Online dating agency Jiayuan.com has come under fire again after a consumer complained that he paid nearly 180,000 yuan (US$24,822) for a dating service five years ago but remains single.
The man surnamed Wei claimed that in 2019, due to a desire for marriage, he registered as a member on Jiayuan.com in Shanghai, according to The Paper.
The one-on-one “matchmaker” assigned by Jiayuan.com offered a promotional activity that could allow members to find partners for free, asking him to pay 88,888 yuan and sign a contract, said Wei.
“They said at that time that this service had a rebate preference, just like saving money, and they verbally promised to help me find a partner within a year,” Wei said.
The contract shows that during the matchmaker service period, there would be one-on-one communication with Wei, providing emotional consulting and guidance, formulating a marriage-seeking plan based on his personal profile, accurately positioning his partner selection requirements, and arranging for no fewer than 12 (dating candidates) meetings, etc, according to the report.
“In actual meetings, the dating candidates introduced by the platform were far from satisfactory, and I was not satisfied with the service at all,” Wei said, adding that the dating candidates introduced by the matchmaker were very different from their photos, and their personalities did not meet his requirements.
He demanded a refund but was unsuccessful.
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Wei said that when he had met 12 dating candidates, there were still a few months left in the service period stipulated by the contract, but the platform no longer introduced new people, so he tried to apply for a refund.
A sales manager said they would strive to improve the service and asked Wei to renew the payment once more, otherwise, the previous fees would not be refundable either, Wei said.
In 2021, he paid another 88,888 yuan as a result, but still did not succeed in the dating pool.
“They promised to extend the service for me, but they didn’t fulfill it, and my request for a refund was also unsuccessful, while the staff are no longer answering my calls now,” Wei said. He accused Jiayuan.com of false promotion and inducement to consume, and he demands the platform refund his fees and pay compensation.
On December 10, the staff member who signed the first Jiayuan.com VIP contract with Wei, said she left Jiayuan.com a long time ago and does not remember him, and Jiayuan.com said that the complaint was being handled.
It was not the first time that Jiayuan.com has been entangled in similar disputes.
In May, Jiayuan.com was fined 200,000 yuan by market regulators in Yangpu District for swindling customers based on an administrative penalty notice delivered in April.
The agency was found to have failed to inform two customers about the service content and quality after they had paid more than 100,000 yuan in membership fees.
The administrative penalty was arrived at based on China’s Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests, according to the Yangpu District Administration for Market Regulation.
The company came under fire following exposure on this year’s annual “315” consumer rights day TV show on CCTV, which claimed that the company’s matchmakers lured people with fake information and virtual dating figures and also imposed random charges.
It was also found to have tricked consumers into paying high membership fees above 10,000 yuan each, and taking advantage of their anxieties over age, birth, and the feelings of their children after divorce.
Some single men and women and their parents who are eager to help their children “get out of being single” view the marriage introduction service market as one of the most important channels in China. However, the market is chaotic with acts such as false promotion, inducement to consume, and bullying contracts exposed regularly. Businesses have set up various traps to trick consumers who are eager to “get out of being single,” infringing on the legal rights and interests of consumers, experts said.
A veteran employee who worked in the matchmaking industry for four years surnamed Zhang resigned this year. She revealed some of the “tricks” of the matchmaking market.
“It’s actually about exploiting people’s urgent desire to find a partner; of course, there are tricks involved. At first, they will introduce you to some people with very good conditions, to be honest, some good-looking people, and the material conditions are what they say themselves. Matchmaking agencies don’t check people’s property proof. Then they usually recommend other service items, such as teaching you how to chat with a partner or how to dress, which are all extra charges.”
Zhang revealed that many matchmaking companies often exaggerate in their promotions, promising to find a “perfect partner” for their clients, but in reality, that is hard to deliver.
“Matchmaking companies will talk very enticingly when signing the contract, saying that they will ensure your satisfaction. They will say that they have many resources, such as who is a teacher at the school, who is a civil servant, to trigger your interest. In the end, they will use the same excuse that the other party is not interested in you. The number of dates stipulated in the contract is quickly achieved, and then they will ask you to renew your membership or upgrade your package. These are all common tricks, and people in the industry are well aware of them.”
Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the Consumer Protection Law Association of the China Law Society, said it is not easy to define the quality of matchmaking service or to quantify service standards. The service quality of practitioners is uneven, and there are practical difficulties involving multiple regulating authorities, leading to much chaos.
“Marriage introduction services may involve multiple regulatory departments such as civil affairs and market supervision departments, and the supervision between multiple departments may not necessarily cooperate so tacitly, leaving some regulatory blank areas and providing opportunities for some dishonest marriage introduction agencies to exploit,” he said.
The root cause of the frequent chaos in marriage introduction agencies lies in the lack of industry regulation and inadequate law enforcement, said Fan Shiqian, an associate professor with the Civil, Commercial and Economic Law School of China University of Political Science and Law.
“On one hand, matchmaking intermediary services cannot be evaluated through quantitative standards, making it difficult to judge whether the intermediary agency’s service is responsible. On the other hand, even if consumers defend their rights through legal means, due to the difficulty of obtaining evidence, complex legal procedures, and long enforcement cycles, they often fail to obtain proper compensation. This vacuum of law and regulation allows some marriage introduction agencies to continue to infringe upon consumer rights in the gray area.”
,https://www.shine.cn/news/metro/2412111956/