Contributed by: Editor on Monday, March 30 2009 @ 09:33 am
Last modified on
Three of the major dating sites offer a guarantee. Here is a comparison of them in alphabetical order.
The first one to offer any type of guarantee was Match.com way back in the summer of 2006. It was initially called the "Make Love Happen Guarantee" but has been shorten to "Match.com Guarantee". The way it works is, when you purchase a 6 month membership and if you don't find someone special in that time period, Match.com will give you an additional 6 months for free. To be eligible for the guarantee, during your subscription you must create a truthful profile with a primary photo that is visible at all times. You must also respond to or initiate email communication with at least 5 unique Match.com members for each month of your membership. This email must be sent through the Match.com service and does not include winks or instant messaging.
To find out if you are eligible for the guarantee extension you can check it out anytime on the Guarantee Program Progress Page located in your Account Settings on Match.com. To receive your guarantee you must visit the progress page during the last 7 days of your 6 month subscription. You would then answer the questions related to your eligibility status. If you qualify you can then accept your additional 6 months for free. If you did not qualify, a message will be displayed telling you why.
To find out more on this dating site and their guarantee, read our Match.com review.
The latest guarantee we found is from Perfectmatch. It was the hardest to find since there is no mention of it on the homepage. It is mentioned on the membership upgrade page and their FAQ. This guarantee is available for all memberships except for the 1 month subscription. The way the guarantee works is, if you purchased a 2 month subscription and if Perfectmatch does not provide you with a minimum of 4 Perfect Matches they will then extend your membership for two months. With a 3 month membership you must receive less than 6 Perfect Matches to receive an additional 2 months. For a 6 month membership, you need to receive less than 8 Perfect Matches to qualify for 2 additional free months. For each of these memberships, you will keep getting a 2 month extension until your minimum Perfect Match commitment is reached and you are satisfied.
I could not find any information on how to enable the guarantee if you qualify. I assume you must email customer service before you current membership expires. I have emailed customer service for more information and will post it here when I receive a response.
To find out more on this dating site and their guarantee, read our Perfectmatch.com review.
Yahoo never really advertised their guarantee. They actually don't call it a guarantee, they call it a promise so it can be hard to find any mention of it on their dating site.
To receive Yahoo's 6-Month Promise you must have signed up for a six month membership and be a U.S. subscriber. If you have not met anyone special by the end of the six months, Yahoo will extend your membership. To be eligible for the guarantee you must have an approved searchable profile and primary photo (the entire time of your membership). You must also communicate with at least 5 different members of Yahoo each month (using Yahoo! Personals email feature). Replying or initiating a conversation both count but, icebreakers do not (keep your sent mail as a record).
If you feel you are eligible for the 6 month promise you must contact Yahoo! Customer Care by email within the 10 day period before your current membership will expire. Yahoo does send out a reminder email at this point. In fact, as long as you remain eligible for the 6-Month Promise during your paid six-month subscription, Yahoo will send out a monthly email stating your eligibility status (as long as you allow notification emails from Yahoo).
To find out more on this dating site and their guarantee, read our Yahoo Personals review.
The Yahoo and Match.com guarantee are pretty similar. The added benefits of the Match.com guarantee is it is available for more than just US residents. It is also easy to see if you are eligible and apply for the guarantee since, all information is available on your account page. Yahoo gives you 3 extra days (10 in total) to apply for their promise over Match and they do send out email notifications about the guarantee.
The Perfectmatch guarantee works different than the other two dating sites since it doesn't rely on you doing any work, but the number of automated matches you receive from Perfectmatch. Both Yahoo and Match had a list of detailed Program Rules online for their guarantees, I couldn't find any for Perfectmatch. This means Perfectmatch's guarantee is open to more interpretation. As example, in the guarantee Perfectmatch mentions that they will extend the membership term for 2 months until you are satisfied. What does this exactly mean? Is my definition of satisfaction different than Perfectmatch's? I hope to dig a bit deeper and find out more information on this.
Remember, always double check the conditions of eligibility for the guarantee or promise before you sign up as they may change without notice.