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Great
Expectations
(Off-line
Dating Company Profile & Review)
Website: www.great-expectations.com
Price: 1 month $19.95
Membership: unknown
Company History & Summary
Great Expectations (GE) is now 30 years old--it
has been in the matchmaking business a long
time, way before the Internet and online dating.
It only began marketing via the Internet in
1998. The main way you'd find out about GE, in
terms of advertising, is by a direct mail flier,
getting a cold call by telephone, seeing some
print ads, TV commercials, and via local singles
events.
Great Expectations used to be but is no longer a
coordinated franchise system with a head office. You
cannot contact the corporate headquarters--there is
none. Each of the 54 or so physical offices located
across the nation are individually owned and
operated. There are four main ownership groups that
control the bulk of the offices. The company now
sells "licenses", but not franchises.
At one time Great
Expectations had a vibrant franchise expansion
system, but that ended with the sale to Advanta
in 1995. When Advanta left the dating business
in 1998, that ended any central corporate
headquarters.
The Program
This is still mainly an in-person (off-line)
service. The process at GE goes like this; each
member sits for a five minute video interview,
trying to look natural, likable, and attractive as
possible while nervously answering questions along
the lines of “What’s your idea of a perfect first
date?” Afterward, you are turned loose on the
library to select other members’ videos by poring
through binders full of personality profiles and
pictures of potential dates. The problem
historically has been one of overabundance - there
are dozens of binders, and they’re organized
alphabetically by first name. They also have what
is called a Platinum Service, a high tech
computer/video service.
First you select from a list of interests that you’d
like your date to share--cooking, dancing, movies,
music or indoor sports, for example. The computer
searches its memory and calls up screen after screen
of potential matches, pictures only, 12 photographs
to a screen. Touch the picture of your dream date,
and his or her written profile comes up. Touch
another button, and a 30-second, high resolution
video rolls, right there in the middle of the
computer screen.
You
can take as much time as you want reviewing the
profiles and photos of as many members as you wish.
At this point you’ll only know them by their first
name and member number. When you are interested in
learning more about a particular member, you
privately view his or her videotape. If you decide
you would like to meet someone, GE will notify them
and they will have the opportunity to see your
profile and view your tape. Only when both members
mutually consent to meet, will Great Expectations
provide you with each other’s full name and phone
numbers. You make all the decisions and choices
yourself.
To make selections even
easier and faster, many Great Expectations Centers
offer the Platinum Service where you can sort, view
and select other members through this patented
digital library service - all from one computer
screen. You can even watch their videos on the
screen. With both basic and Platinum service, once
you’ve made your selections - up to five on each
visit - GE sends a post card to each, inviting them
to come in and view your video. Only after the
selection has been reciprocated are names and phone
numbers exchanged - which happens about 30% of the
time, according to Great Expectations figures.
As for the online
services... Other dating review websites say that
setting up a profile is simple and that searching on
GE is easy, and pretty effective. It allows you a
quick search, a search of those with photos only, or
of who visited most recently. Great Expectations
allows you to search not only by town, but by
proximity to a town.
This is all for free. Getting one of the paid
memberships (at worst $19.95 for a month, down to
the price of $99 for a year) allows you more
communication options. Free memberships can only
“show interest” in others, which sends them an email
saying that you’re interested in them. Paid
memberships can email and instant message as much as
they want, and anyone can email replies to you for
free.
GE also allows a popular “connect by phone”
service, which gets you a live voice at the cost of
a one-time connection fee plus a per-minute charge.
Competitors have claimed that, as a fragmented
system whereby every office operates independently,
customers at one GE office don’t have access to the
database of another office located 50-100 miles
away. They are limited to the pool of singles in the
operating area of the office at which they signed
up. However, the owner of 9 GE offices disputes this
claim and says that database sharing has indeed been
added, via the company’s universal website ( www.great-expectations.com).
Competitors claim that
membership fees are whatever the company can get
from the customer. They strive for $1,000+, but
often have to settle for less.
Fees have not been lowered despite heavy
competition from the dating websites, and still
are in the range of $2,000 to $4,500. For the
higher price, the customer gets more personal
attention and additional features, plus a longer
membership. The "typical" customer is said to
pay $1,500 to $5,000. The company now charges
$29.95 per month, on top of their one-time fee.
GE
has added an online service, for which the customer
is charged extra on top of the usual membership fee.
Here, members may log on to see photos of members,
streaming videos, and personal profiles—the same
information they’d see if they went in to the GE
office.
GE
does get involved with independent matchmakers and
singles events organizers, such as Cupid's Coach.
Company Problems
A scan of
dating service websites via Google.com reveals some
interesting and very negative comments about Great
Expectations, by current and former sales reps,
other employees, and customers. A lot of people
don’t like this company. In fact, there is an
“Anti-Great Expectations” website for people to
anonymously reveal inside information about the
company and its high-pressure sales tactics
A single woman living in Salina, Kansas received
a call from Great Expectations telemarketers.
Since she was single and seeking a mate, she
responded. GE personnel told her to come to
their office in Wichita, and bring all her
credit cards. She did go, and met with their
sales team. She soon found that the fees would
be more than expected. The sales team later
showed up at her door, asking her for more money
and a stack of papers to sign. Unfortunately,
she did sign, and received a bill a month later.
It was for $15,000.
ABC
Action News called the GE office on this client’s
behalf, speaking to the co-owner. He claimed there
was nothing wrong with the fee, saying that the
client joined multiple dating offices,
signing up for services across the country. This
would be highly unlikely, since the client was
disabled (she has cerebral palsy) and is on a fixed
income. The owner also claimed that she agreed to
pay extra for a personal dating advisor.
When the news got out, Kansas Attorney General Phil
Kline got involved, filing a lawsuit against the
company and seeking $1 million in damages. The GE
office owner still defends his company’s practices.
Later during an interview with ABC Action News, he
agreed to refund the client for services that she
doesn’t want.
Commentary:
Does this sound like Great Expectations has
“reformed” its high pressure sales tactics that took
place several years ago? Not in
BestDietForMe.com's opinion. We’re not saying
that EVERY off-line dating service or office is
guilty of these practices, but it’s still happening,
and will continue to happen until a trade group is
formed that gets companies to adhere to a code of
ethics, or these companies go out of business.
Many dating review
sites out there only see the tip of the iceberg with
this company, reviewing their online services only.
However, when one probes deeper into the history of
this organization, one sees that it's practices have
been dubious at best. GE claims to do background
checks for its clients? Do they really? If we were
signing up and paying $1,500 or more, we'd demand to
see a copy of the report (not an unreasonable
request).
The fact that there is
no corporate "quality control" or oversight (lie a
franchise would have) bothers us. Each office is
free to do whatever the owner wants. It's kind of
like Forest Gump said in the movie: "Life is like a
box of chocolate-you never know what you're going to
get." Same applies to this company. Buyer beware. Do
your due diligence, get it in writing, and if
disputes arise, don't be afraid to bring in the
local TV station for an expose or complain to the
Better Business Bureau.
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