Meetup

I am an organizer and pay this site every six months. We as a group have had great experiences in the past, but the site is now SO buggy. The last two events I have schedule theres been major bugs/impediments to creating events, announcing events, posting photos - real basic stuff. I hope customer service responds this time, because if not, I'll have to find another platform. My co-organizer has been able to announce events, but does occasionally have problems too - this wouldn't be a problem if customer service were reliable.

This is a local website (has branches in many US cities). There are groups for people of all ages and hobbies, and just about any interest. Each group has their own page, photos, and message boards. I believe it's just about as safe as anything on the internet these days. There are regular activities and people meet in homes, restaurants, clubs, and at outdoor events. People get to know each other in person. It's also nice because at the holidays, which can be lonely for some, there are always get togethers.

I was a member of several meetup groups. When they started political activism I deleted my account and figured I could find similar groups on different platforms. Then I started reading all the horrible things unrelated to politics, about this company. Basically this is my perception now of the company: someone had a great idea, got some funding, created a huge platform. Company greedy, arrogant and basically got a "god complex". Meetup: you aren't god, you're too big for your britches, people recognize your company and ethics are the embodiment of evil, and now they have left you in droves. Eat my dust, too.

Used to be great at finding new events and groups. Now I can't find anything. Even when I know there's a group or event that exists, it doesn't show up in any search that I use. Dates are all over the place instead of in chronological order. I put in my area for a search and it comes up with other states! I'm missing so many opportunities it's so disappointing that they kept changing what wasn't broken and made it a useless social site. Very non-user friendly. And not one single event comes up in a search que that matches any of my dozens of interest categories.

I organized a Meetup, and started to get folks joining the group. Every time I went to welcome a new member, I would get an error message indicating that I was not authorized to send messages to group members. I started getting messages for 'Joe'. My name is Dean. Somehow they got the wires crossed, and I was not able to organize meetings, reply to questions, or use any other organizer functions. I tried calling a customer service number that I found on the internet. It was a recording directing everyone to the website/email support. They do not answer emails directly, but instead send you a list of FAQs as answers. I had my credit card company reverse the charges and disbanded the group.

I don't get all the bad reviews? I agree when I was in Canada some of the groups charged for events, but most didn't. In Australia, none of my groups charge for events unless the event costs money, eg a ticket to something. You just get to go, meet awesome people and my social life has now expanded. In some cases we get to go and get free stuff. As a woman, you have to be careful of the weekend events that creepy older men treat as dating events though. Go to girls nights and groups for people who've just moved to the city. I've made so many friends through meetup.

Ive had experiences with meetup too! First they charge a lot to start a group but also they took away all my members when I wanted to charge monthly fees and charge my members the monthly fee only if they decided to attend a meetup, but they changed that! Now my pending members were all deleted and I would have to contact all them one by one! It's horrible only left with less than 100 members when I had over 1000! Meetup really does not want us to have members! They are greedy! Hopefully they will change it back to where it was or I may be leaving meetup for something better!

Organizer has not held event for over nine months. She has received everyone's dues and then sends out emails that she is too busy to plan events. SCAM ALERT - this is just to get $$$ from dues with no events. There should be some type of audit to check that an Organizer is really doing what she says that her group does on her "meetup page" against the large volume of $$$ that she takes in from several hundred members! Sarbanes-Oxley

I wouldn't run a group on this site now even if it were free it is so crap. A million and one tech issues and no customer service you just spend weeks talking to people who would be better off pretending they are bots than admitting they are real people which I am still not sure if they are. If they are they must be purposefully trying to sabotage people from complaining as no one can be THAT stupid. Each online only "customer service" representative is more gormless than the last and they have less access to the Meet up site than even you do making them completely pointless. Even after a month of dealing with them your issue will be nowhere near resolved and they will be asking you the most stupid questions and making you jump through hoops. Avoid at all costs

I've been a Meetup organizer for 4 years. I've started several free groups. People need to realize that they are dealing with human beings on 3 levels. 1. Meetup New York. 2. The group organizers. 3. The members. Most organizers are good people who work without pay. Most members are good people too, but expect to run into anything. Never carpool with someone you don't know well. If Meetup members didn't love their groups they wouldn't stay in them for years, and that's the bottom line.

My whole social circle are Meet Up friends.

Activity meet up groups are great... especially relating to nature and hiking. These are the two most popular groups in my city. The dance groups are also going strong... both lessons and meeting together at a club. The huge decline has been in general social groups... also dating groups are now dead (never were popular). Tons of singles have paired up doing specific activities ( hiking, etc) rather than 'dating'.

Bottom line... it's all about the organizer. How does he/she welcome newbies, keep people enthused, organize events, etc.