Any experiences of dating agencies?

[Thomzo]

Hi Guys
My next assignment for my OU course revolves around dating agencies, online or otherwise. Does anyone have any interesting anecdotes, good or bad, funny or serious, about your or someone else's experience that you can share with me? I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks
Zoe

[Gem]

A buddy of mine has used dating agencies and has generally found them to be quite good though has not found 'the one' yet. He is not shallow about looks but goes along the 'if I fancy her then it doesn't matter if she is fat, thin, tall, short or has 3 boobs, its just attraction or no attraction. His one gripe however is 'careful' photos which don't give an accurate picture of a person. He is far more likely to talk to someone if they have put a few varied pics up than he is if there is a beautiful, black and white portrait of someone because he has ended up having a few disasterous dates where people have portrayed themselves as something they are not and the attraction just isnt there. On the other hand, the less posed pics tend to mean he is pleasantly surprised when he meets someone thus providing a positive start to the date..

Bit of a weird one really but he is a straight forward kind of person (as many men are) and dislikes this 'deception'.

[TotallyPotty]

Hi Guys
My next assignment for my OU course revolves around dating agencies, online or otherwise. Does anyone have any interesting anecdotes, good or bad, funny or serious, about your or someone else's experience that you can share with me? I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks
Zoe

Hi Zoe,

I was interested to read your post, since I was using dating agencies for around 9 years before I found my soul mate/partner, sounds but really we so fit together, so I could give you sound info if you like. Can you tell me what exactly you would like to know about this mine field? TP

[Thomzo]

Thanks guys.
What I'm really looking for is funny anecdotes (eg. you meet your date and find they have three legs or whatever). The assignment is actually to design a board game, so I'm looking for real (or imagined) funny incidents that I can use to send people forward or backward around the board.

If you'd like, I can send a copy of the game when it's finished.

Cheers
Zoe

[MEL78]

Hi Zoe..I met my other half 13 years ago through the lonley hearts....and now have 2 kids together so it must work some of the time.....did meet a few weirdos first though....

[Stonehead]

I'm looking for real (or imagined) funny incidents that I can use to send people forward or backward around the board.

So, something like the friend of mine who was set up with well-presented, polite, moderately funny, left-leaning, NHS employee. They exchanged details, spoke on the phone and as he seemed quite pleasant, she agreed to have dinner with him. All was going well until she inadvertently tripped the "nutter" switch by making an innocuous remark about the government.

Her date suddenly erupted into full-blown Socialist Worker mode, engaged in a vigourous dialectic—with himself, ranted, raved, and even spat with fury. She said the first 30 seconds was bad, the next minute was embarrassing as everyone in the restaurant turned to watch, and the next 2-3 minutes were excruciating. She said she needed the ladies room and left the table, but actually fled the restaurant leaving her ranting, raving nutter date to pay the bill. (She had to avoid the phone for a couple of weeks as he still wanted to contact her.)

[battybird]

My brother went through a phase where he tried some online agencies. The worst (god knows how he found it!) seemed to have no "checking" procedures and he met up with a woman supposed to be 40yrs only to find she was 65 but "very active". Apparently she had a husband who was "not up to it"!! The photo was of a relative and she had used it several times and said that no-one had objected before because she was such a "hot date"!! Luckily they met in a cafe and he made a quick escape as he was genuinley looking for friendship not sex!!
He met someone on another agency and they hooked up for a year or so but distance stopped the relationship developing (she lived in the far north, he is in the west).
Good luck with your OU course, sounds more fun than the degree course I did!!

[Milims]

Is a dating agency th same as an online dating site? If you are select about the site they work wonderfully - ask my OH!

[crowsashes]

there are some awful ones out there! i signed up to one when i moved house looking for purely friendship.
i had so many offers for sex so called 'extras' whatever they were! lol ( did not want to find out)

there was one guy in particular who used to proposition people and ( according to him) slept his way round the area!

there have been the bloody awful profile pics too! ( dont really need to see that, save it for the bedroom!)

i was chatting to one guy who said he was manager of a shop. everything on his profile was correct, only the guy was a shelf-stacker not a manager.

[Thomzo]

Thanks, guys. You've given me some great material. If anyone would like a copy of the game when it's finished, let me know and I'll send it to you.

Purely for research purposes, I've just signed up with an online dating site. It said that women could join for free, but when I signed up I discovered that 'free' meant you could load your profile and nothing else. Same as all the other sites then.

Before I'd put any personal details on the site, other than my location, I had two messages from guys. How desperate is that? Not that I know what the messages said as I'd have to pay to read them .

Thanks again.

Zoe

[crowsashes]

'plenty of fish' is a free site my ex now uses it and keeps raving on about it it might be worth a look for your research at least then you get to read the messages!

[Milims]

Look It's Me is (or was - it's been a while!) a free friendship site - but as we all know friends can grow on you! It's where Chris and I met. He sent me a message to wish me a happy birthday, so I replied saying that I raised my cocktail in a can and said cheers to him. He immediately replied asking what a wee willy tail was We discovered that the site was so strict about any words that could be found offensive they changed them! It gave us such a giggle that a friendship blossomed and 6 weeks later we were engaged! That was 5 years ago this solstice!

[Shirl]

I am recently divorced and decided to try online dating.......1st was into dominatrix. It came out during chatting. That ended. 2nd obviously thought...divorced and a nurse must be 'gagging for it'
[I don't think so.] I did not even bother meeting that one. He became quite persistant online and really spooked me. I have since removed my details. Oh and I did report him.