🚀 go-pugleaf

Kurt Tappe (ktappe@omni.voicenet.com) wrote:
: This is a warning concerning the nationwide dating service Great
: Expectations.  Hopefully it will help prevent others from having the same
: experience I did.  I want to note up front that the center I visited was
: located in King of Prussia, PA and that all Great Expectations centers
: are independently owned (a fact I notice, in retrospect, they noticably
: downplayed), so your mileage may vary...but I doubt it.

*My* mileage certainly didn't vary.  I had much the same experience as
you.

: Anyway, not having had much luck dating in the past few years, I recently
: returned one of Great Expectations' unsolicited mail surveys.  Upon
: receipt, they called me and scheduled an "interview," which they said was
: to explain their service and show me their center.  What the interview
: really turned out to be was a high-pressure two-hour sales pitch that
: culminated with "sign up for this price now or you'll pay 30% more
: later." 

Yup.  I was there for about an hour, and sat in that little room while
three different salespeople and one "manager" (all women - coincidence?) 
tried line after line trying to convince me to sign up, while
sidestepping the price issue.  Lines I have heard others report in this
thread, such as, "How can you put a price on a relationship?".

: 1. They are expensive. The cheapest plan (at least offered to me) was
: $2,250.00 (including the mandatory $250.00 photographer's fee.)

That's what they finally told me, too.  $2,000 + $250 for the photos and
video.  When I balked at that, they said they could "work with me" and
offered to split it up into payments over the next year.  When I still
resisted they finally made me a "one time offer" for $1,000 (plus the
$250 photo fee, of course, which was "out of their control").  They told
me things like, "We have a shortage of childless never-married young men
right now, or we wouldn't make this offer".  Yeah right!  I agree with
the person who said that the guy/girl ratio in San Diego is unusually
high.  Something to do with the military presence here, no doubt.  I
decided to pass on their offer, and when I got up to leave, the manager
lady suddenly became a little snotty, saying, "We have your name in our
records, if you leave now you will pay full price when you realize you
need our service".  In their defense, I don't think they asked me for my
credit card numbers, although I might have listed the cards that I had.
Despite this experience, I am still receiving their bulk letters and
they call my house every once in a while.  I usually make up some excuse
why I cannot talk to them at the moment.  I would brush them off
entirely, but there is a slight possibility I would sign up with them if
they made me a realistic offer.  One positive thing about the experience
was that it got me motivated to pursue other means of meeting people,
which have met with some success.  This was the Great Expectations in
the Mission Valley area of San Diego.

-David

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David Schwarze                     '73 VW Safare Custom Camper  (Da Boat)
San Diego  (Actually La Mesa)      '72 VW Westfalia Camper      (Da Project)
California, USA                    '73 Capri GT 2800            (Da Beast)
e-mail: des@teleport.com           '87 Mustang Lx 5.0           (14.17@99.34)
http://www.teleport.com/~des       '93 Weber WG-50              (Da Piano)
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