I visited the GE office in Maitland very recently. Avoid this company unless you are fond of high-powered sales pitches. The "Relationship Expert" conducted the interview - nearly 2 hours long. I was promised just about everything but the moon. Having recently suffered through a relationship break-up, I was quite vulnerable and the "Expert" was quick to pick up on this. The last question she asked before leaving the room to see if I would be approved was: "Which is more important to you - love or money!" When she returned with packages ranging from $4000 to $9000, I knew why she had asked the question. Of course, I couldn't afford to pay that amount of money. With her "kind heart" and saying that she felt I was "special, " she offered to let me use one of her "family and friends employee discounts." I was cautioned to not tell anyone about this. Before I left, the price had gone down to $2, 000. I KNOW that I should have done my homework on this company before visiting their office, but we all make stupid mistakes especially when we are emotionally fragile.

I signed up for Great Expectations in early March 2009. In my interview they showed me profiles of perspective males in my age range. I was given a break on enrollment if I paid up front using my credit card. I was then given a time to come back in to have my photo and video shoot. After my video shoot I was told that to get my photo ready for my profile that there was an additional fee. After my profile was posted that night I began my search and sent out about 5 invitations . I waited about a week and got 2 negative responses. I sent out 4 more invitations and got more negative responses. While others still have yet to respond. It has been more than a month and not one positive response. I have gone on to other FREE websites and used the same photos with emmediate response and have even met a few men. I know there are no guarantees in dating but there should be some sort of recourse when you don't get what you pay for. These companies are taking advantage of people and need to be stopped!!! If you know of anyone who is thinking about joining this group please tell them to do some research first. I know there are lawsuits in several states against Great Expectations. I'm not sure there are any favorable outcomes for clients of Great Expectations but if we can prevent anyone else from being taken maybe that's the best we can hope for.

I am a handicapped senior widow who was promised personal services regarding meeting similar individuals of the opposite sex. I feel I was coerced and shamed into signing up and have been too "freaked out" to handle this. I need help to recover my 3900. I never heard from them until last month when emails came in triplicate saying the name of the agency had been changed. I need help! Sincerely, Joan

In September 2008, I attended an informational session at Great Expectations, a local dating service, to learn about their organization. After 3 hours of a sales lady speaking to me about how wonderful this program is and a very strong sales pitch, I told them there was no way I could afford their $7000 fee. The sales woman left to “talk to her manager” and came back to tell me she could lower my rate to $3490. I told them that I still could not afford the $3490 since I was a graduate student with no income other than student loans. When I left I had not given them any authorization to charge my credit card and had not signed the contract. When I went on-line to check my credit card account to the card that I used for ID purposes only, I found that they had already charged me $3490. When I called and told them I had decided that I was not joining, they said that there was no refund. When confronted about the unsigned contract, they told me that it didn’t matter, there were no refunds. I don’t know how I can be charged 3490$ to my credit card without signing a contract. I haven’t used any of their services and have fought with my credit card company and am getting nowhere.

I am interested in trying to start a class action lawsuit against the Fort Mill/Charlotte locations. If you’d be interested in joining, please email [email protected] (GEcomplaints at gmail dot com) and include your story, what extents you’ve gone to get resolve your dispute and contact information. Thanks so much!

I was given 3 days to decide if I wanted to keep the dating service, nothing was done with it. I still haven't done a thing with the service, they moved from downtown Chicago to Shaumberg even though I signed up for having access to Chicago. It's a 15 minutes train ride instead of 2 hours since I live in the city. This is fine to them and then they want me to pay for the service and I can't change my mind now as far as they're concerned since I was told by Jessica that they are a business and personal problems aren't their problem. I have never dealt with any business ever that operates that way. I was in a car accident last weekend and I need the money. I haven't used the service at all in any, way, shape or form and they won't refund my money. I want my money back since I signed up for a Chicago location that no longer exists, they knew of this move before I signed up since no one moves a business in a couple of days from the middle of the city to a suburb. This is false advertising and poor delivery of a poor product. All I have are words telling me of things that will happen, how can judge whether or not the service is worth anything without anything happening. They're holding me to letting so I shall do the same since they're not reasonable at all and are just here to hustle money or else they would be much more customer oriented.

They only use business and customer orientation when it's convenient which doesn't fly in my book as I don't operate that way nor have I ever. I signed up for a Chicago location to meet people in Chicago with events at their office located in Chicago, 15 minutes away. Now I have to travel 2 hours away to have my pictures and video taken and events at their location since it will be gone. Any time I have an issue I have to travel 2 hours if I can't reach them by phone and they want me to come in. They said they have excellent customer service... huh? I haven't even done anything with them and they're service is the worst I've experienced and seen. Instead of being able to use my bus pass to access events at their Chicago location and customer service, I have to spent money out of my pocket to travel 26 miles away. If they weren't hustling people then they wouldn't be so stiff and they wouldn't need a contract. They came up with lame reasons for the contract as I even gave them a way to do it without the contract and they said that it wouldn't work but without any logical backup since I caught her in her own BS.

I want my money back as I have used nothing of the service. The only thing I have received is lies, BS and poor service. I shouldn't have to pay for something that was known to be changing and isn't the same as what I had paid for in the agreement. Nothing was told to me about the move before signing the contract. I only received a call when I had to reschedule my photos and video because of the accident that I had to schedule with the Schaumberg office since the Chicago branch was closing. Why should I be held accountable for a business relationship agreement that has changed from what my understanding was when it was signed. This would be considered fraud if I'm not mistaken. Let me know if you have any questions as they were defensive when hearing about my request and not very friendly. She then asked how my weekend went after that so that she can make it look like she cares and I'm just being unreasonable which isn't the case.

I'm truly offended by this treatment and can't believe how she is nice one moment and then mean the next when the money is spoken of. Being defensive about it shows something is up here. I know they work on commission so she doesn't want to use it. She doesn't care if I'm happy with the service until it is a benefit for her. This is ridiculous and I would like to step away as I stepped into this mess and forget that it happened, thank you.