Great Expectations - Great Expectations was a complete rip-off and did not return my calls Austin Texas

I find it interesting that "Joe" claims to be a security guard at the Arboretum and that Great Expectations "used" to be located upstairs in the "strip mall" that is the Arboretum. The Arboretum is hardly a "strip mall", until the Domain was built it was THE premier upscale shopping center in Austin and still is a notably nice shopping center mostly populated by higher end businesses.  The Austin Great Expectations which is now called Connections Dating only recently moved to the Arboretum after they were publicly locked out of their location at the HEB shopping center down the road next to Brick Oven for non-payment of rent on 9/27.

Also notice how "Joe" in one breath decries this business but they in the next tries to plant seeds of doubt about if anyone can do anything about them by deeming them "judgement proof".

In the interactions I've had with the Connection's Dating owner, Mike Miess, he's displayed an amazing capacity for subtle manipulation to try and instill doubt. A post like "Joe's" sounds a hell of a lot like his style.

On another note, recently the Austin Connections Dating's facebook page suddenly jumped from 14 "likes" to as of today 1,207. However if you look at the profiles that are suddenly "liking" this business an awful lot of them are located in non-US countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bali, UK....etc. To see this for yourself simply type Connections Dating into the Facebook search bar and then click on "See more results....." at the bottom. You'll then see the listings for all the results. Don't click on the hyperlink to the Connections Dating page but instead click on the hyperlink to the number of people who "like" the page, you will then see all the profiles who liked the page and you can navigate to them from there and see where they are from.

To the original user who posted this comment I'm being represented by Jordan Mullins of McGinnis Lochridge and Kilgore here in Austin so he's already familiar with this business and my experiences with them. Our battle is ongoing.

Great Expectations used to be located upstairs at the Arboretum  strip mall.

I did security patrols there.

I was shocked to learn that they or their  CLONE were still in business -- especially in these sparse economic times.

There are a LOT of  FREE ways to meet single people in Austin.


The length of time involved and the renaming and reorganizing of their company could hurt your chances of getting a refund.

They may even be judgment proof.

Your membership might have expired too.

PROBLEM IS IF YOU SIGNED UP TWO YEARS AGO,THERE IS A TWO YEAR STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS FOR RECOVERING YOUR MONEY AND I THINK THIS IS TRUE IF YOU WANTED TO PURSUE A CHARGE OF THEFT OR FRAUD  AGAINST THE COMPANY --BUT YOU WILL NEED TO CHECK WITH A LAWYER FOR SURE!

If it does go to court, I think a judge is probably going to want to know WHY if took you so long to bring your suit.

You want Great RESULTS, not EXPECTATIONS!

The photographer at GE in Indiana was pressuring me to pay for a CD of my photos and later failed to post my video to my profile.  He claims he lost it and said I needed to come back to their center in Indianapolis for a do over.  My choices for selection were greatly limited to 3 or 4 areas even though my membership was over $4,000.  They also had the audacity to tell me that I could terminate my membership but I'd STILL be responsoble for the costs.  Whats the point in terminating the membership then?  I've had better service for free without any incompetence or pushy salesmen and better quality photos which I took myself.  Its too much oney to pay for service that I can get cheaper or even for free elsewhere.

I agree.  My limitations on choices and areas to choose from were more limited than what my agreement with GE stated.  I'll have to get my notebook to get the details.  My  profile video was lost before it even made it to my profile due to the photographer's incompetence who tried to charge me $280 for a set of photos.  But I realized I was scammed when they told me I could terminate my membership but I'd still be responsible for the payment.  But they already got paid since it was taken directly from my credit card.  I want to see this company pay back all the money they stole from their victims.

Actually Mike Miess who is the "owner" of Connections Dating also operated it when it was Great Expectations.

There is a Consumer Affairs report on 1/23/08 where "Melissa" of Round Rock made a complaint against Great Expectations and identifies the owner of that franchise as Mike Miess.

There is a news story posted on 7/24/08 out of Nashville, TN by Jeremy Findlay where Mike Miess was intereviewed as the "former" owner of the Nashville Great Expectations office that Jeremy was investigating in conjunction with claims of misrepresentation and high pressure sales.

If you look up Connections Dating in Austin on the BBB website you will see it listed with DBA names of Great Expectations and Mad Management. DBA stands for "doing business as" and are business alias's for the same business entity. Mad Management was incorporated in TX May 06 with Mike Miess and David Talbot listed as officers.

I had the exact same problems with another Great Expectations location and am trying to do what I can in order to just have my contract cancelled. File a complaint with the Texas Attorney General. Every GE location, Arizona, Minnesota, and Kansas included have been sued by their state's Attorney General. Main complaints? Misrepresentation of clientele numbers, unethical pratices and not completing background checks on its members. It would definitely worth a shot.

I had heard this office was sold and is now Connections dating service ( they operate the same way, so avoid them too ) I think this was one of the offices owned by Joe Maggioni who owns the Arizona office and recently was ordered to pay $500,000 in damages for people he scammed there. I am guessing he is having trouble coming up with the money and is now selling off offices. Good luck getting your money back, Sorry.