🚀 go-pugleaf

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.

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."  My resistance battered by being in the same office for so long,
I gave in to the pitch and have been regretting it ever since.  I would
like to suggest to anyone considering signing up with Great Expectations
to strongly reconsider, based on the following points:

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

2. I strongly suspect they tailored their pricing to fit my ability to
pay.  One of their questionnaire queries was for my credit card limits; 
I balked and did not fill them in.  When the rep. noticed this, he spent
considerable time cajoling me into believing they did not want them for
any reason other than to be sure that I wasn't a deadbeat who was just
screwing around and wasting their time.  Later it turned out that the
package they pushed on me just happened to be darn near but just under my
credit card limit.  Coincidence?  I think not. *

3. Great Expectations, unlike their competitors, does not do any computer
matching of clients at all.  YOU do all the work, going through page
after page of notebooks full of eligible people.  YOU decide who to
attempt to date while they do little or nothing to help you, not even
narrow the search.

4. No guarantees whatsoever are made concerning you getting anything for
your investment.  If none of the people you choose want to go out with
you, or if you get chosen by nobody, you're just out of luck.  No
recourse.

* When (if) I go on any dates, I will attempt to confirm #2 by asking how
much the other person paid.  If they paid a rate that was not offered to
me, I will seek legal recourse, for I believe it is illegal under most
state laws (hopefully including Pennsylvania's) to tailor (read: raise)
rates to customers' ability to pay.  (I understand that one of Great
Expectations' competitors is being investigated for just this reason in
either Oregon or Washington state.)

If anyone has any reactions/replies/rebuttals to what I've stated above,
I do honestly welcome them.  Right now I feel completely victimized and
am so disgusted with myself for being taken in that I could just about
puke.  :-(((

-Kurt

| Kurt Tappe                     ktappe@omni.voicenet.com
| 184 W. Valley Hill Rd.         "Will troubleshoot your
| Malvern, PA 19355-2214          Macintosh for food."