After writing 5-6 ladies, I was going to be in the city of one of the ladies in China for business, so I arranged a meeting or two with the lady, at least I thought I had arranged a meeting with her. In fact, she was promising to go out for dinners with me, meet me at my hotel to travel out together and dine with me. I know some Chinese and I travel there often so I know a bit about Chinese customs and general hospitality. Once I arrived in China, the lady was silent and in the one or two sentence mails I got when I was in China, eventually I received a mail telling me someone from the local agency was going to call me. Well, someone did call me and the person at the agency said she wasn't going to come to meet me but said I could come to his office instead at the time and day of my suggestion. I was a bit surprised that he agreed to a time without speaking to the lady, but i was giving them the benefit of the doubt.
I spent over an hour on taxi to get to the agency. When I arrived, I was put into a room for fifteen minutes at which point the agency said that she wasn't coming which, at that stage, didn't surprise me. But, he said, there are several other ladies you can meet waiting right here! hmm, can anyone said bait and switch? Anyways, they were nice enough but...anyways, it gets worse.
The next day, the agency calls again and tells me that the lady will now meet me. I figured it was a scam but, since the office was on the way to the airport and I was leaving, I decided to stop by. Again, there was a different woman awaiting me. But, finally, I meet the lady. She was great but, I could immediately tell she had no idea who I was! I had exchanged 15 or so letters with her and it was clear she hadn't read my letters, seen my pictures or even knew what she had written to me. She quickly excused herself, which is ok, if it's not going to work, it's not going to work... But, even now it doesn't end...when I got home, there was an email from her, telling me that she was sorry she couldn't meet me and hoped to meet me next time I went to China!
I'll add, when I was waiting in the room on my visit, the agency left its computer in the room with the lady's page on, by accident. I noticed that there were about 15 names on her in box list, so, the lady/agency, had been telling me that I was important, etc.,. when, in fact, I was just one of at least 15 guys whose chain the agency was yanking. It appeared that the first sentence or appeared too, so I was able to read the first sentence of several emails...apparently many of us poor saps felt this girl actually was interested in us!! As I sent and received 30 messages, I guess I wasted about $135 corresponding with the agency there, thinking I was writing to a lady who actually read and responded to my letters.
I told chnlove about this and they grudingly gave me one credit. What a scam!!! I tried posting this on their "bad experience" forum. But, there are such lame "bad experiences" there, like it rained on the day I met her, or, she mixed up the day...
It makes sense now, this is one marketing gimick...
Posted by @mark_the_lark on 2008-10-31 01:26:38 UTC
After writing 5-6 ladies, I was going to be in the city of one of the ladies in China for business, so I arranged a meeting or two with the lady, at least I thought I had arranged a meeting with her. In fact, she was promising to go out for dinners with me, meet me at my hotel to travel out together and dine with me. I know some Chinese and I travel there often so I know a bit about Chinese customs and general hospitality. Once I arrived in China, the lady was silent and in the one or two sentence mails I got when I was in China, eventually I received a mail telling me someone from the local agency was going to call me. Well, someone did call me and the person at the agency said she wasn't going to come to meet me but said I could come to his office instead at the time and day of my suggestion. I was a bit surprised that he agreed to a time without speaking to the lady, but i was giving them the benefit of the doubt.
I spent over an hour on taxi to get to the agency. When I arrived, I was put into a room for fifteen minutes at which point the agency said that she wasn't coming which, at that stage, didn't surprise me. But, he said, there are several other ladies you can meet waiting right here! hmm, can anyone said bait and switch? Anyways, they were nice enough but...anyways, it gets worse.
The next day, the agency calls again and tells me that the lady will now meet me. I figured it was a scam but, since the office was on the way to the airport and I was leaving, I decided to stop by. Again, there was a different woman awaiting me. But, finally, I meet the lady. She was great but, I could immediately tell she had no idea who I was! I had exchanged 15 or so letters with her and it was clear she hadn't read my letters, seen my pictures or even knew what she had written to me. She quickly excused herself, which is ok, if it's not going to work, it's not going to work... But, even now it doesn't end...when I got home, there was an email from her, telling me that she was sorry she couldn't meet me and hoped to meet me next time I went to China!
I'll add, when I was waiting in the room on my visit, the agency left its computer in the room with the lady's page on, by accident. I noticed that there were about 15 names on her in box list, so, the lady/agency, had been telling me that I was important, etc.,. when, in fact, I was just one of at least 15 guys whose chain the agency was yanking. It appeared that the first sentence or appeared too, so I was able to read the first sentence of several emails...apparently many of us poor saps felt this girl actually was interested in us!! As I sent and received 30 messages, I guess I wasted about $135 corresponding with the agency there, thinking I was writing to a lady who actually read and responded to my letters.
I told chnlove about this and they grudingly gave me one credit. What a scam!!! I tried posting this on their "bad experience" forum. But, there are such lame "bad experiences" there, like it rained on the day I met her, or, she mixed up the day...
It makes sense now, this is one marketing gimick...