Berkeley International

I have been presented with a truly unrealistic dream of finding a compatible partner. As a widow who has mostly been single for the past ten years, I have not found a suitable match despite being relatively young. During a meeting at Berkeley's offices in Belgium, I had a conversation with one of the executives who shared a beautiful story about how she met her current husband through Berkeley. She subsequently joined the team, as a success story... She assured me with comforting statements like 'I'll be here for you until you find someone' and 'We are dedicated to your success.' However, after a year of investing a significant amount of money, I can confidently say that this experience has been utterly disappointing.

1. The service provided was far from what was promised. I had to constantly email them to inquire about the next match, and their communication was unacceptably slow compared to their initial responsiveness before I signed up. The executive (who was behind me all the time before I paid the fee) was unreachable and did nothing to fulfill her promise.

2. The promise does not live up to its advertised claims! There is a severe gender imbalance, with significantly fewer men than women. Some of the men I encountered even confirmed this, sharing how frequently they were contacted to assess their past dates and to explore alternative matches. Surprisingly, I have never been presented with such opportunities in the entire year.

3. While I cannot provide insights from the perspective of a male customer, I was taken aback to discover that the men in Berkeley's database, despite having established careers, would struggle to find partners on their own. Their brochure and website depict gorgeous men (and women) which can be seen as a marketing "normal", but the reality should not be THAT different.

In conclusion: definitely NOT recommended, unless you make 150k a year and you do not count on it as an actual possibility of meeting someone.

I am also expecting a reply saying "We do not recognise who you are." but I have all the email exchanges so I can always prove I was a member.

I am happy to give any other details if needed.

Well actually the website is impressive - it looks the real package that you are actually going to get a truly personal service of a company that will actually listen to your requests, what you are seeking, who you would like to meet and that they will really make an effort to find you some realistic matches.
HA HA... Really? Err - No.
The person that interviews you and gets your hopes up disappears into the background and you are then passed to people who have never met you, have one photo of you (who ever looks good/real/true to life in a snapshot?!) and a written paragraph of your life. Does that really get across the person you are? Your personality? Who is your ideal match? No. Equally they have never (usually) met the person they then introduce to you. It seems to take them forever to come up with a suggestion of a 'match' (obviously do not have enough people on their books) and then you are presented with a few lines of who they think you are suited to.
No matter how many times after meeting people and giving lengthy feedback on the suitability of the person, ie trying to build up a picture of the type of person you are actually after, the next one put forward bares no resemblance to your requests.
Very expensive for the service you get - I haven't heard many success stories. Try Tinder instead...

The worse experience ever. I want to share my experience and warn others against signing up with this company. They told me things which I later found out we're not true • Company claims: At my initial meeting, the company rep that stated that I could expect about 1-2 introductions a month that didn't happened. I had only 5 profiles given to me in 8 months. I have emails evidence showing that they ignored pretty much everything I said. They just play and have no man to introduce to you. When I complained they made me feel that it was my fault because I was ugly they even told me the client didnt wanted to talk to you because of your profile picture on whatchapp but we didnt tell you for you not to feel bad a totally joke because i dont have a whatchapp photo. They are just bad very bad

Speaking factually about my experience; in my late 20s I paid £3000 for membership for 12 introductions with the option to take up to 12 months break at any time. I had 4 introductions and almost another which unfortunately didn't materialise due to work commitments. Then I met my now husband of my own accord and asked for the 12 month break. By the end of the break period I was engaged and asked for some of my money back. They replied with a "No, but congratulations!" email. I looked over the contract and accepted that I was gullible enough to sign it and chalked it up to life experience. However, potential joiners should know that they are the type of business who feel justified in keeping your total sum of money for potentially a tiny amount of work they will do.

Here's a more detailed review I saw in the FT, also highlighting their upfront payment hustling. Why don't they charge monthly or quarterly subscriptions? Why do they insist on full payment immediately on joining? I never thought of myself as a ‘mark' until I read this:

‘Best of Money: single, dating and paying a very high price for it'
https://www.ft.com/content/8f1ea67a-e168-11e5-8d9b-e88a2a*******