Wednesday, April 4, 2012

The Feelings of Others


We recently had an experience we thought to share with our daters - Gabriela G. on Yelp. Gabriela wrote a review on Yelp finding our event - shall we say - not her cup of tea. From points of 'my candle went out' to the 'venue was too dark to conduct proper make-over's in' - she also went on to say some awful things about her fellow daters in attendance. Among the lines were '15 out of the 20 ladies were at least 20lbs overweight' and 'the men were painful to look at'. We wrote back on the Yelp review and stated "What you may consider to be an overweight woman another might find to be perfection. Beauty comes from the inside out - some of the most beautiful people I have ever met have been a few pounds overweight but I found it to be more loveliness to enjoy. We don't like to see daters insult daters."

"Comment from Tina A. of SpeedLA Dating 4/5/2012
Hi Gabriela,

We're sorry you didn't enjoy yourself at our latest event at the fabulous Beso in Hollywood.

Let me address a few points; Our events always begin at 8pm - 8:15pm. Our Make-up artist always arrive a half hour before the event. This is listed on the website in detail.

In regards to appetizers - I'm sorry you didn't find them to your liking. Beso provides us with 8 lovely dishes ranging Eva's fabulous guacamole to the Lobster Quesadilla. They are culinary perfection :-)

I appreciate you didn't fancy the guys and we note none of the guys wrote you down - so perhaps it wasn't a match on both ends. :-( Many of the ladies did fancy the gentlemen and we had loads of matches - so while they may not be for you and you not for them - it's not fun to insult people. Stating that men were 'painful to look at' is upsetting to daters.

I also noticed you also said some less than nice things about the ladies in attendance. I'm not sure I understand the relevance of stating in the review that 15 of the 20 ladies were overweight. That's very unfortunate. What you may consider to be an overweight woman another might find to be perfection. Beauty comes from the inside out - some of the most beautiful people i have ever met have been a few pounds overweight but I found it to be more loveliness to enjoy. We don't like to see daters insult daters - you can see the original review at: http://speedladating.b...

We are proud to be entering our 5th year in Los Angeles with over 500 events in the LA area alone since 2007. We're also in 10 other cities in the US which is also a lovely bit of fun. Proud to be BBB Accredited with an A+ rating. We are the only speed dating company to have events in such venues as Beso, the only company to offer complimentary make-over's and the only to offer such personable - lovely hosts. We don't offer 'games' or 'free drinks' but do offer a laid back - sophisticated approach to speed dating without bells, whistles or name-tags. We're sorry it wasn't your cup of tea.

Cheers,

Tina



Unfortunately, defending our daters further upset this reviewer. While she quickly edited her review to be considerably nicer, she also became quite upset that we would dare defend our crowd and went on a tirade - each more bizarre than the previous. Her updated review had a nicer tone yet many of the original points that upset her had suddenly changed. In the original review, the event started an hour late. In the revised - it did not. Lines about how awful the lads were at the event - were suddenly changed. Gone was the line '20 ladies were at least 25lbs overweight' and replaced with 'voluptuous' in her revised review. Who knows why other ladies weight upset her - but upset her it did.

We love our daters and will go to any lengths to defend them and us. Every so often we may have to ban a dater who other daters find less than lovely. We think this has added to our incredible popularity. From CitySearch, to YP.com, to Trustlink to Judy's Book - we garner hundreds of extraordinary reviews about us and our daters. Loveliness attracts Loveliness - you get what you give. It's never right to judge others on what you perceive to be 'not as attractive'. What one finds unattractive another absolutely loves. Let us always try to reflect what we would like in return. I think it would make us all a little happier. :-)