I would be interested in more details about your experience as i am considering using a dating service but i DEFINITELY won’t be joing It’s Just Lunch after all these bad stories that I have heard.

Thanks… Justine

I signed up for the year membership which costs $1,800. Pretty extreme, but you can take it however you want. When I first began I decided this would be a good investment into my future to find a wonderful woman to spend the rest of my life with. The dating world is not easy here in Chicago and the typical “bar” women are far from the best. So this was another option other than the online dating scene.

Anyway, throughout the year membership I went on over 25 dates with different women, so I feel I am experienced on how this works. IJL leads you to believe that they have the perfect matches for you, which they don’t! They call and tell you about the new match: What they like to do, their looks, their activities, their travels, etc… After hearing basically the same description for each woman, I eventually told them to not waste their time in telling me about the details. Every one sounded fantastic, until you went out on the date! Out of these 25+ dates, I would say that only 2 were good looking. Only a few (6) could hold a conversation, and many had completely different views/likes etc…and weren’t even close to a match. It is very frustrating to go through that many dates throughout the year and not find 1 woman that I would like to date. This service had no idea of what I was looking for, after several conversations stating what I was in search of. They only meet with you once and somehow they “know” you. You have to explain your likes/dislikes over the phone to someone you have never met. Supposedly, there are a group of people who sit in a room and go over all the different profiles to match you up. I think they just grab the closest match and that’s who you will be meeting. There was never a good match and then after complaining several times, IJL had the nerve to ask me to sign up for another year! Crazy! I haven’t even spoken to the woman who interviewed me initially (Since I signed up). You would think that she, being the one who “knows” you, would do her best to advise or help in any way possible. She explained that she knew exactly what I was looking for, and I believed her. Unreal. IJL doesn’t even show you a picture of the person you are about to go on a date with. If they did that, it would have saved the woman and I a bunch of time. There were very few good looking women, and the ones that were good looking, couldn’t hold a conversation or didn’t have the same likes/dislikes as I. And I’m sure that everything is vice versa as well….if I wasn’t the woman’s type, it would have saved her time/money. I wanted to let you know that I wasn’t the only one. Several dates (10) that I went on said they hated the service as well and they weren’t listening to what they wanted. Some tried to cancel the membership, but IJL wouldn’t let them. Throughout the 25+ dates, there wasn’t 1 compliment about IJL. Only complaints.

Anyway, to make a long story short:
IJL DOESN’T LISTEN TO YOUR NEEDS
IJL DOESN’T ADVISE YOU ON DATING, OR HELP WITH MATCHING
IJL DOESN’T MATCH YOU WITH PEOPLE THAT YOU CAN RELATE TO
IJL DOESN’T MATCH YOU WITH GOOD LOOKING PEOPLE
IJL ISN’T ANY BETTER THAN ONLINE DATING, WHICH IS MUCH CHEAPER
IJL DOESN’T FULFILL…SIMPLE.

So, in conclusion, if you are considering this service, take my advice and don’t waste your money. IJL has been more of an annoyance than anything else. No one seems to know what they are talking about and they are just reading profiles….you could do that online for much less than $1800 + all the food and drinks that you have to spend when you go on these dates. Back to the real dating world….in fact, already have 2 dates lined up WITHOUT the service! Good luck.

Patty