SpeedDater
reviews and complaints

I booked and paid for a Speeddating event on 17 June 2019, for a relative. On the day of the event (9 July 2019) the event was cancelled (due to not enough attendees). I requested a refund by email. Was told 10 working days to process. I phoned a couple of days later and was told it had been 'issued' but would be 10 working days to get back to my account. I emailed again a few days ago. No reply. I still have had no refund (£15).

I would like a refund of £15!

I decided to try SpeedDater because it seemed like a great idea and a great way to meet new people. There was a speed date event held in London and I went there hoping to meet someone special or at least to spend some time with interesting people. When I came to the place I was shocked, because there were only about 10 people, mostly women and they all looked terrible. They all were over 40 and overweight! I came and left after an hour. Just a waste of time.

I joined the website www.speeddater.co.uk couple of months ago. I recently joined one event on the website, and it was mentioned that it was for free. After 2 days I got the invoice from them. I needed to pay for the participation about $20. I was surprised, but I paid. I just wanted to warn other people that such dating websites are total rip off. Please leave comments and share your views about this website. Thanks.

Booked and paid for a Speed dater event on their website speeddater.co.uk, which indicated "women sold out" when I got to the event there were 20 men and only 5 women and I was told that my place in the event was cancelled ("as I was 2 years older than the age range of the event", looks like the real reason is that they had so many men and only few women that it was unworkable). Refused to give me a refund and had the cheek to charge me a monthly subscription for their website. It turnout that this is another Cupid PLC scam. Cupid PLC is a scam on an industrial scale they have multiple website including: Flirt.com and Benaughty.com cupid.com speeddater speeddater.co.uk. ALL ARE SCAM

I was introduced by a friend to single parties organized by Speed Dater, an online meeting website (owned by Cupid plc) that is also organizing single events in London venues.
One day I realised looking at my bank account statement that the website was charging me even though I have never been interested in online dating. It appeared that I had forgotten to uncheck a box that was giving me a free access to the web services for a month while booking for a single party event.
I called the company which initially refused to give any refund. I reiterated that I never intended to register as a paying online member. I had to exchange many emails to be granted a refund and I found the argument unpleasant. This is when speed dater’s staff really started to wind me up as I really dislike this kind of commercial attitude on the internet (you suddenly get charged for services you never willingly agreed to subscribe to because you missed a small asterisk somewhere).
Subsequently I registered for speed dating events and decided to use the guarantee given to clients to claim a free event if they chose not to tick anyone during the speed dating. I didn’t tick anyone and asked for a free entry to another speed dating event. Still I have decided to stay in touch with some of the ladies I was not interested to meet as dates but simply as friends
Speed dater company is so greedy that they decided not to give me a free access to another event on the basis that I had contacted some attendees which suggested that I wanted to date them. In fact it is indeed written in their general conditions about activating the guarantee that “If you are seen to be handing out business cards, exchanging contact details or sending site messages to event members, this suggests you do wish to see members again. Such acts will forfeit an activated guarantee.” Who reads such TCs?
They spy over your shoulder and read the messages you may exchange with some attendees to withdraw their guarantee. You have been warned! I haven’t heard of any other speed dating company having this attitude.
This is where Denise comes into the picture. I will be charitable and call her Denise even though this is not her real name. Denise organizes events. Denise became very upset because I had tried to use the guarantee to book a free event (for which I initially paid no less than 20 quids!). Denise said that she would not allow me to attend any other event! Denise is strict.
Very recently I decided to join a friend into one of those single party events.
Denise denied me access; it appeared that she thought she was remembering me pretty well. She has also refused to give me any refund.
Frustrated Denise? Frustrated of handing over locks and keys during those events after so many years with the company?
Denise must have handed over locks and keys for too many years. She is upset. I cannot blame her. Who wouldn’t?
More seriously I think this company is has-been. They didn’t manage to reinvent themselves. They treat clients like money bags, enrol then through dodgy commercial practices into paying sections of their website, claim they offer a guarantee but are keen to withdraw it at their discretion to cash in as much as they can.
Times have changed, new business models appeared. Many new comers on the lucrative single market industry offer FREE single parties. They organize nice events called laissez-faire. Their motto is exactly the opposite: they don’t ask for money or for you to be even registered (so no need for you to check that you credit card is charged after a while for unwanted subscriptions!). Moreover they don’t spy on you.

It all started in June 2010. I was introduced by a friend to single parties organized by Speed Dater, an online meeting website (owned by Cupid plc) that is also organizing single events in London venues.

One day I realised looking at my bank account statement that the website was charging me even though I have never been interested in online dating. It appeared that I had forgotten to uncheck a box that was giving me a free access to the web services for a month while booking for a single party event.

I called the company which initially refused to give any refund. I reiterated that I never intended to register as a paying online member. I had to exchange many emails to be granted a refund and I found the argument unpleasant. This is when speed dater’s staff really started to wind me up as I really dislike this kind of commercial attitude on the internet (you suddenly get charged for services you never willingly agreed to subscribe to because you missed a small asterisk somewhere).

Subsequently I registered for speed dating events and decided to use the guarantee given to clients to claim a free event if they chose not to tick anyone during the speed dating. I didn’t tick anyone and asked for a free entry to another speed dating event.

Speed dater company is so greedy that they decided not to give me a free access to another event on the basis that I had contacted some attendees which suggested that I wanted to date them. In fact it is indeed written in their general conditions about activating the guarantee that “If you are seen to be handing out business cards, exchanging contact details or sending site messages to event members, this suggests you do wish to see members again. Such acts will forfeit an activated guarantee.” Who reads such TCs?
They spy over your shoulder and read the messages you may exchange with some attendees to withdraw their guarantee. You have been warned! I haven’t heard of any other speed dating company having this attitude.
This is where Denise comes into the picture. I will be charitable and call her Denise even though this is not her real name. Denise organizes events. Denise became very very very upset because I had tried to use the guarantee to book a free event (for which I initially paid no less than 20 quids!). Denise said that she would not allow me to attend any other event! Denise is strict.
Very recently I decided to join a friend into one of those single party events and then guess what dear reader! Denise was here, at the entrance! I swear, dear reader, that I would have never recognized her. In fact I was not even expected her to be there. How would I? It had been nearly two years since we had exchanged (exclusively through emails). One would have thought that Denise would have moved to new professional challenges, in a more rewarding environment. But there she was!
Denise denied me access; it appeared that she thought she was remembering me pretty well. She has also refused to give me any refund.
Frustrated Denise? Frustrated of handing over locks and keys during those events after so many years with the company? Who knows! Anyway she thought she had to tell me proudly that she “had shares in the company” before adding that she was not a director though! Needless to say a director would not spend his Saturday night welcoming guests at a dating event! Denise must have handed over locks and keys for too many years. She is upset. I cannot blame her. Who wouldn’t?

More seriously I think this company is has-been. They didn’t manage to reinvent themselves. They treat clients like money bags, enrol then through dodgy commercial practices into paying sections of their website, claim they offer a guarantee but are keen to withdraw it at their discretion to cash in as much as they can.

Times have changed, new business models appeared. Many new comers on the lucrative single market industry offer FREE single parties. They organize nice events called laissez-faire. Their motto is exactly the opposite: they don’t ask for money or for you to be even registered (so no need for you to check that you credit card is charged after a while for unwanted subscriptions!). Moreover they don’t spy on you.
Other companies I have heard also organize free single events.
Good luck speeddater!

It all started in June 2010. I was introduced by a friend to single parties organized by Speed Dater (http://www.speeddater.co.uk), an online meeting website (owned by Cupid plc) that is also organizing single events in London venues.
One day I realised looking at my bank account statement that the website was charging me even though I have never been interested in online dating. It appeared that I had forgotten to uncheck a box that was giving me a free access to the web services for a month while booking for a single party event.
I called the company which initially refused to give any refund. I reiterated that I never intended to register as a paying online member. I had to exchange many emails to be granted a refund and I found the argument unpleasant. This is when speed dater’s staff really started to wind me up as I really dislike this kind of commercial attitude on the internet (you suddenly get charged for services you never willingly agreed to subscribe to because you missed a small asterisk somewhere).
Subsequently I registered for speed dating events and decided to use the guarantee given to clients to claim a free event if they chose not to tick anyone during the speed dating. I didn’t tick anyone and asked for a free entry to another speed dating event. Still I have decided to stay in touch with some of the ladies I was not interested to meet as dates but simply as friends
Speed dater company is so greedy that they decided not to give me a free access to another event on the basis that I had contacted some attendees which suggested that I wanted to date them. In fact it is indeed written in their general conditions about activating the guarantee that “If you are seen to be handing out business cards, exchanging contact details or sending site messages to event members, this suggests you do wish to see members again. Such acts will forfeit an activated guarantee.” Who reads such TCs?
http://www.speeddater.co.uk/static.php?html=guarantee&s=s
They spy over your shoulder and read the messages you may exchange with some attendees to withdraw their guarantee. You have been warned! I haven’t heard of any other speed dating company having this attitude.
This is where Denise comes into the picture. I will be charitable and call her Denise even though this is not her real name. Denise organizes events. Denise is tight. Denise became very very very upset because I had tried to use the guarantee to book a free event (for which I initially paid no less than 20 quids!). Denise said that she would not allow me to attend any other event! Denise is strict. I like Denise.
Very recently I decided to join a friend into one of those single party events and then guess what dear reader! Denise was here, at the entrance! I swear, dear reader, that I would have never recognized her. In fact I was not even expected her to be there. How would I? It had been nearly two years since we had exchanged (exclusively through emails). One would have though that Denise would have moved to new professional challenges, in a more rewarding environment. But she was there!
Denise denied me access, it appeared that she thought she was remembering me pretty well. She has also refused to give me any refund.
Frustrated Denise? Frustrated of handing over locks and keys during those events after so many years with the company? Who knows! Anyway she thought she had to tell me proudly that she “had shares in the company” before adding that she was not a director though! Needless to say a director would not spend his Saturday night welcoming guests at a dating event! Denise must have handed over locks and keys for too many years. She is upset. I cannot blame her. Who wouldn’t?

More seriously I think this company is has-been. They didn’t manage to reinvent themselves. They treat clients like money bags, enrol then through dodgy commercial practices into paying sections of their website, claim they offer a guarantee but are keen to withdraw it at their discretion to cash in as much as they can.
Times have changed, new business models appeared. Many new comers on the lucrative single market industry offer FREE single parties: Love struck (http://www.lovestruck.com/london) is one of them. They organize nice events on Thursdays and Saturdays called laissez-faire. Their motto is exactly the opposite: they don’t ask for money or for you to be even registered (so no need for you to check that you credit card is charged after a while for unwanted subscriptions!). Moreover they don’t spy on you. Their motto is The Lovestruck Laissez-Faires and quite frankly Denise, as Love Struck says “we are sick of being told what to do.” and we want to give our phone number to whoever wants it, guarantee or not.
Other companies I have heard, such as match.com also organize free single events.
And yes Denise, move on, there are other jobs on the market!
However if you fancy a date with me, please let me know. I would love to have a drink with you and see if there is any chemistry.

my complaint is pretty simple i am with cupid dating site and i am supposed to be paying 25 dollars a month which i am not i am paying around 80 dollars a month i have been paying that for a very long time now i thought it was that i was not putting any money into pay pal so use took money directly out of my bank account and charge a fee for taking money out of my account including the 25 dollars and about another 50 dollars on top of that but when i put money in my pay pal account used did not take any money out of it you decided to take money out of my bank account i do not understand that at all you are ripping my off and used are getting away with it and there is nothing that i can do about 25 dollars is the bloody about i should be paying not 80 dollars and why am i paying for another dating site why it is called info speeddater .com.UK exactly the same as this i do not even no if is a dating site or not but i am paying for that as well yes another 80 dollars or more i am paying for two dating sites one i know i am paying for that is cupid dating site but the other one i don't even know if it is a dating site or not i have no replies from this so called site and i cannot even get into that dating site the site i am talking about is so called info speeddater.com.UK the one i have tolled you a second ago but it seems that there is no such dating site as that and i am paying for that one too i do remember paying for some dating site i did not read it properly i thought i was paying for a month at a time but i signed in for a year but pay monthly and when i decided to get out of that site they or used decided to put another year on top of that as well but when i get to my email and read that my payment went through i am paying for two lots on cupid .com bloody two payments like 25 dollars and then i am paying another 20 dollars as well so that is 45 dollars right that you are taking out of my bank account no yo use are taking another about 35 dollars more why bloody two payments with cupid when i signed up for the monthly 25 dollars and about a week later after i yo use have taken your 80 dollars out of my account there is another two lots of payment for something that i cannot find or get into that i am paying for yes another 80 dollars and the thing is it is exactly the type written on my email as the last weeks one info speeddater.com.UK and it has cupid.com payed to what are you guys doing to me i am paying for four lots of cupid.com bloody why is that i what out right now OK

To:
First Contact Team
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
SK9 5AF

Subject: Data Protection Act official complaint against Cupid plc (www.speeddater.co.uk).

Dear Madam, Sir,

We hereby raise an official complaint against Cupid plc (www.speeddater.co.uk) under the Data Protection Act.
This website enables to participate into single parties or speed dating events.

We have been a member of the website http://www.speeddater.co.uk/ from September 2010 until October 2011. Our screen name was MemberXXXX. The registration email given was: [protected]@yahoo.com.

Our perception is that the website and its management have repeatedly breached the Data Protection Act and we wish to formally report this to you along with the relevant evidence. We are listing below the alleged breaches we would like to report.

(1) The email reproduced in evidence1.doc shows that we were a member of the dating website in September 2010 under the screen name MemberXXXX and email [protected]@yahoo.com.
We have requested that our account is removed and personal information deleted from the customer database at our discretion in October 2011. SpeedDaterStaffYYY, event manager, has confirmed in an email dated 19 October 2011 (refer to the file evidence2.doc) that « Further to our telephone conversation, [she has] closed [my] account on SpeedDater. »

It appears that despite our request our personal data such as screen name and email address have not been physically removed from the website. To prove the above we have attempted to create a new account using either our previous screen name (MemberXXXX) or email ([protected]@yahoo.com). The website prevents us from using our email mentioning that the “email is registered”. The website also suggests to “recover our profile”. We are providing screenshots taken from the website as of 14 December 2011 in evidence3.doc proving this. This shows that our personal data are still being held by the website against our will.

(2) Furthermore the website has waited until 12 December 2011 to remove another account (screen name memberXXXX*1) on www.cupid.com that seems to mirror our account on speeddater.co.uk. It indeed registers the same email address ([protected]@yahoo.com). Please refer to evidence4.doc for proof.
As far as we can remember we have never created an account on this website www.cupid.com and it seems that the information used on speeddater.co.uk was reused by the company to open an account on cupid.com. We believe our authorisation was not asked nor granted.

(3) Additionally it would seem that data such as passwords are not properly secured. Indeed customer passwords are not encrypted. This is demonstrated by the fact that the non encrypted password is systematically emailed after an event is booked on the website. This means are the website is not using a one way encryption algorithm to secure passwords. This could be potentially very dangerous as many people use the same passwords on several websites and anyone having access to those non encrypted passwords and the email address could use them to attempt accessing confidential information on other websites.
For an example we have reproduced in evidence5.doc an email that we have received from the website showing our password, proving that passwords are weakly stored.

We consider that this poses a major security threat for the customers and we are worried that the passwords we have been saving in speeddater’s database might be used to access private information hosted on different websites (e.g. bank accounts).

(4) We have been able to find on the internet complaints that would tend to confirm that data are shared across the websites Cupid plc owns and that passwords are being copied across.

For instance “Crooller” has posted in January 2011 on complaintsboard.com:

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/speeddatercouk-c406877.html
« I am annoyed by this website emailing me with "someone has viewed my profile" I don't know who placed me on this site it certainly wasn't me, I complained to them and they have chosen to ignore my comments and do nothing about securing their website, are they placing the adverts themselves in the hope that so many will join? They had got my age wrong and put that i lived somewhere near to where I used to live, how do they get this information? they also knew of an old password I used on other sites! »

Another member has posted in December 2009 on scamfound.com:
http://www.scamfound.com/f13/speeddater-co-uk-i-am-annoyed-website-emailing-me-someone-has-viewed-161025.html
« Speeddater.co.uk - I am annoyed by this website emailing me with "someone has viewed my profile »

Screenshots are given in evidence6.doc.

(5) My credit card details are still being retained as of 12 December 2011 despite my account having been closed. SpeedDaterStaffYYY has indeed written in an email sent to me on 12 December 2011 that “[protected]@yahoo.com use the same card for purchases ». Evidence is given in evidence7.doc

(6) The Data Protection Act gives individuals the right of access to their personal information. I have required Cupid plc to tell me about the personal information they hold about me. I have been denied this right in writing.

In an email dated 12 December 2011, SpeedDaterStaffYYY has indeed written in response to my request to be made aware of her allegations of my account having been flagged:
« We are not obligated to pass on details [we hold on you] simply because you have requested them. I’m sure you can understand a breach of privacy in doing so. »

We believe that this information is held under our account and name and should be made available to the account holder if he requests it in writing. We have not requested for any name to be mentioned but we have required alleged facts to be explicitly stated.

We have grounds to believe that this information has been used unfairly and that it may be irrelevant or excessive. We are obviously not in a position to assess this without being made aware of the alleged facts.

(7) We would like to report that the website staff invades the privacy of its customers.
The staff is deliberately reading messages sent from members to members. Although we do appreciate that this could be justified in case the content of the messages have been reported as breaching the law, it seems to us that this activity has been used to merely ensure that the commercial interests of the website are being protected. This appears excessive to us.
SpeedDaterStaffYYY has indeed written on 21 October 2011:
“The content of your mail was not of interest to SpeedDater, we simply wished the ascertain whether members were contacted from the event in question before you activated the guarantee. »

Please refer to email reproduced in evidence8.doc for details.

Based on the above elements, we believe that speeddater website is failing
- to secure members data adequately using password encryption
- to physically remove private information such as email addresses when a user requests it
- to disclose information they retain about their customers
- to ensure that the information given by their customers is not used or disclosed to other websites own by the same group
- to respect the customers privacy

We would like to express our greatest concerns regarding how personal data ate being managed by this company.

Yours faithfully,

I am annoyed by this website emailing me with "someone has viewed my profile" I don't know who placed me on this site it certainly wasn't me, I complained to them and they have chosen to ignore my comments and do nothing about securing their website, are they placing the adverts themselves in the hope that so many will join? They had got my age wrong and put that i lived somewhere near to where I used to live, how do they get this information? they also knew of an old password I used on other sites!