For this review I’m going to be taking a look at Parship, a dating site that sells itself as a serious matchmaking site for professional daters.
I’m just going to be upfront here and tell you this is a dating site that you’ll probably want to avoid. If you’d like to know why, then just skip to my conclusion.
If you are still interested in learning more about Parship, then you are also welcome to read on.
About Parship
First launched in the UK over 10 years ago, the site has always been one of the top ten dating sites in the UK. Their target audience appears to be focused on the more professional dater. You will find that many lawyers, doctors, architects and high achievers are members on this dating site.
Members on the site are aged from 18 to 65 years old. With the age group 25 to 50 being the most popular and active.
Members here are primarily seeking a serious relationship, there are very few people looking for casual encounters or friendship.
Their TV Ad
Creating Your Profile
Initial registration on the site can be accomplished in a little under 60 seconds, you certainly don’t need to be highly qualified to understand the form shown below.
Next up comes their personality test. And until the test is completed, you are unable to really do anything on the site. The test is not as extensive as the ones offered by eHarmony and matchaffinity.com, but it will still require 20 minutes of your time if you answer honestly.
For one part of the test you are shown a serious of pictures and asked which you prefer, exactly what this has to do with anything I don’t really know. If I prefer the picture with the straight lines than the circled lines, what does this say about me? And how does this really determine with whom I’m matched with?
Anyway, once you have answered their questions, of which I’d say at least 30% had no distinguishable meaning, you are finally asked to upload a photo or two.
This pretty much completes your profile. You are now sent to a subscriber page where they will attempt to get you to part with your money. But it’s not necessary to pay now, and you should definitely not pay for something that you have not yet tried on for size. So just click their logo which will take you back to the site, and you can take a look around.
Features You’ll Find
Logging into the website for the first time and you are greeted with a very pleasing interface. The design is intuitive and you should certainly not have any difficulties finding your way around.
The compatibility matching is probably their number one feature. It allegedly uses a scientific based matching process that starts by comparing your personality test results with those of other members. They attempt to match key personality traits that have been identified as leading to longer and more successful relationships.
The completion of the personality test also results in a compatibility score. The score is between 60 and 140 points. And a score of 100 points is considered as average. The score is shown against all of your matches on the site, giving you an idea to how well you are matched with one another.
If you are looking for the search option on the site, then you won’t find it. That’s because it has been replaced by “Recommended Partners”. This is basically the results of the compatibility matching. However, you can still tweak many of the criteria like age, location and height etc.
Unless you are a paying member, you will find that profile photos are unfortunately blurred out. This is quite frustrating, but according to Parship it’s a security feature.
You will of course also find features like, messaging, email, winks, as well as the option to add people to your favourites list, and also block people that irritate you.
If you would prefer to flirt in privacy on your mobile, then with Parship you can. They have a mobile optimized web version of their site that you can access using your mobile browser, and also an iPhone app.
The Traffic Test
I always like to check the traffic (number of active members) of a dating site before paying for the service. It obviously makes little sense to pay upfront, to only discover there is no one in your local area that you would like to contact.
I customized my recommended partner settings to only show females between the ages of 25 and 35, and living in the West Midlands. I was very surprised by the results. How many profiles do you think were returned? 50? 100? 150? No, a grand total of 4! Yes, just 4.
Only 4 people are matched to me in the entire West Midlands. I changed the location to London, and 60 matches were returned. So slightly better, but still very low for London.
So I would recommend making your own traffic test before opening your wallet.
The Scam Test
The online dating industry is worth over 2 billion pounds, and more and more people are looking for love online than ever before. This has unfortunately lead to a large number of dating companies abusing members, by tricking them into signing up through the use of computer generated messages, and pseudo profiles. Today the Nigerian scammer is really the least of your worries.
I therefore always recommend leaving your profile description blank, and not uploading a photo for at least 7 days. If you are messaged within this time, they are most likely scams. Since real members will not message users without a photo and no description in their profile.
In my first 7 days on Parship, I didn’t receive any messages at all. So this is at least is a good sign that the company is not trying to rip you off, and also that their spam filters are working well.
Membership Prices
You can join for free, but free membership entitles you to very little. You can view your matches and read their profiles, but you can’t view their photos, message them or read messages received. The costs for Parship in 2018 are:
£14.90 per month for a 6 month membership
£19.90 per month for a 3 month membership
£29.90 per month for a 1 month membership
Subscriber benefits are also outlined below:
Your subscription will be automatically renewed at the end of your 1, 3 or 6 month period. I usually recommend cancelling this early on to avoid a nasty shock on your bank statement. I’ve also read reviews from users that say Parship makes the cancellation very difficult, so if you do join (which I don’t recommend), ensure you get proof that your subscription has been cancelled. And pay using a credit card which at least gives you some form of payment protection.
Good and Bad Points
Professional dating site for serious daters
Well designed and very intuitive website
Mobile optimized plus iPhone app available
Very limited number of members
Profile photos are blurred out unless you are a paying member
Automated membership renewals are very difficult to cancel
Expensive, especially considering the size of the membership pool
To Conclude
Like I said at the beginning of this review, this is one website that I can’t recommend that you join.
Yes, the site looks very pretty, it functions well, and appears to be above board without too much of a spam problem.
However, that’s really where the benefits end. The main reason for joining a dating site is usually to find your soul mate. And without any doubt, this requires there to be a considerable sized membership for you to have any success. And at Parship, their membership numbers are abysmal.
At first glance their compatibility matching system appears to work well, until you realize that you’ve actually been matched with smokers when you stated in the initial questionnaire that you are not interested in dating members that smoke. This appears to be a common complaint when you search the web.
Another common complaint is that it’s very difficult to cancel your membership. With many users complaining they have had money taken from their accounts, despite receiving confirmation that the subscription was cancelled.
Therefore I think you would most definitely be better off avoiding this site all together. If you are looking for a compatibility matching site, then eHarmony is a much safer bet, with more members and better customer support.
But the choice is yours. If you would still like to take a look, then just hit the big green button below.
Parship is stealthily taking payments from customers in a deceitful manner by abusing the Continuous Payments Authority system.
Parship forces all customers to agree to a Continuous Payments Authority when taking out a subscription, and at that time advises customers that automatic renewal will be processed, which is not unusual these days. However, it then makes it very difficult or impossible for customers to cancel the automatic renewal online – in fact I tried to find a way to do this in my early days of membership and couldn’t, so I decided to wait until I received a renewal reminder.
The scam that Parship operates is to fail to provide a renewal reminder advising customers of their imminent renewal, and to simply take an automatic renewal payment using the Continuous Payments Authority, regardless of the customers’ wishes. No notification is provided to the customer by Parship until AFTER the renewal payment has been taken.
Once the automatic renewal payment has gone through, customers have no right of cancellation with refund. In fact the Parship T&C small print tells them that if they cancel they forfeit the whole of the full price renewal amount, even though it was taken by Parship without providing a timely renewal reminder.
Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 a company has a duty to “provide renewal reminders”, which Parship is clearly failing to do.
It is clear from complaints on the Internet that customers are regularly charged for automatic renewals that they don’t want, yet Parship continues this underhand practice to help fund their business. This is about the principle of doing the right thing, which Parship are most certainly not doing. The business is CHEATING customers by relying on small print T&C and by deliberately not reminding customers just before the time of automatic renewal that Parship is going to take their money.
Totally agree- rubbish site and rubbish customer service
Very bad experience….I have cancelled the membership twice nevertheless they charged me twice the anual fee.I have used them for exactly 3 days and I was very dissapointed.
I have asked the bank to block the money for their account.
SITE TO BE AVOIDED!
I canceled my membership from the site after 6 days because I couldn’t see the men’s pictures (and therefore I couldn’t tell if I liked the men or not) and they are refusing to reimburse me the 120E I had paid (they are actually reimbursing 30pounds, how generoous!!!), lthough they had stated that members have 14 days to change their minds.
UNBELIEVABLE! Here is a copy and paste of their email:
Dear Ms. ,
Thank you for your e-mail.
I am sorry to hear that you no longer wish to use PARSHIP.
As part of your Premium Membership, we guarantee a certain number of contacts. These contacts are to be paid as compensation in accordance with the Withdrawal Policy and the provisions contained therein.
As you have established a higher number of contacts than guaranteed by us, we claim 75% of your membership cost as compensation, this totals £89,55.
The remaining membership cost will be refunded to you within the next 10 business days.
A withdrawal does not automatically imply the deletion of your profile: you can continue using your profile as a Basic Member. If you wish to delete your profile immediately, please confirm by return of e-mail and I will gladly process this for you. Please bear in mind the deletion cannot be undone.
I hope you will reconsider using PARSHIP as a Premium Member in the future.
Should you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.
With kind regards,
Luisa Ahrens
Parship Customer Service
SITE TO BE AVOIDED!
I canceled my membership from the site after 6 days because I couldn’t see the men’s pictures (and therefore I couldn’t tell if I liked the men or not) and they are refusing to reimburse me the 120E I had paid, lthough they had stated that members have 14 days to change their minds. UNBELIEVABLE!
You can’t see photos even when you DO subscribe ! They have to be released to you on request from the match
This site is ridiculous and exhausting
Avoid Parship, they are stealing money from people. The site is really terrible.
I am having a horrendous experience with Parship! I regret why I did not come a cross this site warning me to avoid at all costs. They took an automatic subscription renewal from me, after I stopped using the site. I was not aware of this so reversed the payment on the same day as it was taken. Parship had made emails of demand to get this money back, even though I did not use their service for the renewed period and they shut my account down. I did not even have access to take my photos off. They have now, after over a year, sent my details to debt collectors and the amount has almost doubled to over a 100pounds demand!
Does any one have any advice on how to deal with this?
Stiffed me too!! There site gives a date of when mebership will end, but it just renewed itself!! I sent them an email, but they want proof of a letter. Poor poor site!!!
HI all,
I cancelled my contract 2 months before ending the contract. They said it was too late and they prolonged it for the next year. After 2 months they charged me 840 CHF for the next year!! They spoiled me Easter and I was crying the whole day. What can I do with such situation?
I hate this web page, they were strange people and I stopped using it after 1 month. But I paid for 6 months. Will they change me all the time? What can I do against it? Can I report it to newspapers?
I had this with a different site – I would email them flagging that they were not open and transparent with their financial promotions something which is against Fca guidelines . Threaten to take them to a small claims court. There’s a good chance you will win but it might scare them before then. Good luck
I thought id cancelled my membership and now hounding me for 3 months plus interest?? I never had one guy contact me and couldn’t work out how it worked. I’ve been on plenty of sites but this is the worst in all areas. I now have to find the money to pay for something I don’t want and don’t like and thought id cancelled – where does it say you have to cancel in writing I’ve asked but no comment – they just want the money.otherwise they will put the debt collectors on me. very unfair.
Threaten to take them to court! Could also say you have a journalist interested in the story.
Hi Vicky
How did your story end.? I am having a similar problem .
Parship took an automatic subscription renewal from me without warning, after I stopped using the site. I was not aware of this so reversed the payment on the same day as it was taken. They made emails of demand to get this money back, even though I did not use their service for the renewed period and they shut my account down. I did not even have access to take my photos off. They have now, after over a year, sent my details to debt collectors and the amount has almost doubled to over a 100pounds demand!
Do you have any advice on how to deal with this?