There are several things you should ask the representative of the dating service before you consider joining the service to meet and date their single female members. I have covered as many suggestions as possible from those that responded. These are the basic things to ask. After you read through this section, think about and make a list of other things you need to ask, and take the list with you. Insist on receiving accurate answers to your questions about their dating service and how they can help you meet and date their single female members.
Ask the dating service how many active female members they presently have, and find out what they mean by active members. Many people reported they were often matched to someone who had long since moved out of town, changed their phone number, or stopped participating in the program for whatever reason.
It seems many services have a habit of keeping a lot of inactive single female members in their files to inflate their membership total. You should ask, if this is a photo/video selection type service, to see their library. Count the number of members in their selection book, or count the number of video tapes in the library. If they told you that they have xxx thousand members, but there are only a few hundred members shown in the book or tapes in the library, you have been mislead. Get a straight answer or get out of there and don't go back.
Ask about the average age of their active single female members. If there are very few female members in your age range, there is no point in joining and it's unlikely you will find any romance using their service.
Ask about their male/female ratio, the already mentioned most common problem with dating services. It seems in most services that the large majority of members are male.
If you are not interested in meeting single women of other races, and especially if you are of a minority race, find out how many other active female members are your race.
If you live outside the metro area where the office is located, find out how many active single female members are in your area. A lot of women that you choose or you may be matched with may not want to contact you if you live a long distance away.
If this is a dating service that allows you to select your own potential matches, ask to see the single female membership book in their library. They will offer to show you a sample membership book, but you should insist on seeing the real thing. The sample book is most likely not a very accurate representation of the actual membership book.
Ask to have a copy of all of their membership materials to take home and study. If they won't let you take it home, then at least insist on having a look at it while you are there. Usually they will not show you this information before you join. There is a good reason for this, and that is there are things in the information which could debunk a lot of the claims the representative has made to you.
I have read booklets from two of the major services, and both start preparing you for a letdown. There are statements in the booklets such as, if you are not meeting enough satisfactory people, then you are too selective in your choices, or your photograph and video in the library is turning other people off. Among the things they suggest is that you should start considering people out of your age range, or if you don't smoke or drink, you should consider people that do, and you should start choosing people with different hobbies and interests than yourself.
They also suggest if you are not being well received by other members that you should make some changes in your looks, mannerisms, clothing styles, etc., and to seek coaching in preparing yourself for a new photo and video session. Some of these suggestions might actually be good advice, but the reason you are considering joining a dating service is to meet someone like yourself, not to be told there is something wrong with you if the service isn't working for you. If you need advice on how to change yourself to be more attractive to others, or you need acting lessons to learn how to be more natural in videos, go someplace that have specialists in those fields, not some crooked dating service.
Many people reported being told so many times by their dating service they are doing things wrong or that there is something wrong with them, they feel insulted, humiliated, or had experienced a loss of self-esteem. That's certainly not one expects or needs from a dating service.
If you are dealing with a dating service that match members by profiles, ask to complete your profile and the questionnaire about what type of single woman you wish to meet before signing the agreement. This is usually not permitted until after the agreement is signed. How do they know they have hundreds of members just like the type you want to meet if they haven't yet asked what you are looking for? Also, there is a tendency for them to try to persuade you to not be very specific on details of the type woman you wish to meet. If you have already signed the agreement, and the representative starts telling you that you are being too specific in the details of the type of women you wish to meet, you probably have already been had!
Here is a very important tip. You should have these questions and all of the ones you want to ask written on a sheet of paper. Write down their answers and get them to sign a statement that their answers are accurate and not deceptive. When I say "Them," I mean both the representative and manager or owner of the dating service. You will learn why in the next section.
