You've heard the complaints & they're all true...

Probably only 1 in 1000 folks you see on the site are actually members, so they can't communicate w/you.

Match.com will send you "winks" from non-existent people. At least 1/3 of my "winks" were from people whose alleged profiles mysteriously disappeared right after they "winked." "This profile is not available." Makes me wonder whose photos they're using for this...probably employees as well as the fat cats who are raking in the money from this rip-off scheme.

I was unable to change my profile. Before I became a paying member, my profile would be "approved" within hours when I changed it, but after becoming a member, they would never update it. When I emailed "customer service" to complain, I was ignored.

I now intend to be just one of many joining a class action suit against these scammers.

DON'T DO IT!

If I could have picked 0 stars for Match.com I would. Basically I am both disgusted and frightened about some of the people they freely allow on their site. They say that their members go through a background screening but I doubt that is the case. I met someone on their site who basically lied about his name, what he did, his family, I mean everything. I of course didn't find all of this out until after I had gone out with him. While on our date I began to become increasingly uncomfortable because he started to get aggressive and I started to feel completely unsafe. There was a gut instinct I had and I should have listened to it -- if something or someone seems too good to be true they probably are. A very good male friend of mine pointed out a very scary thing to me while we were discussing this guy and what had happened. He said --- well basically your profile was a perfect roadmap to you, it told him exactly what was important to you and why. Predators and creeps rely on that sort of thing, that's what makes it so much easier for them to succeed in their goals. After thinking this through I realized those points are completely true...which is what makes the whole situation all the scarier. I'm lucky that nothing really bad happened to me given the fact that I was basically deceived by someone who obviously had nothing but the worst of intentions. I would persuade all women who are going to utilize online dating to do background checks on perspective people because Match isn't doing it. I guess I was just too naive and too stupid to realize I should have dug more. I will never again do online dating --- I'll find my match the old fashioned way.

Unfortunately, after joining Match for a month and taking a lot of time to write a pretty decent profile, I received no responses from people I e-mailed. Of course, due to the large male-female ratio this is expected, although I was frustrated with the time I was spending with no conversations ensuing. I feel like I'm a pretty normal, successful person, so I thought I'd dig a bit deeper.
It turns out the match.com's e-mailing system is NOT exclusive between members. Somebody who is not a member of match.com is able to create a 'free' profile, but cannot send or receive e-mails. Worse, match.com will NOT tell you whether or not the person you're e-mailing is a 'paid member' and therefore whether or not they have the ability to reply to your message. I also had to e-mail them five times before I finally got this answer out of them - abysmal.

In short: a great deal of the female profiles on match.com are fake or by non-paying subscribers. The majority of subscribers are men (naturally) but what they don't tell you is that the minority are simply not there or can't respond.
Would not recommend match for men - have had some brilliant experiences, ironically, with free sites like Gumtree and Craigslist but match has been a complete flop. However, on the flipside I suspect that for women it could be a decent place to buy a subscription and pick-n-choose the men who reply to you - just bear in mind that most of them will be rather frustrated and probably incredibly surprised when you respond!

.

most of the people on here are having problems b/c they don't READ!!!! how hard is it to read the 1 paragraph that's given to you right next to the subscribe button, come on people, most of you know that you've gotten screwed b/c you've been lazy to not read. here are some guidelines that you might want to follow to make sure everything is ok:

1. when you first hit subscribe it takes you to the rate page, gives you the rate (per month) so you can compare the difference in price, (longer subscriptions are cheaper on a monthly basis) although all sales are a ONE TIME PAYMENT.

2. right NEXT to that it shows VERBATIM:

Billing - Continuous Service We don’t want to interrupt your service and prematurely end your conversations. Therefore, unless you tell us you’d like to discontinue the service, at the end of each subscription period, your subscription will continue at the same rate and for the same amount of time as the prior subscription period, and you will be automatically charged.Learn more

now, on this Learn more that you get it explains how the auto renewal works, that wou can cancel online or by phone and some other things.

if you choose the 6mo subsc. it also shows you about the guarantee and you can open a link where it explains throughly what you need to follow to get it and that you have 1 mo after your subsc ends to redeem that.

3. so once you hit continue, means you already read this and are agreeing, so once you do that it asks for your billing info, and right under where you put that and over the check box you have to click on as AGREEING TO TERMS AND CONDITIONS it reads, again verbatim:

When you click 'Subscribe', your credit card will be charged immediately. Unless you resign, your subscription will continue at the end of each successive period at the same rate and for the same amount of time. Learn more (again if you click on learn more shows full explanation)

so this is the SECOND time that this is given to you!

4. so as you can see if you click on that check box you are AGREEING to the terms and conditions (auto renewal and all)

5. READ, READ, READ and READ AGAIN

6. about partial refunds: the only way you can get that is if you haven't passed the marking period for lower subscriptions, I.E. : if you're on 6mo, not passed the 1mo period to be downgraded to 1mo and if you're even passed it by 1 day, they canonly downgrade you to 3mo (remember they don't have any other packages) AND you would be charged the REGULAR rate for these subsc, not the amount that costs for the 6mo. on a monthly basis.

same thing goes for the 3mo, in that case they can only downgrade you to 1mo.. if you passed that period you don't qualify for partial refund! and if you have a 1mo the only way to get refunded is if you have not sent emails..

SO THERE YOU HAVE IT FOLKS! pass this along to other match members and save yourselves the headache (for you as well as for the customer service people eho have to put up with this kind of nonsense everyday!)

Match.com is CREEPS GALORE. I kept getting a lot of messages and stuff from men older than 40, and I made it clear that I wanted no one older than 25. DO NOT USE THIS SERVICE, IT SUCKS. You're better off meeting someone naturally.

Fake profiles, fake winks, fake emails. If you happen to subscribe and want out, make sure you cancel before the automatic renewal. Do it online AND call and tell them you will sue if they try to take more money from you. Finally, call your credit card company directly and tell them to block any payments to Match.com.

The customer service is terrible. They automatically signed me up for another three months without my permission. When I called to cancel the account and request the return of my money, the cancelled the account but refused to return the money. When I threated legal action, they said they would return the money to my account by the following Monday. Four weeks later I am still attempting to have my money returned. Be very careful how you sign up for this service and which type of card you give them.

As to matching, just be prepared to do all the work yourself. If you like to sift through hundreds of pictures and read all those bios, this is your type of service. It takes lots of time and not a lot of reward.

It worked for me at the time (I met my wife there). However...
I closed my account with Match.com almost 3 years ago (after I met my wife) and asked that they remove my profile.
They have not removed it and it still appears active even though I have not logged-in for years. However, women are still trying to contact me through them (or so they claim in emails they keep sending me). These women must feel bad because it would appear to them that I ignore/reject them. But the fact is that I cannot see nor respond to them without paying Match.com...
My wife does not appreciate having my profile and photo on Match.com. Nor do I , and I am sure that the women who are fooled by it do not appreciate it either.

By keeping my profile active against my will they make it seem that they have more selection than they actually do. This is fraud.

Attempts to contact them to remove the profile were ignored repeatedly.

Match.com solicits MARRIED individuals. I was solicited, much to my chagrin and irritation, and I am MARRIED!! Happily so, for over 10 years. This company invades peoples privacy and emails and solicits anyone; they do not care if they tempt adultery or contribute in some way to the destruction of families. Their aggressive, invasive ways demonstrate that they are not a good business. Watch out, they are asking married individuals to apply to join their ranks.

The worst site ever but better than eHarmony.

Doesn't work and the system is horrible. They stole an extra month's payment out of me even after the sreen said it confirmed my cancellation. I never saw the fine print where it said I had to click one more time. It's one horrible service.

I'd give it 0 stars if that was an option. Match.com is a joke to everybody but the guy that owns it and illegally collects on your revolving account - I had only wished I'd came here and read these reviews first -- Stay away - you'll need legal help to stop giving this place $$$$ no matter how officially you cancel you subscription. It's a joke -- STAY AWAY!!!!

I signed up for a 3 month subscription on a whim, and three months later I got slapped with a bill for $55 that I did not authorize. I immediately went to the bank, froze my account, and had them issue me a new debit card. When I called Match.com they said that my subscription had been automatically renewed. Furthermore they claimed that this was listed on the website when I signed up. I told them that I did not see that on the page, and they replied that it was in the "fine print". They then said that they could refund $20 of the $50. I simply told them that they needed to refund the full amount or my bank would be contacting them, and we would be filing charges for fraud. The customer service rep. put me on hold for a few minutes, and when he came back on the line he assured me that the money would be credited back to my account. It was a few days later. If they take your money with one of these schemes don't take their pile of BS.

NO STARS----After taking my $107, they posted some other person's photo to my account! Looked nothing like me. I'm not even sure if it was someone else's picture--an unattractive older woman with red hair and fake boobs. I tried to get the situation addressed through their "help me" links, but no go there. So I called the customer service number. The lady who answered was not very helpful, and said she would "forward" my complaint to someone. So far only "bots" have emailed me back. I have demaned a refund, but I'm not holding my breath. My best advice DO NOT SPEND ANY MONEY WITH MATCH.COM--there are other services out there--MATCH.COM IS A FRAUD!!!!!

New members every day? Not in my area, and alote of profiles are inactive. I get sent my friends profile weekly and he has not been active for a year. Be sure to hide your profile before you cancel.

I met a gal on match.com her user name was BlueEyesGirl1961 Real Name Cindy Berg. She claimed to be a Christian and only to be socail drinker. Come to find out she had a deferred DUI and is on medication for depression.

She never attends church and always wants her date to take her to a resterant that serves Alcohol. This person will use you if you let her.

The people on match seem to be very cold most of the time.

FYI - this is something they DON'T tell you - You can only contact the users which are SUBSCRIBERS not members. I'd estimate that a huge portion of the members you search through are NOT subscribers, these users are not able to be contacted at all. Thus, they grossly over-estimate the number of contactable users they have available.

I'm sure this is included in the contract, but just as an FYI, their service auto-renews and they will not prorate if you're dissatisfied and wish to cancel early.

I joined Match in Spring of 2008 - they automatic renewed me in Fall of 2008 - OK I am not that good at looking at my Bank Statements and I let it slip by me. When I looked at my "Account" on Match I was horrified to find that not only had they not renewed me for the initial cost of $69.95 but there had been a $13.17 "First Impressions" cost added on Total $103.11 (67% increase).
All of this happened during a time that my house had been hit by a natural disaster and needless to say it was not the first thing on my mind....

Fast forward to one year after I first signed up. I called in and asked for the Guarantee, ya know the one they advertise all over the place - We know you will meet the right person in 6 months or we will give you 6 months FREE!!!!!!!
Well guess what it does not apply if you have tried it for a year! How insane is that?? I called and asked and was told we will send it through channels - but they could not prove that I had followed all of the guidelines during my initial period (keeping your picture up, your profile active, and sending 5 emails out every month - how hard is that?) Not if you are truly looking for someone.

I would not feel bad about this site IF they did not advertise this GUARANTEE all over the place. Spending more time with them VOIDS their Warranty?????

I'm glad I found this site and some of these posts are really inciteful. I joined Match.com for 1 month and have just cancelled. When I first signed up I received 3 winks from profiles that I suspect never existed. I sent out 43 emails to profiles and received 3 replies and got 1 date out of it. My profile states that 43 people have viewed my profile but when I checked out to see how many did only 10 or so were listed, some of which I never contacted. I suspect that 43 people HAVE NOT viewed my profile.

Somebody here posted that some profiles are not paying subscribers so they will never read the message I sent. I'm glad I only signed up for a month because I don't think I could continue sending out messages to people who either aren't subscribing anymore or don't exist at all. Like someone said who posted here, you are better off going to happy hour, joining a yoga class, volunteering, or walking down the street.

I'd love to see Match.com featured on a segment of 60 Minutes.

I hated my experience on Match.com. I will tell you why. It is obvious to me there are some people online who are predators. I had several people who contact me with no profile, just e-mail access with pictures that looked suspiciously like models. They would write something with really poor English and it was obvious they didnt read my profile. My question for Match.com is why they dont make more of an effort to screen people upfront (make it a requirement to post a profile) to weed out some of those people who most likely have very negative intentions. I am sure there are some good folks out there but there were more creeps than non-creeps. After awhile, I just couldnt handle the creep factor of the whole thing. It might work better for those under 40, but over 40 seems a real challenge. I will never do online dating again!

They tease you with "bots" that messege you,  when actually activity is VERY slow.  Over priced and not worth the money.

try a local bar at happy hour--loaded with single business people.  Don't waste money on dating services

MATCH IS TERRIBLE. I HAD CANCELLED MEMBERSHIP AND THEN ALL OF A SUDDEN I GET THIS INTEREST NOTIFICATION FORM SOMEONE WHO IS GREAT. I JOIN AND THEN GO TO THEIR PROFILE AND IT SAYS LAST ONLINE WITHIN 4 WEEKS. hOW CAN THEY SEND A INTEREST NOTIFICATION TODAY IF THEY WERE NOT ONLINE FOR 4 WEEKS. NOT TOO SURE THEY ARE ON THE UP AND UP.

I wish I had seen this reviews before I joined. Match.com is BAD, BAD, BAD. They should check IP address every time a new member joins. I never posted my picture there, I still got men respoding to my profile, some actually sent me their phone numbers, which was nice. If you do not post your picture, there is no way you can sent it to the person you want to see you. They should provide a way to do that.
No everyone who makes language mistakes is a scammer, English is my second language, even though I read, write and speak it, I sometimes make mistakes. That is not really a good indicator. We are only humans.
I kept changing my profile every week, I never posted anything offensive or rude or discriminatory, I never posted phone number, e-mail address or names, however, as soon as I posted a negative comment about Dr. Phil and how bad the site was, they stopped me. If they had a time to do that, why can they not review IP address. Some of the profiles a fake, some of them are just truely horrible, pictures of men in their 20's claiming to be 40 something. How can they no care?
I agree with many of the people who have written reviews here, Match.com is the worst site I have ever seen, they out there for your money. Dr. Phil is using his name and popularity to literally scam honest people.
When is comes to the Psychos, or local criminals there isn't much that can be done, just be aware, ask lots of questions before you get involved with anyone. Do a search, there is nothing wrong with doing that. Verify phone numbers and addresses.
I believe it's possible to still meet a nice person via online dating, but you must be as careful as you are when you meet anyone else in real life. Theives and losers will always exit.
Yes, this Match.com is a scam in itself.

BEWARE! I agreed to a three month subscription which expired 6 months ago, then I get my credit card bill for october only to find out that they have charged me another $55! Upon calling them, they told me that I was subject to renew of my subscription when I agreed to sign up. I never read any of this in the "fine print!" They also refused to give me my money back and wished me the best of luck over the next two months of my subscription for which I DO NOT WANT!

They send you matches which are people who are not interested in you (i.e., someone looking for a younger person than you) - they automatically renew your subscription without notice and will not refund when requested. The 6 month guarantee is bogus - you have to send at least 5 emails to 5 different people every month in order to qualify (not advertised, of course!)

JOE EBENROTH- Beware Girls! He is a Con Artist! (JOESPECIALIZED)

A guy I know, serious personality disorder gets a new woman on Match.com before the last one he got finds out he's a con artist, liar, manipulator and knowing spreader of veneral disease. Match.com has been his hunting ground for victims for years and he has successfully conned about 10 women finding them on match.com. Lies about his age by 10 years and wants women who earn good salary. Check him out. He goes by M*TAK**TIC for years on Match.com.  I changed my post as suggested by the match.com police who blog this site, but I feel it's a civc duty to warn other women that when discoveries like this are made on dating sites. As manys experts will tell you, can be a very dangerous place to display your personal interests and preferences to potential predators like this one.

Extremely shady business practices. Free Trial is a scam - you don't get 3 free days of service you get three *additional* days of service but are still billed the full amount. No refunds, no cancellation and suspicious billing practices. I smell a huge lawsuit!

Many people have also lodged complaints against match.com at www.consumeraffairs.com. Yet the issues seem to be ongoing. Just goes to show match.com is not at all concerned about customer care/service because it is too busy charging customers' accounts when, in fact, subscribers are looking to cancel.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/dating_services/matc h.html

STAY AWAY FROM MATCH.COM!!!!!! I rejoined and signed up for a 3 month subscription, which was fine- no good prospects, but what did I expect, this is Internet dating after all... The problem occurred when they automatically resigned me for another 3 months (without sending me an email 1st- and I could have sworn I checked the box that stated NO automatic renewals). I then became bombarded with emails, winks, etc from people over 400 miles away. I emailed one of the gentlemen who confirmed my suspicions and informed me that yes, I am showing up in their local searches. I called customer service with no response- they always blame the men...This problem is continuing with more emails from men stating that YES I am showing up in their local searches, so I called again and this time asked for a refund since this is clearly an issue on their part that has not been corrected. I have had no satisfaction with the customer service, nor any help fixing my problem. Every time I contact customer service I am told it is an error on everyone else's part- not theirs. I wish they would step up and take responsibility for their mistakes. But of course we all know that if they did they would have to refund money and well that's were the issues lie. They will NEVER issue a refund- even if it is their fault. So for that reason I say AVOID MATCH.COM AT ALL COST!!!!!!!!!

I joined match.com genuinely hoping to find some interesting/attractive people with things in common from my area, I did become a paying subscriber and I think I become more enraged with them on a daily basis..

When I joined and read the terms and conditions it said nothing about much of which are my complaints. First off: you cannot post ANY pictures with any sorts of logos on them or trademarks, website names, etc. Well, I do some modeling and most of my quality pictures have those on there. They are truly and honestly pictures of me and its plain ridiculous!! That they won't allow them. Second thing about the pictures is...you basically can't have any full body pictures?? They dont like them and deny many of them and don't even give you the option to use them as your main picture?? You have to use a close up of your face as your main pic and they even CROP your main pic automatically for you without your choosing..Third thing about pictures: They have approved and accepted my main profile pic twice and then the next day its just gone?? Not even in my pictures at all! No notice or anything! With another pic that was not of my choosing as my new main pic!

Secondly...all web addresses, email addresses, ANYTHING of that sort are completely blocked on that site!! So even if you, yourself choose to give somebody your email address or myspace address, etc...even just suggesting a random site to visit!! It wont go through...you are basically forced only to communicate through their site only.. I can see how these can be safety measures, but I think it should be a persons choice to give out your myspace address, etc..

And NONE of these were listed in any sort of rules or anything until AFTER I made my payment. When I contacted them and told them I was extremely unhappy with these restrictions and asked them for a refund because I was not aware of these restrictions before I paid, of course they told me absolutely no refund was to be given.

And LAST...I dont think this is really related to how the website is run but...it seems there are a lot of pretty ladies on there but not too many great looking guys?? Lol! Maybe its just the area that Im from, but uhh...yeahh. And guys that don't fit in my matches!! Keep messaging me...especially older guys that were wayy outside of my age range...kind of creepy..

Anyways, if I could go back I NEVER would of paid for services that restrict me in so many ways!! No luck so far and it seems every time I sign in I just become aggrivated...my suggestion to the person who is looking to sign up!! DONT DO IT!! Try to find a similar free site to join first and see if you like the results you get.

After reading these comments, I signed up for match.com and plentyoffish.com simultaneously to see how both compare. Match.com is known to be one of the largest reputable paid on-line dating site while POF is a non-paying site with not quite as members. Based on my findings, I got more reliable stats from POF vs. match.com.

For the record, I'm not affiliated with POF, nor am I endorsing their services, but based on my experience, the hits to my profile on POF seem more authentic.

Just so we can compare apples to apples, I posted the exact same profile on both sites and did not post pictures. I also did not pay for my match.com subscription but just created a profile.

It is interesting to note that my profile on match.com received exactly two hits per day except on weekends and holidays where my profile received zero hits while the pattern is more random with POF. So, by the end of 7 weeks, I have 80 views on my match.com profile while the POF profile received 7. Out of the 7 hits on POF, I received one connection; whereas, on match, I received 6 emails and 4 winks.

To make things more interesting, toward the end of weeks 5, 6, and 7, one email would disappear per week from my in-box on match.com. I'm not exactly sure why this happen and would like to inquire if anyone else is experiencing these same issues.

While emails were disappearing from match.com, the winks increased. Since, I'm not a paid match.com subscriber, I cannot read the emails, but I can view profiles of those who winked. All profiles who winked had fuzzy, doctored up picture(s) and poor spelling and grammar in their usually brief one paragraph description of themselves.

It could be the collective activities on match.com are coincidental, but the consistent and identifiable patterns are too evident not to notice. My interpretation of this is that the hits on match.com may not be from authentic members. Although there are varying degrees of authenticity that comes with online dating sites, in general, the collection of responses from both sites for the same exact profile is greatly varied. Even if match.com members outnumber POF 10 to 1, the number of hits, winks, and odd account activities experienced on the match.com account exceed this ratio.

While I understand that no dating site is perfect, match.com tends to make me more wary. In the end, I was drawn towards POF for its forum and get-together announcements which are other ways to connect to members, not only for dating, but opportunities to meet and make friends.

i think match.com is a waste of money for most people.  maybe my standards are too high and the girls i was shooting for were out of my league, but i had no success at all.  and i would say probably most of the "out of leaguers" (aka pretty attractive people) get so many winks/emails that pretty much you have to be brad pitt or you can forget it.  so i hate to say that match.com caters to less attractive people, but i think we all knew this before we signed up.

i talked to a few girls and certainly i talked to one "bot" that match.com set up just to entice me into using the service again.  ironically enough we talked just before my 3-month subscription ended and we talked for several days.  i thought she was too good to be true but talked to her anyway since we had things in common and match.com was a waste for me up till this point so why the hell not?  i gave her my email addy and said to email me there since i was going out of town the next day and my account would expire over the weekend.  got back in town and she had deleted her profile and there was no response or email.  that's crap.

if you are a guy you likely will get no initial interest from girls.  it's just like the real world where you have to seek out for them, which wouldn't be a big deal only every guy is talking to every girl on match.com that has even decent looks and so the girls get flooded with so many guys winking at them that they are obviously only going to pick the ones they want the most.  which is most likely not you, sorry to say. 

i got sucked into the bs of the auto-renewal service from match.com and after the weekend i was out of town i came back and i had another 3 months of service inconveniently.  i was scared to death that i was going to be forced to have another 3 months of service, especially based on all the crap i read on here.  turns out i called and they were pretty nice to me, maybe it's because i'm a bit more demanding and quite cordial about dictating what i want because i'm a salesman, but within 2 minutes of the phone call i had gotten a supervisor on the phone and she gave me a refund and closed my subscription.  so, really no complaints there, and i didn't have to make any type of lawyer threats like i read others tried on here.  i simply told them their auto-renewal was very deceptive and i got confused, otherwise i would have initially signed up for 6 months and not 3 months, and especially so if after my first 3 months i got 0 dates.  she said she understood and can't argue, your refund will be issued in 72 hours.

really this is about the most honest opinion of the service you can get.  i'm not going to say it's rubbish because for some it does work, but you really need to understand that if you are looking for a hot babe you are likely not going to find it here.  average people who are a little desperate is the forte of match.com.  no offense to anyone.

3RD UPDATE: Be aware that fraudulent profiles and phishing scam "winks" are common to most online dating sites, not just Match.com, and they're well aware of them. Click on Match's "Help" tab, then click "How to Report a User." Its discussion includes: "If you receive an inappropriate email or see a profile that seems suspicious in any way, please notify us. . . . If someone receives enough complaints and/or is found, after careful review, to have posted a fraudulent profile, they will be blocked from the site."

I suspect most dating sites have similar pages. When a profile is created, a dating service can't prevent people lying. All they can do is prevent inappropriate language or photos. After they approve a profile, they rely primarily on other users to tip them off about suspicious "winks," profiles, etc.

2ND UPDATE: Match.com is the best online dating website, per TopTenReviews.com, based on scoring of 39 factors they considered important (see their review here). Their top ten, out of the 17 they rated:
1. Match.com
2. eHarmony
3. Yahoo! Personals
4. Chemistry.com
5. JDate
6. AmericanSingles
7. PerfectMatch
8. Love Happens
9. Plenty of Fish
10. True

1ST UPDATE: Match.com is the "best online dating site overall" in the view of ConsumerSearch.com, a very handy free website that researches and summarizes reviews about all kinds of products and services. It states (see their article here): "In reviews, Match.com emerges as the largest and most refined online dating service. Reviews praise it for its ease of use and excellent search options. . . . You can search and browse for free, but you must subscribe to send or receive e-mails from members. Reviews say Match.com is a fun dating site that has the most diverse range of members."

ORIGINAL COMMENT: I have used Match.com extensively and find it to be an excellent dating tool with convenient features. The comments below contain a lot of gripes about online dating generally, rather than things specific to Match. The first time I subscribed I ended up meeting with over 40 nice women, and one resulted in a long-term relationship. After that relationship ended, I subscribed again and am getting good results. I have tried Yahoo! Personals a number of times and think it's an inferior service with far fewer members to choose from.

Don't gripe about having to pay for/subscribe to Match if you want to e-mail someone (though not to "wink" at them, which will send a canned phrase). The old adage is true--you get what you pay for. If a nonsubscriber "winks" at a subscriber, and if the subscriber emails them back, the nonsubscriber has the option to subscribe if they want to communicate. It's always your choice. Match quite clearly states the differences between nonsubscriber members and subscriber members on the very first page of its "How It Works" topic.

If your profile seems to "changing all by itself," what's probably happening is this. There are limits to the number of characters each section of the profile can contain, and characters can disappear if you exceeded that limit when you submitted it. But you'll see that immediately if you proofread it after submission. The solution is to compose your profile text in a word processor, so that it's saved, copy and paste into Match, submit it, if you're over the character limit you'll be notified, rework the text in your word processor to tighten it up, copy and paste and resubmit it again, until it's no longer over the character limit and is accepted.

I created a profile because I had heard that Match.com was one of the biggest sites.

I didn't subscribe because I wanted to look around.

Here is the scary part. The next day I got about 7 winks. A few seemed strange because they were out of state and others had some weird typo errors in their profiles. It started to make me wonder if something fishy was going on. So today I logged on and clicked on the profile links for those winks. Guess what? The profiles are now deleted. Only one person was a real profile and wink (not someone I was interested in though).

That is pretty scary that a big site would stoop to practices like that.

Buyer beware - I am not going to subscribe or at least monitor for an extended period of time first.

Trouble service received. I joined and after 3 days, I was unhappy with the site. I only elected to join for only a month. I personally don't think it's worth the money. I remembered hiding my profile until I decided I should simply cancel. Well, I decided to cancel a few days later. A month later I was billed. I didn't know I was billed until my card balance was off. I called and was I was told they did not a refund policy and talked about I was going to be charged unless I cancel subscription. I feel they offer poor customer service. No concern about their customer. Instead, was told their policy and what should have populated when I cancelled. Even when I wasn't using their service they refuse to give me my funds back. My warning for you is to make sure you thoroughly read all that writing....hidden in their writings--note: they will keep racking up on charging your card and care less to refund the funds when you are not using their site. In my personal opinion, it's not worth the time and money. Match.com isn't what you it and not all the hoopla! People tend to write one thing, but be someone totally different---lies or pretend to be something their not. Better off the old fashion way! Once you in that's it; you are billed.

the problem with match - you have no idea who is a paying member, and who is not. Send out 1000 letters, but if none of those people are subscribed, they will never read your letter. They will never know YOU sent them a letter. They will only know they have a letter, and unless they are willing to gamble $40 to find out anything about the contents/ sender, you will have written 1000 letters for nothing, have received NO replies, left wondering why...

WARNING!!! Match.com definately has fraudulent profiles designed to entice you to sign up. You will receive "winks" from fake profiles. There are legit ones but if you havent signed up you will definately get winks and emails from bogus profiles.

I'm from Dallas, TX, and I have called match.com and they told me that they "don't know they are located". I don't want to get scammed and it seemed very fishy. I have accumulated some mails on my match.com account that I hate to miss but it seemed that I hate to pay for a fishy corporation as well... They told me that change/cancel membership will delete your subscrition, anyone found that true and easy to use?

I'm glad that I found this site. Your comments verified what I thought a dating website would be. It would have been nice to be wrong.

I'm from West Virginia and anytime I've encountered a problem with a service or a refund, I've threatened to report the problem to our state attorney general's office. The problem is always resolved without further protest.

These problems might be resolved if everyone reports them to their attorney general's consumer line.

theniceone

They have an automatic renewal system that you can't figure out how to bypass. They automatically renewed me without asking. When I asked for a refund, I was told that they don't have a refund policy and therefore would not give me one. Now I'm stuck with a subscription to a service I don't need or want. The service itself is OK if you can weed out the trolls and the players.

Gosh! I had my concerns about Match, but they were brushed over. They seemed like one of the most legitimate and least seedy sites. Maybe I was wrong?

My main concern is that I'm receiving "winks" that have blatant grammatical errors! The wink supposedly is written to me but it will say "Give 'Green' the courtesy of letting her know you're not interested."

Wait! I'M Green. Is the wink written TO me or ABOUT me? It should be written TO me. Plus, the winks won't let me click on any of the links (as legit winks do). I was afraid someone was hacking into the Match site and sending phony emails on their behalf.

When I contacted Match about this concern, they just give me instruction on how stop receiving winks. They seem oddly unconcerned.

I'm satisfied with the men I have been meeting. Some nice guys, some jerks. But that's life, right? I'll make my final decision about Match once I decided to cancel. They better not hassle me.

I too have had problems with Match.com. I signed up 4 days ago and paid a subscription which has been debited from my bank account. The next day I go to log in and it won't let me because it says there is a problem with my account and I need to contact customer services. I have sent them 3 emails over the last 3 days and have still not had a response. I would call them but being from the UK I don't think they have a number (I can't find one anyway).
So I have paid 22.80 for a service I can't even use! An absolute joke! Wish I had found this website before I handed over my money!

Oh and to make things worse I had a message from a nice woman on there I can't even read because I can't log in!

Well, very interesting input from everyone. I've had a number of online dating accounts, including Match, Yahoo, True and AFF, and I've not only suspected false accounts, I've actually documented them. For me personally, distance is not an issue for a relationship, so if a woman is truly great, then I will find a way to get to know her. So I've made it a point to search around the world on these various websites, not just locally. Once I started finding duplicate accounts in different locations, either based on the same pictures or even completely identical "personally written" paragraphs (even though the pictures were different), I knew there was some fraud going on. But after a while there were so many that I decided to keep track of them in a Microsoft Word document.

On Yahoo alone I ended up with over 20 pages of false accounts, and I finally decided it just wasn't worth tracking anymore because there were so many and the issue was ongoing. And because I used multiple web sites simultaneously I also discovered that there were even some false accounts that existed on both Yahoo and Match together at the same time. Which makes me think that there may be some kind of third party that's been hired to help inject more "life" into these web sites, and maybe that third party has signed some kind of non-disclosure agreement.

And yes, I've gotten messages from some of the false accounts. Then when I mention that I've seen their duplicate account in another city or on another web site at the same time, further communication is suddenly halted and sometimes the account is quickly closed (what a shock!).

There are definitely patterns to the false accounts too, as if a particular person is managing a certain city or a different area of the nation. Unfortunately, in my vastly experienced opinion, I have zero doubt that there is widespread fraud going on in the online dating world, including within the large corporations.

I would love to know how many people are currently actually available in my local city. Wouldn't it be funny if there were only 10 women available but hundreds listed? Even funnier to consider would be if there are a thousand guys in my local area hitting on hundreds of false accounts when their are only 10 women available, and probably none of them are attractive. What's not so funny is the idea that those thousand guys are pouring money into corporate manager's pockets under the false disguise that they might have a chance to meet a beautiful woman.

Buyer beware...there's no way to know which accounts are actually real. And every time you see someone legitimate or even a legitimate relationship start out of one of these web sites (which I have btw), you should consider these as being only anecdotal evidence of legitimacy for those web sites. Which is the conundrum, because you still might meet a great woman or man using them, but your impressions of what your options are clearly not what you are being led to believe.

Match.com deserves no stars, absolutely none. 0 stars should be a choice. It was a complete waste of time and money. As is the case with many of the people who have posted their reviews here, I suddenly started winks after I cancelled my subscription. Despite being specific in my profile I was being contacted by men up to 24 years my senior, divorced guys with three kids, and men who described themselves as being separated. It was just ridiculous. The last wink I got was from a man supposedly from NY. I say supposedly because I believe that he was a Match.com employee trying to get me to renew my subscription. When I searched 'more like him' I was unfortunately not surprised to find another profile with exactly the same picture. There was 7" height difference, a different ethnicity (if you can believe that),and a different search location. One was looking anywhere in the US. The other was looking in the UK. One profile mentioned a child. The other did not. We are better off in the grocery store, at a church function or just walking down the street. Match.com should be investigated.

This is the problem in a nutshell. Match has no verification process. Nothing at all that determines genuine from a Russian or Nigerian fake. This problem is so great that 25% of every daily newbie is a fake. If they stayed silent it would be one thing but they do not. They use the service to phish morons out of cash with BS scripts. Match does nothing when these fakes are reported. This is for one of two reasons. They are aware and the fake Russian tarts get Aholes to buy the membership fee to answer the Phishing email sent by the fakes. They always use Yahoo addresses and always use one or two stolen photos. The second reason is to pump up the membership numbers for stock holders. The truth is that if the service came into the 1990s and required verification it may be at best just average. I would advise someone that is interested to set up an account.Post good photos and leave it alone for a month. At the end of the period look how many weird looking Russian models want to talk with you, their new buddy. I would NOT pay them for the service until verifications are set into place.
Thanks Match for answering my emails, Now read this posting and fix the problem that is elementary in todays age.
They make money when fools bite on the membership to answer a fake Puskahoggin.
Eat it Match.com!