relationship, was NOT my matchmaker and I had to go through it all again....well!
My profile was diabolical, did not represent me as a person and was full of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes.
I also received profiles with errors!
Not what you would hope from a 'professional matchmaking service '.
As a team I found them to be fairly dismissive and not interested in the outcome, just happy to be paid for playing with people's emotions. I also received passive aggressive comments and once, when gently questioning that they were not providing the service I signed up for, I was threatened to cease badmouthing them or expect to be taken to court for libel!
I'm a professional adult Ms Office Manager, not a six year old! Your defensiveness implied to me a lack of confidence in your service.
They cite numerous 'exchanges' like a badge of honour. This means two people have exchanged numbers. I spoke to two people in 9 months, one of whom was holding a conversation with someone else while we were on the phone!
Two men decided not to exchange numbers but they still counted towards my quota!
There did not seem to be any matchmaking, I was introduced to people to whom I completely unsuitable, they naturally didn't take further, but that still counted as a 'match'!!!
I was introduced to expired members -strange when they claim to have a vast number of males and females on their book!?!
I also had the "I know you have nothing in common but that will give you more to talk about" "you're only committing to a phone call" "opposites attract" quotes from my matchmaker who still didn't know my name after 9 months! I think she was only interested in ticking sufficient boxes to meet her goals, and not finding me a suitable, or even acceptable, date.
I honestly believe, if the agencies under the umbrella had successfully matched clients there would be photos of happy couples all over their sites....plus they'd have the numbers and data to support spurious claims. The best I ever got was 500people went to exchange in the first quarter (exchanged phone numbers) but I don't have figures on how many successful relationships we have created in our trading lifetime....HMMMMMM
Having experienced this company's way of doing business I suspect the 5*reviews are possibly fictitious.
If older me could give younger me one bit of advice it would be, "don't waste your time or money with this agency...they don't care about you or your well-being "

I am impressed by Dating Options and have received a first class service from my matchmaker. I had no previous experience of using a matchmaker but wish I had found this years ago. This is miles better than using dating apps.

Really bad experience for the price you pay. Very disappointing.

It appears there are bad reviews from women and good reviews from men - I think this shows that there are many more women than men in the database.

I have had a similar experience to all negative reviews:

1) Friendly staff when they want to rope you in, but can be passive aggressive when you challenge them.

2) People who they suggested, did not all meet my criteria, then the men did not even want to speak on the phone with you.

3) One guy I was set up with asked to borrow £2000 from me!!! This should not happen from a supposedly 'high end service’. I didn’t even get a simple apology from the agency when I informed them of this.

4) Quite a few of the 'matches' did not even know how long they had been with the service and their profiles were out of date, according to themselves. As someone is paying so much money for this service, the least the company can do, is ensure that all profiles are kept up to date.

Please do not waste your money on this company - I wish there was another way to tell more people that it is a complete con. Affects your self esteem also, which is not what a dating company should do.

I can only say that this has been a very good experience for me. Far higher quality in terms of the database and who you are meeting. Safer too. Thanks Matchmakers!

Dating Options have been excellent and I am grateful for all they have done. Dating apps just weren’t working for me any longer and even getting replies was difficult. Working with my own matchmaker has been a revelation however. A first class service that works.

If I could give 0 stars, I would. I am writing this review to prevent other minority men and women from falling prey to this callous, money-grabbing company. They have no concern for their clients’ well-being and employ “membership advisers” who act like snake oil salesmen.

My name is Kafaya and I am a black woman who joined them in May this year because the membership adviser Sonia Mattu told me their database was diverse and that my preference of black men (though I was open minded) was something that they could cater to. I asked repeatedly for numbers but I now realise that she was deliberately vague. I was in conversation with Sonia for many days and I can say that she swayed my decision to actually go ahead with Attractive Partners under dating options. I put down a large amount of money because I believed that Sonia was a decent human being and would not tell lies or withhold the truth just to make a sale.

After her reassurance of the diversity of their database, I paid my fee. Within the first 14 days I had one meeting with my matchmaker Natalie from which a profile was built, all pictures provided by myself.

The second conversation that I had with my matchmaker was after the 14 day cooling off period where she told me she had reserved 17 men to my profile, 5 of whom were black. Again these numbers made me feel comfortable and that I had put my faith in the right company. To my shock my first recommendation was a white man and I was majorly confused so I rejected him and went back to Natalie reiterating my preference for a black man, at least initially. It was during this conversation that I learned that Sonia had done an initial search while she had been ‘advising’ me and found that there was only 1 black man in their database of almost 20,000! My stomach dropped and I immediately asked to cancel my membership and be refunded. Who in their right mind would put down thousands of pounds for only one man that meets only one of their requirements! The dishonesty and blatant sales tactics when it comes to matters as sensitive as finding a life partner disgusted me.

I was then referred to Paula Gotch who is the Client Experience Director and told her my entire story in tears over the phone. Her response was cold and calculated. She cited the contract I signed which gave Sonia license to say what she wanted knowing that once I had paid and signed that contract she would likely get her commission payment and face no repercussions for being dishonest. The misrepresentation was only discovered after 26 days, so I offered take a pro rata payment back for the work they had already put in but even this was rejected which made me realise that this company really only cares about taking your money and not your emotional wellbeing.

Paula insisted that I keep working with my matchmaker, holding me to ransom by offering no refund at all. My trust and faith on has been shattered by the dishonesty and the cold hearted nature with which my complaint has been dealt with so it would be impossible to proceed for me.

After these revelations I noticed that they have all white staff on their website and are probably tone deaf when it comes to dealing with black clients (if they even have any). Sonia claimed to be Asian but I have no idea as she isn’t on the site and I suspect she doesn’t care about black issues either.

It has taken me so long to do this because I was honestly heartbroken for a while that my genuine desire for a life partner has been capitalised on and exploited this way. I will be taking them to small claims court because at the very least they need to change the wording of the contract to prevent their advisers from saying what they want to secure a sale without any repercussions.

Avoid this company if you are black with any preference with regard to race. Avoid this company if you expect any empathy or care once you have paid your fee. Avoid this company if you wish to be handled with any integrity at all. PS. My character limit has been exceeded so some parts of the experience are missing.

do not waste your time and money,
completely useless

I agree with all recent poor reviews which basically all say the same thing - don't waste your money on this company (which is also affiliated with other dating companies, which you're not told about).

The experience was a total waste of time and money. Their database is clearly very limited and therefore do not match the criteria you are looking for.

They are aggressive if challenged, but of course nice when they want to rope you in a spend money to join.
They did promise 8 matches, which they delivered but they didn't match my important criteria "after all you're only saying yes to an initial phone call"!

If you read Gill's review, you can feel the angry and disappointment in this - I can totally relate to how she feels.

The date of this review is when my contract finally ended with them.

I would be happy to provide anyone with further information about my experience!

I joined Dating Options and have been incredibly impressed. The service has been exceptional.

I agree with Lee and Layla below. Total waste of time and money. They clearly do not have the people in the database they claim. It cost me c£1000 to join the brand of Country Partners but they tried to persuade me to spend more, thank goodness I didn’t! They promise you 6 recommendations but none of the ones they gave me matched my criteria nor were they suitable. Moreover they still count as a recommendation even if the guy isn’t interested. The first guy (too old) apparently in the agency’s words “didn’t find me attractive enough” (well the “professional” photos were taken on an iPhone in the car park by one of the managers!), but not what you want to hear when you’re vulnerable. The second guy had registered 18 years ago who I knew and the third far too old and not what I’d asked for. These profiles were all drip fed every 6 weeks or so. You weren’t given a choice of several as I thought you would. Obvious they didn’t have anyone matching my criteria but unlike a decent company would not admit it. They will not give you your money back and if you read the words carefully they will not necessarily match with your criteria so what’s the point?! I found them unscrupulous and unpleasant to deal with when I complained to them. They wasted my time and money and would advise anybody in a similar situation to steer well clear and spend your money on making yourself happy! At least with online you get to chose somebody at least seeming to match your criteria.

Complete and total waste of time and money. I agree 100 percent with all of the other negative comments. If you are determined to use this type of service, don’t pick this agency!

Confidential and private service. Would highly recommend.

I do not recommend this service at all. I am very disappointed with this company as a whole. I paid for the basic package which got me 8 matches. While these guarantee to match me with 8 men this includes men that might say no to my profile. I am a tall lady being 5.10 and my deal breaker was to be matched with men that are 6ft and above, however 3 were under this height and that in turn was 3 wasted matches. Most of the matches were nowhere near the criteria and there were long waiting times for my next match. It also didn’t help when the initial match maker left and I was given a new match maker who never rang or spoke to me to get to know me. In all, I felt this service wasn't worth the month and I have left feeling very disappointed. I feel you get more from dating app's.

I would not recommend this ‘service’. While they guarantee to match you with 6 people (basic membership) this includes people that might say no to your profile. Some matches are nowhere near criteria and to manage expectations you get a ‘match’ every 3-4 weeks. It didn’t help when the initial match maker left. Staff are friendly but my experience was nowhere near a level to recommend.