Dating Directions continues to miss the point of my complaint, which is that not only did they fail to communicate with me in ANY way during one-third of my contracted time, but that when I confronted them about this, they placed all of the blame on me, saying that I am hard to reach and a poor communicator, which I feel I have adequately demonstrated is not the case They have provided absolutely no concrete evidence that there were points of contact initiated by them that went unresponded to by me in a timely fashion, which is the whole basis of their reasoning as to why they failed to communicate with me regarding introductions they claimed to have had for me during those four months I do have concerns about their ability to actually provide services that they state they can provide prior to getting your money, and did discuss those in my complaint, but those are peripheral, and I mostly included those complaints so that anyone considering their services would actually have the experience of a client to help them make their decision, as I had nothing but the claims made by Dating Directions themselves If they had completed the entire months of contracted services with me and I had still not been in a committed relationship, I would not have filed a complaint based simply on lack of finding me a match, which is the only part of my complaint this response addresses My being in a relationship does preclude them from being able to provide contracted services like matchmaking to me, but as this complaint deals primarily with a failure to provide services for reasons that are at best unclear and at worst highly suspicious during the particular time period of June-October 2014, my current lack of need for their services seems a moot point I will repeat this once more - this is not primarily about the outcome of the matchmaking services, it is about unprofessional behavior and lack of communication from a business that relies on communication for success I asked for a refund for months (June-October 2014) of my contracted time because that is the time period I felt they truly failed me as a hired service - notice that I did NOT ask for a refund for the time period of October – December (which was still within my month contract, per [redacted] ), as they were in contact with me at that point and offered me a match, though by then I was in a relationship and so declined the match, which I hope makes it clear, once more, that this is NOT about outcomes, but failure to come through on a contracted service when the client had clearly communicated that she desired said services And, because of the response I have received from Dating Directions thus far, it is also about unprofessional handling of an unhappy client and making claims about my behavior and communication which are completely unfounded During our phone conversation, [redacted] said that she became emotional and out of control because she didn't like being called a liar - well, neither do I When she told me that the reason they had failed to contact me more than the one text they claim to have sent in July was because I had been so hard to reach and frequently failed to respond to their attempts to contact me, I wasn't 100% sure that it WASN'T true, but it just didn't sit right with my own recollections Because my memories can be faulty just like anyone else's - especially when it comes to memories which would put me in a less than favorable light - I decided to look into my own email and phone records of my communication patterns with Dating Directions to see if there was any evidence at all that I had been such a poor communicator I generally try to be an excellent communicator and felt bad that I might have failed in that while working with people who were ostensibly working for me and for my benefit I made the spreadsheet initially simply to keep things as organized as possible in my own mind, and keep it as factual as possible (you'll notice I put the number of minutes it took me to respond each time in the spreadsheet - I didn't want to miss any instance where I may have failed to respond in a timely fashion, and I find that it's best to identify objective data to measure something when the subjective experience/recollection is highly emotional) It was in doing this for my own benefit that I found that not only was [redacted] 's report of my communication failures not completely true, it was actually completely based on every objective piece of data I could dig up The response states that you are "not sure how to reconcile", which I am glad to clarify Since you completely failed to address any of my actual concerns in your first response, you may reconcile by answering the following, which speak to specific concerns I addressed in my initial complaint, now in question format to make it clear what I need from you: 1) Why do you claim that I was difficult to reach and tended to not respond in a timely fashion to your attempts to contact me when there is absolutely no evidence to that effect? If this was indeed the reason why you chose not to communicate with me more effectively between June and October 2014, please provide evidence of phone calls, emails, texts, etc from you that went unresponded to by me, aside from the three I have already acknowledged and explained a delay in response to I am attaching a spreadsheet of all the documented points of contact I can identify between us – I can provide third-party evidence (phone bills, emails) if needed If you would like to take back or deny that reason for not contacting me with more than just the text you claim to have sent in July, then why did you not make more of an effort to contact me regarding matches when I clearly stated that I was interested in more introductions and had previously always responded to you promptly? And why would [redacted] say such things about me in the first place if they weren't true? 2) Do you have any evidence other than Dating Directions’ “logs” of the text [redacted] supposedly sent in July regarding a new match? I have available copies of my phone bills from July (personal information/complete phone numbers of friends and family redacted, obviously - was unable to attach due to file size) which demonstrate no phone calls or texts from any Dating Directions number (numbers ending: 3283, 3812, 4000, 3930) Do you have documentation of this text from your end? 3) Why, when I explicitly asked to be communicated with by email and not text, and had replied to an email from you with an email stating I was interested in more matches, would you choose to tell me about it via text, and only text? Do you typically disregard a client’s wishes for mode of communication when that mode of communication has been working just fine? You'll note in my communication spreadsheet that I NEVER texted anyone from Dating Directions (confirmed on my phone bills), even when you (I believe only ***) texted me, and I always chose to respond by email or phone instead of text When I noticed this pattern in the objective data, I recalled that I had made a conscious decision to not ever respond via text to anyone from Dating Directions because I had explicitly stated that texting me was unreliable, and I did not want to give any mixed signals about the best mode of communication for me given my personal work/life circumstances So, that you would specifically choose texting as the sole form of communication to reach me about this new introduction - knowing it would be the only communication you would send regarding the introduction, if [redacted] is telling the truth about how this played out on your end - it is especially illogical 4) Why do you say I have not requested a refund? I specifically outlined my desire for a partial refund, including reasoning behind the amount I requested I did say I did not *expect [redacted] a refund, as [redacted] stated multiple times in our phone conversation that it is not "industry standard" to provide refunds, a sentiment which was also expressed in other Revdex.com responses I would say that just because something isn't "industry standard" doesn't mean that it's not the right thing to do, though I certainly do not wish to fight you about it - I was perfectly willing to settle for a renewed/revised contract until said contract never appeared ( [redacted] claimed that it had "just been sent back to to her from the lawyer" the day I lodged my complaint with the Revdex.com - over a month from the conversation about such a contract - but I have yet to see a copy of it), and obviously I am no longer interested in such a contract given your behavior in this matter This is not about money, it is about failure to provide pre-paid services, which logically leads me to believe that because I did not receive services for which I paid during the time you were contracted to provide them, I am owed a portion of that money back Therefore, I will continue to request a partial refund of $ with full knowledge that Dating Directions does not seem interested in providing one - are you going to provide me with any kind of refund? 5) Why was I charged more than double what other clients report having been charged? I can't think of a good reason why two clients would both lie about the cost of the same package I received and give a quantity LESS than what they actually paid If they are indeed lying, I am sure you have records of the various amounts you charge clients I have attached my original contract as evidence of the amount I paid I will again state that during the initial interview, prior to signing the contract, I was led to believe that $ [redacted] was the LOWER end of what was typically charged for this package, and I had done some research on "typical" cost of such services (hard to do as not much is out there, but I did my best at due diligence), and so I did not think the cost was unreasonable, and could afford it So my issue is not with the actual number, but that other clients pay far less WHILE I was led to be that what I was charged was typical/the low end While I get that it's a useful sales tactic, and it is naive to believe that Dating Directions has ONLY the happiness of its clients in mind without consideration for profit (it is a business, after all), it's also incredibly deceptive and takes advantage of the emotional state of the potential client (protection from which I believe is the spirit of the Ohio Prepaid Entertainments Act, though certainly outside the actual application of that law) 6) Section 2n of the contract (again, attached) states that you will return all personal items, answers to questionnaires, photographs, etc, to the client within days of the expiration of contract via regular mail I am sure this information is also digital at this point in time, though I know [redacted] hand-wrote notes on a print out of my questionnaire during our initial meeting, and her notes also contain personal information Do you plan on returning these items to me via regular mail, and how do you go about destroying the digital data? Per section 2c of the contract, the term of the contract starts upon full payment of the matchmaker fee, which, like the contract, occurred on 11/12/ This therefore makes you in violation of section 2n of the contract by days and counting as of 12/30/ I believe I gave you all several opportunities to address my concerns before bringing it to the Revdex.com (email to [redacted] #1, email to [redacted] #2, phone conversation with [redacted] ), but each time I received a response not dissimilar to the one you have provided here – addressing only the idea that I am merely unhappy/disgruntled that you never actually found me a long-term match, which is not my complaint, rather than my issues with the way you chose to communicate (or not) with me after June Quite frankly, even if you hadn’t identified any introductions for me during those months, but had responded to my June 23rd email and subsequently let me know that you were on the hunt for more introductions, that would have sufficed as contract fulfillment in my mind, as I was told in the beginning that it may average a match a month, but that it could be less frequent or more frequent than that Unfortunately, that is not what happened I am perfectly willing to reconcile with any business that has made mistakes, errors in communication, etc without the help of the Revdex.com, and have done so in the past – this is my first Revdex.com submission but not my first conflict with a business who provided poor service But as you have consistently disregarded my actual complaint when responding to me, failed to take responsibility for mistakes/errors in your own actions, and placed all blame on me for communication failures (which is not to say I am 100% without blame – I did state in my initial complaint that I consciously decided not to reach out to you from June-October), and have done so in an incredibly unprofessional manner including emotionally charged screaming, I no longer feel it is appropriate to attempt to reconcile this without third-party involvement/witness I stated this in the email I sent [redacted] informing her that I would be reporting Dating Directions to the Revdex.com (in which I attached a PDF of my complaint as I felt it would be easier to read than what I posted on the website, given formatting limitations), and that I would not be discussing the matter with anyone from Dating Directions in any private fashion, but this did not stop you from emailing, texting, and calling me twice within 10-minutes of reading the email, which I felt was simply another example of unprofessional behavior Because I believe the behaviors of Dating Directions in these matters violate Revdex.com standards of honesty, transparency, and honoring of both verbal and written agreements, I felt that the Revdex.com was the most appropriate venue for mediation (I have no intention of taking legal action here, though I see you have copied your lawyer on this), and will continue to correspond in this – and only this – arena **Of note, [redacted] , who was the one to respond to my complaint here, has never personally met me or discussed any of these issues with me in person, over the phone, or via email She made one of the two phone calls in response to my submission of this complaint, but as I had already stated that I wanted all conversations regarding this matter to be done via the Revdex.com website, I did not answer her call or return it She is, I believe, the founder of the company, and a co-owner, so I understand why she was the one to respond, but she may not be the best or most fully informed regarding what has happened in my case
Our response to the client’s second Complaint Detail is as follows: We categorically deny any allegation of breach of contract and/or any allegation of a failure or unwillingness to perform the contracted services The First Complaint Detail specifies by the client’s own words that the client has a “small number of eligible bachelors” which would satisfy her dating standards She then exhaustively lists a chronology from 11/12/to 06/10/where she has multiple meetings with us, and also goes out on approximately dates with at least Male Introductions from us, in spite of her busy work and travel scheduleShe repeatedly concedes that whenever our staff contacted her, we always stated that we had specific men that we were ready to introduce her to We always had Bachelors lined up, waiting to be introduced to herThe period of time for which she expresses the most dissatisfaction is approximately 6/10/to 10/8/ But she concedes that in both the 6/10/and 10/8/emails that we specifically said that we had Introductions ready for her She also concedes that in the 6/10/email we asked her if she wanted to put her account on hold, and then she also concedes that she did not respond to this email until 6/23/14, days later She further concedes that even though her hectic work schedule lessened around 6/14/14, she “decided not to bother to contact them and restarted online dating on my own, resulting in a relationship.” She also states, “I was also kind of curious as to how long they would just not contact me ” Our 6/10/email to her, asks specifically if she wants to put her account on hold, and then she intentionally failed to respond in a timely manner This is simply unworkableWhat is not mentioned in her chronology is that at all times, her email address remained on our general contact list for our events, classes, etc So she continued receiving standard client email notifications sent from us 6/10/through 10/8/ We didn’t disappear She disappeared She simply wanted to wait and see how long it would take for us to reply to her 6/23/email This is after her 3/28/14, which requested to delay dates until after 4/20/14, because of her schedule; after her 4/28/email where she specifies limited availability through 6/14/14; and after our 6/10/email in which we ask her if she would like to put a hold on her account And as mentioned above, every time we contacted her directly, it was either to schedule new Introductions or touch base on previous IntroductionsThen, in response to our 10/8/email, on 10/9/she informs us that she is in a relationshipShe concedes that our 10/11/email offers relationship coaching services And to be clear, those services were being offered without additional charge, that is, under the already-existing contractNowhere in this complaint is there a serious allegation that we were unwilling or unable to perform the services promised in the contractWe categorically deny that the client was charged an inappropriate amount of moneyUnder the Second Complaint Detail, point 5, she asks, “Why was I charged more than double what other clients report having been charged?” Our business is a Matchmaking consultation and search service that is personalized, high-end, and unique Not everyone pays the same price Different people request different services And sometimes, even when two people are receiving similar services, they still can pay different amounts We interview each individual client and gather information about the specific desired criteria they desire in a match Then we assess the level of services and resources we predict will be allocated on the client’s behalf The Second Complaint Detail states that she believed that the amount she was charged was the lower end of what was typically charged for the package she purchased, and that is correct The First Complaint Detail specified by the client’s own words that the client has a “small number of eligible bachelors” which would satisfy her dating standards, a specific and devout religious faith, a sometimes-hectic travel schedule, and also other professional obligations which can interfere with her availabilityThe amount she was charged is a lower-end amount of compensation that we would want from a client with these characteristicsWe can appreciate her disappointment at hearing that other clients have paid less than her She should be advised that we have many clients who have paid us much more than what she paid We also have many clients who have paid us much less than what she paid The contract with her was reasonable based upon her own considerations and desiresIn the Second Complaint Detail, she also concedes that, at the time of signing the contract, she had exercised what she considers to be due diligence, and furthermore, “ I did not think the cost was unreasonable, and could afford it.” We agree with this assessmentWe hope that this response answers her Second Complaint Detail Question #We were attempting to settle with this client before she submitted the complaint to the Revdex.comThe chronology in the First Complaint Detail states that we left a voicemail on 10/24/14, “to find out what happened.” The client had a phone call meeting with us on 11/11/14, and the client concedes that the result of that meeting was that we were in the process of preparing a “renewed/revised contract” After that, there is no other communication between either party until the Complainant emailed us on 12/15/at 5:32PM in which she advises us that, among other things, she is initiating a Revdex.com complaint The Revdex.com Complaint was submitted minutes later, at 5:34PM Our email reply to her occurred at 6:06PM, and we also texted and left a voicemail prior to emailing But apparently, replying to an email within minutes still isn’t going to be quick enough to satisfy this clientWe are eager to settle this complaint and retain our satisfactory membership with the Revdex.comWe remain willing to reconcile, mediate, or arbitrate
I am rejecting this response because:I have reviewed Dating Directions' response and would like to clarify a couple comments that they have made regarding the intentions underlying some of my actions/choices.- when I took days to respond to their June email which mentioned potential introductions (though without any specific details with names, range of potential date times, etc, as I had seen in previous emails presenting men for introductions), I was not at all purposefully delaying my response - I was genuinely swamped at work, and genuinely confused about being asked to put my account on hold, so after my schedule calmed down, I took some time to consider how I wanted to respond The delay was not a reflection of my willingness to participate in introductions As there were no specific people mentioned and no request for my available dates, I did not think that the email was time-sensitive, as previous emails with specific people and dates mentioned had been, and so did not think that this one delay, which was not at all my usual communication pattern, would be an issueIf it was an issue, and that was the reason Dating Directions chose not to respond to me for months, I wish they would have addressed it with me immediately and directly.- the emails I was receiving from Dating Directions during June-October were mass emails sent to anyone on the automated mailing listI did not consider this the personalized level of communication I expected and had up until then received from the service These emails were typically regarding activities I was not interested in - not to say these were not activities worth the time of those interested, just that they did not meet any needs I hadWhile I cannot say that I still had great faith that they understood what I wanted in a match at that point, I did still want to work with them to continue defining who that person might be, and was looking forward to meeting these introductions I had been told about It was only after waiting for a response for a month that I went ahead with online dating (which is not prohibited while using matchmaker services, simply something I had chosen not to do during that time) I just happened to meet someone quickly, and thus had much less impetus to reach out to them regarding the missing email than I would have otherwise And yes, I was curious about how long it would take them to response, not in a malicious way, but because I was so shocked that a month had gone by without response to me in the first place.- I submitted to the Revdex.com because I had lost faith in Dating Directions' willingness to reconcile without third party involvement I felt that a month was more than enough time to produce the promised revised contract, and that a company truly interested in reconciliation would have produced the contract as quickly as possible, and if it were going to take a long time, would have contacted me to explain why A month seemed like a long time to me, but I was not given a timeframe, so maybe that was the expected timeframe and my disappointment was simply a result of lack of communication? Regardless, I was left feeling that I had been forgotten immediately after complaining about feeling forgotten, and did not think that any further direct communication with Dating Directions would get me anywhere My email to them was intended to provide my complaint in an easier-to-read format and let them know that I wished to pursue all further communication through Revdex.com - I never intended the email as a conduit to reconciliation, which is why I did not wait for a response before submitting my complaint.During the entire time I was going on dates arranged by Dating Directions, I never received any negative feedback about delaying introductions during one particularly stressful/busy time in my life, and actually was encouraged not to try to date when life was especially hectic Unfortunately, in the end, it was clear that instead of coming alongside me to work within the confines of my sometimes hectic schedule, they instead deemed the life that I have created and love "unworkable".The only item I feel needs to be addressed before I am willing to consider this complaint closed is the lack of return of my personal information and confirmation of removal of information from their database, which is a breach of contract
Our business is a Matchmaking consultation and search service that is personalized, high-end, and unique We intimately work with successful (often busy) professionals with the aspiration to not only introduce them to the person of their dreams, but also to ensure that the initial attraction
has an opportunity to blossom into healthy romantic love, with the ultimate desired outcome being either a lifelong commitment or a long-term relationship that is mutually beneficial for our client and the person we introduce them to.To achieve such an outcome requires massive vigilance, expertise, and insight from us, and also a sufficient commitment from the client The stakes are very high; our clients greatly desire to find the romance of their lives, and often have the experience that they need real help from professionals who care And even though our success rate is extremely high for our industry, no service can guarantee successWorking with a Matchmaking Service is not an event but a journey Sometimes, the journey is quick and successful Other times, it works out eventually, but the client can become frustrated that the final outcome always appears to be just outside of their reach Other times, after we send them on many dates, and spend many hours coaching them, they meet the person of their dreams “without our help” And when that happens, sometimes the client mistakenly believes that our coaching didn’t contribute to their success, and then they question the value of our service.Obviously, we want all of our clients to be extremely satisfied with our services This former client is currently in a romantic relationship, has expressed her desire not to work with us anymore, and is also not requesting a refund In light of that, we are not sure how to reconcile with this client But if it pleases her to mediate, we are willing to have that conversation. We remain eager to close this complaint to the satisfaction of all parties
This letter is in response to the January 23, letter from the Revdex.com(“Revdex.com”), which contained *** ***’s Third Complaint Detail.It appears to us that this Complaint is close to being settled, and we are thankful for that The final paragraph of the Third Complaint Detail indicates that the only remaining issue is the “return of my personal information and confirmation of removal of information from their database, which is a breach of contract.”In principle, we agree with Ms*** that she is owed the return of her information We have prepared a packet that is ready to be sent via Certified Mail to Ms*** But there are some specific exceptions to her request that we need to explain.First, the relevant clause of the contract is Section 2, “Conditions”, paragraph (n), which reads: “(n) Matchmaker will never release Client’s personal or unauthorized confidential information, including but not limited to, Client’s home or employment addresses, income, financial obligations, social security number, vital statistics, and/or citizenship, without Client’s prior written authorization The identity of each client is fully protected Client agrees and understands that Matchmaker may make any client information available to outside sources for the purposes of collection and for the purposes outlined below All information and material of a personal or private nature that is acquired directly or indirectly from Client including but not limited to, answers to tests or questionnaires, photographs, or background information, shall be returned by Matchmaker to Client by regular mail within thirty days after the expiration of the contract or after the expiration for any reason of the service to be rendered by Matchmaker.”We assert that the final sentence of the above paragraph contains the relevant language, and it specifies “All information and material of a personal or private nature that is acquired directly or indirectly from Client…” There were documents within Ms***’s client file that were not acquired directly or indirectly from Ms***, so we are not giving those documents to her The first document is the contract, which was already provided to Ms*** on the date of signing The second document is hand-written notes of a meeting between *** and a Bachelor that Ms*** went on a date with We are not providing these notes, because the information was not acquired from Ms***, and we also assert our contractual duty with the Bachelor not to release his personal or private information that is acquired directly or indirectly from him We certify that both of these documents do not contain personal or private information about Ms***, and additionally we certify that these documents will never be released publicly We certify that other than these two exceptions, Ms*** will be returned the originals of the entire client file.The documents from Ms***’s physical file that are in the prepared packet are as follows:The gray folder which contained her physical file“New Client Checklist DIY”, dated 11/12/13, pageA photocopy of Ms***’s Ohio Driver License, undated, page“Client Intake Form”, dated 11/12/13, pages (final page 2-sided)“Date Preferences Questionnaire”, undated, page*** *** handwritten notes, dated 11/20/13, page*** *** handwritten notes, dated 2/21/14, page.Ms*** requests that we confirm removal of her information from our database To be fair, the contract does not say anything about removing her from our databaseBut, the contract language does indicate that photographs will be returned to the client All photographs of Ms*** were received by us either through email, or by Ms*** uploading to our website We certify that we have no physical printouts of these photos, and also certify that all digital copies of the photos are stored within our Matchmaking software So, we propose that with the packet we are sending to Ms*** of the physical file, we will also include screenshots The first screenshot is Ms***’s profile in our Matchmaking software (before deletion), and the second is a screenshot that her profile has been deleted (after deletion) We certify that Ms***’s profile will remain in deleted status within the software, so therefore, we will not access her profile or photographs We hope that this will satisfy Ms***’s concerns about being removed from our database, and we also hope that it will satisfy Ms*** for purposes of returning her photographs as stipulated in the contract. We believe that this is the final response required from us to satisfy the client and close the complaint Once we receive notice that Ms*** accepts this response, we will drop the packet in certified mail.We thank all parties for their assistance in this process.Sincerely,Dating Directions, LLC
Dating Directions
continues to miss the point of my complaint, which is that not only did they
fail to communicate with me in ANY way during one-third of my contracted time,
but that when I confronted them about this, they placed all of the blame on me,
saying that I am hard to reach and a poor communicator, which I feel I have
adequately demonstrated is not the case. They have provided absolutely no
concrete evidence that there were points of contact initiated by them that went
unresponded to by me in a timely fashion, which is the whole basis of their
reasoning as to why they failed to communicate with me regarding introductions
they claimed to have had for me during those four months. I do have
concerns about their ability to actually provide services that they state they
can provide prior to getting your money, and did discuss those in my complaint,
but those are peripheral, and I mostly included those complaints so that anyone
considering their services would actually have the experience of a client to
help them make their decision, as I had nothing but the claims made by Dating
Directions themselves. If they had completed the entire 12 months of
contracted services with me and I had still not been in a committed
relationship, I would not have filed a complaint based simply on lack of
finding me a match, which is the only part of my complaint this response
addresses. My being in a relationship does preclude them from being able
to provide contracted services like matchmaking to me, but as this complaint
deals primarily with a failure to provide services for reasons that are at best
unclear and at worst highly suspicious during the particular time period of
June-October 2014, my current lack of need for their services seems a moot
point.
I will repeat this once
more - this is not primarily about the outcome of the matchmaking services, it
is about unprofessional behavior and lack of communication from a business that
relies on communication for success. I asked for a refund for 4 months
(June-October 2014) of my contracted time because that is the time period I
felt they truly failed me as a hired service - notice that I did NOT ask for a
refund for the time period of October – December 2014 (which was still within
my 12 month contract, per [redacted]), as they were in contact with me at that
point and offered me a match, though by then I was in a relationship and so
declined the match, which I hope makes it clear, once more, that this is NOT
about outcomes, but failure to come through on a contracted service when the
client had clearly communicated that she desired said services. And,
because of the response I have received from Dating Directions thus far, it is
also about unprofessional handling of an unhappy client and making claims about
my behavior and communication which are completely unfounded. During our
phone conversation, [redacted] said that she became emotional and out of control
because she didn't like being called a liar - well, neither do I. When
she told me that the reason they had failed to contact me more than the one
text they claim to have sent in July was because I had been so hard to reach
and frequently failed to respond to their attempts to contact me, I wasn't 100%
sure that it WASN'T true, but it just didn't sit right with my own
recollections. Because my memories can be faulty just like anyone else's
- especially when it comes to memories which would put me in a less than
favorable light - I decided to look into my own email and phone records of my
communication patterns with Dating Directions to see if there was any evidence
at all that I had been such a poor communicator. I generally try to be an
excellent communicator and felt bad that I might have failed in that while
working with people who were ostensibly working for me and for my benefit.
I made the spreadsheet initially simply to keep things as organized as
possible in my own mind, and keep it as factual as possible (you'll notice I
put the number of minutes it took me to respond each time in the spreadsheet -
I didn't want to miss any instance where I may have failed to respond in a
timely fashion, and I find that it's best to identify objective data to measure
something when the subjective experience/recollection is highly emotional).
It was in doing this for my own benefit that I found that not only was
[redacted]'s report of my communication failures not completely true, it was
actually completely false based on every objective piece of data I could dig
up.
The response states that
you are "not sure how to reconcile", which I am glad to clarify.
Since you completely failed to address any of my actual concerns in your
first response, you may reconcile by answering the following, which speak to
specific concerns I addressed in my initial complaint, now in question format
to make it clear what I need from you:
1) Why do you claim that
I was difficult to reach and tended to not respond in a timely fashion to your
attempts to contact me when there is absolutely no evidence to that
effect? If this was indeed the reason why you chose not to
communicate with me more effectively between June and October 2014, please
provide evidence of phone calls, emails, texts, etc from you that went
unresponded to by me, aside from the three I have already acknowledged and
explained a delay in response to. I am attaching a spreadsheet of
all the documented points of contact I can identify between us – I can provide
third-party evidence (phone bills, emails) if needed. If you would
like to take back or deny that reason for not contacting me with more than just
the text you claim to have sent in July, then why did you not make more of an
effort to contact me regarding matches when I clearly stated that I was
interested in more introductions and had previously always responded to you
promptly? And why would [redacted] say such things about me in the first
place if they weren't true?
2) Do you have any
evidence other than Dating Directions’ “logs” of the text [redacted] supposedly sent
in July regarding a new match? I have available copies of my phone
bills from July 2014 (personal information/complete phone numbers of friends
and family redacted, obviously - was unable to attach due to file size) which demonstrate no phone calls or texts from
any Dating Directions number (numbers ending: 3283, 3812, 4000,
3930). Do you have documentation of this text from your end?
3) Why, when I
explicitly asked to be communicated with by email and not text, and had replied
to an email from you with an email stating I was interested in more matches,
would you choose to tell me about it via text, and only text? Do you
typically disregard a client’s wishes for mode of communication when that mode
of communication has been working just fine? You'll note in my
communication spreadsheet that I NEVER texted anyone from Dating Directions
(confirmed on my phone bills), even when you (I believe only [redacted]) texted me,
and I always chose to respond by email or phone instead of text. When I
noticed this pattern in the objective data, I recalled that I had made a
conscious decision to not ever respond via text to anyone from Dating
Directions because I had explicitly stated that texting me was unreliable, and
I did not want to give any mixed signals about the best mode of communication
for me given my personal work/life circumstances. So, that you would specifically
choose texting as the sole form of communication to reach me about this new
introduction - knowing it would be the only communication you would send
regarding the introduction, if [redacted] is telling the truth about how this
played out on your end - it is especially illogical.
4) Why do you say I have
not requested a refund? I specifically outlined my desire for a partial
refund, including reasoning behind the amount I requested. I did say I
did not *expect* a refund, as [redacted] stated multiple times in our phone
conversation that it is not "industry standard" to provide refunds, a
sentiment which was also expressed in other Revdex.com responses. I would say
that just because something isn't "industry standard" doesn't mean
that it's not the right thing to do, though I certainly do not wish to fight
you about it - I was perfectly willing to settle for a renewed/revised contract
until said contract never appeared ([redacted] claimed that it had "just
been sent back to to her from the lawyer" the day I lodged my complaint
with the Revdex.com - over a month from the conversation about such a contract - but I
have yet to see a copy of it), and obviously I am no longer interested in such
a contract given your behavior in this matter. This is not about money,
it is about failure to provide pre-paid services, which logically leads me to
believe that because I did not receive services for which I paid during the
time you were contracted to provide them, I am owed a portion of that money
back. Therefore, I will continue to request a partial refund of $1120
with full knowledge that Dating Directions does not seem interested in
providing one - are you going to provide me with any kind of refund?
5) Why was I charged
more than double what other clients report having been charged? I can't
think of a good reason why two clients would both lie about the cost of the
same package I received and give a quantity LESS than what they actually paid.
If they are indeed lying, I am sure you have records of the various
amounts you charge clients. I have attached my original contract as
evidence of the amount I paid. I will again state that during the initial
interview, prior to signing the contract, I was led to believe that $[redacted] was
the LOWER end of what was typically charged for this package, and I had done
some research on "typical" cost of such services (hard to do as not
much is out there, but I did my best at due diligence), and so I did not think
the cost was unreasonable, and could afford it. So my issue is not with
the actual number, but that other clients pay far less WHILE I was led to be
that what I was charged was typical/the low end. While I get that it's a
useful sales tactic, and it is naive to believe that Dating Directions has ONLY
the happiness of its clients in mind without consideration for profit (it is a
business, after all), it's also incredibly deceptive and takes advantage of the
emotional state of the potential client (protection from which I believe is the
spirit of the Ohio Prepaid Entertainments Act, though certainly outside the
actual application of that law).
6) Section 2n of the
contract (again, attached) states that you will return all personal items,
answers to questionnaires, photographs, etc, to the client within 30 days of
the expiration of contract via regular mail. I am sure this information
is also digital at this point in time, though I know [redacted] hand-wrote notes
on a print out of my questionnaire during our initial meeting, and her notes
also contain personal information. Do you plan on returning these items
to me via regular mail, and how do you go about destroying the digital data?
Per section 2c of the contract, the term of the contract starts upon full
payment of the matchmaker fee, which, like the contract, occurred on 11/12/13. This
therefore makes you in violation of section 2n of the contract by 18 days and
counting as of 12/30/14.
I believe I gave
you all several opportunities to address my concerns before bringing it to the
Revdex.com (email to [redacted] #1, email to [redacted] #2, phone conversation with
[redacted]), but each time I received a response not dissimilar to the one you
have provided here – addressing only the idea that I am merely
unhappy/disgruntled that you never actually found me a long-term match, which
is not my complaint, rather than my issues with the way you chose to
communicate (or not) with me after June 2014. Quite frankly, even if you
hadn’t identified any introductions for me during those 4 months, but had
responded to my June 23rd email and subsequently let me know
that you were on the hunt for more introductions, that would have sufficed as
contract fulfillment in my mind, as I was told in the beginning that it may
average a match a month, but that it could be less frequent or more frequent
than that. Unfortunately, that is not what happened.
I am perfectly
willing to reconcile with any business that has made mistakes, errors in
communication, etc without the help of the Revdex.com, and have done so in the past –
this is my first Revdex.com submission but not my first conflict with a business who
provided poor service. But as you have consistently disregarded my
actual complaint when responding to me, failed to take responsibility for
mistakes/errors in your own actions, and placed all blame on me for
communication failures (which is not to say I am 100% without blame – I did
state in my initial complaint that I consciously decided not to reach out to
you from June-October), and have done so in an incredibly unprofessional manner
including emotionally charged screaming, I no longer feel it is appropriate to
attempt to reconcile this without third-party involvement/witness. I
stated this in the email I sent [redacted] informing her that I would be
reporting Dating Directions to the Revdex.com (in which I attached a PDF of my complaint
as I felt it would be easier to read than what I posted on the website, given
formatting limitations), and that I would not be discussing the matter with
anyone from Dating Directions in any private fashion, but this did not stop you
from emailing, texting, and calling me twice within 10-20 minutes of reading
the email, which I felt was simply another example of unprofessional
behavior. Because I believe the behaviors of Dating Directions in
these matters violate Revdex.com standards of honesty, transparency, and honoring of
both verbal and written agreements, I felt that the Revdex.com was the most
appropriate venue for mediation (I have no intention of taking legal action
here, though I see you have copied your lawyer on this), and will continue to
correspond in this – and only this – arena.
**Of note,[redacted], who was the one to respond to my complaint here, has never personally
met me or discussed any of these issues with me in person, over the phone, or
via email. She made one of the two phone calls in response to
my submission of this complaint, but as I had already stated that I wanted all
conversations regarding this matter to be done via the Revdex.com website, I did not
answer her call or return it. She is, I believe, the founder of the
company, and a co-owner, so I understand why she was the one to respond, but
she may not be the best or most fully informed regarding what has happened in
my case.
Our response to the client's second Complaint Detail is as follows:1. We categorically deny any allegation of breach of contract and/or any allegation of a failure or unwillingness to perform the contracted services.The First Complaint Detail specifies by the client's own words that the client has a "smallnumber of eligible bachelors" which would satisfy her dating standards. She thenexhaustively lists a chronology from 11 /12/13 to 06/10/14 where she has multiple meetingswith us, and also goes out on approximately 9 dates with at least 7 Male Introductions fromus, in spite of her busy work and travel schedule.She repeatedly concedes that whenever our staff contacted her, we always stated that wehad specific men that we were ready to introduce her to. We always had Bachelors lined up,waiting to be introduced to her.The period of time for which she expresses the most dissatisfaction is approximately 6/16/14to 10/8/14. But she concedes that in both the 6/10/14 and 10/8/14 emails that wespecifically said that we had lntroductions ready for her. She also concedes that in the6/10/14 email we asked her if she wanted to put her account on hold, and then she alsoconcedes that she did not respond to this email until 6/23/14, 13 days later. She furtherconcedes that even though her hectic work schedule lessened around 6/14/14, she "decidednot to bother to contact them and restarted online dating on my own, resulting in arelationship." She also states, "I was also kind of curious as to how long they would just notcontact me ..." Our 6/16/14 email to her, asks specifically if she wants to put her account onhold, and then she intentionally failed to respond in a timely manner. This is simplyunworkable.What is not mentioned in her chronology is that at all times, her email address remained onour general contact list for our events, classes, etc. So she continued receiving standardclient email notifications sent from us 6/10/14 through 10/8/14. We didn't disappear. Shedisappeared. She simply wanted to wait and see how long it would take for us to reply to her6/23/14 email. This is after her 3/28/14, which requested to delay dates until after 4/20/14,because of her schedule; after her 4/28/14 email where she specifies limited availabilitythrough 6/14/14; and after our 6/10/14 email in which we ask her if she would like to put ahold on her account. And as mentioned above, every time we contacted her directly, it waseither to schedule new lntroductions or touch base on previous Introductions.Then, in response to our 10/8/14 email, on 10/9/14 she informs us that she is in arelationship. She concedes that our 10/11/14 email offers relationship coaching services. And to be clear, those services were being offered without additional charge, that is, under thealready-existing contract.Nowhere in this complaint is there a serious allegation that we were unwilling or unable toperform the services promised in the contract.2. We categorically deny that the client was charged an inappropriate amount of money.
I am rejecting this response because:I have reviewed Dating Directions' response and would like to clarify a couple comments that they have made regarding the intentions underlying some of my actions/choices.- when I took 13 days to respond to their June 2014 email which mentioned potential introductions (though without any specific details with names, range of potential date times, etc, as I had seen in previous emails presenting men for introductions), I was not at all purposefully delaying my response - I was genuinely swamped at work, and genuinely confused about being asked to put my account on hold, so after my schedule calmed down, I took some time to consider how I wanted to respond. The delay was not a reflection of my willingness to participate in introductions. As there were no specific people mentioned and no request for my available dates, I did not think that the email was time-sensitive, as previous emails with specific people and dates mentioned had been, and so did not think that this one delay, which was not at all my usual communication pattern, would be an issue. If it was an issue, and that was the reason Dating Directions chose not to respond to me for 4 months, I wish they would have addressed it with me immediately and directly.- the emails I was receiving from Dating Directions during June-October were mass emails sent to anyone on the automated mailing list. I did not consider this the personalized level of communication I expected and had up until then received from the service. These emails were typically regarding activities I was not interested in - not to say these were not activities worth the time of those interested, just that they did not meet any needs I had. While I cannot say that I still had great faith that they understood what I wanted in a match at that point, I did still want to work with them to continue defining who that person might be, and was looking forward to meeting these introductions I had been told about. It was only after waiting for a response for a month that I went ahead with online dating (which is not prohibited while using matchmaker services, simply something I had chosen not to do during that time). I just happened to meet someone quickly, and thus had much less impetus to reach out to them regarding the missing email than I would have otherwise. And yes, I was curious about how long it would take them to response, not in a malicious way, but because I was so shocked that a month had gone by without response to me in the first place.- I submitted to the Revdex.com because I had lost faith in Dating Directions' willingness to reconcile without third party involvement. I felt that a month was more than enough time to produce the promised revised contract, and that a company truly interested in reconciliation would have produced the contract as quickly as possible, and if it were going to take a long time, would have contacted me to explain why. A month seemed like a long time to me, but I was not given a timeframe, so maybe that was the expected timeframe and my disappointment was simply a result of lack of communication? Regardless, I was left feeling that I had been forgotten immediately after complaining about feeling forgotten, and did not think that any further direct communication with Dating Directions would get me anywhere. My email to them was intended to provide my complaint in an easier-to-read format and let them know that I wished to pursue all further communication through Revdex.com - I never intended the email as a conduit to reconciliation, which is why I did not wait for a response before submitting my complaint.During the entire time I was going on dates arranged by Dating Directions, I never received any negative feedback about delaying introductions during one particularly stressful/busy time in my life, and actually was encouraged not to try to date when life was especially hectic. Unfortunately, in the end, it was clear that instead of coming alongside me to work within the confines of my sometimes hectic schedule, they instead deemed the life that I have created and love "unworkable".The only item I feel needs to be addressed before I am willing to consider this complaint closed is the lack of return of my personal information and confirmation of removal of information from their database, which is a breach of contract.
Our response to the client’s second Complaint Detail is as follows: 1. We categorically deny any allegation of breach of contract and/or any allegation of a failure or unwillingness to perform the contracted services. The First Complaint Detail specifies by the client’s own words that the client has a “small number of eligible bachelors” which would satisfy her dating standards. She then exhaustively lists a chronology from 11/12/13 to 06/10/14 where she has multiple meetings with us, and also goes out on approximately 9 dates with at least 7 Male Introductions from us, in spite of her busy work and travel schedule. She repeatedly concedes that whenever our staff contacted her, we always stated that we had specific men that we were ready to introduce her to. We always had Bachelors lined up, waiting to be introduced to her. The period of time for which she expresses the most dissatisfaction is approximately 6/10/14 to 10/8/14. But she concedes that in both the 6/10/14 and 10/8/14 emails that we specifically said that we had Introductions ready for her. She also concedes that in the 6/10/14 email we asked her if she wanted to put her account on hold, and then she also concedes that she did not respond to this email until 6/23/14, 13 days later. She further concedes that even though her hectic work schedule lessened around 6/14/14, she “decided not to bother to contact them and restarted online dating on my own, resulting in a relationship.” She also states, “I was also kind of curious as to how long they would just not contact me…” Our 6/10/14 email to her, asks specifically if she wants to put her account on hold, and then she intentionally failed to respond in a timely manner. This is simply unworkable. What is not mentioned in her chronology is that at all times, her email address remained on our general contact list for our events, classes, etc. So she continued receiving standard client email notifications sent from us 6/10/14 through 10/8/14. We didn’t disappear. She disappeared. She simply wanted to wait and see how long it would take for us to reply to her 6/23/14 email. This is after her 3/28/14, which requested to delay dates until after 4/20/14, because of her schedule; after her 4/28/14 email where she specifies limited availability through 6/14/14; and after our 6/10/14 email in which we ask her if she would like to put a hold on her account. And as mentioned above, every time we contacted her directly, it was either to schedule new Introductions or touch base on previous Introductions. Then, in response to our 10/8/14 email, on 10/9/14 she informs us that she is in a relationship. She concedes that our 10/11/14 email offers relationship coaching services. And to be clear, those services were being offered without additional charge, that is, under the already-existing contract. Nowhere in this complaint is there a serious allegation that we were unwilling or unable to perform the services promised in the contract. 2. We categorically deny that the client was charged an inappropriate amount of money. Under the Second Complaint Detail, point 5, she asks, “Why was I charged more than double what other clients report having been charged?” Our business is a Matchmaking consultation and search service that is personalized, high-end, and unique. Not everyone pays the same price. Different people request different services. And sometimes, even when two people are receiving similar services, they still can pay different amounts. We interview each individual client and gather information about the specific desired criteria they desire in a match. Then we assess the level of services and resources we predict will be allocated on the client’s behalf. The Second Complaint Detail states that she believed that the amount she was charged was the lower end of what was typically charged for the package she purchased, and that is correct. The First Complaint Detail specified by the client’s own words that the client has a “small number of eligible bachelors” which would satisfy her dating standards, a specific and devout religious faith, a sometimes-hectic travel schedule, and also other professional obligations which can interfere with her availability. The amount she was charged is a lower-end amount of compensation that we would want from a client with these characteristics. We can appreciate her disappointment at hearing that other clients have paid less than her. She should be advised that we have many clients who have paid us much more than what she paid. We also have many clients who have paid us much less than what she paid. The contract with her was reasonable based upon her own considerations and desires. In the Second Complaint Detail, she also concedes that, at the time of signing the contract, she had exercised what she considers to be due diligence, and furthermore, “…I did not think the cost was unreasonable, and could afford it.” We agree with this assessment. We hope that this response answers her Second Complaint Detail Question #5. 3. We were attempting to settle with this client before she submitted the complaint to the Revdex.com. The chronology in the First Complaint Detail states that we left a voicemail on 10/24/14, “to find out what happened.” The client had a phone call meeting with us on 11/11/14, and the client concedes that the result of that meeting was that we were in the process of preparing a “renewed/revised contract”. After that, there is no other communication between either party until the Complainant emailed us on 12/15/14 at 5:32PM in which she advises us that, among other things, she is initiating a Revdex.com complaint. The Revdex.com Complaint was submitted 2 minutes later, at 5:34PM. Our email reply to her occurred at 6:06PM, and we also texted and left a voicemail prior to emailing. But apparently, replying to an email within 34 minutes still isn’t going to be quick enough to satisfy this client. 4. We are eager to settle this complaint and retain our satisfactory membership with the Revdex.com. We remain willing to reconcile, mediate, or arbitrate.
Dating Directions continues to miss the point of my complaint, which is that not only did they fail to communicate with me in ANY way during one-third of my contracted time, but that when I confronted them about this, they placed all of the blame on me, saying that I am hard to reach and a poor communicator, which I feel I have adequately demonstrated is not the case They have provided absolutely no concrete evidence that there were points of contact initiated by them that went unresponded to by me in a timely fashion, which is the whole basis of their reasoning as to why they failed to communicate with me regarding introductions they claimed to have had for me during those four months I do have concerns about their ability to actually provide services that they state they can provide prior to getting your money, and did discuss those in my complaint, but those are peripheral, and I mostly included those complaints so that anyone considering their services would actually have the experience of a client to help them make their decision, as I had nothing but the claims made by Dating Directions themselves If they had completed the entire months of contracted services with me and I had still not been in a committed relationship, I would not have filed a complaint based simply on lack of finding me a match, which is the only part of my complaint this response addresses My being in a relationship does preclude them from being able to provide contracted services like matchmaking to me, but as this complaint deals primarily with a failure to provide services for reasons that are at best unclear and at worst highly suspicious during the particular time period of June-October 2014, my current lack of need for their services seems a moot point I will repeat this once more - this is not primarily about the outcome of the matchmaking services, it is about unprofessional behavior and lack of communication from a business that relies on communication for success I asked for a refund for months (June-October 2014) of my contracted time because that is the time period I felt they truly failed me as a hired service - notice that I did NOT ask for a refund for the time period of October – December (which was still within my month contract, per [redacted] ), as they were in contact with me at that point and offered me a match, though by then I was in a relationship and so declined the match, which I hope makes it clear, once more, that this is NOT about outcomes, but failure to come through on a contracted service when the client had clearly communicated that she desired said services And, because of the response I have received from Dating Directions thus far, it is also about unprofessional handling of an unhappy client and making claims about my behavior and communication which are completely unfounded During our phone conversation, [redacted] said that she became emotional and out of control because she didn't like being called a liar - well, neither do I When she told me that the reason they had failed to contact me more than the one text they claim to have sent in July was because I had been so hard to reach and frequently failed to respond to their attempts to contact me, I wasn't 100% sure that it WASN'T true, but it just didn't sit right with my own recollections Because my memories can be faulty just like anyone else's - especially when it comes to memories which would put me in a less than favorable light - I decided to look into my own email and phone records of my communication patterns with Dating Directions to see if there was any evidence at all that I had been such a poor communicator I generally try to be an excellent communicator and felt bad that I might have failed in that while working with people who were ostensibly working for me and for my benefit I made the spreadsheet initially simply to keep things as organized as possible in my own mind, and keep it as factual as possible (you'll notice I put the number of minutes it took me to respond each time in the spreadsheet - I didn't want to miss any instance where I may have failed to respond in a timely fashion, and I find that it's best to identify objective data to measure something when the subjective experience/recollection is highly emotional) It was in doing this for my own benefit that I found that not only was [redacted] 's report of my communication failures not completely true, it was actually completely based on every objective piece of data I could dig up The response states that you are "not sure how to reconcile", which I am glad to clarify Since you completely failed to address any of my actual concerns in your first response, you may reconcile by answering the following, which speak to specific concerns I addressed in my initial complaint, now in question format to make it clear what I need from you: 1) Why do you claim that I was difficult to reach and tended to not respond in a timely fashion to your attempts to contact me when there is absolutely no evidence to that effect? If this was indeed the reason why you chose not to communicate with me more effectively between June and October 2014, please provide evidence of phone calls, emails, texts, etc from you that went unresponded to by me, aside from the three I have already acknowledged and explained a delay in response to I am attaching a spreadsheet of all the documented points of contact I can identify between us – I can provide third-party evidence (phone bills, emails) if needed If you would like to take back or deny that reason for not contacting me with more than just the text you claim to have sent in July, then why did you not make more of an effort to contact me regarding matches when I clearly stated that I was interested in more introductions and had previously always responded to you promptly? And why would [redacted] say such things about me in the first place if they weren't true? 2) Do you have any evidence other than Dating Directions’ “logs” of the text [redacted] supposedly sent in July regarding a new match? I have available copies of my phone bills from July (personal information/complete phone numbers of friends and family redacted, obviously - was unable to attach due to file size) which demonstrate no phone calls or texts from any Dating Directions number (numbers ending: 3283, 3812, 4000, 3930) Do you have documentation of this text from your end? 3) Why, when I explicitly asked to be communicated with by email and not text, and had replied to an email from you with an email stating I was interested in more matches, would you choose to tell me about it via text, and only text? Do you typically disregard a client’s wishes for mode of communication when that mode of communication has been working just fine? You'll note in my communication spreadsheet that I NEVER texted anyone from Dating Directions (confirmed on my phone bills), even when you (I believe only ***) texted me, and I always chose to respond by email or phone instead of text When I noticed this pattern in the objective data, I recalled that I had made a conscious decision to not ever respond via text to anyone from Dating Directions because I had explicitly stated that texting me was unreliable, and I did not want to give any mixed signals about the best mode of communication for me given my personal work/life circumstances So, that you would specifically choose texting as the sole form of communication to reach me about this new introduction - knowing it would be the only communication you would send regarding the introduction, if [redacted] is telling the truth about how this played out on your end - it is especially illogical 4) Why do you say I have not requested a refund? I specifically outlined my desire for a partial refund, including reasoning behind the amount I requested I did say I did not *expect [redacted] a refund, as [redacted] stated multiple times in our phone conversation that it is not "industry standard" to provide refunds, a sentiment which was also expressed in other Revdex.com responses I would say that just because something isn't "industry standard" doesn't mean that it's not the right thing to do, though I certainly do not wish to fight you about it - I was perfectly willing to settle for a renewed/revised contract until said contract never appeared ( [redacted] claimed that it had "just been sent back to to her from the lawyer" the day I lodged my complaint with the Revdex.com - over a month from the conversation about such a contract - but I have yet to see a copy of it), and obviously I am no longer interested in such a contract given your behavior in this matter This is not about money, it is about failure to provide pre-paid services, which logically leads me to believe that because I did not receive services for which I paid during the time you were contracted to provide them, I am owed a portion of that money back Therefore, I will continue to request a partial refund of $ with full knowledge that Dating Directions does not seem interested in providing one - are you going to provide me with any kind of refund? 5) Why was I charged more than double what other clients report having been charged? I can't think of a good reason why two clients would both lie about the cost of the same package I received and give a quantity LESS than what they actually paid If they are indeed lying, I am sure you have records of the various amounts you charge clients I have attached my original contract as evidence of the amount I paid I will again state that during the initial interview, prior to signing the contract, I was led to believe that $ [redacted] was the LOWER end of what was typically charged for this package, and I had done some research on "typical" cost of such services (hard to do as not much is out there, but I did my best at due diligence), and so I did not think the cost was unreasonable, and could afford it So my issue is not with the actual number, but that other clients pay far less WHILE I was led to be that what I was charged was typical/the low end While I get that it's a useful sales tactic, and it is naive to believe that Dating Directions has ONLY the happiness of its clients in mind without consideration for profit (it is a business, after all), it's also incredibly deceptive and takes advantage of the emotional state of the potential client (protection from which I believe is the spirit of the Ohio Prepaid Entertainments Act, though certainly outside the actual application of that law) 6) Section 2n of the contract (again, attached) states that you will return all personal items, answers to questionnaires, photographs, etc, to the client within days of the expiration of contract via regular mail I am sure this information is also digital at this point in time, though I know [redacted] hand-wrote notes on a print out of my questionnaire during our initial meeting, and her notes also contain personal information Do you plan on returning these items to me via regular mail, and how do you go about destroying the digital data? Per section 2c of the contract, the term of the contract starts upon full payment of the matchmaker fee, which, like the contract, occurred on 11/12/ This therefore makes you in violation of section 2n of the contract by days and counting as of 12/30/ I believe I gave you all several opportunities to address my concerns before bringing it to the Revdex.com (email to [redacted] #1, email to [redacted] #2, phone conversation with [redacted] ), but each time I received a response not dissimilar to the one you have provided here – addressing only the idea that I am merely unhappy/disgruntled that you never actually found me a long-term match, which is not my complaint, rather than my issues with the way you chose to communicate (or not) with me after June Quite frankly, even if you hadn’t identified any introductions for me during those months, but had responded to my June 23rd email and subsequently let me know that you were on the hunt for more introductions, that would have sufficed as contract fulfillment in my mind, as I was told in the beginning that it may average a match a month, but that it could be less frequent or more frequent than that Unfortunately, that is not what happened I am perfectly willing to reconcile with any business that has made mistakes, errors in communication, etc without the help of the Revdex.com, and have done so in the past – this is my first Revdex.com submission but not my first conflict with a business who provided poor service But as you have consistently disregarded my actual complaint when responding to me, failed to take responsibility for mistakes/errors in your own actions, and placed all blame on me for communication failures (which is not to say I am 100% without blame – I did state in my initial complaint that I consciously decided not to reach out to you from June-October), and have done so in an incredibly unprofessional manner including emotionally charged screaming, I no longer feel it is appropriate to attempt to reconcile this without third-party involvement/witness I stated this in the email I sent [redacted] informing her that I would be reporting Dating Directions to the Revdex.com (in which I attached a PDF of my complaint as I felt it would be easier to read than what I posted on the website, given formatting limitations), and that I would not be discussing the matter with anyone from Dating Directions in any private fashion, but this did not stop you from emailing, texting, and calling me twice within 10-minutes of reading the email, which I felt was simply another example of unprofessional behavior Because I believe the behaviors of Dating Directions in these matters violate Revdex.com standards of honesty, transparency, and honoring of both verbal and written agreements, I felt that the Revdex.com was the most appropriate venue for mediation (I have no intention of taking legal action here, though I see you have copied your lawyer on this), and will continue to correspond in this – and only this – arena **Of note, [redacted] , who was the one to respond to my complaint here, has never personally met me or discussed any of these issues with me in person, over the phone, or via email She made one of the two phone calls in response to my submission of this complaint, but as I had already stated that I wanted all conversations regarding this matter to be done via the Revdex.com website, I did not answer her call or return it She is, I believe, the founder of the company, and a co-owner, so I understand why she was the one to respond, but she may not be the best or most fully informed regarding what has happened in my case
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted] , and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me
Our response to the client’s second Complaint Detail is as follows: We categorically deny any allegation of breach of contract and/or any allegation of a failure or unwillingness to perform the contracted services The First Complaint Detail specifies by the client’s own words that the client has a “small number of eligible bachelors” which would satisfy her dating standards She then exhaustively lists a chronology from 11/12/to 06/10/where she has multiple meetings with us, and also goes out on approximately dates with at least Male Introductions from us, in spite of her busy work and travel scheduleShe repeatedly concedes that whenever our staff contacted her, we always stated that we had specific men that we were ready to introduce her to We always had Bachelors lined up, waiting to be introduced to herThe period of time for which she expresses the most dissatisfaction is approximately 6/10/to 10/8/ But she concedes that in both the 6/10/and 10/8/emails that we specifically said that we had Introductions ready for her She also concedes that in the 6/10/email we asked her if she wanted to put her account on hold, and then she also concedes that she did not respond to this email until 6/23/14, days later She further concedes that even though her hectic work schedule lessened around 6/14/14, she “decided not to bother to contact them and restarted online dating on my own, resulting in a relationship.” She also states, “I was also kind of curious as to how long they would just not contact me ” Our 6/10/email to her, asks specifically if she wants to put her account on hold, and then she intentionally failed to respond in a timely manner This is simply unworkableWhat is not mentioned in her chronology is that at all times, her email address remained on our general contact list for our events, classes, etc So she continued receiving standard client email notifications sent from us 6/10/through 10/8/ We didn’t disappear She disappeared She simply wanted to wait and see how long it would take for us to reply to her 6/23/email This is after her 3/28/14, which requested to delay dates until after 4/20/14, because of her schedule; after her 4/28/email where she specifies limited availability through 6/14/14; and after our 6/10/email in which we ask her if she would like to put a hold on her account And as mentioned above, every time we contacted her directly, it was either to schedule new Introductions or touch base on previous IntroductionsThen, in response to our 10/8/email, on 10/9/she informs us that she is in a relationshipShe concedes that our 10/11/email offers relationship coaching services And to be clear, those services were being offered without additional charge, that is, under the already-existing contractNowhere in this complaint is there a serious allegation that we were unwilling or unable to perform the services promised in the contractWe categorically deny that the client was charged an inappropriate amount of moneyUnder the Second Complaint Detail, point 5, she asks, “Why was I charged more than double what other clients report having been charged?” Our business is a Matchmaking consultation and search service that is personalized, high-end, and unique Not everyone pays the same price Different people request different services And sometimes, even when two people are receiving similar services, they still can pay different amounts We interview each individual client and gather information about the specific desired criteria they desire in a match Then we assess the level of services and resources we predict will be allocated on the client’s behalf The Second Complaint Detail states that she believed that the amount she was charged was the lower end of what was typically charged for the package she purchased, and that is correct The First Complaint Detail specified by the client’s own words that the client has a “small number of eligible bachelors” which would satisfy her dating standards, a specific and devout religious faith, a sometimes-hectic travel schedule, and also other professional obligations which can interfere with her availabilityThe amount she was charged is a lower-end amount of compensation that we would want from a client with these characteristicsWe can appreciate her disappointment at hearing that other clients have paid less than her She should be advised that we have many clients who have paid us much more than what she paid We also have many clients who have paid us much less than what she paid The contract with her was reasonable based upon her own considerations and desiresIn the Second Complaint Detail, she also concedes that, at the time of signing the contract, she had exercised what she considers to be due diligence, and furthermore, “ I did not think the cost was unreasonable, and could afford it.” We agree with this assessmentWe hope that this response answers her Second Complaint Detail Question #We were attempting to settle with this client before she submitted the complaint to the Revdex.comThe chronology in the First Complaint Detail states that we left a voicemail on 10/24/14, “to find out what happened.” The client had a phone call meeting with us on 11/11/14, and the client concedes that the result of that meeting was that we were in the process of preparing a “renewed/revised contract” After that, there is no other communication between either party until the Complainant emailed us on 12/15/at 5:32PM in which she advises us that, among other things, she is initiating a Revdex.com complaint The Revdex.com Complaint was submitted minutes later, at 5:34PM Our email reply to her occurred at 6:06PM, and we also texted and left a voicemail prior to emailing But apparently, replying to an email within minutes still isn’t going to be quick enough to satisfy this clientWe are eager to settle this complaint and retain our satisfactory membership with the Revdex.comWe remain willing to reconcile, mediate, or arbitrate
I am rejecting this response because:I have reviewed Dating Directions' response and would like to clarify a couple comments that they have made regarding the intentions underlying some of my actions/choices.- when I took days to respond to their June email which mentioned potential introductions (though without any specific details with names, range of potential date times, etc, as I had seen in previous emails presenting men for introductions), I was not at all purposefully delaying my response - I was genuinely swamped at work, and genuinely confused about being asked to put my account on hold, so after my schedule calmed down, I took some time to consider how I wanted to respond The delay was not a reflection of my willingness to participate in introductions As there were no specific people mentioned and no request for my available dates, I did not think that the email was time-sensitive, as previous emails with specific people and dates mentioned had been, and so did not think that this one delay, which was not at all my usual communication pattern, would be an issueIf it was an issue, and that was the reason Dating Directions chose not to respond to me for months, I wish they would have addressed it with me immediately and directly.- the emails I was receiving from Dating Directions during June-October were mass emails sent to anyone on the automated mailing listI did not consider this the personalized level of communication I expected and had up until then received from the service These emails were typically regarding activities I was not interested in - not to say these were not activities worth the time of those interested, just that they did not meet any needs I hadWhile I cannot say that I still had great faith that they understood what I wanted in a match at that point, I did still want to work with them to continue defining who that person might be, and was looking forward to meeting these introductions I had been told about It was only after waiting for a response for a month that I went ahead with online dating (which is not prohibited while using matchmaker services, simply something I had chosen not to do during that time) I just happened to meet someone quickly, and thus had much less impetus to reach out to them regarding the missing email than I would have otherwise And yes, I was curious about how long it would take them to response, not in a malicious way, but because I was so shocked that a month had gone by without response to me in the first place.- I submitted to the Revdex.com because I had lost faith in Dating Directions' willingness to reconcile without third party involvement I felt that a month was more than enough time to produce the promised revised contract, and that a company truly interested in reconciliation would have produced the contract as quickly as possible, and if it were going to take a long time, would have contacted me to explain why A month seemed like a long time to me, but I was not given a timeframe, so maybe that was the expected timeframe and my disappointment was simply a result of lack of communication? Regardless, I was left feeling that I had been forgotten immediately after complaining about feeling forgotten, and did not think that any further direct communication with Dating Directions would get me anywhere My email to them was intended to provide my complaint in an easier-to-read format and let them know that I wished to pursue all further communication through Revdex.com - I never intended the email as a conduit to reconciliation, which is why I did not wait for a response before submitting my complaint.During the entire time I was going on dates arranged by Dating Directions, I never received any negative feedback about delaying introductions during one particularly stressful/busy time in my life, and actually was encouraged not to try to date when life was especially hectic Unfortunately, in the end, it was clear that instead of coming alongside me to work within the confines of my sometimes hectic schedule, they instead deemed the life that I have created and love "unworkable".The only item I feel needs to be addressed before I am willing to consider this complaint closed is the lack of return of my personal information and confirmation of removal of information from their database, which is a breach of contract
Our business is a Matchmaking consultation and search service that is personalized, high-end, and unique We intimately work with successful (often busy) professionals with the aspiration to not only introduce them to the person of their dreams, but also to ensure that the initial attraction
has an opportunity to blossom into healthy romantic love, with the ultimate desired outcome being either a lifelong commitment or a long-term relationship that is mutually beneficial for our client and the person we introduce them to.To achieve such an outcome requires massive vigilance, expertise, and insight from us, and also a sufficient commitment from the client The stakes are very high; our clients greatly desire to find the romance of their lives, and often have the experience that they need real help from professionals who care And even though our success rate is extremely high for our industry, no service can guarantee successWorking with a Matchmaking Service is not an event but a journey Sometimes, the journey is quick and successful Other times, it works out eventually, but the client can become frustrated that the final outcome always appears to be just outside of their reach Other times, after we send them on many dates, and spend many hours coaching them, they meet the person of their dreams “without our help” And when that happens, sometimes the client mistakenly believes that our coaching didn’t contribute to their success, and then they question the value of our service.Obviously, we want all of our clients to be extremely satisfied with our services This former client is currently in a romantic relationship, has expressed her desire not to work with us anymore, and is also not requesting a refund In light of that, we are not sure how to reconcile with this client But if it pleases her to mediate, we are willing to have that conversation. We remain eager to close this complaint to the satisfaction of all parties
This letter is in response to the January 23, letter from the Revdex.com(“Revdex.com”), which contained *** ***’s Third Complaint Detail.It appears to us that this Complaint is close to being settled, and we are thankful for that The final paragraph of the Third Complaint Detail indicates that the only remaining issue is the “return of my personal information and confirmation of removal of information from their database, which is a breach of contract.”In principle, we agree with Ms*** that she is owed the return of her information We have prepared a packet that is ready to be sent via Certified Mail to Ms*** But there are some specific exceptions to her request that we need to explain.First, the relevant clause of the contract is Section 2, “Conditions”, paragraph (n), which reads: “(n) Matchmaker will never release Client’s personal or unauthorized confidential information, including but not limited to, Client’s home or employment addresses, income, financial obligations, social security number, vital statistics, and/or citizenship, without Client’s prior written authorization The identity of each client is fully protected Client agrees and understands that Matchmaker may make any client information available to outside sources for the purposes of collection and for the purposes outlined below All information and material of a personal or private nature that is acquired directly or indirectly from Client including but not limited to, answers to tests or questionnaires, photographs, or background information, shall be returned by Matchmaker to Client by regular mail within thirty days after the expiration of the contract or after the expiration for any reason of the service to be rendered by Matchmaker.”We assert that the final sentence of the above paragraph contains the relevant language, and it specifies “All information and material of a personal or private nature that is acquired directly or indirectly from Client…” There were documents within Ms***’s client file that were not acquired directly or indirectly from Ms***, so we are not giving those documents to her The first document is the contract, which was already provided to Ms*** on the date of signing The second document is hand-written notes of a meeting between *** and a Bachelor that Ms*** went on a date with We are not providing these notes, because the information was not acquired from Ms***, and we also assert our contractual duty with the Bachelor not to release his personal or private information that is acquired directly or indirectly from him We certify that both of these documents do not contain personal or private information about Ms***, and additionally we certify that these documents will never be released publicly We certify that other than these two exceptions, Ms*** will be returned the originals of the entire client file.The documents from Ms***’s physical file that are in the prepared packet are as follows:The gray folder which contained her physical file“New Client Checklist DIY”, dated 11/12/13, pageA photocopy of Ms***’s Ohio Driver License, undated, page“Client Intake Form”, dated 11/12/13, pages (final page 2-sided)“Date Preferences Questionnaire”, undated, page*** *** handwritten notes, dated 11/20/13, page*** *** handwritten notes, dated 2/21/14, page.Ms*** requests that we confirm removal of her information from our database To be fair, the contract does not say anything about removing her from our databaseBut, the contract language does indicate that photographs will be returned to the client All photographs of Ms*** were received by us either through email, or by Ms*** uploading to our website We certify that we have no physical printouts of these photos, and also certify that all digital copies of the photos are stored within our Matchmaking software So, we propose that with the packet we are sending to Ms*** of the physical file, we will also include screenshots The first screenshot is Ms***’s profile in our Matchmaking software (before deletion), and the second is a screenshot that her profile has been deleted (after deletion) We certify that Ms***’s profile will remain in deleted status within the software, so therefore, we will not access her profile or photographs We hope that this will satisfy Ms***’s concerns about being removed from our database, and we also hope that it will satisfy Ms*** for purposes of returning her photographs as stipulated in the contract. We believe that this is the final response required from us to satisfy the client and close the complaint Once we receive notice that Ms*** accepts this response, we will drop the packet in certified mail.We thank all parties for their assistance in this process.Sincerely,Dating Directions, LLC
Dating Directions
continues to miss the point of my complaint, which is that not only did they
fail to communicate with me in ANY way during one-third of my contracted time,
but that when I confronted them about this, they placed all of the blame on me,
saying that I am hard to reach and a poor communicator, which I feel I have
adequately demonstrated is not the case. They have provided absolutely no
concrete evidence that there were points of contact initiated by them that went
unresponded to by me in a timely fashion, which is the whole basis of their
reasoning as to why they failed to communicate with me regarding introductions
they claimed to have had for me during those four months. I do have
concerns about their ability to actually provide services that they state they
can provide prior to getting your money, and did discuss those in my complaint,
but those are peripheral, and I mostly included those complaints so that anyone
considering their services would actually have the experience of a client to
help them make their decision, as I had nothing but the claims made by Dating
Directions themselves. If they had completed the entire 12 months of
contracted services with me and I had still not been in a committed
relationship, I would not have filed a complaint based simply on lack of
finding me a match, which is the only part of my complaint this response
addresses. My being in a relationship does preclude them from being able
to provide contracted services like matchmaking to me, but as this complaint
deals primarily with a failure to provide services for reasons that are at best
unclear and at worst highly suspicious during the particular time period of
June-October 2014, my current lack of need for their services seems a moot
point.
I will repeat this once
more - this is not primarily about the outcome of the matchmaking services, it
is about unprofessional behavior and lack of communication from a business that
relies on communication for success. I asked for a refund for 4 months
(June-October 2014) of my contracted time because that is the time period I
felt they truly failed me as a hired service - notice that I did NOT ask for a
refund for the time period of October – December 2014 (which was still within
my 12 month contract, per [redacted]), as they were in contact with me at that
point and offered me a match, though by then I was in a relationship and so
declined the match, which I hope makes it clear, once more, that this is NOT
about outcomes, but failure to come through on a contracted service when the
client had clearly communicated that she desired said services. And,
because of the response I have received from Dating Directions thus far, it is
also about unprofessional handling of an unhappy client and making claims about
my behavior and communication which are completely unfounded. During our
phone conversation, [redacted] said that she became emotional and out of control
because she didn't like being called a liar - well, neither do I. When
she told me that the reason they had failed to contact me more than the one
text they claim to have sent in July was because I had been so hard to reach
and frequently failed to respond to their attempts to contact me, I wasn't 100%
sure that it WASN'T true, but it just didn't sit right with my own
recollections. Because my memories can be faulty just like anyone else's
- especially when it comes to memories which would put me in a less than
favorable light - I decided to look into my own email and phone records of my
communication patterns with Dating Directions to see if there was any evidence
at all that I had been such a poor communicator. I generally try to be an
excellent communicator and felt bad that I might have failed in that while
working with people who were ostensibly working for me and for my benefit.
I made the spreadsheet initially simply to keep things as organized as
possible in my own mind, and keep it as factual as possible (you'll notice I
put the number of minutes it took me to respond each time in the spreadsheet -
I didn't want to miss any instance where I may have failed to respond in a
timely fashion, and I find that it's best to identify objective data to measure
something when the subjective experience/recollection is highly emotional).
It was in doing this for my own benefit that I found that not only was
[redacted]'s report of my communication failures not completely true, it was
actually completely false based on every objective piece of data I could dig
up.
The response states that
you are "not sure how to reconcile", which I am glad to clarify.
Since you completely failed to address any of my actual concerns in your
first response, you may reconcile by answering the following, which speak to
specific concerns I addressed in my initial complaint, now in question format
to make it clear what I need from you:
1) Why do you claim that
I was difficult to reach and tended to not respond in a timely fashion to your
attempts to contact me when there is absolutely no evidence to that
effect? If this was indeed the reason why you chose not to
communicate with me more effectively between June and October 2014, please
provide evidence of phone calls, emails, texts, etc from you that went
unresponded to by me, aside from the three I have already acknowledged and
explained a delay in response to. I am attaching a spreadsheet of
all the documented points of contact I can identify between us – I can provide
third-party evidence (phone bills, emails) if needed. If you would
like to take back or deny that reason for not contacting me with more than just
the text you claim to have sent in July, then why did you not make more of an
effort to contact me regarding matches when I clearly stated that I was
interested in more introductions and had previously always responded to you
promptly? And why would [redacted] say such things about me in the first
place if they weren't true?
2) Do you have any
evidence other than Dating Directions’ “logs” of the text [redacted] supposedly sent
in July regarding a new match? I have available copies of my phone
bills from July 2014 (personal information/complete phone numbers of friends
and family redacted, obviously - was unable to attach due to file size) which demonstrate no phone calls or texts from
any Dating Directions number (numbers ending: 3283, 3812, 4000,
3930). Do you have documentation of this text from your end?
3) Why, when I
explicitly asked to be communicated with by email and not text, and had replied
to an email from you with an email stating I was interested in more matches,
would you choose to tell me about it via text, and only text? Do you
typically disregard a client’s wishes for mode of communication when that mode
of communication has been working just fine? You'll note in my
communication spreadsheet that I NEVER texted anyone from Dating Directions
(confirmed on my phone bills), even when you (I believe only [redacted]) texted me,
and I always chose to respond by email or phone instead of text. When I
noticed this pattern in the objective data, I recalled that I had made a
conscious decision to not ever respond via text to anyone from Dating
Directions because I had explicitly stated that texting me was unreliable, and
I did not want to give any mixed signals about the best mode of communication
for me given my personal work/life circumstances. So, that you would specifically
choose texting as the sole form of communication to reach me about this new
introduction - knowing it would be the only communication you would send
regarding the introduction, if [redacted] is telling the truth about how this
played out on your end - it is especially illogical.
4) Why do you say I have
not requested a refund? I specifically outlined my desire for a partial
refund, including reasoning behind the amount I requested. I did say I
did not *expect* a refund, as [redacted] stated multiple times in our phone
conversation that it is not "industry standard" to provide refunds, a
sentiment which was also expressed in other Revdex.com responses. I would say
that just because something isn't "industry standard" doesn't mean
that it's not the right thing to do, though I certainly do not wish to fight
you about it - I was perfectly willing to settle for a renewed/revised contract
until said contract never appeared ([redacted] claimed that it had "just
been sent back to to her from the lawyer" the day I lodged my complaint
with the Revdex.com - over a month from the conversation about such a contract - but I
have yet to see a copy of it), and obviously I am no longer interested in such
a contract given your behavior in this matter. This is not about money,
it is about failure to provide pre-paid services, which logically leads me to
believe that because I did not receive services for which I paid during the
time you were contracted to provide them, I am owed a portion of that money
back. Therefore, I will continue to request a partial refund of $1120
with full knowledge that Dating Directions does not seem interested in
providing one - are you going to provide me with any kind of refund?
5) Why was I charged
more than double what other clients report having been charged? I can't
think of a good reason why two clients would both lie about the cost of the
same package I received and give a quantity LESS than what they actually paid.
If they are indeed lying, I am sure you have records of the various
amounts you charge clients. I have attached my original contract as
evidence of the amount I paid. I will again state that during the initial
interview, prior to signing the contract, I was led to believe that $[redacted] was
the LOWER end of what was typically charged for this package, and I had done
some research on "typical" cost of such services (hard to do as not
much is out there, but I did my best at due diligence), and so I did not think
the cost was unreasonable, and could afford it. So my issue is not with
the actual number, but that other clients pay far less WHILE I was led to be
that what I was charged was typical/the low end. While I get that it's a
useful sales tactic, and it is naive to believe that Dating Directions has ONLY
the happiness of its clients in mind without consideration for profit (it is a
business, after all), it's also incredibly deceptive and takes advantage of the
emotional state of the potential client (protection from which I believe is the
spirit of the Ohio Prepaid Entertainments Act, though certainly outside the
actual application of that law).
6) Section 2n of the
contract (again, attached) states that you will return all personal items,
answers to questionnaires, photographs, etc, to the client within 30 days of
the expiration of contract via regular mail. I am sure this information
is also digital at this point in time, though I know [redacted] hand-wrote notes
on a print out of my questionnaire during our initial meeting, and her notes
also contain personal information. Do you plan on returning these items
to me via regular mail, and how do you go about destroying the digital data?
Per section 2c of the contract, the term of the contract starts upon full
payment of the matchmaker fee, which, like the contract, occurred on 11/12/13. This
therefore makes you in violation of section 2n of the contract by 18 days and
counting as of 12/30/14.
I believe I gave
you all several opportunities to address my concerns before bringing it to the
Revdex.com (email to [redacted] #1, email to [redacted] #2, phone conversation with
[redacted]), but each time I received a response not dissimilar to the one you
have provided here – addressing only the idea that I am merely
unhappy/disgruntled that you never actually found me a long-term match, which
is not my complaint, rather than my issues with the way you chose to
communicate (or not) with me after June 2014. Quite frankly, even if you
hadn’t identified any introductions for me during those 4 months, but had
responded to my June 23rd email and subsequently let me know
that you were on the hunt for more introductions, that would have sufficed as
contract fulfillment in my mind, as I was told in the beginning that it may
average a match a month, but that it could be less frequent or more frequent
than that. Unfortunately, that is not what happened.
I am perfectly
willing to reconcile with any business that has made mistakes, errors in
communication, etc without the help of the Revdex.com, and have done so in the past –
this is my first Revdex.com submission but not my first conflict with a business who
provided poor service. But as you have consistently disregarded my
actual complaint when responding to me, failed to take responsibility for
mistakes/errors in your own actions, and placed all blame on me for
communication failures (which is not to say I am 100% without blame – I did
state in my initial complaint that I consciously decided not to reach out to
you from June-October), and have done so in an incredibly unprofessional manner
including emotionally charged screaming, I no longer feel it is appropriate to
attempt to reconcile this without third-party involvement/witness. I
stated this in the email I sent [redacted] informing her that I would be
reporting Dating Directions to the Revdex.com (in which I attached a PDF of my complaint
as I felt it would be easier to read than what I posted on the website, given
formatting limitations), and that I would not be discussing the matter with
anyone from Dating Directions in any private fashion, but this did not stop you
from emailing, texting, and calling me twice within 10-20 minutes of reading
the email, which I felt was simply another example of unprofessional
behavior. Because I believe the behaviors of Dating Directions in
these matters violate Revdex.com standards of honesty, transparency, and honoring of
both verbal and written agreements, I felt that the Revdex.com was the most
appropriate venue for mediation (I have no intention of taking legal action
here, though I see you have copied your lawyer on this), and will continue to
correspond in this – and only this – arena.
**Of note,[redacted], who was the one to respond to my complaint here, has never personally
met me or discussed any of these issues with me in person, over the phone, or
via email. She made one of the two phone calls in response to
my submission of this complaint, but as I had already stated that I wanted all
conversations regarding this matter to be done via the Revdex.com website, I did not
answer her call or return it. She is, I believe, the founder of the
company, and a co-owner, so I understand why she was the one to respond, but
she may not be the best or most fully informed regarding what has happened in
my case.
Our response to the client's second Complaint Detail is as follows:1. We categorically deny any allegation of breach of contract and/or any allegation of a failure or unwillingness to perform the contracted services.The First Complaint Detail specifies by the client's own words that the client has a "smallnumber of eligible bachelors" which would satisfy her dating standards. She thenexhaustively lists a chronology from 11 /12/13 to 06/10/14 where she has multiple meetingswith us, and also goes out on approximately 9 dates with at least 7 Male Introductions fromus, in spite of her busy work and travel schedule.She repeatedly concedes that whenever our staff contacted her, we always stated that wehad specific men that we were ready to introduce her to. We always had Bachelors lined up,waiting to be introduced to her.The period of time for which she expresses the most dissatisfaction is approximately 6/16/14to 10/8/14. But she concedes that in both the 6/10/14 and 10/8/14 emails that wespecifically said that we had lntroductions ready for her. She also concedes that in the6/10/14 email we asked her if she wanted to put her account on hold, and then she alsoconcedes that she did not respond to this email until 6/23/14, 13 days later. She furtherconcedes that even though her hectic work schedule lessened around 6/14/14, she "decidednot to bother to contact them and restarted online dating on my own, resulting in arelationship." She also states, "I was also kind of curious as to how long they would just notcontact me ..." Our 6/16/14 email to her, asks specifically if she wants to put her account onhold, and then she intentionally failed to respond in a timely manner. This is simplyunworkable.What is not mentioned in her chronology is that at all times, her email address remained onour general contact list for our events, classes, etc. So she continued receiving standardclient email notifications sent from us 6/10/14 through 10/8/14. We didn't disappear. Shedisappeared. She simply wanted to wait and see how long it would take for us to reply to her6/23/14 email. This is after her 3/28/14, which requested to delay dates until after 4/20/14,because of her schedule; after her 4/28/14 email where she specifies limited availabilitythrough 6/14/14; and after our 6/10/14 email in which we ask her if she would like to put ahold on her account. And as mentioned above, every time we contacted her directly, it waseither to schedule new lntroductions or touch base on previous Introductions.Then, in response to our 10/8/14 email, on 10/9/14 she informs us that she is in arelationship. She concedes that our 10/11/14 email offers relationship coaching services. And to be clear, those services were being offered without additional charge, that is, under thealready-existing contract.Nowhere in this complaint is there a serious allegation that we were unwilling or unable toperform the services promised in the contract.2. We categorically deny that the client was charged an inappropriate amount of money.
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID[redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
I am rejecting this response because:I have reviewed Dating Directions' response and would like to clarify a couple comments that they have made regarding the intentions underlying some of my actions/choices.- when I took 13 days to respond to their June 2014 email which mentioned potential introductions (though without any specific details with names, range of potential date times, etc, as I had seen in previous emails presenting men for introductions), I was not at all purposefully delaying my response - I was genuinely swamped at work, and genuinely confused about being asked to put my account on hold, so after my schedule calmed down, I took some time to consider how I wanted to respond. The delay was not a reflection of my willingness to participate in introductions. As there were no specific people mentioned and no request for my available dates, I did not think that the email was time-sensitive, as previous emails with specific people and dates mentioned had been, and so did not think that this one delay, which was not at all my usual communication pattern, would be an issue. If it was an issue, and that was the reason Dating Directions chose not to respond to me for 4 months, I wish they would have addressed it with me immediately and directly.- the emails I was receiving from Dating Directions during June-October were mass emails sent to anyone on the automated mailing list. I did not consider this the personalized level of communication I expected and had up until then received from the service. These emails were typically regarding activities I was not interested in - not to say these were not activities worth the time of those interested, just that they did not meet any needs I had. While I cannot say that I still had great faith that they understood what I wanted in a match at that point, I did still want to work with them to continue defining who that person might be, and was looking forward to meeting these introductions I had been told about. It was only after waiting for a response for a month that I went ahead with online dating (which is not prohibited while using matchmaker services, simply something I had chosen not to do during that time). I just happened to meet someone quickly, and thus had much less impetus to reach out to them regarding the missing email than I would have otherwise. And yes, I was curious about how long it would take them to response, not in a malicious way, but because I was so shocked that a month had gone by without response to me in the first place.- I submitted to the Revdex.com because I had lost faith in Dating Directions' willingness to reconcile without third party involvement. I felt that a month was more than enough time to produce the promised revised contract, and that a company truly interested in reconciliation would have produced the contract as quickly as possible, and if it were going to take a long time, would have contacted me to explain why. A month seemed like a long time to me, but I was not given a timeframe, so maybe that was the expected timeframe and my disappointment was simply a result of lack of communication? Regardless, I was left feeling that I had been forgotten immediately after complaining about feeling forgotten, and did not think that any further direct communication with Dating Directions would get me anywhere. My email to them was intended to provide my complaint in an easier-to-read format and let them know that I wished to pursue all further communication through Revdex.com - I never intended the email as a conduit to reconciliation, which is why I did not wait for a response before submitting my complaint.During the entire time I was going on dates arranged by Dating Directions, I never received any negative feedback about delaying introductions during one particularly stressful/busy time in my life, and actually was encouraged not to try to date when life was especially hectic. Unfortunately, in the end, it was clear that instead of coming alongside me to work within the confines of my sometimes hectic schedule, they instead deemed the life that I have created and love "unworkable".The only item I feel needs to be addressed before I am willing to consider this complaint closed is the lack of return of my personal information and confirmation of removal of information from their database, which is a breach of contract.
Our response to the client’s second Complaint Detail is as follows: 1. We categorically deny any allegation of breach of contract and/or any allegation of a failure or unwillingness to perform the contracted services. The First Complaint Detail specifies by the client’s own words that the client has a “small number of eligible bachelors” which would satisfy her dating standards. She then exhaustively lists a chronology from 11/12/13 to 06/10/14 where she has multiple meetings with us, and also goes out on approximately 9 dates with at least 7 Male Introductions from us, in spite of her busy work and travel schedule. She repeatedly concedes that whenever our staff contacted her, we always stated that we had specific men that we were ready to introduce her to. We always had Bachelors lined up, waiting to be introduced to her. The period of time for which she expresses the most dissatisfaction is approximately 6/10/14 to 10/8/14. But she concedes that in both the 6/10/14 and 10/8/14 emails that we specifically said that we had Introductions ready for her. She also concedes that in the 6/10/14 email we asked her if she wanted to put her account on hold, and then she also concedes that she did not respond to this email until 6/23/14, 13 days later. She further concedes that even though her hectic work schedule lessened around 6/14/14, she “decided not to bother to contact them and restarted online dating on my own, resulting in a relationship.” She also states, “I was also kind of curious as to how long they would just not contact me…” Our 6/10/14 email to her, asks specifically if she wants to put her account on hold, and then she intentionally failed to respond in a timely manner. This is simply unworkable. What is not mentioned in her chronology is that at all times, her email address remained on our general contact list for our events, classes, etc. So she continued receiving standard client email notifications sent from us 6/10/14 through 10/8/14. We didn’t disappear. She disappeared. She simply wanted to wait and see how long it would take for us to reply to her 6/23/14 email. This is after her 3/28/14, which requested to delay dates until after 4/20/14, because of her schedule; after her 4/28/14 email where she specifies limited availability through 6/14/14; and after our 6/10/14 email in which we ask her if she would like to put a hold on her account. And as mentioned above, every time we contacted her directly, it was either to schedule new Introductions or touch base on previous Introductions. Then, in response to our 10/8/14 email, on 10/9/14 she informs us that she is in a relationship. She concedes that our 10/11/14 email offers relationship coaching services. And to be clear, those services were being offered without additional charge, that is, under the already-existing contract. Nowhere in this complaint is there a serious allegation that we were unwilling or unable to perform the services promised in the contract. 2. We categorically deny that the client was charged an inappropriate amount of money. Under the Second Complaint Detail, point 5, she asks, “Why was I charged more than double what other clients report having been charged?” Our business is a Matchmaking consultation and search service that is personalized, high-end, and unique. Not everyone pays the same price. Different people request different services. And sometimes, even when two people are receiving similar services, they still can pay different amounts. We interview each individual client and gather information about the specific desired criteria they desire in a match. Then we assess the level of services and resources we predict will be allocated on the client’s behalf. The Second Complaint Detail states that she believed that the amount she was charged was the lower end of what was typically charged for the package she purchased, and that is correct. The First Complaint Detail specified by the client’s own words that the client has a “small number of eligible bachelors” which would satisfy her dating standards, a specific and devout religious faith, a sometimes-hectic travel schedule, and also other professional obligations which can interfere with her availability. The amount she was charged is a lower-end amount of compensation that we would want from a client with these characteristics. We can appreciate her disappointment at hearing that other clients have paid less than her. She should be advised that we have many clients who have paid us much more than what she paid. We also have many clients who have paid us much less than what she paid. The contract with her was reasonable based upon her own considerations and desires. In the Second Complaint Detail, she also concedes that, at the time of signing the contract, she had exercised what she considers to be due diligence, and furthermore, “…I did not think the cost was unreasonable, and could afford it.” We agree with this assessment. We hope that this response answers her Second Complaint Detail Question #5. 3. We were attempting to settle with this client before she submitted the complaint to the Revdex.com. The chronology in the First Complaint Detail states that we left a voicemail on 10/24/14, “to find out what happened.” The client had a phone call meeting with us on 11/11/14, and the client concedes that the result of that meeting was that we were in the process of preparing a “renewed/revised contract”. After that, there is no other communication between either party until the Complainant emailed us on 12/15/14 at 5:32PM in which she advises us that, among other things, she is initiating a Revdex.com complaint. The Revdex.com Complaint was submitted 2 minutes later, at 5:34PM. Our email reply to her occurred at 6:06PM, and we also texted and left a voicemail prior to emailing. But apparently, replying to an email within 34 minutes still isn’t going to be quick enough to satisfy this client. 4. We are eager to settle this complaint and retain our satisfactory membership with the Revdex.com. We remain willing to reconcile, mediate, or arbitrate.