COMPLAINTS about dating services in Shenzhen have increased as the city’s consumer council announced recently that it had received 476 complaints last year, marking an increase of 17 percent from the year before, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported.

It was reported that many dating agencies charged members high rates, yet their services were not in accordance with what they had promised in their contracts.

Li Le is a 30-year-old woman who wanted to try out a dating service. However, only one meeting was arranged after being registered on Baihe.com for three months, while the contract she signed promised to introduce eight men in six months.

“My parents are urging me to get married, but I have a rather small network, so I thought of the online dating site after receiving many promotional calls from them,” said Li.

The woman couldn’t refuse the staff members’ promotion when she visited the physical store and signed a six-month contract for 9,800 yuan (US$1,552).

After signing the contract, Li paid another 10,000 yuan to upgrade her level so that “higher-quality men” would be introduced to her, or so the store promised. It turned out that the upgrade in level was supposed to be a free service combined with the contract, according to items listed in the contract, but Li was not paying attention at first.

In three months, the matchmaker at Baihe.com only introduced one man to Li, even though she called many times to ask for more arranged dates.

Li hopes to get a refund due to the awful service she received, but the online dating site has refused to do so, making various kinds of excuses.

Another woman, known as Zhou Lan, had a similar experience. Zhou signed a one-year contract with Jiayuan.com last year for over 20,000 yuan.

“The contract promised a one-year service, but a staff member adjusted it to six months and promised to introduce one man to me every week,” Zhou said.

When Zhou met with her matchmaker, she was told that she would only be arranged to meet one or two men every month, which greatly irritated Zhou, so the woman decided to quit the contract.

“What I have received was different from what had been agreed to in the contract, so I asked for a refund, but they declined,” said Zhou.

When a reporter contacted the physical store of the online dating site, staff members there promised to solve the problem through negotiation. But according to Zhou, the store continues to delay her refund.

A person from the Futian Consumer Council said that many date-matching agencies have been found to have unequal terms in their contracts. Consumers are reminded not to believe the service providers’ verbal promises and to check all of the terms carefully before signing a contract.

(Zhang Qian)