Colin N.’s Reviews of Roommates.com & more

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Roommates.com

Roommate

“Bait and switch”

11/1/15

Advertising with the word 'free' then waiting until someone receives a message to tell them they have to PAY to be able to read them is dishonest. It is sprung on you as a complete surprise. If you're going to charge to use your site, be up front and honest about it.

You can't throw the word 'free' at people, then put a paywall on a function of that site that renders it completely useless without paying for it.

All this does is make me suspect the overwhelming majority of your users are abandoned profiles that never paid the fee. You don't even have an indicator on profiles of whether or not someone is subscribed!

They have responded, and I'd like to add a rebuttal to two more things they added:

"The most common ways are to send contact information within emails to other users and post contact information within profile descriptions for other users to see."

* Only paying users can view comments on profiles

* I will reiterate that you cannot view a message unless you pay for a subscription.

* They also do not allow you to choose the subject line of the message you send, so you can't put your e-mail in the subject line either.

You're trying to tell me that I can circumvent the requirement to pay for your site, yet none of the things you cited as a method of circumventing payment would actually do that.

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Customer-Support -. – Roommates.com Rep Over a year old

Hello,

This is Roommates.com Customer Support.

I am sorry to hear about your dissatisfaction with Roommates.com as well as the fact that you feel misled by the website with regard to the upgraded memberships. Please understand that is not our intention.

When you go to the Roommates.com website under the More Info tab, you will find the Frequently Asked Questions page. On this page you will find information on how the site works with the free membership and the upgraded membership, along with the membership cost options.

When we started this service, we designed the site so that people are able to utilize the website without purchasing a membership and many of our users have successfully found roommates this way. The most common ways are to send contact information within emails to other users and post contact information within profile descriptions for other users to see. So while it is true that without having a paid membership you do not have the benefit of being able to read Roommates.com emails that you receive, you do still have the opportunity to achieve your goals while utilizing the free portions of the site.

The site doesn't have a notification showing who is upgraded at this time, but we appreciate the suggestion and will keep it in mind for future site improvements.

If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact our Customer Support through the website and we will be happy to assist you.

Roommates.com Customer Support
support@roommates.com