VOX – Feb 9 – Great Expectations, which existed into the '90s, was the original dating technology, and a national dating franchise. Members recorded a 3-minute conversation with questions like, "Do you work hard? What makes you angry? What are you looking for in a man/woman?" This was "video dating". People loved the richness of the medium. In the past 12 months modern dating apps have stumbled on that same thesis all over again. The earliest video-dating service was a year earlier than GE. A New York-based company called Videomate launched with the ad: "Now, you can see and hear your date on closed-circuit TV before you date. It's fun! It's riskless! It's new!" For $60, members received a 90-day membership. By 1986, GE customers were paying $625 for a six-month plan to $3,790 for a multi-year subscription. By the early 1990s, GE had 49 franchises and was earning $65m a year.
Category: GreatExpectations
Bryan Cranston Worked For Great Expectations!
OPW – Dec 18 – Did you know, Bryan Cranston the lead actor in Breaking Bad was a videographer for Great Expectations?!
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Post by Mark Brooks @ Courtland Brooks.
Great Expectations Launches Concierge Services
PR WEB – Aug 29 – Great Expectations was the first to introduce video-dating to the matchmaking process, offer events, activities and travel to their clients, integrate offline dating online, conduct background checks on clients, and they are now offering an all-inclusive concierge service. The concierge will allow clients to request everything for their dating needs, including dinner reservations, event tickets, limos and flowers.
Great Expectations Phoenix Open House
PR WEB – Jun 22 – Great Expectations Phoenix is opening up their doors to all potential members, and hosting their first Open House. Singles can check out what Great Expectations has to offer with making any committment. The open house will be held July 7th from 9am to 4pm at the Great Expectations Phoenix center.
Great Expectations Celebrates Over 35 Years Of Matchmaking
PR WEB – Apr 18 – The year was 1976, America was celebrating the bicentennial, gas was only 59c, the first Apple computer was created and the modern day matchmaker was born. On February 14, 1976, Great Expectations opened their doors for the first time. The idea for video dating came about when founder, Jeffery Ullman, was at a dinner party and ran into an old college friend. She was telling him some of her recent blind-date horror stories. Great Expectations started out as a small family business and has now grown into a multimarket dating service. In the late 90s they created GE Online, a private website accessible only to GE members to view profiles, watch video interviews, and make their selections.
Deceived by Great Expectations
STAR TRIBUNE – Oct 29 - A Burnsville woman wants Great Expectations to return the $2,705 she forked over to find Mr. Right. They say she's "being dishonest." In Washington, the state attorney general took action after reviewing nearly 60 complaints about the service. Among the company's alleged misrepresentations: significantly overstating the number of eligible members. In 2010, Great Expectations agreed to a settlement that provided partial refunds to some customers and restricted the way the company markets its services in Washington.
State Tells Great Expectations To Get Real In Matchmaking
SEATTLE PI – June 18 – They came in search of love, and Great Expectations told them it had thousands of potential mates just waiting to meet them. So the lonelyhearts shelled out thousands of dollars. Then they waited for love that never came. That's the story reported by KIRO, which helped prompt an investigation by the state Attorney General's office. That led to a complaint filed Tuesday that the Bellevue-based dating service had been overpromising its goods with high-pressure sales pitches. The local affiliate of Great Expectations – a company called DMZ Group, also signed a settlement in which it agreed to restrict its marketing practices and give partial refunds to unsatisfied customers. FULL ARTICLE @ SEATTLE PI
HappierCouples.com Helps Save Relationships
BUSINESS WIRE – Dec 1 - With 50% of U.S. marriages ending in divorce, and 75% of America’s 168M spouses identifying themselves as ‘unhappy’ after only ten years of marriage, a new website HappierCouples.com seeks to stem the rising tide of unhappy marriages. Created by matchmaker Jeff Ullman – founder of Great Expectations, HappierCouples.com provides couples with access to the long-overdue tools and services necessary to breathe new life back into their partnership. FULL ARTICLE @ SYS CON
Internet Dating Industry June News – 12 Mins
June 2009 OPW News Summary from Mark Brooks.
This is actually the news for June. We're playing catch up. July and August are in process. Here's the news we covered for June.
- eHarmony survey finds 51% of single parents believe that they and their children are better off emotionally when the parent is in a committed relationship
– Match and eHarmony success rates.
– Spark Networks revenue down
– DatingTrail.co.uk launches
– Virtual goods startups raise $69 million funding in Q1
– Great Expectations complaints
– PlentyOfFish.com and rapper Flo Rida team up
– McGinn vs Match.com lawsuit
- ChristianCafe.com and Single Christian Network combines
– IAC completes transaction with Meetic
– Meetic signs partnership with MSN for distribution in 12 European countries
-meetMoi location based mobile dating partners with ClearSky
– Virtual Greats and Viximo partner
– Attivio’s Active Intelligence Engine selected to power Deutsche Telekom’s FriendScout24
The Right One, Internal Memo
OPW — July 7 — The Wisconsin Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Great Expectations (GE) alleging that the Milwaukee-area branch of the national dating service engaged in “deceptive and illegal sales practices,” according to the Chicago Tribune. The Wisconsin DoJ suit specifically accuses the GE office of distorting its fees, embellishing its number of member marriages and defying the state’s no-call policy, according to the Tribune.
The Right One and Together Dating are competitors to GE and CEO Paul Falzone and owner Brad Megahan wrote in a June 25 memo “The Right One/Together Dating has always and will always conduct its business in an ethical manner.” Falzone and Megahan referenced the GE lawsuit: “Also mentioned in the investigation were high pressure sales tactics, such as holding onto a perspective member’s driver’s license and credit cards to prolong interview. We will not tolerate these practices at The Right One and Together Dating.” The pair went on to instruct all employees to review The Right One/Together Dating training curriculum, which details the organization’s ethics policies and proper business guidelines. They also reminded staff never to quote membership statistics, due to the constantly changing makeup of the company’s clientele.
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