Ed B.

I've tried a ton of free dating apps for a while and toyed with using a paid site to see if the experience would be any better. I registered with Match for free, they'd send regular email matches and I began favouriting them as a free subscriber.

After a couple of months I decided to fork out for a subscription, with the minimum three month commitment. I went to my favourites page to start messaging some people and to my alarm every single one of them wasn't an active user. Obviously Match don't make this clear as a free subscriber. Whether these are genuine former users or fake users Match make up I don't know, but of the active available users were not one was of the calibre I'm interested in dating. Clearly match.com and I have very different values.

Obviously I spoke to customer services the next day. Obviously they flatly refused to refund even part of the $90 I've paid for three months of service I'm not interested in using. Sounds like I'm not the only person who's had this experience. The Better Business Bureau has revoked their accreditation and given the business and F rating because of over 450 unanswered complaints about their billing policies. (Google it: I can't post a link here.)

My advice - search online for a three-day trial offer before you consider giving these people any money. Maybe you'll connect with the people on the site in a way I didn't, but at least you'll know before you hand over any money. Alternatively, get yourself to a bar, start meeting people in real life and spend that $90 you'll have saved on a great night out.