Complaint Review: Romance Pros - Tampa Florida

Also with respect to the Musicmama case mentioned above -- RomancePros does not mention that statistically speaking its system works very, very poorly in terms of finding matches for woman older than 40 -- most men in the system are seeking to date women in their 20s (who constitute no more than a few percent of the member base and who are given free memberships if sufficiently beautiful) and who almost always wind up dating women in their 30s if at all. By "statistically poorly" I mean only something like 10-20% of people find matches. Under 5% of people get married through this system. The Romance Pros International reply above is also misleading in that the system does not provide "referrals" about "compatible" members -- it is specifically NOT a matchmaking service! It is a match-yourself computerized database -- other members must choose you in order for you to be contacted at all. The vast majority of members are white, and Asians and African Americans have an EXTREMELY small chance of finding success through this system. The ONLY real differences between this system and match.com or singlesnet.com is that 1) (good) they pay for a partial criminal background check (we are talking about approximately $10 computerized crime database reports here) on their members but I'm almost certain this report generally ONLY covered crimes in-state when I was working there -- so if someone did something bad somewhere else this could miss it 2) (bad) they make you pay $1000-$4000 up front for a membership (the price is TOTALLY arbitrary and negotiable and usually averages $1500 to $2000 unless you are a beautiful young woman in her 20s in which case you will get a free membership to improve the database) as well as sticking you with monthly charges of around $30-$40 as long as you are active in the system (vs around $20/mo with match.com or free with plentyoffish.com -- and plentyoffish.com is where they get many of their leads, ironically) 3) (worse) their local member database is much, much smaller (like maaaybe 1% of the size) of the comparable match.com member database in any of their office cities If you are a woman above 40, you have a MUCH better chance of finding someone through the mass-market databases like match.com or plentyoffish.com or singlesnet.com... you will get hundreds of new men joining every week through the big sites, versus a tiny tiny handful who pay to join the offices every week.

The call center manager Charles Prince does have sex with employees. I did not work in the call center but at the central office of Instinct Marketing in Plano. Occasionally while visiting the main office he would occasionally have sex with the receptionist Sallie DeLucas, another interesting personality who supposedly had a boyfriend at the time. And Charles Prince also had a "19-year old" girlfriend at the time. It is interesting to note Sallie DeLucas is also a hard-core crystal methamphetamine addict who does and deals drugs with with Robb Perez, a Cingular/ATT technician (also an occasional lover) who would visit occasionally, as well as her friend Brad Lundsford (who used company equipment to cheat on his girlfriend "LA") whom she brings in to work on the computers from time to time. She continued to allow Mr. Lunsford to come to the company and work on the systems after he perpetrated physical violence (squeezing, bruising) against her during some kind of altercation in the office -- to give a sense of the lack of moral standards pervasive within this operation. These are just the people I knew personally. On one occasion Mr. Prince also "entertained" the boss of the company, Mr. William "Bill" Broadbent, as well as myself with a video he shot on the sly of an unknown blond female -- while staying at the company-furnished apartment he has near his work place in Houston. According to Sallie DeLucas's statements to me at one time he also showed her this video on a separate occasion. Instinct Marketing also occasionally violates Google's terms of service -- sometimes -- with respect to advertising by creating multiple shell companies owned and Google AdSense accounts to serve multiple ads at once -- sometimes -- on the Google AdSense system. Sometimes such a violation becomes apparent when seeing multiple of their ads on the same page leading to different landing pages with the same model spokeswoman. Some of their "alternative" domains besides romancepros.com are overthirtysingles.com and vipsingles.com and maturesinglesonly.com. They accept leads from around the country even if they have no offices. Those they can service at their tiny handful of offices they use themselves. But the vast majority of their leads they sell for prices as low as $15 outside their geographical areas -- or to SinglesNet.com for pennies per lead. The owner has had several shell companies experience sexual harrassment lawsuits as well -- with payouts of up to a quarter million dollars (that I've heard about).

I am so tired of this ex-employee spreading "her side" of the story regarding Romance Pros. I currently work for Instinct Marketing, in the office this ex-employee used to work. We know who you are, and you were just as bitter and negative when you worked with us. Instinct is a wonderful, positive, upbeat place to work. We come in all shapes, ages and sizes. We have all made and not made quota from month to month, but the fact remains, we still have a job for one reason. We love what we do, we are good with people, we have positive attitudes and we truly want to make a difference in the romantic lives of our clients. Not one of us has slept with Charles Prince. It disgusts me that you would insinuate something so slanderous in the first place. You want to know why you got fired? Look at the ferocious attacks you have thrown at this company, all over the internet, when they let you go. Why on EARTH would they want to keep someone with an attitude as bad as yours? There have been MANY times I should have been let go for not making quota. But they haven't. Trust me, I am not being kept around because I am cute to look at either. I am one of the "Fat ones" you refer to. I do my job, I stay positive and I contribute to the overall good of the company. I did NOT sleep with anyone! Stop slandering, get a life and move on! There are bigger and better things out there in this world waiting for you. Find them!

I am an ex employee of Instinct Marketing, who calls for Great Expectations, MatchMaker and Romance Pros. I was employed for several months and was a top "seller". Here's the real deal, the only man in the Houston office (he runs it) is also the owner of Romance Pros Tucson. It doesn't matter how much money you bring in. They have girls there that never bring in a single sell, then why are they still employed there? Because Charles likes to be surrounded by pretty girls, most of which are 18-21. If you are over 21, then you have to dress slutty and flirt with him to keep your job. When I left, there were approx 25 girls employed, and 4 were 'over weight', 2 of those always had their breasts hanging out, one was pregnant and had her breasts hanging out and the other one left, after talking to Liz, crying like a baby and never came back. All of the other girls look like they should be working at Hooters or Colorado(a strip club). As far as income, they guarantee you 12 per hour after 90 days, then they find ways around it. The only way to excel here is to sleep with Charles, isn't that right Maria, Lauren, and Carissa? Any one that gets a call from them, say these exact words... "TAKE ME OFF YOUR CALLING LIST" If you say anything else, they will keep calling you. Even if you say "erase my profile" or delete my number", they will keep calling. We actually were penalized for putting too many people on the Do Not Call List. And whatever you do, DO NOT go into any of their offices for an "interview" with a "Relationship Specialist", They are nothing more than average Joe's looking to make a fat commission off you pain. You are better off using Plenty of Fish, and that's free. Any one applying to this job, run away while you still can, don't let them sucker you in. Good Luck to you all!!!

When reviewing this report, I was a little surprised, as this passive client of ours still does not understand the membership she signed up for after I responded to her e-mail the other day. This woman needed our help and came to us for a reason. When her relationship specialist showed her our regular membership fee, she did not want to take it. However, we did not force her to do anything she didn't want to. We do not force anyone. All of our counselors here have good intentions and we want people to find a successful relationship. We are very passionate about finding romance for others! We actually had to call this woman to fill out her profile after she joined, because she did not complete it in a timely manner. We were excited to get her account activated! She definitely wanted to join our program, and so to enable her to still utilize a part of our service, she was given the passive membership. This entails that she will receive referrals when she is compatible with one of our regular clients who paid the regular fee. This was explained to her when she joined and she even has a copy of the agreement which states this in writing. We work hard everyday and we actively search for the clients who have paid for our services. We are in the business of trying to find compatible, suitable matches for our clients and it takes a lot of research, time and hard work. We always stay in touch with our clients by sending out e-mails with updates and stories so that we touch base with everyone, including our passive members. We recently sent out an e-mail that we have had many clients go on hold for one another to explore their relationships lately and we have a couple getting married on July 2nd! We have new people sign up everyday and her ideal match could walk in tomorrow! If this woman needs any assistance or would like to speak to anyone in our Client Services Department, we would love for her to give us a call. Also, if anyone is looking for a relationship, we would love for you to call us also! You never know, you could be the ideal match for this woman! If you are looking for a 47 year old African American woman, who is 5'3, a few extra pounds, has short hair, and is a Teacher living in the Tampa area, please let us know! She is looking for a male, ages 37-55, that attends mass weekly, attended college, non-smoker, non-drinker, income level $35,000-$50,000, etc. We would love to be able to help you get together with this woman if you are interested! Thank you, Rip-Off Report, for giving us the opportunity to possibly help find true love for this valued customer.