Over the past few months, many complaints about It's Just Lunch have been posted at ConsumerAffairs.com. Although these complaints are client-specific, the problems they mention have been brought up numerous times by various people.
Some of the complaints include:
Women
Colleen of Calgary, Canada, complains that she was bullied into taking a lunch date that she did not want and was told when she phoned It's Just Lunch with her concerns that she was not open-minded and needed to change her attitude. It's Just Lunch actually threatened to cut their contract with her. Colleen says that the matches It's Just Lunch tried to send her on were poor and the conduct of It's Just Lunch employees is "deplorable."Susan from Texas only recently signed up with It's Just Lunch but after two months still had not been sent on a date, despite being promised six dates in six months. She tried contacting the company, but the phone numbers she had listed for It's Just Lunch were both disconnected.
Debbie from Florida actually worked for It's Just Lunch and says that she was told to sign up just about anyone willing and not to send them on any dates until the cancellation period (three business days in Florida) had passed. She also says that training includes telling customers that their branch has hundreds of clients when in fact it has much fewer than that.
Amazingly, Debbie says that there is discrimination within the company. Although employees are told to sign up anyone willing, she says that they are not supposed to take African Americans, overweight people, or women who are over 50 years old (men can be signed up at any age because they are willing to date younger women).
Cathy from Arizona says that she has dealt with four different employees since joining It's Just Lunch and been set up on dates by people who had never met her. Cathy also complains that she was set up with both married men and men with small children, both of which she told It's Just Lunch she was not interested in.
Men
Robert of Kansas complains that It's Just Lunch did not honor its contract and did not meet the criteria he specified when filling out information on potential dates. Furthermore, the company ignored a request made by a licensed clinical psychologist to cancel the contract because of his psychological condition upon entering the contract.
John of Virginia says that he was pressured to accept dates and one of the coordinators used foul language when he disagreed with something she said.
Rob of Maryland says that the last few women he went out with from It's Just Lunch told him that they went on the dates to help out the company. According to Rob the women went on these dates for extra money and to keep the men from complaining and bring in new clients.
Protecting yourself
According to ConsumerAffairs.com there are a number of things people can do to protect themselves when dealing with dating services:
- Research, research, research. Sites such as ConsumerAffairs.com and The Better Business Bureau can give you a lot of information on dating service companies. You can find out what the general complaints are, whether or not these complaints have been resolved, and how customers (and sometimes former employees) feel about dealing with those dating services. You can save yourself a lot of heartache and money by researching a company before signing up with it.
- Get everything in writing. Sometimes employees will make promises verbally that are never written down - those are very difficult, if not impossible, to enforce in court because they're hard to prove. If an employee of a company like It's Just Lunch says that you will be refunded your money if you are not satisfied, make sure he or she puts that into the contract. Refusal on the part of the employee to do so is a warning sign that the company will not honor the employee's promise of a refund.
- Read your contract carefully and ask any questions you have before signing. If anything in the contract is unclear, clarify it before you've put your signature on the contract. Make sure any verbal promises are put into the contract as well - do not let them tell you that extra clauses can be added into the contract later. Make sure you agree with the contract 100% before signing it.
- Get references from the company and follow-up with them. Ask the references for positives and negatives about dealing with the company.
- Ask if the company does background checks on its clients and if it says it does, get proof. According to ConsumerAffairs.com, It's Just Lunch does not do background checks because the company claims its clients are professionals who do not need background checks.
It's Just Lunch has a contractual obligation to fulfill the number of dates it promises its clients in the time specified on the contract. Employees at the company should also be doing their best to remedy any complaints customers have about the services rather than ignoring them or bullying their clients. If you have paid It's Just Lunch to set you up on dates but the company has not lived up to its end of the contract, contact a lawyer to discuss your options.
READER COMMENTS
MARY ANN BROWNING
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Jewel Shindler
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Tonya Miller-Turczyn
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On Friday, Dec. 4th at 8 p.m., Julie from It's Just Lunch called me and said no problem we will refund you your money after she tried to get me not to cancel. She told me to fax the last page of my contract to her with my initial and she would refund my $2,300.00. Today is 12/9 and no one has called me back. I have called both ladies several times and left a message for them to call me. NOTHING. I am going to The Better Business Bureau and because I am a registered voter to my Senator and Congressman with my complaint. They will investigate this issue and I am sure that I will get my money back. Too bad that It's Just Lunch is not who they say they are. If they think that they will laugh all the way to the bank, they have another thought coming.
Lynn Morgan
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I agree with other comments, try online at least it is easier, cheaper and more successful for me!
Lynn
L
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The logistics of the situation were also terrible - in one instance, they scheduled a date at 6 pm in the perimeter area on Friday, so of course traffic was miserable. My date arrived 30 minutes late since she didn't know the area and got stuck in traffic. The date itself was of course incredibly boring and, as in all cases, I knew the moment the woman walked in that I wasn't attracted in the least. They consistently got my and my matches' information wrong. They make their "matches" based on incredibly mundane details like "oh - you both like fishing - you'll make a GREAT match!", so I would steer clear of this service. It's a colossal waste of time, money, and energy. In addition to the money you spend to sign up, you end up spending a lot in terms of time, gas, food, etc. when you actually go on the dates, so it's a pretty substantial investment with no hope of a return.
I'm also guessing they don't treat their employees very well, because the turnover seems to be exceptionally high. I was constantly being transferred from one dating director to another as a result.
With regard to refunds, they won't give any because they suck and don't stand behind their "product", but the way to handle it is to dispute the transaction through your credit card company. I made it clear from day 1 that physical attractiveness was one of my criteria, but I came to find out that not only do no attractive women sign up for this service (it's very difficult for an attractive woman to get her head around the idea of paying $2,700 to go on dates), but they don't even use physical attractiveness as a criterion for matching! So basically I was lied to or at least deliberately misled from the beginning. I'm going to dispute it with my credit card company based on the fact that I wasn't purchasing the product I thought I was purchasing, and I'll get my money back that way.
If you're looking for help with dating, I would recommend online dating sites over this "service" - it's substantially cheaper and much more effective. While I haven't been thrilled with the results, I've certainly gotten a lot better dates with Zoosk and match.com than here (I actually am able to meet women who are attractive - imagine that!).
My advice - stay away, stay far away from It's Just Lunch.
Cynthia
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She actually said, if you get in trouble in school, you aren't told how the other student is disciplined", I tried to explain that was a completely different issue of protecting a minor, and not not applicable to this contract, but she just kept talking over me. She also told me they don't give refunds, even though they are obviously now in breach. I have a call into the corporate office. I will pursue this until I get some kind of refund from this scam operation.
Nahid
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I signed up with IJL on september 17 2013. since then I did not have even a single date. At the time of being member this company told me that they already have good candids for me,....but they were just trying to sign me up. I was contacted few times, and telling me that they have a person for me to meet, but they did not schedule. It is about 7 months, and I had no date at all. What they were trying to do was to match me with anyone, but not the criteria's I asked for. It seemed that the agent did not listen to me at all what I asked for. I was very patient so far, and sending this note to you to resolve this issue by returning $2300.00 I paid for this service. I am waiting to see what you will advise before I act legally against this IJL.
I appreciate you act on this matter to solve the issue.
Colin
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Don't walk. RUN!!
merav
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Jackie
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Beth
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carol
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Dharol Tankersley
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After $1000 and 10 dates with men (one unemployed, who spent lunch talking about his depression issues), I told the "service" I did not want to be contacted anymore.
They begged.
I went out once more, and told them not to contact me again.
Three years later they still sick their newbie employees on me a couple times a year, getting these poor women call me and try to convince me to date for them again.
Try okcupid.com or plentyoffish.com or eharmony.com if you're older or have kids -- if you can't do a better job screening dates for yourself than this company, you straight up should not be dating.