Events and Adventures

I’ve purchased two items from living social recently. I’ve never received the items, the seller never shipped them despite issuing a bogus tracking number. I am still waiting for a refund and it’s been weeks! I would rather do business with a more responsive third party seller! Living social simply has left me hanging and seems to care less about their vendors lack of customer service and fulfillment of orders. Beware!

CAUTION! The place preys on the lonely and will not, under any circumstances refund you. They do it all legally too. I’m newly divorced, new to area, trying to find my spot and when I went in to find out about the club, I got suckered. No doubt it’s my fault. I’m a adult and should have known better but «used car salesman» tactics sometimes still do work when your defenses are down.
I went to one newcomer’s event and it was absolutely horrible. The person that was assigned to introduce me to people didn’t know what to do. I left after 10 minutes. The very next day, I called and spoke to the person who signed me up and asked if there was any way to reverse my membership, that I’d made a terrible mistake. I was told flatly no. Then, I came into some serious family issues that made my finances sticky. I sent letters, made calls, begged and pleaded. I just, this moment, hung up the phone with the collections agency. Yeah, they went there. I paid the $ 1535 out of my very necessary savings to get them off my back. So, for the financially frugal, that’s over $ 1500 for 10 minutes of the most disorganized and frankly sad moments of my life.
Great. Divorce was more fun than that.
Avoid at all cost.

Surprised there are only 10 reviews here. Contacted the company a few years ago, during an interview was asked numerous questions about whether finding love was important to me, clearly designed to point out what is «missing» from your life. Then was told I was the kind of candidate they were looking for and they were willing to discount my membership (still over 1K). Also mentioning these events are meant to facilitate finding love but FYI this isn’t a matchmaking service so no guarantees. This «interview» lasted over an hour, very high pressure. Let the rep know I never make big purchases on the same day, so I’d sleep on it, asked for how best to contact moving forward. She immediately cooled off. Research that night showed a number of scam claims and did not move forward.

They even don’t deserve even –0 star. It’s a trap. Be carful and avoid this website.
. .. . !!!

I didn’t go through with my in-​person interview, but this has scam written all over it in every interaction I had with them. I signed up online and received a call the same day. The salesperson on the call wanted to set up an in-​person meeting to do a «background check». I asked about pricing and she said it was different for everyone and couldn’t give me pricing. I asked for a range and she said people often put down a $ 100 deposit, with no indication of actual full price.
Clearly all I was in for during the «background check» was a heavy sales pitch. Nice idea for a legit company, but this is a scam.

I’ll be perfectly honest, I wanted to do this. As someone trying to start life anew, and trying the dating scene again, I was tired of the same of schtik, and wanted to experience cool stuff and meet someone, which is what this organization is supposed to do. However, the business aspect of E&A really is a giant rip off.
I filled out the information, got a phone call to set up an interview. I live in Baltimore City, and would have to schlep out to Vienna, VA for the informational interview. Oh, and by the way, the office was nowhere near a metro station, so yes I had to fight the suckiness that is DC driving, instead of parking in Greenbelt, MD and taking the subway down. Anyway, I get to the interview and it seemed more like I was going in to buy a used Mercedes.
The first thing I was told was that before the interview concludes, they would have completed a background check on me. That right there is a load of crap! I work in the education field, I am fingerprinted, drug tested, and I have had my SS number run through the Maryland Criminal Databse more times a year than a registered sex offender, no result has come back to me in less than two days. Then I heard the alarm in my head. The interviewer then said that I need to sign a contract (if I find this a fit and they find me a fit). From then on it was high pressure to get my money. I was told, and I quote, «this is the only option to really meet someone, and it does cost a lot.» Now, you’re trying to make me feel vulnerable, fortunately I’m too much of a badass to sponge your Ponzi scheme. They asked me questions about my checking balance, my credit rate, and how much credit card debt I have. I told white lies just to make myself look too poor.
Want to know cost? Here it is! You sign the contract, you give a down payment somewhere in the $ 100 range. Then monthly installments that, when all paid and done, will equal in the couple thousand dollar range in the next year. Once you sign the contract, you also have to agree to go to three to four events per month. Oh and many of the events have their own costs, so why bother when you’re already paying too much per month? Oh and I’d be coming down from Baltimore, that’s a lot of gas money, have you seen those prices yet? There’s no E&A branch in my town, and only one or two events per month are held in the state of Maryland, and in like Bethesda or Silver Spring. And because is a national chain, if I were to move to say, Albuquerque, while still under contract, I’d have to join the E&A in Albuquerque.
I left the office, refusing to sign the contract, but classy enough to leave with «thank you for your time, but this isn’t a financial fit for me.» Without a word, I was shown the door. I managed to get out without giving them my social security or bank account numbers, or giving the information necessary for my «background check.» Legally, they can’t try to go after me (at least I hope there’s no weird loophole I don’t know about). If I had that kind of money to expend so quickly (which I don’t), I would’ve given E&A more of a chance. Still, I hated their business model, and I wouldn’t be surprised if someone filed a class action lawsuit.

My experience with this organization is water under the bridge for me. I’ll just pretend like this experience never happen. But this is a warning to those interested: Be careful! I was desperate to meet someone, but nowhere near this desperate. If you’re willing to dish out the expenses, your choice, but beware.

My heart breaks for anyone that gets suckered into E&A’s scam. I am sad to see that there are so many recent reviews that were filtered by Unilocal because I feel the complaints are legitimate. To update everyone on my relative’s story, E&A is finally leaving him alone. They dropped their law suit against him after he contacted the VA State Attorney General. It appears that they do not want their true colors to be exposed. Please spread the word so that no one you love gets caught up in a legal battle with these con artists.

Avoid this company at all costs. Or it will cost you. Just join some meetup groups. This is a total scam

All I can add after reading these other great reviewers is LISTEN!!! We know what we are talking about. To top it off and major red flag is when the sales lady in Florida called with my interest form filled out via web is when I asked her if E&A are listed with the better business bureau or other certified place– she basically was horrified and shocked that I asked this question and basically demanded a reason why i asked her this. STAY AWAY and look into Things to Do and meetup groups.

They lie to get you into a contract then will not let you out of it. They do hardly anything and charge you an obscene amount of money for it although before signing up they had promised discounts and group rates. I made this mistake of signing up and have regretted it ever since.

After filling out the form on the website, talking to the representative that called me and, now, reading the reviews on Unilocal,I am convinced this is a scam or, at the very least a poor investment.
I was skeptical about leaving my telephone number in the original website request, so I didn’t. I prefer to be emailed the info rather than having some blow hard call me to make a sale. But I soon received a follow up email saying they wanted to call me, so I gave in for the moment.
I received a call today from a woman and, as I expected, they will not give out any cost information on the phone. This is an obvious red flag that it’s going to be expensive (and judging from the other Unilocal reviews I just read, I was entirely correct in my thinking). Do they really think that quality people — people who have a life — are going to fight DC traffic getting to Falls Church/​Vienna to sit an be interviewed and have to haggle over cost information? I am a professional. If I don’t have the info, I am not wasting my time.
The nail-​in-​the-​coffin for me was the saleswoman’s justification for not giving cost information over the phone. She said if they gave a price, then they would have to accept any member that walked in door, even if drunk, on drugs, or whatever. And, if someone quoted a price less than what was offered, it would become a he-​said/​she-​said issue. What a crock!!!
Caveat emptor!

As mentioned from other reviewers, this is the biggest scam ever. I just lost 2 hours of my life that I will never get back. After hearing the ads on hot 99.5, I thought it might be something interesting to try. However, save your self and don’t listen to the ads that you hear on the radio or see in the Washington Post.
I signed up on the website and got a voicemail from one of the reps. So far, everything seemed good. I should have realized what a waste of time it would be when they wanted me to come in to their office before they would let me join. I figured it was to make sure that you were stable and not a criminal, etc,… Boy was I wrong!
I get there and the saleswoman looked kind of strange. I should have ran right then and there. Once I filled out the form and went into her office, all I wanted to do was get out of the room. She was the ultimate car salesperson! The whole experience was a combination of being at a dealership, an Amway meeting, a timeshare sales meeting, and a job interview. Her interview questions were so repetitive I wish I had kept a tape recorder and played it for her. She kept trying to tell me things I did before didn’t work out so why not this. Every time I kept telling her it depends on the price, she would try to use the emotional triggers to make me think it was so exclusive and such a great group. She kept trying to say other things I’ve done in my life were not as good as this, I was going to waste my life by not joining and as Debbie mentioned, that I shouldn’t screw it up. What a crock of shit!
The funniest part of the whole conversation was how she would ask me wouldn’t it have been great had I spent $ 5000 ten years ago on a service like this and met the man of my dreams. It’s a good tactic if your customers are naïve. They use $ 5000 as an example to make their price seem low. Their one year membership was $ 1795 plus $ 30/​month for dues, plus a renewal fee if you stay on after a year, which is only 50%, and on top of all of this, you pay for the events! She tried to convince me by dropping the price down to $ 1500 but then the annual fee would increase. When I told her I had to think about it, she still kept trying to convince me to do it by saying she couldn’t offer this to me again. This lady would not let me get out of there. I finally had to just get up out of my seat and say I’ll think about it. When I did that, the Jeckyll in her came out! She was rude and basically just shooed me out the door. I actually muttered b#@! under my breath.
All I can say is stay away from this place and join the other organizations that people have recommended.

On a whim, I signed up on the website for more info because my brother and law had told me about this group.
I have received a vm from this ridiculous business EVERY SINGLE DAY for the last week. I am so annoyed that I have not called back. And my hunch was right… this isn’t free. Thank you to the previous reviewers for saving me time and energy. Just join Things to DO DC if you’re looking for fun activities. It’s free to join and you only pay for what you feel like doing!

This was a total scam with thousands of dollars to sign up, paid ahead, for promises that the social club would be 55% women 45% men in the DC area, depending on the event. The events are less than adventures; a lot of drinking and foolishness activities, with very little cultural or good music events – even though we live in one of the most culture-​and music filled areas; and the 3 events I attended were 90% women. I could have saved myself a lot of money and just gone out with my current entourage of female friends.