SEATTLE TIMES CONSUMER AFFAIRS — Mar 27 — Perfectmatch.com is getting out there, thanks to product placement in three major movies and TV segments on "Dr. Phil" and "Live With Regis and Kelly." But Perfectmatch.com also is getting a bad reputation among some consumers who say the site didn't find them a perfect match at all – and didn't respond when they tried to get a refund. "The last year and a half for Perfectmatch has been a very exciting period," Chief Executive Duane Dahl said. "We've experienced a tremendous amount of growth, and certainly from that growth we've had a couple of challenges." Perfectmatch has doubled its staff in the past year and has 3 million members, Dahl said. Much of its growth can be attributed to a pre-Valentine's Day "Dr. Phil" show last year that featured the company. Perfectmatch says Galpin was one of about 207,000 people who paid $99 that day for a four-month promotional membership. Many of the Perfectmatch complaints were about the company's automatic-renewal policy.
The full article was originally published at Seattle Times, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: The down side of giving away trial memberships is the aftermath of chargebacks and complaints.
Perfectmatch says Galpin was one of about 207,000 people who paid $99 that day for a four-month promotional membership.
207,000 * 99 = $20,493,000
For being on a tv show?
Not a lot of downside to that. CBS had revenues of $14.5 Billion. TThat daily number equates to a run rate of about $7 billion for being on one little show. Wonder if they reinvested that into 10 ($2 million a pop) Superbowl spots how they would do? Go for it next year Duane.
207,000 actually paid? Seems a little hard to believe to me.
The conversion rate would be far higher than normal because of the length of free period. Same thing with money back guarantees. It’s better to offer a 90 day money back guarantee than a 30 day money back guarantee because users wish to maximise their trial or guarantee period…then often forget about it, or, hopefully, become very satisfied members. Anyway, the end result is, Perfectmatch would see a high chargeback/call-in rate after the period ended and the first charge hit the users cards. I’d guesstimate they saw a 30% conversion on their 207,000 registrants. What do you think?
Mark
editor, onlinepersonalswatch.com
The article says the company claimed that “207,000 people paid $99”. That doesn’t take into consideration the auto-renewals. Did they offer a money back guarantee? Sounds like Match might have heard about those numbers, doesn’t it? If that guy has that much credibility, I imagine they are kicking some butt.
What probably happened:
Dahl: “She is one of the 207,000 people that responded (visited site or filled out profile form) to our $99 dollar offer that day”
Reporter: “207,000 people bought”
Since Dr. Phil is with match now, maybe Duane could let us know. That is a very interesting number.
3 million total profiles (active and stale) does not equal 3 million members. There is no way 207k people signed up from that show. Bill gets it right, they visited the site and some subset of those people filled out a profile.
I think PM has around 50k paying members.
this is what they do. and i am getting a refund the ceo dahl said. i was on for two weeks. all the perfect matches they sent me were from out of state with no pics. i request a pic and it says photo coming soon. i email about 10 people with real brief comments. i never hear from anyone. i was getting some men from out of state emailing me. we started to get to know each other in about 2 days. they were very interested in me. then the 3rd day i go to respon d to their last email and boom. their profiles are temporarily blocked. mind you these were only the ones that you can tell that there was an interest. i email the site and they tell me that they suggest to people who do not plan on being on the site for a long term to hide their profile. wow….i told them bullshit. but the ones that dont send any ice breakers or emails back, you can still see their profile. and i just happen to recognize someone i knew. i called him and he told me he has not been on the site for at least a year which is why i was not getting responses. they have members on the site who have been inactive for years. the reason they block you once you start chatting with them, is so that you believe they are just not respo ding. they do this so that you dont find a match right away and keep putting money into the account. have you noticed that they send perfect matches from people out of state even though you request someone local. they do this so that you keep communicating and keep paying. they live far so its hard to meet up, so you stay on the site longer and just keep paying. and they send you 90 percent of people with no pics. and all you do is request pics, but of course you never get them because they are inactive. did you notice when you go to search with a zip code and a mile range, you get people from all over the world. i set traps and saved everything. i emailed every dept at the site, including the ceo dahl. i told him all this and i also told him that i emailed the attorney general and msnbc. wow!!! i got an email i n 1 minute. he thanked me and said he considers my concern. and that he is on my side. i then went to log in again to research more and of course, i was rejected from the site. so i emailed the ceo again and demanded my money back right now. he thanked me again and said he is on my side and will refund my 99 dollars. i saved all his messages for proof. what a scam!!!! i then signed up for a 3 day free trial under an alias. the search had not one person that i have seen before. they were all different people with pics, so you know they are not new. in fact, they have not been active for years. so………….why is our government letting them get away with this. with our economy in the shape it is in, we need the people to spend their money wisely so that it gets put back into circulation. but no, with all the complaints, we are still allowing this site to take peoples money. i am taking this all the way. i am mad mad mad. i will continue to send emails everyday to the attorney general and every dept at perfectmatch.com. i urge you to do the same. i know they are seeing i am serious because the ceo said i am going to get refund. i dont think a anyone else has received such an email. please go for this. they are taking advantage of lonely people and people looking for love. they are taking our money for nothing. i beg you to send emails everyday. sincerely, Leanne Olita. any questions, my email address is leanneolita@aol.com