eHarmony Review – Shelly
Shelly’s review of eHarmony includes an excerpt from the eHarmony ‘Guided Communication’ stage and some thoughts about using the service.
You know, things don’t always work out the way you want them to. I was scheduled to get married three years ago, but we called it off two months before the wedding. I had not dated since that time, not because I’m bitter, but because I wanted to utilize my ‘me’ time. Now I’m ready again, but I didn’t really want to go out to the clubs like I used to, so I decided to give eHarmony a try.
Initially, I signed up for eHarmony for three months. During that time I received over 300 respectable looking matches. Of those, I met two – I’m a little picky and prefer those geographically close. eHarmony has been a great tool that has made me excited about a relationship again. I was afraid the process was going to overwhelm me, but it’s quite manageable, fun and non-invasive.
My three months then expired, so I extended it — All though, there’s a little more to this story. Before extending my membership I decided to check out one of the other popular online dating services. Below is an actual excerpt of an e-mail I sent to an eHarmony match I received days after extending my membership. It’s my first email to him following the ‘Guided Communication’ stage.
…It looks like we’ve made it into the communications wilderness now – HA. It’s no longer guided. Actually, I think the process is pretty cool. In relation to it, I have a small secret to tell you. I may have a slight advantage?! You may find this interesting … I joined eHarmony 3 months ago for the first time, which just recently expired. I liked it, but a friend kept harping re Match.com. Sooooo, before I decided to extend the EH plan, I checked it out. I entered a small amount of criteria and up popped over 100 guys, pictures and all. I looked at most, but then determined it seemed too much like a free for all. I‘m not a member, but I’m still getting faces e-mailed to me every other day. Please note that I don’t want to demean it in any way — It appears to have been great for many people, and that’s cool!!!
Anyway, I’ll move on to the juicy part… So I ultimately decided to extend the eHarmony plan. A day or two later I received your match. I thought, hhhhmmm, he looks really familiar, have I seen him around the city? It was tripping me out. I thought that I knew you from somewhere, but then it finally dawned on me (which I was glad to get to the bottom of it). I saw and read about you on Match :) I had to go back and shuffle through the faces to confirm, there you were. I remembered having an interest in you, but I wasn’t going to join, so it became moot. Then a couple days later you get dropped off into my shopping cart – HA. I don’t know why, but it cracks me up to refer to it that way. Anyway, I guess I’ve just read a little more about you, that’s all. I think I would want to know this story :) Anyway, hello. Nice meet you through correspondence. I suppose the next step is to meet in person – sounds fun. Rather than talk on the phone, I’d like to make a plan to meet in person, if that will work for you?…
Well, that’s it. The story above tells why I’m still on eHarmony today. And coincidentally, the very day I write this, I’ll be meeting the recipient of the above for the first time at a local restaurant. I’m excited. You may want to hear more later…
eHarmony – Free Personality Profile
December 20th, 2009
E-harmony is a disappoint. I have had over 2200 matches sent to me. I have had a date with 3. Many of the matches are not even in my city. In fact less than 10% of these match lived in my home town. If I didn’t expand the search to 300 miles and allow for weekly drinkers and daily smokers I wouldn’t have any matches.
I would tell you not to use this service. It is not worth the money.
They will send you matches from people who are non paying members and can not communicate. They will send you matches from people who are no longer paying members the best is the matches they send you that are no longer available, These people have deleted their profiles but E-harmony sends them to you as match.
E-harmony is a joke, save your money.
October 12th, 2010
Well after going the bar gamut, I decided to take a deeper approach and give eHarmony. I was matched with over 200 men 10 matches daily and I would go through them all. Some I would start the question process or some send an icebreaker to see if they wanted to cut to the emailing. I did get a little frustrated at first with the distance and the age of the men that eHarmony was matching me up with. So I called eHarmony and had them walk me through refining my matches. And then a day or two later I opened my matches to find one face in particular that seemed kind and goofy and I decided to click on the details to see what he was all about. I liked the way he answered the questions and was curious about him not because of his looks but because of his answers and comments. I decided to cut to the chase since he only lived 5 miles from my home. Hey why not just meet this guy for a drink? We text back and fourth for a bit and made a plan to meet. And we did..He had a gregarious personality and we just hit it off almost like we had been old friends meeting up after a long hiatus. He said something to me like..your like a hot version of me. We had very similar qualities, likes, wants, expectations, creativity, etc. So we continued the process of getting to know each other and still are today as friends and a couple. I remember him telling me that he had met one other woman on EHarmony and it just didn’t work out for him and then the next day he opened it up to find me, exactly what he was asking for..It’s funny how this worked out. This whole time my match lived right in my back yard really. I would have never found him nor him me, if we hadn’t taken the chance with E Harmony. Give it a shot what do you have to lose!
November 18th, 2010
Good for you!!!!
October 15th, 2011
I registered my information free on eharmony just to see if what is says on the pack is true.I give a false name and I got lots of matches sent to me. One was a guy I was actually my boyfriend of twelve months. This guy told me he loved me but now I know he was only using me and was going to keep me in his back pocket. So I got a shock and for that reason I was glad to find out what he was up to. I did not tell him about my find but decided to ask did we have a future together and he said he was not interested in a serious relationship or wanted to get married. I realized that he was not interested in me or either he just wanted to play the field. I was glad I discovered the truth and finished with him. I joined a social club with all kinds of sports and met a really nice gentleman. EH does not allow you write a genuine profile about yourself they have select questions they ask you. I did not subscribe as I feel I would be wasting my money.
October 17th, 2011
Sarah I am so sorry that you feel since you can not do your own bio the site is not for you . This site was done by a psychologist in order to obtain the measures of compatibility everyone need to be answering the same questions. I am a very active 60 y/o and have been on other sites getting requests from all the wrong men. With EH. All of the men sent my way are great matches. I have only been involved for 3 weeks and have not made any choices yet but the quality is superp. I am constantly saying to myself where the heck have these men been all my life.
January 8th, 2012
eharmony is pretty much garbage for the hefty price it costs you. The ‘matches’ are more random than anything and more often than not don’t even follow your preferences.
The eh guided communication system is ridiculous, clunky and childish.
I have a pretty bad opinion of eh but I’m glad if it helped some others find their match. For me it has been a complete waste of time and money.