Dear Big_Bopper,

I regret to hear that you’re not having a positive eHarmony experience and that this has led you to believe eHarmony is only out to make money and that we manipulate members.

I’m also very sorry you feel that our Free Matching service is an attempt to “hook” people. One of the reasons we provide our matching service for free is so perspective members have the chance to evaluate our matching service before making the decision to purchase a subscription.

If, after reviewing your matches, you feel eHarmony may be a good option for you in your search for that special someone, we offer a variety of subscription plans. Yes, like many purchases the longer the term, the better the value, and, yes, we do encourage members to purchase longer subscriptions. We do this, not only because of the better value, but also because we know that, on average, successful members dedicated 3 to 6 months to their search before being successfully matched. And, truth be told, some successful members needed to dedicate even more time before finding The One. However, regardless of our encouragement, it is up to each member to determine what subscription is right for them.

Regarding our Success Stories page, I want to assure you that all those stories are from actual eHarmony members. We created this page so anyone can read the stories and view the videos submitted by many of our Successful Couples. However, if you read these stories, especially the section entitled "I Nearly Gave Up," you'll find that many of our successful members experienced both up's and down's during their eHarmony experience.

You mentioned that we make "too good to be true" promises. The truth is, we can't and don't guarantee every member's success. We actually state so in our Terms and Conditions of Service. However, we do believe that we provide a very “good” service, which has resulted in great success for many of our members.

Currently, 236 eHarmony members, on average, get married EVERY day, and, we learned just recently, 2% of all marriages in the U.S are eHarmony couples! I don't know of any other relationship site that has the same or better verified statistics. However, everyone is entitled to their opinion, and those statistics may not be good enough for some. If so, they can certainly choose not try our site.

Our matching policy is and always has been to provide our free matching service to anyone who meets our eligibility requirements and successfully completes the Relationship Questionnaire. We believe that the best way to help you find that special match is to provide you with as many highly-compatible matches as possible.

However, we want to reiterate that, regarding non-paying members, we only match those members who have indicated that they wish to be part of the matching pool and are actively using their account.

Also, our research has shown that, statistically, there is practically no difference between paying and non-paying members in their willingness to communicate, and that many non-paying members quickly transition to paying members. If you read our Success Stories or even some of the post here on eHarmony Advice, you'll find that many paying members were successfully matched with someone who was, initially, a "non-paying" member.

If someone had questions about our free matching service, they can always get information from the Help link available at the bottom of all our site pages. They can also e-mail our Customer Care desk if they need additional assistance.

Even though our matching policy has lead to all the success I mentioned above, there will be some who will still disagree with this policy. That's fine. However, when registering to use our site members are required to agree to use our service AS IS and those who are unwilling to be bound by our Terms and Conditions of Service are advised not to use our site or service.

Big_Bopper, I hope I've assured you that we are not trying to "scam" our members. But, even if you aren't totally convinced, I hope you'll at least give us the opportunity to help you have a better eHarmony experience by contacting our Customer Care desk. A Customer Care agent will be very glad to review your account and make suggestions which may be helpful in increasing your rate of communication.

You can e-mail Customer Care from the Help link located at the bottom of all our Singles site pages or by clicking here: http://help-singles.eharmony.com/. From the FAQ page, click on any topic, and you will see an e-mail link. Once your e-mail is successfully sent, you will receive a confirmation number, and a Customer Care agent will be glad to follow up with you.

All the best,

-Renee
eHarmony Advice Host