eHarmony Review

E HARMONY OVERHYPPED

E HARMONY, the  largest dating service, at least in the US makes many claims,especially about the values and amount of good matches one can get by following its guidelines, which including answering varying sets of questions, some with canned answers before there can be direct contact, even anonymous.  Extols its many virtues and large number of referrals that members can get. Seems like the real McCoy.

In reality, this 68 yr old single male, with Ph.D., living in county with 500,000+ people yet not as prominent as Orlando, West Palm Beach-Miami, Tampa-St. Pete or Sarasota/Ft. Myers has had very limited luck.  I have received over 650 referrals of nice ladies over a six month period. A large number did not meet the stated criteria I had indicated including body size or appearance, geographic location or amount of money they expected the matchee to earn.  Many were sent from areas outside my 200 mile travelng radius.

Chemistry is considered the most important aspect when initially screening for a mate. Despite countless stories to this effect, E Harmony does not include chemistry or looks as a criteria..  Many matches have nothing to do with one's stated preferences including educaion, religion, interests or geographic location. Moreover at least 78% of the referrals I got never replied to my inquiries, even with prompts. The ladies/men lacked the common courtesty to even reply if not interested or try answer the first set of questions. When I said something about the poor matches and lack of communication, more referrals were sent, without regard to stated preferences.

Quantity is not quality.  Setting criteria that are ignored is the same as going  to buy something and a store offers something very different, proclaiming it to be the same.  FALSE. 

I had some ladies answer one or more sets of the questions and then stop the process. Many of those referred to me did not take the EHarmony process seriously despite mone paid to participate.

I had maybe five good dates. Two of these were ladies living more than 3 hours driving distance one way. Some had ghost writers preparing their answers.  A few went on dates where I spent lots of money on dinners and didn't even give a courtesy thank you.  There were too many mismatches. Lots of women viewed my age, income or location negatively yet few stated this, if/when they even answered the first set of questions.  A few times, just before getting to the stage of meeting, I had the rug pulled out by damsels who couldn't read or suddenly changed their tune.

Without prolonging the agony, I state that if one is the right marketable age, lives in the heart of a big community like Miami, Tampa, Chicago or New York, has the right education and income as well as looks like a movie star--this person seemingly has a good chance of meeting a few right people. Change any variable and the success rate dropped greatly. To deny that chemistry is a factor people consider is naive at best and more descipable.in the long run.  There are promoters who say E Harmony is the greatest. 

From my own personal experiences as well as those of others, especially of the opposite gender, I consider E Harmony as the worst dating service. One gets E Frustration and E Annoyances in participating, at best.  With my limitations stated, I suggest most look elsewhere or greatly lower  their expectations.