For two years, I paid 100,000 yuan on the dating website, but there was no result, and only 30,000 yuan was refunded when I applied for a refund.
Recently, a reporter from Huashang Daily went to the blind date as a blind date, and found that the marriage and love platform as a new huge outlet, but there are many irregularities behind it: the marriage and love market is uneven, there is a gap in supervision, and the charging standard is chaotic, and the refund problem after the blind date is successful, the platform "keeps its mouth shut", and the customer's money is easy to pay, and it is not so simple to want to come back.
"At first, I said that my conditions were very good, and after paying for a blind date, I said that men didn't think it was suitable"
Xu Xuan is 37 years old. At the end of 2021, she participated in a blind date event jointly organized by a unit through a friend's recommendation, and it was this event that made her have a strong resistance to the marriage platform and blind date until now. She left a personal message during the event. Half a month later, I received a call from a marriage company called "My Lord Liangyuan", "I later learned that the organizer of that event at that time was none other than "My Lord Liangyuan". ”
Xu Xuan's so-called "My Lord Good Relationship" is a one-stop marriage and love emotional industry technology group that claims to focus on "one-to-one" marriage introduction as the core, integrating emotional education, image management, travel and social networking, and government and enterprise friendship.
On the other end of the phone, the staff enthusiastically recommended a blind date for Xu Xuan after learning about her personal situation. She recalled, "At that time, the staff said that I was in good condition in all aspects, and that my requirements were very low, and I could find a better man." ”
In order to find the other half of her heart, Xu Xuan had tried many methods and channels before, and she didn't want to give up this opportunity, so she accepted the warm appointment of the staff of "My Lord's Good Relationship".
Xu Xuan recalled that during the nearly 4-hour communication with the matchmaker offline, the matchmaker carefully inquired about her situation and showed a large number of successful cases, and then began to recommend men.
At first, Xu Xuan thought that she was very defensive, but in the process of chatting, the matchmaker guided her step by step, "First praise me for my own good conditions, and then say that I don't have good resources outside, but here I can accurately match the opposite sex, and I can succeed in a short time, and the male conditions are also very good." ”
Xu Xuan gradually became moved. "I thought that if I could really solve my life events, I could pay for it, but when I wanted to go back and think about it, the matchmaker said that there would be activities at the end of the year, and if I paid now, I could solve this problem on New Year's Eve as soon as possible, and I could find my other half during the Spring Festival. ”
By asking Xu Xuan about her income, credit records and other information, the matchmaker also mastered her credit situation, and when Xu Xuan showed hesitation about the amount of the project, the matchmaker said that if the cash was not enough, she could pay with Huabei, credit card, etc.
Under the matchmaker's constant "persuasion", Xu Xuan swiped her credit card to buy a service package of 50,000 yuan on the spot, and she later recalled that she originally felt that the 50,000 yuan was beyond the budget, but the matchmaker kept persuading her to use a credit card or "Huabei".
Xu Xuan said: "At that time, they also had projects under 50,000 yuan in their options, but the matchmaker told me that if the amount paid was higher, there would be more men in the resource pool, the quality would be higher, and the matching degree would be more accurate, which made me excited." It makes me feel that if I pay the money, I will be able to find a partner soon. ”
But the truth is not as simple as the matchmaker initially described.
After paying, she was not satisfied with the men Xu Xuan met under the matchmaker's arrangement, "Basically, the goods are not right, the conditions are completely different from the previous description, and the feedback after meeting is that the man thinks it is inappropriate." Xu Xuan is very strange, she has been on a blind date before, and most men have the desire to continue to develop, why is she so unpopular here," which made me doubt myself for a while. ”
So, under the persuasion of the matchmaker again, Xu Xuan paid more than 30,000 yuan and upgraded the initial contract of 50,000 yuan to 80,980 yuan.
But after the upgrade, except for a few more men, there is no other change, the matchmaker is more like completing the task, after Xu Xuan asked for a review with the company several times, the director of Shenzhen, who claimed to be "my lord's good relationship", came to Xi'an to analyze the problem for her, "Obviously analyze the problem, and say that I have a problem with my image, and I want to continue to buy course fees." So, Xu Xuan paid 20,000 yuan for the course again.
In this way, Xu Xuan paid a total of more than 100,000 yuan on the "My Lord Good Relationship" platform. Only 10 men were interviewed, all of which were unsuccessful, and only a few sessions of the purchased course were completed.
In 2022, she gradually discovered that the services they provided and the fees they paid were completely unequal, "At first, I wanted to communicate with the manager what was wrong, but then I didn't trust them anymore and wanted to get a refund." ”
After constantly changing managers and matchmakers, and the quality of service became worse and worse, Xu Xuan began to talk to them about refunds.
But until now, under her several requests, "My Lord Liangyuan" has only refunded her about 30,000 yuan for part of the course fees in the contract twice, and as for the other fees, she has not been able to get them back.
Xu Xuan said that she also sought help from 12315 and the Market Supervision and Administration Bureau, but because the company did not cooperate, there was no result.
Shanghai's Joey (not her real name) had the same story. Her Xiaohongshu account posted several pieces of information about the "My Lord's Good Relationship" rights protection. She told reporters that the matchmaker of "My Lord Good Relationship" initially got closer to her through words on the phone and guided her to meet offline, and finally she paid 30,000 yuan for the service with a credit card on the spot.
After that, the matchmaker quickly asked her to meet seven or eight men in a short period of time as if she had completed the task, and there was no follow-up. "Once, I even made a quick appointment with two men in half a day," Joey said, and after "completing the task", the matchmaker's attitude began to be perfunctory.
Due to insufficient evidence, there has been no progress in Joey's rights protection refund through various channels. In the two related content comments she posted, some netizens said that they had received similar calls, and some people, like her, had already paid the fee and were on the way to a refund.
Unannounced visit: the most exciting thing is "high quality" and "high success rate"
Recently, the reporter searched for keywords such as "off the list" in Xiaohongshu, contacted an introducer who claimed to be able to help get off the list, and added WeChat to each other, and the introducer let the reporter leave his height, occupation, contact information and other information.
In the next few days, the reporter successively received calls from two marriage and love platforms claiming to be "Love in a Fallen City" and "Marryu", all of which started with the same opening statement as a hosh cold and warmth, claiming that there is a suitable male introduction, and kept asking about personal conditions during the phone chat, and after understanding the specific situation of the other party, he called himself a fellow countryman. On the phone, the staff did not tell the reporter any questions about the payment, but kept making appointments to meet in person, and asked them to bring their ID cards for real-name authentication to verify their personal information.
When visiting the offline stores of the marriage and love platforms in Xi'an, the reporter found that the "routines" of several marriage and love platforms were surprisingly consistent.
The offices of these companies are usually located in an office building, which is relatively secluded, and they all have small single rooms that are partitioned. Offline meetings will be done in this small room.
As soon as they entered the door, the staff would ask to check the ID card for real-name authentication, and said that real-name authentication was required here, but when the reporter said that he did not bring his ID card, they did not ask too much and directly began to introduce the specific situation, and the so-called "matchmaker" who received it was usually not the same person as the person who talked on the phone.
The whole conversation process is about 1-2 hours, and the interesting thing is that among the 4 matchmakers contacted by the reporter, each matchmaker claims to be a fellow countryman with the reporter and is currently working in Xi'an. And this scene is completely consistent with the previous descriptions of Joy and many netizens.
The reporter recorded the process of the unannounced visit and the main routines of various matchmaking platforms:
1##_FORMAT_GT_## Obtain customers' personal information Before viewing personal credit interviews, you need to fill out a personal information registration form, including key information such as name, age, occupation, height and weight, and ID number.
In the next process, the matchmaker not only asked the reporter about his personal information and income, but also used "age" and "fertility" from time to time to guide the other party to seize the time and opportunity of women, during which she would provide reporters with photos and income of several so-called high-quality men from time to time.
found that although the matchmaker said before that she would not disclose personal information, in order to attract customers during the introduction process, she frequently took out the so-called high-quality male information to introduce, and told the other party's name, work, and family situation.
In addition, the matchmaker also asked the reporter to take out his mobile phone to check the credit, when the reporter said that he was unwilling, the matchmaker said that this is to ensure the customer's credit, "every member we have to understand his credit in detail." But Xu Xuan and Joy once told reporters that checking the credit information was only to be able to persuade them to use credit cards and Huabei to pay for membership fees later.
2##_FORMAT_GT_## Fees range from 1,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan Guide to apply for membership on the spot Halfway through the conversation, the matchmaker will lead the topic to the paid package, the package fee is not specified in detail, "marryu" matchmaker initially recommended the package for reporters is 9888 yuan and 13888 yuan, the difference is the service time and the number of men to meet. But when the reporter said that she needed to consider it, she reduced the cost to a monthly package of 4,888 yuan, and said that some members had handled a private customized package with a higher cost. The matchmaker of the "Love in Allure" platform said that their fees range from 5,000 yuan to 30,000 yuan, depending on the specific requirements of members.
However, for the details related to pricing, as well as the issue of refunds that have not been successfully introduced, all matchmakers are silent, just claiming that they have a high success rate, and they don't have to worry about not finding their favorite partner here, and will dispel the doubts of consultants by showing successful cases.
In the course of the conversation, the matchmaker guided the reporter to handle the membership on the spot several times, saying that if it is handled on the spot, there will be a certain discount, "If you handle it now, reduce 2,000 yuan, and you will be able to find the other half of your satisfaction when the spring flowers bloom." ”
3##_FORMAT_GT_## High quality and high success rate were repeatedly mentioned During the visit, the reporter found that the most attractive thing about each marriage and love platform is that it claims to have a high success rate in finding a partner here, and can find a "high-quality" other half. This was also another point of Xu Xuan and Joey's hearts at that time. The men that matchmakers find for them in the so-called "resource library" are all "rich and handsome", and the reporter also encountered the same situation during the visit. The matchmaker claimed that if it was suitable (paid to join the membership), she would soon be able to arrange an appointment with these men to meet. "With such excellent conditions as yours, basically meeting a few will definitely succeed. But Xu Xuan and Joey told reporters that the high-quality men who were initially provided after paying were rejected by the matchmaker on the grounds that the other party already had a more suitable object or that the other party felt that it was not suitable after looking at the photos, and the men introduced after that were completely different from what they described in the first exchange. Previously, Chen Fengshan, director of the Shaanxi Tianyu Marriage and Family Service Center and a psychological expert, told reporters: "It is normal to contact the other half through online dating and marriage platforms, but whether it is online dating or marriage and love platforms, there is no guarantee that you can find a suitable other half." Expert evaluation found that the success rate of dating platforms is only 20% to 30%, so it is necessary to be fully psychologically prepared, there is a high possibility that you will not be able to find a suitable partner online. ”
Several departments said they were not responsible for supervision
The dating platform says that the price is agreed upon by both parties
In an encounter like Xu Xuan's, who should I turn to defend my rights?
To this end, the reporter contacted the Xi'an Municipal Administration for Market Supervision and the Beilin District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau, the staff said that after the parties complained, the relevant departments of the Municipal Supervision Bureau of the corresponding jurisdiction will go to the scene to investigate, if the parties complain about the situation is true and the evidence is sufficient, the corresponding punishment will be carried out, but the supervision in the early stage does not fall within their jurisdiction.
The staff of the Xi'an Civil Affairs Bureau said that the Civil Affairs Bureau is not responsible for the supervision of marriage and love platforms.
For Xu Xuan's situation, Gao, the manager of the Xi'an store of "My Lord's Good Relationship", said that the company cannot guarantee that the blind date here has 100% results, and the blind date process is calculated according to the number of people agreed in the contract.
"If the customer wants to continue to meet men, we can continue to provide her," Gao said, no matter which company will not guarantee a 100% success rate, everyone we introduce will meet after introducing the situation to the customer, the introducer has registered personal information, according to the information to introduce, the contract will also specifically indicate how many men to introduce.
As for the problem of excessive charges, Gao said that the price had been communicated to the customer before signing the order, and the customer who could accept it must have no objection to the price. When the reporter asked whether there was a specific pricing for the fee, he replied that the company's customers could see the package content enjoyed by different services, and when the reporter asked whether the price was declared with the Price Bureau, Gao said that it was only agreed with both customers.
A number of marriage and love platforms have been labeled as "liars" by netizens
The marriage and love industry has become the "hardest hit area" of consumer complaints
According to the latest statistics in 2023, there are currently 230 million single people in China, accounting for 1/6 of the total population. Due to the fast pace of life, high work pressure, and small circles, there is more and more demand for young people to make friends through marriage and love platforms or online blind dates, but at the same time, there are not a few problems.
In recent years, the problem of chaos on marriage and love platforms has occurred frequently, victims have no way to complain, and there is no hope of protecting their rights, and many marriage and love platforms have been labeled as "liars" by netizens.
The reporter inquired and found that there have been tens of thousands of complaints about the marriage platform on the black cat complaint platform, including 2409 complaints about "my lord's good relationship", 7148 century jiayuan, 3518 zhenai.com, in addition, there are complaints from other marriage and love companies such as MarryU and so on. Mainly around the "overlord clause", "false publicity", "difficult to refund", "induce consumption", "the actual service does not match the promise", "no reason deduction" and other keywords, only Baidu search "my lord good fate", you can see several customer refund rights protection related reports.
It can be seen that the matchmaking industry has become the "hardest hit area" of consumer complaints, and it is facing the problem of difficulty in protecting consumer rights.
In 2021, the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Commission carried out a special investigation, and on September 26 of the same year, it released the "Survey Report on the Service Status of Marriage and Dating Platforms" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"), which found that the five platforms involved, including Century Jiayuan, Baihe.com (the two have been merged into "Baihe Jiayuan"), Zhenai.com, and My Lord Liangyuan, have problems including but not limited to unclear refund rules, unfulfilled publicity promises, and virtual membership information review, which seriously infringes on consumers' right to know. Legitimate rights and interests such as the right to fair trade and the right to information security.
Not only that, but the high cost of matchmaker services on the dating platform is also surprising. The report pointed out that 24.2% of consumers spend 15,000 yuan to 30,000 yuan on online dating platforms; 0.6% of consumers spend more than 100,000 yuan in their stores; take my lord good relationship as an example, 23,980 yuan package service for 6 months, match 5 objects, an average of 4,000 yuan per month, and each object costs 4,800 yuan.
Lawyer: The supervision of dating platforms should be the responsibility of multiple departments
In response to Xu Xuan's situation, Zhu Changjiang, a senior partner and lawyer at Shaanxi Fengrui Law Firm, said that the marriage platform was suspected of inducing consumption and false publicity. First of all, the matchmaker persuaded Ms. Yang to pay the fee by swiping her credit card, which may be an act of inducing consumption. Secondly, the dating platform promises a very high success rate of blind dates, but in fact only meets 10 men and none of them succeed, which may be a false propaganda. Therefore, the parties concerned can file a complaint and report to the local administrative department for industry and commerce or the consumer association, and require the marriage and love platform to bear the corresponding legal responsibility.
Zhu Changjiang said that the supervision of marriage and love platforms should be handled by multiple departments. First of all, the Market Supervision Bureau should supervise the registration and operation of marriage and love platforms to ensure that they operate legally. Secondly, consumer associations should also supervise the consumption behavior of marriage and love platforms to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. In addition, the marriage and love platform industry association should also carry out self-discipline management of enterprises in the industry and promote the healthy development of the industry.
The lawyer reminds that when a party encounters such a situation, he or she can take the following measures to protect his rights:
1. Read the contract carefully: First of all, you need to read the terms of the contract carefully, especially the provisions on refund, liability for breach of contract, etc. If there are clauses in the contract that are unfavorable to you, you can raise an objection and ask for a revision in time. 2. Negotiate with the marriage platform: If the parties believe that their rights and interests have been infringed, they can negotiate with the marriage platform to resolve it. During the negotiation process, you need to clarify your own demands and reasons, and retain relevant evidence. 3. Complaints and reports: If the negotiation fails, the parties can file a complaint and report to the local market supervision department or consumer association, and request the marriage and love platform to refund the fee or compensate for the loss.
4. Seek legal aid: If none of the above methods can solve the problem, the parties can seek legal aid to protect their legitimate rights and interests through legal channels.
Expert:
Marriage and love platforms are overly market-oriented
It is easy to cause the alienation of values and emotional outlook
Wang Xiaoyong, an associate researcher at the Shaanxi Academy of Social Sciences and an expert on social hotspots, said that although the marriage and love platform has a high consumption and low success rate, everyone is willing to choose a mate through the platform, indicating that everyone generally believes that choosing a mate is not something that everyone will do, but some young people are affected by dating variety shows and marriage platforms, and have a wrong understanding of marriage.
In this case, the excessive marketization of the marriage market and dating platforms has brought alienation of people's values and emotional outlook. There are some suspicions of hype and false propaganda on the marriage and love platform, and even distorting people's views on marriage and love, misleading the entire society about the values that marriage and love should have.
Since ancient times, there has been a matchmaker industry among the people, which is not only a part of folk culture, but also can obtain certain economic benefits. In today's social context, it has evolved into the marriage and love platform industry, which must bear the corresponding social responsibilities and risks, and the government should also supervise the qualifications and thresholds of the corresponding platforms and standardize the industry.
Wang Xiaoyong believes that the judicial department should intervene in the suspected false propaganda and induce consumption of the marriage and love platform, and the civil affairs department should strictly supervise it, and those who are serious should be kicked out of the market and punished accordingly.
Wang Xiaoyong said that the society should have a cognition of the marriage platform, and supervise the marriage and love platform by relying on false advertising, false marriage conditions to attract attention, or to cause the society to have a bad view of marriage and love, and guide the correct values of marriage and love.
Therefore, the illegal operation of the marriage and love platform, once the platform has a dispute with the customer, there must be a responsible person, and there must be a corresponding complaint mechanism, and the complaint of the marriage and love platform can not only be inclined to the platform, but should be more focused on safeguarding the interests of consumers, and only by focusing on the interests of customers can the industry be rectified.
Huashang Daily reporter She Hui
Source: Huashang Net-Huashang Daily