The Good. The Bad and The Ugly!
It is true that most of what you read on these reviews are true about Dating Site Builder. Lets start with the good news... The platform on the hosted solution, when it is working works great! Easy to use, easy to modify, and with the proper work done to it and it's built in bloging, it can be very search engine friendly.
But now the bad and the ugly... As stated over and over, technical support sucks for this company, when you do leave them aproblem on their automated complaint board, the answers that you eventully get back are like they are coming from a 8 year old. I have had many technical problems with my site when first setting it up, and it takes a TON of patience to work with them back and forth to solve the issues, some times taking weeks to have them resolve - EXTREAMLY fustrating! The good news for me, is that they did solve them.
The second issue is down time... Your going to have a lot of it. I would imagine that because the hosted solution hosts dating sites of an adult nature, that traffic can be heavy on the servers and that they probably experiance denial of service attacks. When your site is down there is nothing you can do but wait and hope that this is not the time it is going to go down for ever.
Stay away from the shopping cart they offer, it is extreamly limited and poorly functioning. If you use this site, and need a shopping cart, I recomend getting an independent cart provider. I foumd one that has excelent 24 hour, real human customer service and for $10 a month (The same amount datingsite builder charges for their cart hosting). I intergrated that cart into my web site.
Lastly, I have seen no effort to upgrade their produt. Like any company you have to stay ahead of the curb as new ideas and technilogical advances happen, you hope that they would be intergrated into the product, I have seen no evidence of this, ever.
To sum it up... The hosted plan would be a great product and service if the company was run by some one who cares. It is a shame, If they could sell the platform to the right individule, or hire some one who gives a crap, they could make this product so good that, they would increase their income more then enough to cover the person or persons that they need to update scripts, run a proper customer service department, and keep the site's uptime at 99.9%.
Wish I would have seen this forum before building an entire social site on this platform... As I write this today, my site is down again... urgggg!
(Note: I have had fairly good response with their billing provider when I have needed to cancel or ask a billing question (2 check out), this payment gateway provider seems legit, but becareful with datingsite builder... Sadly, I recomend looking for an other solution. (I hope one day they sell it to some one who cares, that some one could make a mint! - Decent product - Lousy implamintation) -

Good Luck with Them

DO NOT FALL FOR THIS SITE! SCAM

Too many negative reviews for this site so I tried it myself. I got the Dating Software but had them host it. If you want to see the real feel of this software have them host it for a month and do not spend the $99 ($100) right away. With me its a trial and error and it takes risk in starting a business.

Here is my personal review: I had my dating site running for 2 months. And I don't give a $h** if you don't like my review. People need to see real reviews not marketing reviews:
1) The templates they have are common templates that you see from other dating software companies. At first I had problems editing the templates but give yourself time and you will be able to figure it out. I did not have to use any special codes since I was able to upload almost everything from my computer to do personal changes in the template. I can change colors and items with ease. I had some help and questions though on getting items moved around from the home page. I got help from their so called tech support.
2) TEch support, http://www.live-help.com/login.php, they respond within 8 hrs. I got a feeling there might be only 2-3 people running the business including tech support but as long as they answer my questions and fix my issues I dont even care if they are 2 or 3 people only.
3) Shared Profile - sucks. Because there are a lot of spammers. Only good if you want to show off that you have a lot of members but later on your personal members will realize that your site is being shared. There are alot of dead profiles. Not recommended.
4) Hosted site - before I got the hosted plan I asked the the customer support if I can transfer my site to my own server when I decided in the future, the CSR said YES. And guess what after I got it and asked again, tech support said I CAN NOT move the site to my own server.
4) Payment - when I cancelled the site the tech support said they will cancel it within 5 days. Why? I dont know. AFter 5 days i got another invoice from 2CO for the recurring subscription. My advise call 2CO right away if you want to cancel your subscription and no questions ask.

Overall I only recommend this site if you are starting and want to try the waters on the dating business if it is really for you. The hosted plan is affordable and very less issues. Do not get the software for the $99 until you are pretty sure that you know about codes and have studied the software. Get the hosted plan and check it out yourself. I hope this review helps.

THEY ARE THIEVES KEEP AWAY FROM THEM... This is what i have wrote in their ticket

Now i have enrolled in your site with marrypal.com for premium package. And i thought you will be buy the domain for me, and you never gave me an answer for that and now when i wanted to buy the domain, i found that your site bought my site? So you bought it for me or your selves. Is that scam? Here are the details

Registered through: Domain Name Registration
Domain Name: MARRYPAL.COM
Created on: 03-Mar-12
Expires on: 03-Mar-13
Last Updated on: 03-Mar-12

Administrative Contact:
Lim, johnny *******@datingsitebuilder.com
1408 strathmore mews
Vancouver, British Columbia v6z3a9
Canada
*******360

Technical Contact:
Lim, johnny *******@datingsitebuilder.com
1408 strathmore mews
Vancouver, British Columbia v6z3a9
Canada
*******360

Is that ethical?

My site name is expatpal, user name samehhassan
Order id: *******675
As im in the first 30 days.
I want refund for Subscription fees. I know you will not refund set up fees.
Thanks
Sameh

[Response ID: *******] Mike 2012-03-03 07:43:21
Hello,

If cancellation is made during the first seven days free trial. For monthly subscribers, first month's subscription fee will be refunded. For payment terms longer than monthly, first month's subscription fee will be charged. All setup fees are not refundable under any conditions. No refund can be given for all orders over seven days under any conditions even if member did not use the service for any reasons. Member is responsible to pay the subscription fee on time according to the subscription term once member subscribed to a service.

Thanks

[Response ID: *******] expatpal 2012-03-03 12:24:06
You never mentioned any thing about 7 days in your site, you said money back guarantee, check your own site. So i have nothing to impose on you, just cancel my account, send me refund.

[Response ID: *******] David 2012-03-03 15:49:17
Hello,

I am working on your cancellation request please allow me for sometime, cancellation process can take 4 to 6 working days. I will update you once your account is cancel and closed.

Thanks

[Response ID: *******] expatpal 2012-03-14 03:55:10
I think the account should be cancelled by now... email me.

Please note that when i asked for refund in 3/3/2012 they bought marrypal.com which i first entered in the site to buy for me... then i went and i bought expatpal.com thanks god i bought it earlier. Well i asked them to make me site like hongkongcubid.com which they mention in their site that they do it... after i paid they said after some time no we can only give you the feeling of it,, wow... so i asked for refund,,, then say said no 7 days passed,, you can't ask for refund,,, and they bought the site i intended to buy... what a scam...

I was going to buy also but not now thanks

WARNING. DO NOT USE THIS SITE SYSTEM!
1.)BUGS IN SITE: My site is down more than its been up due to the bugs in their system (with out warning/no communication) so you can't work on your own site even though you have paid them for it, costing you more money.

2.)CUSTOMER SERVICE IS BEYOND BAD: Dating Site Builder are very inconsiderate regarding their customer service as it is impossible to get an educated response to your questions, its like talking to a 14 year old at times. It can take weeks to get a response, sometimes you don't get one at all!

3.)PAYMENTS: Dating Site Builder has absolutely no communications regarding the payments you are making to them or need to be make. Your account is dinged for the amount owed but you have no idea when this will happen. When you ask them about seeing your payment/account they say check your bank statement. So you don't know what your paying for or when! They do NOT communicate with you about their payment system regardless.

4.)BEWARE -BEWARE: NOW/currently at this moment in time all the work I have done on my site is gone... as when I type in my domain name(which I bought from GO Daddy and own personally)into Google (after all the hard work of getting my site submitted to the search engines, directories, twitter, facebook, etc which I did myself even tho I paid them to do this) my site is actually beginning to collect users and make me money... its not my site, it is NOW being cloaked by someone elses site(FISHERS DATING)... & my site is NOT there, the name of my site is but Dating Site Builders are using my SEO work as their own. If you googled my business name it pops up then if you click to enter my site a different site pops up owned by Dating Site Builder ( I have the screen shot). Dating Site Builder cloaked my site with theirs because I refused to pay them until I got some of my questions answered especially about their billing and my payments. Dating Site Builders have my email address and use it continuously send me updates on new templates but yet can't communicate regarding problems or payment history's, etc. Something that is a basic fundamental to all businesses. Wouldnt you agree?

I refuse to pay them until I get some answers. Dating Site Builders need to remove FISHERS DATING off my domain name & SEO. If Dating Site Builders worked as hard on their site and customer satisfaction/service, billing process and communications as they do on making new templates this would be a fairly nice site but it leaves a lot to be desired in the professional field.

My suggestions is DO NOT USE DATING SITE BUILDER EVER! They take your money and the rest is a joke!

STAY AWAY.
I have given them the benefit of the doubt and after reading hundreds of negative reviews I thought "let me give them a shot maybe it's not that bad"
I WAS WRONG. IT'S WORSE.
At first their support is friendly when you are a new customer yes.
But as soon as you start paying money and find issues with support or software,
They turn into the worst company I've ever seen in my entire life.
When things get to heated for them to handle they will block you from live chat and it will just keep saying "this service is not available". And I didn't even swear at them nothing. I was just pressing for answers and solutions...
Live Chat will most of the time just say "email admin" or "submit a ticket" that's it.
Then you have to wait an entire day just for a one or 2 vague answer that does not solve anything and just create more confusion.
DatingSiteBuilder is run by a bunch of Chinese people who can't speak English and most of the time will misunderstand you and create even more problems.
They do try. There is a support guy with the name Brandon he is nice and he tries to make a difference, but it only goes up to a certain point then that's it "admin has to do the rest" which they don't!
They don't offer a demo - USE SOME BRAINS - why do you think that is? Hmm?
Any person who do not offer a demo has something to hide and they definitely do.
I custom designed my own template for my sites and took my custom design fee of $450 for 3 sites and after first tolding me "your site is 50% completed" and I started asking for some samples or progress reports they said "what you require is not possible due to system incompatibility".
DONT CONTACT THEM FOR A REFUND. CONTACT PAYPAL OR 2CO DIRECTLY. It's the only way you will get your refund.
I have sent numerous emails and never got any reply on them.
I made numerous suggestions to improve their customer service and all was ignored.
Live support is just there for the show. "hey look we are here for you 24/7 and our compeditors are not" that's bull. Once you experience a serious problem or want solutions they will only say "submit a ticket" or "there is nothing i can do".
DONT FALL FOR THE GOOD REVIEWS YOU READ ABOUT THEM IT'S ALL FAKE AND POSTED BY THEM. Unless that person can give a link to their site and give you contact details, etc it's fabricated by them to "cover their butts".
Also they claim to give UNLIMITED bandwidth. This is not true either. The Enterprise package isn't even on a dedicated server. Once you use more than a % of the server's total capability then you will be going over the "unlimited" price.
I have asked them about this and they responded "nothing really is unlimited isn't it?" At this point they don't offer dedicated servers so you will be stuck with all the other customers on the same SLOW server that is more down than it's live.
Ask yourself. If the customer service is so bad how bad would the software and hosting be? EXACTLY.
If you go for shared profiles then remember you won't just get profiles on your site. All your members that join your site will be shared with other sites. This means even though you run a social site they can pop up on an adult site. This has happend. You can't protect your member's privacy. They will be contacted by the internal mail system (if it's working at that stage) with hundreds of spam messages. I have received messages from people from nigeria, philapenes, etc all perverted and broken English. Also even though you choose to only show "social" profiles on your site it may happen that adult profiles get listed on your site because they have no control over new profiles listed within their network.
IF YOU WANT TO RUN A SUCCESSFUL PROFESSIONAL SITE, DO NO AND I REPEAT - DO NOT - USE DATINGSITEBUILDER!. You WILL regret it I give you my word.

If you are looking to ADD Profiles to your dating site RUN! Far from this garbage company! They have no profiles and just a bunch of garbage material. You will end up with a headache-they say they have thousands of profiles-that is a lie. Save your money and run! Do not use their dating software it is garbage I tried it in 2008 and gave up, I thought they matured as a company by now but I was so wrong! Spend a little more and get Skadate. My dating site christiansdatefree.com began with them and they are stellar. Great customer support and supper products! DatingSite builder should be reported to the FTC!

Ticket Detail
Ticket ID *******
Status Pending
Department Support

No profile on my dating site after upload of file
2011-01-07 02:55:18
Username:
E-mail:

Using File Zilla I uploaded the profile files I downloaded to /public_html folder and there are no profile showing up on my website www.christiansdatefree.com. Can you please assist me.

FTP info:

FTP user name: removed
Password: removed

Server IP removed

Michelle

Ken 2011-01-07 03:16:29
Hello,

We have received your request and will update you soon.

Thanks.

2011-01-07 03:21:49
Thank you Ken, looking forward.

Ken 2011-01-07 04:24:21
Hello,

We have checked on your site's Quick search page and found that there are results produced on searching for Male seeking Female and full age range. Please refer the screen shot for more details.

Thanks.
Attachment: searchresult. Jpg

2011-01-07 04:45:52
Ken! These are me and my friends. I paid for 10,000 profile. Will these ever be available or is this a scam?

2011-01-07 06:43:55
Hi Support,

Can you please provide me with the status of my ticket and an approximate time for completion.

I am very disappointed at your misleading information on the website which states this could be done in 15 min. To later have you return over 1 hr later to tell me that are seeing 3 profiles on my site. Which are none of yours but profiles of me and friends as we test the site.

I am now really concerned that you may not have profiles or as much s 10,000 since you thought 3 was sufficient.

Please escalate to a supervisor for review and advise if this will be possible or not. Or if this ticket is even being attended to carefully.

Thank you,

Michelle

Ken 2011-01-07 06:56:28
Hello,

We are working on this and will update you soon.

Thanks.

Ken 2011-01-07 07:17:29
Hello,

We have fixed the profiles issue and now on the link: http://christiansdatefree.com/sample.php

Searching with your requirements you will get all required results. For any more... please update us.

Thanks.

2011-01-07 07:50:46
Can you please tell me when my customers search, how will they find the member on http://christiansdatefree.com/sample.phh

The reason I paid for the profiles is to have them integrated into the members area NOT sample. So that when my members search they will see members online.

2011-01-07 08:15:07
Please remove this profile data from MY FTP. Please be careful not to cause any damage to my website. I am happy this garbage was no integrated into my website members' area.

Please see attached search results.

1. I get an xml error when I click on the profile
2. The profiles are fake and not real
3. I am unable to contact anyone on the profiles-no contact info
4. I requested Christians and I got Atheist and Agnostics!

Garbage. I need my money back and I am going to report this site to the FTC. You cannot rob Americans of their money and give them garbage. You have false advertising. Yuck!
Attachment: junkfromprofilenetwork. Docx