Together Dating Services,"Two Of Us" Dating Services Total Fraud, Do NOT buy their sales pitch! -Exorbitant fees, misrepresentation of and failure to fulfill services as promised Los Angeles, Encino California

This company has clearly been built on and profits by acquiring enormous fees ($1,800-$25,000!) during an initial very aggressive sales pitch in advance for promised services, NONE of which are provided once they've received your money. Please, please do NOT make the mistake of being convinced by their membership sales people.

This is NOT a legitimate matchmaking service, they are only out to collect your money, the rest is a lot of paper shuffling, and completely inappropriate "matches" that are mailed to you (you are never able to view photos of your matches in advance, nor are you able to view any of their clients' photos before or after becoming a member.

I unintentionally contacted Together Dating Services through one of their many aliases, "www.hermosasingles.com". (Please Note: Together has recently changed it's name to "Two of Us", or added yet another bogus Co. name to its list of names under which they may collect funds from trusting clients. They advertise under countless different names).

I thought this was a small, personalized online dating website. Instead, after filling out an "application" that needed to be "accepted", I began receiving numerous phone calls from Together, as they were "very excited" to have me as a member. It was a bit misleading, but I thought, why not, and went ahead and made an appt. at their Wilshire Blvd. offices.

Basically, they scam you from the start. Consumers, please beware of ANY dating service whose 1st line of questioning is: What is your credit card #? / What is the limit on your credit card account? / What is your annual income, etc. I was taken aback immediately by these questions, and told them I wasn't comfortable giving out that info. without knowing more about their company first. At that point, they gave me an extremely long & detailed questionnaire to fill out w/personal details, likes & dislikes (do you believe in sex before marriage, scale of 1-5 how important is religion to you, what physical features are you looking for).

Because of the depth of the questionnaire and the very accomodating & kind staff, I somewhat disregarded my initial skepticism toward their obvious interest in making money off of a new membership (their membership staff receives bonuses for making sales to new members, and they are very convincing).

I went into a sales manager's office, where she has a wall full of cards, etc., supposedly from succesful matches made. She pulled out an enormous binder of "profile pages," explaining that they are still in the process of getting all of their client profiles online (how can they be efficient matchmakers when they're sifting through hundreds - thousands of pages in an old worn binder? Easy answer: they don't. They just mail off whichever newest member signs up to you as a "match", whether they meet your criteria even REMOTELY or not (in my experience, none of the matches they sent me made a bit of sense when compared to my requested preferences).

It's a pressured sales pitch, and I was offered a lower fee and additional free matches to sign up on-the-spot (they will do anything possible not to let you walk out the door without having handed over a load of cash, and a credit card #). Because of my hesitation I opted for the 50% up-front payment method, (experience has taught me not to pay in advance for services not yet completed). I have since put a stop on my credit card so that they cannot continue to collect $ from me, but now I am receiving harrassing calls from their hired collections agency! (which no doubt receive LOADS of their business).

Readers, if anyone can offer advice on how to deal with this situation I would be grateful! While I do not want to pay this scheming fraud of a company another dime, I also do not want my credit score ruined; do I have any options here, or must I pay them despite their completely misrepresented "services" & "quality clients"?

Together has you sign a contract, and I believe they are in breach of their contract. They have failed to send me any matches that were even mildly close to what I had requested. Also, both of the 2 men I was willing to go out with told me that I was the first and only woman they've met through the service that they wanted to see again (one had been on 8 other dates!!! Everyone's story was the same; they all wanted their money back, and/or had already contacted the service to put their memberships on hold, because they could "find better people on their own". The 1st guy I went out with (who remains the only awful date I've ever really had) told me he'd received more than the # of matches he'd purchased (for $7,000!!!), but they were still sending him matches (probably because they can't get any of their clients to stay active for very long!).

Lesson learned, and I hope that this will dissuade any of you from being taken in by Together Dating Services (sales office on Wilshire, but L.A. matchmakers based in Encino), "Two of Us", and hermosasingles.com.

Anon Los Angeles, California
U.S.A.