EHarmony?

[miss-a]

Okay, Gang,

I'm open to comments, thoughts, and even gentle rebukes. I asked this on the other thread and wanted to include you as well.

Two days ago while watching an online cooking show and ad popped up inviting me to try EHarmony's five-day free communications trial. It was already two and a half days in, but just for fun I decided to give it a whirl.

Well, I'm finding myself really irritated at EHarmony. They offered me the opportunity to send what they call a FastTrack message (which I thought prudent since I was only going to be able to try the service for half the trial period). So I typed a few paragraphs mentioning how and when I as saved, church involvement, etc and asked the guy to do the same. Then I clicked send. And up it popped. "Nope, you can't do that. FastTrack is only available to members. But we conveniently can take your money right now and then you FastTrack til the cows come home."

Personally, I'm quite put off by this. Why not just allow me to try the full version of the program and see if I like it. Alternately, why not let me know upfront what I can and cannot do on the freebie trial. And finally, why let me spend my time writing several paragraphs, only to tell me my paragraphs can't go anywhere?

The good news: I only did this on a whim. I'm not feeling like I can't go on if I don't find a mate. But I'm hating the fact the some people are and this "Christian" dating service seems to be playing on that. So my thought is that God is not in this for me. And I question if He's in it at all. I don't, from a biblical point of view, see Him operating at all the way EHarmony does.

I'm not asking you if you think I should continue with EHarmony. I don't really, even if they hadn't been weighed and found lacking, see myself ever making arrangements to meet a man in person who I'd met online, and this experience has been helpful in allowing me to see that. My question is, do you think I'm being to hard on them. Or do you think I'm seeing what I think I'm seeing. I'd also love to hear others' experiences with EHarmony.

Any takers?
Thanks, A

 

[Alphadux]

I don't like eHarmony. There are ways in which it is rather restrictive -- not to mention expensive. It's technically not a Christian dating service anymore. If I understand correctly, the fella that started it decided to branch out a little more, which even caused James Dobson to stop promoting it.

 

[andy212]

Im sure you dont need it but like everything now there are hiden catchers ways to just make money.

 

[angelreyne]

I once tried Eharmony, and spent all the time it took filling in all the questions etc and writing paragraphs. When I pushed search it told me there were no matches for me at this time. That was just frustrating, but then a few weeks later I got an email saying someone had read my profile liked it and was interested in talking to me. They showed me who it was, what he was all about etc and how I could make contact. He looked nice to me so I logged in only to be told I could not make contact with him because I was not a paying member. Well I was even more frustrated by now that they had no matches for me whatsoever, but If I paid the fee I could make contact with this one person. The fee was too expensive to make this one contact feasible in any way, and I ended up writing to the company asking what their tactic was, wether it was to make money or to help people find relationships etc. They sent me an email back fobbing me off which of course I kindof expected. Not impressed at all, and that was some years ago now, Ive never tried them again. Waste of time and money as far as im concerned.

 

[Kristin E]

I personally cannot stand E-Harmony, it's just all about money and their trials are like any other website trials FAKE.

 

[Riot Riot Riot]

In my opinion, I think the site started out with good intentions. However, like most companies, the founder decided to go "bigger" and soon it becomes all about how they can make more money.

Plus, if you read the bible, Peter talks about how there isn't ALWAYS someone out there for everyone. God chooses to give some a life of singleness, and some the gift of marriage. With the way eHarmony operates, they make it sound as if EVERYONE will find a match and be happily married in a year or two.

My parents wanted me to sign up for the site, even offering to pay the yearly membership (before they found out it was $300+ a year), but the way I see it: God will give me someone if He wants, WHEN He wants. I'm not saying that I'm not going to keep my mind open to finding a nice christian guy, and if an opportunity comes knocking and I feel like God is saying yes, then I'll proceed.

But in my opinion, leaving your dating life up to a site that claims to have very vague Christian guidelines, and is deceiving in their operations, is not for me.