Article on ToGether Dating Service
LoveIt
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~ LOOKING for LOVE, '90S STYLE~
Georgetown matchmaker Ann Wood keeps a computerized list of more than 100
companies that
tried to break into the Washington, D.C area dating business over the past
10 years.
"They come and go," said the woman who has been in the business for a dozen
years.
Only six out of 13 dating and matchmaking services listed in last year's
District Yellow
Pages still have working phone numbers.
Many of the companies lured by the apparent demand for matches among the
large number of
singles in the region are finding competition is tough and keeping
customers happy can be
tougher.Despite the failings, dating industry players contend the singles'
market is a booming
business...........................Many dating-service clients are also
frightened by the anonymity of the Internet, and would
not typically go meet with someone they encountered in computer chat rooms
or respond to
personal ads, Ms. Kirsch said.
For some, dreams of match flame out
Singles like John Soltesz go to dating services in search of the match of
their dreams, but
sometimes the service they experience as clients is quite different from
the sales pitch.
"It was a rip-off," said the former Together Dating client from Catonsville,
Md. Mr. Soltesz
paid $2,595 for 18 introductions-16 of which he said he never received.
After his first six months with the Columbia, MD., office and correspondence
with the Better
Business Bureau, Mr. Soltesz said he was finally introduced to two women -
both of whom were out of the geographic area he requested.
"I had to take them to small claims court before they came around [with a
refund]," he said.
Mr. Soltesz is not alone.
Eric Friedman, an investigator with the Montgomery County Consumer Affairs
Division,
said complaints are "inherent in this kind of business"
Written complaints center mostly on high-pressure membership sales,
reluctance to
match clients and unacceptable matches.
His office settled four dating industry complaints in 1997. An additional 14
were
filed with two other Maryland consumer affairs offices during the year.
In Virginia, 31 complaints have been filed against Together Dating alone in
the past
three years, according to the state's Department of Agriculture and
Consumer Affairs.
The majority of complaints filed in Virginia and Maryland are against the
larger
companies with thousands of clients, such as Great Expectations and
TogetherDating.
Residents of the District have nowhere to take their complaints, because
that
authority has been suspended until 2000.
Good customer service and a constant influx of new members will get rid of
many complaints,
said Michael Miess, Great Expectations Senior Center Director in Vienna. But
he admits you
cannot please everyone all of the time.
....................................
HI;
My email pjs0...@yahoo.com
If you are a current unhappy or former unhappy member of TDS also
known as Together Dating Service, formally known as "The Right One"
then please contact me at the above
email
Basically I myself have found the service is over priced and not
worthy of the hi pitched sales hype that it's sales people shove down
a prospective client's throat. They hi ball you first with an
outrageous membership offer of about 12 intros for $3500+, yes 3
thousand 5 hundred plus dollars, then make you think what a great deal
you have when they cut the price and visits to about $1700.
In addition they want info., on at least two or three Credit Cards
before they even begin to talk to you. I received the usual high
pressure sales pitch, not unlike one gets from such folks as door to
door sales people or those time share sales people that hound you
while on vacation. I have tried unsuccessfully to get my money
refunded after meeting only one very unhappy customer, whom I had
suspected was actually a Staff Member of TDS at one time. If you have had
similiar problems please contact me. Let's see if we can get our money
back.......Or at least prevent them from taking money from further
unsuspecting lonely soles. They know we are normally shy people who
take things lying down, let's show them that they can't get away with
this any more!
Also so there is no confusion "togetherdating(DOT)com" is their principle
web site.
Be aware that it is a high pressure over priced sales organization that does
not provide the service that it claims to.