Loveme.com / A Foreign Affair
Reviews and Complaints

I had high hopes for LoveMe, a dating agency that promised to help me find love with women from all over the world. I had been communicating with a young lady from San Jose, Costa Rica since March 2014 through their "Express Mail" service. I spent almost $400 on Express Mail messages, hoping to develop a good friendship with her. She wanted to meet me and I wanted to meet her, so I flew to Costa Rica on June 11, 2014.

Before going, I wrote her with my hotel name and number, hoping she would call me to arrange a place and time to meet. However, the agency was blocking any contact information until the lady signed off on an Imbar form, releasing the agency of any liability. I was under the impression that the lady was receiving all my information and was going to call me. But, I was wrong.

The agency in Costa Rica knew I was coming to see the young lady, but they wanted me to contact them instead of her. They didn't necessarily bend over backwards to let her know about it. Looking back on the situation, LoveMe had a fiduciary duty to do it since they are a dating agency. While in San Jose, I spent most of the time waiting around the hotel, watching the World Cup, using the fitness center, and bothering the hotel staff. I was thinking that the young lady might try to call there at any time since I had given her the hotel number (which the translator was blocking unbeknown to me).

On the third day, I checked my email messages on the hotel computer and there was an Express Mail from her. My bank would not let me charge it at first with my Credit Card. She wrote me asking why I hadn't contacted her. I wrote to say that I was at the hotel and gave her the number again, but of course, the translator blocked it. Another set of Express Mails were exchanged between her and I, basically saying the same thing. You might think that the agency personnel in SJ would have shown some professionalism and told the young lady to go to their office ASAP and sign off on the Imbra so we could meet quickly. It appears to me from what happened next, that they were telling the young lady to wait to sign the Imbra until I went to their office. They wanted me to pay $200.00 for a membership.

Towards the end of my week in Costa Rica I became desperate. I called the LoveMe headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona long distance from my hotel in Costa Rica. They said that they would contact their guy in San Jose, Costa Rica and tell him what to do. The guy called me at my hotel. He said that I had to pay a $200.00 membership fee and send another Express Mail ($10.00) to the young lady to tell her to go to the agency to sign the Imbra and I had to go there also. I asked the guy why I had to pay $200.00 for a membership and why couldn't the young lady just sign the form and we could meet? The guy said it was too late for her to sign the Imbra without me paying the $200.00. He said that the LoveMe Office in Phoenix, AZ gave him this directive.

To make a long story short, I did not meet the young lady. After paying the airfare, hotel, food, and rental car, and all the Express Mails since March 2014, the last thing I wanted to do was pay for a membership fee, especially since I didn't know about it. The guy at the SJ agency said that I could have access to 200 additional women's profiles. Pretty stupid since I only wanted to meet the one lady in San Jose.

After I came back from Costa Rica, I called the agency several times, but the front office personnel were critical of me for flying down to meet the young lady. They gave me some reasoning that 97% of men who say they are going to fly off to a different country to meet a woman, never do. Finally, I talked with the owner and we negotiated for a month about what was going to happen.

He refunded me the charges for the Express Mails that I sent while in SJ and my long distance call. He had the guy in San Jose contact the lady and arrange for a three way phone call for 5 minutes. We talked, but the lady was still wondering why I had not contacted her. She thought that I was meeting and going out with other women.

About one week later she was able to go to the LoveMe agency and she signed the Imbra. I received her number and I withdrew my previous commentary that I had written and a complaint to the BBB. I made several attempts to contact the lady by phone, but I always receive a message, "d?j? su mensaje." (leave your message). I have not been able to reach her even though I have called numerous times around the times the agency told me to call her. LoveMe did arrange for another 3-way conversation (without letting me know ahead of time) for 5 minutes. The young lady seemed to be very ambivalent. She said that I could call her that Sunday between 4:00 pm. and 4:30 pm. The same thing happened when I called her number at that time.

The owner tried to tell me that it appears that she only was going to meet with me for one day when I was in SJ; trying to deemphasize not being able to see her. I tried to explain that we had written about meeting for dinner or breakfast too. I had rented a car and could have picked her up from work and conveniently gone out to dinner and passed more time together. We were developing a good friendship and I wanted to continue it. After I arrived back in California, she had written me that she had adjusted her only day off, making sacrifices to be able to spend time with me and was disappointed for not being able to meet.

It was as if I was passing through some surreal, twilight zone experience. For one week I was in limbo waiting and hoping to hear from her. I thought maybe she had stood me up. After returning home, I was pretty depressed and annoyed for a month. The closest thing to an apology that I received from LoveMe was when the owner told me that "the last thing you wanted to do was pay for a membership fee after traveling all the way to Costa Rica." I seriously doubt the agency personnel in San Jose and Phoenix have offered the young lady an apology. I would like to see a personal one written to her. Even if I never have a chance to see or speak to her again, they really need to write her an apology in my opinion.

Now, I am reposting my review because I want other men to be aware of what could happen. LoveMe emphasizes their memberships and tours. Emails and Express Mails are a small percentage of their business. Also, the translator reads all words, checking for contact information in the Express Mail until the lady signs off on the Imbra. If you have any questions and if can contact me, feel free.