Its Just Lunch

Tanya from Its Just Lunch is a Liar!! They claim to offer a 3 month membership after its over while not mentioning that upfront.

secondly, the quality of the candidates they present is extremely low without mapping against any or majority of the criterion i laid out. they presented random options and after i declined them put their hands up to say that they did their job by sharing people they thought aligned with my expectations which is completely FALSE.

Its a clear case of bat & switch. I had a terrible experience with this company and would strongly recommend people to not consider doing business with them.

Your prices are outrageous, even for somebody who can afford it. Theyre absolutely ludicrous.

Please take me off further emails with this company. You are very hard to get in touch with, and based on the website I had no idea how much it costs. Your prices are outrageous, even for somebody who can afford it. Theyre absolutely ludicrous.

Please take me off further emails with this company. You are very hard to get in touch with, and based on the website I had no idea how much it cost. All in all a complete waste of time.

I think your company represents highway robbery. I think your company represents highway robbery and anybody who signs up to me its just throwing money away

I signed up months ago and have had zero dates. I may not be a movie star but, I know I am a nice looking woman and according to Facebook dating, I have plenty of opportunities to meet someone and much better looking and younger men than has been presented on IJL.

Horrible service, and only when you complain does someone show up as a potential date. Funny thing is they never materialize so you don't know what happened but, it must have been that the potential date did not want to go out with you?? Or there really was not a possible date, and they just try to pacify you??...how does that continually happen?

Just never a date but, took my $2500 with no problem and guaranteed 12 dates...none to date, and it's been several months...horrible service and really feel they are not telling the truth. The relationship with IJL is less than trusting...

The entire company is a series of frauds. They interviewed me for 2 hours on what I am looking for.

And promised they have a LOT of qualified candidates. Over a month later, they set me up with someone who was the exact opposite of everything I had asked for, didn't live close-by, had several kids, didn't have a meaningful work, picked up 3 phone calls during one hour lunch and had way through asked me to stand up so he can take a look at my body! Amazing right? Clearly they listened and vetted their candidates.

I believe they pay the men to come and waste women's time and meanwhile fool women to pay them.

They rejected all my efforts to cancel at that point and delayed cancelling my monthly membership after I asked them several times so they can sack me another month. Save yourself the trouble and just download one of the mainstream dating apps.

Its just terrible! Probably the worst dating service in terms of value for money compared to anything else, online services included in my experience.
The matchmakers promise you everything but deliver very little.

They oversell your matches, state you will have much in common when you clearly dont, and falsely claim that they have many matches in your local area.
After the initial $3200 fee they continued to bill me $98 a month even after I put my account on hold, the staff did not return my messages, so I had to merchant block their payment requests with my bank.
The Its Just Lunch service preys on peoples insecurities and exploits their fears in these Covid times, potentially offering a safer and verified method of matchmaking and appearing to be a better choice than the online services. No refund policy, terrible staff communication.
Its just truly a waste of money I sincerely wish I had donated the money to charity.

I am writing to express my deep concern with the service I have received so far from IJL.
I initially contacted It's Just Lunch a couple of weeks ago and spoke to Marlo, who seemed in a great rush to sign me up. She went through a "getting to know me" conversation where she asked me various relatively non-detailed questions about what I liked, disliked, hobbies, family etc.

I immediately felt she was not listening to me. For example, I told her I have no siblings or children and both my parents are dead. About fifteen seconds later, she asked me how important it was for me to spend time with my parents, brothers, sisters, children etc. She clearly was not listening or interested in the answers to her questions.

I also told her that I was not interested in outdoors activities such as camping, hiking, but I was interested in playing golf. I told her that I would like to date in Manhattan and she said that would be easy to arrange.
Despite some misgivings, I decided to give IJL a try and signed up and paid $2,995.00.
Next thing, Udonna was put in touch with me as my matchmaker. We did a Zoom call, and it became clear from the start that Marlo had not passed on any information about me. I had to repeat much of the information I had already given Marlo, and Udonna was not aware that I was interested in golf, or was not interested in outdoor activities.

It was as if Marlo had just given Udonna my name and nothing else.
More disturbing, I suddenly found out from Udonna that I had been signed up in Fort Lee New Jersey, which came as a shock. Marlo never mentioned anything about Fort Lee, nor did the contract say anything about Fort Lee. I had specifically said to Marlo that I wanted to date in Manhattan, NOT New Jersey. I told Udonna that I had not been successful matching with people in New Jersey because they were always outdoorsy types, which is why I wanted to date in Manhattan.

I was also concerned about the distance, but Udonna told me that the dates were informed that they have to come to me, so distance would not be a problem. Again I felt Udonna was not listening to me. I got upset when she talked about Fort Lee, and instead of reassuring me, she got snotty with me. She somehow got the impression that I didn't want to date guys in Fort Lee because they might already be on other online sites, which is not what I said.
I was upset because I had spent $3000 and already it seemed as though things were going wrong.

I have never used a matchmaking service before, and it felt like everyone I spoke to did not listen to what I wanted, nor did they care, and they certainly were not communicating in a positive way. I became anxious that I had done the wrong thing and wasted a lot of money. Udonna was very offhand with me, and the zoom meeting did not go well.
However, it seemed that I was stuck, so I agreed to go out with a guy called Martin whom she matched with me. She knew almost nothing about him (again a red flag for me) other than he lived in Manhattan and owned two businesses and liked hiking and camping, which I told her I'm not interested in..

I needn't have worried because after about a week, and having to follow up with her, Undonna phoned and told me that they didn't have an email for Martin, and he wasn't responding to phone calls. So she then matched me up with Jim, who again she knew next to nothing about other than he liked, once again, hiking and camping. Again, no response from Jim. I started to think these were not real matches.

I called someone in customer service at IJL but nobody returned my call.
I had to follow up with Udonna again, and she responded to say that it's not that Jim isn't interested, she just hadn't heard from him.
The next thing was that I got an email saying I had been set up on a date with someone called John, whom I had never heard of, had not OK'd, and knew nothing about. The date was set in Fort Lee for tomorrow (September 29th). I emailed Udonna and told her I didn't know anything about this man. She called me and said she had already told me about him on the 17th of September.

She in fact had not - she had confused him with Martin, the first guy she set me up with. No apology or admission of her mistake however, she just wanted to press ahead with the date in Fort Lee. I reminded her that I do not own a car and could not get to Fort Lee, and reminded her that she told me that dates could come to me. She denied ever having said that, and spoke to me as if I should already be aware that dates in Fort Lee would happen in Fort Lee.

I knew nothing of this - I have no idea how IJL works, or doesn't work, all I know is what I've been told. She told me about John, and yet again, knew almost nothing about him other than he is a chef, and likes, yet again, camping and hiking. After giving me this she says, "So what do you think about him?" How can I possibly tell? I asked what hours he worked and she just said "I have no idea" as if that was a stupid question.

Should she not know a bit more about him? I said I'd get back to her on the date.
Today (Monday Sept. 27) I have spent three hours trying to get hold of Customer Service at IJL. I talked to someone called Catherine who tried to put me through and said that someone would call me back.

No one did, so I tried again and spoke to someone else, who put me on hold for ages. Then I called back and spoke to the same person, then on hold for ages, then to Catherine again who told me (again as if I should have known this already) that the return call time was 24 to 48 hours. This Catherine person was very offhand with me (seems to be the company culture to be rude to customers).
The next thing is I get an email from someone called Octavia, whom I've never heard of before, saying that my date was tomorrow and am I looking forward to it. I wrote back and said cancel the date.

Octavia then called me, and she turned out to be the most pleasant person I've spoken to yet at IJL. She told me who she was (why was it not explained to me that there was someone other than Udonna involved in setting up the date???) She tried to put me through to Customer Service in Upper Management and yet again they were "unavailable" (or, I suspect, not interested). She promised to have someone call me and cancelled the date.
So far I have had a terrible experience with IJL. I asked to date in Manhattan, but unbeknownst to me was signed up in Fort Lee New Jersey.

Udonna, my matchmaker, makes no bones about the fact that she does not like me, and I'm nervous to talk to her. She knows next to nothing about the men she's matching me with, and admits that there is no security done on these guys. Marlo was just interested in selling to me, and Customer Service will not call me back. Despite telling everyone that I am NOT interested in camping and hiking, I keep being matched with men who enjoy those activities.

No one seems to be allowed to give me a name to speak to in Upper Management, everyone I've spoken to except Octavia talks to me as if I should be aware of how IJL works without explaining any of it to me, and Udonna gets confused about who she has and hasn't told me about, and I suddenly get set up on a date with a man I don't want to meet without being told anything about him. It seems to be the most inefficient organisation with a complete lack of caring or communication, and considering it's a matchmaking service, that's not a good sign.
Two days after writing this, I still have not received a call from Customer Service, despite having been promised a call back within 48 hours. I just called you again and am currently on hold waiting for a customer service person. While I was on hold, Udonna miraculously called (coincidence???

I doubt it) and wanted to talk to me about "better understanding of how I can get to my dates". Better understanding in my mind means she has to listen to me. No one is responding to my phone call to customer service whom Lauren is trying to connect me with. I suspect that nobody wants to talk to me because they know they are wrong.

Update, Lauren has promised to have someone from customer service call me within an hour. It is now 12.48 p.m.

on September 30th.
$3,000 is a lot of money to spend on a "service" which offers me nothing I can't get on an online dating site so far. I would like a return of my money, or at least a partial return.
If I do not receive a response offering me a return of my money within 24 hours I will take this to the Better Business Bureau and to social media.
Christie Miller