Eharmony Articles

Reviewed By
SB
Sacramento
I have been a member twice of eharmony. The first time for 6 months. During that time I got a burst of matches then nothing. And the quality was poor and nearly a third never posted pix. Then I let my account lapse. After I did I then got an email notifying me that someone was interested in communicating with me even though nearly 100% of the women I tried to open contact with close me out. So I waited nearly a year then too a 6 month special offer again. The same thing happed. Small bursts of matches followed by long periods of nothing. No communications really responsed and certain noone initiated anything with me. So I let it lapse again. Withing a month I get another email saying someone wants to start communication with me. This sure seems like a scam to me. Baiting back into take a special offer only to throw me just matches then wait til I cancel then toss me another bone of communication request. I think I will wait another year or more or perhpas try another service.
Reviewed By
LINDA
WASHINGTON STATE
JJ in Seattle: I'm so sorry for what you had to go through, and all others who have had a bad experience as well. To elaborate on my overall experience with eHarmony, first of all, a good 80% of the matches I rec'd (1500 over a ca. 9 month time period) were inactive people, meaning, they could not respond to my ice breakers, photo requests nor to my Fasttrack communication request. And that's what we paid for? Inactive profiles? GRRRRRR! The real annoying thing with these matches, is the fact that you have no clue if they are current paid subscribers. The only way you can verify anything, is by not viewing your matches and eventually the ones who do view your profile, will change the status from 'Communicate' to the '1234 stage' status. After over a week, I still had only 1 or 2 view my profile. Those matches would then close me out if uninterested.
Reviewed By
JJ
Seattle
I've tried eharmony twice. Once two years ago for a couple months and last Dec to now. The first time I met someone I only dated for a couple weeks. She told me she had been separated from her ex for months. Turned out she was still seeing the guy while seeing me and confessed she was only doing the online thing to make him jealous. Very dangerous for me. This last time I received a lot more matches, over 500 in just a few months. Regrettably, only a handful were ones that I even wanted to communicate with. I met someone after six weeks, started dating, we liked each others company and seemed to click rather well. A dream come true, right? Wrong. After 3 months of dating she moved in with me and her problems started to show (can't manage life, BPD disorder, told me she was separated from ex husband for a year when if fact it was less than two months and at that time attempted suicide and was committed for a short period) the list went on as time went by. The relationship ended last month with her assaulting me and she now has three DV charges to face. And to top it all off a half hour after she was arrested and on the way to jail she made the allegation that I raped her to try to get out of going to jail. What a nightmare. I guess they see this thing a lot and knew she was lying. I guess I joined thinking I would be matched with someone 'normal'.
Reviewed By
Michael
Quebec Canada
Great concept but poor execution. Overly complicated and pricey.
I was initially attracted to the fact that they match based on very exhaustive criteria. Some of the matches were interesting but stopped responding as soon as open communication was reached.
Price is too high for no reason but at least it weeds out people who are not seriously interested in dating and/or relationships.
Customer service responded quickly and politely to my questions but sometimes dodged the question entirely and responded with rhetoric that had nothing to do with the initial question.
The biggest disappointment about Eharmony for me is that when my paid subscription was coming to an end, I expected to receive an email notifying me of that matter and encouraging me to renew and perhaps a special offer like they had sent a few weeks prior. Instead of that, nothing ! I went to the site and found out my subscription had just ended. That's very poor marketing and shows just how much they really DON't care about their customers satisfaction.
Reviewed By
LisaE
Listen to MY experience with eHarmony. At 44 years old..I was at the tail end of being able to conceive a child through natural causes and was explicit that my #1 desire was to have a baby.
So who do they try and fix me up with..a 63 year old man. 19 years older then me. Do I want the father of my baby to be 63? I don't think so. I wrote an indignant letter and asked if they were going to fix me up with someone where there was a 19 year age difference..it would have made more sense to fix me up with someone 19 years younger [think Ashton and Demi]. They wrote back and said it didn't work that way..it had to be the older man/younger woman scenario and not vice versa.
I was incensed. Haven't we begun to get rid of THAT stereotype? I had gotten three replies in the three months I had been a member.
And when you tell them that being a mother is your first priority [and maybe final chance] and then to be matched up with someone of that age.. it was an insult and they never got it. And this man and I had nothing in common. I spent hours taking their tests and none of the men 'matched' on the points that the smarmy Dr. Warren talks about in his commercials.
When those commercials come on and they show those 'happy couples'..I hit the mute button..because I know it is all a big scam.
DON'T FALL FOR THAT PITCH. Those are actors and he is making a fortune.
Reviewed By
neonrider
My experience on eHARMony:
1. Eharmony will not refund my money. They promise to do that, then they refuse and ask me to call them and then hang up on me. Next time I call they say I must wait online for 2 hours.. and then after 40 minutes of waiting their phone line mysteriously hangs up. Then the next time I call they categorically refuse to refund my money yet the suport person on the email states that they will refund if I call them.. Then when I call them they say I've been on a 3 day (three day) trial (which never was noted or found on their site).
2. Their 'RelyID' service charged me $5.95 twice and the online verification failed both times yet Eharmony cathegorically refuses to refund the $5.95 (charged twice) and they send me to RelyID and RelyID sends me back to Eharmony.
3. They send me matches with kids while I indicated no kids; they send me matches from far away states while I indicated within 30 miles; Most 90% or more matches CLOSE the match no matter how good my profile is. There's just nothing wrong with me, yet 99% of the 'matches' are being closed either right away or after the exhaustive question-answer ordeal and what's the weirdest that your LIKES-DISLIKES (can't stands etc.) must MATCH otherwise your match will close the match! Yet there is no way to keep your 'can't stands' list short or blank. They MAKE YOU to select 10 can't stands, which is weirrrrrd! You're very limited with Eharmony on what you can do.
4. Eharmony support makes promises that they never keep ever.
5. Eharmony support is rude and hangs up on you.
6. Going to an Eharmomy site loads malicious atdmt.com files into your computer.
7. EharMONEY.com redirects to Eharmony.com . It's all about money, not about matching you with the right person.
8. 99% of 'matches' do not match at all and CLOSE the match on you after you go through all the questions and answers..
9. Eharmony says I've been on a 3-day trial while there's no such thing on their website.
10. Eharmony's RElyID is pre-made to fail that they could get you fax them your sensitive details such as SS#, Photo ID and when you decide not to do that they refuse to refund your money for the RElyID service.
No advance notice is posted that user may need to manually identify themselves to RelyID. You have no choice, once you pay, all you can do is manual verification, you can't get your money back even if RelyID fails, even if they charge you twice or three times!
11. Eharmony sends you non-existing users.
12. Quite often the user's age shown as zero '0' and their location as 'none' or wrong.
13. You can find closed matches in your account which you never saw before.
14. In your account you keep on seeing 'Your Profile is Not Complete' (you need to verify your id) yet when you try to verify it fails and asks you to fax your Social Security Number, Two of Your Photo ID's etc.
After paying a lot of money for a membership fee you still get this your profile is incomplete unless you surrender to them your SS# !!
15. Some matches they send you suddenly disappear.
16. Most matches never respond, because they stop paying their fee, but Eharmony displays them as pending misleading you into thinking that they are still members while they are not paid members anymore and therefore until they pay again they have no way to respond to you.
17. Person's weight is not displayed. I ask not to match me with obese people yet they keep on sending me obese looking people.
18. No refund or billing policy is found anywhere on eHARMony.com
19. Eharmony does not maintain their email addresses. Provided email address failed when I emailed a support request to it.
20. Eharmony.com stopped working with Firefox in June 2008. I can't login to Eharmony.com using my favourite Firefox browser and their site opens with a blank page with a couple words on it identifying the error, but no actual error. Eharmony support promised to send a tech support email to me in 5 minutes, yet 6 hours later no such email and their site is inaccessible using Firefox.
21. Eharmony phone number is hard to find or actually nowhere to be found on their website even if you are a paid member.
22. Eharmony could see that certain kind of people close their match on me 100% of times, yet they keep on sending the same kind of people as my matches again and again (example: white U.S. women).
23. About 80% or more 'matches' that they send you never respond and you will have to close that particular match probably by selecting 'This match never responded to my request to communicate' before your 'no response' and 'CLOSED' match 'portfolio' grows out of proportion..
Wikipedia
* eHarmony does not match gay individuals, and this has led to criticism. Warren responds that he has not done the same amount of research on same-sex match-making as he has done on heterosexual match-making. He also notes that eHarmony is about marriage, and that same-sex marriage is illegal in most states. In a discussion regarding eHarmony's lack of services to gay individuals, the founder is reported as having said, 'Where Focus on the Family and a lot of these other places come from is that there are six places in the Bible that say homosexuality is wrong.' But then he continued: 'On the other hand, in the Old Testament if you work on the Sabbath day and you're guilty then you should be shot.' eHarmony's lack of same-sex matching options has prompted a lawsuit claiming that eHarmony has violated California's laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
* Some complain the procedure to unsubscribe from the service is unfair or misleading.
* Various problems relating to the matching mechanism used, such as:
o Matches cannot be filtered by user-defined criteria. For example users cannot require that all matches contain a picture.
o The only power the user has is to look at the matches brought up by the matching system and pursue or reject them. Therefore a significant amount of trust in the psychological matching system is needed to justify the service.
o Inability to tell if that match is actually a paying/active match.
* After answering a 258 question profile, some would-be customers are rejected without explanation. A public statement from eHarmony claims that the reasons for rejection are usually because of three factors:
o They are already married (30%);
o They are under the minimum age of 18 (27%);
o They provide inconsistent answers during the profile (9%)

back to home
For more reviews click here | or here | Wikipedia here

Reviewed By
SB
Sacramento
I have been a member twice of eharmony. The first time for 6 months. During that time I got a burst of matches then nothing. And the quality was poor and nearly a third never posted pix. Then I let my account lapse. After I did I then got an email notifying me that someone was interested in communicating with me even though nearly 100% of the women I tried to open contact with close me out. So I waited nearly a year then too a 6 month special offer again. The same thing happed. Small bursts of matches followed by long periods of nothing. No communications really responsed and certain noone initiated anything with me. So I let it lapse again. Withing a month I get another email saying someone wants to start communication with me. This sure seems like a scam to me. Baiting back into take a special offer only to throw me just matches then wait til I cancel then toss me another bone of communication request. I think I will wait another year or more or perhpas try another service.
Reviewed By
LINDA
WASHINGTON STATE
JJ in Seattle: I'm so sorry for what you had to go through, and all others who have had a bad experience as well. To elaborate on my overall experience with eHarmony, first of all, a good 80% of the matches I rec'd (1500 over a ca. 9 month time period) were inactive people, meaning, they could not respond to my ice breakers, photo requests nor to my Fasttrack communication request. And that's what we paid for? Inactive profiles? GRRRRRR! The real annoying thing with these matches, is the fact that you have no clue if they are current paid subscribers. The only way you can verify anything, is by not viewing your matches and eventually the ones who do view your profile, will change the status from 'Communicate' to the '1234 stage' status. After over a week, I still had only 1 or 2 view my profile. Those matches would then close me out if uninterested.
Reviewed By
JJ
Seattle
I've tried eharmony twice. Once two years ago for a couple months and last Dec to now. The first time I met someone I only dated for a couple weeks. She told me she had been separated from her ex for months. Turned out she was still seeing the guy while seeing me and confessed she was only doing the online thing to make him jealous. Very dangerous for me. This last time I received a lot more matches, over 500 in just a few months. Regrettably, only a handful were ones that I even wanted to communicate with. I met someone after six weeks, started dating, we liked each others company and seemed to click rather well. A dream come true, right? Wrong. After 3 months of dating she moved in with me and her problems started to show (can't manage life, BPD disorder, told me she was separated from ex husband for a year when if fact it was less than two months and at that time attempted suicide and was committed for a short period) the list went on as time went by. The relationship ended last month with her assaulting me and she now has three DV charges to face. And to top it all off a half hour after she was arrested and on the way to jail she made the allegation that I raped her to try to get out of going to jail. What a nightmare. I guess they see this thing a lot and knew she was lying. I guess I joined thinking I would be matched with someone 'normal'.
Reviewed By
Michael
Quebec Canada
Great concept but poor execution. Overly complicated and pricey.
I was initially attracted to the fact that they match based on very exhaustive criteria. Some of the matches were interesting but stopped responding as soon as open communication was reached.
Price is too high for no reason but at least it weeds out people who are not seriously interested in dating and/or relationships.
Customer service responded quickly and politely to my questions but sometimes dodged the question entirely and responded with rhetoric that had nothing to do with the initial question.
The biggest disappointment about Eharmony for me is that when my paid subscription was coming to an end, I expected to receive an email notifying me of that matter and encouraging me to renew and perhaps a special offer like they had sent a few weeks prior. Instead of that, nothing ! I went to the site and found out my subscription had just ended. That's very poor marketing and shows just how much they really DON't care about their customers satisfaction.
Reviewed By
LisaE
Listen to MY experience with eHarmony. At 44 years old..I was at the tail end of being able to conceive a child through natural causes and was explicit that my #1 desire was to have a baby.
So who do they try and fix me up with..a 63 year old man. 19 years older then me. Do I want the father of my baby to be 63? I don't think so. I wrote an indignant letter and asked if they were going to fix me up with someone where there was a 19 year age difference..it would have made more sense to fix me up with someone 19 years younger [think Ashton and Demi]. They wrote back and said it didn't work that way..it had to be the older man/younger woman scenario and not vice versa.
I was incensed. Haven't we begun to get rid of THAT stereotype? I had gotten three replies in the three months I had been a member.
And when you tell them that being a mother is your first priority [and maybe final chance] and then to be matched up with someone of that age.. it was an insult and they never got it. And this man and I had nothing in common. I spent hours taking their tests and none of the men 'matched' on the points that the smarmy Dr. Warren talks about in his commercials.
When those commercials come on and they show those 'happy couples'..I hit the mute button..because I know it is all a big scam.
DON'T FALL FOR THAT PITCH. Those are actors and he is making a fortune.
Reviewed By
neonrider
My experience on eHARMony:
1. Eharmony will not refund my money. They promise to do that, then they refuse and ask me to call them and then hang up on me. Next time I call they say I must wait online for 2 hours.. and then after 40 minutes of waiting their phone line mysteriously hangs up. Then the next time I call they categorically refuse to refund my money yet the suport person on the email states that they will refund if I call them.. Then when I call them they say I've been on a 3 day (three day) trial (which never was noted or found on their site).
2. Their 'RelyID' service charged me $5.95 twice and the online verification failed both times yet Eharmony cathegorically refuses to refund the $5.95 (charged twice) and they send me to RelyID and RelyID sends me back to Eharmony.
3. They send me matches with kids while I indicated no kids; they send me matches from far away states while I indicated within 30 miles; Most 90% or more matches CLOSE the match no matter how good my profile is. There's just nothing wrong with me, yet 99% of the 'matches' are being closed either right away or after the exhaustive question-answer ordeal and what's the weirdest that your LIKES-DISLIKES (can't stands etc.) must MATCH otherwise your match will close the match! Yet there is no way to keep your 'can't stands' list short or blank. They MAKE YOU to select 10 can't stands, which is weirrrrrd! You're very limited with Eharmony on what you can do.
4. Eharmony support makes promises that they never keep ever.
5. Eharmony support is rude and hangs up on you.
6. Going to an Eharmomy site loads malicious atdmt.com files into your computer.
7. EharMONEY.com redirects to Eharmony.com . It's all about money, not about matching you with the right person.
8. 99% of 'matches' do not match at all and CLOSE the match on you after you go through all the questions and answers..
9. Eharmony says I've been on a 3-day trial while there's no such thing on their website.
10. Eharmony's RElyID is pre-made to fail that they could get you fax them your sensitive details such as SS#, Photo ID and when you decide not to do that they refuse to refund your money for the RElyID service.
No advance notice is posted that user may need to manually identify themselves to RelyID. You have no choice, once you pay, all you can do is manual verification, you can't get your money back even if RelyID fails, even if they charge you twice or three times!
11. Eharmony sends you non-existing users.
12. Quite often the user's age shown as zero '0' and their location as 'none' or wrong.
13. You can find closed matches in your account which you never saw before.
14. In your account you keep on seeing 'Your Profile is Not Complete' (you need to verify your id) yet when you try to verify it fails and asks you to fax your Social Security Number, Two of Your Photo ID's etc.
After paying a lot of money for a membership fee you still get this your profile is incomplete unless you surrender to them your SS# !!
15. Some matches they send you suddenly disappear.
16. Most matches never respond, because they stop paying their fee, but Eharmony displays them as pending misleading you into thinking that they are still members while they are not paid members anymore and therefore until they pay again they have no way to respond to you.
17. Person's weight is not displayed. I ask not to match me with obese people yet they keep on sending me obese looking people.
18. No refund or billing policy is found anywhere on eHARMony.com
19. Eharmony does not maintain their email addresses. Provided email address failed when I emailed a support request to it.
20. Eharmony.com stopped working with Firefox in June 2008. I can't login to Eharmony.com using my favourite Firefox browser and their site opens with a blank page with a couple words on it identifying the error, but no actual error. Eharmony support promised to send a tech support email to me in 5 minutes, yet 6 hours later no such email and their site is inaccessible using Firefox.
21. Eharmony phone number is hard to find or actually nowhere to be found on their website even if you are a paid member.
22. Eharmony could see that certain kind of people close their match on me 100% of times, yet they keep on sending the same kind of people as my matches again and again (example: white U.S. women).
23. About 80% or more 'matches' that they send you never respond and you will have to close that particular match probably by selecting 'This match never responded to my request to communicate' before your 'no response' and 'CLOSED' match 'portfolio' grows out of proportion..
Wikipedia
* eHarmony does not match gay individuals, and this has led to criticism. Warren responds that he has not done the same amount of research on same-sex match-making as he has done on heterosexual match-making. He also notes that eHarmony is about marriage, and that same-sex marriage is illegal in most states. In a discussion regarding eHarmony's lack of services to gay individuals, the founder is reported as having said, 'Where Focus on the Family and a lot of these other places come from is that there are six places in the Bible that say homosexuality is wrong.' But then he continued: 'On the other hand, in the Old Testament if you work on the Sabbath day and you're guilty then you should be shot.' eHarmony's lack of same-sex matching options has prompted a lawsuit claiming that eHarmony has violated California's laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
* Some complain the procedure to unsubscribe from the service is unfair or misleading.
* Various problems relating to the matching mechanism used, such as:
o Matches cannot be filtered by user-defined criteria. For example users cannot require that all matches contain a picture.
o The only power the user has is to look at the matches brought up by the matching system and pursue or reject them. Therefore a significant amount of trust in the psychological matching system is needed to justify the service.
o Inability to tell if that match is actually a paying/active match.
* After answering a 258 question profile, some would-be customers are rejected without explanation. A public statement from eHarmony claims that the reasons for rejection are usually because of three factors:
o They are already married (30%);
o They are under the minimum age of 18 (27%);
o They provide inconsistent answers during the profile (9%)

back to home
For more reviews click here | or here | Wikipedia here