From: robd@cray.com (Robert Derrick)
Subject: Re: Together Dating Service: Beware!!! (repost)
Date: 13 Apr 92 15:18:51 CDT

Thanks to Gary for posting the expose' of Together.  It
takes a lot of guts to bare your soul like this.

If you haven't read it, back up and do so.  I won't quote
pieces of it here, because it will be best read in its
entirety.

I just wanted to add that although I did not bite (hard
that is), I did go thru the basic startup experience with
Great Expectations.  I think I like the concept of GE
better than Together sounds (you look at videos and 
photos of your prospective dates; you choose who you'd 
like to try to meet).  But I would have to say that I
experienced nearly every thing Gary did in the pre-interview.

0. Same as Gary, I was not feeling like a dweeb that couldn't
   get a date, but wondered if there might be an easier way
   than the old methods.  I had also just moved up to the
   big city from a town where the male to female ratio was
   about 2:1, so the romantic side of life had been a little
   slow.  I was in Minneapolis for about two weeks when I
   contacted GE.

1. They won't tell you the price until they have got the
   hook in as deep as it will go.  I kept asking how much
   and the young lady kept dodging the question.  At one
   point she said, "more that $10 and less than a million".
   I was not at all thrilled with this kind of answer.

2. I felt like I was being sold a used car.  Buttering me
   up, "how much is your _happiness_ worth?", baiting me,
   getting all my information while holding their's back
   as long as possible.  And always, refusing to give me
   the bottom line - how much - until I agreed that I 
   wanted to try it.  I had to say, yes, I want to try
   GE, then out came the contract with the answer to the
   $ question.  I think it was $1700 for a year, with a
   three month hold.  Well, I said that was too much.  I
   had a figure in mind that I felt I could comfortably
   chock up to experience, like Gary.  I set it at $1000.
   And so she ask me, how much can you afford?  Red flag
   goes up.  So I said $800.  She goes to talk to the boss.
   She comes back with a 9 month deal (6 months plus a
   3 month hold) for about $900).  I should of known better
   but I was weak, and since it was under my inside limit,
   I decided to go for it.

3. Contract time, they imprint my Credit Card, bring the
   papers back, and I start to sign them, and up comes the
   photo session, another $130.  Whoa!  "You didn't tell
   me this wasn't included", I say.  "I'm sure I did she
   said."  Well, after some more wrangling, I decide that
   it is over my limit (however small) and I want out.
   But they already have taken the Card imprint, and 
   verified it (meaning my account has already been hit
   for the cash).  So I say cancel it.  Well in order to
   cancel, I have to submit a request, in writing to 
   someone who isn't available.  Why don't I sleep on it?

4. I did.  I went back the next day, with a request, in
   writing, to cancel.  And it was.  I have no idea 
   what I would have experienced had I stayed in.  They
   said that their male to female ratio was close to
   1:1, with a little edge on the male side.  I have no
   idea if it is true, but I did notice that every time
   I went in, there were mostly males and very few females
   in looking thru the books and watching the videos.
   They assured me that it was not always so, and that
   some days it was exactly the opposite.  Maybe...

5. A few months later, I noticed an ad in the paper where
   someone was selling their GE membership.  I called up.
   Turns out, these two people had actually met thru GE,
   and were planning a long term, and both wanted to get
   rid of the rest of their time at about 1/2 price.  He
   said he had done quite well in it and didn't feel at
   all taken.  I thought, well, maybe I'll give it another
   try.  So I called up GE, to find out what other costs
   would be involved in transferring a membership.  I got
   the same person I had before (I recognized her voice).
   She asked me who I was buying it from.  I say, that is
   really immaterial.  They are selling a membership with 1 
   year left, and how much they sell it for is our private
   business.  She says that until they know the specific
   details, GE can't tell me how much.  This time I am holding
   to my guns.  I ask for and get a "manager".  We go through
   the same rigormarole for a while, and then she finally
   says that there is the photo session and the transfer
   fee (a hundred something I think).  I ask, are there
   any other hidden costs?  No, that's it.  Then why all the
   dodging at first when I asked what I though was a very
   simple question that turned out to have a very simple
   answer?  Well, that question has no answer, except that
   it makes a cautious person remember "caveat emptor".
   So I decided that if they were going to piss me off 
   everytime I had to deal with them, I was better off
   without them.  End of story.

Good luck, people.

rob
   left
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