Original Dating  Avis 

I keep sending to to the email address given but nothing seems to get through. You have both my private email and telephone number. Please contact me directly.

Hosts were great and really tried, but overall the event was unpleasant. According to the website there were only a handful of tickets left for each gender with an expectation of around 80 people attended. The first sign it was not going to plan was finding the it had been moved from the ballroom to the much smaller basement bar. There were probably around 6 women and easily triple the number of men. Went outside for a cigarette just before it started and I heard the host saying to security that four of the women were no shows, so still nowhere near the expected amount that the low tickets remaining would suggest. Just led to lots of standing around and guys queueing up to interact with the ladies, just felt kinda horrible to me. I know it can't be helped whether people turn up, but the expectations for the event seemed way oversold and misrepresented.

The event was attended by 13 men and only 6 women so I spent as much time talking to men as I did women. When my ticket was purchased it was advertised as 1 male and 2 female spaces remaining, of the men I spoke to four others said exactly the same was displayed to them. I appreciate that the organisers cannot control attendance however this to me is strong evidence that they are using FOMO/false advertising to sell tickets.
The night is what you make of it and I had a fun social evening. I would attend speed dating again but not with this company as the sales strategy left a bitter taste.

Edit. ‘Likely’ added to title to reflect that this is a hypothesis based on the evidence available to me.
However with regards to making inaccurate statements I will add that despite this review being outwardly anonymous an order reference was provided at time of writing and later resubmitted with additional information at TrustPilots request.
If the content of this review is unfounded then the addition of a simple inventory system to Original Datings website would prove this.

It's raining fun and love at original dating speed dating and banter at its finest!

Excellent Host, well structured evening with time at the end to chat with people a bit longer.

It was good but the fact that they do not provide a pen and paper to write on is ridiculous. The host told me to use my phone to write down the names.

Great night, with wonderful host. Would definitely attend again.

I don't think I have ever been to a more depressing event. More men than women (although the event was sold differently), zero engagement from the host, bar of the booked room was closed. Overall a really dreadful experience.
Of course, no full or partial refund has been issued.

Oversold the event so I spent most of it on a table talking to blokes, admitted that they did not offer a good service, then refused to refund my money. Some things are out of their control, which is fine, but give people refunds in that case.

I've tried the speed dating events as well as the parties and they were well run and good fun. Only suggestion is to ask venues at the parties to have more bar staff because the queues can be long. Bit of a vibe killer to turn up and have to queue for 15mins. Prices for their events are also starting to get a bit high lately compared to competitors... Would recommend giving it a try though. Have had some success at these events and been on dates with people I met there.

Well there wasn’t enough women that came to the event last time I was there hopefully the next event will be better .

I attended the speed dating at the motley yotel in Manchester. It was very well organised and I enjoyed the experience. The host was great 😊 and it was nice to get a free cocktail. I would do again 👍

Professional and friendly staff, a relaxed and private setting… all in all a great way to spend an evening and a brilliant way to meet new people.

Whether you’re looking for true love or an entertaining night out, I’d recommend Original Dating’s nights out. I went along with a friend and we both had a fun night… and taking someone else along made the evening more relaxed too.

Used original dating last year! Was great fun meeting other people. Never tried speed dating before. Defo will try again as it build my confidence and met some nice people.

The experience of speed dating is new to me but it was so much fun! I enjoyed meeting people face to face and having fun!

Went too a lock key party recently the organisers Steph and Ben started off ok but by the end of the night a group of girls had attended and were only interested in ruining and railroading the night for a few guys there me included which was uncomfortable the hosts knew the situation but were only interested Ito know if you’d had a little fun apart from that it was unorganised started very late and wasn’t monitored properly, won’t be attending a Glasgow venue again in a hurry

I have used Original Dating since 2012. I attended a few speed dating events back then and 1 lock and key party also. I would say speed dating in general is very hit and miss as the people you will meet is naturally a mix and only 2 minutes is nothing. By the time you say a couple of things you have to change.

The fact that people 'can' go and add their likes after the event is something that most people do not do. Nobody will fall in love (well, maybe 1 or 2 people every 1000) with someone to go to a website and add matches.

The lock and key party back then was great, as the venue was big.

However, fast forward to the recent event in Bank on the 14th of January. The venue was VERY SMALL and the place where the speed dating took place absolutely tiny. The numbers were arranged in a completely random fashion, so you had no idea where to go next, which means additional lost time from those already small 2 minutes. The noise level was above deafening because of the venue and space. I was unable to hear most of the women talking to me. So speed dating was a complete failure.

Thinking that the same people will be around for the lock and key party, i didnt seem to care that much at the time, as most of the people said the same thing.

However, once everybody arrived for the party, it was evident that once again the venue was TOO SMALL. There was barely any room to walk between the people. Drink queue was 30-40minutes long.

All of these are things that should have gone better by the organiser.

The part that does not go well at these events, where the organiser has nothing to do about and i cannot fault them is the tendency of people to stick like flies on 1 person, rather than talking to many people (lock and key not a great distractor), not allowing people to talk to each other. Again, i do not blame the organisers for this, just the nature of the 'game'. Would love to keep using these events, but at the end of the day it seems like a waste of energy, being in a room with (supposedly) all singles, then unless you were lucky in the first 5-10 minutes and 'secured' someone interested to you and vice versa to keep talking, it just feels like going home and watching netflix.

Guys, improve your quality. I saw the new newsletter about the valentines party but the venue looks again suspiciously small.

TLDR: if you are a 'player' and very aggressive in your manners, you are in luck. But then again, a person like that can speak to women anywhere, no need for a party like this. Normal people that want to meet people and talk to as many people as possible, stay home.

They canceled and never told anyone! Unbelievably, they don't refund me because they think I will join their future events, so they offer credit!

Update: They refunded and apologised, but I don’t think they understood the difference between credit and refund.

It was a very good experience, met a good number of people, mostly friendly.

I've attended the Speed Dating in Cambridge on 28/09/2022.

On the first page of originaldating.com they say "Enjoy Up to 20 fun dates [...]
OUR GUARANTEE: We're confident you'll meet someone you like first time
But, if you don't, your next event is FREE."

You see how they write OUR GUARANTEE in capital letters?

As I didn't get a match I tried exactly that and sent 3 emails to ask how I get my free event.
29/09 -> no answer
3/10 -> no answer
5/10 -> no answer, and I wrote "If I don’t hear from you in 24h, I feel compelled to create a negative review on Trustpilot."

So, this my negative review for one of the worst customer services ever = none at all.
The phone number you find on the web is only a recording without the possibility to speak to somebody (which also sucks once you find that out at the end).

Regarding the event itself: the lady who conducted it was really great, she was friendly, professional and fun to be around. This review is not aimed at her but at the mismatch between the ridiculous marketing slogan and the reality once you gave them you money.
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Reply to originaldating's answer from 7/10/22:

Thank you for your answer, but I don't understand why you accuse me of writing an "untrue" review.
1.) I have checked all spam folders and there isn't a single reply from you to my 3 emails to [email address omitted]. Further, I've just now booked the next event and got a confirmation directly into my Inbox from the same address - how can you say "we have replied twice"? Where are these email?
2.) You say you are "not able to change" your policy. Shouldn't the customer know about your policy in advance? At least there is nothing in your "Terms & Conditions" as per 7/10/22, found at the bottom of your homepage.
3.) You describe my 3rd email as a "threat" (which I have posted above for everybody to see as I have nothing to hide), which I also don't understand because if you don't pay your energy bill you will also get to the point where the energy company announces "legal actions" if you don't pay. Does anyone say the energy company "threatens" their customers?
4.) And regarding your statement that "[...]you opted to select one person you wished to see again and therefore you are not entitled[...]", I post below my email in full and leave it to the reader to form their own opinion about originaldating's reply.
"On 29 Sep 2022 at 21:44:44, Markus [email omitted] wrote:
Hi Service Team,

I didn’t find a lady with whom I wanted to match. The listed [name omitted] were it says “Friend” was an accident while scrolling down, which I find strange because I didn’t press “Save”.

Anyhow, how does it work now to book the next event for free?

Thanks,
Markus"

So, I repeat myself "great host", "bad customer service".