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PoF.com / Plenty of Fish

PoF.com / Plenty of Fish review: dating account deleted + permanent ban 4

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2:47 pm EDT
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This complaint is about the following circumstances:
1. Very poor communication, and in fact lack of communication, from the website's (pof.com) customer service team regarding my questions, requests, etc.
2. Deletion of an account for no reason at all.
3. No warning given prior to deletion of the account.
4. No explanation given for the deletion of the account.
5. A permanent ban for an alleged breach of T&Cs - but again, no details and no further information were given out as to the reasons justifying this decision.
6. The site's owners (potentially) use this website to spy on its members' activity.

I've been using the plentyoffish (now renamed as pof.com) webpage on an on-and-off basis for around 2 ~ 3 years. Last week, however, I realised my account disappeared for a reason which I cannot possibly understand.
The profile that I've had up as well as all its content certainly complied with the site's T&Cs and the general guidelines of good (moral) taste + the online netiquette. But as I've said, the account's been deleted; at first, I thought it was the usual wrong username / wrong password thing, or that someone has by some chance hacked into my account. After entering the email associated with the account when using the 'Reset password' facility, though, the message popped up saying that 'this email is not in our data base'.
As weird as it sounded, I immediately wrote an email to the pof customer service team asking them if I can somehow regain access to my account + asking for reasons for the deletion of the account (if that was indeed the case).
No response was given, despite my numerous attempts to contact the customer service.

Let me now try to make a comparison, if we allowed this sort of behaviour to transpire to real-world human interactions, I will try and liken the pof's creators/moderators/admins behaviour with (hypothetical) reference to criminal law: let us now say that, one day, out of the blue, the police forces come knocking at your door telling you they are going to arrest you with immediate effect. They can't tell you who it was who filed a complaint, they can't tell you what it was you've done. You go straight into your little uncomfortable cell. No trial, and most certainly no fair trial is given to you, you have no right to an attorney/lawyer to defend your case, you can't even defend and explain yourself... You don't even get a fine or any light punishment. 'Life imprisonment' is what you'll get, you don't know who specifically issued this decision, and you have no right to an appeal... There is no 'innocent until proven guilty' any longer, there is no habeas corpus, and no rule of law principles in operation. A lovely Orwellian perspective to become your own fate for the rest of your life.
Would any of us, I ask, would any of us like to live in a society which binds itself by the rules as I've just outlined them?!

Back to my story. So like I said, no response was given. Because of that, I then decided to make another (new) account in order to find out what's happened. This new account, however, was deleted within hours after registration - when I barely made any use of the webpage whatsoever, and certainly did nothing wrong, except... well, except daring to re-register!
I followed this exact procedure; each time an account was being deleted, I'd try and make a new one instead. Overall, I think I made about 10 more attempts to set up a new (replacement) account. Each of these attempts resulted in a quick deletion within few minutes ~ few hours after going through the registration stage.
I concluded I must have therefore been permanently banned from the webpage. This was the only explanation which ultimately made sense, although it was so non-sensical & so irrational that I cannot believe it is an actual policy of pof.com...
I mean, even if I was in the wrong the first time round... fine, delete the account. Fine, don't even give me the reasons for its deletion. But to not allow a user back in? Esp. when there was no wrong while using the second account I'd made (simply because I never had a chance and the time to message anyone)?
It is, apparently, a new part of pof's agenda that any person - once deleted - cannot ever re-join the website. Which as I've said is a ridiculous policy in and of itself, and pretty much exudes what can only be known as a Nazi-like attitude of smug pof owners. These words may sound harsh, but they are nothing further from the truth.

If I can now come back to my little comparison a little earlier on: let us assume that, instead of the punishment of 'life imprisonment' as indicated earlier, they instead sentence you to 5-year imprisonment. The big question is : what would you expect to happen to you once this 5-year-long period has passed? You'd probably think same as I did; you'd expect to walk free and enjoy your life back again!
But pof's bosses beg to disagree! They think it's in your - and anybody else's - best interest to send you back to jail as soon as they catch you when you're enjoying freedom; probably when you're just roaming around the streets breathing some fresh air and just enjoying your new life... This is the effect of that 'new' 'brilliant' policy I've been talking about: once guilty, always guilty. Once a profile deleted, any further profile will get deleted too!
So I ask a question, would any of us, I repeat, would any of us like to live by such authoritarian rules, very much resembling a dictatorship wherein the dictator in question is in no way answerable to the crowd, its society, or - as happens with pof - its users and sometimes even its customers?!

One more thought. Whilst I used to have account on there, I've often been browsing through many of pof's profiles which most certainly didn't comply with any sense of moral decency or the site's T&Cs, and yet nothing was ever done about these accounts. Can't be that no one has ever reported any of those people... surely! ;)

So, in essence... This whole situation looks as though the owners of pof think they are entitled to play god in their own minefield. Because it is a minefield, ladies and gentlemen, let's not deny that! Shame that it's the sneaky moderators and site's creators who are - for the most part - responsible for what's happening, and keen to upset its members & even interfere with their enjoyment on the site (as well as privacy - see below).
It seems to me that they have discouraged some people already, and they will - as I'm sure - discourage even more with their holier-than-thou policies and attitude and 'civility'... No doubt they must be very proud of themselves. :)
But all is not lost! Thankfully, all is not lost, because as long as pof's Nazi-like attitude continues to (dis-)impress me, I know I can afford to let them be... Pretty soon, more people will realise the site offers them no good value for money, or - more likely - no good value for their own time! The site nowadays seems to be filled more and more with various drones, fakes, scammers, spammers and alike, not to mention those mentally-challenged users (or fake users) who can barely utter a word in response to a 3-paragraph long nice & friendly intro message...
I also have a reasonable suspicion the mods/admins/creators are constantly monitoring its users' activity by, for example, entering into their private communications with other members. I had this once happen to me: when I clicked on 'Sent messages' folder, all of my messages I sent to date disappeared! There was about 20 or so of them at the time, and I swear they were all gone at once! The content of my 'Sent' inbox simply vanished...

For this and all of the above reasons, I certainly will not be re-joining this webpage (even if offered the money to do it!) + I will not be recommending it to anybody else I know or meet. Case closed.

I guess getting a permanent ban on there as I deduced is of no great loss to me, and can only be taken as a blessing in disguise really... Hopefully, I may spend my time more productively from now on. :)

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4 comments
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Zarena H
, US
Sep 25, 2017 12:32 am EDT

My profile was also recently removed, I had an account which I had made invisible due to getting into a relationship with someone who, sadly, wasn't worth the time I gave him. I was in the process of updating it when it just simply disappeared. I then created a new account on another e-mail I had, and within less than 48 hours, while I was responding to messages to me, just poof .. disappeared. I had done nothin on either profile to cause myself to be removed. I did receive one message saying new members were not allowed to give their numbers to other members, which surprised me and caught me off guard, especially since I had not given my number to anyone, but I just ignored it, soon after that my profile was removed for no apparent reason. I never post rude or naughty images on any site, it's simply not who I am. I am a decent respectable woman simply trying to find a good man, now another otion to that has disappeared, again, for no reason I can fathom. Lettin people at least know in advance they will be removed and the why would be great, failing that, an e-mail explaining reason would be great. Just my thoughts.

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sandysweetshortsexy
, US
Jul 17, 2017 12:37 am EDT

I been on plenty of fish for 5 years and for no reason I was deleted .I tried all kinds of drifferent emails username everything .Can you please get me back on there I really love this site and I need to meet someone . please help me

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determinate_effect
York, GB
Apr 21, 2015 9:41 am EDT

This has happened to me in the past week. Permanently banned. Any new accounts I make are deactivated within a couple of hours. No explanation as to why I was blocked. I was not abusive/lewd and had no topless shots etc. I had made a few female friends on there, and feel quite upset that I'll never be able to contact them again. They do seem to change the rules day by day (lately, you could only contact xx amount of new people a day. This wasn't in the T&Cs I agreed to. They then appeared to stop enforcing that). I would at least appreciate an explanation.

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Tensile
stevenage, GB
Feb 26, 2015 7:50 am EST

I agree the same happened to me, for no reason whatsoever just banned, I am a decent person never abused anyone, even though many tried to abuse me on pof..it was a British man who invented and gave to the world the internet for nothing, it is a shame he didnt keep some control over it, so that when a company act as pof do, they could be taken down. It is a unfair abuse of power to use it as they do, and it would not surprise me if one of the nut job, s that frequent the site does not take this personally and take it up with Marcus and his team on a personal and violent level, after all we fought war, s against dictator, s who were not just, I see no difference in what they are doing.