Consumer rights and dating websites

wealdroam

Peachesncream wrote: »

Elite have admitted that they don't have enough matching profiles to send me the minimum number each day .
They then went on to offer me a month's free membership by way of compensation . So , to compensate me for their poor service , they want to give me more poor service !!!
How ludicrous is that ? Does it in any way make up for all the time and money I have wasted on their website?
The only decent thing they can do now is to refund my subscription , right ?

But if you re-read their guarantee, quoted in post #16, all that guarantee offers is extra service. Nowhere does the guarantee suggest that it is a money back guarantee.

Ludicrous or not, those were the guarantee terms you accepted.

You could of course argue that that is an unfair term, but you may need the help of Trading Standards with that.

zenmaster

Peachesncream wrote: »

Firstly , I'm a woman , so if the majority of users ARE men , there should be more than enough profiles to match me with .


Secondly , waiting for Elite Singles to send me profiles is the only access I have to their data base . There is no freedom to browse other profiles : members are not allowed to make their own free selections . So I don't know how you expect me to just 'log on and message someone I like the look of'. I can't do that . Unless Elite Singles send me profiles , I have nothing and it bothers me so much because I have paid nearly £90 for a service I am not receiving .


Or perhaps you were meaning that I should log on to a different website , if so , which one ?

Let me get this straight. You have joined a dating site where you (a woman) cannot check the profiles and express an interest in another subscriber (man) but they can browse and select at will?

That sounds a bit iffy to me. A bit like window shopping in Amsterdam.

Perhaps the rules apply to both sexes, i.e. they too can join but cannot view or favour any profile, in which case it's never going to work.

Other explanations might be -

• It's a complete con
• Their computers are down
• Your selected profile might be, shall we say, a little perfectionist
• Your own profile might not be appealing. I know mine would not be if I were truly honest in answering all their questions

daytona0

Peachesncream wrote: »

Firstly , I'm a woman , so if the majority of users ARE men , there should be more than enough profiles to match me with .

The word "majority" doesn't automatically mean that there is a huge pool of men in comparison to women. Elections are won by 1% after they gain the majority

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/elitesingles.co.uk

Looking there, women are under represented and men are over represented (low confidence). You could argue that the ratio of M:F is around 3:2 or 2:1 at a push if you convert the "Audience Demographics" box into a % (roughly 60:40%, but this is technically wrong). If you go on the argument then you'd be expecting twice as many males AT THE MOST! That isn't unrealistic.

One poses the question as to whether your expectations may be very high if you are expecting a large pool of men you are compatible with? The pool is going to dry up, it is just a matter of time. My consideration is whether you have exhausted the pool of compatible men, or whether elitesingles aren't really assisting you here. I do appreciate your argument, but I don't see anything in the T's and C's (so I can't find anything to penalise them on! Aside from the blurb, which is just blurb with no mention of time frame etc) and without knowing the ins and outs of your dating history/preferences I cannot comment either way about whether or not you have exhausted the pool.... PS I'm not interested in knowing about your dating history/preferences either, and any such explanation would be biased anyway so I wouldn't really want to be told about this... I'm just trying to make a point

Secondly , waiting for Elite Singles to send me profiles is the only access I have to their data base . There is no freedom to browse other profiles : members are not allowed to make their own free selections . So I don't know how you expect me to just 'log on and message someone I like the look of'. I can't do that . Unless Elite Singles send me profiles , I have nothing and it bothers me so much because I have paid nearly £90 for a service I am not receiving .

Doesn't that bother you? You're paying a company some money to tell you who you can/can't speak to, and you aren't happy with the number of compatible men they show you?

I'm just praying that you've been on a few dates and found a few decent guys! Otherwise it may have been a waste of money anyway!! I'd rather give that 90 quid to charity than to line the pocket of a company which is set up merely to make money from single people! But hey ho, that is your choice and the outcome of this is also your choice

Or perhaps you were meaning that I should log on to a different website , if so , which one ?

The matrix?




One final point, how can you call it their poor service if they don't have enough matches? Not their fault that:

1. Your preferences have ruled out some men

2. Men aren't signing up!

I think a month's free trial isn't too bad. It is a month where you get x number of profiles a day for free! It may average out so that if you count up the PAID months and the number of matches you have received in total then it may end up as 3-7 a day!

Peachesncream

Update


Firstly , my sincere thanks to timbo 58 for the advice about reporting the company to the Advertising Standards Authority .
I did report Elite Singles to the ASA , who now advise me that Elite Singles' claim that " our smart profiling delivers 3 - 7 compatible matches a day " , will be amended , wherever it appears , to make clear that this is dependent on the number of available matches and that there is no guarantee that a minimum of 3 profiles will be sent to members each day .


Needless to say , Elite did not do the decent thing and refund my money , but at least there is now a chance that fewer people will waste theirs , in future .
Read and learn . xxx

unholyangel

Thanks for the update (even if its not 100% satisfactory).