Hello Gang,
how is everyone? Sorry I've been away for a few days, just enjoying those doughnuts!
jfpat asked for a follow up on my last visit to the agency. Well, I'm afraid there wasn't much left to say and there are more interesting stories out there, but humour me guys.
Before I go there, though, a lot of people here mention that the pictures of the women are air brushed, etc. Well, every Chinese woman I've ever met has "art photos" which are taken in the best situation, with perfect make up, hair, clothing. I don't blame them for doing it at all, I mean, which one of us here didn't put up his best photo for the ladies to review? in fact, the website I mentioned before, gzdaniel dot c0m, advertises this service as part of its benefits. My experience, on different sites anyways, is that they are truthful about age, weight, height, hopefully marital status too.
Anyways, here is my long promised follow up.
When I returned from the debacle in Beijing (see my post from October, 2008 I think), I was willing to forget the whole episode, but then I got the email "I'm sorry we couldn't meet, blah, blah" when, of course, we had met just a day or two earlier, I got upset. I still didn't realize chnlove was totally corrupt, I thought it was a rogue agency but that chnlove was legitimate. So, I wrote to chnlove, and told them about my experience. I got a form reply, "this is an independent agency, we're not responsible" etc. but "we'll investigate". I wrote back and said that I felt the whole thing was a lie, I wanted the credits back for each letter sent/received. What I should have done then was to have threatened to talk to the credit card processing company and report them and ask for a refund. I know as a merchant myself, the person buying online is generally given the benefit of the doubt in disputes with an online merchant, but to be honest, I never really thought about it then. In a way, it might not be too late still, but I don't have the energy for it.
A day or two later, I got an email from someone who itentified himself/herself as the manager of the agency..."We are sorry about that. There was an error in the email, it was a mistake. We will provide with one credit." I forget the exact laughable explanation and it's been erased from my profile there on chnlove, but it was obviously a lie.
Of course, by this time, I realised that the translator did probably make a mistake in that he would have had trouble keeping track of the 20 or so schmucks he was writing to and professing his undying love for. (If you remember my post from October, this was the woman who was going to meet me for dinners, spend time with me-when I did eventually meet her, she had no idea who I was, or even any of the basic information about myself and didn't recognize some of the iconic photos I had sent her and she had commented on).
so, finally, I came to this site. It was, all of a sudden, confirmed to me that the whole thing was a scam. However, I still had 18 or so credits left. So, I decided to test some of the theories I had read about here and concentrated on one woman, one way out of my league to be sure, and, sure enough, after two letters, "I love you, I miss you, blah, blah"... but despite her "love" for me, she wouldn't give me her mobile no.(I don't speak English-no problem, say I, I know enough Chinese---well, I lost my phone, etc.,) no direct emails ("I don't have email"), when can I visit? oh, she said, "you tell me"...with me in my game playing mode, "I'll be there in two weeks" ("Oh, then I will be out at my grandmother's-I won't be back until after Chinese New year") it was all classic, really!
so guys, keep up the good work!
Posted by @mark-the-larkk on 2009-02-27 06:10:30 UTC
Hello Gang,
how is everyone? Sorry I've been away for a few days, just enjoying those doughnuts!
jfpat asked for a follow up on my last visit to the agency. Well, I'm afraid there wasn't much left to say and there are more interesting stories out there, but humour me guys.
Before I go there, though, a lot of people here mention that the pictures of the women are air brushed, etc. Well, every Chinese woman I've ever met has "art photos" which are taken in the best situation, with perfect make up, hair, clothing. I don't blame them for doing it at all, I mean, which one of us here didn't put up his best photo for the ladies to review? in fact, the website I mentioned before, gzdaniel dot c0m, advertises this service as part of its benefits. My experience, on different sites anyways, is that they are truthful about age, weight, height, hopefully marital status too.
Anyways, here is my long promised follow up.
When I returned from the debacle in Beijing (see my post from October, 2008 I think), I was willing to forget the whole episode, but then I got the email "I'm sorry we couldn't meet, blah, blah" when, of course, we had met just a day or two earlier, I got upset. I still didn't realize chnlove was totally corrupt, I thought it was a rogue agency but that chnlove was legitimate. So, I wrote to chnlove, and told them about my experience. I got a form reply, "this is an independent agency, we're not responsible" etc. but "we'll investigate". I wrote back and said that I felt the whole thing was a lie, I wanted the credits back for each letter sent/received. What I should have done then was to have threatened to talk to the credit card processing company and report them and ask for a refund. I know as a merchant myself, the person buying online is generally given the benefit of the doubt in disputes with an online merchant, but to be honest, I never really thought about it then. In a way, it might not be too late still, but I don't have the energy for it.
A day or two later, I got an email from someone who itentified himself/herself as the manager of the agency..."We are sorry about that. There was an error in the email, it was a mistake. We will provide with one credit." I forget the exact laughable explanation and it's been erased from my profile there on chnlove, but it was obviously a lie.
Of course, by this time, I realised that the translator did probably make a mistake in that he would have had trouble keeping track of the 20 or so schmucks he was writing to and professing his undying love for. (If you remember my post from October, this was the woman who was going to meet me for dinners, spend time with me-when I did eventually meet her, she had no idea who I was, or even any of the basic information about myself and didn't recognize some of the iconic photos I had sent her and she had commented on).
so, finally, I came to this site. It was, all of a sudden, confirmed to me that the whole thing was a scam. However, I still had 18 or so credits left. So, I decided to test some of the theories I had read about here and concentrated on one woman, one way out of my league to be sure, and, sure enough, after two letters, "I love you, I miss you, blah, blah"... but despite her "love" for me, she wouldn't give me her mobile no.(I don't speak English-no problem, say I, I know enough Chinese---well, I lost my phone, etc.,) no direct emails ("I don't have email"), when can I visit? oh, she said, "you tell me"...with me in my game playing mode, "I'll be there in two weeks" ("Oh, then I will be out at my grandmother's-I won't be back until after Chinese New year") it was all classic, really!
so guys, keep up the good work!