Lunch Actually Group review: Unethical behaviour, expensive and hard selling 15

https://lunch-actually.pissedconsumer.com/lunch-actually-singapore-dating-agency-is-a-scam-20150312607179.html

Please do NOT join Lunch Actually Dating Agency

1) Lunch Actually (LA) claims to match you with someone 'holistically' and taking into account your "preferences". They claim that the only thing they do not guarantee is chemistry. It is NOT true. While most of the time, LA members are truthful abt their personal details, LA will LIE about it in order to 'create' a match. They can LIE abt anything just to push out a date. Eg, if you say you don't want to meet someone who drinks heavily, LA will LIE to you and cheat you into going on a date which they 'have painstakingly looked through and is a high match'. One date cost a few hundred dollars, and you end up meeting someone you will not even consider. Your date also ends up wasting his/her time as he/she had given truthful details to LA without knowing that LA had lied to you. Your preferences are not important to LA. Your money is.

2) LA has more female than male members. Ladies can wait up to 8 months in between dates. Man gets one or two dates per month. Chances are, the female members will end up getting hitched by someone through their own social circle and forfeit the rest of their package (that means LA gets to keep the money). Although it seems like the man has a wider pool of selection, male members are likely to end up going on dates with people who are poorly matched.

3) LA allows members to request for a full refund within 7 days after going on their first date. If you are not happy with your first date, you can get all your money back. So, you are likely to get someone decent on your first date. And GOOD LUCK for your subsequent dates. You first date may be someone you are looking for as LA may have matched him/her according to your criteria just to give you a false good impression. BUT you may not be matched according to your date's preferences. So you will still end up wasting a date because the other party is not interested in you.

Some unlucky people (possibly those who appear nice and received decent/good feedback from their first few dates) will be unofficially 'selected' by LA (without their knowledge or consent of course) to be the first date or 'service recovery' date for other LA members. It means that whenever LA gets a new/difficult customer, they will pick this 'selected' candidate out to go on a date with their new/difficult members. If you are granted the 'honor' of being 'handpicked' by LA to do the 'job', you are likely to end up with dates with new members or angry people who have just complained abt LA. (since LA gets a lot of complains). To make things worse, if the LA member is someone LA knows that you will not be interested in, LA will either LIE to you about their particulars or keep you in the dark. Eg, Member A complains about LA or his/her previous bad date. LA will do service recovery by giving member A a free make up date. Then LA will go to their "nice members list" and pick member B to go on a date with member A. However, member A is a smoker and LA knows that there's no way member B will agree to go out with someone who smokes. So LA will either LIE to member B or keep member B in the dark. In other words, LA makes use of their members to help them make more money from other people.

4) Whenever LA's lies were found out and exposed, they will either insist that it was the member who had given them the wrong information (which is not always true) or they will brush it off by offering a free make up date. There's no point taking up the make up date because the same problem will repeat.

5) LA has 'highly trained' consultants with high turnover rate. The consultants seem to be ONLY trained to be polite, politically correct when communicating with their members and pushing members to sign up for their workshops. They are not genuine about helping their members get a good date. The matching is done using a computer system anyway. Members' details and/or preferences are manually tweaked or almost completely changed in order to increase the number of matches (drastically). Any Tom or Harry can be matched to Jane or Mary.

LA charges higher prices than all other dating agencies in Singapore. Save your money and time. Do NOT join LA.

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http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/eat-drink-man-woman-16/breaking-news-lunch-actually-response-hwz-warning-thread-not-join-them-5356719-8.html

http://women.asiaone.com/women/relationships/dating-agency-lunch-actually-under-fire-expensive-packages

1. Lunch Actually is the most expensive dating agency in singapore.

As at year 2014, they charge $2100 for 3 dates, $2300 for 5 dates and $2600 for 10 dates.

2. Lunch Actually refuse to tell you their price when you call them to enquire.

They give you all kinds of rubbish replies like our price package is dependant on the type of partner you are looking for, ask you go for the initial consultation than they will see which platform is more suitable for you.

Anyone with abit of common sense knows this is nonsense.

If you say the price package is dependant on the type of partner you look for, does it mean that if I look for a old & ugly partner it will be very cheap, if I look for a partner that is young & pretty than it will be very expensive?

As for the platforms, basically they only have the expensive personalised matchmaking services or their esynrochology.

Once you go down for their initial consultation they will hard sell you. If you say it is too expensive than they will hard sell you their esynrochology services.

3. Lunch Actually package comes with free image workshop and coaching workshop.

This is actually just part of their attempt to sell you more package and earn more money.

When you go for the free image workshop the consultant will hard sell you the 6 hours personalised shopping trip at $888.

If you say its too expensive she will hardsell you the $488 for 3 hours personalised shopping trip.

During the personalised shopping trip, basically the image consultant meet you at somerset mrt station and than bring you to a few shops like Ben Sherman etc and tell you what type of clothes suits you.

You do not need to pay such a expensive amount for this. You can go into Ben Sherman or any retail shop and the sales staff there can give you free advise on what type of clothes suits you.

When you go for the free coaching workshop, she will try to hardsell you the coaching package at the most expensive of $3900.

If you say its too expensive than she will slowly go down to the $2900, $1900 and than finally the $900 coaching package.

If you sign up the $900 package, it just comes with a free online video for you to watch, than a 1 hour coaching session, a courage warmup session & a meaningful dinner.

During the 1 hour coaching session, you will not have the opportunity to ask any questions because she will be busy trying to hardsell and pester you to upgrade your package to the most expensive of $3900 so she can hit her quota and earn more commission.

The courage warmup session is basically useless & nonsense.

The coach bring you to plaza singapore to approach the opposite gender on the streets to talk to them.

Anyone with abit of common sense knows this is useless and a total waste of time.

Meaningful dinner is not a speedating dinner. There is no rotation of seats.

They say is for you to practise your communication skills by talking to the participants which is basically nonsense and a waste of time.

The most expensive $3900 coaching package they basically just increase the number of useless meaingful dinner and courage warmup sesssions.

They also say you are entitled to 1 year of unlimited coaching.
Sounds like a very good deal, but in reality it is not.

Lunch Actually opening hours is Monday to Saturday 10am to 7pm.

Obviously on weekdays you need to work and you can’t book a appointment to go down.

Their saturdays are always fully booked and you need to book in advance.

You can roughly only get to book 1 saturday a month for a 1 hour session which basically means in 1 year, you book 12 sessions which total to 12 hours of coaching sessions for $3900.

Now does this sound like a good deal?

4. Lunch Actually Consultants are trained to give alot of excuses.

If you say you have to wait very long for matches, they say it is because they are trying to find good matches for you.

After the 1st date, you have up to 7 days which you can terminate your membership and get a refund.

But it is definetly not a 100% refund!

There will be a deduction of $550 for admin fees. If you have gone for the image workshop and/or coaching workshop there will be further deduction.

I am not sure of the exact amount of deduction but it is pretty expensive.

eg. You paid $2600 for 10 dates package. You decide to terminate after the 1st date.

You get refund of $2600 – $550 admin fees - image workshop - coaching workshop, You get just around 1k plus in refunds.

You are basically paying $550 for a 1 date with Lunch Actually!

Now, a typical speedating event that comes with lunch or dinner cost around $50.

You are better off spending your $550 to attend 10 speedating events that comes with free lunch or dinner, than to spend it on a 1 date with Lunch Actually!
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http://www.yelu.sg/company/141397/lunch-actually-esynchrony/reviews

bradpick
1.0
25 February, 2015
Do NOT join eSynchrony

1) eSynchrony may seem like a cheaper option to Lunch Actually on the surface. But it is highly possible that you may end up paying just as much or even more per date. Unlike LA packages that goes by number of dates, eSynchrony packages goes by number of months. eSynchrony packages allows unlimited dates per month. The sad truth is, other than your first date, whatever subsequent matches you have approved will NOT be coordinated for you. Since you have paid a lower amount for eSynchrony as compared to Lunch Actually, the customer service level will be lower as well. eSynchrony has an even higher shortage of staff and almost all your queries and requests will not be attended to. LA consultants will still patronize you once in a blue moon though they do not give you any dates. eSynchrony consultants go Missing In Action. After both you and the other party have mutually approved the date (which can be done through clicking a button in the eSynchrony website), just like LA, the eSynchrony consultant is suppose to coordinate a time and book a restaurant for both of you to meet up. Since the consultant goes MIA, you will end up with multiple pending dates waiting for coordination in the system for months till your package expires. Eg, you buy a 4 month package but by the end of the 4th month, you only manage to go for 1 date (with 8 dates pending for coordination). Even though you are free to go on dates, you are not able to contact the consultant to arrange for the other 8 dates during the 4 months when your membership is still active. In the end, one eSynchrony date ends up being more expensive than one Lunch Actually date.

2) Your eSynchrony profile and criteria will probably be tweaked or almost completely changed just like what will happen if you join LA. eSynchrony requires you to do a lengthy personality test where you will then be matched to other members using the computer system. You will be able to see the number of matches immediately after you finish the test. Initially, you will be able to find around 20 to 30 matches. After about 2 months, the number of matches will suddenly shoot up to 300 to 400 overnight. And strangely, you will notice that a lot of the matches are way off the criteria you had set earlier on. Eg, you had set the criteria that you are not open to someone who has been married, someone of a different race or someone much much older than you. You will somehow be matched to all these people overnight. Congratulations, you have got a wild card! You might as well join a free online dating website since eSynchrony works almost exactly like that.

3) eSynchrony buffs up their membership number by retaining the expired members in their system and also people who did not pay for their membership. You are able to sign up an account under eSynchrony and do their personality test without paying. Once completed your profile will be in the system and you will be matched to other members. However, if you didn’t pay, you will not be able to go out on dates as you will not be able to view the profiles and your dates (they can view yours). Back to what was mentioned in point 2, you will find maybe like 20 to 30 matches after doing the personality test. Then you decided to pay for membership where you did the payment online. After paying up, you will get to view all the profiles. However, if you are unlucky, more than 70% of the matches either did not pay for membership or did not renew their membership (although their profile is still in the system). Some of the rest of the 30% may be inactive members and do not log in often. So in the end, you may be left with just 1 or 2 active members whom you are not interested in.

4) eSynchrony calls up existing Lunch Actually members to join them. Possibly those under LA’s “nice or attractive members list”. If these “nice or attractive members” sign up with eSynchrony, most probably, they will end up having their profiles and/or criteria tweaked to match up with more people. If a LA existing member signs up under eSynchrony without ‘invitation’, most likely their profile/criteria will be left alone and remain the same.

5) eSynchrony consultants can go MIA either from the beginning or midway. Most of the time, you will not be able to find any consultant. If you are lucky enough to get one, the consultant will try to arrange a date for you. After you have given her your free dates, the consultant goes missing. You will be left wondering if you should still keep your dates free or make alternative plans.

If you join eSynchrony, either you will end up with no dates at all, or you will reluctantly approve dates you are not really interested in since you have already paid. The percentage of no shows for eSynchrony is also higher than for LA.

Reply by Tay on 24 October, 2016
I wish I had found this before falling victim to esynchrony scam. In my case, after signing up but before paying for membership, the site gave a false glimpse of what membership experience is like by sending seemingly good matches but of course you don't have a chance to get to know them unless you become a member. Once they trapped you, new matches also stopped being sent. The shortlisted matches from the initial list sent to me do not give an answer to my show of interest in meeting them (I suspect that they are either non-members or members that are no longer active). This is a really low and disgusting way to make a buck.
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http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/eat-drink-man-woman-16/%5Bcomplaint%5D-lunchactually-5420621-11.html

Ok, So I'm sure mine isn't the first topic on this company / program and it certainly won't be the last.

I probably will get flamed, and kicked in the groin but go easy on me please?

I signed this up after a breakup last year, proably a bad idea but couldn't it then, this was in December.

Sometime in Jan'16, I met someone amazing on my own and decided to "try and see how things work out".
Happy to say things are working really well with my girl.

Here, LunchActually plays a part.
So I signed up their package, it was 3k+, yes yes bloody expensive and after I signed it, I just tried not to think about it.

So one day they called, I just told them I found someone, well they appeared sincere enough to congratulate me.
But I told them to freeze my account until further notice.

So its been 6 months since I've been with my girl and things are pretty serious now. (I'm 31 no time to play play alrdy haha)

Dropped an email to LunchActually. Told them I wish to terminate the account. Based on agreement, they would take $800 for admin fees.

Well I found someone really special, not thru them but I was willing to not haggle over the $800.

But it takes them 6 - 8 weeks to handle a refund.

I don't know any other company that takes so long, but ok fine, maybe complex refund process.

This was on 3rd of June.

Fast forward to week beginning 27th June, 4 weeks, I did a follow up just to make sure no delays. They told me "Will follow up with you when the date gets closer", so at least I thought its already in motion.

This is the 6th week, dropped them another email and they said estimated early August.

Wtf?
Honestly I won't make a big fuss if it was a few hundred dollar refund, but we are talking 2.1k.
And right now I'm in need of the funds.

I have dropped 4 emails to the people in charge and have gotten no replies.
I have dropped an email to the [protected]@lunchactually and well no reply.

I'm frustrated and am stuck because as a consumer I can't do anything.
I feel like going to case but I'm wondering if there are others like me who suffered from poor services by them.

But as a general warning to others.

This company reeks. They are trying to sell Love and attach a big price tag to it.
I agree, the CEO must be laughing to the bank coz he's doing people a "Service".

You were warned.
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http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/eat-drink-man-woman-16/lunch-actually-non-stop-calling-can-report-dnc-violation-5502833-2.html

every week sure got calls... think its because use lunchclick app last time

i block their number... about 3 so far... but they will juz call with another office number or use handphone numbers to call