• SpeedDater

Overview

SpeedDater has a rating of 3.06 stars from 86 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally satisfied with their purchases. Reviewers satisfied with SpeedDater most frequently mention great fun, and new people. SpeedDater ranks 48th among Dating sites.

  • Service
    6
  • Value
    6
  • Quality
    6

This company does not typically respond to reviews

What reviewers want you to know

Positive highlights

No positive highlights yet

Critical highlights

  • Paid for a singles party with Speeddater in London and a speed dating event.
  • The Speed Dater people haven't responded to my emails and don't seem to care about the problem.
How would you rate SpeedDater?
Top Positive Review

“Great people”

Rebecca G.
4/12/22

Really great people this time. It got VERY loud after though and one girl was clearly very uncomfortable having to shout.

Top Critical Review

“Hi”

Daphne W.
2/23/23

What inadequate people sit on your site, there is nothing positive in them only negativity. I will never get acquainted with anyone through your site again.

Reviews (86)

Rating

Timeframe

Other

Reviews that mention popular keywords

event (40) people (24) customer service (7)
Thumbnail of user daphnew89
1 review
0 helpful votes
February 23rd, 2023

What inadequate people sit on your site, there is nothing positive in them only negativity. I will never get acquainted with anyone through your site again.

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user ls489
1 review
0 helpful votes
August 28th, 2020

Terrible service and rubbish refunds policy - would give 0 stars if possible! Cancelled in good time and they refuse to refund event price.

Thumbnail of user alisonf37
1 review
0 helpful votes
October 10th, 2018

Awful awful. Take ur money... hardly any guys there amidst too many women... ages not properly given and after service crap... can never get put through to customer services it plays crap music and then eventually just cuts you off! I would honestly find a better dating company vis these are thieves. Wouldn't have given 1 star if didn't have to

Thumbnail of user taynord
1 review
5 helpful votes
July 15th, 2019

It's probably legal and in their terms and conditions, but if you go to a single event, they will actually sign you up for a recurring monthly bill of £24.99. They are a disgustingly sneaky in this and you probably wont get your money back, but definitely drop them immediately.

Tip for consumers:
Log in to your account and make sure you are not signed up for a recurring membership charge. It is NOT explicit... If you have a 'platinum' membership, then you WILL be charged after the 'free' trail month.

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user sarac285
1 review
0 helpful votes
March 11th, 2020

I attended a speed dating evening event tonight only to find nobody else there. Nobody bothered to phone, text, email, WhatsApp, messenger, write, or FB me to let me know. Furious. When I phoned to find out what was going on, I was told I wasn't on the list and had been taken off it. I hadn't asked to be taken off and had already received confirmation I was on the list. I am left £120 out of pocket for the work I cancelled to make myself free for the evening and arrive on time; I also cancelled my regular sports session for this evening. Reading is just over half an hour's drive from my home and it takes a while to park there. If you also consider reaching the venue from the parking spot, you will appreciate an hour and a half to two hours tonight were spent getting to and from on an event that didn't happen.
On the chat facility online, Nicole was pretty useless, simply refunding me the amount paid and was completely disinterested in giving me any compensation: she simply kept asking what else she could do for me. Some compassion, intelligence and suitable offer was expected but apparently too much to ask.
I understand that if I do not attend an event, I forfeit the amount paid, yet this company do not reciprocate if they make an error. Scandalous. Do not use this company: they are disorganised and apathetic to the customers they are supposed to be helping. 'Slow dating' are better.

Thumbnail of user keithw264
1 review
1 helpful vote
May 3rd, 2019

I paid for speedating in liverpool in april it got moved to july?
Then i get subscription of 24.99 do i have basically paid 50 pounds and not even been to one event, total rip off, now i have hassle to unsubscribe, but i lost 50 pounds.
So if they doing this to everyone they making lots money for doing nothing.

Thumbnail of user peymana2
1 review
4 helpful votes
April 11th, 2017

I signed up and thankfully didn't pay a penny. Immediately I started receiving messages about gorgeous women who had "winked" at me. Oddly enough they were all from the same town: Gosport. Now, either the ration of females to males in Gosport is so uneven or this is a scam. Having read some reviews about Speeddater, it all made sense. I am staying well away.

Thumbnail of user michaelf157
1 review
9 helpful votes
May 26th, 2016

I went to a speed dating event recently in central London and left after an hour. Really disappointed with it. Half the women didn't even live in London (one was actually on holiday from America), most were overweight, and very few were professionals (one woman talked non stop about nandos). The rounds to chat to people are only 3 minutes which is far too short.

The bar itself is dire (its changed its name to Forge but used to be Apt). It was an utter waste of time.

Thumbnail of user graisonh
1 review
1 helpful vote
August 29th, 2019

You sign up for one event and then you automatically become a member. This means in one month you are charged £25. So one speed dating event cost me £45!

Thumbnail of user miket549
1 review
1 helpful vote
August 28th, 2019

Went to an event that i paid £9 for. Lovely attendees but host was awful. I never liked anybody there enough to "tick" so that meant i got a free follow on event. The follow on event wasn't listed on their website yet so i had to wait until it was listed as when closing account, got message to say wont be able to use the credit.

Then a month later i get bank notification to say £25 taken from my account for a subscription to their awful dating site fo a month. Now the membership on their site had around 40 people on it. I wouldn't even call it a dating site! Contacted customer service who basically laughed in my face and emaile dme screen shots of where i had agreed to their T&Cs (which in small print say i also agree to subscribe to their rip-off dating site! On auto-renew!)

Dishonest firm - and like others have said, they don't have a conscience!

If you go to a single event, they will actually sign you up for a recurring monthly bill of £24.99. They are a disgustingly sneaky in this and you probably wont get your money back, but definitely drop them immediately.

Tip for consumers:
Tip for consumers: Log in to your account and make sure you are not signed up for a recurring membership charge. It is NOT explicit... If you have a 'platinum' membership, then you WILL be charged after the 'free' trail month.

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user sharonl262
1 review
1 helpful vote
November 22nd, 2018

Where is my refund I was told I would get back from the host as the event I attended did not have enough people turn up to make up equal numbers, every time I try ringing the number in Edinburgh no one answers, If I do not get my refund I will so shame SpeedDater.co.uk on every media website there is

Thumbnail of user ianj29
1 review
2 helpful votes
March 18th, 2018

The speed dating events themselves are fine but the website is designed purely to con you. It automatically enrolls you to the website at £25 per month. To stop subscribing you have to go through several layers on the site to find the button which then sends you a code. Previously this worked fine but recently that code then cant be input anywhere so the only options are to delete your account or phone them.

If you are not signed up to the website you get constant messages, pokes, winks etc from people wanting to talk etc from fake profiles. As soon as you are signed up you do not receive a single one.

Each time you go to a speed dating event it resigns you up for the website even if you unsubscribed previously. I had a long argument with the staff about this and thankfully did get a refund but I would not recommend this site to anyone. Sure go speed dating but never accept the "free" month.

Thumbnail of user davids1893
1 review
0 helpful votes
October 30th, 2018

My event was in Manchester and it was overall a pretty poor event. For £20 I expect tables that don't wobble and chairs that are of a similar height! It was just so shoddily put together. The host herself was fine but she could have at least made the room comfortable. Some people were cramped in a corner and some were sat on the edge of a small wall table.

The website is horrible. They make it so hard to cancel your membership to their terrible dating service:

You need to go to the bottom of your account page, click on a small, hard to read bit of text, then click cancel membership, then you receive an email code that 'you need to enter next time you log into the site'! Well I couldn't find anywhere to put this cancellation code! And I wasn't asked for it.

Eventually I just had to delete my account.

Besides all this the people participating in the event, both men and women, were very friendly, but I don't need to pay £20 to meet friendly people in a clumsy, cramped, uncomfortable environment.

Thumbnail of user geraldl37
1 review
3 helpful votes
March 27th, 2017

In just a few days I got like 50 emails and as many chat messages, obviously from scammers (unless 22 years old models are suddenly finding me attractive). The event was less than average - 3 min 30 sec to get to know someone is not enough and we just exchanged boring information like job or such. For all I know half of the girls there were scammers too anyway.

Also think carefully about what their "80% get at least one match" mean. It's fair to assume that 100% of women at these events get at least one match (unless there's some really big problem with them), so that's only 60% of men that get at least a match. And that still seems quite high, most likely speeddater is twisting the numbers further and really less than half of men get a match.

Thumbnail of user balbinderd
1 review
11 helpful votes
January 29th, 2016

Event the speed dating event are a SCAM. They hire pole dancer to pose as fake singles. They lie about what they do and tell you they will tick you yet you never hear of them again.
I googled the picture for one of the people and saw her "acting/modelling" profile.

What a CON... AVAOID THESE Guys at all costs.

Thumbnail of user nigellat
1 review
23 helpful votes
March 14th, 2015

Paid for a singles party with Speeddater in London and a speed dating event. There were very few people and the guys were really dodgy and desperate.
I logged in on their website and they charged me the following months for a subscription I never intended to sign up for. I tried to get my money back and they claimed that I had accepted their "terms and conditions"
I ended up calling my bank and canceling my card to stop the monthly billing.

Thumbnail of user alexb143
1 review
11 helpful votes
February 16th, 2016

I've been to a couple of the events and they have been fun. However the website is unusable as a dating site as it is full of scammers and webcam girls looking for business. The Speed Dater people haven't responded to my emails and don't seem to care about the problem. Don't pay for access to the website, go along to the event and get a telephone number from the person you like. Waste of time and money on the website.

Thumbnail of user bapp6
1 review
5 helpful votes
August 15th, 2017

Deceptively offer free membership when you sign for one of their events, this then renews deceptively to a monthly charge (not DD or standing order, all done from the original visa payment). I only spotted this after four months and after explaining that this was deceptive and illegal, received a partial refund but this was protracted, difficult and made more so by this company, who hide away the cancellation option on their website, requiring confirmation codes, emails etc.

That's without mentioning the scam emails, fake profiles and low turnout at the event, essentially paying £20 for a host and spot in a bar which they surely get free

Avoid avoid avoid these illegitmate scamming liars

Thumbnail of user paulc639
1 review
0 helpful votes
September 5th, 2018

The contact numbers on the site don't work when i call to cancel my membership. I tried to cancel my subscription using the sites instructions but instead of actually canceling my membership they've sent me a massage saying they're going to send me a code some time soon but not yet, that i have to do something with. What a load of toss. I'm going to go to my bank and make sure they can't rob me. It is clearly there intention to rob me. If it wasn't they'd happily cancel my subscription. I've found myself in a scrap with some thieves for my cash. Thankfully my banks going to win this one for me because I'm taking the necessary action early enough against this scummy outfit.

Thumbnail of user barbarak118
1 review
0 helpful votes
April 10th, 2018

Stealing money, automatically putting you on subscription and charging 24.99 GBP from your bank account every month!

Thumbnail of user ag521
1 review
22 helpful votes
February 7th, 2014

Watch out for the scam:

You can only see your "matches" after the event when you go online, the service is for 1 month free and automatically they will enroll you on a monthly payment fee of £19.98. When you call to complain they already now what the story is and the scam so they will tell you it was on the T&C and will be ready to cancel your subscription straight away.

A band of thieves for average events

Thumbnail of user anthonyc360
1 review
1 helpful vote
October 10th, 2018

Paid for a speedating event. Wasn't told the location but would be told on day. On the day of event surprisingly got cancelled. Been trying customer service for a refund and surprise no answer. Stay away!

Thumbnail of user johns1696
1 review
3 helpful votes
April 7th, 2017

Went on a speedating event to find that they had only sold 4 female tickets and 10 male...(even thou they claim a 50/50 split)... was told that i could get a free ticket for another event but will be charged £5 for the privalege... absolute rubbish

Thumbnail of user jessicau2
1 review
13 helpful votes
August 18th, 2015

The whole experience was really bad! Just to pay for the event I had to call 3 times the customer service. They changed room and instead of being in a nice one we were in a ugly and small room without air con. Few of them apparently cancelled the profile before having the chance to rate them. Few of the girls thought some of them were actor, and in fact they had no profile! I am arguing to have a refund! Terrible! Definitely to avoid!

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user yaroslavt
1 review
22 helpful votes
March 7th, 2015

I visited a few events organised by Speeddater, but the results are poor due to badly organised system,:
First Complaint: You have only 3 minutes, this time is not enough for normal chat:
Second Complaint: Some events a too noisy and overcrouded
Third Complaint: After the event you have to go back online to tick the girl you like, and many girls dont even go online and do not tick anyone, as they forget or change mind next day.
Forth complaint: Events organised as friendly chat, there is nothing romantic in there, co the events are not fit for purpose
Fifth complaint: Useless friend match column, as much better if just "yes" or "no" field

PS. I think this event would be much better if the manager collected the sympathy cards after the event, and if the "yes" ticks coincide, just sent phone number to the persons with mutual sympathy, so they could directly contact each other without middleman websites and memberships. Thanks

Service
Value
Quality

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From the business

At SpeedDater, we believe that chemistry happens only in person. You will never know if you’re truly compatible with someone until you meet face to face. This is what Speed Dating is all about. We offer busy professionals a great way to meet new people in a fun, safe and chilled environment. All that is required of you is a smile and an open mind, we will take care of the rest!

Business History

We were the first singles events site to launch in the UK, way back in 2002. Gosh, that makes us feel old! But with age comes wisdom and we are proud to have more experience running successful events than any other site. We've run over 10,400 events and introduced over 306,000 singles... WOW!

With competitors soon popping up and replicating our event formats, we established ourselves as the market leader in the sector by providing the biggest and best events in the UK's most stylish venues. We started in London and never looked back - SpeedDater now runs up to 70 events every month in 24 UK cities. We have more events, attendees and matches than ANY other site (by a long way!).

Our massive singles parties have become a firm favourite in the schedule, with around 250 eligible singles getting involved at each event. We also lead the industry in unique and niche events such as elite professionals, graduate professionals, older women for younger men, older men for younger women, Christian dating, wine tasting, quiz nights, cookery classes and more. You might see similar events elsewhere but never forget that you saw them here first!

Company Representative

Thumbnail of user nathaliep30
Kate D.
Customer Service Representative
Typically does not respond to reviews

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