6. What types of sales tactics should I be careful of?
If you call the company and ask a lot of questions that they will not answer on the phone move on! If you ask their fees and they will not quote them over the phone move on! If they are insistent that you come into their office or meet them in a coffee shop or hotel without giving you much information by phone, hang up! Any service should be willing to answer your questions over the telephone. If they do coerce you to meet with them, they will use a hard sell to capture you. It is reasonable that there are certain questions that you may ask that cannot be answered until you’ve been interviewed.
I’ve also heard of services showing fake profiles to capture your business but once you are a client suddenly those people are not available. There is a franchise matchmaking service who is notorious for that according to clients who have used them.
If they interview you in a coffee shop or at a hotel rather than an office setting, hang up. Especially if the fee is $2,000 or more but they want you to meet in a public forum, what’s up with that??? Presumably you don’t want your personal business exposed in Starbucks or any other public forum where others can hear. It’s not like you can whisper in that environment, with the grounding of beans, talking and music, you are practically yelling at each other…so all your info is out there for everyone to hear! Also, with so much noise it is possible for them to misinterpret something you’ve said because they couldn’t hear you…but everyone sitting around you may hear you.
Companies who have several owners, “matchmakers” or “sales associates” can be a red flag. One may do the initial interview, another may set you up, another may call you back. Often you are not working with the same person all through your experience. It is important that all employees and owners know ALL of the clients or how else can they really match you based on your common preferences? That also means there are a lot of people sharing the income which may make the fees higher. I just spoke with a woman who was quoted a $3500 fee for 3 introductions in 3 months! That’s almost $1166 per introduction, she’s just getting your money upfront. And what if she doesn’t match you with the appropriate 3 guys? Apparently that local service will then drop a small percentage off of the $3500 to sign you again for another 3 intros in 3 months. That’s just plain unreasonable and additionally she was quoted that fee where? Yes, they met in a Starbucks!
On the other hand, Speed Dating is totally superficial. You might as well go to a bar for FREE and just look around and see who you are attracted to and talk to them for more than 5 or 7 minutes. I have never heard of anyone meeting their mate through that Speed Dating.
Take your time and think through what each service tells you and what is really reasonable before joining a service. Many singles are disappointed after using various local services. But the services don’t lie about their fees or structures and if you choose them anyway with high fees, no profiles, no office, lots of “matchmakers” or sales associates then you’ve gotten what you bought into. Be a good consumer!
Bon Jour Matchmaking Service 