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Dating
Does Match.com work?
Match is the Coca-Cola of the internet dating industry, but will all those marketing dollars and testimonials really help you to find love?
Our Match.com Review
When it came to eradicating the stigma that used to be part and parcel of online dating, one company did more than any other. Match's brilliant marketing campaigns reassured the world that finding dates online doesn't just work, but can actually be pretty cool. Their owners, IAC Group, have made clever strategic acquisitions over the years and at this point it seems they have the traditional dating market sewn-up, injecting their money and experience from brands like College Humor, Dictionary.com, Ask and Vimeo into a whole host of innovative dating brands such as Tinder, POF and OKCupid. But the flagship company, Match, is still their most successful. Ask one hundred people to name an online dating company and you'll see what we mean.
The landing page reassures us that we've come to the right place to begin our review; the tone and imagery perfectly fits the output of their multi-million advertising spends across television, radio, newspapers, magazines, public transport, street billboards and of course, online. Match love to advertise and it clearly works for them. Front and centre of their messaging are their success stories. This reassured any visitors that the brands notoriety has come from being a great dating site and not from anything negative. The success stories have their own area on the site, with featured dating case studies and a constantly updated list of new relationships that have started on the site, sometimes with several added per day.
Before getting into features and general user experience, it's worth noting that no other singles site provides as much help for its members. The tips section for singles looking for love (known as Dating Advice) is vast in content and regularly updated. Moreover, there is a separate Blog with posts from several dating 'experts' to supplement the general internet dating guidance.
General User Experience Of Match
Something worth noting about Match.com is that membership on the site allows access to offline singles events too, adding a nice additional option to help you find love and giving members the chance to, at the very least, meet some new people in person rather than over the web.
As far as the members area is concerned, the site isn't quite as sleek and stylish as you might imagine. In fact, it's positively cluttered. But the good news is that much of the clutter comes from features, although nothing particularly mind-blowing or all that innovative. Some examples include the option to pay for invisible browsing using their 'Incognito' mode, meaning you won't trigger automatic emails to the people you are looking at and can pick and choose who gets to know you've checked them out. Similarly, there is a 'Boost' option, providing the short term highlighting of your profile in searches for a daily micropayment.
Slightly more interesting is the free personality report and compatibility tests that are available through integrated sister site 'Affinity', but any communication does require an additional upgrade. In fact, almost anything requires a payment on Match, even sending a wink to other singles that might catch your eye. The one feature that is free (aside from searching profiles) is the 'Shuffle' mode, which is a 'hot or not' style approach to getting through a bunch of members in a short space of time. Even this is hardly unique – we've seen this utilised frequently on other dating sites and it's the main premise behind another of Match's sister companies, Tinder (see our Tinder review here).
Conclusion - Is Match.com A Scam Or Worth Joining?
There's no doubt from this review that Match's online dating site remains the undisputed king of the industry, even in the face of increased competition from other singles sites. The question that we wanted to answer in our review was whether this royal status has been justly earned, or whether it is simply a byproduct that comes from having a powerful parent company with the kind of huge marketing budgets at its disposal that other online dating firms could only dream of. The truth most likely lies somewhere in between. There's no doubt that the success stories and reputation add to the feeling that you're in good hands on this site and your membership fees aren't being wasted, but there's no doubt in our minds that the leading brand in the dating world could offer more in the way of innovative features.
The bottom line is simple – if you're looking for a safe bet, Match.com is the site for you. We compared it to Coca-Cola at the start of our review, but by the end we decided that it's more like a warm cup of tea; comforting, simple and familiar but not something that's going to get your heart racing and your head spinning every time you take a drink.
As always, we suggest increasing your chances of finding a date by using more than one online dating site at any given time. Be patient, as even the best sites take time to get you dates, but be flexible too and switch sites every few months (or whenever you feel you've ran out of new singles in your area to speak to). Good luck!
Other sites in the same category
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Mingle2Day.com Visit the site -
FriendFinder.com Visit the siteAs the flagship brand for the Friend Finder Networks behemoth, FriendFinder.com has the history, user numbers and financial muscle...but does that translate to romantic results? We felt it was time to find out!
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elitesingles.com Visit the siteElite Singles claims to be a“cut above the rest”, matching intelligent people with other degree carrying smarties. Did our reviewers find it a clever bet? Or is it all brains and no personality? Read on to find out..!
Match.com reviews:
2018-11-27 02:28:39, Des (Man, 40)
I Would Recommend If You Live Near A City
Review:
TBH its worth it just for Match 'Nights' IMO. I've been out to a few of these & it's a good laugh plus its free with the online dating membership. Can't complain. Des2018-11-24 04:20:47, Bill (Man, 44)
Not bad but aint the only option out there
Review:
To many folks I know just use match, like match is online dating or sumthin. I've tried a lot of dating sites (mingle2day, cupid, okcupid, tinder, etc, etc) and trust me, match is not the be all and end all. There are plenty of internet sites that can help you find romance just as well as match can. It's one to try for sure, but I guess what im sayin is dont limit yourselves. That's my 2 cents anyway lol2018-09-08 12:40:37, J.Cook (Man, 52)
It's okay but the 'coca cola' of online dating? Bullcrap! Lol
Review:
I have tried so many better sites, many of which are reviewed here so it's worth taking some time to flick through them before going with the one you recognise from the shitty TV commercials! Lol2018-08-27 02:09:21, D-u (Man, 42)
Match 2018
Review:
I never thought I would say this but... dull. That's the word I'd use to describe Match. The new features are useless to me (especially 'Nights' – I live miles away from any cities). D-u-2018-03-19 04:13:42, Brian (Man, 43)
Match review
Review:
They say so many marriages blah blah but ive not met anyone who got married on match. And I have plenty of friends that use internet dating as their main way to meet people and start relationships. I do believe dating online is the future (maybe even the present) but we have crowned a false king – take my advice and look elsewhere. By Brian F2018-02-11 07:15:26, Tim (Man, 43)
Happy Customer
Review:
Went on my 3rd date this month last night so figured it was high time I left some good feedback. If your looking for a dating site that is always busy and you can take your time getting to know people and move at your own pace then this is the one. You log on when you want and you always have messages or people to speak to. In fact some of the time there are more than you need! Only way ill stop using it is if I meet someone and i bet if I do it will be here as im not the clubbing/ bars type.2018-02-04 07:01:08, Lillie Braudy (Woman, 84)
THE WORST OF THE WORST- NO RESPECT BY SENDING IN ELIGIBLE PERSONS. SHAME ON
Review:
I have been almost raped meeting someone in a public place; thugs grabbing me- and your site is disgusting. Why have a 20 year old fix up with a 70 year old. the site does not fix anything. Take me off forever and give me back my money for this terrible site.Today I was meeting HAL LESTOR boating guy for lunch at Skates; He emailed me at 12:00 noon to cancel ( WE WERE TO MEET AT 1:00 PM because he had a woman whom he had 3 dates with and she did not want him to go out with me. For christ's sake; lunch is only lunch and I waited 2 hours; and spent 40.00 for this Brentwood Creep to show up or call. So now he has a pussy whip woman who tells him after 2 dates - don't meet her.! The type of people MATCH attractst are either married or say they aren't and lie and bullshit ladies. I tried your site and was very definite in what I was looking for- why the hell don't people read the stuff.??. I want you to refund my money and take down my site at once. I want a refund; I should probably sue for all the toothbrushes I have thrown away while some idiots try to strong arm me and shove their filthy tongue in my mouth.2018-01-20 20:13:06, Mxxxx (Woman, 60)
Match is THE worst!
Review:
SO many fakes, I have started to suspect everyone who writes me of actually residing in a different country! I can tell by the broken English, messages that no "real" man would ever write (very sappy) and somehow they all just happen to be widowers! I think match actually likes fakes joining since it ups the amount of email/messages members receive and provokes them to join...but once you join and pay, you find out that you have only received messages from non existing people, their profiles either seem very fake or no longer exist since they have been reported to Match.com. If match really cared, they would have put a stop to the scamming imposter profiles years ago, I have been a member over the years for the last 20 years, so, what does that tell you - does match.com work?! NO, I am just not one to give up..however, there are much better free sites out there and I have wasted enough money over the years, so I am saying good bye for good to match.com. The matches that they use are terrible, I am matched with smokers (I don't smoke) and men who are in their upper 60's (I am 54 and have not retired, what could I possibly have in common and then there is also the attraction factor), etc. And don't even get me started on "Our Time" ok so men generally prefer younger women, at least when it comes to online dating, from my experience, so on Our time I could find me a 70 or 80 year old...no thanks (and no offense to the 70 and 80 year old single men out there, however you really should be dating or looking for someone closer to your age if you want to have some things in common). Anyway, if I could only put all the money I have wasted on Match.com over the years towards a charity :( since the men I have actually dated and been in relationships with were mostly from Plenty of Fish or other free sites.2018-01-15 18:27:56, PisssedOff (Man, 31)
SCAM ALERT and AWFUL user interface!!!
Review:
MATCH.COM has 2600+ COMPLAINS WITH THE OFFICE OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS!!!!!!! To begin with, Match is a SCAM!!! They block your account access 2 days B4 free trial ends, so you cannot log in to cancel b4 THEY CHARGE your credit card. Look out for a class action lawsuit over this!! THEIR SUPPORT IS UNRESPONSIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then their entire user interface is hideous, super slow and infuriating! Their messaging system is awful. It does not allow searching your mail, so if you are looking for a specific email with a specific content or keyword, you have to scroll down and open each one of your dozens or hundreds of emails to find it! Then, if you answer to one email and you go back to your inbox, their system takes you back to the top of your inbox, so you have to scroll down and keep clicking "next page" a dozen times to get to the last email you viewed. Custom searches constantly crash and you have to start all over again. It takes thousands of clicks and hours of work to do what other sites do in 20 seconds. I cannot believe there are millions of idiots paying for this trash. I bet most of them have been blocked out of their accounts, like I was, and Match keeps using their profiles to build false expectations in both potential new users and advertisers.2018-01-05 00:00:00, Christine (Woman, 59)
MATCH IS WORSE THAN A (**EDIT: Please follow our Review guidelines**) !!!! HORRIBLE SITE THEY ARE A TOTAL RIP OFF!!!! DO NOT JOIN UNLESS YOU LIKE THROWING AWAY YOUR MONEY!!!
Review:
MATCH IS A TOTAL FRAUD, DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY. I THOUGHT I'D CANCELLED UNTIL THEY TOOK MY MONEY AGAIN. I WAITED LESS THAN 24 HOURS TO CONTACT THEM AND WAS TOLD I WAS OUT OF LUCK! NO REFUND POLICY EXISTS FOR GIVING BACK ALL THE MONEY. THIS IS TOTAL BULLSHIT. THEY ARE WORSE THAN (**EDIT: Please follow our Review guidelines**). THEY (EDIT: **Please follow our Review guidelines**)THEIR OWN CLIENTS!! I GIVE THEM -5 STARS2018-01-04 18:40:44, Hannah (Woman, 42)
Total garbage - they'll take your money and provide bogus matches
Review:
I've given match.com three tries over different periods of time, and have now given them the last cent they'll ever see from me. Most of the men on the site are awful. The handful who are mildly attractive, employed and literate have actively removed African Americans as a race they're willing to date, yet I received these "matches" everyday (I'm Black). When I contacted Match they said race doesn't matter, but to these guys, apparently it does! Out of every 10 matches sent my way, no more than 1 would be even mildly reasonable. I tried to cancel my subscription, site apparently didn't process, they auto renewed then would only give me a partial refund, and refused to let me speak with a supervisor. They gave me $20 back out of the $72 I paid, even though my renewal was only charged 7 days ago, and they could see I hadn't used the account for months. They charged me more than $50 for 7 days of NONuse of an account I tried to cancel. The customer service rep's accent was difficult to understand and she didn't understand me half of the time. She was unable to answer any question that was not one of the ones for which she clearly had pre-written and well-rehearsed responses to. Additionally, I was sent multiple matches from people I knew, who confirmed they had long before canceled their accounts. The company recycles accounts that have been cancelled - You're paying for the oppotunity to meet people, but this fraudulent site sends you fake options! Match.com is all about taking your money, providing horrible customer service, using failed algorithms for providing matches, and telling tons of lies. Highly DON'T recommend.2017-12-27 17:48:55, Mark Church (Man, 65)
Beware!! Match does not take down profiles of reported scammers!
Review:
I have had 3 different people try to scam me out of money on this site with almost identical scenarios. I have reported them to Match via the report profile button that they have asked for money. Both profiles are still up and active in spite of the fact that Match could easily read their message asking me for money. Match does not care, period. I've also called them 4 times and each time they promised it would be addressed and nothing was done. It's impossible to contact their US headquarters as all calls go to the call center. They simply do not care.2017-12-13 18:47:42, Joe Stenstrom (Man, 38)
Account cancelled
Review:
After a few days on Match.com and setting up my profile I received a message from a girl that wanted to meet. When I decided to subscribe for messages I was told through the site that my account is up for review and a day later it was cancelled for some unknown reason. Of course due to the terms of use and privacy terms I wasn't able to inquire about the termination of my account. Match.com is a terrible dating app and a total waste of time!!!2017-12-04 19:24:06, Linda (Woman, 57)
Don't use this site!!!
Review:
There are no guys on this site. They won't stop billing your credit card. I had to call them several times to stop them from charging for a service I never used, they kept telling me they turned off the renewal, but didn't. I asked to speak to a manager and they refused. DON'T USE THIS SITE!!!2017-12-01 15:46:42, jaden (Man, 56)
MATCH.COM IS A RIP OFF
Review:
JOINED MATCH.COM AND SELECTED THE 6 MONTH OPTION ($131.95) MATCH TERMINATED MY CONTRACT ONLY AFTER ONE DAY AND REFUSES TO REFUND MY MONEY. DO NOT JOIN THIS ONLINE DATING SERVICE. PROFILES ARE OUT OF DATE, MOST MEMBERS ARE NO LONGER MEMBERS. WHAT A RIP OFF! STAY AWAY!2017-11-30 22:32:26, Tracey Dunham (Woman, 62)
Scam
Review:
My daughter gave me a 6 month subscription for my birthday in 2016 and since then I have had no real matches and the few matches I have gotten were all scammers trying to get money. On top of that, apparently there is an auto renewal on the account so your credit card will continue getting hit until you cancel the subscription. If you don’t notice the charge within 2 days of the auto renewal they refuse to give money back (not even a portion). Overall match.com is a scam and only has scammers on the website. I have called them and been hung up on and refused the opportunity to talk to supervisors three times today. On top of this, American Express won’t help because of the stupid auto renewal when you sign up. My daughter didn’t have access to my account to cancel the subscription or turn off the auto renewal but she also couldn’t call and have it turned off without me being on the phone even though it was a charge to her credit card. Lastly, the match guarantee is a hoax. Not only does it have to be within the first 6 months, but it isn’t a refund, instead it is another free six months so you can just feel shitty about yourself and check daily to see that you have no matches. If they really want to back their word they would offer refunds but alas they don’t. Why would I want a free 6 months after not finding anyone or having any luck for 6 months? Useless, tinder or bumble will get you more lasting and committed results than this piece of shit.2017-11-22 09:11:33, Cory (Man, 69)
Disappointed handsome gay man
Review:
I guess I am a senior who is gay, handsome and successful in business and still found no match on match.com. I did month to month subscription and no luck. I feel the majority of men to just have no substance. Just looking for sex and a good time. No one seems to know what they really want save your money it’s not worth it.2017-11-21 20:33:17, Amber (Woman, 43)
Terrible customer service
Review:
Match continue takiNguyen money out of my back account with out me knowingredients. When I ask to talk to a manager they refused to let me and huang up on me. Worst customer service ever.2017-11-19 18:35:16, Cathrine (Woman, 53)
fine for newbies
Review:
Perfectly good site if UR new to online dating, most people prob start there until they find the best for meeting singles in their local area. I used it fine for a month or two.2017-11-18 16:55:31, Carlos NYC (Man, 40)
So many members in the US so it gives you the best chance
Review:
Reviewer calls Match.com the coca cola of dating and its hard to argue. Maybe tinder comes close but you soon realize it's full of crazies. Match has the numbers and the people are mostly looking for something serious, it's as simple as that. Besides, if you really want to meet someone do you go to the busiest bar or an empty one? You do the math.2017-11-09 16:16:35, Nikki (Woman, 39)
Match.com are great at one thing scamming people!
Review:
I was looking for a dating site that wasn't surrounded with "hooking up", or the repetitive annoying dating scene, but something meaningful and classy more upscale. Being a single mother of 2 I decided to give this a try, it was a free offer why not. But with the free offer if I did not cancel within 7 days I understood my card would be billed and rebilled for continuation of services. After I entered my card I was redirected to another page through match.com and it asked if I was sure, I was still second guessing but the page refreshed and I was a member,I didn't mind it was a free trial as of 07/29/17. I read and understood that my card was NOT TO BE CHARGED UNTIL AFTER 7 DAYS OF A FREE TRIAL. This was not the case the very next day 7/30/17 the charge went thru. I noticed this on 7/31/17 and emailed to contact the company stating there must be an issue I was billed. Well when someone finally got back to me I responded promptly that I would like to cancel and get my money back. This was an on going email reply with the company until someone was like give us a call. I work 2 jobs and email was my only chance of contact, but I called on my only day off and the person was like you used this service we cannot refund you. I was like well I only used the service within the trial period, so you are telling me that you offer a trial period but if I say yes and use the service I am automatically billed? He stated yes. So I was instructed to contact my bank to see what they could do about these fraudulent charges and they opened a case. I did. But then I was told I needed to deactivate the account which I asked for not once but twice via email with the company. Well now 3 months later I am being told that I cannot find out anything from match.com until December 24th 2017!!! 5 MONTHS AFTER I ASKED FOR THIS NIGHTMARE TO BE OVER! I am furious that this company's customer service is unhelpful. There is no supervisors to talk to and I don't think my concerns reached the proper authority to handle the situation and if it did I feel sorry for the numerous other singles that have been taken advantage and mislead the way I have. Math.com is not what it says to be, I would highly recommend Tinder or Plenty of Fish over this scam of a business. The only thing I requested was to cancel services and receive my hard earned money ($59.70) back to use towards a legitimate company who doesn't prey on singles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKI93jsaPhU2017-11-05 14:23:05, Fiona (Woman, 31)
Absolute crap.
Review:
Worst dating site in the entire world. The number of real profiles would be easier to count than the fake ones. Scammers EVERYWHERE. Glitches that NEVER get fixed. Accounts hacked left and right. Oh, and your filters; forget about those. They don’t work. If you’re looking for someone without kids, Match will still send you hundreds of people with kids. If you don’t want a smoker, you’ll get them anyways. Forget about reporting anyone too. Nothing gets done. The kicker, match gets hacked so often that instead of investigating, they just block and permanently delete your profile and won’t refund your money. It was an absolute disappointment and waste of money. I suggest staying faaaaaaar away from this site.2017-11-03 01:51:46, Michelle (Woman, 60)
Waste of $$$
Review:
Around 89% of the men who write me on match are very obviously "Fakes." I can tell right away because men do not typically write or speak they way they do and they will always call you "pretty" in fact one wrote me today and here is what he wrote: "Hi pretty, do you mind for a glass of wine?" You would think they would at least learn proper English if they are going to try to scam people. I get these almost on a daily basis then I report the fake profile to match.com and then it is gone. I think Match must like the fakes because it makes people who are considering joining want to join because they can't see who their emails are from or read them until they pay...then they subscribe and they can read or see that it was not from someone from this country. If Match really didn't like the fakes, they would do something about it, this has been going on for years! I have very few fakes write me on the free websites, so what does that say? This is my last go round with Match, I have given them more than enough years to get their act together and do something to deter all the fakes. Once time I had one fake/scammer take over my profile and I became a man over night (they deleted all my photos and put up photos of men) once it was resolved, of course no man that I had been messaging with would speak to me fearing I really was a man. Of course match didn't offer me anything for my troubles. Just stick with the free sites, they are actually better than match!2017-10-22 13:43:15, Sara Lynn (Man, 43)
Dont believe the hype!
Review:
Match.com are the best example of a site that makes a lot of noise but does very little better than its competition. In other words, it's bark is far bigger than it's bite. Show me someone that says they deserve to be the best known dating site for reasons other than splashing marketing dollars and ill show you a liar. Keep your expectations minimal and hope for the best, but ill not be going back at all.2017-10-07 04:22:24, Cynthia (Woman, 62)
Match, same losers, fakes, liars and impostors
Review:
I have to say match has the worse men I've ever seen, too many players, same losers you see every single day, liars, scammers, impostors. I hate it!!!! Makes me wanna puke all over the place!2017-10-03 02:15:03, Lisa (Woman, 50)
Not happy
Review:
Umm I’ve been on match for two weeks and the guys who I’ve emailed hasn’t even read them. Not sure if theysubscribed but no one has responded back but 3 out of 19 guys. That’s weird to me. And then ask me my preference and I said black men but they still give me by daily matches with white men. Don’t understand that either. Well I guess I shall see what happens in the next couple months.2017-10-02 01:48:03, Iman Ismaaeel (Woman, 38)
Full of playboys
Review:
I’m honestly I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve tried match.com for the third time after being pulled in by their commercial of guaranteed define love2017-09-26 14:40:50, Roger (Man, 59)
Do Not Use Match (If you do, go month-to-month)
Review:
VERY DISSATISFIED CUSTOMER.... The site offers a smaller monthly rate to do more months. Not aloud a refund after wanting to canx the 1st month? They entice with a lessor monthly rate for more months, but cannot get a refund if the site is not for you and/or you find a match early. Why can't they revert the price back to the 1 month rate and refund my money for months not used? Here is a Hypothetical under their current policy. Let's say you pay for a two year rate and find a match early and want to canx. You are charged the two years for the match. Whereas if we go month-to-month on original rate. You end paying way less when you find a match or just want to quit. This is a bad business practice and needs to be reported the appropriate gov agency and write many many reviews telling folks not to use your site. and if they do please only go month to month because it will cost less in the long run. WATCH OUT............2017-09-21 03:23:37, Duke (Man, 43)
I've realized now there are better options
Review:
I remember how darn excited I was signing up to match, like many it was my first online dating experience. Unfortunately, I have found far, far better dating websites since those naïve days, where I mist have spend a fair whack on barely a sniff of a date. I guess some things just ain't all that they're cracked up to be, you know?2017-09-02 06:32:11, Samir (Man, 46)
Keep coming back so that says a lot
Review:
Met my last boyfriend on match and im a member again so that says it all I suppose!2017-08-31 02:45:17, None of ur business (Man, 47)
Dont get all the fuss about match, really dont :-(
Review:
The people ive spoken to in general have absolutely no sense of humor & unless you live in a smaller town you can find plenty of singles on any dating site. It's all too serious IMHO. It's like watching an old black & white movie – it may play fine but without color it's a lot more boring.2017-08-18 11:16:35, Joey (Man, 51)
Still one of the best
Review:
Still takes a lot to beat match, trust me ive tried other apps and sites and always come back. If you havent tried it then its a no brainer. Easy to use so dont worry about that and they offer extra value with new additions every so often, like organised match nights out and things like that. Will be interesting to see how their new crossed paths/ missed connections feature works, looking forward to trying that as I always liked using 'happn' when I first started online dating so this should be a good addition for the paid users of match.