Complaint Review: Singles Station Dating - Match Made in Heaven

I am a past member (years ago) of Single Station (tulsa).

Membership then was $600.

Btw, SingleStation has gone thru several owners (3 since I was member).

Suffice to say, that there have been sufficent alternatives to Singlestation and many of them are cheap and a couple are virutally free depending on how you use them.

I also was member of competive dating services and was actually a part owner of one of the competitors, and in fact my wife & I, are the last members of another service to be married off before the owner of that service died.

Point is that, the only dating service I was involved in that required video was 'singlestation' and was also the only one I was member of that was 100% useless.

I dont consider SingleStation a ripoff but not necessarily a best choice for dating services.

In fact, the only real value was that SingleStation actually paid for a fullblown 'haircut & styling' with a nearby salon'. Yea I needed to be 'pretty up'd a bit.

From the alternatives:
Considering that I avged 5-8 dates a week with high quality people (some were not great lookers), but overall a few have beome good longterm friends (initially dates though).

With the internet today, one doesnt need to use the singlestation model for dating anymore.

If I was single I would be using a variety of virtually free ( or cheap) online methods, as I wouldnt need to pay good money to Singlestation or similar.

In fact, you would be doing the very same thing that SingleStation does except that you would control everything of your profile.

At most I believe you could do well with spending less than $50 per month and still get many letimate dates with quality people.

And wouldnt have to rely soley on video profiles that often are either faked or too old.

In my own case, its a fact that SingleStation then retained tapes of people no longer elligble to be members (ie; Dead, married, dating exclusively)..

I know for a fact that they retained my tape for 3 years after I was married (1st time).
(the then owner was a friend of mine then).

Meaning that many of the tapes are there to make one think they have more members than they really have.

Naturally I doubt there will much in the way of records about me with Singlestation considering I had all records of my involvement removed via the then owner.

That was easy too, because I had computer related involvement with the then owner too, so I actually had capability to see my records deleted in my presense.

My story is VERY similar to the original poster's story. A few years ago, I had the EXACT same experience with the "Singles Station Dating Service" BUT in the Oklahoma City, OK, location rather than the Tulsa, OK, location.

The reason I found this web site and filed this negative report is because during the recent holidays, I met a couple of women who attend my Church who last year (2005) signed up with Singles Station Dating Service/Match Made in Heaven and experienced the EXACT same thing that I did. I feel that potential customers/clients of these folks should know about my experience and my two female friends from church. Then, these potential customers can compare their experiences with ours (and the original poster) and then decide on their own whether to do business (and pay $$$$$) with these folks.

MY STORY: I too made the mistake of going to the Singles Station Dating company in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma rather than Tulsa. I too was responding to an ad I heard on the radio numerous times around the time of my divorce. Over the phone they TOO sounded very nice, asked a lot of personal questions, then asked me to come to their office for an interview. When I asked how much their service cost, I TOO was told some garbage about how by law they couldn't tell me how much it cost because it would be an offer of membership, and they couldn't offer me a membership until they met me in person. (This is ACTUALLY a FALSE statement as a good local lawyer friend of mine recently explained! Gyms and Fitness Clubs do it all the time when you call to inquire about membership as he explained!)

When I went for the interview, I met with a man whose name I cannot remember, but he was middle aged, slender, and had blonde hair and beard and wore glasses. He was the "owner or a manager" of the organization if I remember correctly. (He was the guy whose wife supposedly worked at Tinker AFB Base doing something with technical documentation!) He too asked tons of personal questions. Told me about how they have THOUSANDS of local members, including TONS of women in my age range of 30 to 40, and that I would meet TONS of women who fit my EXACT CRITERIA. He showed me a few profiles and pictures of women who looked great, and I would love to meet. He also mentioned that he had AT LEAST a dozen women who could IMMEDIATELY match me up with, since I would be a "GREAT catch" to any of these women.

He TOO then showed me prices and I TOO nearly fainted. They wanted around $3000 in MY CASE for a membership. (There were a few different plans, ALL very expensive, at least $1000 or more. Each plan I believe was for a 12 month membership and allowed for some many introductions. The low end plans, starting at $1000, were a JOKE in the number of introductions were very limited, etc. The "best deal" in my case was for $3000, for I believe up to 18 introductions over the year. If I wanted more, I'd have to pay more money on top of the $3000.)

I TOO must have told him I needed to think about numerous times, and he told me that those "discount rates" were ONLY good that evening that I met with him and that if I called back later to join I would have to pay SUBSTANTIALLY more than I ended up paying!! He kept pushing me about how nothing else had worked for me (which was TRUE, DUE in 20/20 hindsight simply to the fact that I had NOT healed emotionally from my failed marriage and had jumped into the dating scene MUCH too quickly as did my two female friends from church) and I'd be a fool not to join. He said they have an EXTREMELY high success rate approaching 100%, and there was no place else that promised such great results.

I too finally gave in after a few hours of EXTREMELY high pressure sales tactics, which caught me at an EXTREMELY emotionally weak time fairly soon after my divorce. I thought that if I met the right person out of their thousands of members that it would be worth it!!! I TOO WAS COMPLETELY WRONG, as were my two women friends from church.

I TOO was matched with people who were not even close to what I specified. We had FEW common interests, educational backgrounds, religious commonality, hobbies, etc. I was matched with smokers when I specifically specified non smokers. I was matched with large women when I specified slender to average. It was like they just ignored everything I specified, and threw matches together with VERY little research on their part. The women too sometimes admitted, sheepishly, that they do had similar experience with the men (as did my two friends from church). After about six matches in about 5 months, yes 5 months, they keep stonewalling me with new matches. I called about twice a week after the these six matches, and keep hearing from their main matching folks in the Oklahoma City office that a another match was "right around the corner." They also told me that I need to be MORE FLEXIBLE in my age requirement (30 to 40) as they had an UNUSUALLY high number of women 45+ and that I had to be open minded in going out with a women who might be several years older than me contrary to what they originally told me during the recruitment pitch the night I joined.

When I spoke with the folks in member services, at this point, 5 months down the road, I too was told that I was unrealistic on what I was looking for. But I TOO was told when I joined that I would only meet people who fit my exact criteria. They also told me they had very few women in their 30's, so the selection was thin, and as I mentioned earlier if I wanted to get any more "decent" matches I would have to flexible in going out with women who were 45 or older, maybe even 50+, which would make them 10 or more years older than me. I asked her how many women they had in their 30's and she told me only a few were currently available who "matched my criteria". What happened to the thousand they told me about, including the TONS of women to 30 to 40 who Mr. Big Shot told me were available in my age range and criteria. I echo the same question as the original poster: ARE THEY MOSTLY MEN??????? This service wasn't even close to what Mr. Big Shot sold me.

I TOO called and complained to no avail. I asked for a refund and they told me that they didn't give refunds for any reason and THAT I had signed a document to this effect when I signed up (apparently true) although I didn't have a copy other than the membership guide and credit card receipt. I was lied to, over and over about this company TOO.

Don't do business with Singles Station Dating in Oklahoma or their other company Match made in Heaven. They lie, and are only interested in taking your money. Once they get your money they don't care if they follow through or not. COMPLETELY AGREED with the original poster.

I stopped contacting them, staring going to a LARGE non-denominational church with fantastic singles groups and joined Match.com and eHarmony.com and MET tons of attractive, single women with the same background and goals. I have since found my life partner and am happy! I'm not sure why Singles Station was unable to match me. I'm a well-educatd profesional with a professional degree, tall, dark, and attractice with a great income, tons of hobbies, religious (important in the Bible Belt), well-read, etc. I unfortunately signed up with these bums at LOW point emotionally and was taken advantage of as were my two female friends from church.

OK, it MAY be possible that the original poster WAS a disgruntled employee; however, if he was, he sure NAILED their business practices, as I experienced them, to the N-th degree. I couldn't have described it better myself, hence my copying his words almost exactly in many cases in my report.

Either way, BUYER beware!!! There are MUCH cheaper atlernatives (churches, Match.com, eHarmony, and zillion other alternatives on the web, etc.). These folks from MY perspective are a bunch of scam artists.

The three of us by word of mouth have finally lost the embarrassment of our experiences to start telling the singles in our Church (and everybody in our social networks) to be VERY wary of these folks.

OK, I'll bite.

Let's say that the original complaint is false and represents an effort to discredit your reputable company.

Tell us some things about your company. That way, people can decide for themselves.

What do you charge? What do you provide? Books of pictures? Computer profiles? Videotaped interviews?

Who are your members? Age range? Sex?

How many matches do you provide to clients? How many complaints do you get? How do you resolve them?

If you expect me to believe you, show me a worthwhile service at a reasonable price. If you can do that, who knows, you may just get some readers in the Tulsa area to come over and sign up.

About 2 months ago I read a slanderous report about my company on this website. I responded that day with the truth about this report. My rebuttal was posted, but still no response from the so called client, that according to our records has never exsisted, nor have we had any calls from this so called client. I ask that if there really is a "Dan" please call and we will resolve this completelt to your satisfaction and if not PLEASE REMOVE THESE FALSE STATEMENTS FROM RIP OFF REPORT.COM. It is ashame that no research is done into these reports before posting them and discrediting a business. Basically anybody can say anything about any company that they want to damage without any consequences and with complete anonymity. So if you want to hurt or damage the creditability of company or you are a former employee with a grudge againest your former employer RIP OFF. com is your answer.

My name is Jonathan Marco and I am the regional director for the Singles Station Dating Company. First of all I apologize for my very late response. I had no idea, until a few days ago, that this site existed much less that the Singles Station had a complaint on it.

I can without a doubt tell you this is an attempt to damage the creditability of the Singles Station with completely false statements and I am almost positive it was done by a disgruntled employee. Allow me to present the facts.

1. The only Jonathan in the company is me and I am the Regional Director not a salesperson. I rarely ever do sales presentations. Going back until my start date with the Singles Station I have not sold anyone named Dan, or any membership for $4000.

2. Dan is a fictitious name. There is no member named Dan that fits any of the criteria that the so-called complaint writer speaks of. IE: $4000 membership, wanting to meet women in there 30's or that sign up in the time period in which I have been employed.

3. No complaints have been called in, written or emailed referencing anything that fits this complaint or name in the alleged time period.

4. In the first part of April 2004, we had 3 employees out of our Oklahoma City office that resigned to start a competing service. On or about May 4th 2004, they were all denied by the State of Oklahoma unemployment benefits. A couple of them retaliated in with false allegations one even using the Internet. If at all possible and you can trace the computer that this complaint came from I almost can guarantee it came from a computer in the Oklahoma City area not the Tulsa area.

In conclusion, the Singles Station prides itself on customer service. Obviously being a customer service organization we can't please every person 100% of the time, but anytime we have had a compliant about our service, which is very far and few between, we have always responded expeditiously. If there really is a member of our service that filed this complaint, I personally encourage them to call me ASAP so that we can resolve the problem.