Great Expectations Review
A review of the Great Expectations online dating service, a destination for meeting and dating quality singles
Great Expectations has been around practically as long as the famous book with the same name. Actually, they have been around for about 30 years—since long before dating services cropped up on the internet. Even now, the online matchmaker only uses the internet to enhance its services. Members of Great Expectations should expect to spend less time clicking a mouse and more time hoping to click with someone in person. Also expect to spend more time and money than you would with most online dating services. This is for people who really mean business.
Unless you like corny infomercials, prepare to turn off your computer’s sound before you head to the Great Expectations website. The front page has a flash video that automatically starts, and I don’t see any way to stop it. There is also a link to several success stories, but all of them are from 2003 or 2004. I hope that doesn’t mean there haven’t been any more success stories since then.
To move on from this first page, simply enter your ZIP code to see if there are any Great Expectations locations near you. There are only about fifty locations across the country, so you may be told there is no center nearby. In that case, you will be stuck with their online-only site, called Great Dates.
Assuming there is a center close to you, Great Expectations will then ask for your contact information, which must include your phone number. You will then be taken to a screen with a short form to fill out. This includes basic demographic information and a few questions about your interests and personality. You are also asked to fill out the same information for your ideal match. That is all for the internet portion of your experience until much later.
After filling out the online form, you should soon receive a call from a Great Expectations representative. This is where you need to be on your guard. Some former members have reported being aggressively pushed into meetings and purchases. It’s hard to imagine Great Expectations lasting this long if all the centers and representatives were scammers. All the same, don’t be pushed into anything, and document any offers you receive. Also, ask to preview information about the current potential matches in your area. You may find out that the quality or quantity of possible matches in your area is not enough to make your large investment worth it.
The cost of joining Great Expectations can vary dramatically from several hundred to several thousand dollars. Any way you look at it, it is much more expensive than Yahoo Personals, Date.com, Perfectmatch.com, or just about any other online matching service.
The typical Great Expectations experience involves a meeting where you learn more about what the company has to offer. You can have photos taken, a video made, and they can put a profile online for you. The service also often organizes social events for its members. Great Expectations will periodically screen for members that they think will make good matches. Some past members have resented the amount of control the dating service takes, so make sure you are fine with taking yourself out of the driver’s seat in the preliminary stages of searching. Great Expectations makes the choices up front, and then you decide whether to accept or reject their suggestions for dates.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that potential members of Great Expectations should be desperate, but they should definitely be serious. It probably would be a good idea to experiment with some of the cheaper online matchmakers first, since there is much less risk involved. If those are unsuccessful and leave you wanting a service that is more hands-on, then you’d have a better idea that Great Expectations is the right service for you.
July 22nd, 2008
Great Expectations is way, way, way, more expensive than any other dating service I have ever looked into. You can sign on to other services that have many, many more members for far cheaper and there isn’t any difference in service. Avoid Great Expectations unless you have a lot of money to throw away.
October 7th, 2008
Although Great Expectations is more costly that other dating websites it is a lot more personal. They spend quality time with each member before they begin the site. They took time helping me with my profile and gave me a list of member profiles to take a look at. Also, they have several events each month. In my oppinion, you are paying for a lot more than just a dating service.
October 7th, 2008
What I have found with Great Expectations is that the members all seem to be single and looking. There are less members but it is an adavantage not to be flooded with (frankly) time wasters and less than singles I have found on “cheap who cares who joins” sites.
November 5th, 2008
Great Expectations uses a number of web sites as fronts to lure you into their office (where you THEN discover that they are Great Expectations). Then you are subjected to their high pressure sales presentation. There are no fixes prices. They want you to commit to pay right there BEFORE you do an internet search on them and discover all the disappointed client who have complained of this FRAUD. There is currently a class action lawsuit against them in Arizona, and I believe also in Kansas. After they have got your money, then you will quickly realize how lousy their service is. Search the web itself and you will see!
March 9th, 2009
I have been a member of GE for 3.5 years & it has been nothing but a disappointment. I am a professional with a master’s degree, and stated in my profile that I want to meet a college educated, professional male. The only men who have expressed interest in me are blue collar workers -tool & die, heavy equipment operators, truck drivers. I think GE goes out to factories to recruit these guys by offering discounted memberships. It is certainly not worth the membership fee, and I have no intenion of renewing.
March 13th, 2009
Thank Goodness I’m not the only one! GE is expensive, and a rip off! I have had one date with a guy that would make Oscar Madison seem clean! OMG! Not even an spark of interest in 5 mths! Stay away!
March 29th, 2009
Great Expectations class action lawsuit in Arizona settled out of court for $500,000, it’s nice to see this awful company pay up, avoid Great Expectations they are a total ripoff.
April 17th, 2009
I wish I had never signed up. I got suckered in with a “phishing” website and received much pressure to come to the office. The girl on the phone said she’d get in trouble if I didn’t come in for the appointment. Once there, you don’t leave unless you’ve signed a contract. Since August 2007 I’ve met 3 people, the same as I’ve done myself for free. Most of the emails I get are from men MUCH older than me and many of the ones I’ve requested to meet have not even bothered to respond. You definitely do not get what you pay for.
April 20th, 2009
This service is pretty much a ripoff. I foolishly joined and met one person in about 8 months. If you have money to burn, it might be worth a shot, but it is certainly no better than any free or $20/month site. People there are aggressive, bordering on mean and pushy. Do yourself a favor and stay away!!
June 19th, 2009
Its a total ripoff. I required them to change the contract saying my allotted contacts were counted only if I agreed to meet the lady. The shysters did something to the 3part paper I signed so only my copy contained the change. I only met 2 people for about $600. One was a midget and 2 feet shorter than me! Great Expectations is a pure con.
August 26th, 2009
I wish I had checked out this site before I joined. The men who join this site are rude and unresponsive. The expense was ghastly and I’m stuck with a sh—-y deal. I hope others check this out before they bother going to an office. It is EXPENSIVE, a waste, and a rip-off. I don’tknow how they’ve managed to stay in business so long. I’d like to figure out how to get at least some of my money back. I’ll have to look into the class action suits that are going on.
September 6th, 2009
I went to my scheduled appointment today at Great Expectations and frankly I was pissed off when I left. I have never been so pissed of at a sales presentation before this is the first. The sales representative I meet with her name was Ashley and frankly she came across as being very pushy and very abrupt. When I inform her of this she claim she had to protect her clients then she tried to pressure me into signing a 3 year contract and when I refused she tried to bully me by saying that when she ask me I told her I was ready to invest into meeting someone.
I did not sign the contract I left, as she escorted me out the door she sarcastically told me good luck as to say I will still be alone or I will not find anyone without their service I could not believe her attitude I was about to really get into a confrontation with this women during the consultation or sales pitch it seem everything I answered she wanted to contradict it.
I would give this advice to anyone who is contacted by Great Expectations be prepared for being pushed into signing a 3 year contract if you make an appointment to speak to a sales representative. I thought this would be a fun experience but it was the opposite. I was very angry when I left and I am glad I was strong enough not to sign a d*** thing.
November 6th, 2009
Stay away they are a rip off
March 22nd, 2010
I’m ashamed to say I’m another “victim” of an extremely poor excuse for “Great Expectations”. When I became widowed, I didn’t have the desire to go out to public bars or other places similar for the “expectation” I’d meet someone there as I was told would through this company’s intensive screening…”MALARKY!!!” I was aggressively pursued to contract “under duress”, should have known better. My Advice: RUN AWAY FROM GP DECEIVERS! They are extremely unprofessional and out right Lie!
March 30th, 2010
Well I almost went in to an office glad I looked online first. I noticed a ton of terrible reviews and a couple of good ones and they are probably from people who work there. I did notice how pushy the sell aspect was though they must have called me at least 60 times to try to get me to make an appt. Finally made one to get them to quit calling me but then had to cancel I will just tell them will never be interested I did not check them out on the bbb but have a friend who works for them so will ask her what she thinks as well
April 14th, 2010
I’ll be honest Great Expectations does it’s best in squeezing every little penny out of you! I’m going to try to make a long story short, but when I signed up for the membership, the lady I spoke to on the phone assigned me a time to come in for a free consulatation and a tour of the place. I never thought anything of it at that time, but she stated if I wasn’t interested after I had my consultation, than I didn’t have to accept their offers and just leave the office. So after I went in for the free consultation and they briefed me about the opportunities, I told them I would think about it! Obviously, you know what happens next, the relationship specialist pitched a relentless sales pitch to try to sign me up that night. After some negotiating, she lowered my payment from $5000-$6,000 to $2,977. This is where I made the mistake, she asked me if I would be willing to accept this offer if her manager accepted. I said yes, but not knowing what would happen, she never came back to the table with the offer. She just went ahead and charged my card without asking me, and she came back with the contracts to sign. Right than and there I should’ve not of signed the card slip, the contracts before reading them first and just disputed the charge!
So after the consultation, I went home and researched the Better Business Bureau site and some reviews about the company and found this site with reviews about the lawsuits and the high costs for the memberships. I knew I made a mistake so I went back today to try to get a refund, cancel the membership, or reduce the cost as much as I could. I had some success! I found that it is best to find a local lawyer nearby the business and ask them to call the business, dispute the charge with the business and the credit card company, and write them letter asking them to reverse the pending charge, cancel the membership or reduce the cost of the membership. So I paid a small fee to the lawyer and went back to the business to hand them the letter, and argue my point, but with no success. So at that point I knew I wasn’t going to get much out of them because of their policy, so I just left. Sure enough they called back 5 minutes later asking me to join again but a reduced cost. At that time I figured what do I have to lose, so lets see what I can get out of them. I’m now only paying $1200 for the membership even though I did want a full refund but I guess it’s better than nothing since I received quite a bit of credit back and I didn’t want to go through a long drawn out process. Hope this helps!
April 14th, 2010
I learned my lesson to read the contract and the terms before signing! or better yet, walk away, and not accept it if the service or the agreement seems misleading.
June 23rd, 2010
Perhaps I am an outlier, but I got married as a result of meeting my wife on GE. Initially, I was shown several profiles of women in my area (NYC) – and also offered selective “first dates” with newcomers even before they officially appeared on the site. When I first tried to contact my future wife, she intially didn’t respond for a couple of months – and I actually thought (egotistically) perhaps her profile was just a fake and she didn’t exist. Indeed, she was just away for awhile, and, when she did get back, we had our first date and the rest is history. I can say that before I met my current wife on GE, I was having lots of fun with other women I met via GE (it was hard to give up, actually). I was about 35 at the time. Caution is in order, however – since I found most of the women to be on the older side – since these are the type of women who can both afford to pay high fees for a service like this, and are also comfortable paying high fees for a service like this. Until I met my wife, I didn’t meet anyone I would have considered marriage material…but, as they say – it only takes one. One of the best parts is the background check they do and the video – you can learn alot more about a person watching a brief, professionally done video versus on other sites where you just look at their picture (likely the best picture they ever took and also outdated). Lastly, I should mention that I walked into the office with absolutely no intention of signing up, but walked out a member. So their sales people are smooth. Although I did not feel pushed.
June 23rd, 2010
My husband and I were married thru GE in 1997. I wasn’t at all pushed back then with them, but I guess now they gotta really push since the internet has really come into play. I had great success with them, and as a result I have 2 beautiful kids and a wonderful husband 13 years and still going. I joined in late 1995, and wasn’t real active, only had a few dates, until I met Scott, seemed kinda crazy, we grew up in the same town and went to the same HS together, graduated 1 year apart. Seems we could have met since we were so close, but yet so far apart, thanks GE!