Member Comments on DatingDirect

@Missymoo Hi there, I am researching an article on the 'auto subsription' rip-off on dating wesbites. Would you be interested in talking to me about this?

Hey guys. Yes, I'm another poor sap that caught out by the 'auto renewal' system. I thought I'd cancelled my entire subscription but it wasn't until I found this thread that I found out how to delete my profile, and cancel my subscription by phone. Thank you so much everyone for helping me!!

Also, for anyone else out there who paid their subscription by paypal - I disputed the last two payments that they took from my paypal account and explained to paypal, quite reasonably, that I had not authorised them to take that money as I had only agreed to a one month trial, (which was correct). I have just found out now that Dating Direct has refunded the money to paypal! So if you've been caught out by the auto-renewal system, it's always worth disputing what they've taken, either with paypal or with your bank. It worked for me.

I hope someone finds this helpful. :) Good luck!!

Did the same to me offered me a week for a quid, accepted then had £59 taken out of my bank without me knowing, I went overdrawn, rung them to complain and cancel but was not allowed, got the bank to change my details so they cannot take money out again. and also have only winks from people from abroad and no picture, so i am going to get off when my 3 months expires, which i did not want and go to eharmony as has been recommended. I hardly get any emails.

@dave hopkins Oh god here is another one caught on the hook of the hidden auto-renewal. I moved and closed my old email account and after ludicrous complicated redirections to other companies affiliated to Dating direct, I finally gave up using it as they changed their procedure and quite frankly it doesn't work. There must be an Ofcom that can ensure we receive our money back as Talk Talk is a company operating in Britain. Please advise.

Rating ZERO STARS avoid like the plague.

Just got caught by this company's scam, virtually hidden phone number only accessible via the small print. And they don't tell you ''specifically'' that the 'ONLY' way to cancel is via Telephone. At least 2 days in advance. After initially signing up for 1 week trial now find I'm automatically debited for the next 3 months, and a rude obnoxious French woman at the other end of the line refused to cancel. When this company was British owned it was always possible to cancel online. This is an obvious ploy to catch people out by the new owners a French company 'Meetic'. If this company were above board they would have prominent cancellation details on the front page. I also have my doubts about a number of Phantom characters which appear temporarily at weekends on this site.

@Cheetah This happened to me too!!! and my friend, rubbish site!!!!

I have joined 3 different dating sites over the past year and by far this was the worst. I have had to block multiple users as they were very inappropriate and 2 of the men I arranged to meet actually scared me and sent me really nasty messages via text, so on the whole a complete waste of time and money and a lot of worry and stress with the offensive messages. I would not recommend this site to anyone!!!! I am happy with the one site I am on and find it fantastic, all the men I have met on it has always lead to multiple dates and I have gained a couple of amazing friendships, and is where I have met the most amazing man (eHarmony). Not once have I felt threatened or met a complete mismatch, far more hopeful. If you choose to try dating direct be careful there are a lot of men on there after just one thing and will ask if you are willing to do some pretty nasty stuff, think they should be on the sex only/one night stand type of sites. Cost a fortune for disappointing results.

This 'dating' site is an absolute total rip off!! Stay away!! It is impossible to delete your profile. I would give in no stars but that isn't an option on here.

Dating direct has been taking money from my account for 2 years. I contacted them in 2009 by e-mail ordering them to cancel my account to which they e-mailed me to say i had already closed my account which was true. Though whilst trying to close my account somehow mysteriously i managed to open up a new account which i had no knowledge. Dating Direct have been taking £60 a month till i finally got stopped by getting their phone number from my bank's fraud department. They offered me 6 months subscription back that they had just deposited from my account even though i had not been on the site since February 2009 (which they openly admitted to over the phone). They have been in my opinion taking money from my account fraudulently and i will not rest till they pay me back all the money i am due.

@David If that fails (which it probably will), here's how to get a profile removed from dating direct and just about any dating site out there. The trick is to remove everything legitimate in your profile and replace it with spam.

1. Remove absolutely everything meaningful from your profile. Put your age as 120 years old and having 20 kids. Do it over a few days/weeks..

2. Have a picture? Replace that with a big photo of a penis or a viagra pill.

3. Have a description for your profile? Replace that with links to every nasty online pharmacy, casino and porn site you can find.

If they write and complain then at least you've opened up communication with them. Tell them "Oops somebody must have hacked into my account". This works trust me...

For everyone who wants to delete their account, from dating direct.com here's how! Log into your account and then paste this link into your browser

http://www.datingdirect.com/myaccount/myunsubscription.php

They have stopped this being done so how do we remove our details now. One star was the minimum!!

@Marc I very stupidly thought I was doing a mate a favour by paying for her subscription to Dating Direct, what a fool I was! When we wanted to cancel the subscription after 1 month it took 6 months of repeated phone calls, confirmation emails and letters to my bank and still DD continued to take money from my account! I thought this had all ended in November 09, but today I have discovered that they've been at it again and took a 'taster' £1 from my account last week (which I missed) and another £59.97 yesterday. I'm lucky in that my bank have backed me up all the way, but as far as I'm concerned Dating Direct are thieves and even worse they condone memberships from lying, cheating men who are only after one thing!

PXS :

The same problem here. Feel stupid, got myself manoeuvred into this scam...How the hell do you cancel your subscription with DatingDirect? The legal stuff they post and which is a binding agreement says that there is a special section in the website to terminate your subscription. This is not true, there is no such section (at least couldn't find it).

Help needed.

THX

There is no means to cancel your Dating Direct account online. Whether or not this is illegal is for lawyers to decide. You have to call them to cancel your account. This is currently the only way to cancel your Dating Direct subscription. Imagine if you will you have a SKY TV subscription - you cannot cancel this service online - you have to call them. This provides Sky with the opportunity to give you the hard sell as to why you are cancelling your account. Meetic, the owners of Dating Direct follow exactly the same principle. So, it's probably not illegal but it's certainly underhand and frankly, quite unacceptable.

Call this number to cancel your Dating Direct account - 0800-358-0846. It's a freephone number and can be found under the 'My Subscription' page.

You will have the pleasure of speaking to someone in France. I did. He was relatively polite but was non-responsive to my initial request that I wished to cancel my account. Was I happy with the service? Had I created a complete profile? Would I like 3 months membership for the price of one? - were typically the sort of questions I had to fend off before he agreed to cancel my account.

Once cancelled you should receive a confirmation email that your account has been cancelled. I did.

A couple of other things. Prior to calling, ensure you know what your membership number is. This avoids having to go into detail such as explaining who you are, what your Dating Direct screename is etc. Also, ensure you call at least 24 hours before your subscription is automatically renewed.

Once your account has been cancelled you will still have full access to Dating Direct services until the official cancellation date.

The same problem here. Feel stupid, got myself manoeuvred into this scam...How the hell do you cancel your subscription with DatingDirect? The legal stuff they post and which is a binding agreement says that there is a special section in the website to terminate your subscription. This is not true, there is no such section (at least couldn't find it). This means they're deliberately depriving you of your right to terminate the service, which is obviously illegal. It should be considered an outright theft. Moreover, they do not deliver the product they take money for - subscription with an option to terminate. I'm wondering is this 'criminal' enough for the bank to side with my request and put them on the blacklist so my card is not billed? Or perhaps some of you have discovered a way how to terminate the subscription?

Help needed.

THX

This link does not cancel your account. It only deletes your profile. Deleting your profile is not the same as cancelling.

Secondly, when you go to 'My Subscription' page there is no option to cancel your account. You have to click on 'Manage my subsrciption' this provides you with a telephone number (0800-358-0846) to call to cancel your account. It would appear this is currently the only way you can cacel your Dating Direct account. Quite unacceptable.

This is the worst dating website around. Tried for 3 months to cancel subscription with no luck they never reply. Can anbody help me ? These people are crooks!!

If you have lost money with dating direct, you should speak to trading standards, especially if DD are hard to contact too. I haven't had this problem - I just found it hard to unsubscribe until I discovered this post (thank you).

Too late for me! Paid £60 and found out the next day I couldn't get on the site all day, same problem this morning. Fed up getting winks from profiles with no pics who live in Peru! etc..... Have emailed them but not hopeful of a response, but told them I have contacted Trading Standards, which I have. In case you don't have it, here is the address:

This website is owned and operated by DatingDirect.com Limited

Dating Direct (c) an English registered company (number 03850701).
Their registered office is at:
27 OLD GLOUCESTER STREET,
LONDON,
WC1N 3XX.

You can contact them at the following postal address:
BCM DATING DIRECT,
LONDON,
W1CN 3XX.

Thier VAT number is 747 4270 19.

I agree with everything that's been written on here. I was a subscriber for about 2 months and got totally annoyed with sending emails to someone that I thought lived within 50 miles, to find out that they lived 2,000 miles away! One person I emailed lived in London but her profile said Aberdeen, (she tried to change it but couldn't) emailed the site and got an automated email back about something completely different!.. Keep well clear from Dating Direct. Don't be put off by internet dating sites though. Just Google it before you subscribe, and see what people think. Hopefully it will save people from throwing their money and hearts away.

I went to the link that Dickie said to delete my account on Datingdirect, but on that page I enter my username and password (which are obviously correct because I logged in to the site) it says they are incorrect. What do I do? Please help!