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Avoid this company at all costs. They required an upfront payment of $900 followed by $100 per month for the remaining 11 months in the year. In exchange they offer only a single introduction per month, so you're paying more than $160 per date right off the bat -- and that assumes you last the whole year.
The initial sales person is very friendly and engaging. Although my very first contact was with a man, he quickly passed me off to a young woman. I wouldn't have minded dating HER, and I think that was the point. I'm pretty sure that they shunt you to an engaging opposite-sex salesperson as a sales tactic.
When you sign up, they talk to you over the phone to learn about you and discuss your likes and dislikes, and you set up the dates with a dating coordinator by phone. (Of course, this person is nowhere near as friendly as the salesperson had been.) They set you up on a first date, and after that first date you meet a company representative in person to fine tune your profile -- and show them your ID. It seemed odd to me that they set me up with someone before vetting me. That should have been the first warning sign.
Another warning sign was that "It's Just Lunch" wasn't just lunch. The dating coordinator said they generally arrange for people to meet at dinner time, usually on weekends. Nor was the expectation, as advertised, that daters "go dutch." I was advised that the man was encouraged to pay.
I had several dates that were not at all satisfying. The first woman clearly did not want to be there. The next, while pleasant enough, was nowhere near a good match for me. (I've done plenty of soul-searching on this topic and had been able to clearly communicate to the company what would be a good fit.) That trend continued. When finally the company "imported" a date from 80 miles away -- and she was also not even close to a good match -- I figured they must be scraping the bottom of the barrel trying to meet their contractual obligation to find ANYONE to go on a date that month. I had had enough. They were not providing the value they had promised.
They tell you that you can place your account on hold if necessary, but what that means is they stop arranging dates and yet continue to charge you each month. This is not reasonable, nor is it what I had been led to believe when I signed up. (In fact, I would not have signed up had I known, because I knew it was very likely I'd have to place a hold at some point given the requirements of my new job. That's why I had specifically asked about it.) If you want to cancel your account, your contract requires WRITTEN notice and 30 days to process the cancellation, meaning you get charged for at least another month while you wait. I, myself, was charged for yet ANOTHER extra month, because when I first notified the company by e-mail and later by phone that I wanted to cancel my account, they failed to point me toward the contract and say I needed to do so in writing. When I complained and asked them to reverse the charges, they advised me in no uncertain terms that they give NO refunds.
What a fiasco. I was severely disappointed with the entire experience, and do not recommend anyone sign up with them in the future.
P.S. They also arrange for you to meet your date at specific venues, and they once had me and my date both go 15 miles out of our way to get to our restaurant. It made me wonder if IJL was also getting "kickbacks" from the restaurants...
In summary, I would not recommend It’s Just Lunch to a friend.
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