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When you first arrive at Match.com, you are greeted with this sentence: "1 in 5 relationships start online & more of them start at Match.com." That sentence is a good representation of Match.com as a whole: it's an appealing sentence, but it's just a little too vague to be trustworthy.
Match.com has millions of members and creates thousands of relationships and marriages every year. It is also host to many useful and unique online dating tools. Unfortunately, the site has a lot of problems involving their level of transparency and their quality of customer service.
Match.com is part of a family of dating site and powers both Chemistry.com and Yahoo! Personals. The weird thing is that Match.com promotes its affiliation with Chemistry.com, but seems to try and avoid connections to Yahoo! Personals. Match.com does allow you to freely search a massive amount of profiles, will most likely have single members who live in your area, and gives you an affordable membership including a lot of helpful tools. If you can ignore a huge amount of online complaints regarding their customer service assistance and billing issues, Match.com might be your best option.
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Transparency |
1.0 / 2.5 |
Match.com loses the most rating points in the transparency category due to their lack of contact information, their unclear services, and their general anonymity. If you have a problem with your membership, services, or account, you can either consult the Match.com FAQ section, or you can fill out their contact form and hope to receive a reply. Unfortunately, most large dating sites (this is one of the largest) take their time sending back replies, if they send replies at all. Match.com does not provide a good enough explanation of their services; instant messaging, for example, seems to be mentioned randomly here and there, not promoted as a feature. In our opinion, a live instant messaging feature should be one of the most promoted features on the site, if not THE most promoted. Also, Match.com avoids telling its members that Match.com is connected to Yahoo! Personals and that their profiles and information might be posted on that site as well. Many forum posts describe the surprise users experienced when they realized they were somehow connected to Yahoo! Personals, even though they had never visited the site. Between that and the fact that the site does not post one human name to represent itself, Match.com only receives 1 point out of 2.5 in regards to transparency.
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Reliablity |
2.0 / 2.5 |
Match.com seems like a reliable site you can trust, but some online reviews and forum posts say otherwise. On Match.com, you can visit their success stories section and browse through all kinds of different relationships that began on the site. Match.com holds an "A+" with the Better Business Bureau and is a BBB.org accredited company, meaning they supposedly go above and beyond their requirements when it comes to resolving customer problems. But out of 947 total complaints reported, only 794 were resolved while 153 were "closed."
Match.com posts its privacy policy and terms of use very clearly when you sign up with the site, something you will be obligated to do if you want to check out the site. If you choose to subscribe to the site, you can feel comfortable submitting your credit card information because they use SSL security on their CC submission page.
Match.com loses points due to the large amount of consumer complaints regarding the dating site. ConsumerAffairs.com alone has 38 pages worth of complaints about Match.com, most of which are in regards to billing, credit cards, cancellations, and other touchy areas.
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Quality |
2.0 / 2.5 |
Match.com is one of the highest quality dating sites you will find. From the initial personality questionnaire to their profile and searching options, Match.com is your best bet for finding singles in your general area who are interested in the same things and fit your desires. With your free trial membership, you can do advanced searches and browse through the profiles of existing Match.com members, something you can't always do on other popular dating sites. Furthermore, you can actually view all the pictures other members have posted; at most sites, you can't see all of the pictures until you pay for a subscription. When you join Match.com, you will have the chance to take a personality quiz and fill out your personal profile. The profiles at Match.com are very comprehensive and allow you to fully describe who you are and what you are looking for. You will also enjoy a personalized home page with all of your features easily accessible. Even the extra features at Match.com go above par, such as the MatchTalk feature and the Highlight Profile feature. Unfortunately, these extra features cost a little too much, unless you join up with their Best Value Plan.
Match.com loses points for their lack of customer service. When you attempt to find a way to contact Match.com, you will likely give up before succeeding. They make an obvious effort to avoid human communication, simply giving you the option to submit your question in a form and hope for a reply. Beyond that, we have read in many different discussion forums that Match.com avoids communication with its members even when they are having a technical problem with the website or their general account.. In our opinion, you should avoid any company that will not speak with you over the phone. But that's only one part of our review, so take it as lightly or as heavily as you wish.
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Cost |
2.0 / 2.5 |
Match.com, for the cost of their membership, offers a solid collection of features. If you are looking for a dating site to pay for, this could very well be the best one. On the other hand, we have discovered many online complaints regarding their customer service and problem resolution, so beware. Do your own research regarding the site and read about people who have dealt with the darkest sides of Match.com.
For a one-year membership, Match.com will charge you approximately $215. We say "approximately" because they only offer up to a six-month membership. You can pay for the "Best Value Plan," giving you access to almost all of their extra features for $107.94 for six months. If you choose the regular six-month plan, it will cost you $101.94. You can also choose a three-month membership for $59.97, or a one-month membership at a one-time cost of $34.99.
Although you can find dating sites with much lower membership fees, Match.com will very likely provide you with every dating tool you could be looking for. If you pay for their "Best Value Plan," which we suggest if pay to use the site, you will have access to more than just basic membership features. You will have a featured profile, showing your profile first on search results. You will also have access to email "read" notifications, telling you when your sent emails were read by their recipients. Overall, Match.com will give you a lot when you pay for their premium membership, but they will charge you way too much for extra features if you choose any other membership plan. Match.com, if you choose the right membership option, will provide you with affordable messaging and chat options, a decent email system, and will not hit you with hidden charges. You can also pay through a lot of different payment methods, so no worries there. The only thing Match.com loses points for in the Cost category is their extra features. If you pay for a regular membership at Match.com, we can't justify paying so much money for their extra features. Other than that, Match.com seems to be a highly advanced site with good features and a lot of members.
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Total Score |
7.0 / 10 |
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