Minneapolis Singles

My experience with Minneapolis Singles, in particular, Laura, is one that speaks of a lack of service transparency, and a lack of communication in regard to the services. First, the service is very expensive with the promise that members have been background checked, vetted and that a person is a safe person.

I expressed to Laura the importance of me dating someone that I could feel safe with. However, I can attest that this is not happening. Also, they use a database to place all of their members. The database runs very slowly.

I had brought this to their attention and there was no explanation as to why, nor how they would fix it. Also, I was told that you are young during the orientation. Later, I found out that this meant that the male members were typically in their fifties or older. I was, 45, at the time of the orientation.

Laura had selected seventeen members for me to review. Despite reaching out to a few, they definitely were not the best match for what I was looking for. I did make another effort and called Laura to request that she reach out to two members to see if she could connect us that way. Laura said she would get back to me, and never did.

Additionally, all of the members were in the Minneapolis area, whereas, I am in the St. Peter, MN area which is in Southern Minnesota. I had no idea that there were NO members from my area in the database. So, virtually, I was left with very few options and options that didnt really fit.

Regarding the database, there was a solicitation for video clips to be made as a way to entice another member to look at your profile.

This was an additional cost, to top, of the already enormous cost that was applied to the package. I was not made aware of solicitation and how it may affect my ability to reach potential matches. I was told to put Minneapolis as my location. I was that it was because the agency was located in Minneapolis.

Again, a lack of transparency is at stake here. There were only a few occasions where Laura communicated with me. Also, Laura told me that a successful relationship is one that ends with marriage. I told her that I was not interested in marriage and that there are successful relationships that dont have to be marital.

In regard to communications, I was told that I had to go through the administrative assistant. This felt odd and seemed very unprofessional of Laura since she stated she would be the one that I could talk to in regard to the matches and getting a match. Laura never did successfully match me with anyone. I was not given time to review any of their service before making a good decision about paying close to $8,000.00.

I wasnt even allowed to make payments. I was told I had to pay the full amount up front, or I would have to pay like close to 29% in interest fees. If a member has to pay close to $8000.00 and all at once, then, there should definitely be a lot of amazing customer service, and great matching mechanisms and support for dating successfully. Otherwise, it is the equivalent of an app service, which is not what I was looking nor hoping for.

Also, the cost was to include social events.

They stated that due to the pandemic that they were canceling them. Sadly, this did not help either. Many places have had virtual happy hours, virtual parties, and other virtual events. Minneapolis Singles has never announced any virtual events, nothing, as a means to potentially connect with a member.

I dont understand why I would pay full price if part of the service is not even available. Again, this is a lack of transparency regarding service offerings.

Recently, Laura and I did speak, again, and she commented on how I am dating James. James is their photographer. This is true.

However, James and I connected. At the time, he was a contractor for Minneapolis Singles and had taken my photograph for the database. James was not a member, either, of the Minneapolis Singles agency. Since I was able to meet James, in person, and not have to go through a database, I was delighted that I found someone that I felt comfortable dating.

It is misleading of Laura to reference my relationship with James since he is not a member and was not even an employee of Minneapolis Singles during that timeframe. Also, revealing the information that I had shared about James to American Express shows that they are willing to expose members private information without their permission. This is another safety issue.

She claimed that she had never had complaints like this, yet I was able to find some on the Minnesota BBB. When you search for Google reviews, you cannot find them.

This is very strange.

Any reputable business would want to have Google reviews.

Below is a link to Minneapolis Singles' complaints. I have provided a few examples, and there are more where this agency has charged, their clients for a service they were promised, but did not get.

Minneapolis Singles | Reviews | Better Business Bureau Profile (bbb.org)

I joined this service back approx May 24th, 2017 and I was extremely detail specific during my initial interview what I wanted with them. I show them pictures, I have strong descriptions, qualities, characteristics and more.

They said "they could help me" find a woman like this. I spoke to the top manager that day (25+ years experience). They gave me a starter price of $9000 for a 3 year + 3 free membership. I almost fell off my chair!!

They immediately dropped it down to $6000 with a military discount they claimed they had - they didn't even want to see proof that I ever was in the military, just took my word for it (I was - but they didn't ask for proof. Shows you how deceptive they can be, they will try to MILK you for all they can get from you). I really should have followed my gut and said I will think about it, but this manager was coy to body language and told me, if I had left, they could not promise the same bonus sign up next time (typical high pressure sales) and I had just gotten a large bonus from work, so I signed up at the $6k price. About 10 days goes by and I get called in for my photo shoot, that took about 3 hours to do.

Then they spent about another hour with me going over things and gave me a list to take home of possible referrals, claimed they worked on that list of 15 people for over 3-4 hours to put it together. It was pretty obvious once I learned how to use the site, and looked at the list, they can just as easily jot down profile #'s and claim whatever they want for time input. So I reviewed the list and there was NOTHING on that list that even remotely interested me - that was another clue they had never read my hand prepared (typed) initial profile I gave them (and it was quite detailed both about me and what I wanted). So I got home and started to look for others locally.

I was not interested in long distance, I wanted MLPS only! (Give or take 100 miles maybe). I found one possible that I liked, but after 34 days (which is over their timeline to reply) she never replied and her profile was never put on "HOLD" either, this company says right on the back on the contract they give you, "You failed to provide a response to another member (yes or no) your membership is put on inactive as a penalty" - they failed to do that because she was a woman most likely and most know if you don't have woman, the men won't come either. So that would be bad for business to knock her.

They claim they contacted her 3-4x and she would get to it, but never did. They did keep trying to send other referrals, but again, NONE of them were even close to the same ball park I was looking for. So I started looking more into the site. They claim they have 2100+ members.

So at the time (approx 1st or 2nd weekend in June) I went through every profile on that site that was available to me. There was a total of 2182, 43% were inactivated (there is only 4 reasons that can be: You're on hold to date another, you're on vacation, you have not paid your dues or you're now an expired member and they are still using your profile as bait for others). So I scaled it down to just the MLPS area. I found 685 total profiles, all age ranges and of that # there was 47% that were inactive.

So I now scaled it down to my age requested group and this is where it gets scary people. I asked to look in the 28-35 age group, so at first I started by looking in up to 40 years old, there was 68 members and 29 were inactive, then I look in exactly my age group, there was 34 members and 13 were inactive. So here's the deal: I paid them $6000 and I only have a total of 21 members to choose from and of that 21 members, 11 were not of my race, so while friendships may be possible, nothing more would come of it, so that leaves me 10 members of which to work with to find love (at that time) when I asked them that question The Senior manager lady said, "But you only need 1 person to love." I had my mouth hung open at that one. I asked a series of questions.

"Had I known you only had 10 members in my active profile, do you think I would have signed up?" (no comment) "Had I known you had a .0145% of active members in my age group do you think I would have signed up?" (no comment) "Had I know that nearly 99% of your members were above the age group I was looking for do you think I would have signed up?" (no comment) and finally, "What part of "very specific" did I not cover in my initial interview which I put in writing did you not understand?" Even the part at the bottom where I said "If you can't meet my standards - that's ok, just tell me." Be straight and honest with me was all I asked. This company lied to me, they deceived me and they mislead me into a false contract. Now it does say on the back, that no refunds are permitted, but I did manage to block the final payment as I used a CC to purchase everything. I also managed to "DISPUTE" the previous charges with the CC also.

A week later they refunded all my money. A week later the company calls me up says they had the charges reversed and they won the dispute and would make me an offer to cancel the final $1500 if I left this alone and I signed a NON disparage clause to not talk about them openly. (Do you think I accepted the offer?) I am working with an attorney to settle this, but the CC company also said to me. No reversal of charges has been received by them (as of this writing today 8/9/17).

"It still might, but it's not a dead issue," they also said. They will then freeze the money from both parties and they will give me a chance to submit my documentation and I have printed out an awful lot of information for them to review. They will then send to an individual non biased arbitrator (almost like going to small claims court) and they will review everything. So I won't know for sure yet, but the CC did instruct me also NOT to agree to or sign anything, the company was only doing that for strong arm tactics and intimidation and that isn't happening.

They burned me, they mislead and deceived me and if I am to lose $4500 and have my credit attacked. I will spend every free minute and go on every social media site I can find and every consumer site and contact the attorney general as well. They will feel my wrath! This company's office in MN has at least a dozen small claims courts filed against them - maybe a lot more.

The Washington state office is being investigated by the state attorney General, the Wisconsin branch is also being investigated for fraud by the AG. This is one article by a former employee: **. It really spills the beans on what they do, especially how they determine your fees they charge you - scary stuff!! There is plenty more upset customers here: **.

Here is another site full of complaints on the company: **. There is plenty more to find too: Type in GOOGLE search: "COMPLAINTS AGAINST GE". Let's just say you will need many months to read them all. They are far and wide!

Some are even of former employees that quit because they discovered how unethical this company was. I will try to update how my case turns out when I can... If the CC company falls short, next step will be the AG of MN. You will be scammed and defrauded if you use this service.

I certainly was!!!

This review is 100% real and 100% my own experience with them. I have the contracts and receipts to prove it and would join anyones class action lawsuit as well.