Complain about a product or service

It's Just Lunch - Insider's View

Lisa of Leesburg VA (01/13/08)
I was wondering the internet one day and looked up this company, It's Just Lunch, that I used to work for. I can't believe some of these people. The service might not work for everyone, but I have seen a lot of successful matches over the time that I worked there. If there was ever any problems that a client was having then we would try to resolve them or give them a refund. It's Just Lunch doesn't take everyone. If I didn't have matches for someone, then I wouldn't take them. What would the point be if I would have to have them upset and then give them a refund? Some people can never just be happy and there is no pleasing them. Some of them (probably all of the people posting on here) have completely unrealistic expectaions.

There are over 300,000 clients worldwide in IJL and how many complaints are on here? Like 50 worldwide. How would we have stayed in business for 18 years if we were such a rip off? There is always two sides to every story, so check out the BBB to see how many unresolved complaints are on there...NONE! Most clients are very happy with service because it is so easy and there are so many fantastic professional people. I loved working there and seeing all of my successful matches. Of course there are a few bad apples you have to deal with, but when I got feedback about the dates from 99% of the clients thanking me so much for introducing them to one another, it makes it all worth it! I would hate for a potential normal client for IJL to read all this and think it's not for them.

Riley of San Diego CA (12/07/07)
I used to work for It's Just Lunch, and I want to tell all those people out there: SAVE YOUR MONEY! This company is a franchise, which means they are required to meet quotas as a part of their contract. They hire and fire those representatives that are supposed to match you up, and if they don't make their monthly quotas they are fired. This means within a couple months the person who interviews you will most likely not match you. In fact they have people coming and going out of that company that the only thing they look at is the sheet to see if you both like tennis or like to eat. This is how they match you! Your matchmaker has never even met your dates! It's all on a piece of paper. They seriously would just send people out on dates so you just use up your dates. Personal matching is a lie when they don't even interview the persons.

It's Just Lunch also fibs on ages! They will knock off a couple years if you are older. They don't fully tell the other person that they have 6 kids when you specifically request someone without kids. They lie about occupation.... You name it, they do it to get your money and get you out on dates so you can't request a refund. They even are so strapped for people to match correctly that they will try to match the same people up again not knowing or remembering that they already went out!

I finally left that company after seeing how may upset people would call and complain every day about their dates or want a refund. Good luck on that! They try anything and everything not to give you your money back.. It is truely sad that these people take advantage of those people out there looking for love. I apologize to all those out there I called to send them on their horrible dates.

No refunds! Don't even try! Or get a good lawyer.

Franchise Owner(06/22/07)
I owned 3 franchise locations until very recently. I can and will tell you the entire story about this company and Daniel Dolan. If you think anything you have on your website currently scratches the surface that is laughable. I have copies of all contracts, emails, corporate correspondence (including ones in regards to your website) and legal filings to support my story.

Lesley of Sacramento CA (12/13/06)
I am a prior employee and want to join the early 2006 report about It's Just Lunch. I too had a similar experience being trained to sell memberships to potential clients. I received no experience in matchmaking but did receive a four day training about making the sale. The company is all about the sale and not about matchmaking. The only guarantee this dating company makes is that it will expand the client's social network. They give no guarantee that you will even like the person you meet. However, the propoganda- although not a direct lie- dupes emotional clients into signing up for a service that, for the most part, fails. At It's Just Lunch, the customer is always wrong. There's just as much a chance as meeting someone at Starbucks, on Match.com, or at the gym as there is at It's Just Lunch. You'll just save yourself the 1500.00. I got out as quick as I could.

Mark of Naples FL (12/04/06)
I had 2 franchises with the company. Shortly after joining I realized the atmosphere was not the warm and fuzzy environment you would think of at a dating company. Even at the Franchisee instructional meeting we were berated by Andrea for asking the wrong questions.

After talking with other operators we found that many to most of them were not profitable and that they were having financial problems with the heavy requirement for advertising expenditures as well as kicking into the national media accounts.

Because of, in my opinion, trumped up defaults we were in constant threat of defaults and termination which made the working environment extremely undesirable and uncomfortable. I actually had a heart attack which I believe was caused to a large degree by the stress i was under as a franchisee of this organization. In my opinion this is a very undesirable company to do businss with particularly because of Dolan.

Leona Helmsley has nothing on these two and he's got the extra utility of being a former attorney so he knows how to grind people up and spit them out. Most of the franchisees are terrified of him as they know his history and his threats of bankruptcy and lawsuits.

We are in federal court as we speak as I am counterclaiming Dolan of not divulging that most small and mid-size markets are not profitable and never have been. In my opinion he is just taking advantage of small business operators to generate fee revenue for the franchisor.

Karen of Delray Beach FL (09/15/06)
I actually worked as the Coordinator for the WPB/PB Gardens office for 14 months. I stopped working there in Feb of 2004, and it has always bothered me that I didn't report their misconduct. I was directed by my boss to lie, avoid answering client questions, and to make someone feel bad about being unhappy w/the service if they complained.

Carole of Washington DC (09/05/06)
I accidently stumled into the many consumer complaints two weeks after accepting the position of Sales Director for the Washington DC branch of It's Just Lunch. Four months later I find myself sitting here feeling used and defrauded by my experiences.

I ignored the red flag when I was told that I did not fit the mold of the typical IJL Director. I am 56 years old and an African American. Nevertheless I was assured by the owner that I could make 85,000- 100,000 my first year. This was even stated on the website which was how I learned about this opportunity in the first place.

They assure it's members that the directors are well trained to make good matches... wrong. I cannot speak for the other branches but the matches made by office are being made by three coordinators whose job is to call the restaurants to arrange the dates... NOT TO MAKE MATCHES. Courtney is 19 years old and IJL is her first job. Katie, the office manager is 24 and her biggest claim to fame is that she worked at Disney World for 5 years as Mickey Mouse and Alison who is really a dear person and to her credit seems to have a natural gift to make good matches. To be totally honest her biggest gift is that she cares about her clients enough to actually read their profiles.

I came aboard four months ago and finally got to the point that I just could not go on defrauding myself and the good people who came in and dropped $1500. I confess I got very good at my contribed skill. I was actually nominated last month as Director of The Quarter... an honor that I am not at all proud of.

Recently I got to the point where my attitude was changing and I was no longer the cheerful, optomostic emplotee I once was. I am sure that I was not too easy to get along with , but I was actually being eaten up with guilt. My husband can attest to tthe fact that I cried myself to sleep lots of nights.

Kathleen Henley of Derby NY (07/10/06)
All of the statements made against IJL are absolutely true. I am a former employee and witnessed it all. In our office the owner actually brought in her friend (Comp--free--no contract) to date the undesireables! They blatantly lie about the number of clients & really search for the only thing they may have in common to call it a match. (Like they both like dogs!)Its sad to see how excited they are when they come in & then to hear their complaints after seeing who they are matched with. I used to wake from a sound sleep knowing that a quite undesireable was matched with a really great person & would go in & tell the director to please rematch them. I am so glad that I dont have to see the dishonesty anymore. At least I am one of the few that really cared & tried to do something about it.I was told to stop caring so much and just coordinate the date. Please people, think twice about a service that will not show you photos--there IS a reason for that!Money cant buy happiness and $1000- $1500.00 can buy you soooo much misery.Anyone interested in a class action suit to get your money back? Im with you & know many other employees who would also back you up. Employees got screwed in so many ways too. Directors get fired after 2 months (right before benefits kick in)supposedly for not reaching quota. But, IF you know someone involved with Corporate-you get promoted for not making quota.Our office needed a # of people to open an office in another city. The owner actually took previous clients, DNC's (do not call)and expired clients and put them on the list. All fake clients! Now IF the owner feels no guilt in lying to the corporate office how could you trust them to give you what you THINK you are paying for. If they had the clients-you may be lucky enough to get the few good ones. But the mental picture that they paint and what you get are quite far from each other. Its sad that so many have to get hurt just because they believed and wanted some happiness.

I have been under Drs. care for headaches for over 6mo. I have been gone 1 1/2wks. & havent had one since. Having to lie & deceive caused more stress then I thought. I also never got a review or raise for 10 months. I was not told about IJL sponsoring a Singles Mingle. As the director was packing up advertsing pamplets, I asked why & was told it was that evening. Could it be that I am 20yrs. older then them? They brought in a director from (Rochester) 90 miles away to attend this. I was also asked to be fired or laid off in May to collect unemployment but still come into work because money was tight. She would pay the difference & keep my insurance. When I said I wasnt comfortable with it..she said never mind. I was let go 6/30/06 because she said their was a client issue that morning but it was actually the fault of the Rochester director. Strangely enough a new hire was there the next morning. Guess all this was planned because maybe I knew too much & she was very uncomfotable about my age. Since the new owner took over from corporate in March the director made a few comments about my age. I worked with her before under corporate and nothing was ever said. Since JB took over about 10-15 age related things took place in 3 mo.The clients were as happy as they could be because they could tell that I cared. I received thank you cards & flowers for going that little extra. I can say that No one else ever received any thing other then hate mail.

Cece of Chicago IL (04/19/06)
I worked for Its Just Lunch! for about 4 months and absolutely hated it!! These are the reasons you should not work for this company or join its service!!

1. The turnover is absolutely huge for employees, chances are the person that you interview with that will be hand picking every one of your matches for you will not be there the following week because she either quit or got fired for not hitting an UNREALISTIC quota.

2. The whole company is a lie. The woman that I interviewed with lied to my face about what was to be expected with joining the company, and she will lie to you to.

3. 50/50 men and woman!? Hell NO! more like 80% woman and 20% men.

4. Even if we dont have anyone for you we as sales directors are forced to take you as a member because the owner wants the money! So ya, im sorry but 99.9999% of all directors will be lying to you just to get you to join.

5. HUGE HUGE HUGE HUGEEEE COMPLAINTS!! I feel bad for the coordinators right now dealing with this mess, they truly are the ones that keep the company together unfortunately. Without them, there would be NOTHING. There were maybe 3 completely satisfied customers out of our whole pool of people and that was about 700.

6. If you're planning on joining you might as well just not even show up for the interview and throw away your money to them because anything that you say wont matter at matching time, whoever needs to go out will be set up with you no matter what even though the age paremeters dont match at all. At our Milwaukee IJL we had what you called the sacrificial lamb -- the poor man or woman that had to go out with anyone that needed to go out, just because they were too nice and they didnt bitch that bad.

7. I was forced to take on a man that is involved in pyramid schemes and I think that he may seriuosly have something mentally wrong with him.

8. For all those people that I took money from for those four months. If you are reading this, I am soooo sorry. Your year is almost up and you can get on with your life. I seriously hope you're doing ok.

I turned down a wonderful job opportunity because I was promised that my quotas were reachable. HA!

Seriously, I wasted 4 months of my life at this miserable job. My boss, the franchise owner, scammed me in every way possible.

Nancy of Bethesda MD (09/21/05)
I worked for this company, and I have to put the word out there that this company prides itself on it's ability to prey on people. We were taught to put all integrity and morals aside. Just match people. The more they go out, the less they complain. It didn't matter if the two people were totally not right for each other, match them anyway!

I have left the company because I just couldn't do it anymore.

Michelle of San Diego CA (09/06/05)
I�m one of the rare directors of It�s Just Lunch that lasted over 18 months with this company. I was hired by Daniel and Andrea in 2003 (the married CEO�s of the company). I was hired to work in the downtown San Diego office (which they still owned and operated at that time and this office was their baby, so they said). The corporate office was across the street so it made it very convenient for Andrea and Daniel to keep an eye on me and come over to see if I was doing my job on a daily basis.

I initially contacted IJL because I wanted to buy a franchise�I was not looking to be a director in an office. I had worked for a really upscale, successful and honest dating service before IJL and knew all about dating services before I started with IJL.

Daniel and Andrea said I could buy the downtown San Diego office from them but they wanted to make sure I had what it took to handle the business. They promised to sell downtown to me after I was a director for 6 months in this office.

I was amazed when I went through training with about 12 people that I was not allowed to contact these people to see how they were handling this new high pressure sales job. I called around anyways and found out that only one director was still employed after a few weeks. This one director and I became very close and vented to each other on a daily basis on the phone.

I soon found out after I had worked my butt off that I was one of the rare ones. They say only 1 in 20 directors keeps their job after 4 weeks with IJL. I soon found this out when new directors came and went in my office. Luckily for me I seem to have a knack for selling and made my quota fairly easily and was able to keep my job.

The bigger picture was that I wanted to own my own business. Well, needless to say after 4 months of doing whatever I could to make quota they sold this business out from under me to two younger girls who knew nothing at all about IJL or the dating business with this company. I was actually training them when they took over. So the big bosses sold me out and lied to me just like we did to our clients. It all starts from the top.

Amy of San Antonio TX (08/19/05)
I started working for It's Just Lunch in July 2004 about 3 months after they opened the San Antonio office. The first 9 months I worked there it was great. The directors, although there was a high turnover (5 in 9 months) were very honest and upfront with our clients.

Both the directors and the owner felt that we were a professional service and if we couldn't provide what we promised, wouldn't take a clients money. They also felt very strongly about matching clients with people they felt were what they wanted. They would concentrate on age, ethnicity, religion, body type and stuff they had in common. In that 9 month period, we had five couples call to let us know they were engaged.

However in April of 2005 the San Antonio office was taken over by a new owner and two new directors. Since this time there have been people taken that the directors will essentially lie to in order to get them to join and make their quota. This is in direct order from the new owner. Clients are matched together even when they know it's a bad match in order to just send them out.

Being the coordinator it was my job to take client relations and over the past 4 months these complaints had tripled. Our clients that were once happy were now asking for refunds. After voicing my opinion on more than one occasion for bad matches, people taken that were unmatchable, suggestions for better matches etc, I was fired. I was told on a Thursday in August 2005 that I was fired and needed to leave within 30 minutes. When I asked why, I was told the company was going in a new direction.

So after working there over a year, improving the office by taking on responsibility that wasn't mine in order to have things run more smoothly, having a fantastic relationship with all the clients, and going above and beyond what was required, I was fired.

My suggestion to anyone that wants to join or is thinking about joining. Don't. They will lie about our clients and what they have in their pool of people. They will say anything to get your money especially if they are behind on quota. They will, on 3 out of 5 dates set you up with people that will not be inside your parameters.

Jessica of Lubbock TX (06/13/05)
I interviewed with the company on Monday, June 6 and was offered the position. On June 7, I flew out to San Diego for training. Everything was so quick and many questions weren't answered. I trained from Tuesday until Friday. When I showed up for the position on Monday morning the owner wanted to speak with me. He then informed me that the corporate office did not feel that I would be beneficial for the position. They stated that I was hesitant and thought their service was expensive.

They charge $1,500 to set people up on 16 dates. Who wouldn't think that was expensive. Not to mention, everyone starts a new job with some hesitance. Maybe if questions were answered before my training there would have been no hesitations.

Leslie of Margate FL (05/16/05)
I was hired in December 2004 for a dating coordinator in the Deerfield Beach office. I was told from the time I started that the most important thing in my job was making my monthly quota, regardless if I had to lie to the clients to make it happen. As time went on, I found that the franchise owner Jennifer was less concerned with the client's happiness and more concerned with making money - especially since she ISN'T the owner, simply a front person for the real owners who are the CEO's of the company.

This past May, I was threatened by a client, Ron H, who threatend me by saying if I ever see her, I'll wring her neck.

Jennifer, the owner said he's from NY, so it wasn't a threat. All NY-ers are like that. Today (5/15/05) it was discovered that one of our clients that was recently renewed is a convicted and registered sex offender who SPECIFICALLY wanted to date single mothers. I voiced my concerns to the owner and she proceded to fire me this afternoon because i create a negative vibe in her offices.

Michele of East Amherst NY (11/07/04)
I was hired for It's Just Lunch in Buffalo. The office has been opened for 4 months but I was their 3rd director. Before I started I was told that the owner would be out Mon, Tues and Weds and she said..you will go to training in San Diego for a week and when you get back, you'll have off for the first 3 days because I dont want you to start when I'm not there. I said..great! Well, right before I left for training, she now wanted me to come in for that week so the plans I made had to be cancelled.

I was rolling with booked appointments but when they came in and I interviewed them, they werent joining. I obviously was doing something wrong. I asked the co-ordinator but she said, I'm not the director and I dont know what you do in training. Obviously, I shouldnt of started until the owner was in but that was neither here nor there. The second week, I sold almost $8,000 but of course I didnt reach my goal of $8,000, hence no bonus. I still was happy with my results but obviously, I wasnt doing good enough. I went through the old director's info call book over and over and kept calling the same people. The owner insisted I hadnt covered everyone, but we never sat down to go over the book.

I was calling and calling and some days I had 4-5 appts booked working 10-11 hour days with no lunch or eating at my desk. One day, the owner and co-ordinator left for 3 hours and when they got back I had 4 appts and couldnt leave for lunch. Of course, she told me not to book after 5:00 but she had an appt come in at 6:30. I then had a client come in week one and interviewed him. He wanted to take some time to decide. I called him several times to see if he had thought about it and if he had any other concerns. I also asked the owner to call him. She got him to come in but wouldnt tell me what problem he had with me. He gave her the check, but she didn't credit me with the client even though I booked the interview, interviewed him and followed up. She YELLED at me for not checking the pending files for notes. I was BRAND NEW. I was learning the procedures.

Now, I come to find out, another director quit that was in my training class and two others ( min. ) are quitting their jobs. They expect you to be on a HIGH all day long like you're on helium and then when you get home, you're too exhausted to do anything. The owner told me I'd get used to it. Not only that but they were in the office whispering all day and it was very distracting. I was told to tell our clients that we have over 400 clients in our database. We do, but only about 40 are active. ( maybe a little more ) The others were just people that called in for info.

Although I think that this is a professional company, I dont understand the high rate of turnover. One girl told me that she was the 7th director in 10 months. Our co-ordinator said things like, she may not go out with him on her first date, but she WILL go out with him even though it wasnt a good match.

Melanie of Las Vegas NV (08/02/04)
A new franchise owner recently opened a new IJL office in Las Vegas. She recruited me, begged me to come work for her ... sent me to training (liar camp) at Corporate, and then 3 days after I returned from training she fired me over the telephone without reason because I refused to lie to clients and I refused to be unethical, the way this company pushes their Directors to be.

I was told to tell new clients that we had hundreds of clients, when in fact we had exactly 15 clients, and those 15 people were given free memberships so that we had people to use as inventory.

I was told to tell people anything to get them in the door ... it was a hard core sales pitch worse than what is seen in timeshare sales or used car sales. They lie, about everything! They do NOT match people based on preferences, they just slap people together without regard for the client's preferences, they are only concerned with getting the money, after that ... they don't care what happens to people on their dates.

They prey on lonely people and promise false hope. I came in contact with one man who joined who later said he wanted to sue them for false advertising and breach of contract. They also do not have high profile members -- they take anyone who will write a check. They also don't take credit cards and arrange to send a courier to someone's home or office to pick up the check before they have a chance to change their minds. It is a totally impersonal approach, they follow a strict telephone scripted sales pitch that employees are NOT allowed to deviate from, or else they will be fired the way I was!

Fired for caring about people and wanting to do the right thing, rather than lie to them and take advantage of the lonely singles out there!!

The economic consequence to me was that I left a well-paying job to go to work for this ... organization based on false promises and lies. Then within a week I was unemployed through no fault of my own.

Michelle of Mission Viejo CA (07/19/04)
I've read the complaints and most of them are true. I've worked for IJL as a director in two southern california locations in the last two years and can tell you that 90% of the clients are not happy with the services provided.

From an insiders view I can tell you that the reason people are not satisfied is because the offices don't have enough employees to keep the clients happy. You have two people trying to handle anywhere from 250-400 clients per office. And yes that's all the clients there are per office folks!

One person (the Director) is supposed to match the clients, do interviews all day and handle the clients complaints. The other person (the Coordinator) is suppose to answer the phone, schedule dates all day and put off the people who need to talk to the Director about the date/dates that they were not happy with. You could imagine the phones are ringing constantly, you can never get to everyone. Old clients are ignored most of the time. Newer clients get a little bit of attention in the 1st week but then the Director doesn't have time for them after that and the Coordinator doesn't have the time or the skills to handle the client relations so they are just put off untill you do have time which is sometimes never.

The only thing that matters in a days work is how many checks you get.

As far as the matching goes it's no wonder these people end up on horrible dates the Director has an hour a day (if she can fit it in to her schedule, it ususally become the last priority in a days work at IJL) to put matches together. The 10% of clients that get good dates through this system are usually out of luck. The only thing the franchise owners care about is how much money your bringing in that day.

There is a huge turnover of directors in the offices for all of these reasons. It's almost impossible the amount of work they expect you to do and Directors just can't handle it so they quit or they get fired for not being good enough sales people to handle the stress of the office and stay focused on sales. 1 in 10 Directors quits or gets fired. Just look on Monster every city has an ad for a Sales Director almost every month.

It's too bad the clients are being handled in this manner and I lost a ton of sleep over it when I was a Director in these offices. I finally had had enough and became one of the directors that quit because she was tired of the stess of 50 people calling her everyday to complain. I am soooooo much happier now.

Kathleen of Derby NY (07/10/06): All of the statements made against IJL are absolutely true. I am a former employee and witnessed it all. In our office the owner actually brought in her friend (Comp--free--no contract) to date the undesireables! They blatantly lie about the number of clients & really search for the only thing they may have in common to call it a match. (Like they both like dogs!)

Its sad to see how excited they are when they come in & then to hear their complaints after seeing who they are matched with. I used to wake from a sound sleep knowing that a quite undesireable was matched with a really great person & would go in & tell the director to please rematch them. I am so glad that I dont have to see the dishonesty anymore. At least I am one of the few that really cared & tried to do something about it.I was told to stop caring so much and just coordinate the date. Please people, think twice about a service that will not show you photos--there IS a reason for that!

Money can't buy happiness and $1000-$1500.00 can buy you soooo much misery.

Employees got screwed in so many ways too. Directors get fired after 2 months (right before benefits kick in) supposedly for not reaching quota. But, IF you know someone involved with Corporate-you get promoted for not making quota. Our office needed a number of people to open an office in another city. The owner actually took previous clients, DNC's (do not call)and expired clients and put them on the list. All fake clients! Now IF the owner feels no guilt in lying to the corporate office how could you trust them to give you what you THINK you are paying for.

If they had the clients-you may be lucky enough to get the few good ones. But the mental picture that they paint and what you get are quite far from each other. Its sad that so many have to get hurt just because they believed and wanted some happiness.

Michele of East Amherst NY (11/7/04):
I was hired for It's Just Lunch in Buffalo. The office had been open for 4 months but I was their 3rd director. At first I was excited at the opportunity to work there as it seemed a very high energy place that was very professional. I had inside sales exp. and loved the phone so I felt confident that I'd do well.

Before I started I was told that the owner would be out Mon, Tues and Weds and she said, you will go to training in San Diego for a week and when you get back, you'll have off for the first 3 days because I don't want you to start when I'm not there. Well, right before I left for training, she now wanted me to come in for that week so the plans I made had to be cancelled.

I started with the co-ordinator and she seemed very nice and upbeat. She had my office decorated to welcome me and I thought it was really nice! She and I also knew some of the same people and I thought we really got along well. I started to get phone calls because we had an article come out in the paper that Sunday before. I was rolling with booked appointments but when they came in and I interviewed them, they weren't joining. I obviously was doing something wrong. I asked the co-ordinator but she said, I'm not the director and I don't know what you do in training.

Obviously, I shouldn't have started until the owner was in but that was neither here nor there. The second week, I sold almost $8,000 but of course I didn't reach my goal, hence no bonus. I went through the old director's call book over and over and kept calling the same people. The owner insisted I hadn't covered everyone, but we never sat down to go over the book. I was calling and calling and some days I had 4-5 appts booked working 10-11 hour days with no lunch or eating at my desk. One day, the owner and co-ordinator left for 3 hours and when they got back I had 4 appts and couldnt leave for lunch. Of course, she told me not to book after 5:00 but she had an appt come in at 6:30.

Now, I come to find out, another director quit that was in my training class and two others are quitting their jobs. They expect you to be on a HIGH all day long like you're on helium and then when you get home, you're too exhausted to do anything. The owner told me I'd get used to it.

I was told to tell our clients that we have over 400 clients in our database. We do, but only about 40 are active (maybe a few more). The others were just people that called in for info.

To sum it up, I didn't feel like this was the right fit for me and my boss didn't either. Although I think that this is a professional company, I dont understand the high rate of turnover. One girl told me that she was the 7th director in 10 months. Before I started they kept telling me the old director wasn't in and was taking time off but she really quit or got fired but they wouldn't tell me this until I was out of training.

I have to say that the clients this office has are pretty decent for the most part but they're not going to be as picky for you as they say they will. Our co-ordinator said things like, "She may not go out with him on her first date, but she WILL go out with him" even though it wasn't a good match.

Heidi of Corona del Mar CA (10/4/04):
Lisa, the franchise owner, hired me with promises of $85-100k per year EASY! I left a great job making a good living for 4 1/2 years when I was offered a job with IJL. I was given only 4 days to leave my other job, but I convinced to leave by Lisa promising to make lots of money. I soon relized that not only was I given an UNREALISTIC quota, before I saw a penny of commission, but she was forcing the coordinator to mislead the clients when she was setting them up on dates. Lying about age, height, if they wanted marriage, or children. Even Religion and race.

I was appauled when it all unfolded in front of me. Lisa wanted us as employees to lie to the clients who paid $1500.00 to meet an exact match. When I decided to bring up my concerns to my boss, Lisa, about the lack of business and turnover in employees, and my concern about not really making any $$, she said "Good Luck" and hung up on me.

I then called my Franchise Support manager at the corporate office, (who I was told in training to call with any concerns) I left a voice mail explaining what happened and asked for Human Resources phone number. I was then called by Lisa, who said that because I called Corporate and asked to speak with HR, I was FIRED!

Charisma of San Ramon CA (8/11/04):
I was hired on as a Director for It's Just Lunch in San Francisco. After a fulfilling career in the web communications industry, I thought I would try my hand at something different. A job where I'm helping people with meaningful piece of their lives. Enter...It's Just Lunch! A job opportunity was forwarded to me. After taking a look at their website and reading about them I thought, this sounds like a great company! How rewarding to help match singles with their potential partner in life. Wrong!

I feel it's my responsibility to disclose the practices I encountered during my time as a Director. Especially since I met so many wonderful people that are in the middle of a horrible situation with IJL San Francisco at the present time. They have wasted their money and their time.

What IS the PROBLEM?

1. Matching? There is no "matching" happening at It's Just Lunch! I would describe it as, "Just get them out. They haven't been out on a date for a while now." Due to my work ethic, and duties as a new Director, I took the time and initiative to actually "match" based on the client's profile, personality, and discussion during the interview process. There were a couple of times I took the entire day to match because the office was so far behind. I got my hand slapped for taking the extra time to do this for our clients. There were also times I didn't agree on a match and it created strife between me and my counterpart at the time. We would butt heads on matches, but she was trained to not care and just throw people together. I have learned that at the present time, the clients I had brought on board are highly dissatisfied and disgusted with the treatment and service from IJL San Francisco.

I had no authority to approve a refund. If I had, I would have approved many. IJL has a NO REFUND policy. In retrospect, I can see why.

3. Selective? It's Just Lunch! claims to be selective about the clients that join. This is not true. I was told to take anyone and everyone. There were clients that I didn't want to take checks from, knowing that I couldn't fulfill their agreement, but against my better judgement, I had to in order to keep my job.

4. Database I was trained and instructed to lie to clients about the current number of members in our San Francisco and Walnut Creek offices. I had come into the office over the weekend to count the number of Active and Inactive members, male vs. female, and broke it out according to age group. The Active number was well below what we were quoted to say, and I had addressed this with the Franchise Owner. I was told to quote an inaccurate number even after bringing this to his attention.

5. Gender balance We are instructed to say the balance between men and women is 50/50. This is a FAR cry from the truth. There are far more women than men, and I would say the men have the good end of the deal with It's Just Lunch.

Male clients were putting themselves on "hold" from being asked to go out on so many dates, they were tired. Plus, most dates were a mis-match, again -- because there was no real "matching" going on. Meanwhile, the women were going out on one date every 1 to 4 months.

I would love for an auditor to go into each IJL office and count the ACTUAL number of clients. And the 10,000 marriages claim, I didn't see a system in-house that could possibly track this. I'm curious as to how they would be able to prove this.

6. Turnover During our Director training in San Diego, the CEO walked in and didn't so much as even look at us or offer to introduce himself. Looking back, I'm guessing he knew it would be futile. I believe the average life of an IJL Director is 3-4 months. Of the 12 women I trained with in March 2004, only two are left. Not to mention, Director Training happens twice per month. This is a sure sign of high turnover.

I had to resign because I couldn't even look myself in the mirror. I don't see how ANY good-hearted person could. I encourage more former Directors and Clients (past and present) to submit their complaints to this website and to the Better Business Bureau. And I apologize to those that I worked with...you put your trust in me.

Melanie of Las Vegas (8/2/04):
A new franchise owner recently opened a new IJL office in Las Vegas. She recruited me, begged me to come work for her ... sent me to "training" (liar camp) at Corporate, and then 3 days after I returned from "training" she fired me over the telephone without reason because I refused to lie to clients and I refused to be unethical.

I was told to tell new clients that we had "hundreds" of clients, when in fact we had exactly 15 clients, and those 15 people were given free memberships so that we had people to use as "inventory". I was told to "tell people anything to get them in the door" ... it was a hard core sales pitch worse than what is seen in timeshare sales or used car sales.

They do NOT match people based on preferences, they just slap people together without regard for the client's preferences, they are only concerned with getting the money, after that ... they don't care what happens to people on their dates. ... They prey on lonely people and promise false hope.

They also do not have "high profile" members -- they take anyone who will write a check. They also don't take credit cards and arrange to send a courier to someone's home or office to pick up the check "before they have a chance to change their minds". It is a totally impersonal approach, they follow a strict telephone scripted sales pitch that employees are NOT allowed to deviate from, or else they will be fired the way I was! Fired for caring about people and wanting to do the right thing, rather than lie to them and take advantage of the lonely singles out there!

The economic consequence to me was that I left a well-paying job to go to work for this s***-based organization based on false promises and lies. Then within a week I was unemployed through no fault of my own.

Colette of Parrish FL (10/20/03):
When I became a director of the Sarasota office, I knew the position would be challenging, but I was excited about the chance to "help" people with their dating lives.

However, I quickly understood my initial hesitation, i.e. "bad feeling." I was literally and repeatedly encouraged, if not told, to be less than completely forthcoming with clients. One office, under the same franchisee, was informed by the corporrate offices to "not disclose" the following: one gentleman with no arms was taken as a client and then set up with other clients ... this information was not disclosed. Believe me, I am in no way prejudiced (my father has lost a limb), but the man's prospective dates were not informed.

HENCE, the man was very embarrased and his date felt AWFUL for having been placed in such an uncomfortable circumstance. When the director of the office was asked how/if she should disclose this information, she was informed by the corporate office that the situation should be handled as if someone had undergone a mastectomy -- you wouldn't disclose that would you?

A similar situation was "handled" in the Fort Meyers office when a mentally disabled client signed up. DO NOT GET ME WRONG ... everyone deserves love/dating but how would you, in either position, feel if these details were not disclosed?

There is more ... I had a client that I had a problem sending out on dates. Because there was truly no one I could think of within my "huge" database of clients, I had to ask a man to "do me a favor" and take her out to lunch. We paid.

Everything is scripted and although we tell prospective clients that we are very selective, we will take anyone, and I mean ANYONE that will pay. Yes, I am disgruntled. I feel it is my penance to disclose the fact that I lied, and lied and lied, just to keep a job.

Consequences? I was fired with no warning and greeted Monday morning by Lynne A with a cardboard box containing all of my things. The same thing happened to the preceding director. The only exeption was that she cried and Lynne had security escort her out of the building. For the directors that remain, I can only wish them sweet dreams, for I know that they have trouble sleeping and no problem dating the clients.

If you decide to call, ask them how many clients they have and ask them to PROVE it. The 10,000 marriages ... prove it. And, best of all, ask them how they came up with the much publicized "80% of our first dates result in second dates."

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